Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Isoelectronic trends of line strength data in the Li and Be isoelectronic sequences

The decays of the 2p J=1/2 and J=3/2 levels of Li-like ions and of the 2s2p 1,3Po1 levels of Be-like ions can be used as simple-atom test beds for lifetime measurements and for the development of accurate calculations of the transition rates. We have summarized and filtered the experimental data in order to obtain consistent data sets and isoelectronic trends that can be compared to theoretical predictions. The graphical presentation of line strength data enables direct comparison and evaluation of the merit of data along extended isoelectronic sequences. From this, the precision that is necessary in future meaningful experiments can be deduced.
The return to the hard state of GX 339-4 as seen by Suzaku

Disk recession is of prime importance to understand the physics of the state transitions in X-ray binaries. The microquasar GX 339-4 was observed by Suzaku five times spaced by a few days during its transition back to the hard state at the end of its 2010−2011 outburst. The 2−10 keV source flux decreases by a factor ~10 between the beginning and the end of the monitoring. Simultaneous radio and optical/infrared (OIR) observations highlighted the re-ignition of the radio emission just before the beginning of the campaign with the maximum radio emission being reached between the first two Suzaku pointings, while the IR peaked a few weeks later. A fluorescent iron line is always significantly detected. Fits with Gaussian or Laor profiles give statistically equivalent results. In the case of a Laor profile, fits of the five data sets simultaneously agree with a disk inclination angle of ~20 degrees. The disk inner radius is < 10−30 Rg in the first two observations but almost unconstrained in the last three due to the lower statistics. A soft X-ray excess is also present in these first two observations. Fits with a multicolored disk component give disk inner radii in qualitative agreement with those obtained with the iron line fits. The use of a physically more realistic model, including a blurred reflection component and a comptonization continuum, give some hints of the increase in the disk inner radius but the significances are always weak (and model dependent), preventing any clear conclusion concerning disk recession during this campaign. Interestingly, the addition of warm absorption significantly improves the fit of OBS1, while it is not needed in the other observations. Given the radio-jet re-ignition that occurs between OBS1 and OBS2, these absorption features may indicate the natural evolution of the accretion outflows transiting from a disk wind, which is a ubiquitous characteristic of soft states, and a jet, which is a signature of hard states. The comparison to a long 2008 Suzaku observation of GX 339-4 in a persistent faint hard state (similar in flux to OBS5), where a narrow iron line clearly indicates a disk recession, is discussed.
Endurance time, pain and resumption in passive loading of the elbow joint

This study investigated reactions in passively loaded, fully extended elbow joints in 13 men. Pain reactions during and after loading were studied, as were endurance time, T end, and resumption time, T r. The loading moment on the elbow joint, M n, varied between 7 and 100% of maximum elbow moment. Discomfort/pain was estimated with Borg's CR-10 scale. T end decreased with increasing load level. The opposite was found for the resumption time: the higher the load, held until T end, the shorter the T r. The pain limiting the working capability originated mainly from muscle tissue and not from the joint itself. It is concluded that the relation between load and endurance time for passively loaded, fully extended elbow joints resembles that for muscular loading in more ‘normal’ postures. Equations for estimation of endurance and resumption times (in minutes) for fully extended joints are proposed: T end = 20.6e−6.04M n and T r = 0.0167e8. 84/(1.46+0.346M n), respectively.
Immune function parameters at diagnosis in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes: Correlation with the FAB classification and prognosis

Abstract: We determined nine immune function parameters at diagnosis in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and correlated the results with the FAB classification and prognosis by univariate and multivariate analyses. Patients with refractory anaemia (RA) and refractory anaemia with ring sideroblasts (RAS) tended to have a higher CD4/CD8 ratio and a lower amount of γ‐globulins and soluble interleukin‐2 receptors in serum in comparison to those suffering from the other three subgroups of MDS. FAB classification, neutrophil and CD8 + T‐cell number had the best discriminatory capacity for predicting survival less than 1 year, and FAB classification, neutrophil number and serum TNF levels were predictors for conversion to acute leukaemia. The frequent occurrence of infections, on the other hand, could be better predicted by the absolute numbers of neutrophils and CD4 + cells and by the skin test score.
Exploring the Realization of Irony in Twitter Data

Handling figurative language like irony is currently a challenging task in natural language processing. Since irony is commonly used in user-generated content, its presence can significantly undermine accurate analysis of opinions and sentiment in such texts. Understanding irony is therefore important if we want to push the state-of-the-art in tasks such as sentiment analysis. In this research, we present the construction of a Twitter dataset for two languages, being English and Dutch, and the development of new guidelines for the annotation of verbal irony in social media texts. Furthermore, we present some statistics on the annotated corpora, from which we can conclude that the detection of contrasting evaluations might be a good indicator for recognizing irony.
Comparative Characterization of Vaginal Cells Derived From Premenopausal Women With and Without Severe Pelvic Organ Prolapse

Background: This study tested a hypothesis that primary human vaginal cells derived from tissue of premenopausal women with severe pelvic organ prolapse (POP-HVCs) would display differential functional characteristics as compared to vaginal cells derived from asymptomatic women with normal pelvic floor support (control-HVCs). Methods: Vaginal tissue biopsies were collected from premenopausal patients with POP (n = 8) and asymptomatic controls (n = 7) during vaginal hysterectomy or repair. Primary vaginal cells were isolated by enzymatic digestion and characterized by immunocytochemistry. Cell attachment and proliferation on different matrices (collagen I, collagen II, collagen IV, fibronectin, laminin, tenascin, and vitronectin) were compared between POP-HVCs and control-HVCs. RNA was extracted, and the expression of 84 genes was screened using Human Extracellular Matrix and Adhesion Molecules RT2 Profiler PCR array. The expression of selected genes was verified by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Results: (1) Control-HVCs attached to collagen IV more efficiently than POP-HVCs; (2) control-HVCs and POP-HVCs show a similar proliferation rate when plated on proNectin and collagen I; (3) when seeded on collagen I, resting POP-HVCs expressed significantly (P < .05) increased transcript levels of collagen VII, multiple matrix metalloproteinases (MMP3, MMP7, MMP10, MMP12, MMP13, and MMP14), integrins (ITGA1, ITGA4, ITGA6, ITGA8, ITGB1, ITGB2, and ITGB3), and cell adhesion molecules as compared to control-HVCs. Collagen XV and tissue inhibitors of MMPs (TIMP1 and TIMP2) as well as genes involved in the biogenesis and maturation of collagen and elastin fibers (LOX, LOXL1-LOXL3, BMP1, and ADAMTS2) were significantly downregulated in POP-HVCs versus control-HVCs (P < .05). Conclusions: Resting primary POP-HVCs in vitro show altered cellular characteristics as compared to control-HVCs, which may influence their dynamic responses to external mechanical or hormonal stimuli.
Comparison of recombinant cell bioassays for the detection of Ah receptor agonists

In this study, we have compared the time and dose response curves for TCDD using the pGudLuc1.1‐chemically activated luciferase expression (CALUX) cell bioassay and two new recombinant cell lines that contain a stably transfected mutated form of firefly luciferase reporter gene (pGudLuc6.1) or enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) reporter gene (pGreen1.1). The time course of induction with pGudLuc1.1‐containing H1L1.1c2 cells is transient, with maximal activity observed at 4 hours after treatment with 1 nM TCDD. In contrast, expression of luciferase from the pGudLuc6.1‐containing H1L6.1c2 cells and the pGreen1.1‐containing H1G1.1c3 cells progressively increases with time, with luciferase activity increasing at a significant faster rate than that of EGFP. Dose response analysis with each cell line at optimal analysis times reveal similar relative dose response curves and EC50s for H1L6.1c2 and H1G1.1c3 cells, while the EC50 for TCDD in the H1L1.1c2 cells was about 7‐fold lower. In addition, these bioassay systems respond to halogenated and/or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in a dose‐specific manner. Given the above differences between cell lines and reporters, the choice of which cell line to use will certainly be dependent on the specific questions and issues being examined.
The use of recycled materials in manufacturing: implications for supply chain management and operations strategy

In this study we explore the implications of using recycled versus virgin materials for supply chain structure and supplier relationships, as well as the broader effects on operations strategy in an evolving sustainable environment. We focus on the corrugated cardboard industry, where vertical integration is common, and non-integrated firms are both customers and competitors of integrated firms. These multiple supplier/customer/competitor relationships provide a complex environment to observe changes in the supply chain with the addition of a reverse supply chain system using recycled materials. Based on the findings from an in-depth case study we posit several propositions related to the use of recycled materials, supply chain structure, supplier relationships, and operations strategy. In summary, because the benefits of the changes in the supply chain and supplier relationships accrue primarily to non-integrated firms, we expect the use of recycled material inputs to be dominated by non-integrated firms, and with decreasing capital costs over time, and the ratio of non-integrated to integrated firms using recycled materials will increase. Further, we expect smaller non-integrated firms to access the market for recycled materials differently from larger integrated firms, with the smaller firms more likely to employ non-price-based means for securing their supply of recycled material inputs. Finally, since non-integrated firms are likely to have different operations strategies than integrated firms, we expect the use of recycled materials to indirectly lead to greater use of non-cost-based operations strategies and facilitate the emergence of new operations strategies in the industry.
Palliative care in Lebanon: knowledge, attitudes and practices of physicians and nurses.

UNLABELLED Palliative care (PC) is defined by the World Health Organization as "an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness. " In Lebanon, PC is new to the health care field and as such very little is known about type of services offered and the preparedness of health care professionals to provide PC. The purpose of this study is to determine the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of physicians and nurses towards PC in Lebanon, and to assess the need and model for service delivery. DESIGN A cross-sectional descriptive survey using self-administered questionnaire sent to 15 hospitals in Lebanon was used; 1873 nurses and 1884 physicians participated in the study. RESULTS The response rate was 32%; 51% for nurses and 13% for physicians. Around 93% of nurses and 96% of physicians were able to identify the goals of PC. The majority (94% to 99%) believes terminally ill patients and their families should be informed of the diagnosis and prognosis. Only 19% percent of physicians routinely inform terminally ill patients about their diagnosis. Around 100% of the respondents believe that PC services need to be developed in Lebanon warranting the need for continuing education in this field.
A Comparison of the Volume and pH of Gastric Contents of Obese and Lean Surgical Patients

Obese surgical patients are typically considered to be more likely than lean patients to possess high-volume and low-pH (HVLP) gastric contents after a standard preoperative fast, based on a study of a population predominately consisting of patients receiving intramuscular preoperative sedation. We revisited this issue in a study population of 256 fasted surgical patients, of which 232 received no preoperative antacid or gastric prokinetic drug. Immediately after endotracheal intubation, an 18-French sump tube was placed, and gastric contents were withdrawn. Subjects' gastric contents were defined as HVLP if they exhibited a combination of a volume >25 mL and a pH <2.5. Obesity was defined as a body mass index >30. Among nonmedicated obese patients, the proportion with HVLP gastric contents was 20 of 75 (26.6%). The proportion of lean patients with HVLP gastric contents was 66 of 157 (42.0%). The difference between the HVLP proportions for these two groups was found to be significant (P < 0.05) using chi squared analysis. Obesity seems to be associated with a significantly decreased risk of HVLP gastric contents among surgical patients with no history of gastroesophageal pathology after a normal interval of preoperative fasting. Implications: Previous studies have shown that obese surgical patients have a greater volume of acidic stomach contents than lean patients, despite a routine preoperative fast. We have reexamined this issue and found that among otherwise healthy, fasted, obese surgical patients, there is a lower incidence of combined high-volume, low-pH stomach contents compared with lean patients.
Serum Vascular Adhesion Protein-1 Level Predicts Risk of Incident Cancers in Subjects with Type II Diabetes

Background: Serum vascular adhesion protein-1 (VAP-1) predicts cancer-related mortality in diabetic subjects. However, whether serum VAP-1 predicts cancer incidence or cancer progression remains unclear. We conducted a cohort study to investigate whether serum VAP-1 and related clinical variables predict incident cancers in type II diabetic subjects. Methods: From 1996 to 2003, we enrolled 568 type II diabetic subjects who were free of cancer at baseline. Serum VAP-1 at enrollment was measured by time-resolved immunofluorometric assay. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) was defined as estimated glomerular filtration rate <60 mL/min per 1.73 m2. The subjects were followed until first occurrence of cancer or until December 31, 2011. Results: During a mean follow-up of 11.3 years, 71 subjects developed incident cancers. The HRs for incident cancers in subjects with highest tertile of serum VAP-1 and in subjects with CKD were 2.95 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.31–6.63; P = 0.009] and 2.29 (95% CI, 1.18–4.44; P = 0.015), respectively, after multivariate adjustment. There was an interaction between serum VAP-1 and CKD on the risk of incident cancers (P = 0.01 for log-transformed VAP-1 × CKD). The relationship among serum VAP-1, CKD, and incident cancers was similar if death was considered in the competing risk models or if subjects with shorter follow-up period were excluded. Conclusions: Higher serum VAP-1 and CKD can independently predict future development of cancers in type II diabetic subjects. Impact: Physicians should be aware of the early signs of cancer in diabetic individuals with elevated VAP-1 or renal dysfunction. More aggressive treatment strategies might be considered. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 23(7); 1366–73. ©2014 AACR.
The End of Keyes-Resegregation Trends and Achievement in Denver Public Schools

2 Copyright © 2006 by President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from The Civil Rights Project. This publication should be cited as: Horn, C. L. , & Kurlaender, M. (2006).
An 18-month follow-up study after randomized treatment of phimosis in boys with topical steroid versus placebo

Objective To evaluate the treatment of phimosis using topical steroid. Material and methods This was a follow-up study after a prospective, randomized, double-blind study. A total of 137 boys with phimosis were randomly assigned to either betamethasone treatment or placebo for 4 weeks, with application of the cream twice daily. Non-responders to treatment were offered steroid treatment for a further 4 weeks. All patients were invited to a follow-up examination after 18 months. Results The mean pre-treatment phimosis grades in the steroid and control groups were 5.08±0.66 and 4.97±0.70, respectively. At the 4-week follow-up, 49 boys (74%) in the steroid group were cured, compared to only 31 (44%) in the control group. Fourteen boys were circumcised after another 4 weeks of treatment; 43 of the remaining 57 boys (17 in the steroid group; 40 in the control group) had been cured. After a total of 92 boys took part in the 18-month follow-up study: 79 had been cured and 13 had suffered a relapse. Twenty-six patients did not took part in the follow-up investigation. No side-effects were noted. Conclusions When treatment is necessary for phimosis, we recommend application of topical steroid as first-line treatment because surgery can then be avoided in 85% of cases. This first randomized, double-blind, follow-up study shows that the treatment effect persists for at least 18 months.
The Janus face of CNS-directed autoimmune response: a therapeutic challenge.

During the past two decades, much interest has focused on the pathogenic role of autoreactive T‐cells recognizing myelin in both multiple sclerosis and its animal model, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). The vast majority of data support the hypothesis that EAE and, by analogy, multiple sclerosis are diseases mediated by autoreactive Th1 T‐cells, much as rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune diabetes, psoriasis or inflammatory bowel disease. Thus, much effort has been put into developing multiple sclerosis therapies that eliminate more or less specifically autoimmune T‐cells or shift the balance from the presumed pathogenic Th1 to the presumed beneficial Th2 phenotype of T‐cells (Noseworthy et al ., 2000). The two currently approved disease modifying treatments, IFN‐β and glatiramer acetate (GA), are thought to exert their beneficial effect in multiple sclerosis at least in part by this mechanism of action. But clinical observations mainly related to the ‘clinical–radiological paradoxon’ indicate that suppression of a deviated immune response may be an inappropriately simplistic approach: (i) multiple sclerosis inflammatory lesions, as depicted with high sensitivity by contrast enhanced magnetic resonance …
Ability of commercial and reference antimicrobial susceptibility testing methods to detect vancomycin resistance in enterococci

We evaluated the abilities of 10 commercially available antimicrobial susceptibility testing methods and four reference methods (agar dilution, broth microdilution, disk diffusion, and the agar screen plate) to classify enterococci correctly as vancomycin susceptible or resistant using 50 well-characterized strains of enterococci. There was a high level of agreement of category classification data obtained with broth-based systems (Sceptor, MicroMedia, Pasco, and Sensititre), agar dilution, and an antibiotic gradient method (E test) with data obtained by reference broth microdilution; no very major or major errors were seen, and minor errors were < or = 6%. Increased minor error rates were observed with disk diffusion (12%), Alamar (16%), Uniscept (16%), and conventional (overnight) MicroScan panels (16%). The errors were primarily with Enterococcus casseliflavus strains and organisms containing the vanB vancomycin resistance gene. Very major error rates of 10.3 and 20.7% were observed with Vitek and MicroScan Rapid (MS/Rapid) systems, respectively; however, only the MS/Rapid system produced major errors (13.3%). On repeat testing of discrepant isolates, the very major error rate with the Vitek system dropped to 3.4%, while the very major error rate with the MS/Rapid system increased to 27.6%; major errors with the MS/Rapid system were not resolved. Many of the commercial systems had only 4 dilutions of vancomycin, which resulted in up to 84% of values being off scale (e.g., Uniscept). Of the methods tested, most conventional broth- and agar-based methods proved to be highly accurate when incubation was done for a full 24 h, although several of the tests had high minor error rates. Automated systems continued to demonstrate problems in detecting low-level resistance.
Epidemiologic features of Campylobacter jejuni isolated from poultry broiler houses and surrounding environments as determined by use of molecular strain typing.

OBJECTIVE To genetically type Campylobacter jejuni isolates from broiler houses or the external environment to identify the source of Campylobacter organisms in broiler chickens. SAMPLE POPULATION Environmental samples associated with broiler chickens, in commercial grow-out houses. PROCEDURE Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to amplify flaB, and the amplicon was digested with Sau3A to create a restriction fragment length polymorphism assay; PCR was also used to detect a transcribed spacer region in the 23S rRNA gene. RESULTS Isolates possessing a 23S spacer region were more prevalent outside broiler houses than inside. Houses that had previously contained chickens or lacked biosecurity procedures were more likely to contain isolates possessing the 23S spacer. One house contained only isolates possessing the spacer, whereas an adjacent house contained only isolates lacking the spacer. The flaB type detected in broiler houses was different from the type detected in the environment; however, many isolates within the broiler houses contained untypable flaB genotypes. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Most isolates from within houses were genetically distinct from isolates from outside houses that were examined by bacteriologic culture, suggesting an undetected source of C jejuni. Detection of isolates containing the 23S spacer appeared to be an indicator of environmental contamination of the houses. The observation of completely different C jejuni genetic types simultaneously within adjacent houses suggests that some types do not compete successfully during the grow-out period. In addition, the diversity of genotypes identified within broiler houses indicates the complexity of the ecologic features of C jejuni in the chicken environment.