Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Chironomidae (diptera) responses to the experimental flooding of prairie marshes

This study examined chironomid responses to the flooding of ten drained experimental marshes in Delta Marsh, Manitoba, Canada. Emergence traps were used to monitor chironomid emergence from three vegetation types (Symphyotrichum ciliatum, Scolochloa festucacea, and Schoenoplectus tabernaemontani) flooded at two water depths (shallow: 20–40 cm, deep: 50–70 cm) over a four-year period. The greatest number (7,651 m−2 yr−1) and biomass (20.3 g m−2 yr−1) of chironomids emerged from Schoenoplectus-deep sites in the fourth year of flooding. Numbers, biomass, and size classes of emerging chironomids were similar over the four years from the Symphyotrichum habitat. However, chironomid emergence from Scolochloa and Schoenoplectus habitats was dominated initially by the smallest size class but shifted steadily toward production of much larger species over the four-year experiment. The production of chironomids as a potential food resource for waterfowl was high from the Symphyotrichum habitat during all four years of flooding, but emergence from the Scolochloa and Schoenoplectus habitats did not reach comparable levels until the third or fourth year.
Results of Sacroiliac Joint Double Block and Value of Sacroiliac Pain Provocation Tests in 54 Patients With Low Back Pain

Study Design This prospective study consisted of the evaluation of a double sacroiliac block in patients with low back pain. Objectives To determine the prevalence of sacroiliac pain in a selected population of patients suffering from low back pain, and to assess certain pain provocation tests. Summary of Background Data Previous studies have implicated the sacroiliac joint as a potential etiology of back and leg pain, but none has tested double anesthetic blocks in a prospective fashion. Methods Fifty‐four patients with unilateral low back pain, pain mapping compatible with a sacroiliac origin, tenderness over the sacroiliac joint, and no obvious source of pain in the lumbar spine were selected for a double anesthetic block. The procedure consisted of a thorough clinical examination with a visual analog scale, testing of sacroiliac pain provocation tests followed by a first screening block with a short‐acting anesthetic. A second examination consisting of the same tests assessed the efficacy of the first block. If results were positive, a confirmatory block was performed. All blocks were performed under fluoroscopic guidance. Results Nineteen patients had a positive response to the first block. Among them, 10 (18.5%) were temporarily relieved by the confirmatory block. No pain provocation test reached statistical significance. Conclusion The present study suggests the sacroiliac joint is an uncommon but real source of low back pain. The accuracy of some of the presumed “sacroiliac pain provocation tests” is questioned.
Throughput Maximization for Delay-Sensitive Random Access Communication

Future 5G cellular networks supporting delay-sensitive, low-latency communications could employ random access communication to reduce the overhead compared to scheduled access techniques used in 4G networks. We consider a wireless communication system where multiple devices transmit payloads of a given fixed size in a random access fashion over shared radio resources to a common receiver. We allow retransmissions and assume Chase combining at the receiver. The radio resources are partitioned in the time and frequency dimensions, and we determine the optimal partition granularity to maximize throughput, subject to given constraints on latency and outage. In the regime of high and low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), we derive explicit expressions for the granularity and throughput, first using a Shannon capacity approximation and then using finite block length analysis. Numerical results show that the throughput scaling results are applicable over a range of SNRs. The proposed analytical framework can provide insights for resource allocation strategies in reliable and delay-sensitive random access systems and in specific 5G use cases for massive, short packet uplink access.
Performing document triage on small screen devices. part 1: structured documents

Document triage is defined as the rapid process by which information seekers make relevance decisions on a set of documents [1]. With the rising popularity of small screen readers such as Amazon's Kindle and the ubiquity of smartphones capable of displaying documents, we are faced with the challenge of facilitating information seekers with effective ways of searching for information using these small screen devices, while bypassing the space limitation affordance. In this paper we begin to explore how information seekers go about their document triage process on small screens beginning by looking at structured documents.
Psychological and adjustment problems due to acquired brain lesions in pre-school-aged patients

Abstract Objective: To describe and compare psychological, behavioural and adjustment problems in pre-school patients with acquired brain lesions of different aetiology. Methods: Three groups of patients with acquired brain lesions (14 patients post-TBI, 18 brain tumour survivors and 23 patients with vascular or infectious brain lesions), ranging in age between 24–47 months, received a psychological evaluation, including the Child Behavior Checklist for Ages 2–3 (CBCL) and the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS). Results: About half of the total sample (47.2%) showed psychological and behavioural problems. Difficulties vary according to the aetiology of the brain lesions. Brain tumour survivors showed more marked internalizing problems, whereas children with vascular or infectious brain lesions scored higher on the CBCL externalizing scales. Children with traumatic brain injury reported intermediate scores on most of the CBCL scales. Conclusions: Psychological and behavioural difficulties are very common, not only among school-aged children and adolescents, but also among pre-schoolers with acquired brain lesions. The relevance and the impact of these difficulties must necessarily be considered when developing psychological treatment and rehabilitation plans and planning for social re-entry.
Acute Effect of Citrulline Malate Supplementation on Upper-Body Resistance Exercise Performance in Recreationally Resistance-Trained Men

Abstract Gonzalez, AM, Spitz, RW, Ghigiarelli, JJ, Sell, KM, and Mangine, GT. Acute effect of citrulline malate supplementation on upper-body resistance exercise performance in recreationally resistance-trained men. J Strength Cond Res 32(11): 3088–3094, 2018—To investigate the effect of citrulline malate (CM) supplementation on upper-body resistance exercise performance, 12 recreationally resistance-trained men (21.4 ± 1.6 years; 163.0 ± 46.2 cm; 85.0 ± 12.4 kg) underwent 2 testing sessions administered in a randomized, double-blind fashion. During each visit, participants were provided either 8 g of CM or a placebo (PL) 40 minutes before beginning a standardized warm-up and initiating a barbell bench press resistance exercise protocol consisting of 5 sets of 15 repetitions at 75% 1 repetition maximum with 2-minute rest intervals. Participants were instructed to complete as many repetitions as possible until either reaching 15 repetitions or muscular failure. Total number of repetitions performed and power output were recorded for each set. Subjective measures of energy, focus, fatigue, and perceived exertion, along with muscle thickness of the triceps brachii, were assessed before and after exercise. Significant (p ⩽ 0.05) main effects for time were observed for all variables except for subjective feelings of energy (p = 0.085). A group × time interaction (F = 2.86, p = 0.034, n2 = 0.21) was observed for repetitions performed, where participants performed more (p = 0.015) repetitions on set 3 during PL (5.7 ± 1.2 repetitions) compared with CM (4.6 ± 1.2 repetitions). However, during set 4, participants tended (p = 0.089) to perform more repetitions during CM (4.8 ± 1.8 repetitions) compared with PL (4.3 ± 1.3 repetitions). No other differences were observed between trials. Supplementation with 8 g of CM 40 minutes before the barbell bench press resistance exercise protocol did not increase exercise performance, augment the muscle swelling response to training, or alter subjective measures of focus, energy, and fatigue in recreationally resistance-trained men.
Looking Beyond the Internet: Examining Socioeconomic Inequalities in Cancer Information Seeking Among Cancer Patients

The gap in cancer information seeking between high-socioeconomic-status (high-SES) cancer patients and low-SES cancer patients deserves serious attention, considering the importance of information and knowledge in cancer control. We thus explored the association of SES, as measured by education, with cancer patients' overall cancer information seeking, and with seeking from each source (i.e., the Internet, mass media, medical sources, and nonmedical interpersonal sources) and across two topic categories (i.e., treatment, quality of life). We then asked whether the effect of education on treatment information seeking is reduced among those who are particularly motivated to control treatment choices. We conducted a survey with breast, prostate, and colon cancer patients diagnosed in 2005 (n = 2,013), who were randomly drawn from the Pennsylvania Cancer Registry in the fall of 2006. We found that education was more strongly associated with Internet use than with the use of other sources regardless of topics. Also, when information was sought from mass media, education had a greater association with treatment information seeking than with quality-of-life information seeking. Preference for active participation in treatment decision making, however, did not moderate the effect of education on treatment information seeking. The implications of these findings for public health research and cancer patient education were discussed.
Population Pharmacokinetics and Dose Optimization of Mycophenolic Acid in HCT Recipients Receiving Oral Mycophenolate Mofetil

We sought to create a population pharmacokinetic model for total mycophenolic acid (MPA), to study the effects of different covariates on MPA pharmacokinetics, to create a limited sampling schedule (LSS) to characterize MPA exposure (i.e., area under the curve or AUC) with maximum a posteriori Bayesian estimation, and to simulate an optimized dosing scheme for allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) recipients. Four thousand four hundred ninety‐six MPA concentration–time points from 408 HCT recipients were analyzed retrospectively using a nonlinear mixed effects modeling approach. MPA pharmacokinetics was characterized with a two‐compartment model with first‐order elimination and a time‐lagged first‐order absorption process. Concomitant cyclosporine and serum albumin were significant covariates. The median MPA clearance (CL) and volume of the central compartment were 24.2 L/hour and 36.4 L, respectively, for a 70 kg patient receiving tacrolimus with a serum albumin of 3.4 g/dL. Dosing simulations indicated that higher oral MMF doses are needed with concomitant cyclosporine, which increases MPA CL by 33.8%. The optimal LSS was immediately before and at 0.25 hours, 1.25 hours, 2 hours, and 4 hours after oral mycophenolate mofetil administration. MPA AUC in an individual HCT recipient can be accurately estimated using a five‐sample LSS and maximum a posteriori Bayesian estimation.
On the prognosis of outcome after stroke

Objectives– The study was aimed at improving the accuracy of prognosis for recovery of function in patients suffering a first stroke. Materials and methods– Two‐hundred and forty‐eight patients were enrolled. The mean interval since the stroke was 23 days. Patients entered a rehabilitation program lasting 60 days. The predictive value of 12 factors were analysed, namely motor, cognitive and sphincter subitems of Functional Independence Measure at admission (FIM‐a), age, sex, education, body mass index (BMI), depression, neglect, aphasia, ideomotor and constructive apraxia. FIM score at discharge was the dependent variable. Results– A multiple regression revealed that only age, cognitive and sphincter subitems of FIM‐a, neglect and ideomotor apraxia were significantly associated with outcome. Moreover, these factors accounted for only 72% of the variance in outcome scores. A decision of unfavourable prognosis on the basis of a FIM‐a value lower than 40 was incorrect in 2.8% of the patients in this study and in 8.2% of those having a FIM score lower than 40. Conclusions– The use of statistical methods to examine the outcome after stroke is useful for expressing probability on a group basis but is unsuitable for determining the prognosis of individual patients. Such data should not be used for fiscal management. A significant minority of patients presenting with a FIM lower than 40 can regain a useful measure of independence. The errors in prognosis based upon available methods, although small, have unacceptable effects in human terms if they lead to the clinical decisions which deny patients rehabilitation. All of the patients should therefore be admitted for rehabilitation after their first stroke. Severe comorbidity requires special attention.
The relationship between estimated glomerular filtration rate and thyroid function: an observational study

Background Estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) is now routinely reported by most National Health Service laboratories. There are many limitations when interpreting eGFR: thyroid dysfunction is not widely recognized as being one of these. Methods We extracted from the pathology computer system results of all patients with hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism who also had serum creatinine measured. We also extracted creatinine data on euthyroid patients. eGFR was calculated using the simplified Modification of Diet in Renal Disease Study equation. Results The median eGFRs of the hypothyroid, euthyroid and hyperthyroid patients were 64, 77 and 107 mL/min/1.73 m2, respectively; all groups were significantly different from each other (P < 0.001). Conclusion Thyroid dysfunction is associated with significant alterations in eGFR and actual GFR.
Natural discourse reference generation reduces cognitive load in spoken systems

Abstract The generation of referring expressions is a central topic in computational linguistics. Natural referring expressions – both definite references like ‘the baseball cap’ and pronouns like ‘it’ – are dependent on discourse context. We examine the practical implications of context-dependent referring expression generation for the design of spoken systems. Currently, not all spoken systems have the goal of generating natural referring expressions. Many researchers believe that the context-dependency of natural referring expressions actually makes systems less usable. Using the dual-task paradigm, we demonstrate that generating natural referring expressions that are dependent on discourse context reduces cognitive load. Somewhat surprisingly, we also demonstrate that practice does not improve cognitive load in systems that generate consistent (context-independent) referring expressions. We discuss practical implications for spoken systems as well as other areas of referring expression generation.
Specific immunoglobulin A to Bordetella pertussis antigens in mucosal secretion for rapid diagnosis of whooping cough

Specific immunoglobulin A (IgA) to Bordetella pertussis filamentous hemagglutinin (FHA) and pertussis toxin (PT) was determined in mucosal secretions by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). It took 3 to 4 h to complete the ELISA. The upper limits of normal values for age were determined in nasopharyngeal (NPH) secretions from 23 patients with viral infections and in 10 healthy adults working with pertussis patients or cultures. A significant IgA response to FHA was found in 38 of 54 (70%) and to PT in 28 of 54 (52%) NPH secretions from patients with pertussis confirmed by culture, serology, or both. The rate of positive responses to either antigen (44 of 54 [81%]) was significantly higher than that by culture alone (29 of 54 [54%]; P less than 0.01). The rate of positive responses increased from 65% in patients with symptoms for 1 week or less to 87 to 92% in patients with symptoms for 2 or more weeks. The specific IgA response to PT was found in 100% of NPH samples from 17 unimmunized children less than 3 years of age and in only 30% of adults and immunized children greater than 3 years of age. A response to FHA was found in 65 to 73% of the NPH secretions in all age groups. Saliva samples were found to contain specific IgA to FHA and PT in all age groups, but these were of diagnostic value in 50% (11 of 22) of the adult patients. The specificity of the ELISA was 100% (10 of 10 negatives) in NPH secretions from patients with pertussis-like cough who had negative cultures and serology. The results indicate that determination of specific IgA to PT and FHA in NPH aspirates represents a sensitive and rapid diagnostic method for the detection of pertussis.
Factors That Contribute to and Account for Strength and Work Capacity in a Large Cohort of Recreationally Trained Adult Healthy Men With High- and Low-Strength Levels

Abstract Kerksick, CM, Mayhew, JL, Grimstvedt, ME, Greenwood, M, Rasmussen, CJ, and Kreider, RB. Factors that contribute to and account for strength and work capacity in a large cohort of recreationally trained adult healthy men with high- and low-strength levels. J Strength Cond Res 28(5): 1246–1254, 2014—The factors that best account for differences in strength across all types of exercise, body types, and training histories are not well understood. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of strength level and body composition on upper- and lower-body work capacity in adult men. From a cohort of 295 adult men (25.6 ± 7.5 years, 178 ± 8 cm, 85.2 ± 15 kg), low-strength (LS, n = 72) and high-strength (HS, n = 66) samples were selected based on 1 repetition maximum (1RM) bench press (BP) and leg strength (LP) values. Work capacity for each exercise was determined from the product of repetition weight (80% 1RM) and maximum repetitions-to-fatigue (RTF). Body composition was measured using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry. The HS group was significantly greater than the LS group in total body mass and fat-free mass but not in age, height, fat mass, or %fat. Low-strength and HS groups were not significantly different (p > 0.05) in RTF for either BP (8.7 ± 3.1 vs. 8.3 ± 1.9 reps, respectively) or LP (15.6 ± 7.6 vs. 17.0 ± 6.3 reps, respectively), making the ratio of RTF for BP vs. LP nonsignificant (LS = 2.0 ± 1.0; HS = 2.2 ± 0.9). The HS group produced significantly greater (p < 0.001) absolute and relative work capacities for both BP and LP compared with the LS group. Repetitions-to-fatigue had a greater influence on BP (r2 = 0.74) and LP (r2 = 0.85) work capacities in the LS group than did RepWt (r2 = 0.07 and 0.28, respectively). In the HS group, RTF (r2 = 0.79) had a greater influence than RepWt (r2 = 0.10) on BP work capacity, whereas the 2 components were more similar for LP work capacity (r2 = 0.64 and 0.47, respectively). When evaluated at the same %1RM, muscular endurance is similar across divergent strength levels meaning that work capacity (load × reps) will be greater for HS individuals. Controlling for the influence of body composition variables (e.g., fat or fat-free mass) does not eliminate the difference in work capacity between strength groups suggesting that other factors are accounting for strength expression. Prescribing repetitions against a fixed relative load is largely dependent on exercise type and must be considered by strength and conditioning professionals.
Laparoscopic Repair of Primary Inguinal Hernia Performed in Public Hospitals or Low-Volume Centers Have Increased Risk of Reoperation for Recurrence

Background. Inguinal hernia repair is traditionally carried out as either open or laparoscopic repair. Laparoscopic repair has been shown to be superior in terms of pain and discomfort, but has a higher risk of reoperation. Quality of inguinal hernia repair is related to factors such as method of repair, characteristics of patients, and possibly the annual volume of procedures performed by a center. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that hospital volume and type of hospital (private vs public) could influence the reoperation rate for recurrence as a marker of surgical quality of care. Methods. This study was based on data from the Danish Hernia Database covering the period from January 1, 1998, to December 31, 2013. Hernia repairs included in this study were laparoscopic repair of primary, inguinal hernias in the elective setting, performed on adult male patients. Results. A total of 14 532 laparoscopic repairs were included for analysis. Centers reporting less than 50 procedures a year had a significantly higher cumulative reoperation rate compared with centers reporting more than 50 procedures a year (9.97% vs 6.06%), P < . 0001. Private centers had a lower cumulative reoperation rate compared with public centers: 5.36% versus 8.53%, P ≤ . 0001. Type of center and center volume were both independent risk factors for reoperation in a Cox regression model. Conclusion. Hospital volume had an effect on the reoperation rate for recurrence after laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair. Furthermore, private centers performed better than public centers irrespective of volume.
Observed Personality in Childhood: Psychometric and Behavioural Genetic Evidence of Two Broad Personality Factors

We examined broad dimensions of children's personalities (total n = 1056; age = 3.5 to 12 years) based on observers’ perceptions following a few hours of structured interaction. Siblings’ behaviours during a 2–hour cognitive assessment in the home were rated separately by two different observers. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses clearly revealed a two–factor solution in three different samples. There was correspondence between parent–rated temperament and observer–rated factors. Cross–sectional analyses indicated lower Plasticity among older children and higher Stability among older children. Sex differences were negligible. Plasticity and Stability were correlated in the . 2 to . 3 range. Most of the sibling similarity in the Plasticity was due to additive genetic influences, whereas most sibling similarity in Stability was attributable to shared environmental influences. The findings implicate a biometric factor structure to childhood personality that fits well with emerging biosocial theories of personality development. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.