Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation and comparison of early hemodynamic changes after elective mitral valve replacement in patients with severe and mild pulmonary arterial hypertension.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate and compare early hemodynamic changes after elective mitral valve replacement (MVR) in patients with severe and mild pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). DESIGN A prospective observational study. SETTING University-affiliated hospital. PARTICIPANTS Sixty patients undergoing elective MVR. INTERVENTIONS The patients were divided into 2 equal groups based on the presence (group A) or absence (group B) of severe PAH defined as systolic pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) > or = 50 mmHg on preinduction pulmonary artery catheterization. Thiopental, fentanyl, midazolam, isoflurane, and rocuronium (or vecuronium if the heart rate >100 beats/min) were used for the induction and maintenance of anesthesia. MVR was performed using standard cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) techniques. The therapy for PAH was electively instituted in all patients with a nitroglycerin infusion (0.5-1 microg/kg/min), deliberate hypocarbia (arterial carbon dioxide tension < or = 35 mmHg), fractional inspired oxygen concentration = 1.0, and elective ventilation for at least 12 hours in the postoperative period. Hemodynamic and arterial blood gas parameters were serially measured before induction; after intubation; after termination of CPB; after extubation; and at 6, 24, and 48 hours after surgery. Differences in these parameters were analyzed within and among the groups using appropriate statistical tests. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS The mean CPB and aortic cross-clamp times were similar in the 2 groups (78 +/- 33 and 50 +/- 21 minutes in group A and 63 +/- 32 and 41 +/- 23 minutes in group B). The mean PAP, pulmonary capillary wedge pressure, and pulmonary vascular resistance decreased significantly soon after CPB in both groups (p < 0.001), but the decrease was significantly lower in group A (p < 0.001). The mean PAP approached near-normal values in group A (23 +/- 8 mmHg) and normal values in group B (16 +/- 6 mmHg) immediately postoperatively. There was an increase in cardiac index (p < 0.01) after CPB in group A. A relative improvement in oxygenation occurred after MVR in group A compared with group B (p < 0.001). Patients in group A were ventilated for a longer duration (25.9 +/- 18.8 v 17.3 +/- 7.9 hours, p < 0.05). There was no significant difference in the inotropic requirement between the 2 groups. There was no mortality in either group. CONCLUSIONS PAP returns to near-normal values in patients with severe preoperative PAH and to normal values in patients with mild preoperative PAH immediately after MVR. The outcome after surgery in patients with severe PAH is comparable to those with mild PAH.
Isolating web programs in modern browser architectures

Many of today's web sites contain substantial amounts of client-side code, and consequently, they act more like programs than simple documents. This creates robustness and performance challenges for web browsers. To give users a robust and responsive platform, the browser must identify program boundaries and provide isolation between them. We provide three contributions in this paper. First, we present abstractions of web programs and program instances, and we show that these abstractions clarify how browser components interact and how appropriate program boundaries can be identified. Second, we identify backwards compatibility tradeoffs that constrain how web content can be divided into programs without disrupting existing web sites. Third, we present a multi-process browser architecture that isolates these web program instances from each other, improving fault tolerance, resource management, and performance. We discuss how this architecture is implemented in Google Chrome, and we provide a quantitative performance evaluation examining its benefits and costs.
A wearable projector-based gait assistance system and its application for elderly people

The ability to walk is particularly important to maintain a person's quality of life (QOL). In today's aged society, ways to support the impaired gait of elderly people with a decline in physical function is in great demand. This paper proposes wearable projector-based gait assistance as a novel application of mobile projectors. The technical challenge is to compensate the projected image with the intended position and size during walking. To verify the concept, we developed a self-gait training assistance system that displays stride length information on the floor while the user is walking. We conducted a study with ten healthy older adults (ages: 76-91). The results show the effectiveness of visual clues in controlling stride length and elderly people's acceptance of the wearable projector device.
The rift-to-drift transition in the North Atlantic: A stuttering start of the MORB machine?

We report U-Pb and 39Ar-40Ar measurements on plutonic rocks recovered from the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Legs 173 and 210. Drilling revealed continental crust (Sites 1067 and 1069) and exhumed mantle (Sites 1070 and 1068) along the Iberia margin and exhumed mantle (Site 1277) on the conjugate Newfoundland margin. Our data record a complex igneous and thermal history related to the transition from rifting to seafloor spreading. The results show that the rift-to-drift transition is marked by a stuttering start of MORB-type magmatic activity. Subsequent to initial alkaline magmatism, localized mid-oceanic ridge basalts (MORB) magmatism was again replaced by basin-wide alkaline events, caused by a low degree of decompression melting due to tectonic delocalization of deformation. Such “off-axis” magmatism might be a common process in (ultra-) slow oceanic spreading systems, where “magmatic” and “tectonic” spreading varies in both space and time.
Common input devices for Malaysian computer users with motor impairments

This research aims to investigate whether there are common input devices that are more effective than a standard mouse for Malaysian computer users with motor impairment. The tasks range from very controlled Simple Reaction Time (SRT) tasks to Fitts' Law and browsing tasks. There are several potential contributions of the research beyond finding the input device that is more effective than a mouse: 1) The Fitts' Law model and information architecture for people with motor impairment and 2) the relationship between subjective and objective measures in highly controlled as well as naturalistic tasks.
Impact of Prolonged Fraction Delivery Time Modelling Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy with High Dose Hypofractionation on the Killing of Cultured ACHN Renal Cell Carcinoma Cell Line

Introduction: Stereotactic body radiotherapy delivers hypofractionated irradiation with high dose per fraction through complex treatment techniques. The increased complexity leads to longer dose delivery times for each fraction. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of prolonged fraction delivery time with high-dose hypofractionation on the killing of cultured ACHN cells. Methods and Materials: The radiobiological characteristics and repair half-time of human ACHN renal cell carcinoma cell line were studied with clonogenic assays. A total dose of 20 Gy was administered in 1, 2 or 3 fractions over 15, 30 or 45 min to investigate the biological effectiveness of radiation delivery time and hypofractionation. Cell cycle and apoptosis analysis was performed after 3-fraction irradiation over 30 and 45 min. Results: The α/β and repair half-time were 5.2 Gy and 19 min, respectively. The surviving fractions increased with increase in the fraction delivery time and decreased more pronouncedly with increase in the fraction number over a treatment period of 30 to 45 min. With increase in the total radiation time to 30 and 45 min, it was found that with the same total dose, 2- and 3-fraction irradiation led to more cell killing than 1-fraction irradiation. 3-fraction radiation induced G2/M arrest, and the percentage of apoptotic cells decreased when the fraction delivery time increased from 30 min to 45 min. Conclusion: Our findings revealed that sublethal damage repair and redistribution of the cell cycle were predominant factors affecting cell response in the prolonged and hypofractionated irradiation regimes, respectively.
PROMALS: towards accurate multiple sequence alignments of distantly related proteins

MOTIVATION Accurate multiple sequence alignments are essential in protein structure modeling, functional prediction and efficient planning of experiments. Although the alignment problem has attracted considerable attention, preparation of high-quality alignments for distantly related sequences remains a difficult task. RESULTS We developed PROMALS, a multiple alignment method that shows promising results for protein homologs with sequence identity below 10%, aligning close to half of the amino acid residues correctly on average. This is about three times more accurate than traditional pairwise sequence alignment methods. PROMALS algorithm derives its strength from several sources: (i) sequence database searches to retrieve additional homologs; (ii) accurate secondary structure prediction; (iii) a hidden Markov model that uses a novel combined scoring of amino acids and secondary structures; (iv) probabilistic consistency-based scoring applied to progressive alignment of profiles. Compared to the best alignment methods that do not use secondary structure prediction and database searches (e.g. MUMMALS, ProbCons and MAFFT), PROMALS is up to 30% more accurate, with improvement being most prominent for highly divergent homologs. Compared to SPEM and HHalign, which also employ database searches and secondary structure prediction, PROMALS shows an accuracy improvement of several percent. AVAILABILITY The PROMALS web server is available at: http://prodata.swmed. edu/promals/. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
A human leukocyte differentiation antigen family with distinct alpha- subunits and a common beta-subunit: the lymphocyte function-associated antigen (LFA-1), the C3bi complement receptor (OKM1/Mac-1), and the p150,95 molecule

The human lymphocyte function-associated antigen-1 (LFA-1), the complement receptor-associated OKM1 molecule, and a previously undescribed molecule termed p150,95, have been found to be structurally and antigenically related. Each antigen contains an alpha- and beta- subunit noncovalently associated in an alpha 1 beta 1-structure as shown by cross-linking experiments. LFA-1, OKM1, and p150,95 alpha- subunit designations and their molecular weights are alpha L = 177,000 Mr, alpha M = 165,000 Mr, and alpha X = 150,000 Mr, respectively. The beta-subunits are all = 95,000 Mr. Some MAb precipitated only LFA-1, others only OKM1, and another precipitates all three antigens. The specificity of these MAb for particular subunits was examined after subunit dissociation by high pH. MAb specific for LFA-1 or OKM1 bind to the alpha L- or alpha M-subunits, respectively, while the cross- reactive MAb binds to the beta-subunits. Coprecipitation experiments with intact alpha 1 beta 1-complexes showed anti-alpha and anti-beta MAb can precipitate the same molecules. In two-dimensional (2D) isoelectric focusing-SDS-PAGE, the alpha subunits of the three antigens are distinct, while the beta-subunits are identical. Biosynthesis experiments showed alpha L, alpha M, and alpha X are synthesized from distinct precursors, as is beta. The three antigens differ in expression on lymphocytes, granulocytes, and monocytes. During maturation of the monoblast-like U937 line, alpha M and alpha X are upregulated and alpha L is downregulated. Some MAb to the alpha subunit of OKM1 inhibited the complement receptor type three. LFA-1, OKM1, and p150,95 constitute a novel family of functionally important human leukocyte antigens that share a common beta-subunit.
Functional Dependency Discovery: An Experimental Evaluation of Seven Algorithms

Functional dependencies are important metadata used for schema normalization, data cleansing and many other tasks. The efficient discovery of functional dependencies in tables is a well-known challenge in database research and has seen several approaches. Because no comprehensive comparison between these algorithms exist at the time, it is hard to choose the best algorithm for a given dataset. In this experimental paper, we describe, evaluate, and compare the seven most cited and most important algorithms, all solving this same problem. First, we classify the algorithms into three different categories, explaining their commonalities. We then describe all algorithms with their main ideas. The descriptions provide additional details where the original papers were ambiguous or incomplete. Our evaluation of careful re-implementations of all algorithms spans a broad test space including synthetic and real-world data. We show that all functional dependency algorithms optimize for certain data characteristics and provide hints on when to choose which algorithm. In summary, however, all current approaches scale surprisingly poorly, showing potential for future research.
Cytoplasmic protein quality control degradation mediated by parallel actions of the E3 ubiquitin ligases Ubr1 and San1

Eukaryotic cells maintain proteostasis by quality control (QC) degradation. These pathways can specifically target a wide variety of distinct misfolded proteins, and so are important for management of cellular stress. Although a number of conserved QC pathways have been described in yeast, the E3 ligases responsible for cytoplasmic QC are unknown. We now show that Ubr1 and San1 mediate chaperone-dependent ubiquitination of numerous misfolded cytoplasmic proteins. This action of Ubr1 is distinct from its role in the “N-end rule. ” In this capacity, Ubr1 functions to protect cells from proteotoxic stresses. Our phenotypic and biochemical studies of Ubr1 and San1 indicate that two strategies are employed for cytoplasmic QC: chaperone-assisted ubiquitination by Ubr1 and chaperone-dependent delivery to nuclear San1. The broad conservation of Ubr ligases and the relevant chaperones indicates that these mechanisms will be important in understanding both basic and biomedical aspects of cellular proteostasis.
Social Problems: Constructionist Readings

This collection of readings is aimed at several levels of students of social problems. It is accessible to the uninitiated who are not already familiar with the constructionist literature, and aimed at those who are not particularly interested in subtle theoretical and empirical issues of concern to academics studying social problems from constructionist perspectives. Some readings focus on the construction of problems by scientists and other professionals; others examine the work of social activists, mass media, and social service personnel. Among the topics included are constructionist studies of social inequalities, and of individual deviance; a comparison of the images of social problems in the United States with those in other countries; and an examination of the importance of politics and power in constructing public images of social problems.
iROVER: Improving System Combination with Classification

We present an improved system combination technique, iROVER, Our approach obtains significant improvements over ROVER, and is consistently better across varying numbers of component systems. A classifier is trained on features from the system lattices, and selects the final word hypothesis by learning cues to choose the system that is most likely to be correct at each word location. This approach achieves the best result published to date on the TC-STAR 2006 English speech recognition evaluation set.
Monitoring and Enforcement of Safety

Certain important security policies such as information flow characterize system-wide behaviors and are not properties of individual executions. It is known that such security policies cannot be expressed in trace-based specification languages such as linear-time temporal logic (Ltl). However, formalisms such as hyperproperties and the associated logic HyperLTL allow us to specify such policies. In this thesis, we concentrate on the static enforcement and runtime verification of safety hyperproperties expressed in HyperLTL. For static enforcement of safety hyperproperties, we incorporate program repair techniques, where an input program is modified to satisfy certain properties while preserving its existing specifications. Assuming finite state space for the input program, we show that the complexity of program repair for safety hyperproperties is in general NP-hard. However, there are certain cases in which the problem can be solved in polynomial time. We identify such cases and give polynomial-time algorithms for them. In the context of runtime verification, we make two contributions: we (1) analyze the complexity of decision procedures for verifying safety hyperproperties, (2) provide a syntactic fragment in HyperLTL to express certain k-safety hyperproperties, and (3) develop a general runtime verification technique for HyperLTL k-safety formulas, for cases where verification at run time can be done in polynomial time. Our technique is based on runtime formula progression as well as on-the-fly monitor synthesis across multiple executions.
SEM/TEM investigation of rat cardiac subcellular alterations induced by changing duration of noise stress

Many studies have shown that loud noise is an environmental stressor. Noise exposure causes changes at different levels in living beings; the cardiovascular system, considered to be the most affected apparatus, has received much attention in both animals and humans. The present study investigated the effect of changing duration of noise stimulation on rat myocardium to determine whether the responses could be related to time.
Using Alternative Lenses to Examine Effective Teachers’ Use of Technology with Low-Performing Students

Background Much of the literature on the use of technology with low-performing students can be seen as contradictory and limited, primarily because it examines technology use through a single lens: the technology itself. Purpose This study used two lenses—teachers’ instructional practices and the research on effective technology use—to examine the use of technology by effective teachers. Population Short interviews were conducted with 20 teachers (in 13 elementary schools) nominated by their principals as effective at improving the achievement of their low-performing students and as considering technology an important part of their instruction. Three of those teachers were chosen for a more in-depth examination. Research Design The study used a collective case study approach to examine the ways effective teachers used technology with their low-performing students. Data Collection and Analysis Data sources included screening interviews with 20 teachers; extended interviews with three teachers chosen for the case study; five days of observations in three case study classrooms; and interviews with seven students and their parents. Analysis used the constant comparative approach to develop themes that cut across the classrooms and interviews. Findings The teachers in this study used technology in a balanced way that was continuous with their general instructional practices. Their use of technology reflected nine primary roles: to target instruction more effectively; to incorporate a variety of strategies; to support teacher-guided instruction; to increase student involvement in instruction; to facilitate remediation and reinforcement; to promote advanced thinking strategies; to increase access to resources; to motivate students; and to meet the needs of the whole child. Conclusion Examining the use of technology in the context of teachers’ instructional practices provides a fuller picture of the different roles technology can play to support the learning of low-performing students.
Large-scale Incremental Data Processing with Change Propagation

Incremental processing of large-scale data is an increasingly important problem, given that many processing jobs run repeatedly with similar inputs, and that the de facto standard programmingmodel (MapReduce) was not designed to efficiently process small updates. As a result, new systems specifically targeting this problem (e.g., Google Percolator, or Yahoo! CBP) have been proposed. Unfortunately, these approaches require the adoption of a new programming model, breaking compatibility with existing programs, and increasing the burden on the programmer, who now is required to devise an incremental update mechanism. We claim that automatic incremental processing of large-scale data is possible by leveraging previous results from the algorithms and programming languages communities. As an example, we describe how Map Reduce can be improved to efficiently handle small input changes by automatically incrementalizing existing MapReduce computations, without breaking backward compatibility or demanding programmers to adopt a new programming approach.
Linking Workplace Health Promotion Best Practices and Organizational Financial Performance: Tracking Market Performance of Companies With Highest Scores on the HERO Scorecard

Objective: The aim of the study was to evaluate the stock performance of publicly traded companies that received high scores on the HERO Employee Health Management Best Practices Scorecard in Collaboration with Mercer© based on their implementation of evidence-based workplace health promotion practices. Methods: A portfolio of companies that received high scores in a corporate health and wellness self-assessment was simulated based on past market performance and compared with past performance of companies represented on the Standard and Poor's (S&P) 500 Index. Results: Stock values for a portfolio of companies that received high scores in a corporate health and wellness self-assessment appreciated by 235% compared with the S&P 500 Index appreciation of 159% over a 6-year simulation period. Conclusions: Robust investment in workforce health and well-being appears to be one of multiple practices pursued by high-performing, well-managed companies.
Exploiting Multimodal Context in Image Retrieval

THISRESEARCH EXPLORES THE INTERACTION of textual and photographic information in multimodal documents. The World Wide Web (WWW) may be viewed as the ultimate, large-scale, dynamically changing, multimedia database. Finding useful information from the WWW without encountering numerous false positives (the current case) poses a challenge to multimedia information retrieval systems (MMIR). The fact that images do not appear in isolation, but rather with accompanying collateral text, is exploited. Taken independently, existing techniques for picture retrieval using collateral text-based methods and image-based methods have several limitations. Text-based methods, while very powerful in matching context, do not have access to image content. Image-based methods compute general similarity between images and provide limited semantics. This research focuses on improving precision and recall in an MMIR system by interactively combining text processing with image processing (IP) in both the indexing and retrieval phases. A picture search engine is demonstrated as an application.
How to Memorize a Random 60-Bit String

User-generated passwords tend to be memorable, but not secure. A random, computergenerated 60-bit string is much more secure. However, users cannot memorize random 60bit strings. In this paper, we investigate methods for converting arbitrary bit strings into English word sequences (both prose and poetry), and we study their memorability and other properties.