Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Plasma volume after heat acclimation: Variations due to season, fitness and methods of measurement.

PURPOSE The reported magnitude of plasma volume increase (Δ%PV) following heat acclimation (HA) varies widely. Variations may result from differences in measurement techniques, season and subjects' fitness. This report compares direct and indirect measurements of Δ%PV after 10 days of HA from studies in winter (WIN, n = 8) and summer (SUM, n = 10) in men, age 21-43 yr, at two fitness levels (VO(2)max: 35 and 51 ml/min/kg). Direct measurements were made before and after HA (cycling at 30% of VO(2)max at 50 °C, for 100 min/day) by carbon monoxide (CO) rebreathing and compared with indirect estimates from changes in hematocrit, hemoglobin and plasma protein concentration. RESULTS Overall, Δ%PV by CO was small (2.9%) and greater in SUM than WIN (5.0 vs. 0.3%). Red cell, blood and plasma volumes/kg lean body mass increased in SUM and decreased in WIN, the difference being significant, and Δ%PV by CO was similar for high and low VO(2)max. CONCLUSION Overall, indirect estimates of Δ%PV by hemoglobin and hematocrit were similar to CO, but tended to differentiate by fitness and not season. The difference in THb increase in SUM and decrease in WIN was significant. This probably accounts for the differences from the seasonal and fitness results by the direct CO method.
Institutional and Political Sources of Legislative Change: Explaining How Private Organizations Influence the Form and Content of Consumer Protection Legislation

This article explores how private organizations influence the content and meaning of consumer protection legislation. I examine why California forced consumers to use a private dispute resolution system that affords consumers fewer rights, while Vermont adopted a state‐run disputing structure that affords consumers greater rights. Drawing from historical and new institutional theories, I analyze twenty‐five years of legislative history, as well as interviews with drafters of the California and Vermont laws, to show how automobile manufacturers weakened the impact of a powerful California consumer warranty law by creating dispute resolution venues. As these structures became institutionalized in the lemon law field, manufacturers reshaped the meaning of legislation. Unlike California, the political alliances in Vermont and a different developmental path led to a state‐run dispute resolution structure. I conclude that how social reform laws are designed and how businesses influence social reform legislation can increase or decrease the achievement of a statute's social reform goals.
Positive correlation between parity and incidence of thyroid cancer: New evidence based on complete Norwegian birth cohorts

We have examined the effect of parity on the incidence of thyroid cancer within a hazard model framework, using individual data on all (1.1 million) Norwegian women born 1935‐1969. This unique data source was established by linking information from the Cancer Registry with maternity histories derived from the Central Population Register of Norway. The relative effects on the total incidence of thyroid cancer, net of age, place residence and birth cohort, are 1.00 for the childless (arbitrarily chosen baseline group), 1.13 for parity I, 1.30 for parity 2, 1.39 for parity 3 and 1.46 for parity 4+. The latter 3 figures are significantly higher than 1.00. The effects are larger for follicular carcinoma, and for this type of thyroid cancer there are also indications of a recent‐pregnancy effect. Among women with 2 or more children, those who became pregnant less than 45 months previously have a higher cancer incidence than others at the same parity. Moreover, we have found that parity has virtually the same effect at all ages, in all birth cohorts and in both parts of the country. Age at first birth as well as the length of the interbirth interval appear to be unrelated to the thyroid‐cancer risk. Our findings are consistent with previous case‐control studies from other countries.
Sleep estimates using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).

STUDY OBJECTIVES Although currently more affordable than polysomnography, actigraphic sleep estimates have disadvantages. Brand-specific differences in data reduction impede pooling of data in large-scale cohorts and may not fully exploit movement information. Sleep estimate reliability might improve by advanced analyses of three-axial, linear accelerometry data sampled at a high rate, which is now feasible using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). However, it might take some time before these analyses become available. To provide ongoing studies with backward compatibility while already switching from actigraphy to MEMS accelerometry, we designed and validated a method to transform accelerometry data into the traditional actigraphic movement counts, thus allowing for the use of validated algorithms to estimate sleep parameters. DESIGN Simultaneous actigraphy and MEMS-accelerometry recording. SETTING Home, unrestrained. PARTICIPANTS Fifteen healthy adults (23-36 y, 10 males, 5 females). INTERVENTIONS None. MEASUREMENTS Actigraphic movement counts/15-sec and 50-Hz digitized MEMS-accelerometry. ANALYSES Passing-Bablok regression optimized transformation of MEMS-accelerometry signals to movement counts. Kappa statistics calculated agreement between individual epochs scored as wake or sleep. Bland-Altman plots evaluated reliability of common sleep variables both between and within actigraphs and MEMS-accelerometers. RESULTS Agreement between epochs was almost perfect at the low, medium, and high threshold (kappa = 0.87 ± 0.05, 0.85 ± 0.06, and 0.83 ± 0.07). Sleep parameter agreement was better between two MEMS-accelerometers or a MEMS-accelerometer and an actigraph than between two actigraphs. CONCLUSIONS The algorithm allows for continuity of outcome parameters in ongoing actigraphy studies that consider switching to MEMS-accelerometers. Its implementation makes backward compatibility feasible, while collecting raw data that, in time, could provide better sleep estimates and promote cross-study data pooling.
Reducing the Number of Comparators in Multibt $\Delta \Sigma $ Modulators

Multibit feedback, being one way of lowering DeltaSigma modulators power consumption, has a major obstacle: the number of components in the internal analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC). Nevertheless, the number of comparators in the ADC can be significantly reduced depending on the order of noise-shaping and the oversampling ratio. In this paper, we propose an auto-ranging algorithm with a mechanism to keep the structure stable that emulates more quantization levels than that allowed by the number of comparators. As the recourse to segmented DACs allows lowering the complexity of the mismatch shaping encoder, the auto-ranging ADC brings the benefits of multibit feedback without the usual increase in size and power consumption. The internal number of bits in DeltaSigma modulators is no more restricted by the difficulty of building the flash ADC with a low voltage supply.
Genotoxicity Assessment of Mercuric Chloride in the Marine Fish Therapon jaruba

Coal mining adversely affects the eco-system as a whole. It is important to conduct suitable assessment studies to learn the potential adverse impact of mining on agriculture. In the subsequent discussions an attempt has been made to clarify the coal mining activities and its residual impact on environment and agricultural activities.The leaseholds for the underground mines are procured from the land lords who grantmining authority the right for underground coal mining. The land for houses, dwellings and the associated activities are purchased piecemeal from different sources while large portion of the surface right remained under the control of farmers and landlords. Underground mining in these areas is conducted with full responsibility of the surface protection by the operators who normally maintain pillars as the natural support to the surface features. Increasing demand for open caste mining process requires huge land. These lands sometime are acquired at the cost of cultivable land. Coal mining has direct impact over agriculture in the study region and residual impacts of mining bring far reaching consequences. The present study is explanatory in nature based on empirical facts collected from various formal sources from Coal India office. The task is to bring out the issues related to coal mining activities and their impact on vegetation and agriculture in adjoining areas in Raniganj and Jharia coalfields in India through this study .
Analysis and calibration of process variations for an array of temperature sensors

This paper presents an analysis and calibration of process variations for an array of temperature sensors, which are incorporated into a CMOS image sensor chip. Making use of the experimental results of more than 500 temperature sensors implemented on the same chip, the proposed calibration method has removed their process variations from 14.3 % to 2.5 % (3 sigma).
Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (B-CLL) and Immunocytoma (LP-IC): Clinical and Prognostic Relevance of this Distinction.

The Kiel classification of non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL) has established chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) and immunocytoma (LP-IC) as separate entities of low-grade malignant NHL by morphological and immunohistochemical criteria. The clinical and prognostic relevance of this discrimination was evaluated in a prospective multicenter observation study by the Kiel Lymphoma Study Group. From 1975 to 1980, 430 previously untreated patients with B-CLL (n = 217) and LP-IC (n = 213)a were recruited and followed for up to 14 years. While the age and sex distribution and the incidence of clinical stages were quite similar in both entities major differences between initial manifestations in B-CLL and LP-IC became evident, e.g. in the incidence of bone marrow infiltration (99.5 vs. 86%), peripheral blood lymphocytosis (99.5 vs. 60%), or monoclonal gammopathy (1 vs. 30%). A strictly localized tumor (Ann Arbor stage I/IE) was seen in only 1.5% of the LP-IC patients who were successfully treated by local radiotherapy. In all other patients an expectative-palliative treatment concept was pursued. Long-term survival data analysis revealed significant differences between B-CLL and LP-IC and identified the pseudofollicular in B-CLL and the lymphoplasmacytic in LP-IC as the most favorable histological subtypes. The discriminative prognostic potential of clinical stage (Rai or Binet classification) for B-CLL and LP-IC varied and the pattern of prognostic risk factors obtained by multivariate analysis was not identical. Thus, the morphological distinction between B-CLL and LP-IC correlates with characteristic differences between these entities both in their initial clinical presentation and long-term prognosis.
Child care arrangements and repeated ear infections in young children.

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to assess the association between child care arrangements and repeated ear infections in young children. METHODS Data on 5818 children younger than 6 years of age were taken from the 1988 National Health Interview Survey of Child Health. RESULTS Seventeen percent of the children had had repeated ear infections in the year preceding the interview. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that factors significantly associated with repeated ear infections were age (1 to 2 years), race (White), sex (male), and medical history (repeated tonsillitis, enlarged adenoids, or asthma). When these factors were controlled for, children in a current child care arrangement still had a 50% higher chance of repeated ear infections than did children not in care. Children in day care centers were at higher risk than children cared for in homes. Care in settings with more than six children elevated the risk, but hours per week of care did not. CONCLUSIONS Decreasing the risk of repeated ear infections in young children in out-of-home child care settings may require smaller group sizes. Given the increasing use of child care, research should continue to identify specific aspects of child care that contribute to this problem.
The Pathogenesis of Pulmonary Edema in Acute Pancreatitis

Acute pulmonary edema appeared 3 or more days after the onset of acute pancreatitis in 7 patients, an approximate incidence of 8%. The severity of pancreatitis in these patients was characterized by massive requirements for intravenous colloid and by marked hypocalcemia. In addition, at least 5 of the 7 patients had very high serum levels of triglycerides at the time of hospital admission. Hemodynamic studies during pulmonary edema showed normal central venous pressure, pulmonary artery pressure, pulmonary capillary wedge pressure, and pulmonary vascular resistance. Cardiac index was appropriately elevated. Respiratory treatment, consisting of endotracheal intubation and controlled ventilation with PEEP, was successful in allowing reversal of the pulmonary injury and recovery of respiratory function within 1-2 weeks in all cases. Two patients died later from pancreatic abscesses. The findings indicate that a distinct form of pulmonary injury may occur in acute pancreatitis, characterized by loss of integrity of the alveolar-capilllary membrane, leading to pulmonary edema. The mechanism of injury is not known but may be caused by circulating free fatty acids, phospholipase A, or vasoactive substances. The pulmonary membrane lesion appears to heal during the period of intensive respiratory support.
Imaging in endometrial carcinoma

Abstract Endometrial carcinoma (EC) is the most common gynecologic malignancy in the United States. Prognosis depends on patient age, histological grade, depth of myometrial invasion and/or cervical invasion, and the presence of lymph node metastases. Although EC is staged surgically according to the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) system, preoperative imaging can assist in optimal treatment planning. Several imaging techniques such as transvaginal ultrasonography (TVUS), computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have been used as diagnostic tools for preoperative staging of EC. Recently, positron emission tomography (PET), PET/CT, and PET/MRI have also been used in staging these patients. In this article, we review the value of imaging in diagnosis, staging, treatment planning, and detection of recurrent disease in patients with EC.
The sleeper effect of intimate partner violence exposure: long-term consequences on young children's aggressive behavior.

BACKGROUND Children who have been exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) experience a wide variety of short-term social adjustment and emotional difficulties, including externalizing behavioral problems such as aggression. While children are affected by IPV at all ages, little is known about the long-term consequences of IPV exposure at younger ages. Because early experiences provide the foundation for later development, children exposed to IPV as an infant or toddler may experience worse negative outcomes over time than children never exposed. METHODS Using the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW), latent growth curve modeling was conducted to examine whether early IPV exposure occurring between birth and age three (n = 107), compared with no exposure (n = 339), affects the development of aggressive behavior over 5 years. This modeling allowed for empirical exploration of developmental trajectories, and considered whether initial social development trajectories and change over time vary according to early IPV exposure. RESULTS Children who were exposed to more frequent early IPV did not have significantly different aggressive behavior problems initially than children who were never exposed. However, over time, the more frequently children were exposed between birth and 3 years, the more aggressive behavior problems were exhibited by age eight. CONCLUSIONS Results indicate a long-term negative behavioral effect on children who have been exposed to IPV at an early age. An initial assessment directly following exposure to IPV may not be able to identify behavior problems in young children. Because the negative effects of early IPV exposure are delayed until the child is of school age, early intervention is necessary for reducing the risk of later aggressive behavior.
Static Solutions to the Einstein-Vlasov System with a Nonvanishing Cosmological Constant

We construct spherically symmetric static solutions to the Einstein--Vlasov system with nonvanishing cosmological constant $\Lambda$. The results are divided as follows. For small $\Lambda>0$ we show the existence of globally regular solutions which coincide with the Schwarzschild--deSitter solution in the exterior of the matter regions. For $\Lambda<0$ we show via an energy estimate the existence of globally regular solutions which coincide with the Schwarzschild--anti-deSitter solution in the exterior vacuum region. We also construct solutions with a Schwarzschild singularity at the center regardless of the sign of $\Lambda$. For all solutions considered, the energy density and the pressure components have bounded support. Finally, we point out a straightforward method for obtaining a large class of global, nonvacuum spacetimes with topologies $\mathbb R\times S^3$ and $\mathbb R\times S^2\times \mathbb R$ which arise from our solutions as a result of using the periodicity of the Schwarzschild--deSitter.
Epidemiology and outcome of infections due to Aspergillus terreus: 10‐year single centre experience

Aspergillus terreus, a less common pathogen, appears to be an emerging cause of infection at our institution, the Medical University Hospital of Innsbruck. Thus the epidemiology and outcome of A. terreus infections over the past 10 years was assessed. We analysed 67 cases of proven invasive aspergillosis (IA) according to the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer/Mycoses Study Group criteria, investigated antifungal susceptibility of amphotericin B (AMB), voriconazole and caspofungin and performed molecular typing of A. terreus. Patients with proven IA caused by A. terreus (n = 32) and non‐A. terreus (n = 35) were evaluated. The two groups were comparable in terms of age, gender, underlying disease, antifungal prophylaxis and duration of neutropenia (P > 0·05). Leukaemia was the most common underlying malignancy. Fungal dissemination occurred in 63% of the patients. Aspergillus terreus infections were associated with a lower response rate to AMB therapy (20%), compared with 47% for patients with non‐A. terreus infections (P < 0·05). In vitro, A. terreus was found to be resistant to AMB and molecular typing discriminated between patients isolates, showing a high strain diversity with 26 distinct types (I‐XXVI) identified by combination of three primers. Aspergillus terreus infections displayed evidence of AMB resistance in vitro and in vivo and were associated with a high rate of dissemination and poor outcome; A. terreus causes systemic infections of endemic character in Tyrol, Austria. The onset of A. terreus infection depends not on the degree of immunosuppression but on environmental Aspergillus spp. exposure.
Exploring the Eye-Movement Patterns as Chinese Children Read Texts: A Developmental Perspective.

This study was to investigate Chinese children's eye patterns while reading different text genres from a developmental perspective. Eye movements were recorded while children in the second through sixth grades read two expository texts and two narrative texts. Across passages, overall word frequency was not significantly different between the two genres. Results showed that all children had longer fixation durations for low-frequency words. They also had longer fixation durations on content words. These results indicate that children adopted a word-based processing strategy like skilled readers do. However, only older children's rereading times were affected by genre. Overall, eye-movement patterns of older children reported in this study are in accordance with those of skilled Chinese readers, but younger children are more likely to be responsive to word characteristics than text level when reading a Chinese text.
Induction of clonal monocyte-macrophage tumors in vivo by a mouse c-myc retrovirus: rearrangement of the CSF-1 gene as a secondary transforming event

A mouse retrovirus containing the c-myc oncogene was found to induce tumors of mononuclear phagocytic cells in vivo. All tumors expressed the c-myc retroviral gene but not the endogenous c-myc gene (with one exception), and virtually all tumors were clonal with a unique proviral integration. This observation, coupled with a lag time in tumor formation, suggests that a second event, in addition to c-myc proviral integration, is necessary for the generation of neoplastic cells in vivo. All of the tumor cells expressed high levels of mRNA for both the putative colony-stimulating factor 1 (CSF-1) receptor (c-fms proto-oncogene product), as well as the c-fos proto-oncogene. Although all of the tumor cells proliferated in culture without the addition of exogenous CSF-1, which is required for the proliferation of primary macrophages partially transformed by the same c-myc retrovirus, several phenotypes were observed with respect to the expression of CSF-1 and granulocyte-macrophage CSF and to their growth factor responsiveness. The proliferation of one tumor, which secreted high levels of CSF-1, was blocked by specific anti-CSF-1 serum. This tumor was found to express altered CSF-1 mRNA and to have a DNA rearrangement at the CSF-1 locus. In this particular case, the data indicate that a CSF-1 gene rearrangement was the secondary event in development of the tumor. The pleiotropy of phenotypes among the other tumors indicated that there are a variety of other mechanisms for such secondary events which can be investigated with this system.
The relationship between glaucoma and pseudoexfoliation: the Blue Mountains Eye Study.

OBJECTIVE To quantify the relationship between pseudoexfoliation (PXF) and open-angle glaucoma, ocular hypertension, and intraocular pressure (IOP) in a defined older population. METHODS A cross-sectional study of 3654 people aged 49 to 97 years identified subjects with PXF during slitlamp examination. The IOP was measured by applanation tonometry. Glaucoma was diagnosed from characteristic visual field loss combined with optic disc cupping and rim thinning, without reference to IOP. Ocular hypertension was diagnosed if IOP was greater than 21 mm Hg in either eye, without field and disc changes. General estimating equation models were used to assess associations between eyes with PXF and glaucoma or ocular hypertension. RESULTS Pseudoexfoliation was diagnosed in 2.3% of subjects, and both prevalence and bilaterality increased with age. Glaucomatous damage was present in 14.2% of eyes with PXF compared with 1.7% of eyes without PXF (age- and sex-adjusted odds ratio (OR), 5.0; 95% confidence interval (CI), 2.6-9.6). This was almost unchanged (OR, 4.8) after adjustment for glaucoma risk factors and was also relatively unaffected by IOP adjustment (OR, 3.7; 95% CI, 1.8-7.6). For subjects with PXF, the relationship with glaucoma persisted, but was weaker (OR, 2.3; 95% CI, 1.0-5.0) in the multivariate model. However, the population attributable risk from PXF was only 2.7%. Ocular hypertension was also more frequent in eyes with PXF (9.3%) than in eyes without PXF (3.1%) but was of borderline significance in the multivariate model (OR, 2.3; 95% CI, 0.9-5.7). CONCLUSIONS This study confirmed the strong relationship between glaucoma and PXF. Subjects with PXF had an increased risk of glaucoma, while eyes with PXF had a higher risk, which was independent of other glaucoma risk factors, including IOP.