Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Robust design of the self-tuning resonant controller for AC current control systems

The multiple-frequency resonant controller is usually used to track the non-sinusoidal command and/or reject some kind of higher-order harmonic disturbances in AC current control systems. By adjusting its coefficients in real-time, the self-tuning resonant controller is capable of regulating ac current with time-varying frequency. In this paper, we first present how to design the self-tuning resonant controller using pole assignment technique. After analyzing the influence of time delays on system stability, a simple criterion is proposed to design robust self-tuning resonant controller for the real-time control system with unit time-delay. The controller designed by the proposed method has been implemented in a FPGA based DSP development board to control ac current with time-varying frequency in a single-phase system. Satisfying excremental results validate the proposed method.
Broad‐spectrum antimicrobial peptide resistance by MprF‐mediated aminoacylation and flipping of phospholipids

Bacteria are frequently exposed to cationic antimicrobial peptides (CAMPs) from eukaryotic hosts (host defence peptides) or from prokaryotic competitors (bacteriocins). However, many bacteria, among them most of the major human pathogens, achieve CAMP resistance by MprF, a unique enzyme that modifies anionic phospholipids with l‐lysine or l‐alanine thereby introducing positive charges into the membrane surface and reducing the affinity for CAMPs. The lysyl or alanyl groups are derived from aminoacyl tRNAs and are usually transferred to phosphatidylglycerol (PG). Recent studies with MprF from Staphylococcus aureus demonstrated that production of Lys‐PG only leads to CAMP resistance when an additional flippase domain of MprF is present that translocates Lys‐PG and exposes it at the outer leaflet of the membrane. Thus, MprF exerts two specific functions that have hardly been found in other bacterial proteins. MprF proteins are crucial virulence factors of many human pathogens, which recommends them as targets for new anti‐virulence drugs. Intriguingly, specific point mutations in mprF cause resistance to the CAMP‐like antibiotic daptomycin in a yet unclear way that may involve altered Lys‐PG synthesis and/or Lys‐PG flipping capacities. Thus, a thorough characterization of MprF domains and functions will help to unravel how bacteria maintain and protect their cytoplasmic membranes.
Impact of innovation policies on small, medium and large Brazilian firms

ABSTRACT This study comprises a comparative examination of the effects of innovation support programmes’ spend on innovative activities in small, medium and large Brazilian firms. The econometric methodology propensity score matching is used to assess the impacts of tax and financial incentives based on. Results show that innovation support programmes stimulate expenditure on innovative activities, especially financial incentives for the acquisition of machinery and equipment.
U SE OF P REHOSPITAL F LUIDS IN H YPOTENSIVE B LUNT T RAUMA P ATIENTS

Objective. To compare the outcomes of blunt trauma victims with systolic blood pressure ≤90 mm Hg who received prehospital fluids with the outcomes of those who did not receive prehospital fluids. Methods. This matched-pairs case-control study used records of blunt trauma patients with scene systolic blood pressure ≤90 mm Hg obtained from the Pennsylvania Trauma Systems Foundation. Patients who received >500 mL prehospital fluids (n = 75) were matched by Injury Severity Score (ISS) and systolic blood pressure on scene with those who did not receive any prehospital fluids (n = 75). Outcomes compared included change in systolic blood pressure, survival to discharge, and length of hospital stay. Results. Those who received fluids were more likely to have an increase in systolic blood pressure at arrival to the emergency department [odds ratio for fluid use = 2.41; 95% confidence interval (95% CI) = 1.02, 5.73; p = 0.046]. There was no significant difference in survival to discharge (odds ratio for fluid use = 1.02; 95% CI = 0.40, 2.60; p = 0.969). There was no significant difference in length of hospital stay: 5.4 days (SD = 2.8) for those with fluids; 5.2 days (SD = 2.8) for those with no fluids; difference = 0.2 days; 95% CI = −1.6, 1.8; p = 0.870. Conclusions. This study suggests that prehospital fluid resuscitation of blunt injured trauma patients with systolic blood pressure ≤90 increases systolic blood pressure but has no effect on survival or length of hospital stay.
Do Firm’s Organisational Slacks Influence the Relationship between Corporate Lobbying and Corporate Financial Performance? More Is Not Always Better

A political involvement in any organisation has often proved to be profitable for such firms that are seeking support and favourable regulatory conditions. Though many studies have investigated the effect of the corporate lobbying activities on the organisations, no clear results have been achieved. In this study, we have investigated the lobbying expenditure of some of the most famous United States (US)-based companies, which support the U.S. government during 2007–2016. Primarily, we tested the relationship between the corporate lobbying and the Corporate Financial Performance (CFP), with the help of a dynamic panel data analysis, which is based on the System Generalised Methods of the Moment (SYS-GMM). The results of this study indicated that the corporate lobbying did not increase the probability of gaining more support from the government in comparison to the firms that did not use any lobbying techniques. Furthermore, the findings showed that corporate lobbying is a component of the zero-sum political agenda that cannot be accurately evaluated and does not contribute towards the improvement of the CFP. This study introduced the important component of organisational slack and noted that the corporate lobbying could significantly destroy the CFP if the organisational slack was high.
The emergency department as a potential site for smoking cessation intervention: a randomized, controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE To assess the effect of physician counseling and referral on smoking cessation rates and attendance at a smoking cessation program. METHODS This was a prospective, randomized clinical trial set in a suburban, community teaching hospital emergency department (ED). During study hours, dedicated research associates enrolled consecutive, stable, oriented patients who were smokers. Eligible, consenting patients were randomized to one of two intervention groups. The control group received a two-page "Stop Smoking" pamphlet from the American Heart Association (AHA). Patients in the intervention group were given the AHA pamphlet along with pharmacologic information and standardized counseling by the attending emergency physician, including written and oral referral to a smoking cessation program. The primary outcome measures were telephone contact/attendance at the smoking cessation program by the intervention group and the rate of smoking cessation in both study groups at three months post-ED visit. Categorical data were analyzed by chi-square and Fisher's exact tests. Rank data were analyzed by Mann-Whitney tests and continuous data by t-tests. All tests were two-tailed with alpha set at 0.05. RESULTS One hundred fifty-two patients were enrolled; 78 were randomized to the intervention group. Nearly 70% of patients (103) were available for telephone follow-up. The study groups were statistically similar with regard to baseline demographic characteristics and the prevalence of moderate or severe nicotine addiction. None of the patients (0%) in the intervention group contacted or attended the smoking cessation program during the study period (95% CI = 0-4%). The percentages of patients who stopped smoking after three months were similar in the two groups [10.4% (5/48) control vs 10.9% (6/55) intervention; p = 1]. CONCLUSION The authors found no difference in the smoking cessation rates between ED patients who received written material and those who were counseled by emergency physicians. Referral of patients who smoked to a cessation program was unsuccessful.
Odor maps in the olfactory bulb

For those interested in the functional organization of the olfactory pathway, this year marks two milestones: a half century since Lord Adrian (1950) suggested that odors are encoded by their spatial pattern of activity in the olfactory bulb, and a quarter of a century since the 2-deoxyglucose (2-DG) method provided evidence for the mechanisms underlying those patterns (Sharp et al., 1975). The article by Johnson and Leon in this issue (Johnson and Leon, 2000) on 2-DG patterns adds to the increasing evidence supporting the hypothesis that odor maps are part of the neural basis for perceptual discrimination of both odor quality and odor intensity. Despite this increasing evidence, it is difficult to conceive of how information carried in odor molecules can be represented by two-dimensional spatial patterns in the brain. The significance of the odor patterns, therefore, has not been widely appreciated outside the field of olfaction and has been controversial to some degree even within the field. For the purposes of this review, we consider as “odor maps” those spatial activity patterns within the olfactory bulb that are elicited by odor stimulation. There is also a rich variety of spatial patterns identified by other means, such as by horseradish peroxidase (HRP) tracing (Jastreboff et al., 1984; Astic and Saucier, 1986), monoclonal antibodies (Schwob, 1992; Mori and Yoshihara, 1995), and olfactory receptor gene-labelled projections (Ressler et al., 1994; Vassar et al., 1994; Mombaerts et al., 1996). These patterns will map onto the activity maps when functional correlations are made. The first steps toward those correlations are being taken (Bozza et al., 1999), which will ultimately lead to odor maps that have a combined functional, structural, and molecular basis. The different approaches have given rise to a number of different terms for the maps in the olfactory bulb. In addition to “odor maps,” there are “odotope maps” (encoding the determinants of odor molecules) and equivalents such as “odor determinant maps” and “olfactophore maps”; “epitope maps” (in analogy with the immune system); “chemotopic maps” (encompassing the general idea of encoding chemicals); and “odor images” (in analogy with the patterns laid down in vision). For the purposes of this review, the terms matter less than the principle, that information carried in odor molecules can be mapped into neural space. We first summarize the principles underlying odor maps that have been obtained from 2-DG and the growing number of other activity marking methods. We emphasize the accumulation of experimental evidence to support both the general idea of odor maps, as well as specific properties of the maps. We then review some of the controversies surrounding the significance of the odor maps and attempt to indicate how they can be resolved. Our focus is on mammals, but results in other vertebrate and invertebrate species will be noted where relevant.
Pax6 Controls the Expression of Lewis x Epitope in the Embryonic Forebrain by Regulating α1,3-Fucosyltransferase IX Expression*

Pax6 is a transcription factor involved in brain patterning and neurogenesis. Expression ofPax6 is specifically observed in the developing cerebral cortex, where Lewis x epitope that is thought to play important roles in cell interactions is colocalized. Here we examined whetherPax6 regulates localization of Lewis x usingPax6 mutant rat embryos. The Lewis x epitope disappeared in the Pax6 mutant cortex, and activity of α1,3-fucosyltransferase, which catalyzed the last step of Lewis x biosynthesis, drastically decreased in the mutant cortex as compared with the wild type. Furthermore, expression of a fucosyltransferase gene, FucT-IX, specifically decreased in the mutant, while no change was seen for expression of another fucosyltransferase gene,FucT-IV. These results strongly suggest thatPax6 controls Lewis x expression in the embryonic brain by regulating FucT-IX gene expression.
Linking State TANF and Related Policies to Outcomes: Preliminary Typologies and Analysis (Final Report)

This report classifies the wide variety of TANF and supportive services policies across states in a way that facilitates cross-state analysis linking welfare reform policies to outcomes. Specifically, the study: (1) developes typologies of state welfare (and related) policies around six key outcomes; (2) developes a public-use database with measures of 80 welfare policy variables, state economic and demographic variables, and the key outcome variables that they are hypothesized to affect; (3) uses factor analysis to create policy summary variables; and (4) uses cluster analysis to provide preliminary answers to questions about the relationships between state policy choices.
A child with terminal 14q deletion syndrome: Consideration of genotype–phenotype correlations

Patients with terminal deletions of chromosome 14 usually share a number of clinical features. The syndrome is thought not to be associated with multiple congenital anomalies. We report on a patient having a terminal deletion of about 3.2 Mb, with the breakpoint in 14q32.32. Multiple health problems led to his early death. By molecular techniques (array comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH)), we identified two previously reported patients with deletions in the terminal part of chromosome 14 of almost exactly the same size and compare the phenotypes of all three children. The phenotype of the current patient is much more severe than the phenotypes of the two patients reported previously. The patients also present different sets of dysmorphic features described previously as characteristic for 14q deletion syndrome. Molecular cytogenetic mapping showed that the breakpoints in all three patients were clustered within a 240 kb interval. The possibility of recurrent breakpoint location in terminal 14q deletion syndrome, as well as detailed characterization of the spectrum of phenotypes associated with the syndrome, will require the investigation of multiple patients with similar deletions in 14q. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Influence of head trauma on outcome following anterior temporal lobectomy.

BACKGROUND There is controversy in the literature regarding the importance of risk factors in developing epilepsy and seizure outcome following anterior temporal lobectomy. Some of the existing studies may be biased because of patient selection and limitations in determining predisposition. OBJECTIVE To investigate the role of risk factors for epilepsy in determining outcome following anterior temporal lobectomy. PATIENTS AND METHODS We identified 102 patients in a consecutive surgery series for epilepsy from a tertiary center with a minimum of 1-year postoperative follow-up. Risk factors for epilepsy were determined prospectively on at least 3 occasions before anterior temporal lobectomy. Risk factors investigated were a history of febrile convulsions, family history of epilepsy, significant head trauma, history of meningitis, history of encephalitis, or significant perinatal insult. Foreign tissue lesions on magnetic resonance imaging was also included if an anterior temporal lobectomy was performed for presumed dual pathologic findings (hippocampus and lesion). Outcome was determined using Engel's classification. For statistical analysis we used successive logistic regression analysis, chi(2) test, Fisher exact test, and t test. RESULTS Of the 102 patients, 13 had no identified risk factor for epilepsy, 49 had 1 identified risk factor, and 40 had more than 1. Frequencies were 39 febrile convulsions (15 complex febrile convulsions), 29 head trauma, 22 with lesions seen on magnetic resonance imaging, 12 history of meningitis, 2 history of encephalitis, 19 family history of epilepsy, and 4 perinatal insult. Seventy-one (70%) were classified as Engel's class I, with 56 patients continuously free of seizures at follow-up. Those without risk factor were as likely to be rendered free of seizures following anterior temporal lobectomy as those with a risk factor (P = .27). No risk factor alone or in combination was correlated with complete freedom from seizures following anterior temporal lobectomy, but the presence of head trauma, alone or in combination, was correlated with continued seizures following anterior temporal lobectomy (P = .03; odds ratio, 2.6). Better outcomes were not seen in those with head trauma before the age of 5 years (P = .57). These findings did not change if all those with lesions on magnetic resonance imaging were excluded in the analysis. Those with a history of head trauma were as likely to have pathologic evidence of mesial temporal sclerosis as others (P = .82). CONCLUSIONS Patients with a history of significant head trauma are less likely to become free of seizures following anterior temporal lobectomy. No other risk factor correlated with a statistically significant greater or lesser chance of freedom from seizures. This information may be used in preoperative counseling of patients.
Virtual-world hospital simulation for real-world disaster response: Design and validation of a virtual reality simulator for mass casualty incident management

BACKGROUND Mass casualty incidents are unfortunately becoming more common. The coordination of mass casualty incident response is highly complex. Currently available options for training, however, are limited by either lack of realism or prohibitive expense and by a lack of assessment tools. Virtual worlds represent a potentially cost-effective, immersive, and easily accessible platform for training and assessment. The aim of this study was to assess feasibility of a novel virtual-worlds–based system for assessment and training in major incident response. METHODS Clinical areas were modeled within a virtual, online hospital. A major incident, incorporating virtual casualties, allowed multiple clinicians to simultaneously respond with appropriate in-world management and transfer plans within limits of the hospital’s available resources. Errors, delays, and completed actions were recorded, as well as Trauma-NOnTECHnical Skills (T-NOTECHS) score. Performance was compared between novice and expert clinician groups. RESULTS Twenty-one subjects participated in three simulations: pilot (n = 7), novice (n = 8), and expert groups (n = 6). The novices committed more critical events than the experts, 11 versus 3, p = 0.006; took longer to treat patients, 560 (299) seconds versus 339 (321) seconds, p = 0.026; and achieved poorer T-NOTECHS scores, 14 (2) versus 21.5 (3.7), p = 0.003, and technical skill, 2.29 (0.34) versus 3.96 (0.69), p = 0.001. One hundred percent of the subjects thought that the simulation was realistic and superior to existing training options. CONCLUSION A virtual-worlds–based model for the training and assessment of major incident response has been designed and validated. The advantages of customizability, reproducibility, and recordability combined with the low cost of implementation suggest that this potentially represents a powerful adjunct to existing training methods and may be applicable to further areas of surgery as well.
Global Trends in Interest Rates

The trend in the world real interest rate for safe and liquid assets fluctuated close to 2 percent for more than a century, but has dropped significantly over the past three decades. This decline has been common among advanced economies, as trends in real interest rates across countries have converged over this period. It was driven by an increase in the convenience yield for safety and liquidity and by lower global economic growth.
Hospital Variation in Renal Replacement Therapy for Sepsis in the United States

Objectives: Acute renal replacement therapy in patients with sepsis has increased dramatically with substantial costs. However, the extent of variability in use across hospitals—and whether greater use is associated with better outcomes—is unknown. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: Nationwide Inpatient Sample in 2011. Patients: Eighteen years old and older with sepsis and acute kidney injury admitted to hospitals sampled by the Nationwide Inpatient Sample in 2011. Interventions: We estimated the risk- and reliability-adjusted rate of acute renal replacement therapy use for patients with sepsis and acute kidney injury at each hospital. We examined the association between hospital-specific renal replacement therapy rate and in-hospital mortality and hospital costs after adjusting for patient and hospital characteristics. Measurements and Main Results: We identified 293,899 hospitalizations with sepsis and acute kidney injury at 440 hospitals, of which 6.4% (n = 18,885) received renal replacement therapy. After risk and reliability adjustment, the median hospital renal replacement therapy rate for patients with sepsis and acute kidney injury was 3.6% (interquartile range, 2.9–4.5%). However, hospitals in the top quintile of renal replacement therapy use had rates ranging from 4.8% to 13.4%. There was no significant association between hospital-specific renal replacement therapy rate and in-hospital mortality (odds ratio per 1% increase in renal replacement therapy rate: 1.03; 95% CI, 0.99–1.07; p = 0.10). Hospital costs were significantly higher with increasing renal replacement therapy rates (absolute cost increase per 1% increase in renal replacement therapy rate: $1,316; 95% CI, $157–$2,475; p = 0.03). Conclusions: Use of renal replacement therapy in sepsis varied widely among nationally sampled hospitals without associated differences in mortality. Improving renal replacement standards for the initiation of therapy for sepsis may reduce healthcare costs without increasing mortality.
Original Research: Using Guided Imagery to Manage Pain in Young Children with Sickle Cell Disease

BackgroundDespite innovations in treatment, disease-related pain is still the primary cause of hospitalization for children with sickle cell disease. Pharmacologic pain management relieves pain temporarily, but adverse effects are increasingly a concern. Cognitive behavioral therapies, which include the use of guided imagery, have shown promise in changing pain perception and coping patterns in people with chronic illnesses. Few studies have been done in children with sickle cell disease. ObjectivesThe purposes of this study were to test the effects of guided imagery training on school-age children who had been diagnosed with sickle cell disease, and to describe changes in pain perception, analgesic use, self-efficacy, and imaging ability from the month before to the month after training. MethodsA quasi-experimental interrupted time-series design was used with a purposive sample of 20 children ages six to 11 years enrolled from one sickle cell disease clinic, where they had been treated for at least one year. Children completed pain diaries daily for two months, and investigators measured baseline and end-of-treatment imaging ability and self-efficacy. ResultsAfter training in the use of guided imagery, participants reported significant increases in self-efficacy and reductions in pain intensity, and use of analgesics decreased as well. ConclusionsGuided imagery is an effective technique for managing and limiting sickle cell disease–related pain in a pediatric population.