Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sodium modulates inotropic response to hyperosmolarity in isolated working rat heart.

The present study was designed to examine the effects of acute changes in perfusate Na+ concentrations and osmolarities on left ventricular (LV) mechanics in the isolated working rat heart model. Specifically, we separated the effect of isosmotic perfusates with different Na+ concentrations on LV mechanics. After a control period during which the hearts were perfused in a working mode with a control solution of Krebs-Henseleit bicarbonate buffer (Na+ of 136 meq/l, Ca2+ of 2.6 mM, and osmolarity of 300 mosM), the hearts were subjected to different perfusates (Na+ of 96-156 meq/l and osmolarity of 240-380 mosM, using different mannitol concentrations) in a semirandom order. Peak LV pressure (PLVP), maximal time derivative of LV pressure (dP/dtmax), and cardiac output (CO) were recorded. Increasing Na+ concentrations from 96 to 156 meq/l, using isosmotic perfusates, decreased PLVP, dP/dtmax, and CO in a dose-dependent manner. The dose-dependent behavior was evident for tonicities of 240, 280, 320, and 360 but not for 380 mosM. Increasing Na+ concentration from 96 to 136 meq/l at constant perfusate tonicity (320 mosM) decreased dP/dtmax from 6,753 +/- 133 to 5,602 +/- 418 mmHg/s (P < 0.001). Rearranging the same results to examine the effect of perfusate tonicity with iso-Na+ concentration demonstrated that increasing perfusate osmolarity had a dose-dependent effect on PLVP, dP/dtmax, and CO. At a constant Na+ concentration of 116 meq/l, increasing perfusate osmolarity from 240 to 320 mosM increased dP/dtmax from 6,116 +/- 132 to 7,274 +/- 594 mmHg/s (P < 0.01). Further increase in perfusate tonicity to 380 mosM decreased dP/dtmax to 2,338 +/- 398 mmHg/s (P < 0.001). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
For-Profit Higher Education and Community Colleges

Acknowledgements We would like to thank the faculty, administrators, and students who gave us their time, and information at TECH COLLEGE and the community colleges that we studied. Much of what is new and valuable in this study comes from the insights that they so generously shared with us. We also want to thank Greg Kienzl for his assistance with the data analysis. Gridiron also helped us with the field work. Tia Dole and Gretchen Koball gave us valuable assistance in the production of the report. We presented a draft of this paper at the meeting of the NCPI Board of Senior Scholars at Stanford in March 2001 and at the American Association of Community College Convention in Chicago in April 2001 and we benefited from the reactions and ideas of those who participated in those sessions. read earlier drafts and their comments have significantly improved the work. The purpose of the project was to develop a better understanding of how for-profits compare to public community colleges with respect to their students and programs and to evaluate the extent to which the for-profit colleges compete directly with community colleges. Our research strategy relied upon an exploratory design, drawing upon available national data for context and then conducting a set of comparative case studies. This report addresses contemporary concerns about the competitive threat from for-profit educational institutions, contrasts national data on for-profits with national data on private non-profit and public post-secondary institutions, and examines case study data comparing a for-profit chain to three public community colleges located near branches of the chain. The data analysis suggests that for-profits have only a small share of enrollments in two-or four-year institutions and the for-profit share of two year enrollments did not grow during the middle part of the 1990s (the latest period for which we have data). For-profit institutions tend to have a limited range of course offerings that have strong links to students' skill and career aspirations. As a group, the for-profits are concentrated in a limited number of business and technical fields. Although they may compete with community colleges in those specific areas, the small size of the for-profit sector will limit the overall competitive effect. Moreover, some of the four-year for-profit institutions target upper division students and actively recruit community college graduates, so in this sense, these institutions are complements rather than competitors to community colleges. Community college leaders and …
Street-level bureaucracy and policy implementation in community public health nursing: a qualitative study of the experiences of student and novice health visitors

Aim To explore the experiences of student and novice health visitors in implementing health visiting policy reform pre- and post-qualification. Background In England, public health nursing has been subject to major policy reform. The Health Visitor Implementation Plan (2011) set out a plan to recruit increasing numbers of nurses and midwives to the profession to deliver an expanded and refocussed health visiting service. Exploring this policy change from the viewpoint of those new to health visiting offers a unique perspective into how a specific policy vision is translated into nursing practice. Methods A descriptive qualitative study in which participants were enrolled on a one-year post-graduate health visiting course at a University in South West of England. Qualitative data were collected pre- and post-qualification. A total of 16 interviews and a focus group were conducted with nine participants between September 2012 and March 2013. Findings Descriptive data were interpreted using Lipsky’s theoretical framework of street-level bureaucracy. Three themes emerged which relate to this ‘bottom-up’ perspective on policy implementation; readiness to operationalise policy, challenges in delivering the service vision; and using discretion in delivering the vision. Community public health nurses operate as street-level bureaucrats in negotiating the demands of policy and practice, and by this means, attempt to reconcile professional values with institutional constraints. Barriers to policy implementation at a local level mediate the effects of policy reform, ultimately impacting upon outcomes for children and families.
Does body mass index increase risk of hemorrhagic stroke?

We read the article of Vaurs-Barrière et al, reporting on a Pelizaeus-Merzbacher-like phenotype in male MCT8 mutated patients, with interest. We share the experience that in infancy, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) shows a severe lack of myelin in these patients and that the MRI improves over time. This has also been confirmed by other groups. We would, however, like to object to the word “hypomyelination” in this context, because it causes confusion. MRI is an excellent tool to document myelination of the brain at a certain moment and to follow its progress over time in infants and children. If MRI shows less myelin than normal, the first question should always be whether myelination is delayed or whether the deficit is permanent. Hypomyelination and delayed myelination have a similar appearance on a single MRI, especially if done at an early age, but sequential studies can distinguish between them, showing increasing myelin content in delayed myelination, but an unchanged lack of myelin in hypomyelination. Normal myelination occurs mainly in the first 2 years of life. Within the first year of life, there is so little myelin in normal infants that it is not possible to diagnose permanent hypomyelination. The MRI definition for permanent hypomyelination is an unchanged pattern of deficient myelination on 2 MRIs at least 6 months apart in a child older than 1 year. The differentiation between delayed myelination and permanent hypomyelination is important. Delayed myelination is a rather nonspecific feature observed in most children with a delayed development of any cause. Permanent hypomyelination comes with a specific differential diagnosis. MCT8 mutations are not on the list. A correct MRI diagnosis prevents the confusion.
The effect of a Medicaid managed care program on the adequacy of prenatal care utilization in Rhode Island.

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to determine whether adequacy of prenatal care utilization improved after the implementation of a Medicaid managed care program in Rhode Island. METHODS Rhode Island birth certificate data (1993-1995; n = 37021) were used to analyze pre- and post-program implementation changes in adequacy of prenatal care utilization. Logistic regression models were used to characterize the variation in prenatal care adequacy as a function of both time and the various covariates. RESULTS Adequacy of prenatal care utilization for Medicaid patients improved significantly after implementation of the program, from 57.1% to 62.1% (odds ratio [OR] = 1.2, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.1, 1.3). After the program was implemented, Medicaid patients who went to private physicians' offices for prenatal care were 1.4 times as likely as before to receive adequate prenatal care (OR = 1.4, 95% CI = 1.2, 1.7). CONCLUSIONS Unlike many other Medicaid expansions for pregnant women, the RIte Care program in Rhode Island has resulted in significant improvement in adequacy of prenatal care utilization for its enrollees. This improvement was due to specific program interventions that addressed and changed organizational and delivery system barriers to care.
Influence of diet on assimilation and turnover of 13C in the tissues of broiler chickens

1. The 13C turnover rates of the liver and thoracic pectoral muscle of growing broilers were determined by feeding diets with varying 13C content. 2. Male chicks (1-d-old) were subjected to treatments based on free choice of 5 different mixes of energy and protein sources from plants with C3 and C4 photosynthetic pathways that had differing 13C content. Rice bran (R) and soybean meal (S) were the C3 sources, while maize (C) and maize gluten meal (G) were the C4 sources. Choices were R + S, C + G, R + G, C + S or R + C + G + S. The 6th treatment was a complete feed (CF) that was similar to a commercial broiler feed. 3. The isotopic composition of the birds’ tissues was representative of the isotopic composition of the diets. The assimilation was faster for C3, in both liver and muscle, than for C4 diets, and give the delta per mil difference between the diet and tissues. 4. The liver is the most active metabolic tissue and gave more rapid isotope turnover than in muscle.
5-Azacitidine efficacy and safety in patients aged >65 years with myelodysplastic syndromes outside clinical trials

Abstract The efficacy and safety of azacitidine in elderly patients (aged >65 years) with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) treated outside clinical trials are reported. Thirty-eight patients with MDS received azacitidine (75 mg/m2, schedule 5+2 +2): seven patients were classified as having refractory cytopenia with multilineage dysplasia (RCMD), nine patients with refractory anemia with excess of blasts (RAEB) type 1, 18 patients with RAEB type 2 and four patients with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia type 2 (CMML-2). According to International Working Group (IWG) 2006 criteria, after the first four cycles we detected complete remission in seven patients (CR, 18%), improvement of bone marrow dysplasia and reduction of blast percentage in seven patients (partial response, 18%), stable disease in 20 patients (53%) and progression to acute leukemia in four patients (10%). Median overall survival for all patients treated was 16.4 months. Only mild non-hematologic toxicity was detected (grade 1–2 nausea and pruritus), whereas 55% of patients experienced hematologic side effects (25% grade 3–4 thrombocytopenia and 30% grade 3–4 neutropenia). Our results suggest that advanced age should not preclude effective treatment with azacitidine in non-selected elderly patients wih MDS.
Method for predicting the risk of drug–drug interactions involving inhibition of intestinal CYP3A4 and P-glycoprotein

To develop a method to predict the risk of drug–drug interactions involving the inhibition of intestinal CYP3A4 or P-glycoprotein, data from clinical drug–drug interaction studies of CYP3A4 and/or P-glycoprotein substrates were analysed. The ratio of inhibitor dose (Dosei) to inhibition constant (Ki), termed the drug-interaction number, was used to index intestinal drug–drug interaction. From the analysis, it was found that (1) CYP3A4 inhibitors with a drug-interaction number below 2.8 L have a low risk of interacting with substrates which exhibit intestinal first-pass metabolism and those with a drug-interaction number above 9.4 L have a high risk; (2) P-glycoprotein inhibitors with a drug-interaction number below 10.8 L have a low risk of interacting with P-glycoprotein substrates and those with a drug-interaction number above 27.9 L have a high risk; and (3) the drug-interaction number indexes, 2.8 L and 9.4 L for CYP3A4 and 10.8 L and 27.9 L for P-glycoprotein were validated by data from dual CYP3A4/P-glycoprotein substrates. In conclusion, the drug-interaction number is useful for classifying the risk of drug–drug interactions involving the inhibition of intestinal CYP3A4 and P-glycoprotein. This drug-interaction number-based approach is similar to the method that the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) recently proposed in the draft guidance for predicting P-glycoprotein-mediated drug–drug interaction.
Adsorption isotherm studies of Cd (II), Pb (II) and Zn (II) ions bioremediation from aqueous solution using unmodified and EDTA-modified maize cob

The need to clean-up heavy metal contaminated environment can not be over emphasized.This paper describes the adsorption isotherm studies of Cd (II), Pb (II) and Zn (II) ions from aqueoussolution using unmodified and EDTA-modified maize cob. Maize cob was found to be an excellentadsorbent for the removal of these metal ions. The amount of metal ions adsorbed increased as the ini-tial concentration increased. Also, EDTA - modification enhanced the adsorption capacity of maize cobprobably due to the chelating ability of EDTA. Among the three adsorption isotherm tested, Dubinin-Radushkevich gave the best fit with R 2 value ranging from 0.9539 to 0.9973 and an average value of0.9819. This is followed by Freundlich isotherm (Ave. 0.9783) and then the Langmuir isotherm (Ave.0.7637). The sorption process was found to be a physiosorption process as seen from the apparent ener-gy of adsorption which ranged from 2.05KJ\mol to 4.56KJ\mol. Therefore, this study demonstrates thatmaize cob which is an environmental pollutant could be used to adsorb heavy metals and achievecleanliness thereby abating environmental nuisance caused by the maize cob.
Current Technological Impediments to Business-to-Consumer Electronic Commerce

Internet and World Wide Web technologies provide the infrastructure for the Electronic Commerce (e-Commerce) revolution now taking place. As a result of these technologies, even the smallest organization can afford to market its wares to hundreds of millions of potential e-Consumers. However, these technologies also pose threats to the very electronic commerce which they enable. For managers to strategize and implement e-Commerce effectively in their organizations, these impediments need to be recognized and understood. While hundreds of articles identify problems with Internet computing or conducting eCommerce, no unified framework of technological impediments specific to eCommerce yet exists.
Food intake of weanling rats with lesions in the ventromedial and dorsomedial hypothalamic nuclei in response to intragastric loading and caloric density manipulation

Male rats received bilateral electrolytic lesions shortly after weaning in the ventromedial (VMN) and dorsomedial (DMN) hypothalamic nuclei, respectively. A third group of rats served as sham‐operated controls. The animals were subjected to intragastric preloading with 33% d‐glucose and egg‐white solutions and a 33% corn‐oil suspension, and ad libitum feeding was assessed hourly for the first 7 hr after preloading. The pattern of food‐intake depression was similar in all groups but the quantitative greatest depression was found in the DMN rats. The response of these three groups of animals to a diet diluted with 20% alpha cell, a nonnutritive bulker, showed an initial failure to meter calories by both VMN and DMN rats which, however, was compensated for during the remainder of the 24‐hr test period. In response to a 50% glucose‐chow mixture, both VMN and DMN rats, as well as the controls, showed the same pattern and behaved like mature dynamic hyperphagic rats inasmuch as they did not eat more of this mix than of the standard diet. After a 48‐hr fast, both VMN and DMN rats showed refeeding hypophagia rather than hyperphagia. The data suggest that Panksepp's contention that the VMN in the mature rat is involved in long‐term satiety regulation may be extended to the weanling rat with VMN destruction. Thus, this controlling role appears established early in ontogeny.
Crafting Adversarial Examples For Speech Paralinguistics Applications

Computational paralinguistic analysis is increasingly being used in a wide range of applications, including security-sensitive applications such as speaker verification, deceptive speech detection, and medical diagnosis. While state-of-the-art machine learning techniques, such as deep neural networks, can provide robust and accurate speech analysis, they are susceptible to adversarial attacks. In this work, we propose a novel end-to-end scheme to generate adversarial examples by perturbing directly the raw waveform of an audio recording rather than specific acoustic features. Our experiments show that the proposed adversarial perturbation can lead to a significant performance drop of state-of-the-art deep neural networks, while only minimally impairing the audio quality.
Robust exponential stability of a class of uncertain Lur ’ e systems of neutral type by Wirtinger-based integral inequality

Abstract: This Paper deals with the problem of exponential stability for a class of uncertain Lur’e systems of neutral with interval time-varying delay and sector-bounded nonlinearily. The interval time-varying delay function is not assumed to be differentiable. We analyze the global exponential stability for uncertain neutral and Lur’e dynamical systems with some sector conditions. By constructing a set of improved Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional and Utilizing Wirtinger-based integral inequality combined with Leibniz-Newton’s formula, We establish some new stability criteria in terms of linear matrix inequalities. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the results. The results in this article generalize and improve the corresponding results of the recent works.
Patients' rights to privacy and dignity in the NHS.

AIM To determine the extent to which patients' rights to privacy and dignity are respected in the NHS when judged against the seven factors of 'privacy and dignity' as outlined in the Essence of Care document (Department of Health (DH) 2001a). METHOD An ethnographic methodology was used. Fieldwork took place over six months in three acute wards with surgical and medical patients in a large district NHS hospital, using non-participant observation, unstructured interviews with patients (n=55) and staff (n=12), and semi-structured interviews with patients (n=18) and staff (n=22). The culture and ward environment experienced by patients and staff in their everyday life were documented. FINDINGS Medical and nursing staff had little awareness of the importance of the Human Rights Act 1998 and government documents about patients' privacy. They compromised the privacy and dignity of patients when judged against the Essence of Care benchmarks (DH 2001a). CONCLUSION Educationalists, doctors, nurses and other practitioners should promote the importance of patients' privacy and dignity within the NHS. This issue should be integrated into undergraduate and postgraduate healthcare curricula.
Lyme Arthritis Presenting as Acute Septic Arthritis in Children

There is considerable overlap in the initial clinical and laboratory presentations of acute septic arthritis and Lyme arthritis. The authors present a consecutive case series of 10 children with acute arthritis consistent with septic arthritis who ultimately were diagnosed with Lyme disease. Fifty percent presented with a fever of 38°C or higher. The peripheral white blood cell count and differential were not elevated, but the erythrocyte sedimentation rate and the C-reactive protein were significantly elevated. The joint fluid cell count was elevated, with 91% neutrophils. Seven patients in this series underwent emergent joint irrigation and debridement for presumed septic arthritis. The authors suggest that in regions where Lyme disease is endemic, children who present with presumed septic arthritis should also be evaluated for Lyme disease. The authors also present a protocol for evaluation and management of these diagnostically challenging cases.
Massive, Irreparable Tears of the Rotator Cuff. Results of Operative Débridement and Subacromial Decompression*

Thirty-three consecutive patients in whom an irreparable tear of the rotator cuff had been treated with operative débridement and subacromial decompression were evaluated both preoperatively and postoperatively with regard to pain, ability to perform activities of daily living, range of motion, strength, and satisfaction. The assessments were performed with the Shoulder Score Index of the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons and the scoring systems of the University of California at Los Angeles and Constant and Murley. At the time of follow-up, twenty-six patients thought that the condition of the shoulder was improved; three, that it was unchanged; and four, that it was worse after the operation. There was a significant decrease in pain (p = 0.001) and significant increases in the range of motion (p = 0.038) and the ability to perform activities of daily living (p = 0.016). However, these improvements were inferior to those in reported series in which torn rotator cuffs had been repaired. Strength with elevation was decreased after the operations in the present series (p = 0.0007).
Hadronic Light by Light Contributions to the Muon Anomalous Magnetic Moment With Physical Pions

The current measurement of muonic g− 2 disagrees with the theoretical calculation by about 3 standard deviations. Hadronic vacuum polarization (HVP) and hadronic light by light (HLbL) are the two types of processes that contribute most to the theoretical uncertainty. The current value for HLbL is still given by models. I will describe results fro m a first-principles lattice calculation with a 139 MeV pion in a box of 5.5 fm extent. Our current numerical strategies, including noise reduction techniques, evaluating the HLbL amplitude at zero external momentum transfer, and important remaining challenges, in particular those associated with finite volume effects, will be discussed.
Critical appraisal of the health research literature: prevalence or incidence of a health problem.

This article identifies and discusses criteria that can be used by health professionals to critically appraise research articles that estimate the prevalence or incidence of a disease or health problem. These guidelines will help determine the validity and usefulness of such community assessment studies. The criteria relate to the validity of the study methods (design, sampling frame, sample size, outcome measures, measurement and response rate), interpretation of the results and applicability of the findings. The research question "What is the prevalence of dementia in Canada? " is used as an example for this paper.