Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How important is peri‐operative hypertension?

References 1. Kumar N, Thapa D, Gombar S, Ahuja V, Gupta R. Analgesic efficacy of preoperative stellate ganglion block on postoperative pain relief: a randomised control trial. Anaesthesia 2014; doi: 10.1111/anae.12774. 2. McDonnell JG, Finnerty O, Laffey JG. Stellate ganglion blockade for analgesia following upper limb surgery. Anaesthesia 2011; 66: 611–4. 3. Bantel C, Trapp S. The role of the autonomic nervous system in acute surgical pain processing – what do we know? Anaesthesia 2011; 66: 541–4. 4. Chambers W, Smith WCS. Case reports of novel treatments – proper evaluation before clinical use. Anaesthesia 2011; 66: 539–40. 5. Ledowski T, Reimer M, Chavez V, Kapoor V, Wenk M. Effects of acute postoperative pain on catecholamine plasma levels, hemodynamic parameters and cardiac autonomic control. Pain 2012; 153: 759–64. 6. McGuirk S, Fahy C, Costi D, Cyna M. Use of invasive placebos in research on local anaesthetic interventions. Anaesthesia 2011; 66: 84–91. 7. Sites B, Neal J. Placebo or intervention? Is it all a sham? Anaesthesia 2011; 66: 73–5. 8. Cyna AM, Tan SGM. Invasive placebo revisited. Anaesthesia 2014; 69: 941– 44. 9. Stewart-Williams S, Podd J. The placebo effect: dissolving the expectancy versus conditioning debate. Psychological Bulletin 2004; 130: 324–40. 10. Benedetti F. Mechanisms of placebo and placebo-related effects across diseases and treatments. Annual Review of Pharmacology and Toxicology 2008; 48: 33–66. 11. Colloca L, Klinger R, Flor H, Bingel U. Placebo analgesia: psychological and neurobiological mechanisms. Pain 2013; 154: 511–4. 12. Colloca L, Benedetti F. Placebos and painkillers: is mind as real as matter? Nature Reviews Neuroscience 2005; 6: 545–52. 13. Cobb LA, Thomas GI, Billard DH, Merendino KA, Bruce RA. An evaluation of internal-mammary-artery ligation by a double-blind technic. New England Journal of Medicine 1959; 260: 1115–8. 14. Sihvonen R, Paavola M, Malmivaara A, et al. Arthroscopic partial meniscectomy versus sham surgery for a degenerative meniscal tear. New England Journal of Medicine 2013; 369: 2515–24. 15. Feely NM, Popat MT, Rutter S V. Regional anaesthesia for limb surgery: a review of anaesthetists beliefs and practice in the Oxford region. Anaesthesia 2008; 63: 621–5. 16. International Association for the Study of Pain. IASP Taxonomy 2012 update. https://www.iasp-pain.org/Education/ Content.aspx? ItemNumber=1698 (accessed 03/06/2014). 17. Bailey CR, Yentis SM. Small patients, big ethics. Anaesthesia 2012; 68: 6–8.
Identification of a Novel Inhibitor of Mitogen-activated Protein Kinase Kinase*

The compound U0126 (1,4-diamino-2,3-dicyano-1,4-bis[2-aminophenylthio]butadiene) was identified as an inhibitor of AP-1 transactivation in a cell-based reporter assay. U0126 was also shown to inhibit endogenous promoters containing AP-1 response elements but did not affect genes lacking an AP-1 response element in their promoters. These effects of U0126 result from direct inhibition of the mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase family members, MEK-1 and MEK-2. Inhibition is selective for MEK-1 and -2, as U0126 shows little, if any, effect on the kinase activities of protein kinase C, Abl, Raf, MEKK, ERK, JNK, MKK-3, MKK-4/SEK, MKK-6, Cdk2, or Cdk4. Comparative kinetic analysis of U0126 and the MEK inhibitor PD098059 (Dudley, D. T., Pang, L., Decker, S. J., Bridges, A. J., and Saltiel, A. R. (1995) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci U. S. A. 92, 7686–7689) demonstrates that U0126 and PD098059 are noncompetitive inhibitors with respect to both MEK substrates, ATP and ERK. We further demonstrate that the two compounds bind to ΔN3-S218E/S222D MEK in a mutually exclusive fashion, suggesting that they may share a common or overlapping binding site(s). Quantitative evaluation of the steady state kinetics of MEK inhibition by these compounds reveals that U0126 has approximately 100-fold higher affinity for ΔN3-S218E/S222D MEK than does PD098059. We further tested the effects of these compounds on the activity of wild type MEK isolated after activation from stimulated cells. Surprisingly, we observe a significant diminution in affinity of both compounds for wild type MEK as compared with the ΔN3-S218E/S222D mutant enzyme. These results suggest that the affinity of both compounds is mediated by subtle conformational differences between the two activated MEK forms. The MEK affinity of U0126, its selectivity for MEK over other kinases, and its cellular efficacy suggest that this compound will serve as a powerful tool for in vitro and cellular investigations of mitogen-activated protein kinase-mediated signal transduction.
Comparison of the HUI3 with the SF-36 preference based SF-6D in a clinical trial setting.

OBJECTIVE To test the hypothesis that the Health Utilities Index Mark III (HUI3) and the SF-6D, based on the SF-36, generate similar health state values, and to test and compare their discriminant validity and responsiveness. METHODS The HUI3 and SF-36 were administered to 331 patients enrolled in a double-blind, multinational phase III clinical trial in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention before hospital discharge and 6 months thereafter. RESULTS The mean SF-6D baseline health state score was 0.67 compared to the HUI3 of 0.63 with r of 0.616 and intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.40. The relationship was nonlinear with greatest divergence found at the lower levels of health. Both measures were found to agree with known differences in health and to be responsive to changes over time. Nevertheless, disagreement resulted in different estimates of change from baseline (0.08 vs. 0.154). CONCLUSION Both measures deployed in the present study were found to have discriminant validity, and to be responsive to changes over time in coronary artery disease conditions. Nevertheless, the measures generated different estimates of health state values for this patient population. These differences might in part be the consequence of the health status descriptive system for the HUI that may have been more in line with the hospitalized state than that for the SF-6D. These findings seemed to indicate that measures deployed are not interchangeable for use in cost-utility analysis. More head-to-head comparisons between these two measures are needed to further define and compare relationships in different patient populations.
Comparative Effectiveness of After-School Programs to Increase Physical Activity

Background. We conducted a comparative effectiveness analysis to evaluate the difference in the amount of physical activity children engaged in when enrolled in a physical activity-enhanced after-school program based in a community recreation center versus a standard school-based after-school program. Methods. The study was a natural experiment with 54 elementary school children attending the community ASP and 37 attending the school-based ASP. Accelerometry was used to measure physical activity. Data were collected at baseline, 6 weeks, and 12 weeks, with 91% retention. Results. At baseline, 43% of the multiethnic sample was overweight/obese, and the mean age was 7.9 years (SD = 1.7). Linear latent growth models suggested that the average difference between the two groups of children at Week 12 was 14.7 percentage points in moderate-vigorous physical activity (P < .001). Cost analysis suggested that children attending traditional school-based ASPs—at an average cost of $17.67 per day—would need an additional daily investment of $1.59 per child for 12 weeks to increase their moderate-vigorous physical activity by a model-implied 14.7 percentage points. Conclusions. A low-cost, alternative after-school program featuring adult-led physical activities in a community recreation center was associated with increased physical activity compared to standard-of-care school-based after-school program.
Timber Tracking: Reducing Complexity of Due Diligence by Using Blockchain Technology

Managing and verifying forest products in a value chain is often reliant on easily manipulated document or digital tracking methods – Chain of Custody Systems. We aim to create a new means of tracking timber by developing a tamper proof digital system based on Blockchain technology. Blockchain will be combined with new digital protocols for physical verification and authentication. Deliverables include online traceability system, and procedures for entering and verifying data inputs. Certification schemes and governments gain increased legitimacy from tamper-proof means to comply with timber trade requirements. Global companies gain from efficient traceability; society at large benefits from increased tax revenues, anti-corruption, and environmental benefits from sustainable forestry. We think this potential collaboration between government and industry can help simplify a variety of current due diligence processes, in this paper we focus on timber tracking.
CDRM: A Cost-Effective Dynamic Replication Management Scheme for Cloud Storage Cluster

Data replication has been widely used as a mean of increasing the data availability of large-scale cloud storage systems where failures are normal. Aiming to provide cost-effective availability, and improve performance and load-balancing of cloud storage, this paper presents a cost-effective dynamic replication management scheme referred to as CDRM. A novel model is proposed to capture the relationship between availability and replica number. CDRM leverages this model to calculate and maintain minimal replica number for a given availability requirement. Replica placement is based on capacity and blocking probability of data nodes. By adjusting replica number and location according to workload changing and node capacity, CDRM can dynamically redistribute workloads among data nodes in the heterogeneous cloud. We implemented CDRM in Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) and experiment results conclusively demonstrate that our CDRM is cost effective and outperforms default replication management of HDFS in terms of performance and load balancing for large-scale cloud storage.
A Survey, Classification, and Critical Review of Light-Emitting Diode Drivers

Based on a survey on over 1400 commercial LED drivers and a literature review, a range of LED driver topologies are classified according to their applications, power ratings, performance and their energy storage and regulatory requirements. Both passive and active LED drivers are included in the review and their advantages and disadvantages are discussed. This paper also presents an overall view on the technical and cost aspects of the LED technology, which is useful to both researchers and engineers in the lighting industry. Some general guidelines for selecting driver topologies are included to aid design engineers to make appropriate choices.
A novel three-phase seven-level active clamped converter using H-bridge as a level doubling network

For the aim to increase level number and reduce switches number of multi-level converter, two half-bridge Power Electronic Building Blocks (PEBB) are inserted into the DC side of a typical three-phase H-bridge converter, a novel seven-level converter is proposed in this paper. By using the H-bridge as a level doubling network, the natural point voltage imbalance of traditional Natural-Point Clamped converter (NPC) is avoided. Moreover, because of the symmetrical structure, a reasonable control scheme for the DC voltage balancing is adopted, which based on ways of both active current superposition and switching states selection. Meanwhile, the frequency limitation to the switching states swapping is applied with a low-pass filter to ensure the control stable. The circuit operation and converter performance are analyzed. The analysis and control scheme is verified by MATLAB/SIMULINK simulation results.
The growth and serial passage of cell lines from Aedes aegypti (L.) larvae in different media.

The establishment and growth of cell lines from larval AEDES AEGYPTI in different media, without insect haemolymph, are described. The method of subculturing the cells, using a 0.05% solution of pronase instead of trypsin solution to detach the cells from the glass surface, was simple, quick and easily reproducible. There were differences in the architecture of the cell layer and of the predominant cell type in the cell lines. One of the cell lines which was studied in greater detail had an estimated population-doubling time of 29 hr during the active growth phase and showed a 25-fold increase in cell number during 7 days of growth. The majority of cells in this line retained the normal 2n (= 6) complement of chromosomes. The cells, suspended in 10% dimethyl sulphoxide in medium, were cooled to −196°C (liquid nitrogen) and successfully resuscitated.
Flooding attacks against network coding and countermeasures

Network coding has attracted the attention of many researchers in security and cryptography. While most of the works have been dedicated to the protection of messages carrying information, nothing has been done to protect the acknowledgment messages needed in network coding. These flooding attacks are critical in resource constraint networks such as wireless sensor networks. An adversary can easily create congestion in the network and exhaust all the resources available. The degradation of the QoS (delay, energy) goes beyond the capabilities of cryptographic solutions. We investigate the security capabilities of multipath acknowledgment.
Using PCR Amplification and Genetic Sequence Analysis of 18S rRNA Genes to Survey the Microbial Diversity and Distribution of Eukaryotic Microbes Inhabiting Two Thermo-acidic Streams in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by ScholarWorks@UNO with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Thesis in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rightsholder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself.
The World as Will and Representation

The purpose of the Cambridge Edition of the Works of Schopenhauer is to offer translations of the best modern German editions of Schopenhauer’s work in a uniform format suitable for Schopenhauer scholars, together with philosophical introductions and full editorial apparatus. First published in 1818, The World as Will and Representation contains Schopenhauer’s entire philosophy, ranging through epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of mind and action, aesthetics and philosophy of art, to ethics, the meaning of life and the philosophy of religion, in an attempt to account for the world in all its significant aspects. It gives a unique and influential account of what is and is not of value in existence, the striving and pain of the human condition and the possibility of deliverance from it. This new translation of the first volume of what later became a two-volume work reflects the eloquence and power of Schopenhauer’s prose and renders philosophical terms accurately and consistently. It offers an introduction, glossary of names and bibliography, and succinct editorial notes, including notes on the revisions of the text which Schopenhauer made in 1844 and 1859.
Managing Uncertainty in Agile Release Planning

A clear and realistic release plan is central to the strategic planning activities of the firm developing the software. This paper supports existing agile methods by developing a novel but relatively simple statistical methodology to predict the real time to develop selected functionality. In so doing it provides the product owner with a decision support mechanism to determine the likelihood of completing releases on time for any combination of stories. In this way it is consistent with the best Extreme Programming (XP) practice of selecting stories of two types for a quarterly release, ones that are key and must be delivered and ones that are considered as “Slack” and that can be developed if time permits. A case study is used to explain the proposed methodology.
Sensor modality fusion with CNNs for UGV autonomous driving in indoor environments

We present a novel end-to-end learning framework to enable ground vehicles to autonomously navigate unknown environments by fusing raw pixels from cameras and depth measurements from a LiDAR. A deep neural network architecture is introduced to effectively perform modality fusion and reliably predict steering commands even in the presence of sensor failures. The proposed network is trained on our own dataset, from LiDAR and a camera mounted on a UGV taken in an indoor corridor environment. Comprehensive experimental evaluation to demonstrate the robustness of our network architecture is performed to show that the proposed deep learning neural network is able to autonomously navigate in the corridor environment. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the fusion of the camera and LiDAR modalities provides further benefits beyond robustness to sensor failures. Specifically, the multimodal fused system shows a potential to navigate around static and dynamic obstacles and to handle changes in environment geometry without being trained for these tasks.
Implementation of a New Lightweight Encryption Design for Embedded Security

Lightweight cryptography is an interesting field that strikes the perfect balance in providing security, higher throughput, low-power consumption, and compactness. In recent years, many compact algorithms like PRESENT, CLEFIA, SEA, TEA, LED, ZORRO, Hummingbird, and KANTAN have made the mark to be used as lightweight crypto engines. In this paper, we present the design of a new lightweight compact encryption system based on bit permutation instruction group operation (GRP), which is widely studied and extensively researched. Using the S-box of PRESENT, we have added the confusion property for GRP, because all the existing algorithms using bit permutation instructions do not have this confusion property. By comparing the existing S-boxes of compact algorithms and its cryptanalysis, a new hybrid system is proposed in this paper that provides more compact results in terms of both memory space and gate equivalents. A hybrid cryptosystem, which consists of GRP and S-box of PRESENT, is designed and implemented on a 32-bit processor. This fusion has resulted in a lightweight cipher that is the most compact implementation, till now, in terms of memory requirement. We have tested and verified this on an LPC2129 processor. Various S-boxes of recently used lightweight algorithms, such as PRESENT and CLEFIA, are designed and analyzed to create a perfect fusion that should be resistant to attacks. Using the S-box of PRESENT, it helps in further reducing the gate complexity. This hybrid model results in 2125 gate equivalents, which is better than other light variant models like DESXL, CLEFIA, and AES. Moreover, GRP properties are very helpful not only to attain the desired avalanche effect, but also as it results in a compact implementation in hardware. This paper proposes a novel approach that will have a positive impact in the field of lightweight encryption protocols.
Secure Instant Messaging Protocol for Centralized Communication Group

Nowadays, instant messaging (IM) represents the most used messaging service for both home and corporate users. IM is used in many different application fields. Thus, it is an effective and easy means of network-based communication. Unfortunately, this technology does not provide built-in support for security features. This paper proposes a new and secure instant messaging protocol for a centralized communication group. This protocol utilizes the ElGamal cryptosystem, RSA algorithm, and Chinese Remainder Theorem (CRT.) CRT takes the responsibility of renewing the users' private keys. The intractability of the new algorithm depends on the integer factorization problem (IFP) and the discrete logarithm problem (DLP.) We show that our proposed scheme satisfies expected security requirements.
Optimised Anaesthesia to Reduce Post Operative Cognitive Decline (POCD) in Older Patients Undergoing Elective Surgery, a Randomised Controlled Trial

Background The study determined the one year incidence of post operative cognitive decline (POCD) and evaluated the effectiveness of an intra-operative anaesthetic intervention in reducing post-operative cognitive impairment in older adults (over 60 years of age) undergoing elective orthopaedic or abdominal surgery. Methods and Trial Design The design was a prospective cohort study with a nested randomised, controlled intervention trial, using intra-operative BiSpectral index and cerebral oxygen saturation monitoring to enable optimisation of anaesthesia depth and cerebral oxygen saturation in older adults undergoing surgery. Results In the 52 week prospective cohort study (192 surgical patients and 138 controls), mild (χ2 = 17.9 p<0.0001), moderate (χ2 = 7.8 p = 0.005) and severe (χ2 = 5.1 p = 0.02) POCD were all significantly higher after 52 weeks in the surgical patients than among the age matched controls. In the nested RCT, 81 patients were randomized, 73 contributing to the data analysis (34 intervention, 39 control). In the intervention group mild POCD was significantly reduced at 1, 12 and 52 weeks (Fisher’s Exact Test p = 0.018, χ2 = 5.1 p = 0.02 and χ2 = 5.9 p = 0.015), and moderate POCD was reduced at 1 and 52 weeks (χ2 = 4.4 p = 0·037 and χ2 = 5.4 p = 0.02). In addition there was significant improvement in reaction time at all time-points (Vigilance Reaction Time MWU Z = −2.1 p = 0.03, MWU Z = −2.7 p = 0.004, MWU Z = −3.0 p = 0.005), in MMSE at one and 52 weeks (MWU Z = −2.9 p = 0.003, MWU Z = −3.3 p = 0.001), and in executive function at 12 and 52 weeks (Trail Making MWU Z = −2.4 p = .0.018, MWU Z = −2.4 p = 0.019). Conclusion POCD is common and persistent in older adults following surgery. The results of the nested RCT indicate the potential benefits of intra-operative monitoring of anaesthetic depth and cerebral oxygenation as a pragmatic intervention to reduce post-operative cognitive impairment. Trial Registration Controlled-Trials.com ISRCTN39503939
GOVERNMENTALITIES OF GOV 2.0

Web 2.0 technologies, denoted by their formation of social networks and the co-production of web content by users, have rapidly entered social and economic activities. Internationally, governments are racing to identify ways to utilize Web 2.0 in government. In addition to government reports and taskforces, there is a proliferation of business advice and academic papers variously conceptualizing what so-called ‘Gov 2.0’ might look like. Such deliberations seek to mobilize a range of different political and economic agendas, and as such view government's use of Web 2.0 and associated objectives differently. This paper utilizes a Foucaultian-inspired governmentality analysis to identify the main political discourses and rationalities embedded within government reports, as evidenced in Australia, Canada, the European Union, New Zealand, the UK and the United States. The paper concludes by critically analyzing this Gov 2.0 governmentality and suggesting alternative governmentalities that might be mobilized.