Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of perineural tramadol on nerve conduction of sural nerve.

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to investigate whether tramadol had a dose-dependent blocking effect on nerve conduction when administered perineurally to the sural nerve of healthy volunteers. METHODS Twenty-four informed healthy subjects were randomized into four equal groups [Saline (placebo), 0.5% tramadol, 1% tramadol and 1.5% tramadol]. The study was designed to be double-blinded. Sensory nerve action potentials were recorded electroneurographically. Two milliliters of study solution was administered to the sural nerve perineurally at the level of the ankle with the guidance of a nerve stimulator. A sensory block was assumed to have developed when the amplitude of the averaged sensory nerve action potentials diminished below 80% of the baseline value in the subsequent recordings. RESULTS According to the electroneurographical recordings, none of the volunteers in the saline group had block. However, the block rates with 0.5%, 1% and 1.5% tramadol were 1/6, 4/6 and 6/6, respectively (p<0.05). The maximum decrement in the sensory action potential amplitudes with respect to baseline amplitudes (given as median values) were as follows: 7.8% with saline; 12.5% with 0.5% tramadol; 38.5% with 1% tramadol; and 77.5% with 1.5% tramadol (p<0.05). While the median duration of sensory block with 0.5% tramadol was 5 minutes, it was 15 minutes with 1% tramadol and 35 minutes with 1.5% tramadol. CONCLUSION Perineurally administered tramadol blocks sensory nerve conduction of the sural nerve in a dose-dependent manner.
Antigen-Specific CD8+ T Cells Respond to Chlamydia trachomatis in the Genital Mucosa1

Following sexual transmission, Chlamydia trachomatis specifically targets genital tract epithelial cells. Because epithelial cells are readily recognized by CD8+ T cells, the response of CD8+ T cells to Chlamydia infection has been explored in a number of studies. It has been shown that CD8+ T cells are present in the genital tracts of mice following C. trachomatis infection, but the specificity of these T cells has remained undefined. To determine whether Chlamydia-specific CD8+ T cells migrate to the genital tract in response to Chlamydia infection, we generated retrogenic mice that express a TCR specific for a Chlamydia-specific T cell Ag CrpA. T cells from the retrogenic mice were transferred into naive recipient animals to increase the frequency of Chlamydia-specific T cells to a level at which they could be tracked during primary infection. We observed that the Chlamydia-specific retrogenic T cells proliferated in lymph nodes draining the genital tract in response to genital infection with C. trachomatis. Furthermore, we found that these cells acquired the ability to produce IFN-γ and migrated into the genital mucosa of the infected mice.
Omalizumab: a new treatment option for allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis in patients with cystic fibrosis

Background: Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) is a severe complication in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), resulting in deterioration of lung function and impairment of overall prognosis. Standard therapy consists of high dosage, long-term corticosteroid treatment. This carries the risk of serious side effects such as immune suppression, diabetes and osteoporosis. Antifungal drugs such as itraconazole may cause interactions with other drugs and drug levels need to be monitored. Omalizumab treatment has been tried in several case studies. Methods: This was a retrospective study of six patients (four female, two male, age 4–33 years old) with CF and ABPA treated with omalizumab within an observation period of 7.5 years. Results: All patients showed clinical and laboratory stability or even an improvement within the treatment and post-treatment observation period, although omalizumab therapy was less effective in patients with progressed lung disease and long-term ABPA. Side effects of systemic steroids were reduced. Conclusion: Omalizumab has the potential to be an additional and solitary treatment option in patients with CF and ABPA. Early onset treatment may be beneficial and patients with early stage of lung disease seem to benefit more.
Developmental Aspects of the Renal Responses to Hemorrhage during Converting‐Enzyme Inhibition in Fetal Lambs

The role of the renin-angiotensin system in modulating the renal hemodynamic and functional responses to reductions of fetoplacental blood volume (8.8–35.5%) was studied in two groups of fetal lambs (<120 days and >130 days gestation; term 145 days) during infusion of either captopril (experimental fetuses) or dextrose 5% in water (control fetuses). At high hemor rhage levels (level III), renal blood flow decreased and renal vascular resistance increased significantly in both groups of fetuses (<120 days and >130 days), either treated or not treated with captopril. However, at low hemorrhage levels (levels I and II), and contrary to what was observed in young fetuses (<120 days), near-term fetuses (>130 days) receiving captopril showed neither significant decreases in renal blood flow nor increases in renal vascular resistance, whereas untreated fetuses of the same gestational ages demonstrated significant decreases in renal blood flow and increases in renal vascular resistance. It was found in both <120 day and >130 day fetuses that hemorrhage is associated with a decrease in urinary flow rate and free water clearance accompanied by an increase in urine osmolality and sodium reabsorption. It was shown that captopril does not modify this response. The present study also demonstrated that the blood pressure response to hemorrhage was characterized by a similar decrease in <120 day fetuses, whether treated or untreated with captopril. On the other hand, blood pressure did not change in control fetuses >130 days, but decreased slightly in captopril-treated fetuses during hemorrhage. Taken together, the present results tend to suggest that the renin-angiotensin system may be an important modulator of the renal hemodynamic response to low level hemorrhage as fetuses approach term, and may be more important in controlling blood pressure in near-term than in young fetuses.
Extramedullary Hematopoiesis Generates Ly-6Chigh Monocytes That Infiltrate Atherosclerotic Lesions

Background— Atherosclerotic lesions are believed to grow via the recruitment of bone marrow–derived monocytes. Among the known murine monocyte subsets, Ly-6Chigh monocytes are inflammatory, accumulate in lesions preferentially, and differentiate. Here, we hypothesized that the bone marrow outsources the production of Ly-6Chigh monocytes during atherosclerosis. Methods and Results— Using murine models of atherosclerosis and fate-mapping approaches, we show that hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells progressively relocate from the bone marrow to the splenic red pulp, where they encounter granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor and interleukin-3, clonally expand, and differentiate to Ly-6Chigh monocytes. Monocytes born in such extramedullary niches intravasate, circulate, and accumulate abundantly in atheromata. On lesional infiltration, Ly-6Chigh monocytes secrete inflammatory cytokines, reactive oxygen species, and proteases. Eventually, they ingest lipids and become foam cells. Conclusions— Our findings indicate that extramedullary sites supplement the hematopoietic function of the bone marrow by producing circulating inflammatory cells that infiltrate atherosclerotic lesions.
Approaches to First Language Acquisition: Evidence from Dependent Clause Development in Simultaneous Bilingualism.

A bilingual child’s development of word order in German and English subordinate clauses was followed between three and five years of age, and a number of diversions from the development of word order in such clauses by monolingual children was noted. Of particular interest is the fact that incorrect dependent clause structures in German were more likely to be due to intra-language influences from German main clause structures than from English. The findings are discussed in the light UG claims made by Clahsen (1988) concerning the word order development in monolingual children.
Critical autobiographical research for science educators

In recent years the popularity of qualitative research in science education has increased dramatically. This is an evolving field in which new forms, such as critical autobiographical research, are emerging. This form of research focuses on the researcher’s own life-history, involves writing in the narrative first person voice, and can give unique insights into the social and cultural forces shaping his/her own practice. Autobiographical research can be part of a multi-method participant-observation study, helping the researcher to deal with his/her own biases prior to interpreting and representing the perspectives of other participants. Autobiographical research also can form the whole inquiry, especially in cultural research, thereby enabling science educators to become cultural researchers and reveal hidden cultural forces influencing the social structures of schooling, the curriculum and their own pedagogies. Autobiographical writing, which is part of the inquiry process, commences with a descriptive account of key-issues and develops further into reflective thinking, generating new insights and heightening the researcher’s sensitivities towards those issues, thereby enabling the researcher to see his/her research in the context of his/her biography and culture. An important goal of autobiographical writing is to develop pedagogical thoughtfulness. Another goal is moral; through the writing process we can come to understand how to make increasingly educative our interactions with others who share a commitment to educating the young. Not surprisingly, there are critical voices questioning the rigor and legitimacy of literature-based autobiographical writing. However, these concerns are largely unfounded because good autobiographical research attends to a set of quality standards. Critical autobiography as research is thus a powerful and legitimate means for making science classrooms more culturally relevant and more meaningful to students worldwide.
Comparative Study on Agile software development methodologies

Today-s business environment is very much dynamic, and organisations are constantly changing their software requirements to adjust with new environment. They also demand for fast delivery of software products as well as for accepting changing requirements. In this aspect, traditional plan-driven developments fail to meet up these requirements. Though traditional software development methodologies, such as life cycle-based structured and object oriented approaches, continue to dominate the systems development few decades and much research has done in traditional methodologies, Agile software development brings its own set of novel challenges that must be addressed to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of the valuable software. It is a set of software development methods based on iterative and incremental development process, where requirements and development evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams that allows rapid delivery of high quality software to meet customer needs and also accommodate changes in the requirements. In this paper, we significantly identify and describe the major factors, that Agile development approach improves software development process to meet the rapid changing business environments. We also provide a brief comparison of agile development methodologies with traditional systems development methodologies, and discuss current state of adopting agile methodologies. We speculate that from the need to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of the valuable software, Agile software development is emerged as an alternative to traditional plan-based software development methods. The purpose of this paper, is to provide an in-depth understanding, the major benefits of agile development approach to software development industry, as well as provide a comparison study report of ASDM over TSDM.
Correcting the orbit drift effect on AVHRR land surface skin temperature measurements

The orbital drift of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)-7, -9, -11, -14 series of satellites results in a significant cooling effect on their afternoon path Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) land surface skin temperature (Ts ) measurements. This effect mixes with the signal of true variations in the climate system, and thus prevents Ts from being directly used in climate change and global warming studies. This paper applies a physically based ‘typical pattern technique’ to remove the orbit drift effect from Ts . The technique utilizes a lookup table of representative land skin temperature diurnal cycles derived from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Climate Community Model (CCM3) coupled with the land surface model, Biosphere–Atmosphere Transfer Scheme (BATS). The generated typical patterns of Ts diurnal cycle are functions of vegetation type, season and latitude, and are combined with satellite observations to remove the cooling effect. Applying this methodology to eighteen years of AVHRR (1981–1998) Ts observations yields an improved skin temperature dataset. Analysis of the drift-corrected skin temperature illustrates a warming trend at the surface over the past two decades, a result which agrees well with the observed surface air temperature trend. A discussion of uncertainties in this technique is also presented.
Cytokine status in Ukrainian children with irritable bowel syndrome residing in a radioactive contaminated area.

BACKGROUND The effect of low dose radiation on immune system is shown. Ionizing radiation can affect cytokine production and polarization of T helper cells. OBJECTIVE The current study focused on ionizing radiation in Ukrainian children residing in a contaminated area with clinical irritable bowel syndrome. METHOD Our study included 75 rural children population aged 4-18 yrs, who lived in a contaminated area exposed to natural environmental radiation with clinical irritable bowel syndrome (categorized in three groups) and 20 rural children participants aged 5-15 yrs who were living in areas with similar levels of radioactive contamination without clinical irritable bowel syndrome as control group. Internal radiation activity was measured by gamma-ray spectrometry. Serum levels of IL-4 and IFN-γ were measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS A trend towards increased levels of IL-4 was observed in children with clinical irritable bowel syndrome. In these children, IFN-γ levels were lower than that of the control group. CONCLUSION The IBS symptoms in Ukrainian children residing in a contaminated area may have stemmed from Th1 to Th2 immune deviation and differential expression of IL-4 and IFN-γ.
Satellite Imagery Feature Detection using Deep Convolutional Neural Network: A Kaggle Competition

This paper describes our approach to the DSTL Satellite Imagery Feature Detection challenge run by Kaggle. The primary goal of this challenge is accurate semantic segmentation of different classes in satellite imagery. Our approach is based on an adaptation of fully convolutional neural network for multispectral data processing. In addition, we defined several modifications to the training objective and overall training pipeline, e.g. boundary effect estimation, also we discuss usage of data augmentation strategies and reflectance indices. Our solution scored third place out of 419 entries. Its accuracy is comparable to the first two places, but unlike those solutions, it doesn't rely on complex ensembling techniques and thus can be easily scaled for deployment in production as a part of automatic feature labeling systems for satellite imagery analysis.
Normative indications for Xhosa speaking unskilled workers on the Rey–Osterrieth Complex Figure Test

The aim of this study was to establish normative indications for the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure (RCF) copy, incidental recall and delayed recall tasks, administered in English on a non-clinical population of Xhosa, unskilled workers (N = 33) (females n = 21; males n = 12), with a background of relatively disadvantaged quality of education up to Grades 11 and 12. The sample was stratified into two age groupings (18 – 29 years, n = 17; 30 – 40 years, n = 16), equally distributed for sex and level of education. Within group statistical analyses compared subgroup test performances for sex and age within the total sample. Between group analyses were used to compare the performance of the present sample with age equivalent data derived from a meta-analysis of US normative data on the RCF task. There was an age effect in favour of the younger group for both the immediate and delayed recall tasks. The local data for all RCF tasks were significantly lower than the US normative data, with the indication that higher levels and/or quality of formal school education might advantage performance on this complex visuoperceptual copy and recall task.
Analyzing effects of geometric rendering parameters on size and distance estimation in on-axis stereographics

Accurate perception of size and distance in a three-dimensional virtual environment is important for many applications. However, several experiments have revealed that spatial perception of virtual environments often deviates from the real world, even when the virtual scene is modeled as an accurate replica of a familiar physical environment. While previous research has elucidated various factors that can facilitate perceptual shifts, the effects of geometric rendering parameters on spatial cues are still not well understood. In this paper, we model and evaluate effects of spatial transformations caused by variations of the geometric field of view and the interpupillary distance in on-axis stereographic display environments. We evaluated different predictions in a psychophysical experiment in which subjects were asked to judge distance and size properties of virtual objects placed in a realistic virtual scene. Our results suggest that variations in the geometric field of view have a strong influence on distance judgments, whereas variations in the geometric interpupillary distance mainly affect size judgments.
Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type

Like a thumbprint, personality type provides an instant snapshot of a person's uniqueness. Drawing on concepts originated by Carl Jung, this book distinguishes four categories of personality styles and shows how these qualities determine the way you perceive the world and come to conclusions about what you've seen. It then explains what they mean for your success in school, at a job, in a career and in your personal relationships. For more than 60 years, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) tool has been the most widely used instrument in the world for determining personality type, and for more than 25 years, GIFTS DIFFERING has been the preeminent source for understanding it.
Determination of the Interday and Intraday Reliability of Serum Cartilage Oligomeric Matrix Protein in a Physically Active Population

Objective: To determine the intraday and interday reliability of serum cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (sCOMP) in a physically active population with no history of lower extremity surgery. Design: A repeated-measures reliability study was employed to determine the intraday and interday reliability of sCOMP in a physically active cohort. A total of 23 subjects were recruited to the laboratory on 3 separate occasions for nonfasting serum collection. Subjects had no history of lower extremity surgery and were free from acute injury within the last 3 months. Results: Our results indicate strong reliability for both intraday intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) (0.76) and interday ICC (0.74) sCOMP values. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that following 30 minutes of inactivity, nonfasting serum samples remain stable over the course of 1 day and between 2 consecutive days in a healthy population with no history of lower extremity surgery. Future research studies are needed to further investigate the magnitude of change in this biomarker for patients with acute articular cartilage damage to determine its appropriateness for use in this population and for varying degrees of articular cartilage severity.
Financial Valuation and Risk Management Working Paper No . 473 Price Discovery in Illiquid Markets : Do Financial Asset Prices Rise Faster Than They Fall ?

In OTC bond markets many investors face high costs of trade, and these costs appear to be related to the lack of price transparency. We study the consequences this has for efficient price discovery. Prices of municipal bonds react sluggishly to macroeconomic news. Yield spreads over treasuries react dramatically to news because treasury yields move and municipal yields do not. As in consumer markets, prices appear to “rise faster than they fall. ” Round-trip profits to dealers on retail trades increase in rising markets but do not decrease in falling markets. Effective half-spreads increase or decrease more when movements in fundamentals favor dealers. Yield spreads relative to treasuries also adjust with asymmetric speed in rising and falling markets.
High Dimensional Finite Elements for Multiscale Wave Equations

For locally periodic multiscale wave equations in $\mathbb{R}^d$ that depend on a macroscopic scale and n microscopic separated scales, we solve the high dimensional limiting multiscale homogenized problem that is posed in $(n+1)d$ dimensions and is obtained by multiscale convergence. We consider the full and sparse tensor product finite element methods, and analyze both the spatial semidiscrete and the fully (both temporal and spatial) discrete approximating problems. With sufficient regularity, the sparse tensor product approximation achieves a convergence rate essentially equal to that for the full tensor product approximation, but requires only an essentially equal number of degrees of freedom as for solving an equation in $\mathbb{R}^d$ for the same level of accuracy. For the initial condition $u(0,x)=0$, we construct a numerical corrector from the finite element solution. In the case of two scales, we derive an explicit homogenization error which, together with the finite element error, produces an .
Gender Differences in Academic Achievement in Grades 3 through 12: A Longitudinal Analysis.

Gender differences in achievement were studied in five academic areas: (1) vocabulary; (2) language usage; (3) reading; (4) mathematics problem solving; and (5) using sources of information. Standardized achisvement test scores for a sample of 3,002 students (1,642 females and 1,360 males) who were tested J.n each of 10 consecutive years, grades 3 through 12, were used to assess these differences. Data were from the Iowa Statewide Testing Program, using the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills and the Iowa Tests of Educational Development. Selected percentiles used to estimate both female and male score distributions for each subtest area were: 90th; 75th; 50th; 25th; and 10th. Results show fairly consistent patterns of differences. Males generally performed better at the upper percentile leve_ in vocabulary and mathematics problem solving, and females performed better at lower percentile levels in all content areas, as well as at all percentile levels of the score distribution and across all grades for the language usage area. Developmental patterns of differences between male and female performance appeared when different ability levels were examined. Seven tables and five graphs presenstudy data. (SLD) ***It** ********************** altu********Ig.kr * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * *********** ***X ******* fr**** ****** *************** ************ t* ******* A