Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Skilled communication: making it real.

Editor’s Note: The AACN Standards for Establishing and Sustaining Healthy Work Environments states that “nurses must be as proficient in communication skills as they are in clinical skills. ” The standards document, outlined in the last issue of this column, goes on to describe how communication mishaps contribute to medical errors, decrease quality of care, diminish staff morale, and negatively impact retention of nurses. Communication is a challenge in all human endeavors. And poor communication occurs regularly in everyday interactions from personal relationships to business transactions. Rarely, however, does faulty communication risk such grave consequences as when it occurs in the healthcare setting—where the lives of vulnerable patients lie in the balance. Frequently, nurses laud the timeliness of the Standards and hail their usefulness in theory, but feel overwhelmed or confused at where to begin with implementation. Certainly, nurses must be thoughtful in how they approach implementation, resisting the urge to tell colleagues to simply “try harder” or “communicate better. ” Skilled communication requires a plan that includes education, teamwork, commitment, evaluation, and ongoing vigilance to make it a reality in any unit, department, or team. A part of such a plan includes tools that assist staff in producing the desired outcome. Such is the case in helping staff learn to communicate more skillfully. As a result, I decided to use this issue to provide 2 successful examples from actual practice that provide a glimpse of communication tools that work. The following examples will delineate how real nurses, with a commitment to tackling this challenging issue, have made major progress in improving communication among team members in general and between nurses and physicians in specific. —Connie Barden Department Editor
Texture Boundary Detection Based on the Long Correlation Model

The problem of detecting texture boundaries without assuming any knowledge on the number of regions or the types of textures is considered. Texture boundaries are often regarded as better features than intensity edges, because a large class of images can be considered a composite of several different texture regions. An algorithm is developed that detects texture boundaries at reasonably high resolution without assuming any prior knowledge on the texture composition of the image. The algorithm utilizes the long correlation texture model with a small number of parameters to characterize textures. The parameters of the model are estimated by a least-squares method in the frequency domain. The existence and the location of texture boundary is estimated by the maximum-likelihood method. The algorithm is applied to several different images, and its performance is shown by examples. Experimental results show that the algorithm successfully detects texture boundaries without knowing the number of types of textures in the image. >
Landscape 'Contagion' in Raster and Vector Environments

Abstract Raster land cover data has been used to construct adjacency matrices by scanning the pixel edges and calculating proportions according to the land cover types joined. Like joins (e.g., forest to forest) are most common because pixel size is typically much smaller than the average patch size. The dominance of like joins (the matrix diagonal) of the adjacency matrix has led to one interpretation of the matrix as landscape contagion (the tendency of land cover to cluster into a few, large patches). Construction of the adjacency matrix in a vector environment results in a different measurement. In a vector environment, land cover patches are not sub–divided into pixels. Therefore, the main diagonal of the adjacency matrix is zero. Construction of an adjacency matrix in a vector environment estimates the evenness of distribution of edge types, not contagion. The same edge type evenness metric is estimated in a raster environment by ignoring the matrix diagonal and re-scaling the off-diagonal elements .
The 5′ untranslated region‐mediated enhancement of intracellular listeriolysin O production is required for Listeria monocytogenes pathogenicity

Listeriolysin O (LLO) and ActA are essential virulence determinants for Listeria monocytogenes pathogenesis. Transcription of actA and hly, encoding LLO, is regulated by PrfA and increases dramatically during intracellular infection. The 5′ untranslated regions (5′ UTRs) of actA and prfA have been shown to upregulate expression of their respective gene products. Here, we demonstrate that the hly 5′ UTR plays a critical role in regulating expression of LLO during intracellular infection. Deletion of the hly 5′ UTR, while retaining the hly ribosome binding site, had a moderate effect on LLO production during growth in broth culture, yet resulted in a marked decrease in LLO levels during intracellular infection. The diminished level of LLO resulted in a significant defect in bacterial cell‐to‐cell spread during intracellular infection and a 10‐fold reduction in virulence during in vivo infection of mice. Insertion of the hly 5′ UTR sequence between a heterologous promoter and reporter gene sequences indicated that the hly 5′ UTR functions independent of PrfA‐mediated transcription and can enhance expression of cis‐associated genes through a mechanism that appears to act at both a post‐transcriptional and translational level. The ability of the hly 5′ UTR to increase gene expression can be exploited to achieve PrfA‐independent complementation of virulence genes and high‐level expression of single copy heterologous genes in L. monocytogenes.
Selective dopamine D3 receptor antagonist SB‐277011‐A potentiates phMRI response to acute amphetamine challenge in the rat brain

Dopamine (DA) receptors are a major target for drugs employed in the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and drug dependence. The D3 subtype of the D2 DA receptor family presents a particularly focal distribution in limbic brain areas known to be associated with cognitive and emotional functions. This study examined the modulation of brain activation induced by acute administration of amphetamine in the rat by the highly selective DA D3 receptor antagonist SB‐277011‐A using relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV) pharmacological MRI (phMRI). The acute administration of D‐amphetamine (1 mg/kg i.v.) produced a widespread rCBV response that was strongest in cortical regions. SB‐277011‐A (20 mg/kg i.p.) itself did not produce significant changes in rCBV, but potentiated the phMRI response to 1 mg/kg i.v. D‐amphetamine in a regionally specific manner, involving a number of structures outside the focal distribution of the D3 receptor. Potentiated regions included the accumbens, dorsal caudate putamen, islands of Calleja, thalamus, cingulate cortex, ventral tegmental area, dorsal Raphe nucleus, and ventral subiculum. The increased response following D3 receptor antagonism is consistent with this receptor mediating an inhibitory action on brain activity following a dopaminergic stimulus. Synapse 54:1–10, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
La Lèpre à Mayotte : étude sur les nouveaux cas de 2006 à 2015

Introduction : Mayotte, departement francais ultra-marin situee au cœur de l’archipel des Comores est une zone de forte endemie de lepre. La lepre est une infection liee a Mycobacterium leprae touchant preferentiellement la peau et les nerfs peripheriques. Alors que l’OMS en 2000 fixait l’objectif de sa disparition comme probleme de sante publique, nous nous sommes interesses a sa prevalence et ses caracteristiques de 2006 a 2015 dans cette ile ou la pression migratoire est forte. Materiel et methode : une etude epidemiologique retrospective a ete realisee sur les nouveaux cas de lepre a Mayotte entre 2006 et 2015. Ont ete recueillies les donnees de prevalence et de taux de detection ainsi qu’une analyse statistique en fonction du type histologique et selon l’âge avec le logiciel SPSS. Resultats : 475 nouveaux cas ont ete diagnostiques, 212 pauci-bacillaires (PB) et 246 multi-bacillaires (MB). La prevalence en 2015 etait de 3,11/10 000 habitants. Les taux de detection global et des PB est en diminution, celui des MB est stable. La majorite des patients diagnostiques etait d’origine comorienne (63,0%). Chez les moins de 15 ans, la majorite des patients etait de nationalite francaise. Discussion : les efforts realises en matiere de lutte anti lepreuse ont permis une diminution de la prevalence. Cependant, les courbes de taux de detection montrent bien le caractere endemique dans cette region. La majorite de patients d’origine comorienne associee a une majorite d’enfant de nationalite francaise prouve l’existence de deux foyers distincts, l’un mahorais, l’autre comorien. Seul un depistage plus important, une meilleure formation des professionnels de sante et surtout une cooperation etroite avec l’Union des Comores permettront une avance vers l’eradication de cette maladie. Conclusion : Mayotte et l’Union des Comores restent une zone d’endemie de lepre en 2015. Malgre de grandes avancees dans la lutte anti lepreuse, de nombreux progres sont encore a effectuer.
Ensemble Support Vector Machine Algorithm for Reliability Estimation of a Mining Machine

In this study, a support vector machine (SVM)‐based ensemble model was developed for reliability forecasting. The hyperparameters of the SVM were selected by applying a genetic algorithm. Input variables of the SVM model were selected by maximizing the mean entropy value. The diverse members of the ensemble model were obtained by a k‐means clustering algorithm, and one ensemble member was selected from each cluster by choosing the closest from the cluster center. The optimum cluster number was selected using the Davies–Bouldin index. The developed model was validated by a benchmark turbocharger data set. A comparative study reveals that the proposed method performs better than existing methods on benchmark data sets. A case study was conducted investigating a dumper operated at a coal mine in India. Time‐to‐failure historical data for the dumper were collected, and cumulative time to failure was calculated for reliability forecasting. Study results demonstrate that the developed model performs well with high accuracy (R2 = 0.97) in the prediction of dumper failure, and a comparison with other methods demonstrates the superiority of the proposed ensemble SVM model. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
International Journal of Computer Mathematics

Variational image-processing models offer high-quality processing capabilities for imaging. They have been widely developed and used in the last two decades, enriching the ﬁelds of mathematics as well as information science. Mathematically, several tools are needed: energy optimization, regularization, partial differential equations, level set functions, and numerical algorithms. This special issue presents readers with nine excellent research papers covering topics from research work into variational image-processing models, algorithms and applications , including image denoising, image deblurring, image segmentation, image reconstruction, restoration of mixed noise types and three-dimensional surface restoration.
Wavelength switching of a fiber laser with a Sagnac loop reflector

A multiwavelength fiber laser is constructed with an elliptical core erbium-doped fiber serving as an anisotropic gain medium. A broadband fiber reflector and a Sagnac loop reflector form a Fabry-Perot resonant cavity. Three lasing wavelengths are obtained which are stable over an hour at room temperatures. With one of them as reference wavelength, we can switch the other two by a polarization controller. The lasing wavelengths are also tunable. The effects of the anisotropic gain behavior of the erbium-doped fiber are also explored.
A triple-band planar monopole antenna for GPS/LTE/WLAN/Wi-Fi/WiMAX systems

A novel triple-band planar monopole antenna is presented in this report. By combing a C-shaped monopole, a U-shaped loop and a modified ground with a slot, three operating bands can be achieved. The measured results show that the 10-dB impedance bandwidths of the proposed antenna can cover multiple frequency bands, including 1.55–1.67 GHz, 2.2–3 GHz and 5.13–6 GHz, which can be applied to the GPS, LTE, WLAN, Wi-Fi and WiMAX systems. A prototype of the proposed antenna is fabricated and measured, the experimental results agree well with the simulated results.
Diagnosis and Management of Asthma in Adults: A Review

Importance Asthma affects about 7.5% of the adult population. Evidence-based diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment can improve functioning and quality of life in adult patients with asthma. Observations Asthma is a heterogeneous clinical syndrome primarily affecting the lower respiratory tract, characterized by episodic or persistent symptoms of wheezing, dyspnea, and cough. The diagnosis of asthma requires these symptoms and demonstration of reversible airway obstruction using spirometry. Identifying clinically important allergen sensitivities is useful. Inhaled short-acting &bgr;2-agonists provide rapid relief of acute symptoms, but maintenance with daily inhaled corticosteroids is the standard of care for persistent asthma. Combination therapy, including inhaled corticosteroids and long-acting &bgr;2-agonists, is effective in patients for whom inhaled corticosteroids alone are insufficient. The use of inhaled long-acting &bgr;2-agonists alone is not appropriate. Other controller approaches include long-acting muscarinic antagonists (eg, tiotropium), and biological agents directed against proteins involved in the pathogenesis of asthma (eg, omalizumab, mepolizumab, reslizumab). Conclusions and Relevance Asthma is characterized by variable airway obstruction, airway hyperresponsiveness, and airway inflammation. Management of persistent asthma requires avoidance of aggravating environmental factors, use of short-acting &bgr;2-agonists for rapid relief of symptoms, and daily use of inhaled corticosteroids. Other controller medications, such as long-acting bronchodilators and biologics, may be required in moderate and severe asthma. Patients with severe asthma generally benefit from consultation with an asthma specialist for consideration of additional treatment, including injectable biologic agents.
Simple median-based EP PP scheme for enhancement of reconstructed Bayer colour filter array images

In this study, the median-based edge-preserving (EP) modification is revisited and has been shown to improve effectively the quality of a reconstructed Bayer colour filter array image in terms of the composite peak signal-to-noise ratio (CPSNR) performance index. Along this research direction, the authors propose an EP-modified signal-correlation-based (SCB) post-processing (PP), called EP-SCB, as an enhancement to any existing interpolation method. The Bayer image reconstruction system they consider thus consists of two operational phases. The first phase performs an initial estimation of the missing red, green and blue colours by using an existing interpolation method, whereas the second phase applies EP-SCB PP. Since a certain class of images may not fulfil the premise of having small variations in local colour difference, which is assumed by SCB-type interpolation, thereby resulting in a deterioration in CPSNR after EP-SCB PP, a threshold test on local variance ratio is also devised to conditionally switch off the second phase. Experimental results show that the EP-SCB PP with variance-ratio test gives a worst average CPSNR than the original interpolation methods tested in none of the Kodak and IMAX image groups experimented.
Sparse singular value decomposition-based feature extraction for identifying differentially expressed genes

Recently, feature extraction and dimensionality reduction have become fundamental tools for many data mining tasks, especially for processing high-dimensional data such as genome data. In this paper, a new feature extraction method based on sparse singular value decomposition (SSVD) is developed. SSVD algorithm is applied to extract differentially expressed genes from two different genome datasets that are all from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), and then the extracted genes are evaluated by the tools based on Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis. As a gene extraction method, SSVD is also compared with some existing feature extraction methods such as independent component analysis, the p-norm robust feature extraction and sparse principal component analysis. The experimental GO analysis results show that SSVD method outperforms the competitive algorithms. The KEGG analysis results demonstrate the genes which participate in the pathways in cancer. The elaborate experiments prove that SSVD is an effective feature selection method compared with the competitive methods. The KEGG analysis results may provide a meaningful reference to carry out further study for professionals in the field of biomedical science.
Characteristics of GaN MOSFET with stacked gate dielectric of MgO and TiO2

This paper demonstrates the electrical characteristics of stacked-gate enhancement mode n-channel gallium nitride (GaN) based metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor. Magnesium oxide and titanium oxide are used as stacked gate dielectrics. Use of these oxides shows promising characteristics with GaN. Thickness variation of stacked gate oxides while keeping total oxide thickness constant shows significant effect in device performance including drain current, threshold voltage, transconductance, gate leakage current and device breakdown characteristics. Effect of dielectric thickness variation on drain induced barrier lowering (DIBL) and Ion/Ioff ratio are also analysed. Two dimensional simulation is used to predict the effect of thickness variation of stacked-gate-oxide on electrical characteristics of GaN based metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor.
Linking knowledge management and intellectual capital: An evidence based on Portuguese banks study

Intellectual capital (IC) is the key driver of innovation and sustainable competitive advantage in today's knowledge-based economy. At the same time, knowledge management (KM) is a set of processes that includes knowledge acquisition, development, distribution, utilization, retention and measurement within the organization. This means that the successful management of IC is closely linked to the efficiency of KM processes, which, in turn, implies that the successful implementation of KM ensures the growth and renewal of IC in an organization. Banking industry is one of the most knowledge-intensive industries where IC is the key driver of value creation. Based on previous studies, this article seeks to explore the links between IC and KM in Portuguese banks, by identifying the IC resources of importance and leveraging these resources through KM capability.
Disturbed Communication between Actin- and Nucleotide-binding Sites in a Myosin II with Truncated 50/20-kDa Junction*

The kinetic and functional consequences of deleting nine residues from an actin-binding surface loop (loop 2) were examined to investigate the role of this region in myosin function. The nucleotide binding properties of myosin were not altered by the deletion. However, the deletion affected actin binding and the communication between the actin- and nucleotide-binding sites. The affinity of M765NL for actin (644 nm) was approximately 100-fold lower than that of wild-type construct M765 (5.8 nm). Despite this reduction in affinity, actin binding weakened the affinity of ADP for the motor to a similar extent for both mutant and wild-type constructs. The addition of 0.5 μmactin decreased ADP affinity from 0.6 to 34 μm for M765NL and from 1.6 to 39 μm for M765. In contrast, communication between the actin- and nucleotide-binding sites appears disturbed in regard to phosphate release: thus, basal ATPase activity for M765NL (0.19 s−1) was 3-fold larger than for M765 (0.06 s−1), and the stimulation of ATPase activity by actin was 5-fold lower for M765NL. These results indicate different paths of communication between the actin- and nucleotide-binding sites, in regard to ADP and Pi release, and they confirm that loop 2 is involved in high affinity actin binding.
Radio galaxies at z 2.5: Results from Keck spectropolarimetry

In classifying the ensemble of powerful extragalactic radio sources, considerable evidence has accumulated that radio galaxies and quasars are orientation-dependent manifestations of the same parent population: massive spheroidal galaxies containing correspondingly massive black holes. One of the key factors in establishing this unification has been the signature of a hidden quasar detected in some radio galaxies in polarized light. The obscuration of our direct view of the active nucleus usually, but not necessarily exclusively, by a thick nuclear disk or torus can act conveniently as a "natural coronograph" that allows a much clearer view of the host of a radio galaxy than of a quasar. In this study, we exploit the opportunity to eliminate the quasar glare by performing sensitive spectropolarimetry with the Keck II telescope of a sample of radio galaxies with redshifts around 2.5. This represents the epoch when quasars were many times more common that they are now and is likely to be the period during which their host galaxies were being assembled into what become the most massive galaxies in the Universe today. We show that dust-reflected quasar light generally dominates the restframe ultraviolet continuum of these sources and that a highly clumped scattering medium results in almost grey scattering of the active galactic nucleus photons. The observations, however, do not exclude a substantial star formation rate averaged over a Gyr of evolution. The sub-mm reradiation from the scattering dust is likely to represent only a small fraction (∼10% ) of the total far infrared luminosity. An analysis of the emission lines excited in the interstellar medium of the host galaxy by the hard quasar radiation field reveals evidence of a dramatic chemical evolution within the spheroid during this epoch. Secondary nitrogen production in intermediate mass stars produces a characteristic signature in the Nv/Civ and Nv/Heii line ratios which has been seen previously in the broad line region of quasars at similar redshifts. We find intriguing correlations between the strengths of the Lyα and N v emission lines and the degree of ultraviolet continuum polarization which may represent the dispersal of dust associated with the chemical enrichment of the spheroid.