Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rapid Left-to-Right Shunt Quantification in Children by Phase-Contrast Magnetic Resonance Imaging Combined With Sensitivity Encoding

Background—Parallel imaging by sensitivity encoding (SENSE) may considerably reduce scan time in MRI. For rapid flow quantification in children with congenital heart disease, we evaluated phase-contrast MRI (PC-MRI) techniques combined with SENSE. Methods and Results—In 22 pediatric patients (mean age, 7.2±6.2 years) with cardiac left-to-right shunt, blood flow rate in the pulmonary artery (Qp) and ascending aorta (Qs) and flow ratio Qp/Qs were determined by PC-MRI with SENSE reduction-factor 2 and 3 (SF-2 and SF-3). Additionally, we used PC-MRI with higher spatial in-plane resolution (1.6×2.1 versus 2.3×3.1 mm) with and without SF-3. Results were compared with a recently validated standard PC-MRI protocol and tested in vitro using a pulsatile flow phantom. Reduction of signal averages from 2 to 1 and application of SENSE accelerated flow measurements by a factor of 3.5 (5.2) using PC-MRI with SF-2 (SF-3) compared with standard PC-MRI. For blood flow rate through the pulmonary artery and aorta, as well as for the Qp/Qs ratio we found negligible differences of ±3%, lower limits of agreement (mean±2 SD) of −7% to −18%, and upper limits of agreement (mean±2 SD) of +3 to +24%, demonstrating good agreement with standard PC-MRI. Mean Qp/Qs ratio by standard PC-MRI was 1.69±0.45 (range, 1.27 to 2.79). Interobserver variability was low, and high accuracy was confirmed in vitro for all protocols. Conclusions—PC-MRI for flow quantitation may be combined with SENSE to achieve a substantive reduction of scanning time. In children with left-to-right shunt, Qp/Qs quantification is possible by PC-MRI+SF-3 in <60 seconds. Use of higher in-plane resolution did not improve measurement results.
Molecular simulation of silica/surfactant self-assembly in the synthesis of periodic mesoporous silicas.

Understanding the synthesis of periodic mesoporous silica (PMS) is crucial for a more efficient use of these materials and is a necessary first step toward a rational design strategy for the templated synthesis of porous solids. In this paper, the early stages of the synthesis process of PMS materials are simulated directly by molecular dynamics, using realistic atomistic models. It is the first time that such computationally demanding calculations have been attempted. By comparing the self-assembly of cationic surfactants in the presence and absence of silicates, we are able to show that silica promotes the formation of larger aggregates than in a simple surfactant/water solution. The formation of these larger micelles is explained by a strong interaction of the silicate molecules with the surfactant head groups. This strong interaction increases the local concentration of silica at the surface of the micelles, which induces the formation of more condensed silicate species. The surfactant/silica structur.
High-risk human papillomavirus affects prognosis in patients with surgically treated oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma.

PURPOSE Human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA tumors actively integrating the E6 and E7 oncogenes have a distinct biologic behavior resulting in a more favorable prognosis. To which extent the viral integration by itself, and/or the associated wild-type (wt) TP53 status, and/or a functional p16 contribute to prognosis is unclear. PATIENTS AND METHODS To clarify how the presence of high-risk (HR) -HPV, TP53, and p16INK4a status interact with clinical outcome, we considered a retrospective series of 90 consecutive oropharyngeal cancer patients treated primarily with surgery. RESULTS Seventeen (19%) patients showed integrated HPV 16 DNA (HPV positive), wt TP53 in all but two patients, normal p16INK4a in 15 assessable patients, and p16 expression in all 17 patients. Thirty-five patients (39%), two of whom were HPV positive, harbored TP53 mutations. p16INK4a deletion and p16 null immunophenotype occurred in 28 and 58 patients, respectively, and was similarly distributed in both patients with mutated TP53 (48% and 82%, respectively) and in patients with wt TP53 (46% and 77%, respectively). Statistical analysis showed that HPV-positive status significantly affects all investigated end points: overall survival (P = .0018), incidence of tumor relapse (P = .0371), and second tumor (P = .0152), whereas TP53 and p16INK4a status and p16 expression were not prognostic by themselves. CONCLUSION Our molecular and clinical results are in agreement with previous findings but provide additional information into the biologic mechanisms involved in HR-HPV oropharyngeal cancer in comparison to HPV-negative tumors. According to the reduced risk of relapse and second tumors associated with HR-HPV positivity of oropharyngeal cancer, the therapeutic strategy and follow-up procedures should be reviewed.
Strategies of simultaneous interpreting and directionality

This article describes an experimental study on strategies of simultaneous interpreting used by 36 advanced students working in two directions: from English (B) into Polish (A) and the reverse. The material analysed comprises retrospective remarks provided by the subjects, prompted by listening to the source texts and their interpretations directly after the interpreting task. Twenty-one interpreting strategies were identified; a detailed classification and examples of relevant protocol fragments are presented. The results suggest that strategic processing differs considerably when interpreting into Polish (A) and into English (B), which can be attributed mainly to directionality but, in some cases, also to language-pair specificity. Some of the differences run counter to the initial hypotheses, and possible explanations for this are discussed.
GeoTruCrowd: trustworthy query answering with spatial crowdsourcing

With the abundance and ubiquity of mobile devices, a new class of applications, called spatial crowdsourcing, is emerging, which enables spatial tasks (i.e., tasks related to a location) assigned to and performed by human workers. However, one of the major challenges with spatial crowdsourcing is how to verify the validity of the results provided by workers, when the workers are not trusted equally. To tackle this problem, we assume every worker has a reputation score, which states the probability that the worker performs a task correctly. Moreover, we define a confidence level for every spatial task, which states that the answer to the given spatial task is only accepted if its confidence is higher than a certain threshold. Thus, the problem we are trying to solve is to maximize the number of spatial tasks that are assigned to a set of workers while satisfying the confidence levels of those tasks. Note that a unique aspect of our problem is that the optimal assignment of tasks heavily depends on the geographical locations of workers and tasks. This means that every spatial task should be assigned to enough number of workers such that their aggregate reputation satisfies the confidence of the task. Consequently, an exhaustive approach needs to compute the aggregate reputation score (using a typical decision fusion aggregation mechanism, such as voting) for all possible subsets of the workers, which renders the problem complex (we show it is NP-hard). Subsequently, we propose a number of heuristics and utilizing real-world and synthetic data in extensive sets of experiments we show that we can achieve close to optimal performance with the cost of a greedy approach, by exploiting our problem's unique characteristics.
Community services and people with intellectual disabilities who engage in anti-social or offending behaviour: referral rates, characteristics, and care pathways

Provision of health and social support to people who engage in anti-social or offending behaviour and have intellectual disabilities (ID) remains a challenge to services. Numerous population studies have produced contradictory findings with reviews calling for the development of more fruitful approaches and recommending investigation of the care pathways operating within ID services. This study reports on the pathways through services encountered by adults with offending or anti-social behaviour referred to 15 UK community ID services in 2002. Pathways through services were tracked for 24 months post referral. Referral rates, demographic characteristics, and associations with anti-social or offending behaviour were statistically analysed for 237 cases. Most referrals originated from the local community (66%); a high proportion were female (40.5%). Community services appeared encapsulated, serving adults with offending behaviour over the long term, but predominantly (74%) those already known to local ID services. Implications for services and future research strategies are considered.
T-T interactions in the induction of suppressor and helper T cells: analysis of membrane phenotype of precursor and amplifier cells

The Ly and Ia phenotypes of T lymphocytes involved in the in vitro generation of helper and suppressor cells were identified. The precursors of both cells are found in adult thymectomized spleen. Helper precursors are Ly-1+2-3-Ia-, while suppressor precursors are Ly- 1-2+3+Ia-, although the suppressor effector is Ia+. In both cases a second 'amplifier' cell is required for differentiation of precursors to occur. This cell is found in anti-lymphocyte serum-treated spleen and has the phenotype Ly-1+2+3+Ia-.
The theory of planned behaviour and exercise: an investigation into the role of prior behaviour, behavioural intentions and attitude variability

This paper reports a prospective study which applied the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to the prediction of exercise behaviour over a six-month period. The study addressed a number of issues which have been identified in the literature on the TPB; these being the role of prior behaviour in the TPB, the distinction between desires and self-predictions, and the question of attitude variability. The findings showed prior behaviour to be the strongest predictor of exercise behaviour at six months. Contrary to expectations, the self-prediction measure was not found to be a better predictor of behaviour than the desire measure. Attitude variability was found to be related to perceptions of control. However, attitude variability was not found to moderate relationships between components of the TPB. The implications of the results for the development of the TPB are discussed.
Synchronization, Oscillations and 1/f Noise in Networks of Spiking Neurons

We investigate a model for neural activity that generates long range temporal correlations, 1/f noise, and oscillations in global activity. The model consists of a two-dimensional sheet of leaky integrate-and-fire neurons with feedback connectivity consisting of local excitation and surround inhibition. Each neuron is independently driven by homogeneous external noise. Spontaneous symmetry breaking occurs, resulting in the formation of "hotspots" of activity in the network. These localized patterns of excitation appear as clusters that coalesce, disintegrate, or fluctuate in size while simultaneously moving in a random walk constrained by the interaction with other clusters. The emergent cross-correlation functions have a dual structure, with a sharp peak around zero on top of a much broader hill. The power spectrum associated with single units shows a 1/f decay for small frequencies and is flat at higher frequencies, while the power spectrum of the spiking activity averaged over many cells--equivalent to the local field potential--shows no 1/f decay but a prominent peak around 40 Hz.
Kidney Dysfunction and Markers of Inflammation in the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected individuals are at higher risk for chronic kidney disease than HIV-uninfected individuals. We investigated whether the inflammation present in treated HIV infection contributes to kidney dysfunction among HIV-infected men receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy. METHODS The glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was directly measured (using iohexol) along with 12 markers of inflammation in Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study participants. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify inflammatory processes related to kidney dysfunction. The estimated levels of these inflammatory processes were used in adjusted logistic regression analyses evaluating cross-sectional associations with kidney function outcomes. RESULTS There were 434 HIV-infected men receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy and 200 HIV-uninfected men. HIV-infected men were younger (median age, 51 vs 53 years) and had higher urine protein-creatinine ratios (median, 98 vs 66 mg/g) but comparable GFRs (median, 109 vs 106 mL/min|1.73 m(2)). We found an inflammatory process dominated by markers: soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor 2, soluble interleukin 2 receptor α, soluble gp130, soluble CD27, and soluble CD14. An increase of 1 standard deviation in that inflammatory process was associated with significantly greater odds of GFR ≤90 mL/min/1.73 m(2) (odds ratio, 2.0) and urine protein >200 mg/g (odds ratio, 2.3). CONCLUSIONS Higher circulating levels of immune activation markers among treated HIV-infected men may partially explain their higher burden of kidney dysfunction compared with uninfected men.
How Well Does Advertising Work? Generalizations from Meta-Analysis of Brand Advertising Elasticities

The authors conduct a meta-analysis of 751 short-term and 402 long-term direct-to-consumer brand advertising elasticities estimated in 56 studies published between 1960 and 2008. The study finds several new empirical generalizations about advertising elasticity. The most important are as follows: the average short-term advertising elasticity is . 12, which is substantially lower than the prior meta-analytic mean of . 22; there has been a decline in the advertising elasticity over time; and advertising elasticity is higher (1) for durable goods than nondurable goods, (2) in the early stage than the mature stage of the life cycle, (3) for yearly data than quarterly data, and (4) when advertising is measured in gross rating points than monetary terms. The mean long-term advertising elasticity is . 24, which is much lower than the implied mean in the prior meta-analysis (.41). many of the results for short-term elasticity hold for long-term elasticity, with some notable exceptions. The authors discuss the implications of these findings.
Evaluating the interaction of faecal pellet deposition rates and DNA degradation rates to optimize sampling design for DNA‐based mark–recapture analysis of Sonoran pronghorn

Knowledge of population demographics is important for species management but can be challenging in low‐density, wide‐ranging species. Population monitoring of the endangered Sonoran pronghorn (Antilocapra americana sonoriensis) is critical for assessing the success of recovery efforts, and noninvasive DNA sampling (NDS) could be more cost‐effective and less intrusive than traditional methods. We evaluated faecal pellet deposition rates and faecal DNA degradation rates to maximize sampling efficiency for DNA‐based mark–recapture analyses. Deposition data were collected at five watering holes using sampling intervals of 1–7 days and averaged one pellet pile per pronghorn per day. To evaluate nuclear DNA (nDNA) degradation, 20 faecal samples were exposed to local environmental conditions and sampled at eight time points from one to 124 days. Average amplification success rates for six nDNA microsatellite loci were 81% for samples on day one, 63% by day seven, 2% by day 14 and 0% by day 60. We evaluated the efficiency of different sampling intervals (1–10 days) by estimating the number of successful samples, success rate of individual identification and laboratory costs per successful sample. Cost per successful sample increased and success and efficiency declined as the sampling interval increased. Results indicate NDS of faecal pellets is a feasible method for individual identification, population estimation and demographic monitoring of Sonoran pronghorn. We recommend collecting samples >7 days old and estimate that a sampling interval of 4–7 days in summer conditions (i.e. extreme heat and exposure to UV light) will achieve desired sample sizes for mark–recapture analysis while also maximizing efficiency.
Differentiating knowledge in teams: The effect of shared declarative and procedural knowledge on team performance

The relative effect of sharing mental models (typically defined as declarative knowledge structures) and sharing procedural knowledge on team process and performance were assessed. Forty-eight students completed a series of missions as two person teams using a PC based tank simulation. The results showed some support for earlier findings that shared and accurate mental models of the task were related to team process which was related to team performance. In contrast, shared procedural knowledge was negatively related to team performance. Accurate procedural knowledge was positively related to team performance. Results are discussed in terms of the effect of sharing knowledge in teams on performance, and the implications for team training. Shared knowledge and team performance 3 Differentiating knowledge in teams: The effect of shared declarative and procedural knowledge on team performance
Refractory Properties of Termite Hills under Varied Proportions of Additives

The investigation centered on how additives such as Graphite, asbestos varied at different percentages can affect the refractory properties of pure termite hills. Experimental analysis was carried out on such properties as Refractoriness, porosity, permeability, thermal shock resistance, linear shrinkage, Bulk density and specific gravity. Through pure termite hill has low refractoriness (1400oC). This was enhanced by graphite addition to as much as 1700oC and asbestos to 1600oC for the purpose of furnace lining. Other properties were also found to have been improved upon.
Substitute teachers: The professional contradiction

The substitute teacher's public image is investigated via an informal survey conducted among part‐time and full‐time teachers attending evening classes at Eastern Washington University. Survey results reveal some profound contradictions. Their working conditions appear to damage the self‐image of most substitute teachers. The majority of full‐time teachers and administrators are unaware of problems confronting substitute teachers and contend that substitutes are valued as emergency personnel. Some of the suggestions for resolving these issues come directly from the survey participants and others from the personal experiences of the authors.
Association between breed, gender and age in relation to cardiovascular disorders in insured dogs in Japan

The association between breed, gender and age and cardiovascular disorders in the insured dog population in Japan was investigated, using multiple logistic regression analysis and data from 299,555 dogs insured between April 2010 and March 2011. The overall annual prevalence of cardiovascular disorder diagnosis was 2.1%. Using the Miniature Dachshund as the reference breed, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel had the highest odds of cardiovascular disorder with a ratio of 16.2 (95% confidence interval: 14.4–18.2), followed by Maltese, Pomeranian, Chihuahua and Shih Tzu. Male dogs had increased odds of 1.2 (1.1–1.3). The dogs had increased odds of having cardiovascular disorder by 1.5 times as their age increased by one year.
You are where you e-mail: using e-mail data to estimate international migration rates

International migration is one of the major determinants of demographic change. Although efforts to produce comparable statistics are underway, estimates of demographic flows are inexistent, outdated, or largely inconsistent, for most countries. We estimate age and gender-specific migration rates using data extracted from a large sample of Yahoo! e-mail messages. Self-reported age and gender of anonymized e-mail users were linked to the geographic locations (mapped from IP addresses) from where users sent e-mail messages over time (2009-2011). The users' country of residence over time was inferred as the one from where most e-mail messages were sent. Our estimates of age profiles of migration are qualitatively consistent with existing administrative data sources. Selection bias generates uncertainty for estimates at one point in time, especially for developing countries. However, our approach allows us to compare in a reliable way migration trends of females and males. We document the recent increase in human mobility and we observe that female mobility has been increasing at a faster pace. Our findings suggest that e-mail data may complement existing migration data, resolve inconsistencies arising from different definitions of migration, and provide new and rich information on mobility patterns and social networks of migrants. The use of digital records for demographic research has the potential to become particularly important for developing countries, where the diffusion of Internet will be faster than the development of mature demographic registration systems.
Between a rock and a hard place: Organizational change and performance under conditions of fundamental environmental transformation

Author(s): Haveman, H | Abstract: This paper examines the proposition that change is detrimental to organizational performance and survival chances. I propose that organizational change may benefit organizational performance and survival chances if it occurs in response to dramatic restructuring of environmental conditions and if it builds on established routines and competences. These propositions are tested on the savings and loan industry in California, which has experienced technological, economic, and regulatory shifts that have forced savings and loan associations to change or die. Findings indicate that most changes enhance financial performance, one is harmful to performance, and three diminish failure rates. These results support the model developed here and suggest that the question of whether change is hazardous should be replaced by the questions of under what conditions change may be hazardous or helpful and whether the direction of change affects its impact on performance and survival. '
α-Amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid, but Not N-Methyl-D-aspartate, Activates Mitogen-activated Protein Kinase through G-protein βγ Subunits in Rat Cortical Neurons (*)

α-Amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptor channels play important roles in plasticity, neurotransmission, and neurotoxicity in the central nervous system. AMPA, but not N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA), receptor signaling in rat cortical neurons was found to involve a G-protein coupled to a protein kinase cascade. While both NMDA and AMPA activated p mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) in neurons, only AMPA-induced MAPK was inhibited by pertussis toxin. AMPA, but not NMDA, caused an association of a G-protein β subunit with a Ras, Raf kinase, and MAP/ERK kinase (MEK)-1 complex. The evidence indicates that AMPA triggers MAPK activation via a novel mechanism in which G-protein β dimers released from Gα bind to a Ras protein complex causing the activation of Ras, Raf kinase, MEK-1, and finally MAPK.
Tree resolution proofs of the weak pigeon-hole principle

We prove that any optimal tree resolution proof of PHP/sub n//sup m/ is of size 2/sup /spl theta/(n log n)/, independently from m, even if it is infinity. So far, only a 2/sup /spl Omega/(n)/ lower bound has been known in the general case. We also show that any, not necessarily optimal, regular tree resolution proof PHP/sub n//sup m/ is bounded by 2/sup O(n log m)/. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time the worst case proof complexity has been considered. Finally, we discuss possible connections of our result to Riis' (1999) complexity gap theorem for tree resolution.