Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Growth of Desulfovibrio in Lactate or Ethanol Media Low in Sulfate in Association with H2-Utilizing Methanogenic Bacteria

In the analysis of an ethanol-CO2 enrichment of bacteria from an anaerobic sewage digestor, a strain tentatively identified as Desulfovibrio vulgaris and an H2-utilizing methanogen resembling Methanobacterium formicicum were isolated, and they were shown to represent a synergistic association of two bacterial species similar to that previously found between S organism and Methanobacterium strain MOH isolated from Methanobacillus omelianskii. In lowsulfate media, the desulfovibrio produced acetate and H2 from ethanol and acetate, H2, and, presumably, CO2 from lactate; but growth was slight and little of the energy source was catabolized unless the organism was combined with an H2-utilizing methanogenic bacterium. The type strains of D. vulgaris and Desulfovibrio desulfuricans carried out the same type of synergistic growth with methanogens. In mixtures of desulfovibrio and strain MOH growing on ethanol, lactate, or pyruvate, diminution of methane produced was stoichiometric with the moles of sulfate added, and the desulfovibrios grew better with sulfate addition. The energetics of the synergistic associations and of the competition between the methanogenic system and sulfate-reducing system as sinks for electrons generated in the oxidation of organic materials such as ethanol, lactate, and acetate are discussed. It is suggested that lack of availability of H2 for growth of methanogens is a major factor in suppression of methanogenesis by sulfate in natural ecosystems. The results with these known mixtures of bacteria suggest that hydrogenase-forming, sulfate-reducing bacteria could be active in some methanogenic ecosystems that are low in sulfate.
Testing the Interaction Effects of Task Complexity in Computer Training Using the Social Cognitive Model

Using a Modified Social Cognitive Theory framework, this study examines the behavior modeling and lecture-based training approaches to computer training. It extends the existing Social Cognitive Model for computer training by adding the task complexity construct to training method, prior performance, computer self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and performance. A sample of 249 students from a large state university served as participants in a laboratory experiment that was conducted to determine the task complexity*training method and task complexity* self-efficacy interaction effects on performance. Structural equation modeling with interaction effects was used to analyze the data. The results show that behavior modeling outperforms lecture-based training in a measure of final performance when task complexity is high. Further, it is found that computer self-efficacy has a greater positive effect on performance when task complexity is high than when task complexity is low. Prior performance is also found to be an important variable in the model.
Strategies and Experimental Models for Evaluating Anesthetics: Effects on the Developing Nervous System

Advances in pediatric and obstetric surgery have resulted in an increase in the duration and complexity of procedures requiring anesthesia. It has been reported that anesthetic drugs cause widespread and dose-dependent apoptosis in the developing rat brain. The similarity of the physiology, pharmacology, metabolism, and reproductive systems of the nonhuman primate to that of the human, especially during pregnancy, make the monkey an exceptionally good animal model for assessing potential neurotoxic effects of anesthetics. The window of vulnerability to these neuronal effects of pediatric anesthetics is restricted to the period of rapid synaptogenesis, also known as the brain growth spurt period. To minimize the risks to children resulting from the use of anesthesia, the following questions should be addressed: What is the relationship between exposure and brain cell loss for drugs commonly used in the practice of pediatric anesthesia (inhaled anesthetics, midazolam, ketamine, and nitrous oxide)? Are there “class effects,” or does each drug need to be considered independently? Are there important interactions among the drugs used as anesthetics contributing to the risk of brain cell death? What is the likely period of human vulnerability? Pharmacogeneomic/system biology approaches have great potential for helping to advance the understanding of brain-related biological processes, including neuronal plasticity and neurotoxicity. Because of the complexity and temporal features of how developmental neurotoxicity is manifested, pharmacogenomic/systems biology approaches may prove to be useful tools for enhancing our understanding of the biological processes induced by anesthetics. Therefore, the main purpose of this review is to describe the application of these approaches and models, as well as protection strategies, especially as regards the issue of anesthetic-induced neuronal cell death during development. Much of the discussion that follows is based on experiments conducted with ketamine. This is due in part to the use of ketamine in the early studies and the volume of preclinical experimental work performed with this drug, as well as its use in anesthetic studies in developing rodents and nonhuman primates. Although ketamine use in pediatric anesthesia is relatively limited, the findings of the studies are sufficiently strong to merit concern about the N-methyl-d-aspartate antagonist drugs as a class. Our focus on ketamine should not be construed as implying that the risk of neurodegeneration with ketamine is greater, or less, than with other anesthetics. We are simply describing the effects where we have the most preclinical data.
Circumstances of first crystal methamphetamine use and initiation of injection drug use among high-risk youth.

BACKGROUND Despite the widely noted increase in crystal methamphetamine (CM) use, there are few studies on circumstances of first CM use or correlates of use among high-risk populations (e.g. street-involved youth). METHODS Street-involved youth in Vancouver, Canada, were enrolled in the At-Risk Youth Study (ARYS) prospective cohort. Extensive outreach produced a representative sample of Vancouver street youth who use illicit drugs. We examined circumstances of first CM use and factors associated with CM use among the cohort. RESULTS Among 478 participants, 339 (70.9%) had used CM previously. Despite intensive covariate adjustment, a history of CM use was associated independently with having initiated injection drug use [OR = 3.15 (95% CI: 1.89-5.2); p < 0.001]. Among those who had used CM, route of first administration included: 11 (3.2%) oral ingestion; 25 (7.4%) injected; 105 (31.0%) snorted; 231 (68.1%) smoked. The proportion of respondents reporting current CM injection was significantly greater than the proportion reporting injection as the route for first CM use (18.3% vs. 7.4%; McNemar's test p < 0.001). Ability to obtain CM the first time was reported as 'very easy' or 'easy' by 93.5% and 5.3% of participants, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Crystal methamphetamine use was independently associated with injection drug use, and significant increases in injecting as the primary mode of administration were observed when patterns of use were considered longitudinally. The easy accessibility of CM and its common use during transition into injection drug use demonstrate the need for innovative drug policy to address this growing concern.
Preliminary results of a longitudinal study of changes in cognitive function in breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy with doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide

Objectives: Recent studies suggest that standard dose chemotherapy for breast cancer may cross the blood–brain barrier. However, the evidence for chemotherapy‐induced cognitive impairments in breast cancer patients is inconsistent. The purposes of this study in a sample of newly diagnosed patients with breast cancer were to (1) evaluate cognitive function prior to the administration of chemotherapy; (2) assess changes in cognitive function over time; and (3) evaluate potential relationships between cognitive function and anxiety, depression, fatigue, hemoglobin level, menopausal status, and perception of cognitive function.
Tillage and Nitrogen Source and Rate Effects on Corn Response in Corn–Soybean Rotation

Conservation tillage systems present a challenge for integrating an efficient fertilizer program for corn (Zea mays L.) production in the U.S. Midwest and elsewhere. The objective of this study was to evaluate corn response to three tillage systems (no-tillage, strip-tillage, and chisel plow) and four N rates (0, 85, 170, and 250 kg N ha 21 )o f liquid swine manure and commercial fertilizer in a corn–soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr. ] rotation. A 3-yr study from 2002 to 2004 was conductedonaKenyonsoil(fine-loamy,mixed,mesicTypicHapludoll) at the Iowa State University Northeast Research and Demonstration Farm near Nashua, IA. The experimental design was a randomized complete block with split plots. Tillage and N rates were randomly assigned as main plot and subplot treatments, respectively. Corn grain yield and aboveground biomass response to different tillage systems were not significantly different for all N rates of both N sources; however, the biomass yield at different growth stages with different N sources, tillage, and N rates were inconsistent. There were no interaction effects of tillage and N rates on yields, except in a few cases. The 3-yr average of maximum (MNR) and economic optimal (EONR) N rates (182 and 174 kg N ha 21 , respectively) across all tillage systems with liquid manure produced identical maximum (MGY) and economic optimum (EOGY) grain yields of 11.7 Mg ha 21 . In contrast, the MNR and EONR (176 and 144 kg N ha 21 , respectively) with commercialfertilizerNproducedaMGYandanEOGYof11.2and11. 1Mg ha 21 , respectively.
The computerized adaptive diagnostic test for major depressive disorder (CAD-MDD): a screening tool for depression.

OBJECTIVE To develop a computerized adaptive diagnostic screening tool for depression that decreases patient and clinician burden and increases sensitivity and specificity for clinician-based DSM-IV diagnosis of major depressive disorder (MDD). METHOD 656 individuals with and without minor and major depression were recruited from a psychiatric clinic and a community mental health center and through public announcements (controls without depression). The focus of the study was the development of the Computerized Adaptive Diagnostic Test for Major Depressive Disorder (CAD-MDD) diagnostic screening tool based on a decision-theoretical approach (random forests and decision trees). The item bank consisted of 88 depression scale items drawn from 73 depression measures. Sensitivity and specificity for predicting clinician-based Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders diagnoses of MDD were the primary outcomes. Diagnostic screening accuracy was then compared to that of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). RESULTS An average of 4 items per participant was required (maximum of 6 items). Overall sensitivity and specificity were 0.95 and 0.87, respectively. For the PHQ-9, sensitivity was 0.70 and specificity was 0.91. CONCLUSIONS High sensitivity and reasonable specificity for a clinician-based DSM-IV diagnosis of depression can be obtained using an average of 4 adaptively administered self-report items in less than 1 minute. Relative to the currently used PHQ-9, the CAD-MDD dramatically increased sensitivity while maintaining similar specificity. As such, the CAD-MDD will identify more true positives (lower false-negative rate) than the PHQ-9 using half the number of items. Inexpensive (relative to clinical assessment), efficient, and accurate screening of depression in the settings of primary care, psychiatric epidemiology, molecular genetics, and global health are all direct applications of the current system.
Zonal Reduction of Large Power Systems: Assessment of an Optimal Grid Model Accounting for Loop Flows

In development studies carried out on large power systems, a need may arise for a reduction in which whole regions are seen as the nodes of a simplified graph whose edges replace the inter-regional links. The property required from this kind of backbone representation may be that reduced load flows stay close to their physical counterpart on the full grid. In the dc approximation, such a model can consist of a set of impedances attached to each edge, along with a flow characterizing a particular state of the system. The identification of the model accommodating best a large sample of flows, representative of all of their possible diversity, is a nonconvex problem for which two partially convex reformulations are proposed. Simple ad hoc algorithms are introduced as a way to find approximate solutions satisfying first-order optimality conditions.
Clinical relevance of hypercoagulability and possible hypofibrinolysis associated with estrone and estriol

Estrone (E1) and Estriol (E3) are endogenous female hormones, present in increased concentrations during female specific physiological processes (menopause and pregnancy respectively) that are associated with increased venous thrombotic risk. These hormones are also used as hormone therapies that are also associated with increased thromboembolism risk. Viscoelastic analysis revealed no significant difference to clot formation after hormone addition, however morphological analysis showed that the addition of both E1 and E3 result in fibrin clots composed of thinner fibrin fibers arranged in dense matted networks. These changes to the fibrin network ultrastructure are indicative of a prothrombotic state but may also indicate hypofibrinolysis. We therefore conclude that the increased risk of venous thrombosis during pregnancy and menopause may originate from a combination of hypercoagulation and a possible hypofibrinolytic mechanism of these hormones. Therefore females with a hypercoagulable tendency that fall pregnant or enter menopause need to be monitored to prevent venous thrombotic events. The decision to use hormone therapies during and after menopause should not be taken lightly and the risk‐reward scale should be closely examined to ensure it does not tip towards thrombosis and subsequent thrombotic events that ultimately could have been prevented.
Update on minimally invasive hemodynamic monitoring in thoracic anesthesia

Purpose of review Advanced hemodynamic monitoring is indispensable for adequate management of patients undergoing major surgery. This article will summarize minimally invasive hemodynamic monitoring technologies and their potential use in thoracic anesthesia. Recent findings According to their inherent principle, currently available technologies can be classified into four groups: bioimpedance and bioreactance, applied Fick's principle, pulse wave analysis and Doppler. All devices measure stroke volume and cardiac output. Functional hemodynamic variables and volumetric parameters have been integrated in some devices. Two major indications can be identified: the ‘hemodynamically unstable’ patient and the patient ‘at risk’ for hemodynamic instability. Although there is evidence for the first indication, pre-emptive hemodynamic therapy or perioperative hemodynamic optimization for the patient ‘at risk’ is still an issue of ongoing debate. There is a growing body of evidence that this approach can positively influence patients’ outcome with less postoperative complications in selected patient groups. Summary Many different minimally invasive hemodynamic monitoring devices have been developed and clinically introduced in the last years. They offer the advantage of being less invasive and easier to use. However, these techniques have several limitations and data are scarce in patients undergoing thoracic anesthesia, preventing their widespread use so far.
Endoscopic management of upper-tract urothelial carcinoma

ABSTRACT Introduction: Radical nephroureterectomy with an ipsilateral bladder cuff is the referent standard for management of muscle-invasive, high-grade, or bulky upper-tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC). Nonetheless, certain patients with UTUC have imperative or elective indications for kidney preservation thereby lending to more conservative strategies for management of this disease. Areas covered: A review of the PubMED and Medline databases was performed to identify original scientific and review articles discussing retrograde ureteroscopic or percutaneous antegrade resection of UTUC tumors published between 1995 and 2016. Comparative studies with radical nephroureterectomy were also included. Expert commentary: Endoscopic ablative treatments via retrograde or antegrade approaches may appropriately treat small, solitary, and low risk UTUC tumors. Recurrences in the ipsilateral upper-tract and bladder distal to the original tumor can occur following nephron-sparing treatments and therefore a vigilant surveillance program with a compliant patient is essential when pursuing this treatment approach.
Impact of alcohol use and bar attendance on smoking and quit attempts among young adult bar patrons.

OBJECTIVES We examined cigarette smoking and quit attempts in the context of alcohol use and bar attendance among young adult bar patrons with different smoking patterns. Methods. We used randomized time location sampling to collect data among adult bar patrons aged 21 to 26 years in San Diego, California (n = 1235; response rate = 73%). We used multinomial and multivariate logistic regression models to analyze the association between smoking and quit attempts and both drinking and binge drinking among occasional, regular, very light, and heavier smokers, controlling for age, gender, race/ethnicity, and education. RESULTS Young adult bar patrons reported high rates of smoking and co-use of cigarettes and alcohol. Binge drinking predicted smoking status, especially occasional and very light smoking. All types of smokers reported alcohol use, and bar attendance made it harder to quit. Alcohol use was negatively associated with quit attempts for very light smokers, but positively associated with quitting among heavier smokers. CONCLUSIONS Smoking and co-use of cigarettes and alcohol are common among young adult bar patrons, but there are important differences by smoking patterns. Tobacco interventions for young adults should prioritize bars and address alcohol use.
Surgical treatment of intracranial cavernous angiomas

We present a surgical series of 35 patients (25 males and 10 females) with histopathologically verified intracranial cavernous angiomas. The 35 malformations were located as follows: 21 were in the cerebral hemispheres; 4 in the lateral ventricles, 4 in the brain stem; and 6 in the cerebellum. Seizures and focal neurological deficits were the main clinical features observed in patients with intracranial cavernous angiomas. A number of these vascular malformations were misdiagnosed by computerized tomography. In the last 10 years, magnetic resonance imaging has been the most sensitive method for detecting these lesions. Thirty-five cavernous angiomas were treated surgically; in 33 patients a complete excision, and in 2 patients subtotal excision were obtained. One of the patients died one year after the operation. The overall outcome was good in all of the 34 remaining patients, resulting in improved seizure control or neurological deficit. The rationale for neurologic differential diagnosis and surgical treatment and follow up results are discussed.
Baby Hair, Mercury Toxicity and Autism

Concerns continue to be raised regarding the potential role of mercury exposure in the etiology of autism. In a recent article published in this journal (“Reduced Levels of Mercury in First Baby Haircuts of Autistic Children”), Holmes, Blaxill, and Haley (2003) report intriguing findings of higher reported mercury exposure but lower mercury levels in baby hair of children with autism compared to control children and in children with severe autism compared to those more mildly affected. At least five interesting, testable hypotheses can be derived from the Holmes et al. report.
3D human detection and tracking on a mobile platform for situation awareness

The vision of robots supporting the human in daily life encouraged research in the area of mobile robots in the recent past. The robots are meant to share the same environment and they are supposed to deal with the same requirements like the human in order to be able to assist the human in his tasks. But, the dynamic and highly complex human environment makes it affordable to implement algorithms, which enable the robot to deal with the arising requirements. Thereby, such algorithms are based on sensing and interpretation of the environment. Here, the following thesis applies by achieving a solid basement for the robot’s situation awareness. Situation awareness can be divided into four categories, whereas the ﬁrst three categories sense and interpret the environment and the fourth predicts the gathered knowledge into the future in order to adapt the aspired actions. The thesis provides a solution to the ﬁrst three categories, which implement the perceptual part of situation awareness. The ﬁrst category deals with the sensing of the environment. Here, a complete scene analysis by building an articulated scene model by observation of the Vista space is pro- posed. The model inherits different abstract scene parts, which are the static background, movable objects like e.g. chairs and moving objects like humans, which are all revealed by a single model building process. The second category deals with a temporal linking of information, which is especially difﬁcult on a moving platform. In addition to a map, the most important information for a mobile robot is the information of positions and walking paths of present humans. Utilising the dynamic movements of humans the robot is able to calculate a safe path through the environment. Here, a dynamic human detection and tracking system is introduced, which is able to create temporal links between human occurrences even in the presence of challenging ego motion and scene changes. The third category of situation awareness is implemented through a top-down visual attention system, which directs the focus of attention onto desired objects, humans or locations. As the main purpose of a mobile robot is the interaction with the human, it is proposed to use a human model in combination with the top-down directed visual search. The model represents more precise the diverse appearance of the human. This way, the robot is able to recover aspired humans or interaction partners, if they were absent for a short time. For each category experiments are conducted to show the performance of my solutions. The results show that each category implementation provides solid and stable information, which support the robot in achieving a broad situation awareness.
Evaluation of islanding detection of systems with fixed speed wind turbines

This paper provides an analysis of the performance of the under/over frequency and under/over voltage relays for islanding detection of fixed-speed wind turbines. This analysis is based on the performance curves and nondetection zones graphics, which are determined by dynamic simulations using SimPowerSystems/MatLab, FAST (Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures, and Turbulence) and TurbSim. The presented nondetection zones are constructed considering variations of: reactive power compensation, mean wind and detection times. Analyses on the performance curves are developed, and the influence of the active and reactive power mismatches on the voltage and frequency variations are realized.