Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Salicylate hepatotoxicity in patients with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.

Salicylates were administered to 6 patients with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis in doses sufficient to produce a serum salicylate level in excess of 25 mg/100 ml. All 6 patients developed elevations of serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase and serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase. In addition, 4 patients had other evidence of hepatic dysfunction. Abnormalities were dose-related and were reversible upon lowering the salicylate dose. Liver biopsies performed in 2 patients revealed a mononuclear cell infiltrate of portal triads in both and scattered single cell necrosis in the parenchyma in 1 case.
A Review of the Potential Factors Influencing Myopia Progression in Children Using Orthokeratology

AbstractMyopia has become a worldwide public health issue. Recent studies have consistently reported that orthokeratology (Ortho-K) significantly inhibits the progression of myopia by slowing the elongation of axial length. It has been hypothesized that this effect results from the induction of peripheral myopic defocus, which is a result of the effects of the Ortho-K lenses on the midperipheral corneal topography. Previous studies have investigated the relationship between predicting factors and the inhibitory effect of Ortho-K for slowing childhood myopic progression and found some meaningful results; however, some of the findings are controversial. To enhance the understanding of the underlying mechanism of Ortho-K in slowing childhood myopic progression, the factors affecting this process were reviewed.
State Executions, Deterrence, and the Incidence of Murder

This study employs a panel of U.S. state-level data over the years 1978–1997 to estimate the deterrent effect of capital punishment. Particular attention is paid to problems of endogeneity bias arising from the non-random assignment of death penalty laws across states and a simultaneous relationship between murders and the deterrence probabilities. The primary innovation of the analysis lies in the estimation of a simultaneous equations system whose identification is based upon the employment of instrumental variables motivated by the theory of public choice. The estimation results suggest that structural estimates of the deterrent effect of capital punishment are likely to be downward biased due to the influence of simultaneity. Correcting for simultaneity, the estimates imply that a state execution deters approximately fourteen murders per year on average. Finally, the results also suggest that the announcement effect of capital punishment, as opposed to the existence of a death penalty provision, is the mechanism actually driving the deterrent effect associated with state executions.
Participation of women in agriculture activities in District Peshawar.

This study was conducted to investigate the role of women in agriculture activities in district Peshaw ar during 2004-05. An interview schedule was used to collect data fro m a random sample of 80 respondents. Most of the farmers in research area were small landholders ranging between 2 to 4 acres. Women of study area show active participation in agriculture activities. The y spent more time on post-harvest activities then t ose pre-harvest activities. For example the study shows that pre ha rvest activities accounted for wheat, sugarcane and maize 38.72, 22.25 and 14.4 hours, respectively. The study also reveals that post harvest activities accounted for wheat, sugarcane and maize 121.55, 66.37 and 34 hours, re pectively per acre for the crops for one season. T he average daily time spent on livestock management activities wa 6.23 hours. Total income of family, number of adult males in the household and educational level showed negat ive but significant effect on women’s participation in crop production. However, the age and tenurial status of respondents had significant effect but positive re lationship to women participation. Lake of training, extension se rvices, cultural constraints and financial problems emerged as main problems encountered by women engaged in agric ulture activities. These were the major causes of dissatisfaction among women involved in agriculture activities.
TECHNOLOGY ACCEPTANCE DAN CONSUMER DECISION MODEL SEBAGAI DASAR PEMBANGUN MODEL NIAT ADOPSI TEKNOLOGI INTERNET DI KALANGAN PENGGUNA INTERNET

This research explains the model of technological adoption and perception to intention of purchase of the internet consumer in Surabaya. However, consumer behavior that was formed by purchasing intention is threatened by two theories: Technology Acceptance Models (TAM) and Consumer Decision Model (CDM). Technology Acceptance Models predicts the consumer intention to use the information system and technology. While CDM model is used to measure the effectiveness of information media. The results indicate that the models prove the hypotheses. This research indicates that the internet consumer has been using internet as a media to get information, concerning product, hence the online purchasing.
Pay-for-performance for healthcare providers: Design, performance measurement, and (unintended) effects

textabstractHealthcare systems around the world are characterized by a suboptimal delivery of healthcare services. There has been a growing belief among policymakers that many deficiencies (e.g., in the quality of care) stem from flawed provider payment systems creating perverse incentives for healthcare providers. In several countries this has led to reforms based on pay-for-performance (P4P), a payment approach in which healthcare providers receive explicit financial incentives to improve the quality and efficiency of care. Over the past decade, P4P has attracted widespread interest, with programs being uncritically implemented in many countries. In contrast to what this interest suggests, however, to date P4P does not appear to have been very effective in delivering the desired improvements. Moreover, several unintended effects have been demonstrated. In part, these disappointing results may well have been due to the limited knowledge about crucial aspects of the design and implementation of P4P. By identifying and analyzing these aspects, synthesizing empirical literature on (unintended) effects of P4P, and addressing important empirical questions about performance measurement, this thesis aims to provide insight in key conceptual and practical issues in the design and implementation of P4P for healthcare providers.
Wide-Area Measurements-Based Two-Level Control Design Considering Signal Transmission Delay

In this paper the design of power system stabilizers for small-signal stability using phasor measurements is considered. An approach based on optimal control with structural constraints is proposed to design a two-level control structure. Time delays are included in the design. The method is combined with order reduction to ensure faster convergence of the design algorithm and to facilitate the choice of the weighting matrices for damping interarea modes. The control scheme is discussed and modal analysis and time-domain simulations of two Brazilian equivalent systems are performed to assess the control performance. The robustness to loss of communication links, topological changes, and variations of time delay is evaluated.
Navigation systems teaching method based on multidisciplinary practicals

This paper presents an innovative teaching action in which a plan of multidisciplinary practicals is carried out by students from different Engineering Schools (School of Industrial Engineering and School of Computer Science of the Polytechnic University of Madrid). The final aim of the practice sessions is the development of a vehicle driving assistance system (ADAS) based on satellite positioning systems. We try to take advantage of the experience of each group in order to offer to the students a global, theoretical and applied vision. A synergy between mechanical engineering and computer engineering is produced, a true technological reflection of the automotive field where a fusion of these disciplines is essential.
Morphological priming in child German*

ABSTRACT Regular and irregular inflection in children's production has been examined in many previous studies. Yet, little is known about the processes involved in children's recognition of inflected words. To gain insight into how children process inflected words, the current study examines regular -t and irregular -n participles of German using the cross-modal priming technique testing 108 monolingual German-speaking children in two age groups (group I, mean age: 8;4, group II, mean age: 9;9) and a control group of 72 adults. Although both age groups of children had the same full priming effect as adults for -t forms, only children of age group II showed an adult-like (partial) priming effect for -n participles. We argue that children (within the age range tested) employ the same mechanisms for regular inflection as adults but that the lexical retrieval processes required for irregular forms become more efficient when children get older.
High Precision Low Complexity Matrix Inversion Based on Newton Iteration for Data Detection in the Massive MIMO

Currently, massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) is one of the most promising wireless transmission technologies for 5G. Massive MIMO requires handling with large-scale matrix computation, especially for matrix inversion. In this letter, we find that matrix inversion based on Newton iteration (NI) is suitable for data detection in massive MIMO system. In contrast with recently proposed polynomial expansion (PE) method for matrix inversion, we analyze both the algorithm complexity and precision in detail, and propose a diagonal band Newton iteration (DBNI) method, which is an approximate method for NI. Compared with PE method, DBNI can obtain higher precision and approximately equal complexity, and we give an explanation of how to select the bandwidth of DBNI.
Sell-in versus Sell-through Revenue Recognition: An Examination of Firm Characteristics and Financial Information Quality

This study examines revenue recognition methods used by high technology firms for sales to distributors. Revenue is either recognized when products are delivered to distributors (sell-in) or when distributors resell products to end-users (sell-through). This is the first empirical study to examine the firms that use these revenue recognition methods and the quality of financial information reported under the methods. I use a logistic regression to compare 479 firm-year observations in the computer and electronic equipment industries that use either the sell-in method or the sell-through method. I find that firms with higher growth opportunities and strong corporate governance are less likely to use the sell-in method. In addition, corporate governance strength moderates the association between use of the sell-in method and both capital requirements and management incentive compensation. Using ordinary least squares regression, I also examine two proxies for financial information quality: the ability of accounting information to predict future cash flows and the association between accounting information and stock returns. Results of these regressions suggest that financial information quality is higher under a deferred revenue recognition method (sell-through). Specifically, the ability of accounting information to predict future cash flows and the association between accounting information and returns are both higher for sell-through firms than for sell-in firms. The results of this study suggest that systematic differences exist between sell-in firms and sell-through firms and financial information quality differs between the two revenue recognition methods.
The role of the affect heuristic and cancer anxiety in responding to negative information about medical tests

Objective: Little is known about the affective implications of communicating negative information about medical tests. This research explored how affective processes – particularly the Affect Heuristic and cancer anxiety – influence the way in which people respond to such information. Design: Participants received different types of information about PSA screening for prostate cancer and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans for migraine headaches. This was a 2 (Test harm information: present vs. absent) × 2 (Test benefit information: present vs. absent) × 2 (Test recommendation: present vs. absent) between-participants design. Outcome Measures: Perceived risk, perceived benefit and general attitudes towards PSA and MRI testing, cancer anxiety, preferences to receive the tests vs. not. Results: As predicted by the Affect Heuristic, test harm information reduced perceived test benefits. However, information about uncertain test benefit did not increase perceived test risks. Information about the test reduced cancer anxiety, indicating defensive coping. These variables – affect, anxiety, perceived risks and benefits – all uniquely predicted test preferences. Conclusion: Affective processes play an important role in how people respond to and interpret negative information about medical tests. Information about harms and information about the lack of benefit can both make a test seem less beneficial, and will reduce cancer anxiety as a result.
BMAX: A Bag of Features Based Method for Image Classification

This work presents an image classification method based on bag of features, that needs less local features extracted for create a representative description of the image. The feature vector creation process of our approach is inspired in the cortex-like mechanisms used in "Hierarchical Model and X" proposed by Riesenhuber & Poggio. Bag of Max Features - BMAX works with the distance from each visual word to its nearest feature found in the image, instead of occurrence frequency of each word. The motivation to reduce the amount of features used is to obtain a better relation between recognition rate and computational cost. We perform tests in three public images databases generally used as benchmark, and varying the quantity of features extracted. The proposed method can spend up to 60 times less local features than the standard bag of features, with estimate loss around 5% considering recognition rate, that represents up to 17 times reduction in the running time.
Extended LMI characterizations and multiobjective synthesis for discrete descriptor systems

This paper proposes new LMI characterizations for linear discrete-time descriptor systems. These formulations not only encompass the existing results for descriptor systems, but provide an alternative angle of view for reviewing the known extended LMIs for conventional state-space systems as well. An application of these LMIs with regard to the robust analysis and multiobjective synthesis is also investigated. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed LMIs.
(Un)conventional engineering tests to predict fabrics sensorial properties

The research investigates the possibility of objectively anticipating the sensorial qualities of fabrics as an opportunity for competitiveness in textiles’ fields. To this end, three meaningful subjective sensorial perceptions for a specific sampling of fabrics have been associated with objective material properties measured through both conventional and alternative tests. The samples have been eventually assessed by three groups of panelists in three different sensorial modalities, involving touch and sight. Data from the physical and mechanical tests were then statistically related to these subjective rankings in order to identify objective properties that best anticipate specific sensorial information. Two are the main results: (a) subjective perceptions are independent from user’s professional background; (b) a specific objective property is a reliable parameter for softness sensorial anticipation. Finally, a set of tools is proposed to exploit the potentiality of the obtained results.
Detection of Intracellular Interleukin-8 in Human Mast Cells: Flow Cytometry as a Guide for Immunoelectron Microscopy

The chemokine interleukin-8 (IL-8) mediates infiltration and adhesion of neutrophils during inflammatory processes. We have previously shown that this cytokine can be produced and released by normal and leukemic human mast cells (HMC-1 cells). To assess whether and to what extent this cytokine is stored intracellularly, we investigated production and localization of IL-8 at the single-cell level by combined use of flow cytometry (FACS) and immunoelectron microscopy. Conditions necessary for optimal fixation and permeabilization of HMC-1 cells were determined by measuring changes in cell-specific light scatter parameters and by estimating cellular uptake of propidiumiodide (PI). In this way, we were able to detect IL-8 with a monoclonal antibody in stimulated cells that were microwave-fixed with a combination of paraformaldehyde (4%) and glutaraldehyde (0.1%), followed by permeabilization with saponin (0.025%). FACS analysis revealed time-dependent synthesis of IL-8 with at most 50% positively stained cells at 8–12 hr after stimulation. For pre-embedding immunogold electron microscopy, cells were treated according to the protocol established by flow cytometry. IL-8 was found to be located in specific cytoplasmic, electron-dense granules of stimulated HMC-1 cells. These results confirm and extend our previous findings by demonstrating IL-8 expression in HMC-1 cells at the single-cell level. In addition, we propose that quantitative FACS can be reliably used in a timesaving manner to establish appropriate conditions for pre-embedding immunoelectron microscopy of intracellular antigens.
EFFECTS OF DOPAMINE AND NOREPINEPHRINE ON SYSTEMIC AND HEPATOSPLANCHNIC HEMODYNAMICS, OXYGEN EXCHANGE, AND ENERGY BALANCE IN VASOPLEGIC SEPTIC PATIENTS

Dopamine is widely used to improve systemic and hepatosplanchnic hemodynamics and oxygenation during sepsis. However, some studies have suggest that norepinephrine may have beneficial effects on regional blood flow and metabolism, whereas dopamine might have deleterious effects related to redistribution of blood flow away from the intestinal mucosa or by decreasing directly the cell redox state. In 12 vasoplegic septic patients, we compared the effects of norepinephrine and dopamine on systemic and hepatosplanchnic hemodynamics, oxygenation, and energy metabolism. Catecholamines were administered in a crossover randomized order to maintain mean arterial pressure (MAP) at 80 mmHg. Hepatosplanchnic blood flow (Qspl) was determined using a continuous infusion of indocyanine green dye. Despite a similar MAP, the cardiac index was higher with dopamine than with norepinephrine (6.3 [5.3-7.3] vs. 4.3 [3.8-4.9] L·min−1·m−2) (P < 0.001). Qspl was similar with both catecholamines, but the ratio of Qspl to cardiac output was significantly lower with dopamine (23.9% [17.5-33.5]) than with norepinephrine (33.5% [25.8-37]) (P < 0.05). Although global O2 delivery and O2 consumption were higher with dopamine (782 [707-859] vs. 553 [512-629] mL·min−1·m−2, P < 0.001 and 164 [134-192] vs. 128 [111-149] mL·min−1·m−2, P < 0.001, respectively), hepatosplanchnic O2 delivery and consumption were not different. Hepatic lactate uptake was lower (0.47 [0.3-0.89] vs. 1.01 [0.69-1.34] mmol·min−1) (P < 0.01), and hepatic venous lactate-to-pyruvate ratio was higher (15.3 [7.6-21.1] vs. 11.2 [6.6-15.1], P < 0.05) with dopamine than with norepinephrine. In vasoplegic septic patients, maintaining mean arterial pressure, hepatosplanchnic hemodynamics, and oxygen exchange with dopamine requires a consequent increased cardiac output, which is responsible for an increased global oxygen demand when compared with norepinephrine. In addition, dopamine impairs the hepatic energy balance. Its position as a preferential treatment compared with norepinephrine in this context may therefore be questionable.
Output-Threshold Multiple-Relay-Selection Scheme for Cooperative Wireless Networks

An output-threshold multiple-relay-selection (OT-MRS) scheme for dual-hop multibranch cooperative wireless networks is proposed. In this scheme, the first Lc (nonordered) relays are sequentially selected out of L relays such that the SNR of the maximal ratio combined Lc relayed paths and the direct path exceeds a preset threshold. Analytical results for the performance bounds are derived. The numerical results verify the analyses and show that OT-MRS outperforms optimal single-relay selection and generalized-selection-combining-based multiple relay-selection for low to moderately high SNRs. The proposed scheme provides more flexibility in utilizing bandwidth and spatial diversity in cooperative wireless networks.
Analyses of rampant corrosion in stainless-steel retainers of orthodontic patients.

Retainers were collected from private, university, and dental labs. After viewing these corroded and control appliances using scanning electron microscopy, corroded maxillary and mandibular retainers were selected along with a control stainless-steel retainer for in-depth chemical analysis. Using electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis, monochromated Al x-rays were rastered over areas 1.5 x 0.3 mm. After survey spectra were acquired, high-resolution multiplex scans were obtained and binding energy shifts were noted. Using Auger electron spectroscopy, a spot size of approximately 30 nm was analyzed. Photos, survey scans, and depth profiles were acquired using a 3.5kV Ar(+) ion beam that was calibrated using a SiO2 standard. Via electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis, the brown stains contained Fe and Cr decomposition products in which three carbon species were present. Proteinaceous N was found as amines or amides. No Ni was present because it had solubilized. The Cr:Fe ratio indicated severe Cr depletion in the stained regions (0.2) versus the control regions (1.3). The stained regions appeared mottled, having both dark and light areas. Via AES, the dark versus light areas of the stained regions indicated that there was an absence versus a presence of both Cr and Ni. In the dark areas corrosion penetrated 700 nm; in the light areas the depth equaled 30 nm. By comparison, the passivated layer of the control retainer was 10-nm thick. After sputtering away the affected areas, all specimens had similar spectra as the control regions. The bacterial environment created the mottled appearance and induced electrochemical potential differences so that, upon reducing the passivated layer, an otherwise corrosion-resistant alloy became susceptible to rampant corrosion. An integrated biological-biomaterial model is presented for the classic case of an orthodontic acrylic-based stainless steel retainer subject to crevice corrosion.
Origin of magnetic anisotropy in doped Ce2Co17 alloys

Magnetocrystalline anisotropy (MCA) in doped Ce2Co17 and other competing structures was investigated using density functional theory. We confirmed that the MCA contribution from dumbbell Co sites is very negative. Replacing Co dumbbell atoms with a pair of Fe or Mn atoms greatly enhance the uniaxial anisotropy, which agrees quantitatively with experiment, and this enhancement arises from electronic-structure features near the Fermi level, mostly associated with dumbbell sites. With Co dumbbell atoms replaced by other elements, the variation of anisotropy is generally a collective effect and contributions from other sublattices may change significantly. Furthermore, we found that Zr doping promotes the formation of 1-5 structure that exhibits a large uniaxial anisotropy, such that Zr is the most effective element to enhance MCA in this system.