Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dependence of myocardial hypothermia tolerance on sources of activator calcium.

To determine the relationship between cardiac hypothermia tolerance and the sources of activator calcium, we selectively modified either the sarcolemmal calcium permeability by nifedipine or the sarcoplasmic reticulum function by caffeine in papillary muscles from both the rat, as a cold sensitive model, and the ground squirrel, Citellus dauricus, a deep hibernator. Both force-interval relationship and cooling performance were investigated. At 25 degrees C, the slope of the force-interval curve of the ground squirrel was nearly double that of the rat. At shorter test intervals 0.5 muM nifedipine moved the curve down with little effect at longer intervals, and the curve slope increased. Caffeine (1 mM) decreased the peak force and eliminated its dependence upon test interval. When the temperature was lowered, rat preparations showed a marked increase of resting tension and aftercontraction between 7 and 12 degrees C and became inexcitable. In contrast, they maintained contractility down to a few degrees above 0 degrees C without aftercontraction and increased resting tension in the ground squirrel. In the rat nifedipine shortened the contractions, prevented the increase of resting tension, and minimized aftercontractions, with little improvement of contractility. Caffeine prolonged the contractions, caused a striking increase of resting tension and aftercontractions, and finally disabled the contractility at about 5-10 degrees C, even in the ground squirrel. We conclude that depressed calcium influx helps to prevent hypothermic calcium overload of the cardiac cells. Good function of the sarcoplasmic reticulum is essential for tolerance of hypothermia by cardiac cells. A suggestion that may improve the hypothermic tolerance of the myocardium from nonhibernators is postulated.
Field-Weakening Capability of Interior Permanent-Magnet Machines With Salient Pole Shoe Rotors

Brushless permanent-magnet (BLPM) machines, with inherent advantages of high-power density and high efficiency, have been widely employed to achieve traction characteristics for traction applications. Generally, traction characteristics require high torque at low speed and wide field-weakening region keeping constant power. However, both conventional interior permanent-magnet (IPM) and surface-mounted permanent-magnet (SPM) machines suffer from high-speed issues in the field-weakening region. A different BLPM machine topology, the pole shoe topology, is proposed in this paper. Although the pole shoe machine is common in industrial variable speed drives employing constant torque regimes, it has not been previously considered for machines designed for a wide field-weakening region. For analysis and comparison, a conventional IPM machine, which is employed as the Nissan Leaf vehicle traction machine, is studied as a reference benchmark machine. Experimental results from this machine are used to validate the analysis presented in this paper. The design results show that the proposed pole shoe machine achieves better field-weakening performance, compared with the conventional IPM and SPM machine topologies.
Inhibition of the ATP‐sensitive potassium channel by class I antiarrhythmic agent, cibenzoline, in rat pancreatic β‐cells

1 Cibenzoline, a class I antiarrhythmic agent, was investigated for its effect on the ATP‐sensitive K+ channel of pancreatic β‐cells by the patch clamp technique. 2 In perforated patch clamp experiments, cibenzoline depolarized the membrane of single β‐cells and thereafter, caused firing of action potentials in the presence of 2.8 mm glucose. 3 Cibenzoline inhibited the activity of the ATP‐sensitive K+ channel in cell‐attached recordings in the presence of 2.8 mm glucose and evoked repetitive fluctuations of the baseline current, apparently reflecting the action potentials of the β‐cell. 4 In whole‐cell clamp experiments, time‐independent outward current was induced by depleting cytoplasmic ATP with 0.1 mm ATP and 0.1 mm ADP in the solution contained in the pipette. The outward current was inhibited by cibenzoline in a dose‐dependent manner in the concentration range of 1 μm to 100 μm and half maximum inhibition occurred at 1.5 μm. 5 Cibenzoline blocked substantially the ATP‐sensitive K+ channel current when applied at the inner side of the membrane in isolated inside‐out membrane patches. 6 It is concluded that cibenzoline blocks the ATP‐sensitive K+ channel of pancreatic β‐cells and, thereby, stimulates insulin secretion at sub‐stimulatory levels of glucose.
Beamforming technique to reduce Interference in Relay Broadcast Channel

We investigate a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) relay broadcast channel (RBC) with full cooperation between users. A beamforming and combining design is proposed based on singular value decomposition (SVD) of the channel matrix between users. Then, users can simultaneously relay each other’s information on the same frequency band with zero interference from each antenna’s transmit signal on its received signal. At the transmitter side we applied zeroforcing algorithm. For the second time slot transmission we use SVD to reduce interference between users.
Motivating the Public Employee: Fact vs. Fiction

The U.S. public has long held a number of stereotypes about the nature of governmental employees as compared to private employees, particularly with regard to their motivation and job performance. As with most stereotypes, they are based for the most part on limited evidence, have been greatly magnified in terms of importance, and have generally created a poor image of public employees and their jobs. A list of the more common stereotypes would include the following: 1. Public employees place greater value on security than do employees of private firms. (After all, that's why they chose public employment.) 2. Public employees have less concern for self-actualization. (It's well known that they have not yet moved beyond the lower levels of Maslow's need hierarchy.) 3. Public employees are more dissatisfied with their fringe benefits than employees of private firms. (Since public employees have legal restrictions on their ability to utilize the entire range of collective bargaining tactics, they have not been able to capitalize on the trend toward massive fringe benefit programs.) 4. Public employees are more dissatisfied than employees of private organizations with their level of economic rewards. (Public employees are 'known' to receive less pay for similar positions in industry. ) It is time for these stereotypes to be examined, and, if found erroneous, to be revised or discarded. Even more critically, if
Promoting Behavior Change in Botswana: An Assessment of the Peer Education HIV/AIDS Prevention Program at the Workplace

Botswana has the highest rate of HIV prevalence in the world and AIDS has now reached crisis proportions in the country. Among the initiatives implemented as a response, to promote sexual behavior change, is the Peer Education HIV/AIDS Prevention Program (PEHAPP) at the workplace. This paper assesses the impact and outcome of the PEHAPP. It concludes that the PEHAPP is having a measurable positive impact in the key areas of improving knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to risky sexual behavior which, in turn, should reduce the incidence of transmission of HIV/AIDS and other STDs over the long-term.
Systematics of fusion-fission time scales.

New pre-scission neutron multiplicity (.nu./sub pre/) data for /sup 7/Li-, /sup 16/O-, and /sup 20/Ne-induced fission are presented, spanning a fissility range from 0.60 to 0.85. Fission time scales have been deduced for two extreme assumptions regarding the mean excitation energy during fission. It is found for fusion-fission reactions that the fission time scale is independent of fissility, within a factor 1.5. A comparison of time scales deduced from . nu. /sub pre/ measurements for fast-fission with quasifission time- scales deduced from the rotation angle of the composite system allows a minimum fusion-fission time scale of 30/times/10/sup /minus/21/ s to be determined. For the most fissile system, fast-fission (fission without barrier) is shown to be up to three times faster than fusion-fission. Using a model to interpret the fusion-fission time scales, it is concluded that motion in the fission direction is strongly overdamped. This means that the dynamics of fission are dominated by a slow diffusion towards scission, and not by the potential energy surface. It is shown that such a picture can explain the observed lack of dependence of the fission time scale on fissility.
Predictors of Survival following Cardiac Arrest in Patients Undergoing Noncardiac Surgery: A Study of 518,294 Patients at a Tertiary Referral Center

Background The authors determined the incidence of cardiac arrest and predictors of survival following perioperative cardiac arrest in a large population of patients at a tertiary referral center. Methods Medical records of patients who experienced cardiac arrest in the perioperative period surrounding noncardiac surgery between January 1, 1990, and December 31, 2000, were reviewed. Logistic regression identified characteristics associated with immediate (≥ 1 h) and hospital survival, with P ≤ 0.01 considered statistically significant. Results Cardiac arrest occurred in 223 of 518,294 anesthetics (4.3 per 10,000) during the study period. Frequency of arrest for patients receiving general anesthesia decreased over time (7.8 per 10,000 during 1990–1992; 3.2 per 10,000 during 1998–2000). The frequency of arrest during regional anesthesia (1.5 per 10,000) and monitored anesthesia care (0.7 per 10,000) remained consistent. Immediate survival after arrest was 46.6%, and hospital survival was 34.5%. Twenty-four patients (0.5 per 10,000) had cardiac arrest related primarily to anesthesia. From multivariate analysis, patients who experienced arrest due to bleeding were less likely to survive hospitalization (P = 0.001). Survival was also lower for patients who experienced arrest during nonstandard working hours (P = 0.006) and for patients who had protracted hypotension before arrest (P < 0.001). Conclusions The overall frequency of arrest for patients receiving anesthesia decreased during the study period. Most arrests were not due to anesthesia-related causes, and most patients experiencing anesthesia-related arrest survived to hospital discharge. Although many factors determining survival may not be amenable to modification, the fact that arrests during nonregular working hours had worse outcomes may indicate that the availability of human resources influences survival.
The Effects of Low Self-Control and Delinquent Peers on Alcohol, Tobacco, and Drug Use in a Sample of Saudi Arabian Youth

A considerable amount of research has examined patterns of substance use and the potential explanations of it among samples from the United States and other industrialized nations. To date, however, no research has explored these issues in a sample of Saudi Arabian youth. The current study addressed this gap in the literature and examined the lifetime use of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco among Saudi Arabian youth. We also examined whether key measures from social learning theory and low self-control theory were able to account for patterns of usage. Data drawn from a sample of nearly 500 youth residing in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, were used. Analysis of the data revealed that 12.7% of youth had smoked cigarettes at least 1 time, 2.6% had consumed alcohol at least once, and 3.0% had used illegal drugs. Moreover, the results of rare-events logistic regression revealed that a measure of delinquent peers was the strongest and most consistent predictor of substance use, while a measure of low self-control was unrelated (or related in a direction opposite to that which was predicted) to the measures of substance use.
Understanding State Spending on the Arts, 1976–99

citizens and politicians to influence discretionary policy. At the federal level, arts policy appears to reflect the agendas of po litical elites rather than public demands, as illustrated by the evolution of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Funding for the program, which was founded by the Democrats in 1965 largely as a tribute to Pr? s. John F. Kennedy, increased during the first 15 years of its existence at a much more rapid rate than did the federal budget. Republicans stopped expanding the NEAs budget in the 1980s and cut it in half after gaining control of Congress in 1994. These drastic political measures did not correspond with the inten sity of public sentiment toward the arts, how ever. The only major public outcry over the NEA? the 1989-90 controversy over whether it was funding indecent, blasphemous art? had minimal immediate impact on its budget (DiMaggio and Pettit 1999; Lewis 2006). Patterns in less frequently examined state arts spending tell a somewhat different story. State arts agencies jointly spend substantially more than the NEA (Schuster 2002). In 2006, for instance, states appropriated $327.5 mil lion for the arts? more than double the NEA
Spectrum of steroid-resistant and congenital nephrotic syndrome in children: the PodoNet registry cohort.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome is a rare kidney disease involving either immune-mediated or genetic alterations of podocyte structure and function. The rare nature, heterogeneity, and slow evolution of the disorder are major obstacles to systematic genotype-phenotype, intervention, and outcome studies, hampering the development of evidence-based diagnostic and therapeutic concepts. To overcome these limitations, the PodoNet Consortium has created an international registry for congenital nephrotic syndrome and childhood-onset steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS Since August of 2009, clinical, biochemical, genetic, and histopathologic information was collected both retrospectively and prospectively from 1655 patients with childhood-onset steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome, congenital nephrotic syndrome, or persistent subnephrotic proteinuria of likely genetic origin at 67 centers in 21 countries through an online portal. RESULTS Steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome manifested in the first 5 years of life in 64% of the patients. Congenital nephrotic syndrome accounted for 6% of all patients. Extrarenal abnormalities were reported in 17% of patients. The most common histopathologic diagnoses were FSGS (56%), minimal change nephropathy (21%), and mesangioproliferative GN (12%). Mutation screening was performed in 1174 patients, and a genetic disease cause was identified in 23.6% of the screened patients. Among 14 genes with reported mutations, abnormalities in NPHS2 (n=138), WT1 (n=48), and NPHS1 (n=41) were most commonly identified. The proportion of patients with a genetic disease cause decreased with increasing manifestation age: from 66% in congenital nephrotic syndrome to 15%-16% in schoolchildren and adolescents. Among various intensified immunosuppressive therapy protocols, calcineurin inhibitors and rituximab yielded consistently high response rates, with 40%-45% of patients achieving complete remission. Confirmation of a genetic diagnosis but not the histopathologic disease type was strongly predictive of intensified immunosuppressive therapy responsiveness. Post-transplant disease recurrence was noted in 25.8% of patients without compared with 4.5% (n=4) of patients with a genetic diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS The PodoNet cohort may serve as a source of reference for future clinical and genetic research in this rare but significant kidney disease.
Reproducibility of self-reported menopause age at the 24-year follow-up of a population study of women in Göteborg, Sweden

Objective:To study the reproducibility of self-reported age at natural menopause, reported by women in their 70s, compared with menopause age reported in the initial postmenopausal period. Design:A prospective study conducted in Göteborg, Sweden, based on a random sample of the total female population, started in 1968-1969, with follow ups in 1974-1975, 1980-1981, and 1992-1993. A total of 1,009 women born in 1922, 1918, or 1914 (participation rate 90.3%), representative of women of the respective ages in the general population, participated in the initial examination in 1968-1969. Of those women reporting natural menopause some time between 1968 and 1981, 565 women recalled their menopause age in 1992. Results:The mean interval between the first and second reports was 18.3 years. The mean difference between first-reported and recalled menopause was 0.05 years. When menopause age was recalled in 1992-1993, 55.6% of the women with a natural menopause recalled their age at menopause correctly within 1 year, 22.6% underestimated their menopause age by more than 1 year, and 21.8% overestimated their menopause age by more than 1 year. Women undergoing early menopause (<45 years) tended to overestimate menopause age, whereas women undergoing late menopause (>55 years) tended to underestimate menopause age. These differences could not be explained by age, interval since menopause, smoking, exercise, education, or socioeconomic status. Conclusions:Menopause ages reported at an interval of almost 20 years showed a significant correlation. However, a regression tendency of the values toward the mean was observed, suggesting that strong correlation at the group level does not imply precision at the extremes.
Design and implementation of bandwidth-aware memory placement and migration policies for heterogeneous memory systems

Heterogeneous memory systems that comprise memory nodes based on widely-different device technologies (e.g., DRAM and nonvolatile memory (NVM)) are emerging in various computing domains ranging from high-performance to embedded computing. Despite the extensive prior work on architectural and system software support for heterogeneous memory systems, relatively little work has been done to investigate the OS-level memory placement and migration policies that consider the bandwidth differences of heterogeneous memory nodes. To bridge this gap, this work investigates the design and implementation of memory placement and migration policies for bandwidth-intensive applications on heterogeneous memory systems. Specifically, we propose three bandwidth-aware memory placement policies (i.e., bandwidth-aware interleave, random, and local policies) and a bandwidth-aware memory migration policy and implement the proposed policies in the Linux kernel. Through our quantitative evaluation based on real system software and hardware stacks, we demonstrate that the bandwidth-aware memory placement and migration policies achieve significantly higher performance than the conventional bandwidth-oblivious policies across a wide range of the DRAM-to-NVM bandwidth ratios when executing bandwidth-intensive workloads.
Putting good governance into practice III

I Introductory remarks The first report in this series introduced the Ibrahim Index of african governance and highlighted its potential to advance the evaluation of governance both in Sub-Saharan africa and further afield (Farrington, 2009a). The second report initiated a process of critical engagement with the index, discussing selected conceptual and methodological issues in order to suggest the need for several extensions to the index (Farrington, 2010). The extensions discussed in the second report were designed to supplement the index’s evaluation of national-level democratic elections with evaluation of democratic elections at the subnational (provincial and municipal) levels, thus filling what could be described as a significant gap in the index’s analytical toolkit. While the extensions discussed in the second report are broadly situated within the liberal political philosophy that underpins the Ibrahim Index, the current report moves beyond this theoretical tradition to explore the broader understandings of citizen participation encompassed by republican and, especially, deliberative political philosophies. The following discussion introduces these philosophies before proceeding to consider recent (and related) developments in local governance worldwide, focusing in particular on the creation of socalled ‘new political spaces’, or spaces distinct from both electoral democracy and non-state activism (Cornwall, 2002). 1 On the basis of these developments, and in line with the tenets of the deliberative philosophy espoused by the critical theorist Jürgen Habermas, this report proposes several further extensions to the Ibrahim Index. Together with the extensions suggested in the second report, these extensions are likely to add significant capacity to the Ibrahim Index in terms of governance evaluation in Sub-Saharan africa and elsewhere.
Dual control used in series-loaded resonant converter with SiC devices

This paper presents the performance of silicon carbide (SiC) switches in a series-loaded resonant (SLR) converter with dual control (DuC). It is shown that the SiC metal oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) with DuC increases the overall efficiency of the SLR converter compared to frequency modulation (FM). For the SiC bipolar junction transistors (BJT), the loss reduction with DuC instead of FM is not as dramatic as for the MOSFET case. Regardless of which transistor type used, the switching losses are around 20 % of the total losses at around 25 kHz. With DuC an almost constant switching frequency is used over the full voltage range compared to FM were the switching frequency increases by 13 %. Additionally a reduction of capacitive snubbers is achieved with DuC.
Management of macular edema due to central retinal vein occlusion – The role of aflibercept

Central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) can cause vision loss. The pathogenesis of CRVO involves a thrombus formation leading to increased retinal capillary pressure, increased vascular permeability, and possibly retinal neovascularization. Vision loss due to CRVO is commonly caused by macular edema. Multiple treatment modalities have been used to treat macular edema. Currently, the most common therapy used is intravitreal inhibition of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). The three most widely used agents are aflibercept, bevacizumab, and ranibizumab and they are effective at blocking VEGF. In addition, intraocular steroids can be used to treat macular edema. This review will briefly cover the treatment options and discuss in greater detail the efficacy and safety of aflibercept.
Neuropeptide blood levels correlate with mast cell load in patients with mastocytosis

To cite this article: Maintz L, Wardelmann E, Walgenbach K, Fimmers R, Bieber T, Raap U, Novak N. Neuropeptide blood levels correlate with mast cell load in patients with mastocytosis. Allergy 2011; 66: 862–869.
Recognizing Hand-Printed Letters and Digits Using Backpropagation Learning

We report on results of training backpropagation nets with samples of hand-printed digits scanned off of bank checks and hand-printed letters interactively entered into a computer through a stylus digitizer. Generalization results are reported as a function of training set size and network capacity. Given a large training set, and a net with sufficient capacity to achieve high performance on the training set, nets typically achieved error rates of 4-5% at a 0% reject rate and 1-2% at a 10% reject rate. The topology and capacity of the system, as measured by the number of connections in the net, have surprisingly little effect on generalization. For those developing hand-printed character recognition systems, these results suggest that a large and representative training sample may be the single, most important factor in achieving high recognition accuracy. Benefits of reducing the number of net connections, other than improving generalization, are discussed.