Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Needle stick injuries during medical training among Thai pre-clinical year medical students of the Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University.

OBJECTIVE To study episodes of needle stick injuries during medical training among pre-clinical year medical students of the Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University. SETTING Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University. DESIGN Retrospective descriptive study. SUBJECTS 375 pre-clinical year medical students of the Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University during academic year 1998-1999. METHOD Questionnaire survey and interviewing. RESULTS In this study only 5 students revealed that they had ever had accidental exposure during venipuncture training. Each episode of exposure was different in the details. Most of the accidents occurred after venipuncture practice (80%). CONCLUSION Although the universal precautions are taught in many subjects, we also found that accidental exposures still occur. Not only prevention of accidents but also post-exposure management should be frequently reiterated to the medical students at every level. Any medical practice of students should be under supervisor control.
Long‐term effects of translocation and release numbers on fine‐scale population structure among coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch)

Management actions, such as translocations, reintroductions and supportive breeding, can have both negative and positive effects on population recovery. Several studies have examined the incidence of introgression following such actions, but few studies have explored the effect of release numbers on gene flow between closely related recipient populations. We examined population structure of coho salmon in Puget Sound (Washington State, USA) to evaluate the relationship between the number of individuals transferred between rivers, and the number released within rivers, on inter‐ and intrariver population divergence. Eleven microsatellite loci were surveyed in 23 hatchery and wild samples collected from 11 rivers within and one hatchery outside Puget Sound. Pairwise genetic divergences between most populations were significant, but the population structure could not be explained by an isolation‐by‐distance model (Mantel test, P > 0.05). In contrast, we detected significant hatchery influence on population structure. The numbers of fish transferred among rivers between 1952 and 2004 was negatively correlated with differentiation between rivers (partial Mantel test, P = 0.005) but not within rivers (t‐test, P = 0.41). Number of fish released from hatcheries that collect broodstock locally was negatively correlated with population structure within rivers (t‐test P = 0.002), and between nearby rivers (partial Mantel P = 0.04). Our results indicate that the population structure can, to some degree, be altered by the number of individuals transferred and by local release number of individuals in ongoing artificial propagation programs. The findings presented here emphasize the need to control the number of individuals that are either inadvertently introduced, or are deliberately released under conservation scenarios.
Is the German Retail Gas Market Competitive?

We explore whether non-competitive pricing prevails in Germany’s retail gasoline market by examining the influence of the crude oil price on the retail gasoline price, focusing specifically on how this influence varies according to the brand and to the degree of competition in the vicinity of the station. Our analysis identifies several factors other than cost – including the absence of nearby competitors and regional market concentration – that play a significant role in mediating the influence of the oil price on the retail gas price, suggesting price setting power among stations.
Ontology and search engine for cloud computing system

Cloud computing is becoming a well-known buzzword nowadays. Many companies, such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft and so on, accelerate their paces in developing Cloud computing systems and enhancing their services to cater for a wide variety of users. However, there is no study that focuses on search engine for Cloud computing system. Hence, this paper presents search engine for Cloud computing system (Cloudle). To semantically define the relationship among Cloud services, Cloud ontologies (CO-1 and CO-2) are designed. CO-2 contains a set of Cloud concepts, individuals of those concepts, and the relationship among those individuals while CO-1 contains only concepts. It is used for determining the similarity among Cloud services with three kinds of reasoning methods (1) concept similarity reasoning, (2) object property similarity reasoning, and (3) datatype property similarity reasoning. The architecture of Cloudle is also briefly presented. Finally, empirical results show that the result of using Cloudle with CO-2 has significantly better performance in finding the appropriate Cloud service than the result using Cloudle with CO-1, the result without the Cloud ontology, and the result without Cloudle.
Medium for Isolation and Differentiation of Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Vibrio alginolyticus

Trypticase soy agar supplemented with sucrose, sodium chloride, bile salts, and triphenyltetrazolium chloride is an improved plating medium for the isolation of Vibrio parahaemolyticus from samples of seawater, permitting better differentiation of this organism from Vibrio alginolyticus and other bacteria.
Identification and characterization of Bph14, a gene conferring resistance to brown planthopper in rice

Planthoppers are highly destructive pests in crop production worldwide. Brown planthopper (BPH) causes the most serious damage of the rice crop globally among all rice pests. Growing resistant varieties is the most effective and environment-friendly strategy for protecting the crop from BPH. More than 19 BPH-resistance genes have been reported and used to various extents in rice breeding and production. In this study, we cloned Bph14, a gene conferring resistance to BPH at seedling and maturity stages of the rice plant, using a map-base cloning approach. We show that Bph14 encodes a coiled-coil, nucleotide-binding, and leucine-rich repeat (CC-NB-LRR) protein. Sequence comparison indicates that Bph14 carries a unique LRR domain that might function in recognition of the BPH insect invasion and activating the defense response. Bph14 is predominantly expressed in vascular bundles, the site of BPH feeding. Expression of Bph14 activates the salicylic acid signaling pathway and induces callose deposition in phloem cells and trypsin inhibitor production after planthopper infestation, thus reducing the feeding, growth rate, and longevity of the BPH insects. Our work provides insights into the molecular mechanisms of rice defense against insects and facilitates the development of resistant varieties to control this devastating insect.
Pharmacokinetic modeling of tranexamic acid for patients undergoing cardiac surgery with normal renal function and model simulations for patients with renal impairment

Tranexamic acid (TXA), an effective anti‐fibrinolytic agent that is cleared by glomerular filtration, is used widely for cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) surgery. However, an effective dosing regimen has not been fully developed in patients with renal impairment. The aims of this study were to characterize the inter‐patient variability associated with pharmacokinetic parameters and to recommend a new dosing adjustment based on the BART dosing regimen for CPB patients with chronic renal dysfunction (CRD). Recently published data on CPB patients with normal renal function (n = 15) were re‐examined with a two‐compartment model using the ADAPT5® and NONMEMVII® to identify covariates that explain inter‐patient variability and to ascertain whether sampling strategies might affect parameter estimation. A series of simulations was performed to adjust the BART dosing regimen for CPB patients with renal impairment. Based on the two‐compartmental model, the number of samples obtained after discontinuation of TXA infusion was found not to be critical in parameter estimation (p > 0.05). Both body weight and creatinine clearance were identified as significant covariates (p < 0.005). Simulations showed significantly higher than normal TXA concentrations in CRD patients who received the standard dosing regimen in the BART trial. Adjustment of the maintenance infusion rate based on the percent reduction in renal clearance resulted in predicted plasma TXA concentrations that were safe and therapeutic (~100 mg·L−1). Our proposed dosing regimen, with consideration of renal function, is predicted to maintain effective target plasma concentrations below those associated with toxicity for patients with renal failure for CPB. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Perioperative Levels and Changes of High-Sensitivity Troponin T Are Associated With Cardiovascular Events in Vascular Surgery Patients*

Objectives:Myocardial infarction after major surgery is frequent, drives outcome, and consumes health resources. Specific prediction and detection of perioperative myocardial infarction is an unmet clinical need. With the widespread use of high-sensitive cardiac troponin T assays, positive tests become frequent, but their diagnostic or prognostic impact is arguable. We, therefore, studied the association of routinely determined pre- and postoperative high-sensitive cardiac troponin T with the occurrence of major adverse cardiac events. Design:This study was a prospective noninterventional trial. Setting:This study was conducted at Hannover Medical School in Germany. Patients:A total of 455 patients undergoing open vascular surgery were followed for 30 days for the occurrence of major adverse cardiac events. Interventions:None. Measurements and Main Results:Preoperative and 24-hour postoperative high-sensitive cardiac troponin T measurements and the respective changes were correlated to medical history and the occurrence of major adverse cardiac events (cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, and ischemia). Pre- and postoperative high-sensitive cardiac troponin T measurements demonstrated a majority of patients with detectable troponin levels preoperatively and an increase over the 24 hours after surgery. The level of high-sensitive cardiac troponin T was significantly associated with preexisting diseases that constitute the Lee’s Revised Cardiac Risk Index. A preoperative high-sensitive cardiac troponin T greater than or equal to 17.8 ng/L and a perioperative high-sensitive cardiac troponin T change greater than or equal to 6.3 ng/L are independently associated with the occurrence of major adverse cardiac events. Adding high-sensitive cardiac troponin T absolute change to the Revised Cardiac Risk Index improves the risk predictive accuracy of the score as evidenced by increased area under receiver operating characteristic and significant reclassification effects. Conclusions:The risk predictive power of high-sensitive cardiac troponin T change in addition to the Revised Cardiac Risk Index could facilitate 1) detection of patients at highest risk for perioperative myocardial ischemia, 2) evaluation and development of cardioprotective therapeutic strategies, and 3) decisions for admission to and discharge from high-density care units.
Therapeutic levels of aspirin and salicylate directly inhibit a model of angiogenesis through a Cox‐ independent mechanism

A range of antineoplastic properties is attributed to aspirin, thought to be due to inhibition of cyclooxygenase (Cox) enzymes in tumor cells. One important outcome is that by reducing angiogenic factor secretion by cancer cells, aspirin also inhibits angiogenesis, thereby restricting tumor growth. However, aspirin may also have direct effects on endothelial cells to regulate angiogenesis. Our aim was to quantitate these effects and determine whether they occurred through inhibiting Cox enzymes. The effects of aspirin, salicylate (the natural deacetylated form of aspirin), and the selective Cox inhibitors SC560 and Celecoxib on endothelial cell proliferation, viability, and angiogenesis were compared. Therapeutic aspirin concentrations (0.5 mM) had no detectable effect on endothelial cell viability or proliferation but caused a striking reduction in tubule formation in a three‐dimensional collagen angiogenesis assay. This was also seen with equimolar concentrations of salicylate, while selective Cox inhibitors did not inhibit angiogenesis in this assay either alone or in combination. Furthermore, high doses of aspirin or salicylate (5 mM), well above therapeutic plasma concentrations, lead to endothelial cell apoptosis. We conclude that aspirin, at therapeutic concentrations, directly inhibits angiogenesis via a Cox‐independent mechanism, which may significantly contribute to its neoplastic protective effects. —Borthwick, G. M. , Johnson, A. S. , Partington, M. , Burn, J., Wilson, R. , Arthur, H. M. Therapeutic levels of aspirin and salicylate directly inhibit a model of angiogenesis through a Cox‐independent mechanism. FASEB J. 20, 2009–2016 (2006)
Sleep disturbance in patients with burning mouth syndrome: a case-control study.

AIM To examine sleep complaints in patients with burning mouth syndrome (BMS) and the relationships between these disturbances, negative mood, and pain. METHODS Fifty BMS patients were compared with an equal number of healthy controls matched for age, sex, and educational level. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), the Hamilton Rating Scales for Depression (HAM-D) and Anxiety (HAM-A) were administered. Descriptive statistics, including the Mann-Whitney U test and hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses were used. RESULTS BMS patients had higher scores in all items of the PSQI and ESS than the healthy controls (P < .001). In the BMS patients, a depressed mood and anxiety correlated positively with sleep disturbances. The Pearson correlations were 0.68 for PSQI vs HAM-D (P < .001) and 0.63 for PSQI vs HAM-A (P < .001). CONCLUSION BMS patients reported a greater degree of sleep disorders, anxiety, and depression as compared with controls. Sleep disorders could influence quality of life of BMS patients and could be a possible treatment target.
Analysis of mixed methods using mesh dependent norms

Abstract : This paper presents a new approach to the analysis of mixed methods for the approximate solution of 4th order elliptic boundary value problems. In this approach one introduces a pair of mesh dependent norms and proves the approximation method is stable with respect to these norms. The error estimates then follow in a direct manner. In a mixed method, one introduces an auxiliary variable, usually representing another physically important quantity, and writes the differential equation as a lower order system. One then considers Ritz-Galerkin approximation schemes based on a variational formulation of this lower order system, thereby obtaining direct approximations to both the original and auxiliary variables. Three particular mixed methods for the approximate solution of the biharmonic problem are examined in detail.
Online booking system design and experimental realization

At present the university's growing range of pilot projects, how rational and effective use of laboratories, has become all the problems facing the university laboratory. Experimental design online booking system is mainly based on the WINDOWS system, using ASP and ACCESS database to achieve the laboratory course booking function. The reservation system implementation and management of the laboratory's functions, appointments include the appointment of the experimental classroom teacher, administrator management functions, including laboratory information, booking of pilot projects and experiments and laboratory experiments of query volume booking. System design and implementation of key technologies are described, for the university laboratories to provide useful templates online booking reference.
An approach to teaching PID controller tuning

Abstract This paper discusses an approach to the teaching of PID controller tuning methods to students in control engineering at Dublin Institute of Technology. The method involves analytically calculating the gain margin, phase margin and maximum sensitivity for PI and PID controlled systems whose process is modelled in first order lag plus time delay (FOLPD) form. Students can examine the performance of many tuning rules from graphical results, allowing insight to be developed as to the most rational choice of the tuning rule for the application. Some preliminary work done to develop an expert system to allow a greater automation of the procedure for recommending a tuning rule, for user defined requirements, is also described.
An FPGA Drop-In Replacement for Universal Matrix-Vector Multiplication

We present the design and implementation of a universal, single-bitstream library for accelerating matrixvector multiplication using FPGAs. Our library handles multiple matrix encodings ranging from dense to multiple sparse formats. A key novelty in our approach is the introduction of a hardware-optimized sparse matrix representation called Compressed Variable-Length Bit Vector (CVBV), which reduces the storage and bandwidth requirements up to 43% (on average 25%) compared to compressed sparse row (CSR) across all the matrices from the University of Florida Sparse Matrix Collection. Our hardware incorporates a runtimeprogrammable decoder that performs on-the-fly decoding of various formats such as Dense, COO, CSR, DIA, and ELL. The flexibility and scalability of our design is demonstrated across two FPGA platforms: (1) the BEE3 (Virtex-5 LX155T with 16GB of DRAM) and (2) ML605 (Virtex-6 LX240T with 2GB of DRAM). For dense matrices, our approach scales to large data sets with over 1 billion elements, and achieves robust performance independent of the matrix aspect ratio. For sparse matrices, our approach using a compressed representation reduces the overall bandwidth while also achieving comparable efficiency relative to state-of-the-art approaches. Note: this work was published in FCCM’12 [1]. Keywords-FPGA; dense matrix; sparse matrix; spMV; reconfigurable computing
Association of transforming growth factor-β1 T869C, G915C, and C509T gene polymorphisms with rheumatoid arthritis risk

Abstract The association of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGFβ1) is an important signaling pathway factor involving extracellular matrix regulation, and its gene polymorphisms with the risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is currently still fiercely debated. Therefore, this meta-analysis was performed to determine if TGFβ1 T869C, G915C, and C509T gene polymorphisms correlate with the risk of developing RA. Association reports were identified from PubMed, Cochrane Library and CBM-disc (China Biological Medicine Database) on 1 May 2013, and eligible studies were recruited and synthesized to identifying patterns among study results. T869C TT genotype in the overall population was associated with increased RA risk (OR = 1.28, 95% CI: 1.02–1.60, p = 0.03). In the sub-group analysis, T869C TT genotype was shown to be a risk factor for RA, and T869C C allele or CC genotype a protective factor against RA disease in Asians, but these associations were not found in Caucasians. Furthermore, TGFβ1 C509T TT genotype was distinctly associated with RA susceptibility, but the T allele and CC genotype were not. TGFβ1 G915C gene polymorphism was not associated with RA susceptibility. In conclusion, the TT genotype of TGFβ1 T869C was associated with RA risk in the overall population and Asians. Furthermore, CC genotype or C allele was determined to be protective factors with respect to the RA risk in the overall population and Asians. Nonetheless, additional studies are required to firmly establish a correlation between the aforementioned polymorphisms and RA risk.
Toll-Like Receptor 4-Mediated Innate IL-10 Activates Antigen-Specific Regulatory T Cells and Confers Resistance to Bordetella pertussis by Inhibiting Inflammatory Pathology 1

Signaling through Toll-like receptors (TLR) activates dendritic cell (DC) maturation and IL-12 production, which directs the induction of Th1 cells. We found that the production of IL-10, in addition to inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, was significantly reduced in DCs from TLR4-defective C3H/HeJ mice in response to Bordetella pertussis. TLR4 was also required for B. pertussis LPS-induced maturation of DCs, but other B. pertussis components stimulated DC maturation independently of TLR4. The course of B. pertussis infection was more severe in C3H/HeJ than in C3H/HeN mice. Surprisingly, Ab- and Ag-specific IFN-γ responses were enhanced at the peak of infection, whereas Ag-specific IL-10-producing T cells were significantly reduced in C3H/HeJ mice. This was associated with enhanced inflammatory cytokine production, cellular infiltration, and severe pathological changes in the lungs of TLR4-defective mice. Our findings suggest that TLR-4 signaling activates innate IL-10 production in response to B. pertussis, which both directly, and by promoting the induction of IL-10-secreting type 1 regulatory T cells, may inhibit Th1 responses and limit inflammatory pathology in the lungs during infection with B. pertussis.
A Hybrid Model for End to End Online Handwriting Recognition

Automatic recognition of online handwritten words in a generic mode has significant application potentials. However, this recognition job is challenging for unconstrained handwriting data. The challenge is more serious for Indic scripts like Devanagari or Bangla due to the inherent cursiveness of their characters, large sizes of respective alphabets, existence of several groups of shape similar characters etc. On the other hand, with the recent development of powerful machine learning tools, major research initiatives in this area of pattern recognition studies have been observed. Feature extraction and classification are two major modules of such a recognizer. Deep architectures of convolutional neural network (CNN) models have been found to be efficient in extraction of useful features from raw signal. On the other hand, a recurrent neural network (RNN) along with connectionist temporal classification (CTC) has been shown to be able to label unsegmented sequence data. In the present article, we propose a hybrid layered architecture consisting of three networks CNN, RNN and CTC for recognition of online handwriting without use of any specific lexicon. In this study, we have also observed that feeding hand-crafted features to the CNN at the first level of the proposed model provides better performance than feeding the raw signal to the CNN. We have simulated the proposed model on two large databases of Devanagari and Bangla online unconstrained handwritten words. The recognition accuracies provided by the proposed model are encouraging.
A Web-based Technique to Generate and Visualize 3D Scenes from Global to Local Views

Abstract Global terrain visualization is a very challenging subject. Adopted a client/server architecture for complex, dynamic and distributed 3D scenes, based on hypertext transfer protocol and oriented object methods, a virtual scene for the earth which merges satellite and aerial imagery with DEM data using the Earth itself as an interface is built. Database organization functions in the server, data transfer and real-time display mechanisms are discussed in this paper; then pyramid data structure and wallet analysis principles are introduced to simplified data. How to construct high efficient indexes and algorithms of operating 3D landscape on the browser are also discussed. Finally an experiment is performed using different levels of detail data.