Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Saccades and drifts differentially modulate neuronal activity in V 1 : Effects of retinal image motion , position

In natural vision, continuously changing input is generated by fast saccadic eye movements and slow drifts. We analyzed effects of fixational saccades, voluntary saccades, and drifts on the activity of macaque V1 neurons. Effects of fixational saccades and small voluntary saccades were equivalent. In the presence of a near-optimal stimulus, separate populations of neurons fired transient bursts after saccades, sustained discharges during drifts, or both. Strength, time course, and selectivity of activation by fast and slow eye movements were strongly correlated with responses to flashed or to externally moved stimuli. These neuronal properties support complementary functions for post-saccadic bursts and drift responses. Local post-saccadic bursts signal rapid motion or abrupt change of potentially salient stimuli within the receptive field; widespread synchronized bursts signal occurrence of a saccade. Sustained firing during drifts conveys more specific information about location and contrast of small spatial features that contribute to perception of fine detail. In addition to stimulus-driven responses, biphasic extraretinal modulation accompanying saccades was identified in one third of the cells. Brief perisaccadic suppression was followed by stronger and longer-lasting enhancement that could bias perception in favor of saccade targets. These diverse patterns of neuronal activation underlie the dynamic encoding of our visual world.
On the Correlation between Research Performance and Social Network Analysis Measures Applied to Research Collaboration Networks

In this study, we develop a theoretical model based on social network theory to understand how the collaboration (co-authorship) network of scholars correlates to the research performance of scholars. For this analysis, we use social network analysis (SNA) measures (i.e., normalized closeness centrality, normalized betweenness centrality, efficiency, and two types of degree centrality). The analysis of data shows that the research performance of scholars is positively correlated with two SNA measures (i.e., weighted degree centrality and efficiency). In particular, scholars with strong ties (i.e., repeated co-authorships, i.e., high weighted degree centrality) show a better research performance than those with low ties (e.g., single co-authorships with many different scholars). The results related to efficiency show that scholars, who maintain a strong co-authorship relationship to only one co-author of a group of linked co-authors (i.e., co-authors that have joined publications), perform better than those researchers with many relationships to the same group of linked co-authors.
Inverse association between serum creatinine and mortality in acute kidney injury.

INTRODUCTION Sepsis is a leading precipitant of Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) in intensive care unit (ICU) patients, and is associated with a high mortality rate. OBJECTIVE We aimed to evaluate the risk factors for dialysis and mortality in a cohort of AKI patients of predominantly septic etiology. METHODS Adult patients from an ICU for whom nephrology consultation was requested were included. End-stage chronic renal failure and kidney transplant patients were excluded. RESULTS 114 patients were followed. Most had sepsis (84%), AKIN stage 3 (69%) and oliguria (62%) at first consultation. Dialysis was performed in 66% and overall mortality was 70%. Median serum creatinine in survivors and non-survivors was 3.95 mg/dl (2.63 - 5.28) and 2.75 mg/dl (1.81 - 3.69), respectively. In the multivariable models, oliguria and serum urea were positively associated with dialysis; otherwise, a lower serum creatinine at first consultation was independently associated with higher mortality. CONCLUSION In a cohort of septic AKI, oliguria and serum urea were the main indications for dialysis. We also described an inverse association between serum creatinine and mortality. Potential explanations for this finding include: delay in diagnosis, fluid overload with hemodilution of serum creatinine or poor nutritional status. This finding may also help to explain the low discriminative power of general severity scores - that assign higher risks to higher creatinine levels - in septic AKI patients.
Quetiapine augments the effect of citalopram in non-refractory obsessive-compulsive disorder: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 76 patients.

OBJECTIVE To assess the efficacy of quetiapine addition to citalopram in treatment-naive or medication-free obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients. METHOD Seventy-six patients who met DSM-IV criteria for OCD and who were drug-free or drug-naive at entry were randomly assigned in a 10-week, double-blind trial with citalopram (60 mg/day) plus quetiapine (300-450 mg/day) or placebo; treatment-refractory OCD patients were excluded. Of the 76 eligible patients, 66 patients completed the trial-31 in the quetiapine and 35 in the placebo group. The change from baseline to endpoint on the total Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS) and the response to treatment in the quetiapine addition compared with the placebo addition group were the primary outcome measures. Response was defined as a 35% or greater reduction on the YBOCS and a Clinical Global Impressions-Improvement (CGI-I) score at endpoint of 1 or 2. The study was conducted from November 2003 to June 2005 at the University Medical Centre Utrecht, The Netherlands. RESULTS As measured by the mean reduction in YBOCS scores following an intent-to-treat, last-observation-carried-forward analysis, quetiapine addition (11.9) was significantly superior to placebo (7.8; p = .009). Quetiapine addition was also significantly superior to placebo on the CGI-I scale, with a mean +/- SD CGI-I score of 2.1 +/- 1.3 versus 1.4 +/- 1.2, respectively (p = .023). Quetiapine addition (N = 22, 69%) was also associated with a significantly greater number of patients responding to treatment compared with placebo addition (N = 15, 41%; p = .019). More patients receiving quetiapine (N = 8) than placebo (N = 2; NS) discontinued treatment due to adverse events. CONCLUSIONS The combination of quetiapine and citalopram was more effective than citalopram alone in reducing OCD symptoms in treatment-naive or medication-free OCD patients. TRIAL REGISTRATION www.trialregister. nl Identifier NTR116.
Inferior Vena Caval and Hepatic Vein Thrombosis: The Chiari Syndrome in Childhood

The syndrome of hepatic vein thrombosis was first described by George Budd of King's College Hospital, London, in 1845. Chiari in 1899 reported three cases of his own and reviewed the literature. The first case in childhood (an infant of 17 months) was published by Gee in 1871, and since that time we have only been able to trace nine other examples of this syndrome under the age of 17 years in the world literature (Schuippel, 1880; Lazarus-Barlow, 1899; Fisher, 1902; Penkert, 1902; Fabris, 1905; Hess, 1905; Hutchison and Simpson, 1930; Thompson, 1947; Dodd, Johannsman and Rapoport, 1948; Bronte-Stewart and Goetz, 1952). We have recently investigated a boy aged 13 years with hepatic vein thrombosis. An associated panniculitis, together with other clinical and pathological findings which throw some light on the aetiology of the thrombosis, prompted this report.
Intervention in a Loosely Organized System: An Encounter with Non-Being

Historically, organizational theory and the theory of organizational change have been preoccupied with highly structured organizations, the bureaucracy being the archetype. But recently what may be called a loosely organized system has attracted the attention of some theorists of organization and organizational change. Loosely organized systems come in all shapes and sizes, a familiar example being the ill-defined system consisting of a set of organizations, related but autonomous. If intervention is defined as a way of organizing to promote learning and change in social systems, then the question arises: How is this organizational task accomplished in a loosely organized system? This is the central question in this paper, which revolves around a case study of intervention in a system of community agencies: How does the interventionist shape an essentially integrative strategy to an essentially disintegrative social system?
Approximate XOR/XNOR-based adders for inexact computing

Power dissipation has become a significant issue for integrated circuit design in nanometric CMOS technology. To reduce power consumption, approximate implementations of a circuit have been considered as a potential solution for applications in which strict exactness is not required. In inexact computing, power reduction is achieved through the relaxation of the often demanding requirement of accuracy. In this paper, new approximate adders are proposed for low-power imprecise applications. These adders are based on XOR/XNOR gates with multiplexers implemented by pass transistors. The proposed approximate XOR/XNOR-based adders (AXAs) are evaluated and compared with respect to energy consumption, delay, area and power delay product (PDP) with an accurate full adder. The metric of error distance is used to evaluate the reliability of the approximate designs. Simulation by Cadence's Spectre in TSMC 65nm process has shown that the proposed designs consume less power and have better performance (such as a lower propagation delay) compared to the accurate XOR/XNOR-based adder, while the error distance remains similar or better than other approximate adder designs.
Acute chest syndrome in children with sickle cell disease: Saudi Arabian experience

Acute chest syndrome (ACS) is a known complication of sickle cell disease (SCD). It carries high morbidity and mortality. We conducted a retrospective study to evaluate the frequency, clinical, laboratory, and radiological features of this complication among children with sickle cell disease in the Southern Province of Saudi Arabia. Our results were generally comparable to international published data among similar population. Our results revealed that the frequency of ACS episodes are age dependent, which occurred more frequently in young children i.e. < 4 years of age (57%). Fever and cough were the most frequent symptoms; 93% and 86% respectively. Most of the cases experienced respiratory distress such as tachypnea (86%), chest retraction (64%), and decreased breath sounds (57%). On the other hand only small number of patients (11%) had complete normal chest examination. ACS, as other sickle cell crises, usually develops in association with other complication. In our study, painful crisis was the most commonly associated complication along with ACS (79%). All of the chest X-rays were positive at different anatomical sites; bilateral involvement was observed frequently (36%). This study is unique being the first description of such problem in children in the Southern Province of Saudi Arabia. It will serve as a base s for subsequent studies.
Innovations in athletic preparation: Role of substrate availability to modify training adaptation and performance

Abstract World records for athletic events continue to improve and in the search for superior methods to gain a competitive edge, coaches and athletes are constantly searching for the latest “magic bullet”. Although it is assumed that optimal adaptation to the demands of repeated training sessions requires a diet that can sustain muscle energy reserves, this premise does not consider the unsolved longstanding question of whether it is a lack or a surplus of a substrate that triggers the training adaptation. As such, recent scientific enquiry has re-focused attention on the role of substrate availability before, during, and after training to amplify the training adaptation. There has also been a resurgence of interest in the potential for protein ingestion to improve performance and/or promote training-induced adaptations in skeletal muscle. Altitude training (real or simulated) is now an accepted part of competition preparation for many athletic events, and such interventions attract their own nutritional issues. These and other diet – training interactions with the potential to alter training adaptation and performance are discussed.
Peer-to-peer mental health: a community evaluation case study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a third-sector community review into peer-to-peer best practices in mental health service provision in Sussex. This community initiative was funded by the Big Lottery to explore the benefits of the peer-led approach on individual and public health outcomes and identify avenues for partnership working. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 131 participants who had engaged with peer-to-peer services both as receivers and providers of support were invited to share knowledge and best-practice expertise via a survey, focus groups and a public consultation day. Findings – This case study review suggests peer-to-peer support services as an innovative approach to reducing suicide, self-harm, reliance on public health services (GPs, hospital stays, etc.) and engaging with drugs, alcohol and criminal activity. In addition to offering a holistic and social approach to mental health, it further identifies that engagement in peer-to-peer activities po.
Les consommateurs-innovateurs : un essai d'identification

Cette these est avant tout un test du modele explicatif du comportement innovateur (achat precoce des produits nouveaux) propose par midgley et dowling. Elle comporte 4 parties. La premiere est consacree a l'adaptation de la theorie de la diffusion des innovations au contexte specifique du marketing. Elle permet de justifier le choix du modele teste. La seconde partie se fonde sur une revue detaillee de la litterature pour selectionner 6 variables susceptibles d'influencer le comportement innovateur: le besoin de stimulation, les valeurs, l'implication, l'innovativite, la perception des caracteristiques du nouveau produit et la situation d'achat. Toutes ces variables sont presentees de maniere detaillee dans la troisieme partie. L'organisation pratique du test et les resultats sont presentees dans la quatrieme partie. Au total, 374 questionnaires ont ete recueillis pour expliquer l'intention d'achat du parfum bic, produit nouveau en 1986. Ce test a necessite la creation d'une echelle de mesure de l'innovativite; un chapitre entier est consacre au processus de validation qui a ete suivi. Enfin, les resultats du test du modele montrent que les variables qui expliquent le mieux le comportement innovateur sont les caracteristiques du produit et la situation. Les variables individuelles n'ayant qu'une influence tres faible-influence.
Dental caries in 5-year-old children attending multi-ethnic schools in Greater Glasgow--the impact of ethnic background and levels of deprivation.

OBJECTIVE To examine levels of dental caries of 5-year-olds attending multi-ethnic schools in Greater Glasgow and to explore the effects of deprived backgrounds and ethnic identity on their dental health. DESIGN Between October 2001 and February 2002 a cross-sectional dental epidemiology survey of a sample of 721 5-year-olds was undertaken in schools having at least 25 per cent of pupils from black or minority ethnic groups. Background data on participating children were obtained from school records, including: ethnic origin, mothers' ability to speak English, religion, and demographics. Statistical analyses included two way analysis of variance to determine the effect of ethnicity after adjusting for socio-economic factors. RESULTS Complete data were available for 649 (90%) children. The sample broadly divided into white (52%), Pakistani (33%), and other minority ethnic groups (15%). Based on repeat observations, diagnosis reliability was good (Kappa = 0.77). The caries experience of Pakistani children (d3mft = 4.1; 95% CI 3.6 to 4.6) was significantly higher (p < 0.001) than the white children (d3mft = 2.3; 95% CI 1.9 to 2.6). Only 25% (95% C1 17 to 34) of the Pakistani children had no obvious decay, significantly lower (p < 0.001) than their white contemporaries (48%, 95% CI 39 to 58). Pakistani ethnic origin was associated with significantly higher levels of dental caries (p < 0.001), after adjusting for socio-economic deprivation. CONCLUSION Children from deprived backgrounds have worse dental caries levels than their affluent counterparts and, over and above this effect, minority ethnic children of Pakistani background have higher levels than their white peers.
[Interaction of fatty acid oxidation with oxidative stress in preeclampsia-like mouse model at multiple stages of gestation].

OBJECTIVE To investigate the interactions of fatty acid oxidation with oxidative stress on the preeclampsia (PE)-like development by establishing murine models at multiple stages of gestation. METHODS Wild-type (WT) mice were injected subcutaneously with nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitor L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME, 50 mg×kg(-1)×d(-1)) to establish PE-like model (L-NAME group) at early, middle and late pregnant periods respectively. Normal saline (NS group) was injected simultaneously as a control. All groups were divided into subgroups, standard chow group (SC) and high-fat diet group (HF). From Day 1 of pregnancy, all groups were fed simultaneously. ApoE(-/-) pregnant mice were selected as a control group. Identification of mice model and the expressions of mRNA and protein of LCHAD, p47phox, p38MAPK and COX-2 were confirmed by RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) and Western blot respectively. Data were analyzed statistically. RESULTS The expressions of mRNA and protein of LCHAD significantly decreased in early and middle L-NAME groups in both apoE(-/-) and WT mice (P < 0.05). The expressions of mRNA and protein of LCHAD in the HF groups were lower than the SC groups. The changes were marked in the early HF + L-NAME subgroup in apoE(-/-) mice (P < 0.05). As compared with other groups, the placental expressions of mRNA and protein of p47phox and COX-2 markedly increased in the early and middle L-NAME subgroups in apoE(-/-) mice (P < 0.05), especially in early and middle HF + L-NAME subgroups in apoE(-/-) mice (P < 0.05). ApoE(-/-) mice had a higher expression than that of WT groups (P < 0.05). The expressions of mRNA and protein of p38MAPK showed no differences among all groups. Correlation analysis showed a negative correlation between gene and protein expressions of LCHAD and p47phox, COX-2 (P < 0.05). There was significantly positively correlated between the expression of p47phox, COX-2 and protein (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS The PE-like symptoms have fatty acid oxidation dysfunctions. There is a lower expression of LCHAD. The earlier its onset, the more obvious dysfunctions. In early and middle L-NAME groups, oxidative stress and inflammatory injury occur in both apoE(-/-) and WT mice. A high-fat diet may aggravate the level of oxidative stress especially in PE-like apoE(-/-) murine model.
A register study of life events in young adults born to mothers with mild intellectual disability

Background: Young adults, born to population-representative mothers with intellectual disability (ID), were targeted for psychosocial/life event follow-up. Methods: The whole group originally comprised 42 individuals but 3 had died and 1 had moved abroad. The remaining 38 were approached and 10 consented to participate in an interview study. However, of the remaining 28, it was not possible to establish contact with 21 who were instead searched for in various official registers. Results: Most (n = 18) individuals in the study group had been in contact with different authorities and clinics. Of the 21 individuals, 10 had contact with social services since childhood and 4 of these had been taken into care (foster family) and 6 had had contact families during childhood. One individual had been taken into a treatment centre and one grew up mainly with the father. Altogether 12 (57%) of 21 individuals did not grow up full-time with their biological mother. Twelve (57%) had major neurodevelopmental/neuropsychiatric conditions, including five with ID and seven with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Four individuals were registered within the Prison and Probation Service due to various types of crimes. Conclusion: Individuals born to mothers with ID in our study group were at high risk of adverse experiences and negative outcomes, such as increased childhood mortality, a relatively large proportion of children taken into care, high rates of ID and ADHD in the children and of criminality in young adulthood. Taken together with the results obtained in an in-depth interview study of those in the originally targeted sample with whom it was possible to obtain contact, the present findings suggest that it will be important to provide early support and longitudinal developmental follow-up in groups of children growing up with a mother with ID. Children in this situation appear to be at a number of risks, probably related both to hereditary factors and to social disadvantage.
Health care utilization in HIV-infected patients: assessing the burden of hepatitis C virus coinfection.

Abstract Health care utilization for HIV-1-infected patients appears to be declining in the United States as a result of highly active antiviral therapy (HAART); yet the opposite appears true in the HIV/hepatitis C virus (HCV) coinfected population. The reasons for this difference are not well understood. We examined the rates and reasons for emergency department visits and hospital admissions at an academic tertiary care medical center for HIV/HCV coinfected patients as compared to HIV-1 monoinfected patients, using a retrospective matched cohort study design. HIV/HCV coinfected patients had higher rates of health care utilization (emergency department visits 43.9 versus 7.1 per 100 person-years; hospital admissions 18.2 versus 6.7 per 100 person-years, for HIV coinfected and monoinfected, respectively). This increase was not solely due to liver related events. Instead, comorbidities such as diabetes, renal disease, and psychiatric/substance abuse played a larger role in the health-care utilization in the HIV/HCV coinfected population.
The Association between Voluntary Disclosure and Corporate Governance in the Presence of Severe Agency Conflicts

Agency conflicts between different types of investors are particularly severe in the presence of high family and block-holder ownership. By focusing on a setting characterised by high ownership concentration, we study the role of independent directors in promoting transparency through increased disclosure. In our tests, we use a sample of Spanish firms and, consistent with prior work, show that the presence of these directors is strongly associated with increased voluntary disclosure. Additionally, we find that when an executive director takes on Chair responsibilities the level of voluntary information is reduced, creating potential conflicts with the role of independent directors. Our results suggest that a strong legal framework holds firm-level clashes of interest in check. We conclude that this regulatory environment can create sufficient incentives to bring together the interests of minority and majority shareholders and guarantee an efficient monitoring role of independent directors. However, results suggest that other mechanisms should be reinforced in order to improve the role of governance control on agency relationships, particularly in the case of the concentration of Chair and executive responsibilities.