Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
“Could We Hold Hands?” Older Lesbian and Gay Couples’ Perceptions of Long-Term Care Homes and Home Care

RÉSUMÉ Cette étude qualitative décrit les attentes, les préoccupations et les besoins en matière de services de soins de longue durée et de soins à domicile de 12 couples de lesbiennes et de gais plus âgés qui habitent au Canada. Nos résultats reflètent quatre grands thèmes: la discrimination, l’identité, les dépenses d’énergie, et les soins nuancés. Discrimination a été caractérisée par des préoccupations concernant une discrimination déguisée; perte d’amortisseurs sociaux lorsque l’on vieillit; diminution de la capacité de plaider pour soi-même et l’autre conjoint. Les questions d’identité ont inclus le risque prévu sur la divulgation de son identité sexuelle; l’importance centrale d’être identifié comme un partenaire dans une relation couplée; et l’importance d’avoir accès à des groupes de référence constitués d’autres aînés gais. Nous concluons que les partenaires sont accablés par le travail émotionnel de dépenser de l’énergie à cacher une partie de leur identité, l’évaluation de leurs environnements de discrimination et d’apaiser autres. Les participants suggèrent que les soins nuancéssont nécessaires, ce qui implique sentir à l’aise avec les fournisseurs de soins de santé; ayant fournisseurs sentir à l’aise avec eux; et une dualité de nécessité entre vouloir être considéré comme le même, tout en même temps également reconnu comme unique. Ces thèmes informent ententes de services de soins et de soins à domicile à long terme pour les couples lesbiens et gais plus âgés. ABSTRACT This qualitative study describes expectations, concerns, and needs regarding long-term care (LTC) homes and home care services of 12 older lesbian and gay couples living in Canada. Our findings reflect four major themes: discrimination, identity, expenditure of energy, and nuanced care. Discrimination involved concerns about covert discrimination; loss of social buffers as one ages; and diminished ability to advocate for oneself and one’s partner. Identity involved anticipated risk over disclosing one’s sexual identity; the importance of being identified within a coupled relationship; and the importance of access to reference groups of other gay seniors. We conclude that partners were burdened by the emotional effort expended to hide parts of their identity, assess their environments for discrimination, and to placate others. Nuanced care involved a mutual level of comfort experienced by participants and their health care providers. These themes inform understandings of LTC homes and home care services for lesbian and gay older couples.
A Study of Rural Elderly’s Health Information Needs and Seeking Behavior

This study explored the health information needs and information seeking behavior of the rural elderly people in Chiayi County, Taiwan. Survey method was used and 92 valid questionnaires were collected for the analyses. The results showed that the majority of the rural elder people expressed the need for and attention to health information. ‘‘health service information’’ and ‘‘prevention health care information’’ were the most needed and important. Family, friends and television were the main channels for accessing health information. However, fewer respondents actively sought health information. When health problems occurred, they tended to seek direct medical treatment. This study also found that men were more attentive and active in seeking health information. Respondents over 75 years old rarely concerned about their health information need. People with more education were also more aware of their health information needs and more attentive to information disseminated via mass media.
The contribution of very massive high-redshift SWIRE galaxies to the stellar mass function

Context. In the last couple of years a population of very massive (M_* > 10^(11) M_⊙), high-redshift (z ≥ 2) galaxies has been identified, but its role in galaxy evolution has not yet been fully understood. Aims. It is necessary to perform a systematic study of high-redshift massive galaxies, in order to determine the shape of the very massive tail of the stellar mass function and determine the epoch of their assembly. Methods. We selected high-z massive galaxies at 5.8 μm, in the SWIRE ELAIS-S1 field (1 deg^2). Galaxies with the 1.6 μm stellar peak redshifted into the IRAC bands (z ≃ 1−3, called “IR-peakers”) were identified. Stellar masses were derived by means of spectrophotometric fitting and used to compute the stellar mass function (MF) at z = 1−2 and 2−3. A parametric fit to the MF was performed, based on a Bayesian formalism, and the stellar mass density of massive galaxies above z = 2 determined. Results. We present the first systematic study of the very-massive tail of the galaxy stellar mass function at high redshift. A total of 326 sources were selected. The majority of these galaxies have stellar masses in excess of 10^(11) M_⊙ and lie at z > 1.5. The availability of mid-IR data turned out to be a valuable tool to constrain the contribution of young stars to galaxy SEDs, and thus their M_*/L ratio. The influence of near-IR data and of the chosen stellar library on the SED fitting are also discussed. The z = 2−3 stellar mass function between 10^(11) and ~10^(12) M_⊙ is probed with unprecedented detail. A significant evolution is found not only for galaxies with M ~ 10^(11) M_⊙, but also in the highest mass bins considered. The comoving number density of these galaxies was lower by more than a factor of 10 at z = 2−3, with respect to the local estimate. SWIRE 5.8 μm peakers more massive than 1.6 × 10^(11) M_⊙ provide 30−50% of the total stellar mass density in galaxies at z = 2−3.
Theory of the deuterium NMR of sterol–phospholipid membranes

A general theoretical model is described for the NMR spectra of mixtures of sterols and deuterium-labeled phospholipids. In the case of homogeneous membranes, the average quadrupole splittings are determined by equilibria between lipids in cholesterol–phospholipid complexes and lipids not in complexes. Chemical exchange of lipids between those in the free state and those in the complex state affects the deuterium resonance line shapes. The lifetime of a phospholipid molecule in an ergosterol–dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine complex is estimated to be of the order of 10–5 s on the basis of the observed line broadenings. In the vicinity of a critical point of a cholesterol–phospholipid mixture, fluctuations in the concentration of complexes also can contribute to the deuterium nuclear resonance line broadening. At the critical point, the temperature derivative of the concentration of complexes is discontinuous. There is a corresponding jump in the calculated heat capacity as well as in the temperature derivative of the deuterium NMR first moment.
Calf Stretching in Non-Weight Bearing Versus Weight Bearing

Limited ankle dorsiflexion passive range of motion (DF PROM) has been associated with lower extremity overuse injuries. Therefore, clinicians often prescribe stretching exercises to increase ankle DF PROM. However, there is limited evidence to indicate if any particular gastrocnemius stretching exercise results in greater improvement in DF PROM. The aim of this study was to determine if gastrocnemius stretching in non-weight bearing (NWB) or weight bearing (WB) results in a greater increase of ankle DF PROM. 28 healthy volunteers, aged 18-55 years, who exhibited less than 10 degrees of ankle DF PROM completed the study. Participants were randomized into 2 stretching groups: NWB and WB. Both groups completed a 3-week home gastrocnemius stretching program, consisting of 5 repetitions held for 30 s each, 2 times daily. Participants' ankle DF PROM was measured with a blinded standard goniometer in NWB and WB positions before and after participation in a 3-week home gastrocnemius stretching program. Two 3-way mixed model ANOVAs demonstrated no significant difference in ankle DF PROM between the NWB and WB groups for either the NWB measurement condition (p=0.49) or WB measurement condition (p=0.86). Gastrocnemius stretching exercises performed in NWB or WB were equally effective in increasing ankle DF PROM.
Book review:Working knowledge: How organizations manage what they know. Thomas H. Davenport and Laurence Prusak. Harvard Business School Press, 1998. $29.95US. ISBN 0‐87584‐655‐6

KNOWLEDGE is neither data nor information, though it is related to both, and the differences between these terms are often a matter of degree. We start with those more familiar terms both because they are more familiar and because we can understand knowledge best with reference to them. Confusion about what data, information, and knowledge are -how they differ, what those words mean -has resulted in enormous expenditures on technology initiatives that rarely deliver what the firms spending the money needed or thought they were getting. Often firms don't understand what they need until they invest heavily in a system that fails to provide it.
Dynamic TDMA slot reservation protocol for cognitive radio ad hoc networks

In this paper, we propose a dynamic TDMA slot reservation (DTSR) protocol for cognitive radio ad hoc networks. Quality of Service (QoS) guarantee plays a critically important role in such networks. We consider the problem of providing QoS guarantee to users as well as to maintain the most efficient use of scarce bandwidth resources. A dynamic frame length expansion and shrinking scheme that controls the excessive increase of unassigned slots has been proposed. This method efficiently utilizes the channel bandwidth by assigning unused slots to new neighboring nodes and increasing the frame length when the number of slots in the frame is insufficient to support the neighboring nodes. It also shrinks the frame length in an effective way. Our proposed scheme, which provides both QoS guarantee and efficient resource utilization, be employed to optimize the channel spatial reuse and maximize the system throughput. Extensive simulation results show that the proposed mechanism achieves significant performance improvement in multichannel cognitive radio ad hoc networks.
Skin Sensitisation (Q)SARs/Expert Systems: from Past, Present to Future

5 Introduction. 6 Biological Mechanisms of Skin Sensitisation. 7 Chemical Mechanisms of Skin Sensitisation. 8 Skin sensitisation predictive testing: in vivo methods . 8 Regulatory classifications . 9 Sources of Skin sensitisation data. 9 (Quantitative) Structure-Activity Relationship models and expert systems. 10 Published SARs. 11 Statistical QSAR Models . 13 Expert systems . 24 Knowledge-based systems. 24 Statistical Expert Systems. 25 Hybrid Expert Systems . 27 Local QSAR Models. 28 Quantitative Mechanistic Models (QMM). 35 Conclusions. 38 References . 40
Parietal Stimulation Decouples Spatial and Feature-Based Attention

Everyday visual scenes contain a vast quantity of information, only a fraction of which can guide our behavior. Properties such as the location, color and orientation of stimuli help us extract relevant information from complex scenes (Treisman and Gelade, 1980; Livingstone and Hubel, 1987). But how does the brain coordinate the selection of such different stimulus characteristics? Neuroimaging studies have revealed significant regions of overlapping activity in frontoparietal cortex during attention to locations and features, suggesting a global component to visual selection (Vandenberghe et al., 2001; Corbetta and Shulman, 2002; Giesbrecht et al., 2003; Slagter et al., 2007). At the same time, the neural consequences of spatial and feature-based attention differ markedly in early visual areas (Treue and Martinez-Trujillo, 2007), implying that selection may rely on more specific top-down processes. Here we probed the balance between specialized and generalized control by interrupting preparatory attention in the human parietal cortex with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). We found that stimulation of the supramarginal gyrus (SMG) impaired spatial attention only, whereas TMS of the anterior intraparietal sulcus (aIPS) disrupted spatial and feature-based attention. The selection of different stimulus characteristics is thus mediated by distinct top-down mechanisms, which can be decoupled by cortical interference.
Macroalgal- dominated coastal detritic communities from the Western Mediterranean and the Northeastern Atlantic

This is a qualitative comparison of the distribution of macroalgal-dominated coastal detritic communities from the Western Mediterranean and the Northeastern Atlantic, based on our own data from the Balearic Islands (Western Mediterranean) and available data from literature. The macroalgal-dominated coastal detritic bottoms from both regions could be distinguished by the presence of a high number of regional exclusive non-carbonated species, and the presence of a high number of maerl-forming species in the Mediterranean. Further, regional differences in the distribution of some exclusive species allowed the distinction of three zones in the Northeastern Atlantic (United Kingdom, French Brittany and Galicia), while no differences were found within the Western Mediterranean. However, the algal communities considered in the selected literature could not be qualitatively distinguished, and all the samples should be considered as maerl beds. Lithothamnion corallioides and Phymatolithon calcareum were the most widespread maerl forming species in the two regions, while in the Western Mediterranean Spongites fruticulosus was also very frequent. According to the differences in the species composition of the basal and erect strata of these beds, and also in their species richness, five different morphologies of macroalgal-dominated detritic bottoms could be distinguished. Their main characteristic species and their biogeographical distribution are detailed.
Learning Chained Deep Features and Classifiers for Cascade in Object Detection

Cascade is a widely used approach that rejects obvious negative samples at early stages for learning better classifier and faster inference. This paper presents chained cascade network (CC-Net). In this CC-Net, the cascaded classifier at a stage is aided by the classification scores in previous stages. Feature chaining is further proposed so that the feature learning for the current cascade stage uses the features in previous stages as the prior information. The chained ConvNet features and classifiers of multiple stages are jointly learned in an end-to-end network. In this way, features and classifiers at latter stages handle more difficult samples with the help of features and classifiers in previous stages. It yields consistent boost in detection performance on benchmarks like PASCAL VOC 2007 and ImageNet. Combined with better region proposal, CC-Net leads to state-of-the-art result of 81.1% mAP on PASCAL VOC 2007.
The Performance of Private Equity Funds: Does Diversification Matter?

This paper is the first systematic analysis of the impact of diversification on the performance of private equity funds. A unique data set allows the exact evaluation of diversification across the dimensions financing stages, industries, and countries. Very different levels of diversification can be observed across sample funds. While some funds are highly specialized others are highly diversified. The empirical results show that the rate of return of private equity funds declines with diversification across financing stages, but increases with diversification across industries. Accordingly, the fraction of portfolio companies which have a negative return or return nothing at all, increase with diversification across financing stages. Diversification across countries has no systematic effect on the performance of private equity funds.
Effect of exposure to ambient PM2.5 pollution on the risk of respiratory tract diseases: a meta-analysis of cohort studies

The International Agency for Research on Cancer and the World Health Organization have designated airborne particulates, including particulates of median aerodynamic diameter ≤ 2.5 μm (PM2.5), as Group 1 carcinogens. It has not been determined, however, whether exposure to ambient PM2.5 is associated with an increase in respiratory related diseases. This meta-analysis assessed the association between exposure to ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and the risk of respiratory tract diseases, using relevant articles extracted from PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase. In results, of the 1,126 articles originally identified, 35 (3.1%) were included in this meta-analysis. PM2.5 was found to be associated with respiratory tract diseases. After subdivision by age group, respiratory tract disease, and continent, PM2.5 was strongly associated with respiratory tract diseases in children, in persons with cough, lower respiratory illness, and wheezing, and in individuals from North America, Europe, and Asia. The risk of respiratory tract diseases was greater for exposure to traffic-related than non-traffic-related air pollution. In children, the pooled relative risk (RR) represented significant increases in wheezing (8.2%), cough (7.5%), and lower respiratory illness (15.3%). The pooled RRs in children were 1.091 (95%CI: 1.049, 1.135) for exposure to <25 μg/m3 PM2.5, and 1.126 (95%CI: 1.067, 1.190) for exposure to ≥ 25 μg/m3 PM2.5. In conclusion, exposure to ambient PM2.5 was significantly associated with the development of respiratory tract diseases, especially in children exposed to high concentrations of PM2.5.
Decoupled Deep Neural Network for Semi-supervised Semantic Segmentation

We propose a novel deep neural network architecture for semi-supervised semantic segmentation using heterogeneous annotations. Contrary to existing approaches posing semantic segmentation as a single task of region-based classification, our algorithm decouples classification and segmentation, and learns a separate network for each task. In this architecture, labels associated with an image are identified by classification network, and binary segmentation is subsequently performed for each identified label in segmentation network. The decoupled architecture enables us to learn classification and segmentation networks separately based on the training data with image-level and pixel-wise class labels, respectively. It facilitates to reduce search space for segmentation effectively by exploiting class-specific activation maps obtained from bridging layers. Our algorithm shows outstanding performance compared to other semi-supervised approaches with much less training images with strong annotations in PASCAL VOC dataset.
Re-analysis of metagenomic sequences from acute flaccid myelitis patients reveals alternatives to enterovirus D68 infection

Metagenomic sequence data can be used to detect the presence of infectious viruses and bacteria, but normal microbial flora make this process challenging. We re-analyzed metagenomic RNA sequence data collected during a recent outbreak of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM), caused in some cases by infection with enterovirus D68. We found that among the patients whose symptoms were previously attributed to enterovirus D68, one patient had clear evidence of infection with Haemophilus influenzae, and a second patient had a severe Staphylococcus aureus infection caused by a methicillin-resistant strain. Neither of these bacteria were identified in the original study. These observations may have relevance in cases that present with flaccid paralysis because bacterial infections, co-infections or post-infection immune responses may trigger pathogenic processes that may present as poliomyelitis-like syndromes and may mimic AFM. A separate finding was that large numbers of human sequences were present in each of the publicly released samples, although the original study reported that human sequences had been removed before deposition.
NADPH Oxidase 2 Regulates NLRP3 Inflammasome Activation in the Brain after Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. After the initial primary mechanical injury, a complex secondary injury cascade involving oxidative stress and neuroinflammation follows, which may exacerbate the injury and complicate the healing process. NADPH oxidase 2 (NOX2) is a major contributor to oxidative stress in TBI pathology, and inhibition of NOX2 is neuroprotective. The NLRP3 inflammasome can become activated in response to oxidative stress, but little is known about the role of NOX2 in regulating NLRP3 inflammasome activation following TBI. In this study, we utilized NOX2 knockout mice to study the role of NOX2 in mediating NLRP3 inflammasome expression and activation following a controlled cortical impact. Expression of NLRP3 inflammasome components NLRP3 and apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a CARD (ASC), as well as its downstream products cleaved caspase-1 and interleukin-1β (IL-1β), was robustly increased in the injured cerebral cortex following TBI. Deletion of NOX2 attenuated the expression, assembly, and activity of the NLRP3 inflammasome via a mechanism that was associated with TXNIP, a sensor of oxidative stress. The results support the notion that NOX2-dependent inflammasome activation contributes to TBI pathology.
A focused framework for emulating modal proof systems

Several deductive formalisms (e.g., sequent, nested sequent, labeled sequent, hyperse-quent calculi) have been used in the literature for the treatment of modal logics, and some connections between these formalisms are already known. Here we propose a general framework, which is based on a focused version of the labeled sequent calculus by Negri, augmented with some parametric devices allowing to restrict the set of proofs. By properly defining such restrictions and by choosing an appropriate polarization of formulas, one can obtain different, concrete proof systems for the modal logic K and for its extensions by means of geometric axioms. In particular, we show how to use the expressiveness of the labeled approach and the control mechanisms of focusing in order to emulate in our framework the behavior of a range of existing formalisms and proof systems for modal logic.
PDGF regulates gap junction communication and connexin43 phosphorylation by PI 3-kinase in mesangial cells.

BACKGROUND Gap junctional intercellular communication (GJIC) plays an important role in the regulation of cell growth, migration, and differentiation. Ultrastructural and histochemical studies indicate the existence of a high density of gap junctions among mesangial cells (MCs), but little is known about their regulation. Because of the close link between growth and GJIC, we examined how platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) may affect GJIC in cultured MCs. METHODS MCs were exposed to PDGF in the presence or absence of phosphatidylinositol 3' kinase (PI3K) inhibitors, and GJIC was evaluated by the transfer of Lucifer yellow. The gap junction protein connexin43 (Cx43) was examined by immunohistochemistry, immunoprecipitation, and Western blot. RESULTS The addition of PDGF into MC culture caused a rapid and transient inhibition of GJIC, with maximal inhibition (80%) occurring 15 minutes after PDGF exposure and returning to control levels after 90 minutes. This action of PDGF could be largely prevented by pretreatment of MCs with the PI3K inhibitor LY294002. Immunochemical staining showed that PDGF did not alter the localization and distribution of Cx43. Immunoprecipitation studies demonstrated that PDGF induced a rapid and transient increase of tyrosine phosphorylation of Cx43 protein, which was dose dependent and in accordance with the time course of the disruption of GJIC. PDGF also elicited activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK). Using two structurally unrelated PI3K inhibitors, wortmanin and LY294002, both tyrosine phosphorylation of Cx43 and activation of ERK stimulated by PDGF were largely blocked. CONCLUSION These results suggest that PDGF abrogates GJIC function in MCs via the PI3K-dependent signaling pathway. Disruption of GJIC by PDGF could be one mechanism by which PDGF modulates MC behavior. Participation of PI3K in the regulation of GJIC demonstrates the complex coordination of molecular events that accompany MC mitogenesis.