Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Investigation of the Waveguiding Properties of Silk Fibroin from the Visible to Near-Infrared Spectrum

Silk fibroin protein has been reinvented as a new optical material for biophotonic applications because of its optical transparency, biocompatibility, and easy fabrication process. It is used in various silk-based optical devices, which makes it desirable to investigate the optical properties of silk from diverse perspectives. This paper presents our investigation of the optical properties of silk fibroin, extracted from Bombyx mori cocoons. We have measured transmission spectra from the visible to near-infrared region and investigated waveguiding properties by the prism-coupling technique for five wavelengths (473.0, 632.8, 964.0, 1311, and 1552 nm). From the measurements, we determined the values of refractive indices. The measurements also proved waveguiding properties for all of the wavelengths. Optical scattering losses were measured by the fiber probe technique at 632.8 nm and were estimated to be 0.22 dB·cm−1.
a middle-income country : cluster randomised controlled trial Reducing child conduct problems and promoting social skills in Material

digital object identifier (DOIs) and date of initial publication. the indexed by PubMed from initial publication. Citations to Advance online articles must include final publication). Advance online articles are citable and establish publication priority; they are appeared in the paper journal (edited, typeset versions may be posted when available prior to Advance online articles have been peer reviewed and accepted for publication but have not yet
Enhancing the learning experience in the power electronic unit by different tutorial activities

This paper presents a survey on the activities carried out during tutorial sessions at two Australian universities to improve the learning experience of electrical engineering undergraduate students in the power electronics unit. The unit is conducted based on lectures, tutorials, and computer-based laboratories. In the academic year of 2014, to improve the learning experience of students, different types of tutorial sessions were developed aiming at improving the students' expertise in designing and troubleshooting power electronics-based circuits and converters, as well as obtaining information from datasheet, catalogues and articles. This paper discusses the students' satisfaction from each of these types of tutorial sessions over the last 4 years.
Executive functioning and health-related quality of life in pediatric sickle cell disease

ABSTRACT Research consistently indicates that children with sickle cell disease (SCD) face multiple risk factors for neurocognitive impairment. Despite this, no empirical research to date has examined the impact of neurocognitive functioning on quality of life for this pediatric group. Thus, the current study aims to examine the relationship between executive functioning and quality of life in a sample of children with SCD and further explore psychosocial and family/caregiver resources as moderators of this relationship. A total of 45 children with SCD aged 8 to 16 years and their caregivers completed measures of quality of life, behavioral ratings of executive functioning, and psychosocial functioning. Hierarchical linear regression models were utilized to determine the impact of executive functioning on quality of life and further test the interaction effects of proposed moderating variables. Controlling for age, pain, and socioeconomic status (SES), executive functioning was found to significantly predict child- and parent-reported quality of life among youth with SCD. Psychosocial resources of the primary caregiver or family was not found to moderate the relationship between executive functioning and quality of life. These results provide the first empirical evidence that lower executive skills negatively predict quality of life for children with SCD, supporting clinical and research efforts which aim to establish efficacious interventions that target cognitive decrements within this pediatric population.
Problem behaviours and psychotropic medication use in intellectual disability: a multinational cross‐sectional survey

BACKGROUND Problem behaviours (PBs) are a common cause for clinician contact in people with disorders of intellectual development and may be a common cause for the prescription of psychotropic medication. We aimed to use a large, multinational sample to define the prevalence of PBs, the associations with psychotropic medication use, and to assess for any potential 'diagnostic overshadowing' by the label of PBs in a population of people with disorders of intellectual development. METHOD A multinational, multi-setting, cross-sectional service evaluation and baseline audit was completed. Data were collected from UK hospitals, UK community settings, Sri Lanka and Hong Kong. A semi-structured questionnaire was completed by treating clinicians, capturing demographic details, prevalence rates of intellectual disability and psychotropic medication use, alongside psychiatric co-morbidity. RESULTS A sample size of 358 was obtained, with 65% of included participants treated in an inpatient setting. Psychotropic use was prevalent (90%) in our sample, particularly antipsychotics (74%). The prevalence of PB was high (83%). There was no statistically significant association between psychotropic prescription and recorded psychiatric co-morbidity, suggesting prevalent 'off-label' use for PBs, or poor recording of psychiatric co-morbidity. There was some evidence of possible diagnostic overshadowing due to the PB classification. A higher dose of psychotropic medication was associated with aggression toward others (P = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS We found evidence of prevalent potential 'off-label' use for psychotropic medication, which may be due to PBs. We also found evidence of potential diagnostic-overshadowing, where symptoms of psychiatric co-morbidity may have been attributed to PBs. Our findings provide renewed importance, across borders and health systems, for clinicians to consider a holistic approach to treating PBs, and attempting to best understand the precipitants and predisposing factors before psychotropic prescribing.
From Marketing Mix to E-Marketing Mix: A Literature Overview and Classification

The marketing mix paradigm, in its famous version of the 4Ps, went all the way through the evolution of marketing theory: from the marketing concept, through relationship marketing, to digital economy, being object of discussion both in academic literature and managerial practice. If it is a fact that the 4Ps marketing mix is a milestone of marketing theory, it is also true that the evolution of business contexts has created, in many fields, the need to review the "controllable factors" which form the marketing mix. The digital business represents the more recent of the business contexts and the one with the greater needs of differentiation of the mix. Throughout this evolutionary process, researchers have always been divided between the "conservatives," who think the 4Ps paradigm is able to adapt to the environmental changes by including new elements inside each "P," and the "revisionists," who affirm that the 4Ps paradigm is obsolete and propose new paradigms. This paper aims to clarify these two different approaches to marketing mix evolution through a review of the main literature on e-marketing mix, focusing on the development of marketing mix theory for the digital context.
Occupational exposure to textile dust and lung cancer risk: Results from the ICARE Study

BACKGROUND To investigate the association of lung cancer with occupational exposure to textile dust and specifically to cotton dust in the population-based case-control study ICARE. METHODS Lifelong occupational history of 2926 cases and 3555 controls was collected using standardized questionnaires, with specific questions for textile dust exposure. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated using unconditional logistic regression models controlling for confounding factors including smoking and asbestos exposure. RESULTS An inverse association between textile dust exposure and lung cancer was found among workers exposed ≥5% of their work time (OR = 0.80, 95%CI = 0.58-1.09), more pronounced for distant exposures (40+ years; up to a 56% reduced risk, statistically significant). The OR of lung cancer was significantly decreased among workers exposed to cotton fibers (OR = 0.70, 95%CI = 0.48-0.97). CONCLUSIONS Our results provide some evidence of a decreased risk of lung cancer associated with exposure to textile dust, particularly cotton.
Induction of chronic renal failure in the mouse: a new model.

An animal model with experimental uremia is an important research tool for the study of the sequence of pathophysiological events taking place in the uremic syndrome. An appreciable number of animal models and methods for the induction of chronic uremia have been published. It is surprising that no such method has been reported in the mouse, which is an important laboratory animal. A new method for the induction of chronic uremia in the mouse is described. It consists of unilateral destruction of most of the renal cortex by burns combined with contralateral nephrectomy. This method can be carried out in one or two stages. Follow-up of the experimental animals reveals that significant uremia developed within 4 weeks and remained constant for the rest of the study period, i.e. 10 weeks.
Unit root testing in ARMA models: A likelihood ratio approach

In this paper I propose a Likelihood Ratio test for a unit root (LR) with a local-to-unity Autoregressive parameter embedded in ARMA(1,1) models. By dealing explicitly with dependence in a time series through the Moving Average, as opposed to the long Autorregresive lag approximation, the test shows gains in power and has good small-sample properties. The asymptotic distribution of the test is shown to be independent of the short-run parameters. The Monte Carlo experiments show that the LR test has higher power than the Augmented Dickey Fuller test for several sample sizes and true values of the Moving Average parameter. The exception is the case when this parameter is very close to -1 with a considerably small sample size.
Looking beyond stratification: a model-based analysis of the biological drivers of oxygen deficiency in the North Sea

Abstract. Low oxygen conditions, often referred to as oxygen deficiency, occur regularly in the North Sea, a temperate European shelf sea. Stratification represents a major process regulating the seasonal dynamics of bottom oxygen, yet, lowest oxygen conditions in the North Sea do not occur in the regions of strongest stratification. This suggests that stratification is an important prerequisite for oxygen deficiency, but that the complex interaction between hydrodynamics and the biological processes drives its evolution. In this study we use the ecosystem model HAMSOM-ECOHAM to provide a general characterisation of the different zones of the North Sea with respect to oxygen, and to quantify the impact of the different physical and biological factors driving the oxygen dynamics inside the entire sub-thermocline volume and directly above the bottom. With respect to oxygen dynamics, the North Sea can be subdivided into three different zones: (1) a highly productive, non-stratified coastal zone, (2) a productive, seasonally stratified zone with a small sub-thermocline volume, and (3) a productive, seasonally stratified zone with a large sub-thermocline volume. Type 2 reveals the highest susceptibility to oxygen deficiency due to sufficiently long stratification periods (> 60 days) accompanied by high surface productivity resulting in high biological consumption, and a small sub-thermocline volume implying both a small initial oxygen inventory and a strong influence of the biological consumption on the oxygen concentration. Year-to-year variations in the oxygen conditions are caused by variations in primary production, while spatial differences can be attributed to differences in stratification and water depth. The large sub-thermocline volume dominates the oxygen dynamics in the northern central and northern North Sea and makes this region insusceptible to oxygen deficiency. In the southern North Sea the strong tidal mixing inhibits the development of seasonal stratification which protects this area from the evolution of low oxygen conditions. In contrast, the southern central North Sea is highly susceptible to low oxygen conditions (type 2). We furthermore show that benthic diagenetic processes represent the main oxygen consumers in the bottom layer, consistently accounting for more than 50 % of the overall consumption. Thus, primary production followed by remineralisation of organic matter under stratified conditions constitutes the main driver for the evolution of oxygen deficiency in the southern central North Sea. By providing these valuable insights, we show that ecosystem models can be a useful tool for the interpretation of observations and the estimation of the impact of anthropogenic drivers on the North Sea oxygen conditions.
Adaptive natural killer cell response to cytomegalovirus and disability progression in multiple sclerosis

Background: Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) causes a highly prevalent infection which may have a multifaceted impact on chronic inflammatory disorders. However, its potential influence in multiple sclerosis (MS) remains controversial. The HCMV-host interaction may induce an adaptive reconfiguration of the natural killer (NK) cell compartment, whose hallmark is a persistent expansion of peripheral NKG2C+ NK-cells. Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the HCMV-driven NKG2C+ NK-cell expansion is related to the MS clinical course. Methods: Multicentre analysis of NKG2C expression and genotype according to HCMV serostatus and time of assignment of irreversible disability scores in 246 MS patients prospectively followed up in our institutions. Results: NKG2C expression was unrelated to disease-modifying drugs, remained stable under steady-state conditions, and was higher in HCMV(+) NKG2C+/+ homozygous individuals. NKG2C+ NK-cell expansion in HCMV(+) patients, as compared to HCMV(+) or HCMV(–) patients with lower NKG2C+ NK-cells proportions, conferred a lower risk of progression in Cox regression analysis (Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS)>3.0, hazard ratio (HR)=0.33, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.15–0.71, p=0.005; EDSS>5.5, HR=0.23, 95% CI 0.07-0.74, p=0.014). Neither HCMV serostatus nor NKG2C genotype appeared to be related to disability progression. Conclusions: HCMV may exert a beneficial influence on MS, decreasing the risk of disability progression in those patients displaying a virus-driven NKG2C+ NK-cell expansion.
Multimode cat codes

We introduce a driven-dissipative two-mode bosonic system whose reservoir causes simultaneous loss of two photons in each mode and whose steady states are superpositions of pair-coherent/Barut-Girardello coherent states. We show how quantum information encoded in a steady-state subspace of this system is exponentially immune to phase drifts (cavity dephasing) in both modes. Additionally, it is possible to protect information from arbitrary photon loss in either (but not simultaneously both) of the modes by continuously monitoring the difference between the expected photon numbers of the logical states. Despite employing more resources, the two-mode scheme enjoys two advantages over its one-mode counterpart with regards to implementation using current circuit QED technology. First, monitoring the photon number difference can be done without turning off the currently implementable dissipative stabilizing process. Second, a lower average photon number per mode is required to enjoy a level of protection at least as good as that of the cat-codes. We discuss circuit QED proposals to stabilize the code states, perform gates, and protect against photon loss via either active syndrome measurement or an autonomous procedure. We introduce quasiprobability distributions allowing us to represent two-mode states of fixed photon number difference in a two-dimensional complex plane, instead of the full four-dimensional two-mode phase space. The two-mode codes are generalized to multiple modes in an extension of the stabilizer formalism to non-diagonalizable stabilizers. The $M$-mode codes can protect against either arbitrary photon losses in up to $M-1$ modes or arbitrary losses or gains in any one mode.
Preliminary phylogeny of Coemansia (Kickxellales), with descriptions of four new species from Taiwan

ABSTRACT Four new species of Coemansia from Taiwan are described. Three produce spirally twisted sporangiophores, and these new taxa increase the number of species in the Coemansia spiralis complex from three to six. Each new taxon is morphologically unique. Coemansia biformis, sp. nov., has two different asexual reproductive types on the same thallus; one is straight and the other has a spiral fertile region. Coemansia helicoidea, sp. nov., has stoloniferous sporangiophores with a helicoid fertile region. Coemansia pennisetoides, sp. nov., has a sporangiophore with a fertile region that resembles the inflorescence of the plant genus Pennisetum. Coemansia umbellata, sp. nov., has an umbellate sporangiophore branching pattern and a spirally twisted fertile region on the lowest branches. A dichotomous key was provided to identify the 23 accepted Coemansia species. Phylogenetic analysis based on a combined data set of D1–D2 domains of nuc 28S ribosomal RNA (rDNA) and partial nuc 18S rDNA identifies several independent evolutionary lineages within Coemansia and suggests that Spirodactylon aureum and Kickxella alabastrina may be nested within the genus Coemansia. Sequences of nuc rDNA ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 (internal transcribed spacer [ITS] barcode) are also used to support the description of these new species of Coemansia.
Specialized specialists and the narrow niche fallacy: a tale of scale-feeding fishes

Although rare within the context of 30 000 species of extant fishes, scale-feeding as an ecological strategy has evolved repeatedly across the teleost tree of life. Scale-feeding (lepidophagous) fishes are diverse in terms of their ecology, behaviour, and specialized morphologies for grazing on scales and mucus of sympatric species. Despite this diversity, the underlying ontogenetic changes in functional and biomechanical properties of associated feeding morphologies in lepidophagous fishes are less understood. We examined the ontogeny of feeding mechanics in two evolutionary lineages of scale-feeding fishes: Roeboides, a characin, and Catoprion, a piranha. We compare these two scale-feeding taxa with their nearest, non-lepidophagous taxa to identify traits held in common among scale-feeding fishes. We use a combination of micro-computed tomography scanning and iodine staining to measure biomechanical predictors of feeding behaviour such as tooth shape, jaw lever mechanics and jaw musculature. We recover a stark contrast between the feeding morphology of scale-feeding and non-scale-feeding taxa, with lepidophagous fishes displaying some paedomorphic characters through to adulthood. Few traits are shared between lepidophagous characins and piranhas, except for their highly-modified, stout dentition. Given such variability in development, morphology and behaviour, ecological diversity within lepidophagous fishes has been underestimated.
Assignment of LCN1 to human chromosome 9 is confirmed.

Request reprints from Dr. A.M.F. Gachon, Laboratoire de Biochimie Médicale, Faculté de Médecine, 28, Place Henri Dunant, BP 38, 63001 Clermont-Ferrand Cedex (France); telephone: 33-73-60-80-24; fax: 33-73-27-61-32. We have recently reported the chromosomal location of the gene for human tear lipocalin on band 9q34, using in situ hybridization (Lassagne et al., 1993). This gene, which has been given the HGM symbol LCNl, has been shown by Redl et al. (1992) to be present in a single copy in the human genome. Human tear lipocalin is secreted by the main lacrimal gland (Lassagne and Gachon, 1993). It belongs to a group of proteins with a molecular weight of 17–25 kDa; these proteins are able to bind lipophiles by enclosing them within their structure (reviewed recently by Gachon, 1994). Following the publication by RedΓs team (Baumgartner et al., 1994), which mapped the same tear prealbumin gene to chromosome 8, we decided, at the suggestion of the HGM Nomenclature Editor, to try to explain this discrepancy. Using a panel of hybrid cell lines that had been generated and characterized by Nguyen et al. (1986), we mapped the human LCNl gene to chromosome 9, supporting the previous conclusion of Lassagne et al. (1993) that the probe, representing the gene in question, maps to chromosome 9. These results confirm the localization, via somatic cell hybrid analysis, of the same tear lipocalin gene by Glasgow et al. (1993), although these workers did not use the gene symbol LCNl. The genes encoding five other members of the lipocalin family are located in the same region of chromosome 9, viz., orosomucoid (ORM), the αi-microglobulin/bikunin precursor (AMBP), the prostagen-associated endometrial protein (PAEP), the γ chain of complement component C8 (C8G), and prostaglandin D synthase (PGDS). Recently, Chan et al. (1994) predicted that the human neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin gene (NGAL) also maps to 9q34. References Baumgartner M, Holzfeind P, Redl B: Assignment of the gene for human tear prealbumin (LCNl), a member of the lipocalin superfamily, to chromosome 8q24. Cytogenet Cell Genet 65:101–103 (1994). Chan P, Simon-Chazottes D, Mattei MG, Guenet JL, Salier JP: Comparative mapping of lipocalin genes in human and mouse: the four genes for complement C8γ chain, prostaglandin D
Improving Surveillance for Surgical Site Infections Following Total Hip and Knee Arthroplasty Using Diagnosis and Procedure Codes in a Provincial Surveillance Network

OBJECTIVE To evaluate hospital administrative data to identify potential surgical site infections (SSIs) following primary elective total hip or knee arthroplasty. DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. SETTING All acute care facilities in Alberta, Canada. METHODS Diagnosis and procedure codes for 6 months following total hip or knee arthroplasty were used to identify potential SSI cases. Medical charts of patients with potential SSIs were reviewed by an infection control professional at the acute care facility where the patient was identified with a diagnosis or procedure code. For SSI decision, infection control professionals used the National Healthcare Safety Network SSI definition. The performance of traditional surveillance methods and administrative data–triggered medical chart review was assessed. RESULTS Of the 162 patients identified by diagnosis or procedure code, 46 (28%) were confirmed as an SSI by an infection control professional. More SSIs were identified following total hip vs total knee arthroplasty (42% vs16%). Of 46 confirmed SSI cases, 20 (43%) were identified at an acute care facility different than their procedure facility. Administrative data–triggered medical chart review with infection control professional confirmation resulted in a 1.1- to 1.7-fold increase in SSI rate compared with traditional surveillance. SSIs identified by administrative data resulted in sensitivity of 90% and specificity of 99%. CONCLUSION Medical chart review for cases identified through administrative data is an efficient supplemental SSI surveillance strategy. It improves case-finding by increasing SSI identification and making identification consistent across facilities, and in a provincial surveillance network it identifies SSIs presenting at nonprocedure facilities. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2016;37:699–703