Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Duration of the QT interval in healthy cats.

OBJECTIVE To develop a clinically useful model for predicting QT interval duration as a function of heart rate in healthy cats. ANIMALS 20 healthy cats. PROCEDURE For all cats, results of a physical examination, electrocardiography, and echocardiography were normal. Twenty-four hour heart rate and rhythm data were collected by means of ambulatory electrocardiography. Hourly ECG segments were obtained from the 24-hour recordings. Mean heart rate and the mean of 5 QT interval measurements were calculated for each of 479 usable ECG segments. Analysis of covariance was used to develop models to describe variability in QT interval duration. RESULTS Prediction equations (R2 = 0.81) including terms for heart rate, (heart rate)2, age group (1 to 4 vs 8 to 14 years old), and their interactions were developed. Sex, individual cat, and time of day were of little value in predicting QT interval duration. A simplified prediction equation without age group (R2 = 0.71) also was developed and had better predictive ability than reported correction formulas for QT interval duration. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Prediction equations with 95% prediction intervals for expected QT interval duration in healthy cats were generated. Abnormal QT interval duration can be associated with cardiac electrical instability, yet QT interval duration is greatly influenced by heart rate. Results of the present study provide reference ranges for expected QT interval duration as a function of heart rate in healthy cats.
Warming Up and Heating Up: The Influence of Dual Enrollment on the Socialization and Academic Success of Latino Males at Community Colleges

Warming Up and Heating Up: The Influence of Dual Enrollment on the Socialization and Academic Success of Latino Males at Community Colleges By Hugo Alberto García Claremont Graduate University: 2014 The academic achievement of Latinos is well below that of Whites and other students of color. Many are not graduating from high school, and schools are failing to adequately prepare those who do graduate to gain admission to our nation’s most selective postsecondary institutions. This low academic achievement in the K-12 system propels Latinos to enroll in open admission community colleges resulting in their overrepresentation in two-year institutions. Furthermore, the scant body of literature on dual enrollment programs states that these programs promote postsecondary participation. However, no study has examined the influence of dual enrollment participation on working-class, first-generation, lowto middle-achieving Latino male students on college matriculation, transition, and persistence. By providing a clearer picture of the structured inequalities in the educational pipeline and how dual enrollment can circumvent these artificial educational systems within a Latino student context, policy makers and educators can enhance college participation and completion rates. There were 26 Latino males interviewed at two community colleges using a qualitative research design. The study utilizes anticipatory socialization, role rehearsal, and StantonSalazar’s social capital and funds of knowledge to guide my study. Most students in the study described that dual enrollment motivated them to enroll and eased their transition to college after high school. The majority of students indicted that dual enrollment served to warm-up or heatup their desire to enroll in college post-high school and increased their expectations to complete college. The study concludes by suggesting that high schools and colleges can help students to transition to college by enculturating students of the types of norms, attitudes, and behaviors needed to be successful in college. Dual enrollment had a warming up effect in that students become motivated to continue to their education post-high school. Furthermore, providing students with the various forms of funds of knowledge to successfully navigate the hierarchical structure of postsecondary institutions can promote matriculation to college and ease the transition from high school to college. Implications suggest that intervention programs need to develop networks with institutional agents to develop social capital and obtain funds of knowledge to help decode college.
IMPACT OF REMITTANCE INFLOWS ON CHILD LABOUR PREVALENCE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: AN APPLICATION OF SYSTEM-GMM APPROACH

The present study examined the impact of migrant workers' remittance on child labour predominance in developing countries. We intend to see whether financial inflows sent by migrant workers to their home countries could reduce the child labour threats in the countries under investigation using system-GMM approach. The result reveals that inflow of remittances reduce child labour prevalence in the sample countries, which means financial resources sent by the migrant workers improve the level of schooling as additional sources of income for the parents and hence they will send their children to schools rather than engaging them in under aged works. The implication is that authorities in these countries should formulate policies that will help in efficient utilization of remittances that will boost their investment drives as well as enhance educational level which will improve the skill human capital in the long-run and reduce child labouring which is a harmful to the overall economic growth and development.
[Scan time reduction with a small field-of-view quadruple inversion-recovery high-resolution contrast-enhanced MRI for carotid atherosclerosis].

OBJECTIVE To reduce the acquisition time of carotid high-resolution contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (CEMRI), we designed a small field-of-view (FOV) quadruple-inversion-recovery (SF-QIR) T1WI and evaluated the image quality. METHODS Twenty-four subjects with carotid plaque were enrolled in our study. All the subjects were imaged using the same 3.0T MRI by SF-QIR and standard rectangular FOV QIR (SrF-QIR) with identical parameters except for the phase-encoding step numbers and the RF excitation methods. Three independent readers qualitatively evaluated the differences between the two sequences in regard of the carotid outer wall border delineation, fibrous cap and lipid-rich necrotic core (LR-NC) border delineation, and diagnostic confidence. The quantitative measurements included maximal stenosis, wall area, LR-NC area, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR). The inter-reader variability was assessed. RESULTS The application of SF-QIR combined with orthogonal radio frequency excitation resulted in nearly half of the scan time with the SrF-QIR. Both qualitative and quantitative assessment by the readers revealed no significant differences between the two sequences except for SNR and CNR (Pgt;0.05). Since the mean loss of SNR with SF-QIR was 37.7%, SrF-QIR demonstrated a superior performance in SNR (P<0.001). CONCLUSION The small FOV QIR sequence is effective in high-resolution CEMRI for evaluating carotid plaques and can effectively reduce the scan time and eliminate motion artifacts.
The Constant Elasticity of Variance (CEV) Model

The constant elasticity of variance (CEV) spot price model is a one-dimensional diffusion model with the instantaneous volatility specified to be a power function of the underlying spot price, σ(S) = aS . The model has been introduced by Cox [7] as one of the early alternatives to the geometric Brownian motion to model asset prices. The CEV process is closely related to Bessel processes and is analytically tractable, leading to closed-form options pricing formulas. Options prices in the CEV model exhibit implied volatility skews and, for β < 0, there is a positive probability of hitting zero (bankruptcy). This paper surveys the CEV model.
Better the devil you know? Risk-taking, globalization and populism in Great Britain

Right-wing populist parties in European democracies appeal to citizens’ feelings of uncertainty related to globalization by promoting tough immigration laws and curbing the power of the European Union. This article adds to our understanding of how individuals’ risk propensity relates to support for right-wing populist parties and their ideas in the context of globalization. In particular, by drawing on survey data from the United Kingdom we investigate how this personality trait relates to support for the United Kingdom Independence Party and the vote for a British exit from the European Union. The article explores the complex interplay between risk propensity and right-wing populist appeals by dissecting the direct, indirect and total effects of this trait.
Rapid and efficient application design using a signal processing framework for WSN

Advances in sensor technology, wireless mesh networking and embedded processors are pushing development of new technologies in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). The wide variety of potential applications and platforms makes hard to port and develop new applications to different platforms keeping smart and efficient behavior of the nodes of WSN. For this reason nowadays middlewares are emerging as a valid alternative to the resource-hungry Operating Systems for WSN. In particular, frameworks are valid tools to provide hardware abstraction by creating an intermediate layer that improves interoperability and reduces the development time. Frameworks make available a set of libraries, utilities and functions used to build up distributed systems and algorithms where energy and computational limitations of the individual sensors can be overcome. In this paper we present two interesting real case applications using SPINE2, a framework for signal processing in node environment, ported on Ember EM250 ZigBee platform. We show how to obtain a general behavior on the system that is not achievable without using a suitable framework.
Incidental Findings in Children With Blunt Head Trauma Evaluated With Cranial CT Scans

OBJECTIVE: Cranial computed tomography (CT) scans are frequently obtained in the evaluation of blunt head trauma in children. These scans may detect unexpected incidental findings. The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence and significance of incidental findings on cranial CT scans in children evaluated for blunt head trauma. METHODS: This was a secondary analysis of a multicenter study of pediatric blunt head trauma. Patients <18 years of age with blunt head trauma were eligible, with those undergoing cranial CT scan included in this substudy. Patients with coagulopathies, ventricular shunts, known previous brain surgery or abnormalities were excluded. We abstracted radiology reports for nontraumatic findings. We reviewed and categorized findings by their clinical urgency. RESULTS: Of the 43 904 head-injured children enrolled in the parent study, 15 831 underwent CT scans, and these latter patients serve as the study cohort. On 670 of these scans, nontraumatic findings were identified, with 16 excluded due to previously known abnormalities or surgeries. The remaining 654 represent a 4% prevalence of incidental findings. Of these, 195 (30%), representing 1% of the overall sample, warranted immediate intervention or outpatient follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: A small but important number of children evaluated with CT scans after blunt head trauma had incidental findings. Physicians who order cranial CTs must be prepared to interpret incidental findings, communicate with families, and ensure appropriate follow-up. There are ethical implications and potential health impacts of informing patients about incidental findings.
Assessment of a fully 3D Monte Carlo reconstruction method for preclinical PET with iodine-124

Iodine-124 is a radionuclide well suited to the labeling of intact monoclonal antibodies. Yet, accurate quantification in preclinical imaging with I-124 is challenging due to the large positron range and a complex decay scheme including high-energy gammas. The aim of this work was to assess the quantitative performance of a fully 3D Monte Carlo (MC) reconstruction for preclinical I-124 PET. The high-resolution small animal PET Inveon (Siemens) was simulated using GATE 6.1. Three system matrices (SM) of different complexity were calculated in addition to a Siddon-based ray tracing approach for comparison purpose. Each system matrix accounted for a more or less complete description of the physics processes both in the scanned object and in the PET scanner. One homogeneous water phantom and three heterogeneous phantoms including water, lungs and bones were simulated, where hot and cold regions were used to assess activity recovery as well as the trade-off between contrast recovery and noise in different regions. The benefit of accounting for scatter, attenuation, positron range and spurious coincidences occurring in the object when calculating the system matrix used to reconstruct I-124 PET images was highlighted. We found that the use of an MC SM including a thorough modelling of the detector response and physical effects in a uniform water-equivalent phantom was efficient to get reasonable quantitative accuracy in homogeneous and heterogeneous phantoms. Modelling the phantom heterogeneities in the SM did not necessarily yield the most accurate estimate of the activity distribution, due to the high variance affecting many SM elements in the most sophisticated SM.
Tariffs and Carbon Emissions

ABSTRACT International trade and the environment are uneasy partners. Both environmentalists and free traders worry that the pursuit of one goal may obstruct the other. Nowhere is this tension more evident than in the area of climate change. Does trade liberalization increase carbon emissions? Do efforts to reduce carbon emissions lead to protectionist pressures? This paper addresses these questions by examining the relationship between CO2 emissions and tariffs in 109 to 153 countries from 1988 to 2013. Using instrumental-variable regressions to address reciprocal causation, I find that emissions reductions led to higher tariffs on manufactured goods. This suggests that carbon-intensive industries responded to carbon restrictions by lobbying against trade liberalization. In contrast, emissions did not affect tariffs on less carbon-intensive primary products, and neither type of tariff affected CO2 emissions. My results imply that efforts to combat climate change may obstruct trade liberalization, but the latter should not hinder climate change mitigation.
Multiresolution region-based image fusion using the Contourlet Transform

Different sensors provide a variety of images with different specifications (spectral, spatial and radiometric resolution, etc.). Image fusion techniques have been utilized to benefit the best features of all input images and to provide better application-wise output images. In this paper, a new region-based image fusion technique using the Contourlet Transform (CT) is proposed to produce a fused image better for human and machine interpretation and to reduce the computational effort of the traditional techniques. Due to the high directionality and anisotropy of the CT, the proposed technique is mainly developed to solve the problem of capturing the fine lines and contours of the input images. In this technique, the input images are segmented into small regions more suitable for the proposed fusion approach, where the segmentation process is performed in the frequency domain for better results. The fusion decision is made based on a new quality assessment scheme for each segmented region. Also, the presented region-based fusion approach is more robust than the traditional pixel-based techniques, where it reduces: the blurring effects, sensitivity to the misregistration, and noise effect in remote sensing images.
Quantification of HIV‐1 viral load in lymphoid and blood cells: assessment during four‐drug combination therapy

Objective: To assess the antiretroviral effect of a combination of zidovudine, didanosine, lamivudine and saquinavir in plasma, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and lymph‐node mononuclear cells (LNMC) after 8 weeks. Methods: Ten HIV‐1 antiretroviral therapy‐naive patients were given a combination of oral zidovudine (200 mg three times daily), oral didanosine (200 twice a day), oral lamivudine (150 mg twice a day) and oral saquinavir (600 mg three times daily). HIV‐1 plasma RNA was measured by quantitative reverse transcriptase (RT)‐polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Infectious HIV‐1 in PBMC and LNMC was measured by a coculture technique. HIV‐1 RNA in PBMC and LNMC was quantified by RT‐PCR. Proviral DNA titres in PBMC and LNMC were measured by endpoint dilution PCR. CD4 T‐cells were analysed by flow cytometry. Results: CD4 cell counts rose in all patients (mean increase of 125 ± 71 CD4 cells × 106/l) and the benefit was greater for patients with fewer than 350 CD4 cells × 106/l (mean increase of 159 ± 74 CD4 cells × 106/l). Plasma HIV‐1 RNA decreased exponentially in all patients (mean decrease of 3.1 log10 after 8 weeks with a mean half‐life of 2.2 ± 0.6 days). HIV‐1 RNA showed a decrease of 3.07 log10 in PBMC and of 2.1 log10 in LNMC. The decrease in plasma HIV‐1 RNA was consistently associated with the decrease in LNMC. These data were supported by a concomitant drop of HIV‐1 infectious titres in PBMC (mean decrease of 1.41 log10) and in LNMC (mean decrease of 2.54 log). Conclusions: These data show a significant antiretroviral effect of this four‐drug combination in blood and lymphoid tissues. However, a greater decrease in HIV‐1 RNA was observed in PBMC and in plasma than in lymph node cells.
Blood clearance by anti-phosphocholine antibodies as a mechanism of protection in experimental pneumococcal bacteremia.

Previous studies have demonstrated that monoclonal IgG and IgM antibodies to phosphocholine (PC), a determinant in the cell wall of Streptococcus pneumoniae, can protect mice from fatal infection with S. pneumoniae. In this study we demonstrate that both passive and naturally occurring anti-PC antibodies promote the clearance of S. pneumoniae from the blood. The bulk of the cleared pneumococci are apparently killed, because they fail to accumulate in reticuloendothelial tissues. These findings suggest that their protective effect is probably dependent on their ability to promote phagocytosis. We have found that on a weight basis IgG antibody is more effective at promoting blood clearance than IgM antibody. This observation fits with our earlier findings that IgG anti-PC antibody is more protective against i.v. infection than IgM anti-PC antibody. We have also demonstrated that anti-PC antibodies are protective against S. pneumoniae infection when given as late as 24 hr postinfection. This finding makes it unlikely that the ability to protect against pneumococcal infection with anti-PC antibody is dependent on an artifact associated with either their in vitro growth or the harvesting procedure.
A take-home placebo treatment can reduce stress, anxiety and symptoms of depression in a non-patient population

Background: With a healthcare system burdened by symptomatic and mental-health related conditions, the placebo effect may represent a useful clinical tool. First, however, there is a need to broaden research attention and investigate placebo effects outside laboratories and beyond experimental pain. This study investigated the effectiveness of a take-home placebo treatment in the short-term alleviation of stress, anxiety and symptoms of depression in a non-patient population. Method: A sample of 77 participants was randomized to either the ‘oxytocin’ treatment group (n = 22), the ‘serotonin’ treatment group (n = 22) or the wait-list control group (n = 33). The two treatment groups were given an ‘anti-stress treatment spray’ (placebo) to self-administer for 3 days, and completed online measures of perceived stress (Perceived Stress Scale-10), anxiety (Cognitive Somatic Anxiety Questionnaire) and symptoms of depression (Centre for Epidemiological Studies – Depression) before and after the 3-day protocol. Results: Both the ‘serotonin’ and ‘oxytocin’ treatment sprays were effective in reducing symptoms of depression; however, only those in the ‘oxytocin’ group reported less stress and anxiety as compared with controls. Overall, the ‘oxytocin’ was perceived as more effective. Conclusion: Placebo effects can be translated to a real-life setting in the short-term reduction of stress, anxiety and symptoms of depression in a non-patient population. In treating psychological distress, placebos may be useful addition to the treatment repertoire. The information given with treatment may also be an important consideration for practitioners.
In vivo and in vitro effects of an apolipoprotein e mimetic peptide on amyloid-β pathology.

BACKGROUND Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) is the major apolipoprotein present in the high-density lipoprotein-like particles in the central nervous system (CNS). ApoE is involved in various protective functions in CNS including cholesterol transport, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant effects. An ApoE peptide would be expected to exert protective effects on neuroinflammation. OBJECTIVE To determine the effects of an ApoE mimetic peptide Ac-hE18A-NH2 on amyloid-β pathology. METHOD Using human APP/PS1ΔE9 transgenic mice and in vitro studies, we have evaluated the effect of an ApoE mimetic peptide, Ac-hE18A-NH2, on amyloid plaque deposition and inflammation. RESULTS Administration of Ac-hE18A-NH2 to APP/PS1ΔE9 mice for 6 weeks (50 μg/mouse, 3 times a week) significantly improved cognition with a concomitant decrease in amyloid plaque deposition and reduced activated microglia and astrocytes, and increased brain ApoE levels. Oligomeric Aβ42 (oAβ42) and oxidized PAPC (ox-PAPC) inhibited secretion of ApoE in U251 cells, a human astrocyte cell line, and this effect was ameliorated in the presence of peptide Ac-hE18A-NH2. The peptide also increased Aβ42 uptake in a cell line of human macrophages. CONCLUSIONS Peptide Ac-hE18A-NH2 attenuates the effects of oxidative stress on ApoE secretion, inhibits amyloid plaque deposition, and thus could be beneficial in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.
A simple proof of the undecidability of strong normalisation

The purpose of this note is to give a methodologically simple proof of the undecidability of strong normalisation in the pure lambda calculus. For this we show how to represent an arbitrary partial recursive function by a term whose application to any Church numeral is either strongly normalizable or has no normal form. Intersection types are used for the strong normalization argument.
A RARE TREMATODE SPOROCYST FROM FRESHWATER SNAIL , MELANOIDES TUBERCULATUS ( MULLER 1774 )

A survey was conducted in 2012 on freshwater snails and their larval trematode parasites in southern Rajasthan, India. A total of 138 mature specimens of Melanoides tuberculatus snails were recovered from different lotic and lentic habitats. Of these snails, 86 (62.31%) were found to be infected with furcocercous, xiphidio, monostome and gymnocephalous cercariae. From these infected snails, 4.34% were infected with large sized elongated, creamish and annulated sporocysts. These sporocsyts contained numerous large sized active furcocercous cercariae and a few germ balls.