Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Organizational and Managerial Resources and Quality of Care in French Pediatric Oncology Nursing

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between nurses’ organizational and managerial resources (ie, perceived organizational support and transformational leadership) and their quality of patient care, and second, the mediating role of job satisfaction in these relationships. Participants were 510 nurses from 25 out of 29 French pediatric oncology units. Structural equation modeling results revealed that perceived organizational support and transformational leadership were related to nurses’ perceived quality of care and that job satisfaction acted as a mediator between these 2 antecedents (ie, organizational and managerial determinants) and this outcome (ie, quality of care). Based on these findings, practical suggestions and directions for future research are discussed.
Real-time Multiresolution Rendering for Dynamic Terrain

This paper presents a novel dynamic terrain multiresolution rendering method by utilizing the capabilities of current generation GPUs. Firstly, the terrain depth offset map texture that represents the appropriate offset values is generated through rendering to texture, which is used to deform terrain in vertex shader. Then in order to accurately represent the fine terrain detail created by deformation, an adaptive geometry tessellation technique is implemented in geometry shader. Moreover, to update deformation area texture, we apply procedural texturing based on constraint conditions in fragment shader. In the end, the experiments prove that our method is feasible and efficient.
Cognitive Capacity Harvesting Networks: Architectural Evolution Toward Future Cognitive Radio Networks

Cognitive radio technologies enable users to opportunistically access unused licensed spectrum and are viewed as a promising way to deal with the current spectrum crisis. Over the last 15 years, cognitive radio technologies have been extensively studied from algorithmic design to practical implementation. One pressing and fundamental problem is how to integrate cognitive radios into current wireless networks to enhance network capacity and improve users’ experience. Unfortunately, existing solutions to cognitive radio networks (CRNs) suffer from many practical design issues. To foster further research activities in this direction, we attempt to provide a tutorial for CRN architecture design. Noticing that an effective architecture for CRNs is still lacking, in this tutorial, we systematically summarize the principles for CRN architecture design and present a novel flexible network architecture, termed cognitive capacity harvesting network (CCHN), to elaborate on how a CRN architecture can be designed. Unlike existing architectures, we introduce a new network entity, called secondary service provider, and deploy cognitive radio capability enabled routers, called cognitive radio routers, in order to effectively and efficiently manage resource harvesting and mobile traffic while enabling users without cognitive radios to access and enjoy CCHN services. Our analysis shows that our CCHN aligns well to industrial standardization activities and hence provides a viable approach to implementing future CRNs. We hope that our proposed design approach opens a new venue to future CRN research.
Studying the Effects of Deep Brain Stimulation and Medication on the Dynamics of STN-LFP Signals for Human Behavior Analysis

This paper presents the results of our recent work on studying the effects of deep brain stimulation (DBS) and medication on the dynamics of brain local field potential (LFP) signals used for behavior analysis of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). DBS is a technique used to alleviate the severe symptoms of PD when pharmacotherapy is not very effective. Behavior recognition from the LFP signals recorded from the subthalamic nucleus (STN) has application in developing closed-loop DBS systems, where the stimulation pulse is adaptively generated according to subjects’ performing behavior. Most of the existing studies on behavior recognition that use STN-LFPs are based on the DBS being “off”. This paper discovers how the performance and accuracy of automated behavior recognition from the LFP signals are affected under different paradigms of stimulation on/off. We first study the notion of beta power suppression in LFP signals under different scenarios (stimulation on/off and medication on/off). Afterward, we explore the accuracy of support vector machines in predicting human actions (“button press” and “reach”) using the spectrogram of STN-LFP signals. Our experiments on the recorded LFP signals of three subjects confirm that the beta power is suppressed significantly when the patients take medication (p-value < 0.002) or stimulation (p-value < 0.0003). The results also show that we can classify different behaviors with a reasonable accuracy of 85% even when the high-amplitude stimulation is applied.
Effect of direct cooling condisions on the microstructure and properties of hot-forged HSLA steels for mining applications

The article presents hot deformation and controlled direct cooling of hardened medium-carbon HSLA steel with micro-additions of alloying elements Ti and/or V. It also contains a study of the effect of thermomechanical-processing conditions on grain refinement and precipitation kinetics in the replacement of the conventional reheating-requiring heat treatment with a cost-effective technology. Controlled cooling with accelerated air and mist adjusted to lower carbon and hardenability-related alloying elements by means of employing experimentally designed heats, varying in the Mo content, was designed to meet the mining-industry requirements for mechanical properties. Besides microstructural-property relations, the vital problem of non-uniformity of the obtained properties is addressed with regard to within-part variances in the cooling rate of the as-forged, undeformed and dynamically recrystallized material. The strength and plasticity versus the microstructure of the produced fine pearlite/bainite structure with grain-boundary ferrite were evaluated. Microstructure-property relations allowed the formulation of the conclusions on the effect of direct-cooling conditions on the microstructure and grain substructure, their mutual synergic effect in controlling the microstructure, as well as guidelines for the transfer of the locally established process parameters into technological conditions.
Improving the topical ocular pharmacokinetics of lyophilized cyclosporine A-loaded micelles: formulation, in vitro and in vivo studies

Abstract Dry eye syndrome (DES) is one of the most common disorders of the eye for which combined treatment includes modification of the ocular environment and pathogenic therapies. Cyclosporine A (CsA), a immunosuppressive agent, has been demonstrated to be effective for the treatment of DES but is limited clinically by its low ocular bioavailability due to poor water solubility. In this paper, methoxy poly (ethylene glycol)-poly (lactide) polymer (mPEG-PLA) micelles were investigated as alternative vehicles for the solubilization and delivery of CsA to the eye. The in vitro stability indicated that CsA-loaded micellar lyophilized powder was stable for at least 3 months and the release profile showed a sustained release manner of CsA from micelles physically. In vivo ocular distribution studies demonstrated that the micellar formulations exhibited a 4.5-fold increase in retention effect at eyes compared with 0.05% CsA emulsion. In addition, the in vivo pharmacokinetics profile showed that the CsA-loaded micelles could enhance the retention time, achieving longer effect toward the DES. These studies proposed an effective micelle formulation as a novel ocular drug delivery system to improve solubility and bioavailability of ophthalmic CsA-controlled delivery.
Changes in survival and neurodevelopmental outcomes of infants born at <25 weeks’ gestation: a retrospective observational study in tertiary centres in Japan

Objective To evaluate changes in the outcomes of infants born at <25 weeks’ gestation in the past decade. Design Retrospective observational study. Settings A multicentre database of the Neonatal Research Network, Japan. Patients A total of 3318 infants born at 22–24 weeks’ gestation between periods 1 (2003–2007) and 2 (2008–2012) from 52 tertiary centres. Main outcome measures We compared death and neurodevelopmental impairments (NDIs) at 3 years of age, including cerebral palsy (CP), visual impairments (VIs), hearing impairments (HIs) and the developmental quotient (DQ) of the Kyoto Scale of Psychological Development test <70, between two periods using multivariate logistic regression analyses adjusted for the centre, gender, multiple gestation, maternal age, caesarean delivery, antenatal steroid use, pregnancy-related hypertension, clinical chorioamnionitis, congenital anomalies and birth weight. Results A total of 496/1479 infants (34%) in period 1 and 467/1839 (25%) in period 2 died by 3 years of age (adjusted OR 0.70, 95% CIs 0.59 to 0.83). Follow-up data were collected from 631 infants (64% of survivors) in period 1 and 832 (61% of survivors) in period 2. The proportions of CP with Gross Motor Function Classification System ≥2, VI and HI in the infants evaluated were lower, while that of DQ <70 was higher in period 2 than in period 1. Using multiple imputations to account for missing data, death or NDI decreased from 54% in period 1 to 47% in period 2 (0.83, 0.71 to 0.97). Significant decreases were observed in death or CP (0.65, 0.55 to 0.76), death or VI (0.59, 0.50 to 0.69) and death or HI (0.69, 0.58 to 0.81), but not in death or DQ <70 (0.91, 0.78 to 1.06). Conclusion Along with improved survival, CP, VI and HI, but not cognitive impairments decreased in infants born at <25 weeks’ gestation between the two periods examined in the last decade. Further strategies are needed to reduce cognitive impairments in these infants.
Current treatment of hypoparathyroidism: theory versus reality waiting guidelines for children and adolescents

The diagnosis of hypoparathyroidism(HPT)is readily made in the presence of hypocalcemia with markedly reduced or absent parathormone (PTH) levels. Currently available treatments for HPT include high dose vitamin D (ergocalciferol, D2 and cholecalciferol, D3) or, the active metabolite dihydroxy vitamin D (calcitriol), in addition to calcium supplements.This regimen, if not well monitored, can lead to hypercalciuria, as PTH deficiency impairs renal calcium reabsorption. Thus the goal of treatment, is to maintain serum calcium at the low end of the normal range. Undertreatment can cause symptomatic hypocalcemia, while overtreatment hypercalciuria, which may lead to nephrolithiasis, nephrocalcinosis, and renal insufficiency. At present, there is no consensus on the management of HPT in children and adolescents and only few studies are available on the long term outcome of patients with recombinant HPT treatment. The purpose of this article is to review, in a comprehensive manner, the major aspects of HPT management in children and adolescents waiting for authoritative guidelines for the treatment of HPT in this group of patients. Further research, addressing specific questions for this population are urgently needed to improve long-term safety of patients. Educational interventions are also needed for professionals, parents and patients to enable them to improve knowledge, quality of life and effective management care at home. (www.actabiomedica.it)
Inference for probabilistic unsupervised text clustering

In this article, we investigate the use of a simple probabilistic model for unsupervised document clustering in large collections of texts. The model consists of a mixture of multinomial distributions over the word counts, each component corresponding to a different theme. The expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm is the basic tool used for inference. After introducing the model and experimental framework (corpus and evaluation measures), we discuss the importance of initialization and illustrate the difficulty caused by the lack of supervision information. We propose some ideas to solve this problem, one of the most efficient method being based on vocabulary reduction, and finally compare those heuristics with other inference processes, such as Gibbs sampling
"We Don't Do That Here": How Collaborative Editing with Mentors Improves Engagement in Social Q&A Communities

Online question-and-answer (Q&A) communities like Stack Overflow have norms that are not obvious to novice users. Novices create and post programming questions without feedback, and the community enforces site norms through public downvoting and commenting. This can leave novices discouraged from further participation. We deployed a month long, just-in-time mentorship program to Stack Overflow in which we redirected novices in the process of asking a question to an on-site Help Room. There, novices received feedback on their question drafts from experienced Stack Overflow mentors. We present examples and discussion of various question improvements including: question context, code formatting, and wording that adheres to on-site cultural norms. We find that mentored questions are substantially improved over non-mentored questions, with average scores increasing by 50%. We provide design implications that challenge how socio-technical communities onboard novices across domains.
PREPARATION AND IN VITRO CHARACTERISATION OF MUCOADHESIVE MICROSPHERES OF MIDAZOLAM: NOSE TO BRAIN ADMINISTRATION

HPMC microspheres of midazolam for nose to brain delivery were developed with the aim to avoid first pass metabolism, to improve the patient compliance, to use an alternative therapy to conventional dosage form, to improve the therapeutic efficacy of midazolam. The purpose of this research was also to formulate and systematically evaluate the performances of mucoadhesive microspheres of midazolam. The emulsion cross linking technique was used to prepare Midazolam microspheres containing HPMC. Glutaraldehyde was used as a cross-linking agent. Results of preliminary trials indicate that volume of cross-linking agent, time for cross-linking, polymer-to-drug ratio and speed of rotation affected characteristics of microspheres. Microspheres were discrete, spherical and free flowing. The microspheres exhibited good mucoadhesive and also showed high percentage drug entrapment efficiency. Spherical microspheres were obtained in all batches in range of 7-18 µm. The best batch exhibited a high drug entrapment efficiency of 97% and a swelling index of 1.29; in vitro bioadhesion was 94%. The drug release was also sustained for 12 hours. The polymer- to-drug ratio had a more significant effect.
Consensus-Based Approach to Peer-to-Peer Electricity Markets With Product Differentiation

With the sustained deployment of distributed generation capacities and the more proactive role of consumers, power systems and their operation are drifting away from a conventional top–down hierarchical structure. Electricity market structures, however, have not yet embraced that evolution. Respecting the high-dimensional, distributed and dynamic nature of modern power systems would translate to designing peer-to-peer markets or, at least, to using such an underlying decentralized structure to enable a bottom–up approach to future electricity markets. A peer-to-peer market structure based on a multi-bilateral economic dispatch (MBED) formulation is introduced, allowing for multi-bilateral trading with product differentiation, for instance based on consumer preferences. A relaxed consensus + innovation (RCI) approach is described to solve the MBED in fully decentralized manner. A set of realistic case studies and their analysis allow us to show that such peer-to-peer market structures can effectively yield market outcomes that are different from centralized market structures and optimal in terms of respecting consumers preferences while maximizing social welfare. Additionally, the RCI solving approach allows for a fully decentralized market clearing that converges with a negligible optimality gap, with a limited amount of information being shared.
The structure of carbon black and its associations in elastomer composites : A study using neutron scattering

We have been exploring the use of small-angle neutron scattering and the method of contrast variation to give a new look at very old problem - reinforcement of elastomers by carbon black in durable rubber products. It was found that in an experimental carbon black, HSA, the aggregates are quasirodlike, containing an average of 4-6 particles. The aggregates have an outer graphitic shell and an inner core of lower density carbon. The core is continuous throughout the carbon black aggregate. Contrast variation of swollen HSA-polyisoprene gels shows that the HSA is completely embedded in polyisoprene. The agglomerates are formed predominantly by end on associations of the rodlike aggregates. The surface structure of the carbon black appears smooth over length scales above about 1 nm. Further studies on production carbon blacks suggest that the shell-like aggregate structure is present in commercial carbon blacks.
, challenge

Two central dimensions in psychotherapeutic work are a therapist’s empathy with clients and challenging their judgments. We investigated how they inﬂuence psychophysiological responses in the participants. Data were from psychodynamic therapy sessions, 24 sessions from 5 dyads, from which 694 therapist’s interventions were coded. Heart rate and electrodermal activity (EDA) of the participants were used to index emotional arousal. Facial muscle activity (electromyography) was used to index positive and negative emotional facial expressions. Electrophysiological data were analyzed in two time frames: (a) during the therapists’ interventions and (b) across the whole psychotherapy session. Both empathy and challenge had an effect on psychophysiological responses in the participants. Therapists’ empathy decreased clients’ and increased their own EDA across the session. Therapists’ challenge increased their own EDA in response to the interventions, but not across the sessions. Clients, on the other hand, did not respond to challenges during interventions, but challenges tended to increase EDA across a session. Furthermore, there was an interaction effect between empathy and challenge. Heart rate decreased and positive facial expressions increased in sessions where empathy and challenge were coupled, i.e., the amount of both empathy and challenge was either high or low. This suggests that these two variables work together. The results highlight the therapeutic functions and interrelation of empathy and challenge, and in line with the dyadic system theory by Beebe and Lachmann (2002), the systemic linkage between interactional expression and individual regulation of emotion.
Preference Learning and Ranking

Preference learning refers to the task of learning to predict (contextualized) preferences on a collection of alternatives, which are often represented in the form of an order relation, on the basis of observed or revealed preference information. Supervision in preference learning is typically weak, in the sense that only partial information about sought structures or indirect information about an underlying value function are provided; a common example is feedback in the form of pairwise comparisons between alternatives. Especially important in preference learning are ranking problems, in which preferences are represented in terms of total or partial order relations. Such problems can be approached in two fundamentally different ways, either by learning binary preferences on pairs of alternatives or by inducing an underlying (latent) value function on single alternatives.
Peripheral blood RNA gene expression in children with pneumococcal meningitis: a prospective case–control study

Introduction Invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD), caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae, is a leading cause of pneumonia, meningitis and septicaemia worldwide, with increased morbidity and mortality in HIV-infected children. Objectives We aimed to compare peripheral blood expression profiles between HIV-infected and uninfected children with pneumococcal meningitis and controls, and between survivors and non-survivors, in order to provide insight into the host inflammatory response leading to poorer outcomes. Design and setting Prospective case–control observational study in a tertiary hospital in Malawi Participants Children aged 2 months to 16 years with pneumococcal meningitis or pneumonia. Methods We used the human genome HGU133A Affymetrix array to explore differences in gene expression between cases with pneumococcal meningitis (n=12) and controls, and between HIV-infected and uninfected cases, and validated gene expression profiles for 34 genes using real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) in an independent set of cases with IPD (n=229) and controls (n=13). Pathway analysis was used to explore genes differentially expressed. Results Irrespective of underlying HIV infection, cases showed significant upregulation compared with controls of the following: S100 calcium-binding protein A12 (S100A12); vanin-1 (VNN1); arginase, liver (ARG1); matrix metallopeptidase 9 (MMP9); annexin A3 (ANXA3); interleukin 1 receptor, type II (IL1R2); CD177 molecule (CD177); endocytic adaptor protein (NUMB) and S100 calcium-binding protein A9 (S100A9), cytoskeleton-associated protein 4 (CKAP4); and glycogenin 1 (GYG1). RT-qPCR confirmed differential expression in keeping with microarray results. There was no differential gene expression in HIV-infected compared with HIV-uninfected cases, but there was significant upregulation of folate receptor 3 (FOLR3), S100A12 in survivors compared with non-survivors. Conclusion Children with IPD demonstrated increased expression in genes regulating immune activation, oxidative stress, leucocyte adhesion and migration, arginine metabolism, and glucocorticoid receptor signalling.
Epoxy-urethane copolymers: Relation between morphology and properties

The modification of an amine-cured epoxy resin by the addition of polyurethanes (PU) was investigated, and their mechanical and impact properties were related to their microstructure and morphology. For the study, two different PU were selected: a commercial sample, D12, with a NCO : OH ratio equal to 2 and end blocked by reaction with an alkylphenol; and a synthesized sample, with NCO : OH ratio equal to 1 and equally end blocked in our laboratory. The usual trend of improved toughening and reduced modulus, EF, and compression yield stress, σYC, was observed in all samples. However, the toughening of the D12-modified samples was larger for the same initial rubber content. This result correlates with a finer rubber particle separation, but also the ductilization effect that this rubber has on the epoxy-rich phase. D12 co-reacts with the epoxy–amine, leading to a lower glass transition temperature (Tg) of the modified system and incomplete phase separation, as observed by scanning electron microscopy. The practically unreactive PU1 rubber leads to the usual spherical inclusion morphology observed in modified epoxies, except at 20% rubber content. The particular morphology generated in this case, co-continuous epoxy-rich and rubber-rich regions, leads to a material with the largest toughening in this study, but also with an impressive reduction in mechanical properties. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 82: 2544–2552, 2001