Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Propofol as an intravenous anaesthetic agent in dogs

Studies in dogs with an emulsion formulation of the intravenous anaesthetic, propofol, showed that induction of anaesthesia was smooth and it was possible to maintain anaesthesia by intermittent injection. The mean dose for induction of anaesthesia in unpremedicated dogs was 5.95 mg/kg body-weight. When no premedication was administered anaesthesia was maintained by a total dose of approximately 0.806 mg/kg/minute. Premedication with between 0.02 and 0.04 mg/kg of acepromazine reduced the mean induction dose by about 30 per cent and the maintenance dose by more than 50 per cent. In 68 unpremedicated dogs given one dose, recovery was complete in a mean time of 18 minutes and after maintenance of anaesthesia by intermittent injection in 65 dogs the mean recovery time was 22 minutes from administration of the last dose. Premedication with acepromazine did not produce statistically significant increases in these recovery times. The quiet, rapid and complete recovery proved to be most valuable in cases where the animal had to be returned to the owners' care with the minimum of delay.
DOES IFRS CONVERGENCE IMPROVE QUALITY OF ACCOUNTING INFORMATION? - EVIDENCE FROM THE CHINESE STOCK MARKET

This paper aims to examine whether the 2007 IFRS converged Chinese GAAP has improved the quality of accounting information for investors in the A-share market in China. We analyse investor’s reaction to financial information released pre and post IFRS convergence in China. Multiple regression analysis was employed using data from 309 listed Chinese companies. The findings of this study show that earnings per share, relative to book value of equity, is a stronger explanatory factor of market return in both the pre- and post IFRS convergence periods, suggesting that investors rely heavily upon earnings released by listed companies when making security price decisions in the Chinese stock market. The results also suggest that investors’ reliance on the income statement information for investment decisions becomes greater in the post IFRS convergence period.
Destabilization of YopE by the Ubiquitin-Proteasome Pathway Fine-Tunes Yop Delivery into Host Cells and Facilitates Systemic Spread of Yersinia enterocolitica in Host Lymphoid Tissue

ABSTRACT Pathogenic Yersinia species inject a panel of Yop virulence proteins by type III protein secretion into host cells to modulate cellular defense responses. This enables the survival and dissemination of the bacteria in the host lymphoid tissue. We have previously shown that YopE of the Y. enterocolitica serogroup O8 is degraded in the host cell through the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway. YopE normally manipulates rearrangements of the actin cytoskeleton and triggers phagocytosis resistance. To shed light into the physiological role of YopE inactivation, we mutagenized the lysine polyubiquitin acceptor sites of YopE in the Y. enterocolitica serogroup O8 virulence plasmid. The resulting mutant strain escaped polyubiquitination and degradation of YopE and displayed increased intracellular YopE levels, which was accompanied by a pronounced cytotoxic effect on infected cells. Despite its intensified activity on cultured cells, the Yersinia mutant with stabilized YopE showed reduced dissemination into liver and spleen following enteral infection of mice. Furthermore, the accumulation of degradation-resistant YopE was accompanied by the diminished delivery of YopP and YopH into cultured, Yersinia-infected cells. A role of YopE in the regulation of Yop translocation has already been described. Our results imply that the inactivation of YopE by the proteasome could be a tool to ensure intermediate intracellular YopE levels, which may effectuate optimized Yop injection into host cells. In this regard, Y. enterocolitica O8 appears to exploit the host ubiquitin proteasome system to destabilize YopE and to fine-tune the activities of the Yop virulence arsenal on the infected host organism.
Soluble human leucocyte antigen‐G and interleukin‐10 levels in isocyanate‐induced asthma

Background We previously reported that in moderate‐to‐severe asthma there is a deficit of IL‐10 secretion that could prevent the production of soluble HLA‐G (sHLA‐G), a non‐classical human leucocyte antigen class I molecule with tissue‐protective properties in inflammatory responses.
Confidence Intervals for Probabilities of Default

In this paper we conduct a systematic comparison of confidence intervals around estimated probabilities of default (PD) using several analytical approaches as well as parametric and nonparametric bootstrap methods. We do so for two different PD estimation methods, cohort and duration (intensity), with 22 years of credit ratings data. We find that the bootstrapped intervals for the duration based estimates are relatively tight when compared to either analytic or bootstrapped intervals around the less efficient cohort estimator. We show how the large differences between the point estimates and confidence intervals of these two estimators are consistent with non-Markovian migration behavior. Surprisingly, even with these relatively tight confidence intervals, it is impossible to distinguish notch-level PDs for investment grade ratings, e.g. a PDAA- from a PDA+. However, once the speculative grade barrier is crossed, we are able to distinguish quite cleanly notch-level estimated PDs. Conditioning on the state of the business cycle helps: it is easier to distinguish adjacent PDs in recessions than in expansions.
Bowel Frequency in Healthy Children

ABSTRACT. Bowel frequency was recorded, on a diary sheet basis, in 662 children from six Italian cities. There is a wide interindividual variability, showing a sharp decrease with age; we report the distribution of the percentiles in the different age groups. Among infants, the breast‐fed ones pass significantly more stools than the formula‐fed.
Assessing the Safety of Overlapping Surgery at a Children's Hospital

Importance: Media reports have questioned the safety of overlapping surgical procedures, and national scrutiny has underscored the necessity of single-center evaluations of its safety; however, sample sizes are likely small. We compared the safety profiles of overlapping and nonoverlapping pediatric procedures at a single children's hospital and discussed methodological considerations of the evaluation. Data and Design: Retrospective analysis of inpatient pediatric surgical procedures (January 2013 to September 2015) at a single pediatric referral center. Overlapping and nonoverlapping procedures were matched in an unbalanced manner (m:n) by procedure. Mixed models adjusting for Vizient-predicted risk, case-mix, and surgeon compared inpatient mortality and length of stay (LOS). Results: Among 315 overlapping procedures, 256 (81.3%) were matched to 645 nonoverlapping procedures. There were 6 deaths in all. The adjusted odds ratio for mortality did not differ significantly between nonoverlapping and overlapping procedures (adjusted odds ratio = 0.94 vs overlapping; 95% CI, 0.02–48.5; P = 0.98). Wide confidence intervals were minimally improved with Bayesian methods (95% CI, 0.07–12.5). Adjusted LOS estimates were not clinically different by overlapping status (0.6% longer for nonoverlapping; 95% CI, 9.7% shorter to 12.2% longer; P = 0.91). Among the 87 overlapping procedures with the greatest overlap (≥60 min or ≥50% of operative duration), there were no deaths. Conclusions: The safety of overlapping and nonoverlapping surgical procedures did not differ at this children's center. These findings may not extrapolate to other centers. LOS or intraoperative measures may be more appropriate than mortality for safety evaluations due to low event rates for mortality.
Potential Role of Exosomes in Mending a Broken Heart: Nanoshuttles Propelling Future Clinical Therapeutics Forward

Stem cell transplantation therapy is a promising adjunct for regenerating damaged heart tissue; however, only modest improvements in cardiac function have been observed due to poor survival of transplanted cells in the ischemic heart. Therefore, there remains an unmet need for therapies that can aid in attenuating cardiac damage. Recent studies have demonstrated that exosomes released by stem cells could serve as a potential cell-free therapeutic for cardiac repair. These exosomes/nanoshuttles, once thought to be merely a method of waste disposal, have been shown to play a crucial role in physiological functions including short- and long-distance intercellular communication. In this review, we have summarized studies demonstrating the potential role of exosomes in improving cardiac function, attenuating cardiac fibrosis, stimulating angiogenesis, and modulating miRNA expression. Furthermore, exosomes carry an important cargo of miRNAs and proteins that could play an important role as a diagnostic marker for cardiovascular disease post-myocardial infarction. Although there is promising evidence from preclinical studies that exosomes released by stem cells could serve as a potential cell-free therapeutic for myocardial repair, there are several challenges that need to be addressed before exosomes could be fully utilized as off-the-shelf therapeutics for cardiac repair.
Measuring patterns of disability using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health in the post-acute stroke rehabilitation setting.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) model is adequate for assessing disability patterns in stroke survivors in the sub-acute rehabilitation setting in terms of potential changes in functional profiles over time. METHODS Functional profiles of 197 stroke patients were assessed using the ICF Checklist and the Functional Independence Measure (FIMTM) at admission and discharge from rehabilitation hospital. The ICF Checklist was applied based on medical documentation and rehabilitation team meetings. Descriptive analyses were performed to identify changes in ICF categories and qualifiers from admission to discharge, and correlations between different improvement measures were calculated. RESULTS Mean rehabilitation duration was 60 days; patients' mean age was 60 years, with mean FIM-score 75 at admission. Mean FIM-score improvement at discharge was 12.5. Within Body Functions, changes in at least 10% of patients were found regarding 13 categories; no categories within Body Structures, 24 within Activities and Participation, and 2 within Environmental Factors. Changes were mostly due to improvement in qualifiers, except for within Environmental Factors, where they were due to use of additional categories. Correlations between improvements in Body Functions and Activities and Participation (regarding capacity and performance), as well as between capacity and performance within Activities and Participation, were approximately 0.4. CONCLUSION Rating ICF categories with qualifiers enables the detection of changes in functional profiles of stroke patients who underwent an inpatient rehabilitation programme. :
Ionized serum magnesium and potassium levels in pregnant women with preeclampsia and eclampsia.

A prospective, cross-sectional study was performed to determine whether patients with preeclampsia or eclampsia had difficult serum levels or fractions of the active, ionized form of magnesium (IMg2+) as compared to normal, pregnant women. Using a novel ion selective electrode, we determined the IMg2+ levels and fractions as well as ionized calcium, sodium and potassium (K) in venous serum drawn on admission from 33 normal, pregnant women; 12 women with preeclampsia; and 2 women with postpartum eclampsia. Levels in 42 nonpregnant, age-matched, healthy women were also measured. We found that in normal pregnancy, levels and fractions of IMg2+ were significantly decreased as compared to levels and fractions in nonpregnant women (0.48 +/- 0.01 [SE] versus 0.60 +/- 0.005 mmol/L, and 63.2 +/- 1.0% versus 71.6 +/- 0.6%; P < .001 for both), but the levels and fractions in preeclamptics (0.48 +/- 0.01 mmol/L and 64.2 +/- 1.7%) were not significantly different (P > .05) from those in normal, pregnant women. Similarly, the levels and fractions of IMg2+ in the two eclamptic patients were within the ranges of normal and preeclamptic pregnancies. When the other cations were analyzed, a highly significant elevation (P < .001) in the mean K+ level and the K+/IMg2+ ratio in the preeclamptic patients was noted. Thus, it appears that serum IMg2+ levels are maintained in preeclampsia and eclampsia, but disturbances in K homeostasis and in the interrelationships between K and IMg2+ may occur.
Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Pyramidal Cells Have a Temporal Dynamic Role in Recall and Extinction of Cocaine-Associated Memory

In addicts, associative memories related to the rewarding effects of drugs of abuse can evoke powerful craving and drug seeking urges, but effective treatment to suppress these memories is not available. Detailed insight into the neural circuitry that mediates expression of drug-associated memory is therefore of crucial importance. Substantial evidence from rodent models of addictive behavior points to the involvement of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in conditioned drug seeking, but specific knowledge of the temporal role of vmPFC pyramidal cells is lacking. To this end, we used an optogenetics approach to probe the involvement of vmPFC pyramidal cells in expression of a recent and remote conditioned cocaine memory. In mice, we expressed Channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) or Halorhodopsin (eNpHR3.0) in pyramidal cells of the vmPFC and studied the effect of activation or inhibition of these cells during expression of a cocaine-contextual memory on days 1–2 (recent) and ∼3 weeks (remote) after conditioning. Whereas optical activation of pyramidal cells facilitated extinction of remote memory, without affecting recent memory, inhibition of pyramidal cells acutely impaired recall of recent cocaine memory, without affecting recall of remote memory. In addition, we found that silencing pyramidal cells blocked extinction learning at the remote memory time-point. We provide causal evidence of a critical time-dependent switch in the contribution of vmPFC pyramidal cells to recall and extinction of cocaine-associated memory, indicating that the circuitry that controls expression of cocaine memories reorganizes over time.
A new fault-tolerant architecture for CLBs in SRAM-based FPGAs

This work deals with fault tolerance in digital reconfigurable circuits. We present a novel CLB structure well suited for SRAM-based FPGAs. The proposed solution has a `Butterfly' shape which embeds intrinsic redundance and is highly regular. The behavior of the proposed Butterfly architecture and that of the conventional one toward bit-inversion errors are compared with a couple of approaches: using Matlab simulations and a fault emulation platform. The Butterfly structure has proved to be more reliable and more tolerant than the conventional counterpart, regardless of the number of simultaneous faults.
Melanin synthesis by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum

We confirmed that the melanin produced by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is a dihydroxynaphthalene (DHN). The specific DHN melanogenesis inhibitor test that uses tricyclazole at low levels (typically2–5 ppm) to cause a confirmatory appearance of soluble red-brown inhibition products does not work when analyzing melanin synthesis in the sclerotia of S. sclerotiorum. We demonstrated the presence of scytalone dehydratase, an enzyme specific to DHN melanogenesis, in melanized sclerotia and melanized nonsclerotial mycelia and observed formation of mycelial nonsclerotial melanin when the fungus was grown on the surface of sterilized dialysis membrane or in rich organic media. Nonsclerotial melanized hyphae in wild type and mutant strains showed the typical excretion of pigmented inhibition products of the DHN pathway in the presence of tricyclazole, and one of these products, 2-hydroxyjuglone, was identified by thin layer chromatography and spectroscopy. We report basic conditions for sclerotial melanin degradation by the white rot fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium.
The Liver Histology and Frequency of Clearance of the Hepatitis B Surface Antigen (HBsAg) in Chronic Carriers

Two hundred four volunteer blood donors with hepatitis B surface antigen found in their blood were followed for 3 to 44 months. The annual clearance rate of this antigen was 1.7%. Liver enzyme levels (aminotransferase) were elevated in 45 (22.1%) on at least one occasion, in 26 (12.7%) for one month or more, and in 13 for more than six months. Liver biopsies were performed on 17 chronic carriers with normal enzymes and nonspecific histologic abnormalities were found in 14 and mild diffuse hepatitis in three. Seventeen carriers with abnormal enzymes were biopsied, and specimens revealed chronic active hepatitis (CAH) in seven, including two with bridging necrosis and three with cirrhosis. CAH was found in 7 of 26 (26.9%) carriers with abnormal liver enzymes persisting for at least one month and 4 of 13 (30.8%) with abnormal liver enzymes for more than six months
Statistics for Petroleum Engineers and Geoscientists

Geostatistics is a common tool in reservoir characterization. Written from the basics of statistics, this book covers only those topics that are needed for the two goals of the text: to exhibit the diagnostic potential of statistics and to introduce the important features of statistical modelling. This revised edition contains expanded discussions of some materials, in particular conditional probabilities, Bayes Theorem, correlation, and Kriging. The coverage of estimation, variability, and modelling applications have been updated. Seventy examples illustrate concepts and show the role of geology for providing important information for data analysis and model building. Four reservoir case studies conclude the presentation, illustrating the application and importance of the earlier material. This book aims to help petroleum professionals develop more accurate models, leading to lower sampling costs. It is an ideal book for petroleum engineers, geoscientists, hydrologists, and faculty and students in these and related fields.
Evaluation of Manual and Automatic Manually Triggered Ventilation Performance and Ergonomics Using a Simulation Model

BACKGROUND: In the absence of endotracheal intubation, the manual bag-valve-mask (BVM) is the most frequently used ventilation technique during resuscitation. The efficiency of other devices has been poorly studied. The bench-test study described here was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of an automatic, manually triggered system, and to compare it with manual BVM ventilation. METHODS: A respiratory system bench model was assembled using a lung simulator connected to a manikin to simulate a patient with unprotected airways. Fifty health-care providers from different professional groups (emergency physicians, residents, advanced paramedics, nurses, and paramedics; n = 10 per group) evaluated manual BVM ventilation, and compared it with an automatic manually triggered device (EasyCPR). Three pathological situations were simulated (restrictive, obstructive, normal). Standard ventilation parameters were recorded; the ergonomics of the system were assessed by the health-care professionals using a standard numerical scale once the recordings were completed. RESULTS: The tidal volume fell within the standard range (400–600 mL) for 25.6% of breaths (0.6–45 breaths) using manual BVM ventilation, and for 28.6% of breaths (0.3–80 breaths) using the automatic manually triggered device (EasyCPR) (P < .0002). Peak inspiratory airway pressure was lower using the automatic manually triggered device (EasyCPR) (10.6 ± 5 vs 15.9 ± 10 cm H2O, P < .001). The ventilation rate fell consistently within the guidelines, in the case of the automatic manually triggered device (EasyCPR) only (10.3 ± 2 vs 17.6 ± 6, P < .001). Significant pulmonary overdistention was observed when using the manual BVM device during the normal and obstructive sequences. The nurses and paramedics considered the ergonomics of the automatic manually triggered device (EasyCPR) to be better than those of the manual device. CONCLUSIONS: The use of an automatic manually triggered device may improve ventilation efficiency and decrease the risk of pulmonary overdistention, while decreasing the ventilation rate.
Inhibition of viral and cellular promoters by human wild-type p53

Mutation of the p53 tumor suppressor gene is a recurring event in a variety of human cancers. Wild-type p53 may regulate cell proliferation and has recently been shown to repress transcription from several cellular promoters. We studied the effects of wild-type and mutant human p53 on the human proliferating-cell nuclear antigen promoter and on several viral promoters including the simian virus 40 early promoter-enhancer, the herpes simplex virus type 1 thymidine kinase and UL9 promoters, the human cytomegalovirus major immediate-early promoter-enhancer, and the long terminal repeat promoters of Rous sarcoma virus, human immunodeficiency virus type 1, and human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I. HeLa cells were cotransfected with a wild-type or mutant p53 expression vector and plasmids containing a chloramphenicol acetyltransferase reporter gene under viral (or cellular) promoter control. Expression of wild-type p53 correlated with a consistent and significant (6- to 76-fold) reduction of reporter enzyme activity. A mutation at amino acid 143 of p53 releases this inhibition significantly with all the promoters studied. Expression of a p53 mutated at any one of the five amino acid positions 143, 175, 248, 273, and 281 also correlated with a much smaller (one- to sixfold) reduction of reporter enzyme activity from the herpes simplex virus type 1 thymidine kinase promoter. These mutant forms of p53 are found in various cancer cells. Thus, failure of tumor suppression correlates with loss of the promoter inhibitory effect of p53.
Modeling and Migration of 2-D Georadar Data: A Stationary Phase Approach

This paper presents the basic kinematic and dynamic imaging and migration equations for zero-offset two-dimensional georadar profiling. The kinematic equations are derived from simple considerations of spatial impulse responses and a generating function. The dynamic equations follow from a multidimensional stationary phase approximation to the infinite spectral integrals. They show how the radar signal (amplitude and phase) depends on the shape and curvature of the reflector. The imaging equations are evaluated for the special cases of a point scatterer, a continuous reflector, and a terminating reflector. A general formula is developed by which to migrate an arbitrary shaped event of variable amplitude on the georadar section