Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Antiasthmatic activity of the second-generation phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) inhibitor SB 207499 (Ariflo) in the guinea pig.

We evaluated the airway activity of the novel phosphodiesterase type 4 inhibitor SB 207499 [Ariflo; c-4-cyano-4-(3-cyclopentyloxy-4-methoxyp henyl-r-1-cyclohexane carboxylic acid)], in the guinea pig. Ovalbumin (OA)-induced contractions of guinea pig isolated tracheal strips were inhibited by SB 207499 with an EC50 of 1 microM but had little or no effect on exogenous agonist-induced contraction, which suggests that its effect on OA-induced contraction in vitro is primarily due to inhibition of mediator release from mast cells. In anesthetized guinea pigs, SB 207499 inhibited OA-induced bronchoconstriction with i.v. and p.o. ID50 values of 1.7 and 17 mg/kg, respectively. At 1, 3 and 6 hr after SB 207499 (30 mg/kg p.o.), OA-induced bronchospasm was inhibited by 92%, 70% and 58%, respectively, corresponding to elevated plasma concentrations of 1.62 +/- 0.19, 1.65 +/- 0.29 and 0. 93 +/- 0.24 microg/ml, respectively, of SB 207499. SB 207499 also inhibited house dust mite-induced bronchoconstriction (ID50 = 0.9 mg/kg i.v. and 8.9 mg/kg p.o.). In contrast to its lack of bronchorelaxant activity in vitro, SB 207499 inhibited bronchospasm induced by i.v. leukotriene D4 (LTD4) [ID50 = 3 mg/kg i.v. ]. The bronchorelaxant effect of i.v. -administered SB 207499 was at least additive with that of salbutamol in reversing infused histamine-enhanced airway tone, but it did not alter base line or enhance salbutamol-induced cardiovascular effects. In conscious guinea pigs, SB 207499 (10 or 30 mg/kg p.o.), 1 hr before antigen or LTD4 challenge, markedly reduced bronchospasm and subsequent eosinophil influx as measured by bronchoalveolar lavage 24 hr after provocation. SB 207499 administered after OA or LTD4 challenge also reduced airway eosinophilia measured at 24 hr after OA challenge or 96 hr after LTD4 challenge. These results, coupled with the broad anti-inflammatory activity of SB 207499 previously described (Barnett et al., 1998), suggest that SB 207499 will be useful in the treatment of asthma and other inflammatory disorders.
Constant power loads (CPL) with microgrids: problem definition, stability analysis and compensation techniques

This paper provides a comprehensive review of the major concepts associated with the μgrid, such as constant power load (CPL), incremental negative resistance or impedance (INR/I) and its dynamic behaviours on the μgrid, and power system distribution (PSD). In general, a μgrid is defined as a cluster of different types of electrical loads and renewable energy sources (distributed generations) under a unified controller within a certain local area. It is considered a perfect solution to integrate renewable energy sources with loads as well as with a traditional grid. In addition, it can operate with a conventional grid, for example, by energy sourcing or a controllable load, or it can operate alone as an islanding mode to feed required electric energy to a grid. Hence, one of the important issues regarding the μgrid is the constant power load that results from the tightly designed control when it is applied to power electronic converters. The effect of CPL is incremental negative resistance that impacts the power quality of a power system and makes it at negative damping. Also, in this paper, a comprehensive study on major control and compensation techniques for μgrid has been included to face the instability effects of constant power loads. Finally, the merits and limitations of the compensation techniques are discussed.
Early Embryonic Lethality Due to Targeted Inactivation of DNA Ligase III

ABSTRACT DNA ligases catalyze the joining of strand breaks in the phosphodiester backbone of duplex DNA and play essential roles in DNA replication, recombination, repair, and maintenance of genomic integrity. Three mammalian DNA ligase genes have been identified, and their corresponding ligases play distinct roles in DNA metabolism. DNA ligase III is proposed to be involved in the repairing of DNA single-strand breaks, but its precise role has not yet been demonstrated directly. To determine its role in DNA repair, cellular growth, and embryonic development, we introduced targeted interruption of the DNA ligase III (LIG3) gene into the mouse. Mice homozygous for LIG3 disruption showed early embryonic lethality. We found that the mutant embryonic developmental process stops at 8.5 days postcoitum (dpc), and excessive cell death occurs at 9.5 dpc. LIG3 mutant cells have relatively normal XRCC1 levels but elevated sister chromatid exchange. These findings indicate that DNA ligase III is involved in essential DNA repair activities required for early embryonic development and therefore cannot be replaced by other DNA ligases.
Financial incentives in workers’ compensation: an analysis of the experience-rating programme in Ontario, Canada

Abstract Objectives: To investigate the incentive for health and safety and cost management at the firm level associated with the degree of experience rating in a retrospective workers’ compensation programme in Ontario, Canada. Methods: We use panel data on all firms in the principal Ontario experience-rating programme between 1998 and 2007 to estimate regression models of the relationship between the degree of experience rating and various claim rates. We control for firm characteristics and contextual factors that may be associated with the outcomes under investigation. Results: A higher degree of experience rating was found to be associated with a lower lost-time claim rate and a higher no-lost-time claim rate. The relationship with the total claim rate was insignificant. The degree of experience rating was also associated with outcomes that proxied for cost management practices. Conclusions: A higher degree of experience rating appears to be associated primarily with increased secondary prevention efforts (ie work disability prevention), rather than primary prevention. There is also some indication of an incentive for cost management. Workers’ compensation authorities need to consider how best to ensure there are appropriate checks and balances in financial incentives programmes.
Investigating Factors That Influence Developers' Experience in Mobile Software Ecosystems

Software organizations (keystones) that maintain a Mobile Software Ecosystem (MSECO) must provide and manage mechanisms to attract, engage and retain mobile application developers. In this scenario, there is the involvement of expectations, perceptions and feelings of the developer in his/her interaction with various artifacts and other developers, named, Developer Experience (DX). Studying the factors that influence DX in the context of ecosystems is important for keystones that need mechanisms to keep developers accountable for productivity, robustness, and niche creation. In this paper, we applied the Snowballing methodology and thematic analysis to an initial identification of DX influence factors in MSECO. Eleven papers were analyzed from the viewpoint of Software Ecosystems. Initially, we identified 20 influence factors related to DX. Such factors can help to understand the DX in MSECO.
Online Reviews as a Driver of New Product Sales

This study reports several surprising findings and new insights about the effect of online product reviews on the sales of new products. Analyses of panel data of 332 new products from Amazon.com indicate that negative reviews affect new product sales more than positive reviews, but also in a positive way. Different from the proposition of the diffusion model, e-WOM has a strong effect on new product sales early on and such effect decreases over time. Moreover, the volume of page views by followers is far more influential than that of reviews by opinion leaders, especially in the early period of product lifecycle, suggesting a significant cascade effect. The effects of page views and valence of online reviews are stronger than that of volume, more so for search products than for experience products. Thus, marketers need to consider the distinctive influences of various aspects of online reviews when launching new products and devising e-marketing strategies.
Energy-aware Fault-tolerant Scheduling for Hard Real-time Systems

OF THE DISSERTATION ENERGY-AWARE FAULT-TOLERANT SCHEDULING FOR HARD REAL-TIME SYSTEMS by Qiushi Han Florida International University, 2015 Miami, Florida Professor Gang Quan, Major Professor Over the past several decades, we have experienced tremendous growth of realtime systems in both scale and complexity. This progress is made possible largely due to advancements in semiconductor technology that have enabled the continuous scaling and massive integration of transistors on a single chip. In the meantime, however, the relentless transistor scaling and integration have dramatically increased the power consumption and degraded the system reliability substantially. Traditional real-time scheduling techniques with the sole emphasis on guaranteeing timing constraints have become insufficient. In this research, we studied the problem of how to develop advanced scheduling methods on hard real-time systems that are subject to multiple design constraints, in particular, timing, energy consumption, and reliability constraints. To this end, we first investigated the energy minimization problem with fault-tolerance requirements for dynamic-priority based hard real-time tasks on a single-core processor. Three scheduling algorithms have been developed to judiciously make tradeoffs between fault tolerance and energy reduction since both design objectives usually conflict with each other. We then shifted our research focus from single-core platforms to multi-core platforms as the latter are becoming mainstream. Specifically, we launched our research in fault-tolerant multi-core scheduling for fixed-priority tasks
Hydrodynamic Load Balancing

This paper presents a hydrodynamic framework to solving the dynamic load balancing problem in heterogeneous distributed systems. In this approach, each processor is viewed as a liquid cylinder where the cross-sectional area corresponds to the capacity of the processor, the communication links are modeled as liquid channels between the cylinders, the workload is represented by liquid, and the load balancing algorithm manages the flow of the liquid. It is proven that all algorithms under this framework converge geometrically to the state of equilibrium, in which the heights of the liquid columns are the same in all the cylinders. In this way, each processor obtains an amount of workload proportional to its capacity. A hydrodynamic algorithm is presented and its performance is evaluated. The algorithm is applied to solve several practical applications to demonstrate the applicability of the framework.
Permanent neonatal diabetes with arthrogryposis multiplex congenita and neurogenic bladder – a new syndrome?

Abstract: Neonatal diabetes mellitus is a rare (1/400 000 newborns) but potentially devastating condition, which may be transient or permanent; typical symptoms occur within the first 4 wk of life. The transient form is a developmental insulin production disorder that resolves postnatally. Fifty to 60% of cases can be seen as transient form. Cases that require lifelong insulin therapy can be described as permanent condition. This fraction of cases is less common than the transient form. There are no clinical features that can predict whether a neonate with diabetes mellitus but no other dysmorphology will eventually have permanent neonatal diabetes mellitus (PNDM) or transient neonatal diabetes mellitus. Some metabolic or genetic defects such as complete deficiency of glucokinase or heterozygous activating mutations of KCNJ11, encoding Kir6.2, were found in patients with PNDM. A preterm female infant with a gestational age of 36 wk was admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit in the first hours of life due to prematurity and intra‐uterine growth retardation. She was diagnosed as having arthrogryposis multiplex congenita on the first day. Hyperglycemia was detected on the third day of life, and she required insulin treatment. The patient is now 6 yr old with PNDM, arthrogryposis multiplex, neurogenic bladder, immune deficiency, constipation, and ichthyosis. Is this a new form of neonatal diabetes mellitus?
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines of care for nonmelanoma skin cancers.

Cutaneous Oncology Update is a section devoted to basic science and clinical aspects of skin cancer. Recent advances in the literature that have relevance to clinicians will be discussed, and viewpoints on controversial or “grey-zone” topics will be presented. Anyone wishing to suggest a topic or article for this section should contact Stanley J. Miller, M.D. at 410-955-1588, 410-955-7100 (fax) or stmiller@jhmi.edu.
CarD integrates three functional modules to promote efficient transcription, antibiotic tolerance, and pathogenesis in mycobacteria

Although the basic mechanisms of prokaryotic transcription are conserved, it has become evident that some bacteria require additional factors to allow for efficient gene transcription. CarD is an RNA polymerase (RNAP)‐binding protein conserved in numerous bacterial species and essential in mycobacteria. Despite the importance of CarD, its function at transcription complexes remains unclear. We have generated a panel of mutations that individually target three independent functional modules of CarD: the RNAP interaction domain, the DNA‐binding domain, and a conserved tryptophan residue. We have dissected the roles of each functional module in CarD activity and built a model where each module contributes to stabilizing RNAP–promoter complexes. Our work highlights the requirement of all three modules of CarD in the obligate pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis, but not in Mycobacterium smegmatis. We also report divergent use of the CarD functional modules in resisting oxidative stress and pigmentation. These studies provide new information regarding the functional domains involved in transcriptional regulation by CarD while also improving understanding of the physiology of M. tuberculosis.
The impact of admission procalcitonin on prognosis in acute coronary syndromes: a pilot study

Background: Available evidence on the prognostic role of procalcitonin levels in acute coronary syndromes (ACS) is so far controversial. Aims: To evaluate the association between procalcitonin, major cardiovascular events (MACE) and total mortality in acute coronary syndromes. Methods: Procalcitonin levels were measured in 247 patients admitted to our Intensive Cardiac Care Unit (ICCU) with ACS. Three subgroups were considered according to procalcitonin levels. Results: At Cox regression analysis, procalcitonin levels were both an unadjusted and an adjusted predictor (corrected for diagnosis and TnI) of intra-ICCU mortality and of 1-year follow-up MACE and total mortality. Conclusions: In ACS, admission procalcitonin values identify a “higher risk” group of patients for short and long-term mortality.
Reward contingencies and the development of children's skills and self-efficacy.

This experiment tested the hypothesis that rewards offered for performance attainments during competency development promote children's arithmetic skills and percepts of self-efficacy. Children received didactic instruction in division operations and were offered rewards contingent on their actual performance, rewards for simply participating, or no rewards. Results showed that performance-contingent rewards led to the highest levels of division skill and self-efficacy, as well as the most rapid problem solving during the training program. In contrast, offering rewards for participation resulted in no benefits compared with offering no rewards. The findings suggest caution in how rewards are distributed in educational contexts.
Tackling institutional racism

The public inquiry into the London police force's investigation of the murder of the black teenager, Stephen Lawrence, concludes that racism is rife in the police and that it was a major factor in the failure of the police to uphold justice. Other professions in the United Kingdom are also open to allegations of institutional racism, and in the view of the Macpherson report they too now face a stern test of their resolve to eradicate it. But can much of this come as a surprise? The oddest thing about institutional racism is the blindness of the perpetrators. In a racist organisation outrageous thoughts and behaviour are acceptable, and all apparently without questioning. Racist jokes or jibes are part of office banter, racist acts or statements pass without comment, hurt goes on as though it did not matter, as though those subjected had no feeling. Worse still, the victims are caught too as they seem paralysed, unable or unwilling to protest in case they suffer more. And in this there is the assumption that racist views are held only …
Sympathovagal balance from heart rate variability: an obituary

I read with interest your recent publication of the review by Goldstein et al. (2011). The authors should be commended on a comprehensive and timely review of the balance of evidence between the central baroreflex and sympathetic nervous system (SNS) influences on low-frequency heart rate variability (LF HRV), one which calls into question the trope that LF power within HRV can realistically contribute to a measurement of ‘sympathovagal balance’ as LF/high-frequency (HF) ratio because LF HRV is provoked in part by SNS activity. This has been, and continues to be, a central inference maintained within applied cardiac physiology despite a history of criticism (e.g. Eckberg, 1997). Within the last year, PubMed indexes more than 300 publications that explicitly refer to measures of sympathovagal balance derived from HRV metrics. In the spirit of the comprehensiveness of Goldstein et al. (2011) and in light of the importance of investigation into the intact human autonomic nervous system, there are two further domains of evidence that warrant inclusion. In brief, the first concerns the use of the impedance cardiograph-derived pre-ejection period. There is broad and considerable evidence that this period, which represents the duration of electrical/mechanical events prior to cardiac ejection, is uniquely affected by the SNS (Newlin & Levenson, 1979). However, recent work (Goedhart et al. 2008) has shown that pre-ejection period does not systematically covary with LF or LF/HF HRV, within or between subjects, with or without controlling for respiration. The second concerns the differential dissociation between peripherally measured sympathetic activity and LF HRV. Van de Borne et al. (2001) demonstrated both a robust decrease in heart period and an increase in microneurographically measured sympathetic activity in response to both nitroprusside (a vasodilator) and phentolamine (an α1-adrenergic receptor antagonist). However, the relationship between the SNS and cardiac effects was differentially decoupled; nitroprusside increased and phentolamine slightly decreased the normalized LF HRV. This posits both a baroreflex-dependent relationship for normal LF HRV change and a necessary non-dependence between peripheral SNS activity and LF HRV. Evidence from both of these domains is solidly in agreement with Goldstein et al. (2011). The sum of this collective evidence heavily calls into question the validity of results drawn from a model of autonomic balance including LF HRV as a biomarker of sympathetic activity. What remains, of course, is to outline a ‘secondgeneration’ model of spectral HRV analysis that includes the activity of the baroreflex in the assessment of autonomic balance. This would be an asset to ongoing physiological and biobehavioural research.
Benefit-Cost Analysis for Selected Surgical Interventions in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Since surgery was first included in the second edition of Disease Control Priorities (DCP2, 2006), research examining the cost-effectiveness of surgical interventions in lowand middle-income countries (LMICs) has expanded substantially (see chapter 18). A growing body of evidence suggests that surgical platforms can be cost-effective in these countries, according to the criteria established by the World Health Organization (WHO) (Grimes and others 2013). In parallel, a nascent field of study within global health economics has attempted to expand the application of benefit-cost analysis (BCA) to global health interventions in these countries. In contrast with cost-effectiveness analysis, BCA seeks to estimate the net economic benefit of an intervention in monetary terms. The nature of BCA allows researchers to investigate the potential economic return of an investment in global health; it also allows ministries of health and finance to meaningfully compare health care projects to investments in other governmental sectors, such as education and transportation, which are routinely valued with BCA. The use of BCA in global health has recently become more visible; for example, Jamison, Jha, and Bloom (2008) and Jamison and others (2012) prominently feature BCA in their challenge papers for the 2008 and 2012 Copenhagen Consensus (CC). Within the surgical cost-effectiveness literature, cleft lip and palate (CLP) has been the subject of at least three cost-effectiveness studies in LMICs; all suggest that CLP can be repaired in LMICs in a cost-effective manner (Corlew 2010; Magee, Vander Burg, and Hatcher 2010; Poenaru 2013). A more thorough review of CLP can be found in chapters 8 and 13 of this volume. The role of cesarean delivery in the context of obstructed labor, and its associated cost and benefit, has been previously studied by the authors (Alkire and others 2012a) and is presented here with updated results. This chapter presents two distinct BCAs:
Perceptions of Preparedness to Assist Elders with End-of-Life Care Preferences

Abstract Using a systematic sample of Florida licensed clinical social workers (N = 272), this study found that respondents perceived themselves capable of assisting elders with end-of-life care decisions and considered themselves moderately knowledgeable of resources available to elder clients. Respondents indicated slightly positive attitudes for work with elders and elders with Alzheimer's disease, and most respondents believed that elders should have the right of physician-assisted suicide. Using multivariate analysis, four predictor variables were identified that account for 61.3% of the adjusted variance of the dependent variable of preparedness to assist elders with end-of-life care preferences. These predictor variables were (a) knowledge of resources available to elders, (b) desirability of working with elders, (c) desirability of working with elders with Alzheimer's disease, and (d) attitude toward assisted suicide.