Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Need for Evidence Based Nutritional Guidelines for Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Patients: Acute and Long-Term Following Treatment

High survival rates for pediatric leukemia are very promising. With regard to treatment, children tend to be able to withstand a more aggressive treatment protocol than adults. The differences in both treatment modalities and outcomes between children and adults make extrapolation of adult studies to children inappropriate. The higher success is associated with a significant number of children experiencing nutrition-related adverse effects both in the short and long term after treatment. Specific treatment protocols have been shown to deplete nutrient levels, in particular antioxidants. The optimal nutrition prescription during, after and long-term following cancer treatment is unknown. This review article will provide an overview of the known physiologic processes of pediatric leukemia and how they contribute to the complexity of performing nutritional assessment in this population. It will also discuss known nutrition-related consequences, both short and long term in pediatric leukemia patients. Since specific antioxidants have been shown to be depleted as a consequence of therapy, the role of oxidative stress in the pediatric leukemia population will also be explored. More pediatric studies are needed to develop evidence based therapeutic interventions for nutritional complications of leukemia and its treatment.
A Study on the control Method of 3-Dimensional Space Application using KINECT System

Summary This paper suggests how to control 3D application using KINECT system introduced by Microsoft. The conventional system uses a mouse and a touch sensor to control 3D application. Recently, the size of the display became so large that the existing methods are more difficult to control the application. To solve this problem, I propose the method which controls the application intuitively by using the distance information and the joints’ location information.
FEMALE LIVELIHOODS IN WAR-AFFECTED SOCIETIESCASES FROM KITGUM DISTRICT OF NORTHERN UGANDA

ii Acknowledgements iii List of Acronyms iv Chapter 1: Introduction 1 1.1 Representations of post-colonial wars in Uganda 1 1.2 From war to reconstruction: where are the women? 4 1.3 Statement of the problem 6 1.4 Research assumption 7 1.5 Research questions 7 1.6 Motivation for undertaking this study 7 1.7 Relevance of the study to peace studies 10 1.8 Summary 11 1.9 The structure of the thesis 12 Chapter 2: Methodological approach 13 2.1 The research site 13 2. 2 Access and a cultural broker 14 2.3 Selecting a method of data collection 16 2.4 Choice of informants: who and how many? 17 2.5 Interview: A qualitative data-gathering technique 18 2.5. 1 Interviewing in action: positioned practices 19 2.6 Observations 21 2.7 Challenges and fieldwork reflections 23 2.7. 1 Language 23 2.7. 2 Positioning the researcher 24 2.7. 3 A man interviewing women 25 2.8 Moral and ethical concerns 27 2.9 Summary 28 Chapter 3: Conceptual framework 29 3.1 Defining a livelihood 29 3.2 The sustainable livelihood approach explained 30 3.3 Gender, war and livelihoods: teasing out the connection 32
Prevalence of Coronary Artery Disease Using Thallium-201 Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography among Patients Newly Undergoing Chronic Peritoneal Dialysis and Its Association with Mortality

Background: Previous data about the prevalence of coronary artery disease in dialysis patients were mainly based on history or electrocardiogram. Methods: We evaluated the prevalence of coronary artery disease using routine thallium-201 single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) in 227 patients at the start of chronic peritoneal dialysis between January 1996 and October 2003. We also analyzed its association with mortality. Results: Fifty-one patients (22.5%) were positive on thallium SPECT. There were significant differences in age, underlying diabetic nephropathy, and C-reactive protein (CRP), serum albumin, total cholesterol, and prealbumin levels among patients positive and negative on thallium SPECT. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that age (≧60 years), underlying diabetic nephropathy, and CRP (≧0.5 mg/dl) were independent predictors of positive thallium SPECT, with the patients positive for all three factors having a probability for positive thallium SPECT of 43%, whereas patients negative for all three factors had a probability of only 4%. Ninety patients died, and 137 survived during the median follow-up period of 34 (range 3–99) months. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed that age, underlying diabetic nephropathy, serum albumin, prealbumin, and CRP levels, positive thallium SPECT, and smoking affected survival. Survival was not different according to gender, presence of hypertension, body mass index, total cholesterol, or lipoprotein(a). Cox regression analysis showed that only underlying diabetic nephropathy and age (≧60 years) were independent predictors of mortality. Conclusions: We found that 22.5% of the patients who started chronic peritoneal dialysis had a positive thallium SPECT. Age, underlying diabetic nephropathy, and CRP were independent predictors of a positive thallium SPECT. Underlying diabetic nephropathy and age, but not positive thallium SPECT, were independent predictors of mortality.
Automatic Behaviour Understanding in Medicine

Now that Affective Computing and Social Signal Processing methods are becoming increasingly robust and accurate, novel areas of applications with significant societal impact are opening up for exploration. Perhaps one of the most promising areas is the application of automatic expressive behaviour understanding to help diagnose, monitor, and treat medical conditions that themselves alter a person's social and affective signals. This work argues that this is now essentially a new area of research, called behaviomedics. It gives a definition of the area, discusses the most important groups of medical conditions that could benefit from this, and makes suggestions for future directions.
Juvenile Transfers as Ritual Sacrifice

This article explores the dramaturgy of juvenile transfer provisions for the vestiges of ancient practices of child sacrifice that they reveal. Relying on theories by Girard, the social discord caused by young children who commit violent criminal acts is examined as a sacrificial crisis. The rhetorical demonization of the child criminal is described as their expurgation (as “Other”), the means by which their status is converted to scapegoat for the innocents their surrogacy benefits. Rather than deterrence or retribution functions, the legal response to children’s normative violations that involves transferring children to adult criminal court are presented here as an institutionalized and symbolic form of sacrifice to resolve a cultural crisis and ensure societal cohesion.
The Impact of Suppressing the Renin‐Angiotensin System on Atrial Fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation is very common in the United States. After a search of Medline, EMBASE, and CINAHL, 4 trials evaluating inhibitors of the renin‐angiotensin system were identified for prevention of new‐onset atrial fibrillation, facilitation of electrical cardioversion of atrial fibrillation, and prevention of atrial fibrillation recurrence after electrical cardioversion. A meta‐analysis was performed using a random‐effects model. Use of an angiotensin‐converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin‐receptor blocker (ARB) was associated with a reduction in new‐onset atrial fibrillation (OR [95% CI] = 0.51 [0.36–0.72]), a lower failure rate of electrical cardioversion of atrial fibrillation (0.47 [0.24–0.92]), and a lower rate of recurrence of atrial fibrillation after electrical cardioversion (0.39 [0.20–0.75]). With the exception of the new‐onset atrial fibrillation analysis, these findings were not associated with statistical heterogeneity. These hypothesis‐generating data suggest that inhibitors of the renin‐angiotensin system may provide benefit across the spectrum of atrial fibrillation.
Glowing Podocytes in Living Mouse: Transgenic Mouse Carrying a Podocyte-Specific Promoter

Green fluorescence protein (GFP) has been utilized as a marker of gene expression due to the great advantage in its simple and quick detectability. We generated transgenic mice carrying a GFP cDNA under the control of a β-actin/β-globin promoter (CX promoter) and cytomegalovirus enhancer. The green luminescence derived from GFP was apparent in skeletal muscle, pancreas, heart and kidney, but not in other tissues. The GFP expression in the kidney was localized in podocytes. Moreover, in situ hybridization of GFP showed that the transcriptional level was highly active in the podocytes. These results suggested that the glowing green fluorescence would be a useful in vivo marker of podocyte in these transgenic lines in the physiological and pathophysiological state, and that the CX promoter could allow a podocyte-specific expression of a molecule of interest in kidney.
A K-band linearized amplifier with a modified third-order transconductance cancellation technique in 0.18 µm CMOS process

A modified third-order transconductance (gm3) cancellation technique is employed to improve the linearity of a MOSFET amplifier. The method is based on the main transistor (MT) in parallel with the auxiliary transistors (ATs). The magnitude of the ATs' equivalent gm3 is close to the MT with out of phase. The third-order intermodulation (IM3) of the transistor cell can be suppressed. The linearized amplifier is fabricated in 0.18 µm CMOS process. The amplifier demonstrates a small signal gain of 10 dB, an input 1-dB compression point (P1dB) of −7 dBm, an input third-order-intercept point (IIP3) of 2.3 dBm, and an IIP3 improvement of 6.5 dB without extra dc power consumption. The dc power consumption of the proposed linearized amplifier is 23.4 mW with a dc supply voltage of 1.8 V.
DPSK receiver with implicit diversity gain for the linearly frequency-selective Rayleigh fading channel

This paper presents a simple DPSK receiver for the frequency-selective fading channel. The channel is modelled as an f-power series truncated to the first two terms. Two time invariant receiver filters are used to remove the channel induced ISI and to separate the two implicit diversity branches. The received samples from each branch are then differentially decoded and combined. Analytical and simulation results for binary DPSK show that this receiver out performs the conventional receiver using matched filtering and a product demodulator.
Institute of Physics Publishing Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering Dynamic Control of Dep Actuation and Droplet Dispensing

Rapid dielectrophoretic (DEP) liquid actuation and dispensing of uniform aqueous droplets on a substrate are implemented for the first time in a silicon-based architecture. Using 1 0 0 Si wafers takes advantage of the high thermal conductivity and extensive semiconductor microfabrication capabilities of silicon. The structures employ a coplanar, three-electrode design to guarantee reproducible dispensing of multiple sessile droplets as small as ∼75 pl. A reduced-order dynamic model provides a predictive relation for the transient liquid motion, which is implemented in an open-loop dynamic control scheme to achieve repeatable production of anywhere from 1 to 23 droplets per structure by controlling voltage on-time.
English Language Learners and Learning Disabilities: Research Agenda and Implications for Practice

Although little is known about learning disabilities (LDs) in English language learners (ELLs), there is a substantial knowledge base about the identification, assessment, and intervention of and for LDs in monolingual native English–speaking students. Building on this knowledge, participants at an October 2003 National Symposium on Learning Disabilities in English Language Learners were asked to suggest research questions, priorities, and suggestions on how to build the necessary infrastructure to address critical research needs. In the discussions that took place, important themes emerged: (1) identification and assessment of LD and/or reading disabilities (RD) in ELLs (ELL/Ds), (2) understanding of the language and literacy developmental trajectories of ELLs, (3) understanding of the individual and contextual factors affecting outcomes, (4) the intersection of all of these areas with neurobiology, and (5) developing and testing the effectiveness of interventions for learning disabilities in ELL/Ds. These themes, and the research agenda that was forged around them, are presented. In addition, the practice implications of this agenda are presented, along with some suggestions for current practice while we await future research findings.
Technosphere® Insulin: Defining the Role of Technosphere Particles at the Cellular Level

Background: Technosphere® Insulin (TI) is a novel inhalation powder for the treatment of diabetes mellitus. Technosphere Insulin delivers insulin with an ultra rapid pharmacokinetic profile that is distinctly different from all other insulin products but similar to natural insulin release. Such rapid absorption is often associated with penetration enhancers that disrupt cellular integrity. Methods: Technosphere Insulin was compared to a panel of known penetration enhancers in vitro using the Calu-3 lung cell line to investigate the effects of TI on insulin transport. Results: Measures of tight junction integrity such as transepithelial electrical resistance, Lucifer yellow permeability, and F-actin staining patterns were all unaffected by TI. Cell viability and plasma membrane integrity were also not affected by TI. In contrast, cells treated with comparable (or lower) concentrations of penetration enhancers showed elevated Lucifer yellow permeability, disruption of the F-actin network, reduced cell viability, and compromised plasma membranes. Conclusions: These results demonstrate that TI is not cytotoxic in an in vitro human lung cell model and does not function as a penetration enhancer. Furthermore, TI does not appear to affect the transport of insulin across cellular barriers.
Rate-Distortion Optimized Joint Source/Channel Coding of WWAN Multicast Video for a Cooperative Peer-to-Peer Collective

Because of unavoidable wireless packet losses and inapplicability of retransmission-based schemes due to the well-known negative acknowledgment implosion problem, providing high quality video multicast over wireless wide area networks (WWAN) remains difficult. Traditional joint source/channel coding (JSCC) schemes for video multicast target a chosen th-percentile WWAN user. Users with poorer reception than th-percentile user (poor users) suffer substantial channel losses, while users with better reception (rich users) have more channel coding than necessary, resulting in sub-optimal video quality. In this paper, we recast the WWAN JSCC problem in a new setting called cooperative peer-to-peer repair (CPR), where users have both WWAN and wireless local area network (WLAN) interfaces and use the latter to exchange received WWAN packets locally. Given CPR can mitigate some WWAN losses via cooperative peer exchanges, a CPR-aware JSCC scheme can now allocate more bits to source coding to minimize source quantization noise without suffering more packet losses, leading to smaller overall visual distortion. Through CPR, this quality improvement is in fact reaped by all peers in the collective, not just a targeted th-percentile user. To efficiently implement both WWAN forward error correction and WLAN CPR repairs, we propose to use network coding for this dual purpose to reduce decoding complexity and maximize packet recovery at the peers. We show that a CPR-aware JSCC scheme dramatically improves video quality: by up to 8.7 dB in peak signal-to-noise ratio for the entire peer group over JSCC scheme without CPR, and by up to 6.0 dB over a CPR-ignorant JSCC scheme with CPR.
Association of the chronic diseases in the same person and their association with overweight.

T HE problem of chronic disease has become one of the major concerns of public health. Conditions classed as "chronic" lead to a great deal of incapacity during middle age, the most productive years of life. A study of morbidity conducted in the Eastern Health District of Baltimore has revealed that only 14 per cent of the total population was affected by chronic disease. However, one-third of all of the medical calls rendered to the population annually and about one-fourth of the hospital admissions were because of chronic illness. These facts serve to emphasize the gravity of the problem of chronic disease. A study of the association of the chronic diseases in the same person and their association with overweight in a sample population is of more than academic interest. Data from the morbidity survey made in the Eastern Health District of Baltimore are used for this study and are presented in this report.
Response of neutrophils to stimulus infusion: differential sensitivity of cytoskeletal activation and oxidant production

The response of human neutrophils to N-formyl peptides were studied under conditions where ligand binding was controlled by infusing a cell suspension with the peptide over a time period comparable to the normal half-time for binding. Receptor occupancy was measured in real time with a fluorescently labeled peptide using flow cytometry. This binding was approximated by a simple reversible model using typical on (7 X 10(8) M- min-1) and off (0.35/min) rate constants and the infusion rates (0.02-0.2 nM/min). Under conditions of stimulus infusion intracellular calcium elevation, superoxide generation, and right angle light scatter and F-actin formation were measured. As the infusion rate was decreased into the range of 10 pM/min, lowering the rate of increase of receptor occupancy to approximately 0.5% per min, the calcium and right angle light scatter responses elongated in time and decreased in magnitude. Superoxide generation decreased below infusion rates of approximately 100 pM/min (occupancy increasing at a rate in the range of 5% per min). This behavior could contribute to differences between chemotactic responses, which appear to require low rates of receptor occupancy over long periods, and bactericidal or inflammatory responses (free radical generation and degranulation), which require bursts of occupancy of several percent of the receptors.
Rapid Prototyping of Site-Specific Nanocontacts by Electron and Ion Beam Assisted Direct-Write Nanolithography

Rapid prototyping of bottom-up nanostructure circuits is demonstrated, utilizing metal deposition and patterning methodology based on combined focused ion and electron beam induced decomposition of a metal−organic precursor gas. Ohmic contacts were fabricated using electron beam deposition, followed by the faster process of ion beam deposition for interconnect formation. Two applications of this method are demonstrated: three-terminal transport measurements of Y-junction carbon nanotubes and fabrication of nanocircuits for determination of electromechanical degradation of silver nanowires.
An effective AHP-based metaheuristic approach to solve supplier selection problem

The supplier selection problem is based on electing the best supplier from a group of pre-specified candidates, is identified as a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM), and is proportionately significant in terms of qualitative and quantitative attributes. It is a fundamental issue to achieve a trade-off between such quantifiable and unquantifiable attributes with an aim to accomplish the best solution to the above-mentioned problem. This article portrays a metaheuristic-based optimisation model to solve this NP-complete problem. Initially, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is implemented to generate an initial feasible solution of the problem. Thereafter, a simulated annealing (SA) algorithm is exploited to improve the quality of the obtained solution. The Taguchi robust design method is exploited to solve the critical issues on the subject of the parameter selection of the SA technique. In order to verify the proposed methodology, the numerical results are demonstrated based on tangible industry data.
Prefractionation techniques in proteome analysis: The mining tools of the third millennium

The present review deals with prefractionation protocols used in proteomic investigation in preparation for mass spectrometry (MS) or two‐dimensional electrophoresis (2‐DE) map analysis. Briefly, reported methods focus on cell organelle differential centrifugation and on chromatographic approaches, to continue in extenso with a panoply of electrophoretic methods. In the case of chromatography, procedures useful as a prefractionation step, including affinity, ion‐exchange, and reversed‐phase resins, revealed several hundreds of new species, previously undetected in unfractionated samples. Novel chromatographic prefractionation methods are also discussed such as a multistaged fractionation column, consisting in a set of immobilized chemistries, serially connected in a stack format (an assembly of seven blocks), each capable of harvesting a given protein population. Such a method significantly simplifies the complexity of treated samples while concentrating species, all resulting in a larger number of visible proteins by MS or 2‐DE. Electrophoretic prefractionation protocols include all those electrokinetic methodologies which are performed in free solution, essentially all relying on isoelectric focusing steps (although some approaches based on gels and granulated media are also discussed). Devices associated with electrophoretic separation are multichamber apparatus, such as the multicompartment electrolyzers equipped with either isoelectric membranes or with isoelectric beads. Multicup device electrophoresis and several others, exploiting the conventional technique of carrier ampholyte focusing, are reviewed. This review also reports approaches for sample treatments in order to detect low‐abundance species. Among others, a special emphasis is made on the reduction of concentration difference between proteins constituting a sample. This latter consists in a library of combinatorial ligands coupled to small beads. Such a library comprises hexameric ligands composed of 20 amino acids, resulting in millions of different structures. When these beads are impregnated with complex proteomes (e.g., human sera) of widely differing protein compositions, they are able to significantly reduce the concentration differences, thus greatly enhancing the possibility to evidence low‐abundance species. It is felt that this panoply of methods could offer a strong step forward in “mining below the tip of the iceberg” for detecting the “unseen proteome”.
Hardware-Accelerated Interactive Illustrative Stipple Drawing of Polygonal Objects Vision , Modeling , and Visualization 2002

Pen and ink rendering techniques provide artistic, illustrative, and informative representations of objects. With recent advances in hardware graphics technology, several researchers have developed interactive non-photorealistic rendering techniques, including hatching, toon rendering, and silhouettes. However, the stippling method of drawing and shading using dots has not received as much focus. In this paper, we present an interactive system for stipple drawing of surface-based objects that provides illustrative stipple renderings of multiple objects and includes adaptation of the stippling to provide a consistent rendering of objects at any scale. We also describe the use of the latest graphics hardware capabilities for accelerating the rendering by performing the silhouette rendering on the GPU and the stipple density enhancement calculations as a vertex program.