Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Height-Adjustable Desks: Energy Expenditure, Liking, and Preference of Sitting and Standing.

BACKGROUND Breaking periods of sitting with standing may prevent chronic diseases and increase energy expenditure (EE). Sit-to-stand height adjustable desks may promote workplace standing, but workers have to be willing to stand for portions of the workday. METHODS For studies 1 and 2, EE was measured during word processing while sitting in a chair and while standing. Subjects scored their liking of each posture and time they would be willing to work in each posture during an 8-hour workday. Study 2 included an intervention of replacing subjects' sitting desks with a height adjustable desk. Liking of and willingness to work in each posture were measured before and after the 12-month intervention. RESULTS EE was 7.5 kcal/h greater when standing than when sitting. Subjects liked sitting more than standing in study 1. In study 2, liking of postures did not differ or change across 12 months use of height adjustable desks. Perceived willingness to stand decreased from 4.5 h/d at baseline to 3.4 h/d after 12 months. CONCLUSIONS Standing rather than sitting increased EE by 7.5 kcal/h. Use of a height adjustable desk for 12 months did not alter the hedonic value of standing or sitting, which is promising for long-term increases in standing.
Epidemiology and cost of infection with human parainfluenza virus types 1 and 2 in young children.

To determine the morbidity, costs, and epidemiological features of lower respiratory tract infections (LRIs) due to human parainfluenza virus types 1 and 2 (HPIV-1 and HPIV-2), we evaluated 1,213 children < 6 years of age who were seen for LRIs in the emergency room of the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin and/or were admitted to the hospital for LRIs during the fall quarter of 1991. The age, sex, race, and respiratory syndrome were recorded for each child; 158 patients (13%) had respiratory samples cultured for viruses and were followed clinically for the duration of their illness. Caucasian children had croup diagnosed more often than did African-American children (relative risk [RR] = 3.12; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.43-4.00; P < .001), while African-American children more often had pneumonia (RR = 1.85; 95% CI, 1.36-2.5; P < .001). Forty-five of 70 viruses recovered were HPIV-1 (17 cases) or HPIV-2 (28 cases). Together these two viruses were recovered from 49% of children presenting with croup, 10% of those presenting with bronchiolitis, and 12% of those presenting with pneumonia. Gender- and race-associated differences were documented in the group of children infected with HPIV-2: specifically, this group included more girls than boys (RR = 1.99; 95% CI, 1.02-3.88; P < .04) and more Caucasian than African-American children (RR = 2.64; 95% CI, 1.05-6.63; P = .027). These data extrapolate nationally to approximately 250,000 emergency-room visits and approximately 70,000 hospitalizations due to HPIV-1 and HPIV-2, with a cost of $50 million for the former and $140 million for the latter.
Medical geography in Charaka Samhita

Charaka Samhita is the oldest and the most authentic treatise on Ayurveda and is the ancient medical science of India. Apart from giving information on medical conditions and their treatment; it also gives valuable information on geographical, social, and economic conditions of India. This article is an attempt to explore geographical conditions of the ancient India, its geographical position in present India and its medical significance.
Providing a Multi-fold Assessment Framework to Virtualized Collaborative Learning in Support for Engineering Education

In previous research we proposed a virtualization process of live collaborative sessions from Web discussion forums and chats with the aim to produce interactive and attractive online learning resources to be played by learners, thus having a positive effect in learner engagement. In order to enhance further learning engagement, in this paper we endow our virtualization process with a multifold assessment framework that provides effective awareness and constructive feedback to learners from the original collaborative interactions amongst group members. The re-search here presented focuses on e-assessment of collabora-tive and social learning and extends it with Learning Ana-lytics and Social Network Analysis techniques that are able to analyze and represent cognitive and social interactions underlying live collaborative sessions. The interaction data extracted from collaborative knowledge and social network-ing is integrated into the virtualized collaborative learning to produce an efficient and personalized awareness and feedback system about the collaborative activity and the so-cial behaviour of the original participants of live collabora-tion. This paper describes both the conceptual and methodological research to build our multi-fold e-assessment framework. The research is evaluated in real context of e-learning and validated by empirical data and interpretation
BER analysis of OFDM signals on frequency-selective Rician fading channels

Bit-error rate (BER) performance of coded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals on frequency-selective Rician fading channels is studied in this paper. The means and the cross-correlations of frequency-selective Rician fading channels seen by OFDM subcarriers are first derived. Then based on a pairwise error probability (PEP) analysis, the mean vector and the cross-correlation matrix are used to obtain an upper bound of the overall BER in a closed-form for coded OFDM signals. Numerical examples are presented to compare the proposed upper bound of the overall BERs and the overall BERs obtained by simulations.
Taurocholate induces changes in rat cardiomyocyte contraction and calcium dynamics.

Obstetric cholestasis is characterized by raised bile acids, and can be complicated by intrauterine death. We have shown that the bile acid taurocholate causes loss of synchronous beating, bradycardia and cessation of contraction in cultured rat cardiomyocytes [Williamson, Gorelik, Eaton, Lab, de Swiet and Korchev (2001) Clin. Sci. 100, 363-369]. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of taurocholate on cardiomyocytes further. We demonstrated a reduced rate of contraction and proportion of beating cells when rat cardiomyocytes were exposed to increasing concentrations of taurocholate (0.1-3.0 mM); more marked at higher concentrations (P<0.001). Using scanning ion-conductance microscopy, we also demonstrated reduced amplitude of contraction and calcium transients with taurocholate. Our observations indicate that taurocholate affects calcium release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum and this parallels changes in contractile function. The relationship between the contraction amplitude and calcium transient is not linear, particularly at higher concentrations of taurocholate. We observed different effects in individual cultured neonatal cells; a reversible reduction in rate and amplitude of contraction in some, and irreversible oscillatory (fibrillatory) cessation of beating in others. The effects were more marked with higher concentrations. The contraction amplitude was also reduced in adult cardiomyocytes. The changes were reversible following removal of taurocholate in adult, but not in neonatal, cardiomyocytes exposed to higher concentrations (>0.3 mM) (P<0.001). In conclusion we have demonstrated that the bile acid taurocholate can cause different types of dysrhythmia in individual cardiomyocytes. These results provide further support for the hypothesis that obstetric cholestasis may produce cardiac-related sudden intrauterine death.
Patients Know Best: Qualitative Study on How Families Use Patient-Controlled Personal Health Records

Background Self-management technologies, such as patient-controlled electronic health records (PCEHRs), have the potential to help people manage and cope with disease. Objective This study set out to investigate patient families’ lived experiences of working with a PCEHR. Methods We conducted a semistructured qualitative field study with patient families and clinicians at a children’s hospital in the UK that uses a PCEHR (Patients Know Best). All families were managing the health of a child with a serious chronic condition, who was typically under the care of multiple clinicians. As data gathering and analysis progressed, it became clear that while much of the literature assumes that patients are willing and waiting to take more responsibility for and control over their health management (eg, with PCEHRs), only a minority of participants in our study responded in this way. Their experiences with the PCEHR were diverse and strongly shaped by their coping styles. Theory on coping identifies a continuum of coping styles, from approach to avoidance oriented, and proposes that patients’ information needs depend on their style. Results We identified 3 groups of patient families and an outlier, distinguished by their coping style and their PCEHR use. We refer to the outlier as controlling (approach oriented, highly motivated to use PCEHR), and the 3 groups as collaborating (approach oriented, motivated to use PCEHR), cooperating (avoidance oriented, less motivated to use PCEHR), and avoiding (very avoidance oriented, not motivated to use PCEHR). Conclusions The PCEHR met the needs of controller and collaborators better than the needs of cooperators and avoiders. We draw on the Self-Determination Theory to propose ways in which a PCEHR design might better meet the needs of avoidance-oriented users. Further, we highlight the need for families to also relinquish control at times, and propose ways in which PCEHR design might support a better distribution of control, based on effective training, ease of use, comprehensibility of data security mechanisms, timely information provision (recognizing people’s different needs), personalization of use, and easy engagement with clinicians through the PCEHR.
Initial Ultrastructural Changes in Pore Size and Anionic Sites of the Glomerular Basement Membrane in Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Rats and Their Prevention by Insulin Treatment

Background/Aim: The present study was conducted to elucidate the mechanism(s) of the development of early diabetic nephropathy, examining ultrastructural changes employing electron microscopy, especially changes in pore size of the glomerular basement membrane (GBM) of streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetics rats. Methods: Urinary albumin excretion rate (UAE), pore size of the lamina densa of the GBM visualized directly by the tissue negative staining method, and number of anionic sites (AS) in the corresponding portion of the lamina rara externa were determined for 6 weeks in diabetic rats without and with insulin treatment. Results: The UAE of the diabetic rats increased with time and was significantly greater than that of the nondiabetic control rats after 4 weeks (p < 0.01), while insulin treatment suppressed the increased UAE of diabetic rats. The median values in both short diameter and long dimension of the pores in the diabetic group were markedly increased at the 2nd week as compared with those in the nondiabetic control rats, whereas no significant change was found in the pore size of the diabetic rats with insulin treatment. Moreover, the number of AS in the GBM of the diabetic rats was significantly (p < 0.001) decreased from the 2nd week onward. Insulin treatment also prevented a decrease in AS number in diabetic rats. Conclusions: It is suggested from these results that an impairment of barrier size selectivity occurs at a very early stage of STZ-induced diabetes in rats, which may enhance the abnormality of the charge-selective properties of the GBM. In addition, insulin treatment may protect this barrier system through normalizing blood glucose control in STZ-diabetic rats.
Miss Cutler and the Case of the Resurrected Horse: Social Work and the Story of Poverty in America, Australia, and Britain

Social workers produced thousands of case files about the poor during the interwar years. Analyzing almost two thousand such case files and traveling from Boston, Minneapolis, and Portland to London and Melbourne, "Miss Cutler and the Case of the Resurrected Horse" is a pioneering comparative study that examines how these stories of poverty were narrated and reshaped by ethnic diversity, economic crisis, and war. Probing the similarities and differences in the ways Americans, Australians, and Britons understood and responded to poverty, Mark Peel draws a picture of social work that is based in the sometimes fraught encounters between the poor and their interpreters. He uses dramatization to bring these encounters to life - joining Miss Cutler and that resurrected horse are Miss Lindstrom and the fried potatoes and Mr. O'Neil and the seductive client - and to give these people a voice. Adding new dimensions to the study of charity and social work, this book is essential to understanding and tackling poverty in the twenty-first century.
Parafoveal-on-foveal interactions in word recognition

An experiment is reported in which participants read sequences of five words, looking for items describing articles of clothing. The third and fourth words in critical sequences were defined as “foveal” and “parafoveal” words, respectively. The length and frequency of foveal words and the length, frequency, and initial-letter constraint of parafoveal words were manipulated. Gaze and refixation rate on the foveal word were measured as a function of properties of the parafoveal word. The results show that measured gaze on a given foveal word is systematically modulated by properties of an unfixated parafoveal word. It is suggested that apparent inconsistencies in previous studies of parafoveal-on-foveal effects relate to a failure to control for foveal word length and hence the visibility of parafoveal words. A serial-sequential attention-switching model of eye movement control cannot account for the pattern of obtained effects. The data are also incompatible with various forms of parallel-processing model. They are best accounted for by postulating a process-monitoring mechanism, sensitive to the simultaneous rate of acquisition of information from foveal and parafoveal sources.
Transmural temporospatial left ventricular activation during pacing from different sites: potential implications for optimal pacing.

AIMS Previous studies showed that right ventricular (RV) endocardial pacing can be deleterious even in individuals with initially normal left ventricular (LV) function. The mechanism(s) by which RV endocardial pacing may cause LV dysfunction is unknown. This study compares the temporospatial LV transmyocardial activation profiles during sinus rhythm with normal His/Purkinje conduction vs. currently utilized and proposed cardiac pacing sites. METHODS AND RESULTS Mongrel dogs were instrumented with transmural electrodes that tracked transmyocardial activation sequences at five sites in the LV. Pacing/recording catheters were positioned in the RV apex and on the RV and LV sides of the ventricular septum. An epicardial pacing electrode was also sewn to the mid-lateral LV epicardium. Electrograms were recorded during sinus rhythm and pacing from the RV endocardium, LV septum, LV epicardium and during biventricular pacing. Compared to normal sinus/His/Purkinje rhythm (NSR), RV endocardial pacing significantly (P < 0.05) prolonged transmural activation (NSR endocardium 6.1 +/- 1 ms vs. RV endocardium 23.0 +/- 2.6 ms). The highly ordered temporospatial pattern of transmural activation during sinus rhythm was replaced with dispersion and intermingling of endo-, mid-, and epicardial activation. LV epicardial and biventricular pacing did not correct these abnormalities. Only LV septal pacing achieved the transmural and transseptal activation sequences similar to sinus rhythm. CONCLUSION Clinically utilized pacing modalities, including biventricular pacing, cause abnormal transmyocardial activation. LV septal pacing results in transmyocardial activation patterns that closely resemble those seen in sinus rhythm.
Rapid subcutaneous immunoglobulin administration every second week results in high and stable serum immunoglobulin G levels in patients with primary antibody deficiencies

Subcutaneous immunoglobulin G (SCIG) infusions as life‐long replacement therapy in patients with primary antibody deficiences (PAD) is being applied increasingly. However, only a few published pharmacokinetic studies are available for this route of administration. Therefore, the pharmacokinetics of a 16% immunoglobulin G (IgG) preparation intended for subcutaneous use were investigated in patients with common variable immunodeficiency and X‐linked agammaglobulinaemia. SCIG infusions (200 mg/kg body weight) were administered to 12 adult patients every 14 days for 24 weeks (total of 144 infusions). Pharmacokinetic parameters were determined based on serum IgG trough levels and antibody levels against tetanus. The median half‐life of the total serum IgG and for the tetanus antibodies was 40·6 and 23·3 days respectively. Median in vivo recovery of serum IgG and tetanus immunoglobulins were 36% and 46% respectively. Median, preinfusion serum IgG trough levels per patient were high without major variations between infusions and ranged from 7·24 to 7·86 g/l. Safety, in terms of adverse events including systemic adverse reactions and local tissue reactions at infusions sites, was monitored throughout the study. Six mild, local tissue reactions were observed during the study in one patient. No systemic adverse reactions related to the study drug were observed and no serious other adverse event occurred during the study. It is concluded that the bi‐weekly SCIG therapy was well tolerated in the study and that it results in high and stable serum IgG levels, offering an alternative therapy regimen to patients suffering from PAD.
Extraction and modeling of self-heating and mutual thermal coupling impedance of bipolar transistors

A measurement system comprised of an ultra-low-distortion function generator, lock-in amplifier, and semiconductor parameter analyzer is used for sensitive extraction of the small-signal thermal impedance network of bipolar devices and circuits. The extraction procedure is demonstrated through measurements on several silicon-on-glass NPN test structures. Behavioral modeling of the mutual thermal coupling obtained by fitting a multipole rational complex function to measured data is presented.
Two Arabidopsis Genes (IPMS1 and IPMS2) Encode Isopropylmalate Synthase, the Branchpoint Step in the Biosynthesis of Leucine1[W][OA]

Heterologous expression of the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) IPMS1 (At1g18500) and IPMS2 (At1g74040) cDNAs in Escherichia coli yields isopropylmalate synthases (IPMSs; EC 2.3.3.13). These enzymes catalyze the first dedicated step in leucine (Leu) biosynthesis, an aldol-type condensation of acetyl-coenzyme A (CoA) and 2-oxoisovalerate yielding isopropylmalate. Most biochemical properties of IPMS1 and IPMS2 are similar: broad pH optimum around pH 8.5, Mg2+ as cofactor, feedback inhibition by Leu, Km for 2-oxoisovalerate of approximately 300 μm, and a Vmax of approximately 2 × 103 μmol min−1 g−1. However, IPMS1 and IPMS2 differ in their Km for acetyl-CoA (45 μm and 16 μm, respectively) and apparent quaternary structure (dimer and tetramer, respectively). A knockout insertion mutant for IPMS1 showed an increase in valine content but no changes in Leu content; two insertion mutants for IPMS2 did not show any changes in soluble amino acid content. Apparently, in planta each gene can adequately compensate for the absence of the other, consistent with available microarray and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction data that show that both genes are expressed in all organs at all developmental stages. Both encoded proteins accept 2-oxo acid substrates in vitro ranging in length from glyoxylate to 2-oxohexanoate, and catalyze at a low rate the condensation of acetyl-CoA and 4-methylthio-2-oxobutyrate, i.e. a reaction involved in glucosinolate chain elongation normally catalyzed by methylthioalkylmalate synthases. The evolutionary relationship between IPMS and methylthioalkylmalate synthase enzymes is discussed in view of their amino acid sequence identity (60%) and overlap in substrate specificity.
Guilt in Bereavement: A Review and Conceptual Framework

Thirty-four quantitative and 9 qualitative studies are reviewed to indicate current understanding of the nature and impact of guilt in bereavement. This overview suggests that guilt is especially prevalent among some vulnerable subgroups, and it is associated with maladaptive health outcomes. Being male, longer bereavement time, and good end-of life experience seem to be associated with less guilt feelings. However, definition ambiguity, measurement difficulties, and cultural insensitivity are evident in studies. Therefore, a multidimensional conceptualization of guilt and a structural model to guide future investigation of this phenomenon in the bereavement context is proposed.
Systematic Review of the Treatment of Periprosthetic Distal Femur Fractures

Objectives: To systematically review and compare nonoperative and operative treatments for the management of periprosthetic distal femur fractures adjacent to total knee arthroplasties. Specific operative interventions compared included locked plating, retrograde intramedullary nailing (RIMN), and conventional (nonlocked) plating. Where possible, data were pooled to arrive at summary estimates of treatment effect [odds ratios (ORs) with associated 95% confidence intervals (CIs)]. Methods: A comprehensive database search (via Pubmed, Medline, Cochrane Database, and the Orthopaedic Trauma Association database) was completed, yielding 44 eligible studies with a total of 719 fractures for analysis. Pertinent outcomes including malunion, nonunion, and the need for secondary surgical procedures were compared statistically. Results: Both locked plating and RIMN demonstrated significant advantages over nonoperative treatment. Some advantages were also observed when locked plating and RIMN were compared with conventional (nonlocked) plates. Comparison of locked plating and RIMN showed no significant differences with regard to nonunion rates (OR = 0.39, 95% CI = 0.13–1.15; P = 0.09) or rate of secondary surgical procedures (OR = 0.65, 95% CI = 0.31–1.35; P = 0.25). However, RIMN demonstrated a significantly higher malunion rate when compared with locked plating (OR = 2.37, 95% CI = 1.17–4.81; P = 0.02). Conclusions: Locked plating and RIMN offer significant advantages over nonoperative treatment and conventional (nonlocked) plating techniques in the management of periprosthetic femur fractures above total knee arthroplasties. Locked plating demonstrated a trend toward increased nonunion rates when compared with RIMN. Malunion was significantly higher with RIMN compared with locked plating.