Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Endothelium-specific ablation of PDGFB leads to pericyte loss and glomerular, cardiac and placental abnormalities

Platelet-derived growth factor-B (PDGFB) is necessary for normal cardiovascular development, but the relative importance of different cellular sources of PDGFB has not been established. Using Cre-lox techniques, we show here that genetic ablation of Pdgfb in endothelial cells leads to impaired recruitment of pericytes to blood vessels. The endothelium-restricted Pdgfb knockout mutants also developed organ defects including cardiac, placental and renal abnormalities. These defects were similar to those observed in Pdgfb null mice. However, in marked contrast to the embryonic lethality of Pdgfb null mutants, the endothelium-specific mutants survived into adulthood with persistent pathological changes, including brain microhemorrhages, focal astrogliosis, and kidney glomerulus abnormalities. This spectrum of pathological changes is reminiscent of diabetic microangiopathy, suggesting that the endothelium-restricted Pdgfb knockouts may serve as models for some of the pathogenic events of vascular complications to diabetes.
Do foreign direct investments accelerate economic growth? The case of the Republic of Macedonia

The aim of this paper is to examine the long-run and the short-run relationships between foreign direct investment (FDI) and economic growth in the Republic of Macedonia by applying the cointegration analysis and error correction model to identify the variables explaining FDI determinants in the Republic of Macedonia. The research further attempts to investigate the effect of FDI on economic growth of the Republic of Macedonia using the methodology of vector auto regression and Granger causality test in this specific country. Out of the general conclusions it is evident that despite the above-average growth rates in both gross domestic product (GDP) and FDI in the country, we have found that GDP does not seem to induce FDI and likewise, FDI seems not to induce GDP. It is possible that the nature of this relationship is influenced by other institutional and economic factors. The paper concludes by offering some suggestions to economic policy makers involved in FDI particularly those in transition economies and high-growth potential areas. Suggestions for future research and implications for practice are also stated in the paper.
Affective Symptoms in Women Attending a Menopause Clinic

All new attenders at the Menopause Clinic in Edinburgh over six months were interviewed to detect current depressive disorder (MADRS) and past psychiatric disorders (SADS-L), to find out whether women who were depressed at the time of clinic attendance had a history of depression. Of the 95 subjects who entered the study, 78 had gone through a natural menopause and 17 had undergone hysterectomy with or without oophorectomy. Of the 78 who had experienced a natural menopause, 35 were found to be depressed at the time of clinic attendance and 43 were not. A strong association was found between current and past depressive illness, 29 of the patients depressed at the time of clinic attendance having had depression previously. However, a clear peak of illness was seen in the perimenopausal period (four years either side of the last menstrual period): 35% of all patients with past or current depressive illness experienced their first episode of illness in this period.
Issues in cross-cultural quality-of-life research.

PURPOSE To examine cross-cultural measurement of quality of life (QOL) and issues to consider in adapting quality-of-life instruments. ORGANIZING CONSTRUCT Health-related quality of life. METHODS Review of the literature on cross-cultural QOL using the Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), 1982 to February 2000, and Medline, 1966 to May 2000, databases. FINDINGS Use of research instruments beyond the samples with which they were initially tested, particularly if the new samples are cross-cultural, presents considerable challenges. The findings indicate consideration of these problems: phenomenon of interest, cross-cultural versus cross-national, salience, conceptual equivalence, cultural hegemony versus cultural validity, cultural equivalence versus verbal equivalence, fidelity versus appropriateness, privacy versus disclosure, appropriateness of format, and resource utilization for translation. Although the literature indicates increased discussion of theoretical, conceptual, and operational approaches to measuring cross-cultural QOL, problems continue in adapting instruments from one culture to another. CONCLUSIONS Many issues about cross-cultural QOL were identified. By addressing these issues, researchers can develop appropriately translated and validated quality-of-life instruments to advance knowledge about cross-cultural QOL.
Short-term effects of ambient air pollutants on asthma-related emergency department visits in Indianapolis, Indiana, 2007–2011

Abstract Objective: We estimate the short-term associations between daily changes in ambient air pollutants and daily asthma-related emergency department (ED) visits in Indianapolis, IN. Methods: We identified asthma-related ED visits among Indianapolis residents aged ≥5 years. We used Poisson regression in a time-series framework to estimate the increased risk for asthma-related ED visits from exposure to ambient SO2, PM2.5 and ozone during the warm season (April–September) and SO2 and PM2.5 during the cold (October–March) season, from 2007 to 2011. Our models controlled for measured confounders, including weather and respiratory infections, as well as unmeasured confounders using a natural cubic spline to account for long-term seasonal trends. Results: During 2007–2011 in Indianapolis, 165 056 asthma-related ED visits occurred. We found statistically significant positive associations (p < 0.05) between ambient air pollutants and ED visits during the warm season for persons aged 5–44 years. Interquartile range increases in daily ozone concentrations with same day, 2-day lagged, and 3-day moving average were associated with increased risks for ED visits of 3.2% (95% CI: 0.2%, 6.3%), 4.4% (0.1%, 8.9%) and 4.8% (0.2%, 9.6%), respectively. Interquartile range increases in 3-day moving averages for SO2 were associated with an increased risk of 3.3% (95% CI: 0.2%, 6.5%). We identified statistically significant associations (p < 0.05) between increased SO2 and PM2.5 levels and decreased ED visits among some age groups, primarily during the cold season, and no significant positive associations between changes in PM2.5 concentration and asthma-related ED visits. Conclusions: During the warm season, increases in ozone and SO2 concentrations were associated with increased asthma morbidity in children and young adults in Indianapolis. These results will enable reliable estimation of the health impacts of increases in these pollutants on asthma-related ED visits in Indianapolis and similar communities.
Ex Vivo Perfused Larynx Model of Phonation: Preliminary Study

Objectives: Although excised laryngeal models and physical models of the larynx are important in the study of laryngeal dynamics, they cannot be used to study the influence of neuromuscular contraction on vocal fold vibration, especially with regard to the thyroarytenoid muscle. Our aim was to develop an ex vivo larynx model of phonation, and combine the benefits of the in vivo and excised laryngeal models to the ex vivo situation. Methods: Three canine larynges were surgically removed and perfused ex vivo with modified Krebs-Henseleit reperfusion solution. The laryngeal nerves were stimulated, and an assessment of neuromuscular viability, phonation, and vocal fold vibration was made. Results: Neuromuscular stimulation, phonation, and experimental manipulation were possible for several hours after the onset of ex vivo perfusion. Repeatable periodic phonation in short bursts was achieved. Perfusion appears critical to maintain ex vivo viability, as adductory force was almost immediately lost upon cessation of ex vivo perfusion. Conclusions: The ex vivo larynx model has the potential to facilitate the measurement of glottal variables in a neuromuscularly correct model. We propose that the further development of this laryngeal model may be useful in the study of laryngeal dynamics, particularly when invasive measurements, such as that of glottal exit flow, are required.
Direction of Arrival Detection System for Radio Surveillance: Frequency Spectrum Analysis of CDMA and Jamming Waves

This paper introduces DOA (direction of arrival) detection system of jamming waves used for radio surveillance of 900 MHz, featuring its function of frequency spectrum analysis to distinguish CDMA (code division multiple access) and jamming waves. There exist many jamming waves arising from illegal (non-licensed) repeating antennas or wireless cameras that seriously interfere to CDMA signals especially in urban districts. It makes lower communication quality such like crossed communication in voice and lower throughputs in data transmission. In order to specify the location of those illegal antennas, we develop a DOA detection system of jamming waves which consists of smart antennas, receivers, A/D converters, spectrum analysis, DOA estimation and location detection. This paper focuses on the analysis of frequency spectrum to detect jamming waves from the observed signals
Arkansas BAHA Experience: Transcalvarial Fixture Placement Using Osseointegration Surgical Hardware

Objective: To determine what factors increase the likelihood of osseointegration failure and implant extrusion with the use of osseointegration surgical hardware, for bone-anchored hearing aids (BAHAs), in children and adults. Patients: A total of 60 patients (42 pediatric [≤19 yr] and 18 adult patients [34-69 yr]) who received osseointegration surgical hardware for a BAHA at Arkansas Children's Hospital from October 2003 to May 2009 or at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences from November 2005 to May 2009, respectively. Intervention: BAHA placement using 3- and 4-mm fixtures. Main Outcome Measures: Osseointegration failure with implant extrusion. Results: Fifty-seven loaded fixtures in the pediatric population, and 20 were placed in the adults. We had a 21% pediatric and 0% adult osseointegration failure rate. Conclusion: Young age, syndromic status, and failure to penetrate the inner table of the cranium increased the risk of osseointegration failures in children. In some cases, skull thickness provides an inadequate amount of bone for 4-mm fixture placement requiring placement of a 3-mm fixture instead. In these cases, transcalvarial placement of the implanted fixture may decrease the extrusion rate as 3-mm fixtures have been associated with increased rates of implant extrusion. The 3-mm fixtures that were placed in a transcalvarial fashion had a decreased extrusion rate compared with 3-mm fixtures that were surrounded by bone and did not penetrate the inner table of the cranium. Individual patient factors out of the surgeon's control likely play a large role in osseointegration failures as well. This clinical case report encourages transcalvarial fixture insertion when using 3-mm fixtures during placement of osseointegration surgical hardware for BAHAs.
Activities of oxidative enzymes in mycoplasmas

The activities of several oxidoreductases were measured in three fermentative and two nonfermentative Mycoplasma species that were grown under aerobic or anaerobic conditions. Acholeplasma laidlawii MG, Mycoplasma hyorhinis GDL, and Mycoplasma pneumoniae FH had very high apparent activities of pyruvate dehydrogenase and pyruvate dehydrogenase complex compared with the activities of mammalian fibroblasts or human platelet-enriched preparations, while Mycoplasma salivarium VV and Mycoplasma arthritidis 07 had very low apparent activities of these two enzymes. Strictly anaerobic growth diminished both enzymatic activities. The activity of alpha-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase complex was minimal in all five mycoplasmas that were grown under aerobic conditions, anaerobic conditions, or both. All the mycoplasmas that were examined exhibited lactate dehydrogenase and NADH-dichlorophenol indophenol oxidoreductase activities. The properties of mycoplasmal pyruvate dehydrogenase complex suggest that it differs from the mammalian enzyme.
How Reliable is Pain as the Fifth Vital Sign?

Background: Although many health care organizations require routine pain screening (eg, “5th vital sign”) with the 0 to 10 numeric rating scale (NRS), its accuracy has been questioned; here we evaluated its accuracy and potential causes for error. Methods: We randomly surveyed veterans and reviewed their charts after outpatient encounters at 2 hospitals and 6 affiliated community sites. Using correlation and receiver operating characteristic analysis, we compared the routinely measured “5th vital sign” (nurse-recorded NRS) with a research-administered NRS (research-recorded NRS) and the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI). Results: During 528 encounters, nurse-recorded NRS and research-recorded NRS correlated moderately (r = 0.627), as did nurse-recorded NRS and BPI severity scales (r = 0.613 for pain during the last 24 hours and r = 0.588 for pain during the past week). Correlation with BPI interference was lower (r = 0.409). However, the research-recorded NRS correlated substantially with the BPI severity during the past 24 hours (r = 0.870) and BPI severity during the last week (r = 0.840). Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed similar results. Of the 98% of cases where a numeric score was recorded, 51% of patients reported their pain was rated qualitatively, rather than with a 0 to 10 scale, a practice associated with pain underestimation (χ2 = 64.04, P < .001). Conclusion: Though moderately accurate, the outpatient “5th vital sign” is less accurate than under ideal circumstances. Personalizing assessment is a common clinical practice but may affect the performance of research tools such as the NRS adopted for routine use.
Intracellular and cell‐free (infectious) HIV‐1 in rectal mucosa

The intestinal mucosa contains most of the total lymphocyte pool and plays an important role in viral transmission, but only slight attention has been given to the immunological and virological aspects of human immunodeficiency virus‐1 (HIV‐1) infection at this site. In this study, before initiating or changing antiretroviral therapy, paired blood samples and rectal biopsies (RB) were obtained from 26 consecutive HIV‐infected subjects. HIV‐1 isolation and biological characterization, DNA, and HIV‐1 RNA titration were assessed, as were in vitro tumor necrosis factor‐alpha (TNF‐α) and interleukin‐β (IL‐1β) spontaneous production. The rate of HIV‐1 isolation from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and RBs was 75% and 58%, respectively. All RB‐derived isolates were nonsyncytium inducing (NSI), independent of the phenotype of blood‐derived isolates. Proviral DNA and detectable HIV‐1 RNA levels were measured in 100% and 77% of RBs, respectively. A statistical correlation was observed between HIV‐1 DNA and HIV‐1 RNA levels in rectal mucosa (P = 0.0075), whereas no correlation was found between these levels in blood samples (P > 0.05). Antiretroviral treatment did not seem to influence HIV‐1 detection in RBs. Higher levels of in vitro proinflammmatory cytokine production were found in the RBs of most infected patients when compared with healthy controls. Therefore, the rectal mucosa is an important HIV‐1 reservoir that demonstrates a discordant viral evolution with respect to blood. Both the virus type and the mucosa pathway of immunoactive substances might have important implications for therapeutic decision‐making and monitoring and could influence the bidirectional transmission of HIV‐1 in mucosal surfaces. J. Med. Virol. 65:637–643, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Mutual coupling of elliptical microstrip resonators

In this paper the mutual coupling between both rectangular and elliptical microstrip resonators has been investigated. The changes of resonant frequencies of radiators array have been chosen as a parameter involving the immunity to the mutual coupling. An Illuminating Mode concept based on Spectral Domain Approach has been employed in order to calculate the resonant frequency variation of the radiators. The structures under analysis have been excited by a single, x-oriented, plane wave. The induced x-directed current have been observed to find its maximal value which corresponds to the resonance. Results of the numerical studies regarding the mutual coupling have been shown and compared for arrays of elliptical and rectangular resonators.
An Extensible Centre-Control Routing Protocol in MANET

Mobile ad hoc networks have no support infrastructure and show a highly dynamic character. Due to its mobility, multi-hop communication, energy limitation and uncertainty of wireless communication, data transmission in network, namely routing, becomes a key problem to be solved. Most existing routing protocols based on topology information have a weak extensibility and a bad support to QoS. To solve this problem, a new centre-control routing protocol with better extensibility is proposed in our study of ad hoc networking. Simulations and related analyses show that this protocol has a good extensibility and high delivery rate of packet in large-scale ad hoc network, and presents a useful means to support QoS routing in ad hoc network
Temporal Frame Interpolation Based on Multiframe Feature Trajectory

This paper presents a bidirectional motion estimation (ME) method based on tracking feature trajectories and compensating for occlusion to enhance the temporal resolution of an input video sequence. First, we extract features and estimate their trajectories in the forward direction. We continue to track features only if the reliability of their trajectory is sufficiently high. Accordingly, if a feature can be continuously tracked through multiple frames, the proposed method assumes that its trajectory is a true motion vector (MV). Then, these forward feature trajectories are used as reference motion directions for backward block-based ME. If a block does not include any feature trajectories, we use the MVs of neighboring blocks as candidate MVs to propagate the predetermined true MV and to preserve the spatial correlation of MVs. Furthermore, the proposed method can detect occluded regions, where a continuously tracked feature does not have a corresponding point in the current frame. If an occluded region is detected, the intermediate frame is generated from either the previous frame or the current frame. In the non-occluded region, we generate the intermediate frames by taking into consideration the neighboring MVs to reduce blocking artifacts. Experimental results showed that the proposed temporal frame interpolation (TFI) method can improve the visual quality compared with conventional TFI methods, both objectively and subjectively.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONAL SLACK AND INNOVATION IN COMPANIES OF BM&FBOVESPA

Purpose: The goal of this study is to identify the relationship of absorbed, non-absorbed and potential slack with the innovation of companies of sectors members of the sectoral ranking of innovation in the Brazilian Index of Innovation (IBI) listed in BMF and the data to calculate the measures of organizational slack were collected from Economatica® database. Summary of key results: In the application of the panel data model, the results demonstrate a significant relationship between organizational slack and innovation. The potential and absorbed slacks impact significantly and positively the innovative process. Non-absorbed slack influences positively, but with relatively smaller impact compared to other measures. Key considerations/conclusions: It is concluded that the results indicate a relationship in greater degree of absorbed and potential slack and to a lesser degree of non-absorbed slack with the innovation of the companies surveyed.
Threshold-based ML Channel Estimation for OFDM System in Sparse Wireless Channel

A joint maximum likelihood (ML) estimator, computing both channel impulse response (CIR) and noise variance , is proposed . Then, an adaptive threshold, defined as a linear function of the square root of noise variance, is introduced into this estimator. It can effectively filter channel noise over those weaker paths of the estimated CIR such that the entire performance of channel estimator can be further improved. This new ML channel estimator with threshold is called as the improved ML (IML) channel estimator. The simulated results in high and medium frequency channels show that the IML estimator obtains 1.5-2 dB SNR improvement over traditional ML for realizing the same bit error ratio (BER, <0.1), and achieves approximately the same BER performance as linear minimum mean square error (LMMSE) by using the lowest computational amount. This makes it very attractive for OFDM system in sparse wireless channel.
Insights into electromagnetic interaction mechanisms

Low frequency (< 300 Hz) electromagnetic (EM) fields induce biological changes that include effects ranging from increased enzyme reaction rates to increased transcript levels for specific genes. The induction of stress gene HSP70 expression by exposure to EM fields provides insight into how EM fields interact with cells and tissues. Insights into the mechanism(s) are also provided by examination of the interaction of EM fields with moving charges and their influence on enzyme reaction rates in cell‐free systems. Biological studies with in vitro model systems have focused, in general, on the nature of the signal transduction pathways involved in response to EM fields. It is likely, however, that EM fields also interact directly with electrons in DNA to stimulate biosynthesis. Identification of an EM field‐sensitive DNA sequence in the heat shock 70 (HSP70) promoter, points to the application of EM fields in two biomedical applications: cytoprotection and gene therapy. EM field induction of the stress protein hsp70 may also provide a useful biomarker for establishing a science‐based safety standard for the design of cell phones and their transmission towers. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Micronutrients and women of reproductive potential: required dietary intake and consequences of dietary deficiency or excess. Part I – Folate, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B6

This two-part review highlights micronutrients for which either public health policy has been established or for which new evidence provides guidance as to recommended intakes during pregnancy. One pivotal micronutrient is folate, the generic name for different forms of a water-soluble vitamin essential for the synthesis of thymidylate and purines and, hence, DNA. For non-pregnant adult women the recommended intake is 400 μg/day dietary folate equivalent. For women capable of becoming pregnant an additional 400 μg/day of synthetic folic acid from supplements or fortified foods is recommended to reduce the risk of neural tube defects (NTD). The average amount of folic acid received through food fortification (grains) in the US is only 128 μg/day, emphasising the need for the supplemental vitamin for women of reproductive age. Vitamin B12 (cobalamin) is a cofactor required for enzyme reactions, including generation of methionine and tetrahydrofolate. B12 is found almost exclusively in foods of animal origin (meats, dairy products); therefore, vegetarians are at greatest risk for dietary vitamin B12 deficiency and should be supplemented. Vitamin B6 is required for many reactions, primarily in amino acid metabolism. Meat, fish and poultry are good dietary sources. Supplementation beyond routine prenatal vitamins is not recommended.