Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pulse Oximetry: Beyond SpO2

Newer pulse oximetry technology is available that uses multiple wavelengths of light and is thereby able to measure more than 2 forms of hemoglobin, including carboxyhemoglobin (SpCO), methemoglobin (SpMet), and total hemoglobin (SpHb). Several studies have shown relatively low bias, but poor precision, for SpCO compared with HbCO. Evaluations of SpMet have been conducted primarily in normal subjects. Clinical evaluations of SpHb suggest that it might not yet be accurate enough to make transfusion decisions. Respiratory waveform variability of the pulse oximeter plethysmogram might be useful to assess pulsus paradoxus in patients with airway obstruction; it might also be used to measure the breathing frequency. The change in pulse pressure over the respiratory cycle has been used to assess fluid responsiveness in mechanically ventilated patients, and similarly, the pulse oximetry plethysmogram waveform amplitude variability might be used to assess fluid responsiveness. However, there are limitations to this approach, and it remains to be determined how well it can be applied clinically using existing pulse oximetry technology. The pulse oximeter signal is probably useful for applications beyond SpO2. However, the current technology is not mature, and improvements are necessary. With technology improvements, the use of pulse oximetry to detect SpCO, SpMet, SpHb, pulsus paradoxus, breathing frequency, and fluid responsiveness is likely to improve in the future.
The OCDQ: A Four Factor Solution for Australian Schools?

For almost a decade the OCDQ has proven to be one of the most “popular” instruments in research in educational administration. Developed by Halpin and Croft, the instrument claims to measure eight dimensions of a school's organizational climate. Such scores are then used to classify the school according to which one of six climate categories it belongs. Increasingly, the OCDQ is being subjected to closer scrutiny. Currently in the U.S.A. intense validation studies are in progress. This article reports on a similar study conducted in a sample of 72 primary schools in South Australia. Data from 727 respondents are analysed to produce a four factor solution. The factors are identified as supportiveness, operations emphasis, intimacy and disaffiliation.
Austin Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease Comparing Differences in ADL Outcomes for the STOMP Intervention for Dementia in the Natural Home Environment Versus a Clinic Environment

Background: Few studies have examined structured rehabilitation techniques for improving activities of daily living in people with mild-moderate dementia. We sought to examine the advantages to delivering the Skill-building through Task-Oriented Motor Practice (STOMP) intervention in the home environment (versus the clinic), hypothesizing that ADL improvement would be significantly better, time to meeting goals would be faster and fewer displays of behavior would be noted. Methods: Compared results of two quasi-experimental studies of STOMP, one completed in the home, one completed previously in a clinic. Participants were English-speaking; community dwelling adults aged 50-90 diagnosed with mild-moderate dementia who could participate in an intensive rehabilitation program (5 days/week, 3 hours/day, for 2 weeks). Outcome measurements include examiner-observation of performance and proxy-report of performance and satisfaction with performance in patient-selected goals. Results: No differences existed in the sociodemographic characteristics between the home and clinic groups where the groups were primarily white, married, had > high school education and had mild-moderate dementia. Results from the home group indicate that participants made significant improvement in ADL which was generally retained at the 90 day follow-up. These results were not significantly different than the clinic group. No significant advantages were noted for the home group in terms of time to meeting goals or exhibition of fewer behaviors. Discussion: The STOMP intervention appeared to work equally as well in the home and in the clinic. Future studies should continue to examine the benefits of massed practice using high-dose regimens.
Religion, death of a loved one, and hypertension among older adults in Japan.

OBJECTIVE To see whether three dimensions of religion (private religious practices, religious coping, and belief in the afterlife) buffer the effect of the death of a significant other on change in self-reported hypertension over time. METHODS Interviews were conducted with a nationally representative sample of people aged 60 and older in Japan at two points in time, 1996 and 1999. Complete data were available on 1,723 older Japanese. Respondents were asked a series of questions about their religious beliefs and practices, whether a family member or close friend had died in the past year, and whether they had hypertension. RESULTS The data suggest that older adults in Japan who experienced the death of a loved one but who believed in a good afterlife were less likely to report they had hypertension at the follow-up interview than elderly people in Japan who lost a close other but did not believe in a good afterlife. DISCUSSION The results suggest how one overlooked dimension of religion (i.e., religious beliefs) may bolster the health of older people in the face of adversity.
Effects of Labels and Personal Contact on Teachers' Attitudes Toward Students With Special Needs

This study examined the effects of labeling and personal contact on teachers' attitudes toward low-achieving students. Seventy-two female high school teachers participated in the study. One half of the teachers (n = 36) had contact with low-achieving students who were attending special classes in which they were preparing for the matriculation exams, whereas the other one half had no contact with these students. Teachers' cognitive, emotional, and behavioral attitudes toward either a hypothetical "student in a special class" or a hypothetical "low-achieving student in a regular class" were evaluated by semantic differential scales. A multivariate repeated measures analysis of variance yielded a nonsignificant main effect for group membership (i.e., teachers with vs. without contact), a significant main effect of attitude target (i.e., students who attended regular vs. special classes), and a significant interaction effect. Post hoc comparisons revealed that (a) teachers without contact expressed more positive cognitive and emotional attitudes toward students in special classes than toward students in regular classes; (b) teachers with contact did not express different attitudes toward the 2 target groups of students; (c) teachers without contact expressed more positive cognitive, behavioral, and emotional attitudes toward students in special classes than did the teachers with contact; and (d) the 2 groups of teachers did not differ in their attitudes toward the regular class students. The results indicated that the label of the special class had a positive effect on teachers' attitudes, but that contact had a negative effect.
A novel approach to train random forests on GPU for computer vision applications using local features

The random forests (RF) classifier has recently gained momentum in the computer vision field, thanks to its successful application in human body tracking, hand pose estimation and object detection. In this article, we present a novel approach to train RF on a graphics processing unit (GPU) for computer vision applications where simple per-pixel features are computed. Besides leveraging the processing power of the GPU to accelerate the training, we reformulate the training problem to limit costly image transfers when it is not possible to store the entire data set in GPU memory. Furthermore, our implementation supports arbitrary image types and allows the user to specify custom features. We extensively compare our approach with the state of the art on publicly available data sets, and we obtain a reduction in training time of up to 18 times. Finally, we train our implementation on a large data set (around 100 K images), demonstrating that our approach is suitable for training RF on the vast data sets typically used in computer vision.
A phenomenological study of in-church and televised worship

This article develops a phenomenology of in-church worship and then compares how people experience worship in-church with worship via television. This research uses a semiotic phenomenological methodology to study in-depth the lived experience of in-church worship. It uses descriptions provided by participants to develop emergent themes and an interpretation of in-church worship. Finally, it uses these themes and interpretation to compare the experiences of worshipping in-church with worshipping by television. The importance of worship to the life of the believer is universally recognized. Both liturgical theologians and churchgoers alike note the importance of worshipping in church. While it is valuable to understand the theological reasons for the importance of worship, it is likewise important to understand the perspective of the worshippers themselves, and to interpret how they describe the experience. The interpretation of first-hand descriptions of worship is a contribution qualitative research in general, and phenomenological research in particular, may make to understanding the importance of worship. The interest of the present study is not only to understand the importance of worship from first-hand descriptions but also to consider how the experience of in-church worship compares to that of televised worship. Televised worship programs have become a significant subgenre of religious television. From slick nationwide televised services to local services recorded on camcorders, television audiences and churchgoers have the opportunity to experience worship services via television. But does the medium make possible a true appreciation of worship experience? Existing studies of religious television shed light on various genres (such as religious news, talk, variety, children's, testimonial and worship programs) from the perspectives of sociology, political science, psychology, behaviorism, statistical audience analysis, content analysis, cultural studies and ethnography. All of these studies provide important insights into the phenomenon of religious television; yet studies using an existential phenomenological approach are needed. This study seeks to add to the critical literature by using semiotic phenomenology to study one subgenre of religious television - televised worship. Inasmuch as research studies using semiotic phenomenological methodology have burgeoned largely over the past decade, studies of in-church worship likewise are needed. How do people experience worship in church? In existential terms, why do worshippers value the experience? Finally, how does worshipping in church compare with experiencing televised worship, and are the differences significant? To answer these questions, this study develops a semiotic phenomenology of in-church worship and then compares the lived experience of in-church worship with televised worship.
Genetic identification of a respiratory arsenate reductase

For more than a decade, it has been recognized that arsenate [H2AsO41-; As(V)] can be used by microorganisms as a terminal electron acceptor in anaerobic respiration. Given the toxicity of arsenic, the mechanistic basis of this process is intriguing, as is its evolutionary origin. Here we show that a two-gene cluster (arrAB; arsenate respiratory reduction) in the bacterium Shewanella sp. strain ANA-3 specifically confers respiratory As(V) reductase activity. Mutants with in-frame deletions of either arrA or arrB are incapable of growing on As(V), yet both are able to grow on a wide variety of other electron acceptors as efficiently as the wild-type. Complementation by the wild-type sequence rescues the mutants' ability to respire As(V). arrA is predicted to encode a 95.2-kDa protein with sequence motifs similar to the molybdenum containing enzymes of the dimethyl sulfoxide reductase family. arrB is predicted to encode a 25.7-kDa iron–sulfur protein. arrA and arrB comprise an operon that contains a twin arginine translocation (Tat) motif in ArrA (but not in ArrB) as well as a putative anaerobic transcription factor binding site upstream of arrA, suggesting that the respiratory As(V) reductase is exported to the periplasm via the Tat pathway and under anaerobic transcriptional control. These genes appear to define a new class of reductases that are specific for respiratory As(V) reduction.
A Preliminary Assessment of Small World Scholarship Networks in Criminology and Criminal Justice

The present study applies small world network analysis to 727 articles from Criminology, Justice Quarterly, and the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency to assess scholarship collaboration trends within criminology and criminal justice (CCJ). Findings indicate that CCJ scholars tend to collaborate (versus sole author) on a great number of peer‐reviewed efforts, with several scholars collaborating with well over 10, and as many as 40, unique (non‐redundant) co‐authors. Consistent with the structure of scientific collaboration networks where scientists are separated by short paths of intermediates, Alex R. Piquero is found to be the most collaborative scholar in this sample and also the best center (central vertex) in the collaboration graph by linking to other scholars, on average, by only 3.6 degrees of separation. To further illustrate combinatorial patterns among CCJ scholars, this study also offers a descriptive and graphical analogue to the “Erdös number” from mathematics (here, the “Piquero number”), focusing on co‐authorship branching from first‐tier collaborators. In our view, small world analysis holds promise in better understanding far‐reaching collaboration patterns by the CCJ professoriate.
Activation of Endothelial Transient Receptor Potential C3 Channel Is Required for Small Conductance Calcium‐Activated Potassium Channel Activation and Sustained Endothelial Hyperpolarization and Vasodilation of Cerebral Artery

Background Transient receptor potential C3 (TRPC3) has been demonstrated to be involved in the regulation of vascular tone through endothelial cell (EC) hyperpolarization and endothelium‐dependent hyperpolarization–mediated vasodilation. However, the mechanism by which TRPC3 regulates these processes remains unresolved. We tested the hypothesis that endothelial receptor stimulation triggers rapid TRPC3 trafficking to the plasma membrane, where it provides the source of Ca2+ influx for small conductance calcium‐activated K+ (SKCa) channel activation and sustained EC hyperpolarization. Methods and Results Pressurized artery studies were performed with isolated mouse posterior cerebral artery. Treatment with a selective TRPC3 blocker (Pyr3) produced significant attenuation of endothelium‐dependent hyperpolarization–mediated vasodilation and endothelial Ca2+ response (EC‐specific Ca2+ biosensor) to intraluminal ATP. Pyr3 treatment also resulted in a reduced ATP‐stimulated global Ca2+ and Ca2+ influx in primary cultures of cerebral endothelial cells. Patch‐clamp studies with freshly isolated cerebral ECs demonstrated 2 components of EC hyperpolarization and K+ current activation in response to ATP. The early phase was dependent on intermediate conductance calcium‐activated K+ channel activation, whereas the later sustained phase relied on SKCa channel activation. The SKCa channel–dependent phase was completely blocked with TRPC3 channel inhibition or in ECs of TRPC3 knockout mice and correlated with increased trafficking of TRPC3 (but not SKCa channel) to the plasma membrane. Conclusions We propose that TRPC3 dynamically regulates SKCa channel activation through receptor‐dependent trafficking to the plasma membrane, where it provides the source of Ca2+ influx for sustained SKCa channel activation, EC hyperpolarization, and endothelium‐dependent hyperpolarization–mediated vasodilation.
Genetically encoded photoswitching of actin assembly through the Cdc42-WASP-Arp2/3 complex pathway

General methods to engineer genetically encoded, reversible, light-mediated control over protein function would be useful in many areas of biomedical research and technology. We describe a system that yields such photo-control over actin assembly. We fused the Rho family GTPase Cdc42 in its GDP-bound form to the photosensory domain of phytochrome B (PhyB) and fused the Cdc42 effector, the Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome Protein (WASP), to the light-dependent PhyB-binding domain of phytochrome interacting factor 3 (Pif3). Upon red light illumination, the fusion proteins bind each other, activating WASP, and consequently stimulating actin assembly by the WASP target, the Arp2/3 complex. Binding and WASP activation are reversed by far-red illumination. Our approach, in which the biochemical specificity of the nucleotide switch in Cdc42 is overridden by the light-dependent PhyB-Pif3 interaction, should be generally applicable to other GTPase-effector pairs.
CATH: an expanded resource to predict protein function through structure and sequence

The latest version of the CATH-Gene3D protein structure classification database has recently been released (version 4.1, http://www.cathdb.info). The resource comprises over 300 000 domain structures and over 53 million protein domains classified into 2737 homologous superfamilies, doubling the number of predicted protein domains in the previous version. The daily-updated CATH-B, which contains our very latest domain assignment data, provides putative classifications for over 100 000 additional protein domains. This article describes developments to the CATH-Gene3D resource over the last two years since the publication in 2015, including: significant increases to our structural and sequence coverage; expansion of the functional families in CATH; building a support vector machine (SVM) to automatically assign domains to superfamilies; improved search facilities to return alignments of query sequences against multiple sequence alignments; the redesign of the web pages and download site.
Digital reconstruction of halftoned color comics

We introduce a method for automated conversion of scanned color comic books and graphical novels into a new high-fidelity rescalable digital representation. Since crisp black line artwork and lettering are the most important structural and stylistic elements in this important genre of color illustrations, our digitization process is geared towards faithful reconstruction of these elements. This is a challenging task, because commercial presses perform halftoning (screening) to approximate continuous tones and colors with overlapping grids of dots. Although a large number of inverse haftoning (descreening) methods exist, they typically blur the intricate black artwork. Our approach is specifically designed to descreen color comics, which typically reproduce color using screened CMY inks, but print the black artwork using non-screened solid black ink. After separating the scanned image into three screening grids, one for each of the CMY process inks, we use non-linear optimization to fit a parametric model describing each grid, and simultaneously recover the non-screened black ink layer, which is then vectorized. The result of this process is a high quality, compact, and rescalable digital representation of the original artwork.
The Case Study of Block Turbo Decoders on a Framework for Portable Synthesis on FPGA

On the case study of block turbo decoders for error correction, the paper shows that the use of unconventional framework like Madeo can produce interesting FPGA implementations. Error correction algorithms are known to be very important for communication data rate and reliability. As reconfigurable architectures are attractive for fast prototyping and flexibility, they are often considered as support for implementation of communication, including mobile communication. Madeo is an open framework for designing physical FPGA architectures and their applications. On the basis of an abstract model for reconfigurable circuits, Madeo provides the necessary tools (logic synthesis and physical tool) to program them. The paper describes the block turbo decoder principle, discusses existing solutions and presents characteristics of a partial implementation on the open framework Madeo. Three elements of a block turbo decoder have been designed using Madeo and the physical solutions compete very well with existing solutions for such problems.
KIS: An automated attribute induction method for classification of DNA sequences

Abstract This paper presents an application of methods from the machine learning domain to solving the task of DNA sequence recognition. We present an algorithm that learns to recognize groups of DNA sequences sharing common features such as sequence functionality. We demonstrate application of the algorithm to find splice sites, i.e., to properly detect donor and acceptor sequences. We compare the results with those of reference methods that have been designed and tuned to detect splice sites. We also show how to use the algorithm to find a human readable model of the IRE (Iron-Responsive Element) and to find IRE sequences. The method, although universal, yields results which are of quality comparable to those obtained by reference methods. In contrast to reference methods, this approach uses models that operate on sequence patterns, which facilitates interpretation of the results by humans.
Loss on serial passage of rhesus monkey kidney cells of proteolytic activity required for Sendai virus activation

Primary and secondary cultures of rhesus monkey kidney cells supported multiple-cycle replication of Sendai virus, but later passages lost this ability, and this was reflected in decreased plaque formation. Multiple-cycle replication also did not occur in LLC-MK2 cells, a continuous line of RMK cells. Failure of replication in serially passed cells was correlated with a decrease in proteolytic cleavage of a viral surface glycoprotein (Fo), and the ability of cells to support multiple-cycle replication and plaque formation could be restored by the addition of trypsin (0.3 microgram/ml) to the overlay medium. The use of wild-type virus, which requires trypsin, and protease activation mutants that require chymotrypsin or elastase for activation has provided evidence that the activating protease supplied by primary or secondary cells has trypsin-like activity. Inactive virus, with uncleaved Fo glycoprotein, absorbed to primary or secondary cells but did not infect them, even though such cells possess the enzyme that is capable of cleaving the Fo glycoprotein of virus synthesized in these cells. The inability of these cells to activate adsorbed virus indicates that the activating protease that they possess is inacessible to adsorbed virus, although it can act on the Fo glycoprotein during virus maturation in these cells. These data provide a biochemical explanation for the failure of later passages of a cell strain or a continuous cell line to support the replication of a paramyxovirus.
Dominant and Competing Paradigms in Gerontology: Towards a Political Economy of Ageing

ABSTRACT The origins and influence of social science perspectives have conditioned theoretical and empirical developments in the field of gerontology. Yet little systematic examination has been afforded to the role of social science in the production of gerontological knowledge in providing the underlying rationale for American social policy for the aged. This paper examines the dominant U.S. social science perspectives or paradigms and discusses the reasons for their centrality in American gerontological thought. The paper concludes with a proposal for an alternative line of inquiry — a political economy of ageing — which takes as problematic the effects of social history, the world economy, capitalism and social class on the ageing process and the aged and the policy interventions designed for them.