Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
No Effect of Naloxone on Ventilatory Response to Progressive Hypercapnia in IDDM Patients

The ventilatory response to hyperoxic progressive hypercapnia was examined by comparing 3 test groups: 7 diabetic patients with AN, 8 diabetic patients without AN, and 8 normal control subjects. In each group, a significant linear correlation was found between PaCO2 and VE. The slopes of the regression curves relating PaCO2 to VE were significantly steeper in the healthy control subjects and diabetic patients without AN than in those with AN (P < 0.01). We conclude that the ventilatory response to progressive hypercapnia is reduced in diabetic patients with AN. By analyzing the power spectrum and the amplitude behavior of the diaphragmatic EMG (calculated from the fc and RMS, respectively), we could exclude a disturbance of neural descending pathways and respiratory muscle dysfunction as possible causal mechanisms for the impaired ventilatory response to increasing CO2. By using lung function analysis, causal factors such as alterations in respiratory system mechanics also could be excluded. As diabetes is known to affect the endogenous opioid system, which, in turn, affects the ventilatory response to CO2, naloxone, as a specific opioid antagonist, was administered in all 3 test groups. Naloxone produced a significant increase of ventilatory response to hypercapnia in the healthy control subjects (P < 0.01), but produced no effect in either of the diabetic groups. We conclude that the ventilatory response to hypercapnia is impaired in diabetic patients with AN, that lung function alterations and diaphragmatic muscle dysfunction are not responsible for this impairment, and that endogenous opioids produce an effect on the response to CO2 in healthy subjects, but they have no effect on CO2 response in diabetic patients with or without AN. These results suggest that the central control of respiration is pathologically altered in diabetic patients with AN.
Clinical features and genetic analysis of three patients with severe hypertriglyceridaemia

Hypertriglyceridaemia is a common biochemical abnormality that can be due to primary causes or, more commonly, secondary causes. Moderate hypertriglyceridaemia is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and can develop into severe hypertriglyceridaemia which is a risk factor for acute pancreatitis. Familial chylomicronaemia is a rare autosomal recessive disorder, usually diagnosed in childhood and is characterized by marked hypertriglyceridaemia and biochemical deficiency of lipoprotein lipase (LPL), apolipoprotein (apo) C-II, homozygous (or compound heterozygous) gene mutations in LPL or more rarely, APOC2. Recently, loss-of-function mutations in the APOA5 gene have been reported in patients with severe hypertriglyceridaemia in whom LPL or APOC2 mutations were not found. We describe the clinical features and genetic analysis of three patients with severe hypertriglyceridaemia including novel mutations LPL c.464T>C (p.Leu155Pro) and APOA5 c.823C>T (p.Gln275*).
Learning by Doing: Understanding the Role of Affordance Informativity in Information Search Performance

Information search is becoming increasingly demanding due to the booming of Consumer Generated Content (CGC) in online environment. This has led to growing scholarly interest in designing search features to accommodate diverse user preferences. Drawing on the Theory of Affordance Informativity, we advance ostensive informativity and performative informativity as focal mechanisms for search features to convey actions afforded to users. We further put forth a typology of search features that is grounded in both dimensions of search affordance informativities. Next, we construct a research framework that depicts how search affordance informativity bolsters information search performance. By conducting a field experiment on our custom-made online restaurant review website, we discovered that performative informativity increases search result anticipation and reduces search costs whereas ostensive informativity only facilitates the former. Search result anticipation in turn enhances search performance in terms of efficiency and utility, but the opposite effect is observed for search costs.
Modeling of the trajectory-generating equipments

In this paper, we present a short literature review on the studies and researches, especially recently, in the area of modeling of the trajectory-generating equipments of the five-axis CNC machines and modeling of the trajectory-generating mechanisms of the serial industrial robots. First we make a short introduction regarding the importance and the opportunity of using modeling and simulation techniques in the actual context, and then we present very briefly some studies developed in these areas and the software packages used in these researches. We paid particular attention to the ADAMS software because it is considered one of the most widely used software for the simulation of the mechanical systems' motion. After this short literature review, the future work will consist in modeling in ADAMS of a five-axis CNC machine and of a serial industrial robot, and then in analysis and optimization of their motions.
Information Environment and the Investment Decisions of Multinational Corporations

ABSTRACT: This paper examines how the external information environment in which foreign subsidiaries operate affects the investment decisions of multinational corporations (MNCs). We hypothesize and find that the investment decisions of foreign subsidiaries in country-industries with more transparent information environments are more responsive to local growth opportunities than are those of foreign subsidiaries in country-industries with less transparent information environments. Further, this effect is larger when (1) there are greater cross-border frictions between the parent and subsidiary, and (2) the parents are relatively more involved in their subsidiaries' investment decision-making process. Our results suggest that the external information environment helps mitigate the agency problems that arise when firms expand their operations across borders. This paper contributes to the literature by showing that the external information environment helps MNCs mitigate information frictions within the firm.
HiQoS: An SDN-based multipath QoS solution

Today's Internet architecture provides only “best effort” services, thus it cannot guarantee quality of service (QoS) for applications. Software Defined Network (SDN) is a new approach to computer networking that separates control plane and forwarding planes, and has the advantage of centralized control and programmability. In this paper, we propose HiQoS that provides QoS guarantees using SDN. Moreover, HiQoS makes use of multiple paths between source and destination and queuing mechanisms to guarantee QoS for different types of traffic. Experimental results show that our HiQoS scheme can reduce delay and increase throughput to guarantee QoS. Very importantly, HiQoS recovers from link failure very quickly by rerouting traffic from failed path to other available path.
COMPARISON OF CRIMINAL ACTIVITY BETWEEN ISRAELI VETERANS WITH AND WITHOUT PTSD

The literature, based on US Vietnam veterans, suggests that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with increased criminal activity, especially violence, alcohol, and drug abuse, although more recent studies, which tested data from the United States as well as the United Kingdom, suggest a more moderate effect for this relationship. The current study examines Israeli veterans, who differ socioeconomically and have lower rates of substance abuse than veterans in previous studies.
Let's Spend Some Time Together: Exploring the Out-of-Box Experience of Technology for Older Adults

Designing technology for older people has traditionally focused on compensating for the decline in abilities that occurs with ageing. The research described in this paper followed a more holistic approach, focusing on the broader user experience of technology in the home environment. Specifically, this research was concerned with the very first interactions with a new product known as the Out-of-Box Experience OoBE: how older people acquire their technology, how they unpack it, and how they set it up. This paper describes two exploratory studies that used a design ethnography approach to build a rich picture of the OoBE of new technology for older adults. The findings indicate that older people experience varying benefits from the involvement of other people during the OoBE of new technology. Lastly, the paper discusses the value of social interaction in this context and offer recommendations on the design of the OoBE of technology to engage older adults.
Convolution based method for calculating inputs from dendritic fields in a continuum model of the retina

Computational models are valuable tools that can be used to aid the design and test the efficacy of electrical stimulation strategies in prosthetic vision devices. In continuum models of retinal electrophysiology, the effective extracellular potential can be considered as an approximate measure of the electrotonic loading a neuron's dendritic tree exerts on the soma. A convolution based method is presented to calculate the local spatial average of the effective extracellular loading in retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in a continuum model of the retina which includes an active RGC tissue layer. The method can be used to study the effect of the dendritic tree size on the activation of RGCs by electrical stimulation using a hexagonal arrangement of electrodes (hexpolar) placed in the suprachoroidal space.
IT investments and product development effectiveness: Iranian SBs

– The purpose of this paper is to examine if, and how, investments in IT at different levels can create new product development (NPD) capabilities in terms of IT leveraging competence in NPD and NPD effectiveness. The paper also investigates how Iranian small businesses (SBs) can achieve desired marketing performance through developing these capabilities. , – The paper is consistent with the perspective on IT‐enabled organizational capabilities. A questionnaire‐based survey was conducted to collect data from 218 businesses or NPD managers of SBs in Iran. , – IT leveraging competence in NPD and NPD effectiveness are valuable key capabilities that transform the value of IT resources to a firm's performance for Iranian SBs. Investments in both technical and human IT resources have positive effects on the development of NPD capabilities, and thus performance in the surveyed SBs. , – Among other limitations, relying on a small sample size and cross‐sectional data of this research, and lack of generalizability of findings tend to have certain limitations. , – The results suggest that the investments in both technical and human IT resources increase firms' ability to develop effectiveness in NPD. However, IT investments strategy should be aligned with effective use of IT functionalities, as the effect of IT leveraging competence in development of NPD effectiveness is more pronounced. Second, IT leveraging competence in NPD and NPD effectiveness are important intermediate organizational capabilities through which the benefits of both technical and human IT resources are converted into performance effects at the firm level for Iranian SBs. , – This case study explores how Iranian SBs can develop NPD capabilities, and subsequently, marketing performance, a topic that has received little attention to date.
Metabolism and Distribution of Guanosine Given Intraperitoneally: Implications for Spinal Cord Injury

Intraperitoneal administration of guanosine to rats with chronic spinal cord injury stimulates remyelination and functional recovery. If guanosine produced its effects in the nervous system, it should enter it and elevate endogenous concentrations. [ 3 H]-guanosine (8 mg/kg) was administered intraperitoneally to rats and its distribution and concentration in different sites determined. Guanosine rapidly entered all tissues; its concentration peaked at about 15 minutes except in adipose tissue and CNS where it continued to rise for 30 minutes. Its chief metabolic product in all sites was guanine with over twice as much guanine as guanosine present in CNS after 30 minutes.
Whole-Brain Source-Reconstructed MEG-Data Reveal Reduced Long-Range Synchronization in Chronic Schizophrenia

Abstract Current theories of schizophrenia (ScZ) posit that the symptoms and cognitive dysfunctions arise from a dysconnection syndrome. However, studies that have examined this hypothesis with physiological data at realistic time scales are so far scarce. The current study employed a state-of-the-art approach using Magnetoencephalography (MEG) to test alterations in large-scale phase synchronization in a sample of n = 16 chronic ScZ patients, 10 males and n = 19 healthy participants, 10 males, during a perceptual closure task. We identified large-scale networks from source reconstructed MEG data using data-driven analyses of neuronal synchronization. Oscillation amplitudes and interareal phase-synchronization in the 3–120 Hz frequency range were estimated for 400 cortical parcels and correlated with clinical symptoms and neuropsychological scores. ScZ patients were characterized by a reduction in γ-band (30–120 Hz) oscillation amplitudes that was accompanied by a pronounced deficit in large-scale synchronization at γ-band frequencies. Synchronization was reduced within visual regions as well as between visual and frontal cortex and the reduction of synchronization correlated with elevated clinical disorganization. Accordingly, these data highlight that ScZ is associated with a profound disruption of transient synchronization, providing critical support for the notion that core aspect of the pathophysiology arises from an impairment in coordination of distributed neural activity.
Network aware VM load balancing in cloud data centers using SDN

Despite being industry standard, load balancing via virtual machine (VM) migration methods in modern cloud data centers still exhibit two major performance issues: resulting system load balancing degree and total time till balanced state. Over the years research has been conducted to improve these metrics. Yet due to the fact that these issues influence each other, it has been a challenge to achieve substantial advancement in both metrics simultaneously. In this paper we study the problem of VM migration with load balancing and migration time constraints. We formulate this problem as a variation of multi-commodity minimum cost flow problem and show how both resulting degree of imbalance and a total migration time can be optimized together. We also propose a heuristic method based on Ant Colony Optimization family of algorithms. Through simulation results we show that our heuristic gives good performance results compared to optimal solutions to minimum cost flow problem. Furthermore, our method achieves on average twice faster migration time compared to existing methods, proposed in related works.
Antibody-Induced Transplantation Tolerance That Is Dependent on Thymus-Derived Regulatory T Cells1

Targeting of the CD45RB isoform by mAb (anti-CD45RB) effectively induces donor-specific tolerance to allografts. The immunological mechanisms underlying the tolerant state remain unclear although some studies have suggested the involvement of regulatory T cells (T-regs). Although their generative pathway remains undefined, tolerance promoting T-regs induced by systemic anti-CD45RB treatment have been assumed to originate in the peripheral immune system. We demonstrate herein that separable effects on the peripheral and central immune compartments mediate graft survival induced by anti-CD45RB administration. In the absence of the thymus, anti-CD45RB therapy is not tolerogenic though it retains peripheral immunosuppressive activity. The thymus is required for anti-CD45RB to produce indefinite graft survival and donor-specific tolerance, and this effect is accomplished through thymic production of donor-specific T-regs. These data reveal for the first time an Ab-based tolerance regimen that relies on the central tolerance pathway.
Nrf2‐deficient mice are highly susceptible to cigarette smoke‐induced emphysema

Inflammation, protease/anti‐protease imbalance and oxidative stress play important roles in the pathogenesis of emphysema. Nrf2 counteracts oxidative tissue damage and inflammation through transcriptional activation via the anti‐oxidant responsive element (ARE). To clarify the protective role of Nrf2 in the development of emphysema, the susceptibility of Nrf2‐knockout mice to cigarette smoke (CS)‐induced emphysema was examined. In Nrf2‐knockout mice, emphysema was first observed at 8 weeks and exacerbated by 16 weeks following CS‐exposure, whereas no pathological abnormalities were observed in wild‐type mice. Neutrophilic lung inflammation and permeability lung damage were significantly enhanced in Nrf2‐knockout mice 8 weeks after CS‐exposure. Importantly, neutrophil elastase activity in bronchoalveolar lavage fluids was markedly higher in Nrf2‐knockout mice preceding the pronounced neutrophil accumulation. The expression of secretory leukoprotease inhibitor, a potent inhibitor of neutrophil elastase, was inducible in wild‐type, but not in Nrf2‐knockout mice. This protease/anti‐protease imbalance, together with the lack of inducible expression of ARE‐regulated anti‐oxidant/anti‐inflammatory genes, may explain the predisposition of Nrf2‐knockout mice to neutrophilic inflammation. Indeed, specific activators of Nrf2 induced the expression of the SLPI gene in macrophages. These results indicate that Nrf2 protects against the development of emphysema by regulating not only the oxidant/anti‐oxidant balance, but also inflammation and the protease/anti‐protease balance.
The analysis of volatile organic compounds biomarkers for lung cancer in exhaled breath, tissues and cell lines.

BACKGROUND Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) biomarkers in breath provide a novel, noninvasive and quick approach to diagnosis lung cancer. The aim of the proposed study was to investigate the VOCs biomarkers in exhaled breath for lung cancer. METHOD The VOCs in exhaled breath of 88 lung cancer patients, 70 lung benign disease and 85 healthy people were analyzed by Solid Phase Micro Extraction - Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (SPME-GCMS). Three types of lung cancer cells and 18 lung cancer patients' tissues were cultured in vitro. The VOCs in the headspace of these cultivations were analyzed as an evidence of production mechanism of the VOCs in breath. Three lung cancer diagnosis models were constructed respectively in exhaled breath samples using Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA). Leave one out cross validation was employed to evaluate these models. RESULTS 23 VOCs, whose areas under curve (AUC) of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) > 0.60 and p < 0.01, were confirmed as the VOCs biomarkers for lung cancer. Three diagnostic models based on 23 VOCs could easily discriminate lung cancer patients from controls with 96.47% sensitivity and 97.47% specificity. However, the discrimination between early stage and later stage lung cancer was not very obvious.
Stroke Unit Care Benefits Patients With Intracerebral Hemorrhage: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Background and Purpose— Patients with any type of stroke managed in organized inpatient (stroke unit) care are more likely to survive, return home, and regain independence. However, it is uncertain whether these benefits apply equally to patients with intracerebral hemorrhage and ischemic stroke. Methods— We conducted a secondary analysis of a systematic review of controlled clinical trials comparing stroke unit care with general ward care, including only trials published after 1990 that could separately report outcomes for patients with intracerebral hemorrhage and ischemic stroke. We performed random-effects meta-analyses and tested for subgroup interactions by stroke type. Results— We identified 13 trials (3570 patients) of modern stroke unit care that recruited patients with intracerebral hemorrhage and ischemic stroke, of which 8 trials provided data on 2657 patients. Stroke unit care reduced death or dependency (risk ratio [RR], 0.81; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.471–0.92; P=0.0009; I2=60%) with no difference in benefits for patients with intracerebral hemorrhage (RR, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.61–1.00) than patients with ischemic stroke (RR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.70–0.97; Pinteraction=0.77). Stroke unit care reduced death (RR, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.64–0.97; P=0.02; I2=49%) to a greater extent for patients with intracerebral hemorrhage (RR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.54–0.97) than patients with ischemic stroke (RR, 0.82; 95%, CI 0.61–1.09), but this difference was not statistically significant (Pinteraction=0.58). Conclusions— Patients with intracerebral hemorrhage seem to benefit at least as much as patients with ischemic stroke from organized inpatient (stroke unit) care.
Association of depressiveness with chronic facial pain: A longitudinal study

Abstract Objective. Depression and pain are often co-morbid. Temporomandibular disorders (TMD) include facial pain as one main symptom. Reports are lacking on the association between chronic facial pain and earlier depressiveness. The aim of the study was to investigate whether depressiveness increases the risk for chronic facial pain in a longitudinal population-based study. Materials and methods. Subjects included in the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 (n = 5696) answered a questionnaire on facial pain and depressiveness using the Symptom Checklist-25 depression sub-scale at the age of 31 years. In addition, reported depression diagnosed by a doctor was enquired about. Three years later a sub-sample of the cohort, including 63 cases with chronic facial pain and 85 pain-free controls, was formed based on the question concerning facial pain. Results. Of the chronic facial pain cases 17.5% and of the pain-free controls 7.1% were depressive 3 years earlier at baseline (p = 0.050, χ 2 test, crude OR = 2.8, 95% CI = 1.0–8.0). Of the chronic facial pain cases 6.3% and of the pain-free controls 1.2% reported having had diagnosed depression (p = 0.085, crude OR = 5.7, 95% CI = 0.6–52.2). After adjusting the gender, the association between depressiveness reported at the baseline and chronic facial pain was significant (OR = 4.2, 95% CI = 1.1–16.2). When widespread pain was included in the analysis, the association was not significant. Conclusions. Depressiveness increases the risk for chronic facial pain in a 3-year follow-up. This association seems to be mediated through widespread pain.