Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nonsurgical Carotid Revascularization

Carotid endarterectomy is a well-established treatment of improving the carotid luminal diameter and preventing strokes, and the indications and complications are well-defined. Carotid angioplasty and stent placements are relatively newer ways of treating carotid artery stenosis. In certain contexts, they may have some advantages over carotid endarterectomy. However, the success rates, morbidity, and mortality associated with these procedures are less well characterized. In earlier comparative studies, the incidence of ipsilateral stroke rate was higher with angioplasty, but in later studies, this trend is reversing. Angioplasty may also have an edge in specific situations like patients with coexisting significant coronary arterial disease, contralateral carotid artery occlusion, and in instances when the narrowing is long and at multiple sites. Protective devices like distal occlusion balloon and filter protection devices may reduce the incidence of stroke. We are still awaiting the results of some major randomized head-to-head trials comparing carotid endarterectomy and stenting.
Effect of fructooligosaccharides and antibiotics on laying performance of chickens and cholesterol content of egg yolk

1. Nine hundred and sixty 25-week-old Lohmann Brown layers were randomly divided into 5 groups with 216 layers in each group. Layers in group one were fed a control diet, group 2 received the control diet plus 20 mg/kg zinc bacitracin and 4 mg/kg colistinsulfate, and the remaining three groups received control diet plus 2000, or 4000, or 6000 mg/kg fructooligosaccharide (FOS). 2. The results showed improvements in egg production, feed consumption and feed conversion of layers when 2000 mg/kg FOS was added to the diets. 3. The results also showed some additional improvements in the group supplemented with 2000 mg/kg FOS, including increases in egg shell thickness, yolk colour and Haugh unit, and decreases in yolk cholesterol concentration. 4. However, larger (excessive) doses of FOS did not improve the performance of layers.
Verb Retrieval in Brain-Damaged Subjects: 2. Analysis of Errors

Verb retrieval for action naming was assessed in 53 brain-damaged subjects by administering a standardized test with 100 items. In a companion paper (Kemmerer & Tranel, 2000), it was shown that impaired and unimpaired subjects did not differ as groups in their sensitivity to a variety of stimulus, lexical, and conceptual factors relevant to the test. For this reason, the main goal of the present study was to determine whether the two groups of subjects manifested theoretically interesting differences in the kinds of errors that they made. All of the subjects' errors were classified according to an error coding system that contains 27 distinct types of errors belonging to five broad categories-verbs, phrases, nouns, adpositional words, and "other" responses. Errors involving the production of verbs that are semantically related to the target were especially prevalent for the unimpaired group, which is similar to the performance of normal control subjects. By contrast, the impaired group had a significantly smaller proportion of errors in the verb category and a significantly larger proportion of errors in each of the nonverb categories. This relationship between error rate and error type is consistent with previous research on both object and action naming errors, and it suggests that subjects with only mild damage to putative lexical systems retain an appreciation of most of the semantic, phonological, and grammatical category features of words, whereas subjects with more severe damage retain a much smaller set of features. At the level of individual subjects, a wide range of "predominant error types" were found, especially among the impaired subjects, which may reflect either different action naming strategies or perhaps different patterns of preservation and impairment of various lexical components. Overall, this study provides a novel addition to the existing literature on the analysis of naming errors made by brain-damaged subjects. Not only does the study advance our knowledge of the relatively under investigated topic of action naming errors, but it also approaches the analysis from the point of view of a detailed, theoretically motivated, and reliable error coding system.
The Relationship of Mathematics Anxiety, Mathematical Beliefs, and Instructional Practices of Elementary School Teachers

Since the early 1960s, mathematics education researchers have considered the affective domain (attitudes, beliefs, opinions, motivation) as an important aspect of teaching and learning mathematics (Goldin, 2002; Mcleod, 1992). It is suggested that the affective characteristics may be the missing variable that links teachers’ instructional practices to students’ learning (Ernest, 1989a). Two affective variables strongly related to teachers’ instructional practices are mathematics anxiety and mathematical beliefs (see, e.g., Beswick, 2006; Jong & Hodges, 2013; Philipp, 2007; Wilkins, 2008). The purpose of this quantitative survey study was to explore the relationships among mathematics anxiety, mathematical beliefs, and instructional practices of practicing elementary teachers as they relate to the mathematics reform efforts promoted by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (see, e.g., 1989, 1991, 1995, 2000, 2014). The study was grounded, theoretically, in Ernest’s social constructivism as a philosophy of mathematics and mathematics teaching and learning (1998) and in his model of relating teachers’ content knowledge, attitudes, instructional beliefs, and instructional practice (1989). The study included 153 practicing elementary teachers who teach mathematics to students in Pre-K–5. These teachers completed the following online surveys: Mathematics Anxiety Scale, the Teaching Beliefs Survey and the Self-Report: Elementary Teachers Commitment to Mathematics Education Reform Survey. Quantitative data analysis methods included descriptive statistics, correlational analyses, and multiple regression analysis. Results indicated statistically significant correlational relationships between mathematics anxiety, mathematical beliefs, and instructional practices. Regression analyses were conducted to identify mathematics anxiety and mathematical beliefs as predictors of instructional practices. Results were significant for mathematical beliefs as a predictor, but not significant for mathematics anxiety as a predictor of instructional practices. Implications and recommendations for further study are discussed. INDEX WORDS: Elementary teachers, Instructional practices, Mathematics anxiety, Mathematical beliefs, Practicing teachers, Prospective teachers THE RELATIONSHIP OF MATHEMATICS ANXIETY, MATHEMATICAL BELIEFS, AND INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICES OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS
Main extracts and hypolipidemic effects of the Bauhinia racemosa Lam. leaf extract in HFD-fed hamsters

The lipid lowering effects of ethanolic extract (BR) obtained from leaves of Bauhinia racemosa on hyperlipidemic hamsters were examined. BR showed significant lowering of lipid profile at a dose of 250 mg kg−1 body-wt of hamster. Chloroform fraction (F2) obtained from BR showed pronounced activity at lower dose of 100 mg kg−1. F2 gave two most active fractions (L and T) whose chromatographic separations led to the isolation of constituents 1–5, which are being reported for the first time from this natural source. The results of activity profile of the plant were found to be better than the standard drug lovastatin.
Generalized principal component analysis (GPCA)

We propose an algebraic geometric approach to the problem of estimating a mixture of linear subspaces from sample data points, the so-called generalized principal component analysis (GPCA) problem. In the absence of noise, we show that GPCA is equivalent to factoring a homogeneous polynomial whose degree is the number of subspaces and whose factors (roots) represent normal vectors to each subspace. We derive a formula for the number of subspaces n and provide an analytic solution to the factorization problem using linear algebraic techniques. The solution is closed form if and only if n /spl les/ 4. In the presence of noise, we cast GPCA as a constrained nonlinear least squares problem and derive an optimal function from which the subspaces can be directly recovered using standard nonlinear optimization techniques. We apply GPCA to the motion segmentation problem in computer vision, i.e. the problem of estimating a mixture of motion models from 2D imagery.
Managing Hospital Volumes: Germany and Experiences from OECD Countries

To help inform a conference organised by the Germany Ministry of Health (BMG) and the OECD on ‘Managing Hospital Volumes’ on the 11th April 2013, the OECD Secretariat produced this paper giving an international perspective on Germany’s situation and the current policy debate. It provides a number of observations about the structure and financing of hospitals in Germany. It begins by arguing that Germany has a more open-ended approach to the financing of hospital services and weaker controls over the hospital budget than in many other OECD countries. In large part this reflects that DRGs in Germany are almost strictly used for pricing, whereas other countries use DRGs as one of many tools they have to influence hospital budgets. This is compounded by a situation where State governments do not have an incentive to rationalise hospital capacity where this may be desirable. Finally, the paper argues that the vast array of quality information available in Germany ought to be used to better direct financing. Afin d’apporter des informations a l’appui de la conference organisee le 11 avril 2013 par le ministere allemand de la Sante (BMG) et l’OCDE sur le theme de la « Gestion des volumes d’activite des hopitaux », le Secretariat de l’OCDE a elabore ce document, qui permet d’aborder la situation de l’Allemagne et le debat en cours selon une perspective internationale. Ce texte livre un certain nombre d’observations concernant la structure et le financement des hopitaux allemands. Il montre dans un premier temps que l’Allemagne a du financement des services hospitaliers une approche plus ouverte que de nombreux autres pays de l’OCDE, et que le budget des hopitaux y est plus faiblement controle. Cela tient en grande partie au fait que la tarification des services hospitaliers repose en Allemagne presque exclusivement sur les groupes homogenes de malades (GHM), alors que d’autres pays s’en servent plutot – avec un grand nombre d’autres outils – pour controler le budget des hopitaux. Cette situation est renforcee par le fait que les autorites des Lander ne sont pas incitees a rationaliser la capacite du secteur hospitalier, alors que cela pourrait etre souhaitable. Enfin, le document fait valoir que les nombreuses informations disponibles en Allemagne sur la qualite des soins devraient contribuer a une meilleure affectation des financements.
Evaluation of a radiometric method for pyrazinamide susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Pyrazinamide susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis requires an acid environment. By controlling the method of acidification and the quality and quantity of the inoculum, the test can be performed with the BACTEC radiometric system (Johnston Laboratories, Towson, Md.). We acidified BACTEC 7H12 medium with buffered phosphoric acid and adjusted the test inoculum to 1/10 of that usually employed in BACTEC protocols; after 5 days of growth we correctly identified 36 of 36 strains susceptible to 50 micrograms of pyrazinamide per ml. All 18 resistant strains were classified as pyrazinamide resistant. (Susceptibility or resistance had been determined by standard plate assays.) The test was able to detect small resistant populations in artificial mixtures of 1 or 2% resistant bacteria with a susceptible strain (10 mixtures each). We tested 70 M. tuberculosis strains in acidified BACTEC 7H12 medium and by the plate dilution test at pH 5.5. All strains grew in the BACTEC medium, but three strains failed to grow on plates and were not tested further; the results of both methods agreed for the remaining strains.
Electrocardiographic Ventricular Repolarization Parameters in Chronic Chagas' Disease as Predictors of Asymptomatic Left Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction

Electrocardiographic repolarization parameters are potential markers of arrhythmogenic risk and have not been evaluated in Chagas' disease. The aim of this report was to investigate their associations with LV systolic function assessed by two‐dimensional echocardiography. In a cross‐sectional study involving 738 adult outpatients in the chronic phase of Chagas' disease, maximal QTc and T wave peak‐to‐end (TpTe) intervals, and QT, QTapex (QTa), JT and TpTe interval dispersions, and variation coefficients were measured and calculated from 12‐lead standard ECGs. Clinical, radiological, ECG, and echocardiographic data were recorded. In bivariate statistical analysis, all repolarization parameters were significantly increased in patients with moderate or severe LV systolic dysfunction, and these patients showed more clinical, radiologic, and ECG abnormalities. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis demonstrated that isolatedly QTd had the best predictive performance for LV dysfunction, with an 80% specificity and 67% sensitivity for values >60 ms in the subgroup of chagasic patients with abnormal ECGs and no heart failure. Multivariate logistic regression selected, as the best predictive model for LV dysfunction in this subgroup of patients, the presence of cardiomegaly on chest X ray (OR 14.06, 95% CI, 5.54–35.71), QTd > 60 ms (OR 9.35, 95% CI, 4.01–21.81), male gender (OR 7.70, 95% CI, 2.98–19.91) and the presence of frequent premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) on ECG (OR 4.06, 95% CI, 1.65–9.97). This model showed 90% specificity and 71% sensitivity. In conclusion, QTd was associated to LV systolic function and could be used to predict asymptomatic dysfunction in chronic Chagas' disease. The presence of cardiomegaly, frequent PVCs, and male sex refined LV function stratification in these patients. (PACE 2003; 26:1326–1335)
On an optimal control problem of train operation

This paper examines the operation of a train on a variable grade profile subject to arbitrary speed restrictions. The purpose of the study is to determine a detailed program for traction and brake applications, which minimizes energy consumption in moving the train along a given route for a given time. Stated in the form of optimal control, this problem is solved by constructing a numerical algorithm which essentially exploits analytical properties of the optimal solution obtained from the maximum principle analysis. Due to its analytical origin, the algorithm has inherent accuracy and adequate quick-operation that are demonstrated in numerical examples.
Do Heritability Estimates of Political Phenotypes Suffer From an Equal Environment Assumption Violation? Evidence From an Empirical Study

Using data from the Minnesota Twins Political Survey, this paper tests for the presence of unequal environments (EEA) by zygosity in political attitudes. Equal environment measures used include shared bedroom, friends, classes, and dressing alike. Results show an EEA violation at p < . 05 in 5% of the models tested. The violations' impact on heritability estimates and their confidence levels appear random in magnitude and direction. No reasonable post hoc explanation emerged for understanding the presence of the violation in some items but not others. This article establishes reasonable priors for the absence of EEA violations in political phenotypes based on the tested environmental components. The findings place the burden on critics to present theoretical work on the specific mechanisms of EEA violations based on which additional empirical assessments could (and should) be conducted.
A New Class of Charge-Trap Flash Memory With Resistive Switching Mechanisms

This paper presents a new class of charge-trap Flash memory device with resistive switching mechanisms. We propose a fused memory scheme using a structure of metal/Pr0.7Ca0. 3MnO3 (PCMO)/nitride/oxide/silicon to graft fast-switching features of resistive random access memory onto high-density silicon/oxide/nitride/oxide/silicon memory structures. In this scheme, both program and erase (P/E) are performed by the conduction of the carriers that are injected from the gate into the nitride layer through the PCMO, which is a resistive switching material; the resistance state determines whether a program or erase function is performed. In the proposed memory devices, we observed improved memory characteristics, including the current-voltage hysteresis having a resistive ratio exceeding three orders of magnitude at a set voltage of 4.5 V, a memory window of 2.3 V, a P/E speed of 100 ns/1 ms, data retention of ten years, and endurance of 105 P/E cycles. This approach will offer critical clues about how one can best implement universal features of nonvolatile memories in a single chip.
Preliminary evaluation of antimicrobial residue levels in marketed pork and chicken meat in the Red River Delta region of Vietnam.

The presence of antibacterial in 97 pork and 83 chicken meat samples, rando mly collected fro m 3 different representative provinces (Hanoi, Hai Duong and Thai Binh) of the Red River Delta, was determined by a screening step using in parallel 2 microbiological methods (Premi ® -test and New Two Plate Test). In total, 27% of all samples displayed a positive response in at least one of both tests, from which 11 (13% of chicken samples) are ch icken samples and 38 (39% of pork samples) are pork samples. The 33 samples fro m the Thai Binh which were screened positive were then submitted to post-screening tests specific for tetracyclines and (fluoro) quinolones (Tetrasensor ® dipstick for tetracyclines and an ELISA for quinolones), two groups of antibiotics widely used in animal production in this region, and confirmed by liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. Tetracyclines and (fluoro)quinolones residues were found, using a post screening test, in 23 and 5 samp les, respectively. Ten (all pork) and 4 samples (1 pork, 3 chicken) were confirmed containing tetracyclines (chlortetracycline, o xytetracycline, tetracycline, do xycycline) and (fluoro) quinolones (nalidixic acid, enroflo xacin and ciproflo xacin) respectively, fro m which 1 and 3 pork samples were found to contain enrofloxacin and tetracycline residues , respectively, with a concentration higher than their respective MRLs. This study shows the good performance of the proposed strategy to identify non-co mpliant meat samples (microbiological screening, tetracyclines and quinolones targeted post-screening and confirmation), which allows to obtain conclusive results in 82% of the cases.
A Review on Effects of Probiotic Supplementation in Poultry Performance and Cholesterol Levels of Egg and Meat

Probiotics are live microbial food/feed ingredients that have a beneficial effect on health that stimulates the growth of beneficial microorganisms and reduces the amount of pathogens, thus improving the intestinal microbial balance of the host and lowering the risk of gastro-intestinal diseases. Probiotics can be harmful to debilitated and immuno-compromised populations. An accurate dosage of administration has yet to be established despite the wide-use of probiotics. Probiotics have antimutagenic, anticarcinogenic, hypocholesterolemic, antihypertensive, anti-osteoporosis, and immunomodulatory effects. Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, Leuconostoc, Enterococcus, Lactococcus, Bacillus, Saccharomyces, Aspergillus and Pediococcus species are most commonly used probiotics in poultry production. When supplemented to chicken probiotics improve feed-intake, growth performance, meat quality, egg production, egg quality and have cholesterol lowering potential in poultry products. However, some studies reported no significant effect of probiotics on feed-intake, production traits, products’ quality and cholesterol level.
Fetal and maternal MTHFR C677T genotype, maternal folate intake and the risk of nonsyndromic oral clefts

The association between maternal folate intake and risk of nonsyndromic oral clefts has been studied among many populations with conflicting results. The methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene (MTHFR) plays a major role in folate metabolism, and several polymorphisms, including C677T, are common in European populations. Data from a French study (1998–2001) let us investigate the roles of maternal dietary folate intake and the MTHFR polymorphism and their interaction on the risk of cleft lip with/without cleft palate (CL/P) and cleft palate only (CP). We used both case‐control (164 CL/P, 76 CP, 236 controls; 148, 59, 168 of whom, respectively, had an available genotype) and case‐parent (143 CL/P and 56 CP families) study designs and distinguished the role of the child's genotype and maternally mediated effects on risks. This study observed a beneficial effect of mothers' dietary folate intake on their offspring's risk (odds ratio (OR)≤230 µg/day = ref; for CL/P, OR[230–314 µg/day] = 0.56, 95% confidence interval = 0.3–0.9, OR>314 µg/day = 0.64, 0.4–1.1; for CP, OR[230–314 µg/day] = 1.15, 0.6–2.2, OR>314 µg/day = 0.70, 0.3–1.4). We observed a reduced risk associated with the TT genotype of the child in the case‐control analysis (ORCC = ref; for CL/P, ORTT = 0.54, 0.3–1.1; for CP, ORTT = 0.33, 0.1–1.0); this genotype, either fetal or maternal, was not statistically significant in the case‐parent analysis. A frequency of TT genotype higher in our control group than previously reported in France can partly explain the risk reduction observed in case‐control comparison. Interactions were not statistically significant. Stratified case‐parent analysis showed, however, slight heterogeneity in the role of TT genotype according to folate intake. The modest sample size limits this study, which nonetheless provides new estimate of the possible impact of dietary folate intake and MTHFR polymorphism on oral clefts. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Affective Practices, Care and Bioscience: A Study of Two Laboratories

Scientific knowledge-making is not just a matter of experiments, modelling and fieldwork. It also involves affective, embodied and material practices (Wetherell, 2012) which can be understood together as ‘matters of care’ (Puig de la Bellacasa, 2011). In this paper we explore how affect spans and connects material, subjective and organizational practices, focusing in particular on the patterns of care we encountered in an observational study of two bioscience laboratories. We explore the preferred emotional subjectivities of each lab and their relation to material practice. We go on to consider flows and clots in the circulation of affect and their relation to care through an exploration of belonging and humour in the labs. We show how being a successful scientist or group of researchers involves a careful choreography of affect in relation to materials, colleagues and others to produce scientific results, subjects and workplaces. We end by considering how thinking with care troubles dominant constructions of scientific practice, successful scientific selves and collectives.