Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interactive affective sharing versus non‐interactive affective sharing in work groups: Comparative effects of group affect on work group performance and dynamics

This study explores whether the dynamic path to group affect, which is characterized by interactive affective sharing processes, yields different effects on task performance and group dynamics than the static path to group affect, which arises from non-interactive affective sharing. The results of our experiment with 70 three-person work groups show that groups performed better on creative tasks than on analytical tasks when they were in a positive mood, and better on analytical tasks than on creative tasks when in a negative mood, but only when affect was interactively shared. Moreover, analysis of videotaped group member interactions during task performance showed similar results for work group dynamics, such that group affect influenced belongingness and information sharing only when affect was interactively shared and not when affect was non-interactively shared. Results support the idea that affective sharing processes are fundamental for understanding the effects of group affect on behavior. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Circulating endothelial microparticle levels predict hemodynamic severity of pulmonary hypertension.

RATIONALE Circulating microparticles (MPs) are submicron membrane fragments shed from damaged or activated vascular cells. Endothelial MPs are a biological marker of dysfunctional endothelium. Vascular remodeling and endothelial dysfunction are involved in pulmonary hypertension (PH). OBJECTIVES We tested the hypothesis that circulating MPs are increased in patients with PH and that identifiable subgroups of MPs predict the hemodynamic severity of this condition progression. METHODS Patients (n = 24; age, 54 +/- 4 yr) undergoing right heart catheterization for precapillary PH without any endothelium-active vasodilator therapy participated in the study. Age- and sex-matched healthy control subjects (n = 20) were included. Endothelial (PECAM(+) [CD31(+)]/ CD41(-), VE-cadherin(+) [CD144(+)], and E-selectin(+) [CD62e(+)]), platelet (CD41(+)), leukocyte-derived (CD45(+)), and annexin V(+) MPs were measured by flow cytometry in platelet-free plasma from venous blood. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Levels of circulating endothelial PECAM(+), VE-cadherin(+), E-selectin(+), and leukocyte-derived MPs, but not platelet and annexin V(+) MPs, were increased in subjects with PH compared with control subjects (P < 0.01 each). PECAM(+) and VE-cadherin(+) MP levels significantly correlated with mean pulmonary artery pressure (r = 0.92 and r = 0.87, respectively), pulmonary vascular resistance (r = 0.78 and r = 0.73), and mean right atrial pressure (r = 0.43, and r = 0.46) and correlated inversely with cardiac index (r = -0.59 and r = -0.52). These relationships were not observed for other MP subgroups, and persisted in multivariate analysis after adjustment for confounding factors. CONCLUSIONS In subjects with precapillary PH, levels of circulating endothelial and leukocyte MPs were increased compared with control subjects. In addition, levels of PECAM(+) and VE-cadherin(+), but not E-selectin(+), endothelial MPs predicted hemodynamic severity of the disease.
A chromosomal location of the mupA gene in Staphylococcus aureus expressing high-level mupirocin resistance.

OBJECTIVES To investigate the genetic location of the mupA gene in high-level mupirocin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates. MATERIALS AND METHODS Antibiotic resistance was detected by disc diffusion. The Etest was used to determine mupirocin MIC. The presence of mupA was detected by PCR using specific primers. Curing, transfer experiments, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and DNA hybridization were used to study the genetic location of mupA. RESULTS The isolates had mupirocin MICs > 1024 mg/L and were resistant to methicillin, gentamicin, kanamycin, streptomycin, erythromycin, tetracycline, ciprofloxacin, cadmium acetate, propamidine isethionate and ethidium bromide. They carried two plasmids of approximately 26 and 2.8 kb. Curing and transfer experiments demonstrated that the 26 kb plasmid encoded resistance to cadmium acetate, propamidine isethionate and ethidium bromide. Loss of mupirocin resistance corresponded to the loss of a 40 kb DNA fragment from a 175 kb SmaI chromosomal fragment. The mupA gene was detected only in the genomic DNA of the mupirocin-resistant strains and in their derivatives cured of the 26 kb plasmid. A labelled mupA probe hybridized to the 175 kb SmaI fragment only in the mupirocin-resistant isolates. CONCLUSION The absence of mupA on any of the plasmids and its detection only in the chromosomal DNA of the parents and in their derivatives cured of the 26 kb plasmid strongly supports a chromosomal location for mupA in these isolates.
Synchronous Airway Lesions in Infancy

Stridor in the young infant is evaluated by careful laryngoscopy. When a lesion of the larynx is diagnosed, the necessity and risk of bronchoscopy are challenged. To assess the need for careful examination of both the upper and lower respiratory tract, a 2-year retrospective study was performed at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. Of 103 infants who underwent diagnostic laryngoscopy and bronchoscopy for airway obstruction, stridor, or both, 18 (17.5%) had two or more synchronous airway lesions detected. Laryngoscopy alone, without further workup of the entire respiratory tract (ie, bronchoscopy, radiographic studies) may fail to detect concurrent disorders in infants with airway obstruction.
Addition of vasopressin to norepinephrine as independent predictor of mortality in patients with refractory septic shock: an observational study.

OBJECTIVE To identify predictors of 28-day mortality among patients with refractory septic shock treated with norepinephrine with or without vasopressin. DESIGN Prospective observational cohort study. SETTING A 1,200-bed academic medical center. PATIENTS One hundred thirty-seven patients with septic shock treated with norepinephrine with or without vasopressin. INTERVENTIONS None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS The 28-day mortality rate was 37.2% (n = 51). By multivariate analysis, significant predictors of death were norepinephrine plus vasopressin administration (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 13.96; 95% confidence interval [CI] 6.47, 30.08; p = 0.001), lack of goal-directed fluid administration during initial resuscitation (AOR 15.82; 95% CI 6.16, 40.61; p = 0.003), inappropriate initial antimicrobial therapy (AOR 8.95; 95% CI 2.93, 27.33; p = 0.05), and higher Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II score (AOR 1.14; 95% CI 1.07, 1.21; p = 0.033). Patients who received norepinephrine plus vasopressin (n = 68) had a significantly higher mortality rate than patients managed with norepinephrine alone (n = 69) 28 days after the initiation of vasopressors (54.4% vs. 20.3%; p < 0.001). This finding was confirmed in patients matched optimally across treatment groups. CONCLUSIONS Our study found an association between the use of norepinephrine plus vasopressin and 28-day mortality in refractory septic shock. In view of its known mechanism of action, vasopressin contributed to this excess mortality. Further recommendations regarding the use of vasopressin await the results of large randomized trials evaluating its efficacy and safety for septic shock.
Evolutionary neuromarketing: darwinizing the neuroimaging paradigm for consumer behavior

The current paper serves two purposes. First, it reviews the neuroimaging literature most relevant to the field of marketing (e.g., neuroeconomics, decision neuroscience, and neuromarketing). Second, it posits that evolutionary theory is a consilient and organizing meta-theoretical framework for neuromarketing research. The great majority of neuroimaging studies suffer from the illusion of explanatory depth namely the sophistication of the neuroimaging technologies provides a semblance of profundity to the reaped knowledge, which is otherwise largely disjointed and atheoretical. Evolutionary theory resolves this conundrum by recognizing that the human mind has evolved via the processes of natural and sexual selection. Hence, in order to provide a complete understanding of any given neuromarketing phenomenon requires that it be tackled at both the proximate level (as is currently the case) and the ultimate level (i.e., understanding the adaptive reason that would generate a particular neural activation pattern). Evolutionary psychology posits that the human mind consists of a set of domain-specific computational systems that have evolved to solve recurring adaptive problems. Accordingly, rather than viewing the human mind as a general-purpose domain-independent organ, evolutionary cognitive neuroscientists recognize that many neural activation patterns are instantiations of evolved computational systems in evolutionarily relevant domains such as survival, mating, kin selection, and reciprocity. As such, an evolutionary neuromarketing approach recognizes that the neural activation patterns associated with numerous marketing-related phenomena can be mapped onto the latter Darwinian modules thus providing a unifying meta-theory for this budding discipline. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Side Effects after Surgical Treatment of Snoring

In a questionnaire study detailed side effects after snoring surgery were examined in 415 individuals 2–8 years after surgery. Three years later a new questionnaire was answered by those with side effects affecting taste, smell and voice (n = 74). At the first follow-up 255 had side effects of globus, regurgitation, taste, smell and voice. The globus was the most common (40%). In all spheres except the globus, a significant improvement was seen 3 years later. However, pharyngeal dryness and phlegm had a reported frequency of nearly 60%. No significant differences were seen between the uvulopalatopharyngoplasty and laser uvulopalatoplasty methods. Taste disturbances might be due to surgical damage to the nerves or oral dryness. The olfactory impairment present in 7 patients still needs to be explained.
Hepatocyte heterogeneity in uptake and metabolism of malate and related dicarboxylates in perfused rat liver.

1. In isolated perfused rat liver a near-maximal net malate uptake of about 120 nmol g-1 min-1 was observed at influent malate concentrations above 100 mumol l-1 and a half-maximal uptake at about 50 mumol l-1 in influent. 14CO2 production from added [U-14C]malate paralleled hepatic net malate uptake, however, 14CO2 production exceeded net malate uptake by 20-25%. This was observed in antegrade as well as in retrograde perfusions and regardless of whether NH4Cl was added to the influent perfusate. Stimulation of glutamine synthesis by NH4Cl only slightly affected net malate uptake and 14CO2 production, but resulted in a marked stimulation of [14C]glutamine release from the liver. 2. Because [U-14C]malate uptake by the liver (reflecting the influent/effluent concentration difference of labeled malate) could at least in part involve a malate/malate exchange mechanism, net malate uptake (as determined from the influent/effluent concentration difference of enzymatically assayable malate) may underestimate hepatic [U-14C]malate uptake. On the other hand, during metabolic steady states 14CO2 production from added [U-14C]malate can be considered as an upper limit estimate of [U-14C]malate uptake by the liver. Assuming that 14CO2 production equals [U-14C]malate uptake by the liver, extrapolation studies suggest that during maximal rates of NH4Cl-stimulated glutamine synthesis 80-110% of the [U-14]malate taken up by the liver was used for glutamine synthesis. This was true for retrograde and antegrade perfusions. Similar data, i.e. a 100-130% incorporation regardless of the direction of perfusion, were obtained when [U-14C]malate uptake was assumed to equal net malate uptake by the liver. 3. Substitution of Na+ in the perfusion fluid by choline abolished net malate uptake by the liver and inhibited 14CO2 production from [U-14C]malate by more than 90%. 4. 2-Oxoglutarate inhibited [14C]malate uptake and [1-14C]oxoglutarate uptake by the liver was inhibited by malate, fumarate, succinate and oxaloacetate, but not by aspartate and glutamate. Inhibition of [1-14C]oxoglutarate uptake and of 14CO2 production from added labeled 2-oxoglutarate by malate and fumarate seemed largely competitive. Malate, fumarate and succinate not only inhibited [1-14C]oxoglutarate uptake, but also stimulated the release of unlabeled 2-oxoglutarate from the liver. 5. The data are consistent with a predominant uptake of vascular malate by perivenous glutamine synthetase containing hepatocytes when glutamine synthesis is stimulated to Vmax values by NH4Cl. Malate and other citric acid cycle dicarboxylates, but not aspartate and glutamate, may compete with 2-oxoglutarate for uptake into perivenous glutamine synthesizing hepatocytes. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Epidemiology of Multiple Sclerosis: A Critical Overview

ABSTRACT: The decisive conclusions to be drawn from the available epidemiological data, mostly geography and prevalence, of MS are: (1) a north-south (as well as west-east in the United States) gradient exists independent of genetic/racial factors; (2) major differences in prevalence occur in the absence of latitude differences; (3) individuals from the same ethnic derivation have either similar prevalence rates or very different prevalence rates in widely separated geographical areas and (4) specific resistant isolates are shown to exist regardless of latitude. Existing information leads to the almost inescapable conclusion that the epidemiology of MS cannot be explained by any single known environmental or genetic factor(s) in isolation. A combination of a heterogeneous distribution of both genetic and environmental factors appears to be required to explain the available data on MS.
There Is a “U” in Clutter: Evidence for Robust Sparse Codes Underlying Clutter Tolerance in Human Vision

The ability to recognize objects in clutter is crucial for human vision, yet the underlying neural computations remain poorly understood. Previous single-unit electrophysiology recordings in inferotemporal cortex in monkeys and fMRI studies of object-selective cortex in humans have shown that the responses to pairs of objects can sometimes be well described as a weighted average of the responses to the constituent objects. Yet, from a computational standpoint, it is not clear how the challenge of object recognition in clutter can be solved if downstream areas must disentangle the identity of an unknown number of individual objects from the confounded average neuronal responses. An alternative idea is that recognition is based on a subpopulation of neurons that are robust to clutter, i.e., that do not show response averaging, but rather robust object-selective responses in the presence of clutter. Here we show that simulations using the HMAX model of object recognition in cortex can fit the aforementioned single-unit and fMRI data, showing that the averaging-like responses can be understood as the result of responses of object-selective neurons to suboptimal stimuli. Moreover, the model shows how object recognition can be achieved by a sparse readout of neurons whose selectivity is robust to clutter. Finally, the model provides a novel prediction about human object recognition performance, namely, that target recognition ability should show a U-shaped dependency on the similarity of simultaneously presented clutter objects. This prediction is confirmed experimentally, supporting a simple, unifying model of how the brain performs object recognition in clutter. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The neural mechanisms underlying object recognition in cluttered scenes (i.e., containing more than one object) remain poorly understood. Studies have suggested that neural responses to multiple objects correspond to an average of the responses to the constituent objects. Yet, it is unclear how the identities of an unknown number of objects could be disentangled from a confounded average response. Here, we use a popular computational biological vision model to show that averaging-like responses can result from responses of clutter-tolerant neurons to suboptimal stimuli. The model also provides a novel prediction, that human detection ability should show a U-shaped dependency on target–clutter similarity, which is confirmed experimentally, supporting a simple, unifying account of how the brain performs object recognition in clutter.
The Complexity of Pediatric Multifocal Atrial Tachycardia and Its Prognostic Factors

Background and Objectives Multifocal atrial tachycardia (MAT), in general, has a favorable outcome. However, there are insufficient data regarding MAT in a pediatric population. This study sought to determine the clinical course of MAT and identify potential prognostic factors. Methods The medical records of MAT patients from 1997–2015 were reviewed. The arrhythmia control rate and factors for unfavorable outcomes were assessed and compared to those in the literature. Results Of the 33 included patients (19 boys and 14 girls), 27 were infants less than 1 year of age. The median age at diagnosis was 1.7 months (range, 0 day to 14 years). Fourteen (42%) patients had structural heart disease. Eight (24%) patients had lung disease and 6 (18%) had a syndromic diagnosis belonging to RASopathy. Two patients developed polymorphic ventricular tachycardia, in whom genetic analysis confirmed the presence of the RyR2 mutation several years later. MAT was controlled in 26 patients (84%) within 3.9 months (median; range, 16 days–18.4 years) using an average of 2.4 medications. There were 3 cases of cardiopulmonary mortality. The arrhythmia control rate was higher in the infant group (85%) than in the non-infant group (67%), although this trend was not statistically significant. There was a significantly lower rate of unfavorable outcomes in the idiopathic infant group (n=11) than in the other groups (p=0.008). Considering the findings of previous studies, the mortality rate was significantly higher in patients with structural heart disease than in patients without (21% vs. 5%, p=0.01). Conclusions MAT usually affects infants and has a favorable prognosis, particularly in the idiopathic infant group. However, in the presence of other comorbidities, MAT may have a variable clinical course.
Analysis of HIV Using a High Resolution Melting (HRM) Diversity Assay: Automation of HRM Data Analysis Enhances the Utility of the Assay for Analysis of HIV Incidence

Background HIV diversity may be a useful biomarker for discriminating between recent and non-recent HIV infection. The high resolution melting (HRM) diversity assay was developed to quantify HIV diversity in viral populations without sequencing. In this assay, HIV diversity is expressed as a single numeric HRM score that represents the width of a melting peak. HRM scores are highly associated with diversity measures obtained with next generation sequencing. In this report, a software package, the HRM Diversity Assay Analysis Tool (DivMelt), was developed to automate calculation of HRM scores from melting curve data. Methods DivMelt uses computational algorithms to calculate HRM scores by identifying the start (T1) and end (T2) melting temperatures for a DNA sample and subtracting them (T2–T1 = HRM score). DivMelt contains many user-supplied analysis parameters to allow analyses to be tailored to different contexts. DivMelt analysis options were optimized to discriminate between recent and non-recent HIV infection and to maximize HRM score reproducibility. HRM scores calculated using DivMelt were compared to HRM scores obtained using a manual method that is based on visual inspection of DNA melting curves. Results HRM scores generated with DivMelt agreed with manually generated HRM scores obtained from the same DNA melting data. Optimal parameters for discriminating between recent and non-recent HIV infection were identified. DivMelt provided greater discrimination between recent and non-recent HIV infection than the manual method. Conclusion DivMelt provides a rapid, accurate method of determining HRM scores from melting curve data, facilitating use of the HRM diversity assay for large-scale studies.
The determinant of adoption in cloud computing in Vietnam

Cloud computing can bring many advantages for companies such as cost efficiency, reducing time to access to the market, ease to use, flexibility and adaptability to change to different condition, etc. However, the adoption rate in Vietnam is still in the beginning stage with not many adopters. As a result, this study focuses on the adoption of cloud computing among Vietnamese companies. Eight factors were identified as determinants of cloud computing adoption by combining the two widely applied IT theories i.e. Diffusion on Innovation and Technology-Organization-Environment framework. In the future with eight factors we will conduct survey, factor analysis and logistic regression to determine factors affecting cloud computing adoption.
Social Ecology and Diabetes Self-Management among Pacific Islanders in Arkansas

Chronic diseases disproportionately affect ethnic and racial minorities. Pacific Islanders, including the Marshallese, experience some of the highest documented rates of type 2 diabetes. Northwest Arkansas is home to the largest population of Marshallese outside of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and many migrants are employed by the local poultry industry. This migrant population continues to increase because of climate change, limited health care and educational infrastructure in the Marshall Islands, and the ongoing health effects of US nuclear testing. The US nuclear weapons testing program had extensive social, economic, and ecological consequences for the Marshallese and many of the health disparities they face are related to the nuclear fallout. Beginning in 2013, researchers using a community-based participatory (CBPR) approach began working with the local Marshallese community to address diabetes through the development and implementation of culturally appropriate diabetes self-management education in a family setting. Preliminary research captured numerous and significant environmental barriers that constrain self-management behaviors. At the request of our CBPR stakeholders, researchers have documented the ecological barriers faced by the Marshallese living in Arkansas through a series of qualitative research projects. Using the Social Ecological Model as a framework, this research provides an analysis of Marshallese health that expands the traditional diabetes self-management perspective. Participants identified barriers at the organizational, community, and policy levels that constrain their efforts to achieve diabetes self-management. We offer practice and policy recommendations to address barriers at the community, organizational, and policy level.