Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Local cerebral blood flow is preserved in sepsis.

Sepsis is often complicated by encephalopathy, neuroendocrine dysfunction and cardiovascular autonomic failure. The cause of septic brain dysfunction is not fully understood. The aim of the present study is to explore whether septic brain dysfunction in a common septic model in the rat correlates with abnormalities either of local cerebral blood flow (LCBF) of defined brain areas or of whole brain blood flow (CBF). 45 male Wistar rats (320+/-13 g) were randomly assigned to a sepsis group (31 rats, cecal ligature and puncture, CLP) or a control group (14 rats, sham operation). Of these 45 rats, 16 rats were used for blood analysis; the remaining 29 rats were used for CBF/LCBF measurements. LCBF measurements were performed 24h after initial surgery using quantitative autoradiography with 4-iodo[N-methyl-(14)C]antipyrine, which allows to analyze CBF on a regional/local and global basis. In 42 different brain regions bilateral optical density measurements were performed. Septic rats (vs. control) presented tachycardia (507+/-37 vs. 452+/-44 min(-1), P<0.05), leukocytopenia (2.96+/-2.37 vs. 8.83+/-2.9710(9) x L(-1), P<0.05), hypocapnia (29.3+/-4.6 vs. 36.4+/-3.9 mmHg, P<0.05), and higher serum lactate concentrations (5.7+/-3.9 vs. 2.2+/-2.0 mmol x L(-1), P<0.05). LCBF of all 42 areas, as well as, CBF (116+/-59 vs. 115+/-52 m x 100 g(-1)min(-1), n.s. ) did not differ. The results showed that severe sepsis (mortality rate of 43 %) did not induce alterations in mean CBF and LCBF. It is concluded that brain dysfunction is not reflected in changes of CBF during severe sepsis.
Remolding child: process of nursing practice for sexually abused children.

OBJECTIVE To explore and understand the nursing practice processes of psychiatric nurses for school-aged sexually abused children admitted to psychiatric wards. MATERIAL AND METHOD Grounded theory approach. Twelve psychiatric nurses, aged between 35-59 years old, experienced with sexually abused child patients, participated in the present study Data was collected by using in-depth interview that were tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim, line by line. It was then analyzed using grounded theory method. RESULTS "Remolding child" was the basic social process by which psychiatric nurses provided nursing care for school-aged sexually abused children admitted to psychiatric wards. It was composed of three stages happening continuously in sequence. Each stage consisted of sub-stages that had no sequence in their occurrence and were simultaneous and reciprocal. The first stage started with establishing trust, arranging effective communication, and providing physical care. The second stage was fostering socialization, building will-power; and arranging a safe and supportive environment. The final stage was assisting living in society. Two other important characteristics of this remolding child process were working as a team and self-development. CONCLUSION The substantive theory derived from the study recommends new understanding in the holistic nursing practice process for school-aged sexually abused children admitted to psychiatric wards in Thailand. It can be used as a guideline to develop interventions to prevent residual effects of chronic psychiatric problems occurring in later years.
Tight Money, Real Interest Rates, and Inflation in Sub-Saharan Africa

The consequences of tight monetary policy are analyzed in an optimizing currency-substitution model of a small, open economy that operates under an open capital account and a flexible exchange rate. There is a reasonably good fit between the dynamics generated by the model and the stylized facts in the tight-money episodes that occurred in Kenya in 1993 and Nigeria in 1989-91. The study's results shed light on two issues: why tight money has provoked stupendous increases in inflation and the real interest rate in some episodes, and whether tight money is a foolish, unsustainable policy that always worsens the fiscal deficit and raises the inflation rate in the long run.
GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION AND THE EVOLUTION OF REPRODUCTIVE ALLOCATION IN THE PITCHER‐PLANT MOSQUITO, WYEOMYIA SMITHII

We measured the egg size of six geographic populations of the pitcher‐plant mosquito, Wyeomyia smithii, from Florida (30°N) to Ontario (49°N). Populations from northern latitudes produced larger eggs than populations from southern latitudes. Egg size increased with increasing latitude more rapidly when larvae were reared under low rather than high density. One southern (30°N) and one northern (49°N) population of W. smithii that persisted through 10 generations of selection for increased persistence under conditions of chronic thermal‐ and nutrient‐limiting stress (conditions similar to southern rather than northern habitats) produced smaller eggs more rapidly than unselected control lines. However, there were no differences in lifetime fecundity or fertility between control and selected lines. Thus, laboratory evolution in an environment representative of extreme southern latitudes caused evolutionary changes consistent with geographic patterns of egg size. These results implicate temperature as a selective factor influencing the geographic variation of egg size in W. smithii, and demonstrate a novel trade‐off in reproductive allocation between egg size and egg maturation time.
Feedback modulation of surrounding pressure determines the onset of negative effort dependence in a collapsible tube bench model of the pharyngeal airway.

Negative effort dependence (NED), decreased airflow despite increased driving pressure, has been proposed as a specific obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) phenotypic characteristic. We examined conditions under which NED occurs in a collapsible tube, pharyngeal airway bench model with the chamber enclosed, focusing on relationships with surrounding pressure levels and longitudinal strain. Using a vacuum source, graded airflows (V̇; 0-5 l/s) were generated through a thin-walled latex tube enclosed within a rigid, cylindrical chamber, sealed with initial chamber pressures (Pci) of 0-5 cmH2O (separate runs), or opened to the atmosphere. Upstream minus downstream pressure (Pu - Pd), maximum airflow (V̇max), and chamber pressure (Pc) were measured at 0-50% longitudinal strain. NED occurred across the range of Pci and strains studied but was most pronounced for the chamber open condition. With a sealed chamber, V̇ increased and Pc decreased with increasing Pu - Pd until the onset of NED at V̇max and a Pc value that was designated as critical (Pcc). Pcc was lowest (-17 cmH20) and V̇max was highest (~5 l/s) with chamber sealed: Pci = 0 cmH2O and 12.5 to 25% strain. We conclude that for our collapsible tube model, the achievable V̇max before the onset of NED depends on both the initial conditions (Pci and strain) and the dynamics of feedback between driving pressure and chamber pressure (chamber sealed vs. open). NED-based phenotypic analyses for OSA may need to focus on potential feedback control mechanisms (eg lung volume change, muscle activity) that may link peripharyngeal tissue pressure levels to driving pressures for airflow.NEW & NOTEWORTHY A collapsible tube, pharyngeal airway bench model was used to study the role of surrounding pressure and longitudinal wall strain at the onset of negative effort dependence (NED). NED occurred to varying degrees across all conditions tested, but maximum airflow was achieved with 1) low initial surrounding pressure, 2) a feedback mechanism between surrounding pressure and driving pressure; and 3) a moderate amount of strain applied. Potential impacts on OSA phenotypic analyses are discussed.
Patterns of mitochondrial inheritance in the myxogastrid Didymium iridis

Seven strains of the Central American A1 mating series of Didymium iridis were crossed in all possible combinations. Individual plasmodia were isolated and grown to a stage where total DNA could be isolated for DNA-DNA hybridization with cloned mitochondrial DNA probes to determine the pattern of mitochondrial inheritance. Random, biased, and dominant patterns of uniparental mitochondrial inheritance were observed, as well as rare cases of biparental inheritance, depending on the particular parental strains mated. The diverse patterns suggest that the factors controlling mitochondrial inheritance in D. iridis are complex. Differences between trials of the same matings suggest that non-genetic factors may also influence mitochondrial inheritance.
Low-Overhead Maximum Power Point Tracking for Micro-Scale Solar Energy Harvesting Systems

Environmental energy harvesting is a promising approach to achieving extremely long operational lifetimes in a variety of micro-scale electronic systems. Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) is a technique used in energy harvesting systems to maximize the amount of harvested power. Existing MPPT methods, originally intended for large-scale systems, incur high power overheads when used in micro-scale energy harvesting, where the output voltage of the transducers is very low (less than 500mV) and the harvested power is miniscule (only hundreds of μW). This paper presents a low-overhead MPPT algorithm for micro-scale solar energy harvesting systems. The proposed algorithm is based on the use of a negative feedback control loop and is particularly amenable to hardware-efficient implementation. We have used the proposed algorithm to design a micro-scale solar energy harvesting system, which has been implemented using IBM 45nm technology. Post-layout simulation results demonstrate that the proposed MPPT scheme successfully tracks the optimal operating point with a tracking error of less than 1% and incurs minimal power overheads.
Molecular Identification and Characterization of Novel Human and Mouse Concentrative Na+-Nucleoside Cotransporter Proteins (hCNT3 and mCNT3) Broadly Selective for Purine and Pyrimidine Nucleosides (System cib)*

The human concentrative (Na+-linked) plasma membrane transport proteins hCNT1 and hCNT2 are selective for pyrimidine nucleosides (systemcit) and purine nucleosides (system cif), respectively. Both have homologs in other mammalian species and belong to a gene family (CNT) that also includes hfCNT, a newly identified broad specificity pyrimidine and purine Na+-nucleoside symporter (system cib) from the ancient marine vertebrate, the Pacific hagfish (Eptatretus stouti). We now report the cDNA cloning and characterization of cib homologs of hfCNT from human mammary gland, differentiated human myeloid HL-60 cells, and mouse liver. The 691- and 703-residue human and mouse proteins, designated hCNT3 and mCNT3, respectively, were 79% identical in amino acid sequence and contained 13 putative transmembrane helices. hCNT3 was 48, 47, and 57% identical to hCNT1, hCNT2, and hfCNT, respectively. When produced in Xenopus oocytes, both proteins exhibited Na+-dependentcib-type functional activities. hCNT3 was electrogenic, and a sigmoidal dependence of uridine influx on Na+concentration indicated a Na+:uridine coupling ratio of at least 2:1 for both hCNT3 and mCNT3 (cf 1:1 for hCNT1/2). Phorbol myristate acetate-induced differentiation of HL-60 cells led to the parallel appearance of cib-type activity and hCNT3 mRNA. Tissues containing hCNT3 transcripts included pancreas, bone marrow, trachea, mammary gland, liver, prostrate, and regions of intestine, brain, and heart. The hCNT3 gene mapped to chromosome 9q22.2 and included an upstream phorbol myristate acetate response element.
The effect of a "universal antiretroviral therapy" recommendation on HIV RNA levels among HIV-infected patients entering care with a CD4 count greater than 500/μL in a public health setting.

BACKGROUND On 1 January 2010, a large, publicly funded clinic in San Francisco announced a "universal ART" approach to initiate antiretroviral therapy (ART) in all human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected persons. The effect of changing guidance on real-world patient outcomes has not been evaluated. METHODS We evaluated untreated adult patients (defined as going >90 days without ART use) visiting clinic from 2001 to 2011. The cumulative incidence of HIV RNA suppression (viral load, <500 copies/mL), stratified by CD4 cell count at entry and calendar dates representing guideline issuance, were estimated using a competing risk framework. A multivariate Poisson-based model identified factors associated with HIV RNA suppression 6 months after clinic entry. RESULTS Of 2245 adults, 87% were male, and the median age was 39 years (interquartile range, 33-45 years). In 534 patients entering clinic with a CD4 cell count of >500 cells/µL, the 1-year incidence of HIV RNA suppression was 10.1% (95% confidence interval [CI], 6.6%-14.6%) before 4 April 2005; 9.1% (95% CI, 3.6%-17.4%) from 4 April 2005 to 1 December 2007; 14.1% (95% CI, 7.5%-22.8%) from 1 December 2007 to the universal ART recommendation and 52.8% (95% CI, 38.2%-65.4%) after. After adjustment, the SFGH policy was associated with a 6-fold increase in the probability of HIV RNA suppression 6 months after clinic entry. CONCLUSIONS Recommendations to initiate ART in all HIV-infected patients increased the rate of HIV RNA suppression for patients enrolling in care with a CD4 cell count of >500 cells/µL and may foreshadow national trends given the March 2012 revision of national treatment guidelines to favor ART initiation for persons with CD4 cell counts of >500 cells/µL.
The Relationship between Student Discipline Disproportionality and High School Dropout Rate

Previous research has indicated that there is a possible relationship between disproportionality in student discipline and high school dropout rate. Using discipline and dropout data from a mid-Atlantic state school district, discipline disproportionality and dropout rate amongst high school African American, Hispanic, and Caucasian male and females over a period of four school years was examined. The findings indicated that there was indeed discipline disproportionality among African American, Hispanic, and Caucasian students. However, the evidence indicating a relationship between disproportionality and dropping out was not conclusive. Based on the findings, implications for educational practice are advanced. In addition, recommendations for further research are set forth.
Measurement of subcellular metabolite levels in leaves by fractionation of freeze-stopped material in nonaqueous media.

This paper describes a technique for measuring the in vivo metabolite levels in the chloroplast stroma, the cytosol, and the vacuole of spinach (Spinacia oleracea U.S.A. hybrid 424) leaves. Spinach leaves were freeze stopped and the frozen tissue was ground and lyophilized. The dry material was homogenized by sonication in a mixture of carbon tetrachloride and heptane, and fractionated by density gradient centrifugation. Measurements of the activity of marker enzymes in various subcellular compartments show the chloroplastic material mainly appearing in the lightest fractions and the cytosolic material in the middle of the gradient, whereas most of the vacuolar material is found in the heaviest fraction. Using the measured distributions of metabolites and of marker enzymes in each fraction of the gradient, the subcellular distribution of the metabolite can be calculated.As a first application, the new fractionation technique was used to investigate the subcellular contents of malate and sucrose in spinach leaves. The results show striking diurnal changes of sucrose and malate, with both substances primarily located in the vacuolar compartment. About three times more malate is present at the end of the day than at the end of the night. The sucrose content in the vacuole falls from a maximum of 45 millimolars at the end of the day to an almost undetectable value of approximately 1 millimolar at the end of the night.
Web Search Evaluation with Informational and Navigational Intents

: Given an ambiguous or underspeciﬁed web search query, search result diversiﬁcation aims at accomodat-ing di ﬀ erent user intents within a single “entry-point” result page. However, some intents are informational, for which many relevant pages may help, while others are navigational, for which only one web page is required. We propose new evaluation metrics for search result diversiﬁcation that considers this distinction, as well as the condordance test for comparing the intuitiveness of a given pair of metrics quantitatively. Our main experimental ﬁndings are: (a) In terms of discriminative power which reﬂects statistical reliability, the proposed metrics, DIN (cid:2) -nDCG and P + Q (cid:2) , are comparable to intent recall and D (cid:2) -nDCG, and possibly superior to α -nDCG; (b) In terms of the concordance test which quantiﬁes the agreement of a diversity metric with a gold standard metric that represents a basic desirable property, DIN (cid:2) -nDCG is superior to other diversity metrics in its ability to reward both diversity and relevance at the same time. Moreover, both D (cid:2) -nDCG and DIN (cid:2) -nDCG signiﬁcantly outperform α -nDCG in their ability to reward diversity, to reward relevance, and to reward both at the same time. In addition, we demonstrate that the randomised Tukey’s Honestly Signiﬁcant Di ﬀ erences test that takes the entire set of available runs into account is substantially more conservative than the paired bootstrap test that only considers one run pair at a time, and therefore recommend the former approach for signiﬁcance testing when a set of runs is available for evaluation.
FO/MD hybrid system for real dairy wastewater recycling

ABSTRACT This study investigated a forward osmosis and membrane distillation (FO/MD) hybrid system for real dairy wastewater (DWW) recycling. Two types of FO membranes, cellulose triacetate-embedded polyester screen support (CTA-ES) and aquaporin inside (AQP), were employed. Sodium chloride was used as the draw solution. A cross-flow FO cell and an air gap membrane distillation module were established to conduct individual FO experiments and FO/MD experiments. From the experiments, an analysis of the water flux (Jw), reverse draw solute flux (Js), Js/Jw ratio and contaminant rejection was performed. The reverse draw solute flux was determined by monitoring the chlorine ions in the feed solution of the FO process. The study demonstrated that real DWW could be reclaimed by the FO/MD hybrid system for the reuse of urban recycled water or for higher grade utilization. The DWW flux was influenced by feed foulants, the fouling stage as well as membrane properties. Furthermore, the Js/Jw ratios were lower and more invariable for the CTA-ES membrane than for the AQP membrane, suggesting that the CTA-ES membrane had superior filtration performance. A fouled CTA-ES membrane could recover 90% of the flux after membrane cleaning.
Augmented Lagrangian methods for penalized likelihood reconstruction in emission tomography

In emission tomography, the Poisson statistics of the observations make penalized-likelihood reconstruction with an ℓ1 penalty more difficult than in the case where the observed data is Gaussian. Previously proposed methods for enforcing sparsity of the reconstructed image with respect to some transform use approximations of the ℓ1 norm. These approximations facilitate the derivation of monotonie algorithms using optimization transfer methods. Recently, augmented Lagrangian methods have been applied to restoration of images corrupted by Poisson noise without requiring approximations to the ℓ1 norm. This work extends previously derived augmented Lagrangian-based algorithms to penalized likelihood reconstruction for emission tomography with an exact ℓ1 penalty. We compare the proposed algorithm to an incremental optimization transfer algorithm that performs penalized-likelihood reconstruction with a hyperbolic approximation to the ℓ1 penalty. The results show that the proposed algorithm reduces the cost function nearly as quickly as the incremental optimization transfer algorithm. The potential advantage of the proposed method is that it solves the ℓ1 penalized-likelihood problem exactly.
Bond and CDS Pricing with Recovery Risk II: The Stochastic Recovery Black-Cox Model

Building on recent work incorporating recovery risk into structural models we consider the Black-Cox model with an added recovery risk driver. The recovery risk driver arises naturally in the context of imperfect information implicit in the structural framework. This leads to a two-factor structural model we call the Stochastic Recovery Black-Cox model, whereby the asset risk driver At defines the default trigger and the recovery risk driver Rt defines the amount recovered in the event of default. We then price zero-coupon bonds and credit default swaps under the Stochastic Recovery Black-Cox model. Introducing separate but correlated risk drivers leads to a decoupling of the default and recovery risk premiums in the credit spread. Finally, we compare our results with the classic Black-Cox model and give explicit expressions for the recovery risk premium in the Stochastic Recovery Black-Cox model.
Extraction of Subgap Density of States in Amorphous InGaZnO Thin-Film Transistors by Using Multifrequency Capacitance–Voltage Characteristics

An extraction technique for subgap density of states (DOS) in an n-channel amorphous InGaZnO thin-film transistor (TFT) by using multifrequency capacitance-voltage (<i>C</i> -<i>V</i>) characteristics is proposed and verified by comparing the measured <i>I</i>- <i>V</i> characteristics with the technology computer-aided design simulation results incorporating the extracted DOS as parameters. It takes on the superposition of exponential tail states and exponential deep states with characteristic parameters for <i>N</i> <sub>TA</sub> = 1.1 × 10<sup>17</sup> cm<sup>-3</sup> · eV<sup>-1</sup>, <i>N</i> <sub>DA</sub> = 4 × 10<sup>15</sup> cm<sup>-3</sup> · eV<sup>-1</sup>, <i>kT</i> <sub>TA</sub> = 0.09 eV, and <i>kT</i> <sub>DA</sub> = 0.4 eV. The proposed technique allows obtaining the frequency-independent <i>C</i>-<i>V</i> curve, which is very useful for oxide semiconductor TFT modeling and characterization, and considers the nonlinear relation between the energy level of DOS and the gate voltage <i>V</i> <sub>GS</sub>. In addition, it is a simple, fast, and accurate extraction method for DOS in amorphous InGaZnO TFTs without optical illumination, temperature dependence, and numerical iteration.
Pre-silicon verification of multiprocessor SoCs: The case for on-the-fly coherence/consistency checking

Multiple cores interact through a complex shared-memory hierarchy that must satisfy coherence and consistency requirements. As the number of cores grows, the design of the memory system becomes more error-prone, since it is more difficult to fulfill shared-memory requirements with the growing number of local memories distributed among cores. That is why a checker must be used to verify if coherence and consistency are satisfied by the design representation (pre-silicon) or by the hardware prototype (post-silicon). In industrial environments, checkers developed for post-silicon verification are often reused at design time, although recent works show that the higher observability of a design representation should be exploited to speed up pre-silicon verification. The literature reports many checkers, yet direct comparisons between them are rare. To bridge that gap, we evaluated four distinct classes of checkers, each under 5000 use-cases scenarios. The results allow us to make the case for on-the-fly checking as the most efficient approach for pre-silicon verification, since it speeds up analysis by at least one order of magnitude as compared to conventional inference-based checkers. Besides, we found out that the use of multiple scoreboards doubles the probability of finding an error as compared to a unified scoreboard.