Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of the NNECDSG Score in a Brazilian public hospital.

OBJECTIVE To compare the observed incidence of mediastinitis and strokes versus the expected incidence according to the NNECDSG score (Northern New England Cardiovascular Disease Study Group) in a population submitted to coronary artery bypass graft surgery. METHODS A retrospective consultation was made of medical records of all patients submitted to isolated CABG from January 1st, 2000 to December 31st, 2004, at the Cardiac Surgery Service of the Triângulo Mineiro Federal University (UFTM). Data regarding the incidences of observed mediastinitis and strokes and those estimated by the NNECDSG score were submitted to the Kolmogorov-Smirnov normality test. A comparison was achieved using the paired Student t test, with the level of significance determined as p=0.05. RESULTS A group of 230 patients were analyzed, including 144 (62.60%) men and 86 (37.39%) women. Sixty-one (26.52%) presented with diabetes, 30 (13.04%) with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and 23 (10%) had peripheral vascular disease (PVD). Emergency surgery occurred in 34 (14.78 %) cases. In 37 (16.08%) patients an ejection fraction (EF) of less than 40% was identified. Mediastinitis occurred in 12 (5.21%) patients and despite the greater general incidence in the sample studied, no statistical significance was found. Strokes occurred in 12 patients (5.21%) and in spite of the higher mean percentage incidence of observed strokes for all scores, a level of statistical significance was not found. CONCLUSIONS Although the incidences of mediastinitis and strokes were greater in the population studied, these values showed no statistical significance, confirming the score recommended by the NNECDSG as a safe and efficient method for predicting postoperative mediastinitis and strokes in patients submitted to myocardial revascularization surgery in the UFTM.
Usefulness of long-term user experience evaluation to product development: practitioners' views from three case studies

Understanding the temporal aspects of user experience (UX) has received increasing attention in the HCI community. However, little empirical evidence is available on how practitioners in product development companies evaluate the usefulness or actually use long-term UX evaluation data in their work. In this study, we explore how practitioners (e.g., managers, designers and UX specialists) evaluate the usefulness of long-term UX evaluation results to their own work. Three case studies were conducted with longitudinal and retrospective methods in a company developing interactive sports products. Our findings suggest that long-term UX evaluation provides results that are perceived as interesting, relevant and useful by practitioners. Potential uses for the results were e.g., verifying practitioners' expectations, planning future work, understanding changes in UX, the development of future products, and updating current software products. Future research should focus on how to provide long-term UX evaluation results in more efficient manner to benefit product development.
A MODIFIED HSS ITERATION METHOD FOR SOLVING THE COMPLEX LINEAR MATRIX EQUATION AXB = C

在这，为解决复杂线性矩阵方程 AXB = C 的切开的纸，修改 Hermitian 和 skew-Hermitian (MHSS ) 重复方法被介绍了。 作为理论分析表演， MHSS 重复方法将在某些条件下面收敛。 在这个方法的每次重复与真实对称的积极明确的系数矩阵要求四个线性矩阵方程的答案，尽管原来的系数矩阵是建筑群和 non-Hermitian。 另外，新重复方法的最佳的参数被建议。 数字结果证明那个 MHSS 重复方法有效、柔韧。 [从作者抽象]
A generalization of Nemhauser and Trotterʼs local optimization theorem

The Nemhauser-Trotter local optimization theorem applies to the NP-hard Vertex Cover problem and has applications in approximation as well as parameterized algorithmics. We generalize Nemhauser and Trotter@? s result to vertex deletion problems, introducing a novel algorithmic strategy based on purely combinatorial arguments (not referring to linear programming as the Nemhauser-Trotter result originally did). The essence of our strategy can be understood as a doubly iterative process of cutting away ''easy parts'' of the input instance, finally leaving a ''hard core'' whose size is (almost) linearly related to the cardinality of the solution set. We exhibit our approach using a generalization of Vertex Cover, called Bounded-Degree Vertex Deletion. For some fixed d>=0, Bounded-Degree Vertex Deletion asks to delete at most k vertices from a graph in order to transform it into a graph with maximum vertex degree at most d. Vertex Cover is the special case of d=0. Our generalization of the Nemhauser-Trotter-Theorem implies that Bounded-Degree Vertex Deletion, parameterized by k, admits an O(k)-vertex problem kernel for d= 0, an O(k^1^+^@e)-vertex problem kernel for d>=2. Finally, we provide a W[2]-completeness result for Bounded-Degree Vertex Deletion in case of unbounded d-values.
Insulin Sensitivity Determines Effects of Insulin and Meal Ingestion on Systemic Vascular Resistance in Healthy Subjects

In addition to insulin's metabolic actions, insulin can dilate arterioles which increase blood flow to metabolically active tissues. This effect is blunted in insulin‐resistant subjects. Insulin's effect on SVR, determined by resistance arterioles, has, however, rarely been examined directly. We determined the effects of both hyperinsulinemia and a mixed meal on SVR and its relationship with insulin sensitivity.
Statistical analysis of undetected point sources in cosmic microwave background maps

Cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropies follow a Gaussian statistical distribution in the standard inflationary model, but there are non-Gaussian contributions due to astrophysical foregrounds. The detection of the non-Gaussian signal due to extragalactic point sources and its distinction from the possible intrinsic non-Gaussianity is an issue of great importance in CMB analysis. The Mexican Hat Wavelet Family (MHWF), which has been proved very useful for the detection of extragalactic point sources, is applied here to the study of non-Gaussianity due to point sources in CMB maps. We carry out simulations of CMB maps with the characteristics of the forthcoming Planck mission at 70 and 100 GHz and filter them with the MHWF. By comparing the skewness and kurtosis of simulated maps with and without point sources, we are able to detect clearly the non-Gaussian signal due to point sources for flux limits as low as 0.4 Jy (70 GHz) and 0.3 Jy (100 GHz). The second and third members of the MHWF perform better in this respect than the Mexican Hat Wavelet (MHW1) and much better than the Daubechies 4 wavelet. We have also estimated the third order, K 3 , and fourth order, K 4 , cumulants produced by point sources at these Planck channels by means of a fit with the MHWF. The average relative errors with respect to the real values are below 12 per cent for fluxes down to 0.6 Jy (70 GHz) and 0.4 Jy (100 GHz). The values of these cumulants allow us to distinguish between different source counts models. From the estimated cumulants and assuming a power law for the source number counts we are able to obtain the coefficients a and A of the differential number counts, a = 2.19 ± 0.46 (a = 2.26 ± 0.19), A = 24.3 ± 4.3 (A = 21.0 ± 4.2) for 70 (100) GHz, assuming a flux limit of 1 Jy. These results are consistent with the values obtained from simulations containing only point sources, which are: a = 2.32 ± 0.06 (a = 2.35 ± 0.16), A = 22.1 ± 1.5 (A = 20.0 ± 3.7) for 70 (100) GHz.
Complex Routing for Temporary Information Sharing in Wireless Mesh Networks

This paper presents Complex Routing for temporary information sharing in a wireless mesh network built in a geographically limited area. The Complex Routing determines a route from a sender to a receiver based on operations of complex numbers held by each node. In addition, it provides an adaptation mechanism for changing the complex numbers. The temporary information sharing means that in a situation that senders and receivers freely appear in the network, information forwarding from a sender to a receiver is conducted using freely assigned identifiers of information. In simulations, we consider several basic spatial patterns for appearance of senders and receivers, and examine if the Complex Routing can provide reliable information forwarding capability. Simulation results show that the Complex Routing is better than or equal to a random walk for comparison.
Interpersonal Processes: New Directions in Communication Research

Editors' Introduction - Michael E Roloff and Gerald R Miller Communication and Reciprocity Within Intimate Relationships - Michael E Roloff Communicating Under Uncertainty - Charles R Berger The Self-Concept and Interpersonal Communication - George J McCall Emotion and Interpersonal Communication - Ellen Berscheid MBRS Rekindled - Gerald R Miller et al Some Thoughts on Compliance Gaining in Interpersonal Settings Relational Dimensions of Interpersonal Dynamics - Frank E Millar and L Edna Rogers Conflict as a Social Skill - Alan L Sillars and Judith Weisberg Self-Disclosure and Relationship Development - Valerian J Derlega et al An Attributional Analysis Information Exchange in Social Interaction - Kathy Kellermann Analyzing Interpersonal Interaction - Marshall Scott Poole, Joseph P Folger and Dean E Hewes Communication in Interpersonal Relationships - Dalmas A Taylor and Irwin Altman Social Penetration Processes How to Lose Friends Without Influencing People - Steve Duck
An experimental comparative study of different second order sliding mode algorithms on a mechatronic actuator

This paper presents experimental results of practical implementation of three higher -order sliding-mode control algorithms. The considered algorithms are applied to the position control of an engine air path mechatronic actuator. This actuator is used to control the swirl air entering the cylinders of a diesel engine. Three output-feedback second order sliding-mode controllers have been designed and tested on the actuator. The most effective strategies have been tested for robustness in varying temperature and load conditions. The experimental results show the effectiveness and robustness of the control techniques.
Transcription-induced Cleavage of Immunoglobulin Switch Regions by Nucleotide Excision Repair Nucleases in Vitro*

Immunoglobulin (Ig) heavy chain class switch recombination (CSR) mediates isotype switching during B cell development. CSR occurs between switch (S) regions that precede each Ig heavy chain constant region gene. Various studies have demonstrated that transcription plays an essential role in CSR in vivo. In this study, we show that in vitro transcription of S regions in their physiological orientation induces the formation of stable R loops. Furthermore, we show that the nucleotide excision repair nucleases XPF-ERCC1 and XPG can cleave the R loops formed in the S regions. Based on these findings, we propose that CSR is initiated via a mechanism that involves transcription-dependent S region cleavage by DNA structure-specific endonucleases that function in general DNA repair processes. Such a mechanism also may underlie transcription-dependent mutagenic processes such as somatic hypermutation, and contribute to genomic instability in general.
Comprehensive assessment of antioxidant activity of essential oils.

UNLABELLED Essential oils have been studied for their unique ability to act as antioxidants. Antioxidant activities of 423 essential oils of 48 different botanical families were evaluated for their antioxidant activities as free radical scavenging agents using the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl method. Seventy-three oils showed 50% or more inhibition at a concentration of 1.25 mg/mL. The 73 most active oil samples were further evaluated for their scavenging activities using series of dilutions to estimate their EC(50) . The EC(50) of the 73 most active oils ranged from 4 to 2000 μg/mL. Oils having an EC(50) of less than 300 μg/mL (20 selected samples) were subjected to β-carotene bleaching antioxidant activity test and more detailed analysis including thin layer chromatography, gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, high performance liquid chromatography and bioautography. Essential oils of the botanical families Lamiaceae and Myrtaceae were the most effective antioxidants. Thymol and carvacrol were the major constituents in most of the essential oils of the family Lamiaceae and eugenol was the major terpene in all of the essential oils of the family Myrtaceae. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS Supplementation of food with spices containing essential oils may counteract and retard the process of oxidative damage, lipid oxidation and elevate antioxidant activity of the final product.
Multi-pitch tracking using Gaussian mixture model with time varying parameters and Grating Compression Transform

Grating Compression Transform (GCT) is a two-dimensional analysis of speech signal which has been shown to be effective in multi-pitch tracking in speech mixtures. Multi-pitch tracking methods using GCT apply Kalman filter framework to obtain pitch tracks which requires training of the filter parameters using true pitch tracks. We propose an unsupervised method for obtaining multiple pitch tracks. In the proposed method, multiple pitch tracks are modeled using time-varying means of a Gaussian mixture model (GMM), referred to as TVGMM. The TVGMM parameters are estimated using multiple pitch values at each frame in a given utterance obtained from different patches of the spectrogram using GCT. We evaluate the performance of the proposed method on all voiced speech mixtures as well as random speech mixtures having well separated and close pitch tracks. TVGMM achieves multi-pitch tracking with 51% and 53% multi-pitch estimates having error ≤ 20% for random mixtures and all-voiced mixtures respectively. TVGMM also results in lower root mean squared error in pitch track estimation compared to that by Kalman filtering.
Human Auditory Cortical Processing of Changes in Interaural Correlation

Sensitivity to the similarity of the acoustic waveforms at the two ears, and specifically to changes in similarity, is crucial to auditory scene analysis and extraction of objects from background. Here, we use the high temporal resolution of magnetoencephalography to investigate the dynamics of cortical processing of changes in interaural correlation, a measure of interaural similarity, and compare them with behavior. Stimuli are interaurally correlated or uncorrelated wideband noise, immediately followed by the same noise with intermediate degrees of interaural correlation. Behaviorally, listeners' sensitivity to changes in interaural correlation is asymmetrical. Listeners are faster and better at detecting transitions from correlated noise than transitions from uncorrelated noise. The cortical response to the change in correlation is characterized by an activation sequence starting from ∼50 ms after change. The strength of this response parallels behavioral performance: auditory cortical mechanisms are much less sensitive to transitions from uncorrelated noise than from correlated noise. In each case, sensitivity increases with interaural correlation difference. Brain responses to transitions from uncorrelated noise lag those from correlated noise by ∼80 ms, which may be the neural correlate of the observed behavioral response time differences. Importantly, we demonstrate differences in location and time course of neural processing: transitions from correlated noise are processed by a distinct neural population, and with greater speed, than transitions from uncorrelated noise.
ABA- and cADPR-mediated effects on respiration and filtration downstream of the temperature-signaling cascade in sponges

Recently, the thermosensing pathway in sponges (Porifera) was elucidated. The thermosensor triggering this cascade is a heat-activated cation channel, with the phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA), cyclic ADP-ribose (cADPR) and calcium acting as intracellular messengers, similarly to the drought-stress signaling cascade in higher plants. Here, we investigated the functional effects downstream of the temperature-signaling pathway in Axinella polypoides (Porifera, Demonspongiae). Short-term stimulation followed by long-term depression of amino acid incorporation, oxygen consumption and water filtration were observed after exposure of the sponge to a brief heat stress or to micromolar ABA. These effects could be prevented by the targeted interruption of the signaling pathway either at the level of the cation channel thermosensor or at the level of the cADPR-induced intracellular calcium increase. Moreover, release of cyclase activity into the sea water and generation of extracellular cADPR were observed following brief heat stress. Intact sponge cells were sensitive to extracellular cADPR and addition of purified cyclase increased sponge respiration similarly to heat stress. This is the first observation of functional effects exerted on Metazoa by the phytohormone ABA: conservation of the ABA/cADPR stress-signaling cascade points to its early evolution in a common precursor of modern Metazoa and Metaphyta. The functional effects induced by extracellular cyclase/cADPR suggest an evolutionary origin of cADPR as an ancient stress hormone in Porifera.
An evolving localised learning model for on-line image colour quantisation

Although widely studied for many years, colour quantisation remains a practical problem in image processing. Unlike previous works where the image can only be quantised after the whole set of image data is acquired, we propose to use an evolving localised learning model for on-line colour quantisation. This approach is compared with some conventional algorithms.
Hospital-based home care for people with severe mental illness in Taiwan: a substantive grounded theory.

AIM AND OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study is to generate a substantive theory of hospital-based home care for people with severe mental illness in Taiwan. BACKGROUND Despite the documented advantages of hospital-based home care services, there is a lack of information and understanding regarding the practices, functions and limitations. Currently, there is no model for how those services are to be provided and what factors will affect these services. DESIGN The grounded theory method of Strauss and Corbin (Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques, SAGE Publications, 1990) was used to develop a substantive theory through a paradigm model, including causal conditions, context, intervening conditions, action/interaction strategies and consequences. METHODS This study was conducted in six different hospital areas in Central Taiwan in 2007-2008. Data were collected using semi-structured face-to-face interviews. Constant comparative analysis continued during the open, axial and selective coding process until data saturation occurred. Participants were selected by theoretical sampling. When theoretical saturation was achieved, 21 clients with mental illness, 19 carers and 25 professionals were interviewed. RESULTS A substantive theory of hospital-based home care for people with severe mental illness in Taiwan was developed. The core category was the process of hospital-based home care in helping people with severe mental illness, with 15 categories and 33 sub-categories of the substantive theory. CONCLUSION The substantive theory is the first to emerge from hospital-based home care services in Taiwan. Results showed those services had several effective functions for helping people with severe mental illness and their families. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE The recommendations based on the findings of this research can be used as a guide to improve the delivery of hospital-based home care services to community-dwelling people with severe mental illness and their carers.
Identification of Pharmacological Targets in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Through Genomic Analysis of Deregulated Genes and Pathways

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive and disabling neurodegenerative disorder characterized by upper and lower motor neuron loss, leading to respiratory insufficiency and death after 3-5 years. Riluzole is currently the only FDA approved drug for ALS, but it has only modest effects on survival. The majority of ALS cases are sporadic and probably associated to a multifactorial etiology. With the completion of genome sequencing in humans and model organisms, together with the advent of DNA microarray technology, the transcriptional cascades and networks underlying neurodegeneration in ALS are being elucidated providing new potential pharmacological targets. The main challenge now is the effective screening of the myriad of targets to identify those with the most therapeutic utility. The present review will illustrate how the identification, prioritization and validation of preclinical therapeutics can be achieved through genomic analysis of critical pathways and networks deregulated in ALS pathology.
Literacy Trails: A whole-of-community program to encourage literacy and numeracy awareness for children in preschool and early primary

THIS ARTICLE DESCRIBES THE EVALUATION outcomes of an innovative, community-based educational initiative to enhance and promote the awareness of literacy and numeracy in young children in two regional communities in Moorabool Shire, Victoria. With the support of committed educational and community partners (through the Moorabool Best Start Partnership), the Moorabool Literacy Trails were first established in 2006 to promote and nurture children's awareness of literacy and numeracy, and to encourage active participation in the Trails by facilitating local community involvement. In 2010 an evaluation of the program used a mixed, qualitative and quantitative methodology (surveys and interviews with teachers, parents, community participants, program partner representatives) to examine the program's effectiveness in promoting literacy and numeracy awareness for children in their early years, and also whether the program is an effective catalyst for increasing community awareness and capacity. There was strong evidence that the project achieved its aims, as quantified by the continued interest in the program through the large numbers of children participating and the continued commitment to the project by its partners and the local community. This whole-of-community approach helps to promote important educational principles for children and their parents. This program has large appeal at many different levels and offers great potential for similar educational programs to be adapted and/or transferred to other communities and regions.
Black Muslim Religion in the Nation of Islam, 1960-1975

Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam came to America's attention in the 1960s and 1970s as a radical separatist African American social and political group. But the movement was also a religious one. Edward E. Curtis IV offers the first comprehensive examination of the rituals, ethics, theologies, and religious narratives of the Nation of Islam, showing how the movement combined elements of Afro-Eurasian Islamic traditions with African American traditions to create a new form of Islamic faith. Considering everything from bean pies to religious cartoons, clothing styles to prayer rituals, Curtis explains how the practice of Islam in the movement included the disciplining and purifying of the black body, the reorientation of African American historical consciousness toward the Muslim world, an engagement with both mainstream Islamic texts and the prophecies of Elijah Muhammad, and the development of a holistic approach to political, religious, and social liberation. Curtis' analysis pushes beyond essentialist ideas about what it means to be Muslim and offers a view of the importance of local processes in identity formation and the appropriation of Islamic traditions.