Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Slow-wave resonance in periodic stacks of anisotropic layers

We consider a Fabry-Perot resonance (a transmission band edge resonance) in periodic layered structures involving birefringent layers. In a previous publication [Phys. Rev. E 72, 036619 (2005)] we have shown that the presence of birefringent layers with misaligned in-plane anisotropy can dramatically enhance the performance of the photonic-crystal resonator. It allows us to reduce its size by an order of magnitude without compromising on its performance. The key characteristic of the enhanced slow-wave resonator is that the Bloch dispersion relation {omega}(k) of the periodic structure displays a degenerate photonic band edge, in the vicinity of which the dispersion curve can be approximated as {delta}{omega}{approx}({delta}k){sup 4}, rather than {delta}{omega}{approx}({delta}k){sup 2}. Such a situation can be realized in specially arranged stacks of misaligned anisotropic layers. On the down side, the presence of birefringent layers results in the slow-wave resonance being coupled only with one (elliptic) polarization component of the incident wave, while the other polarization component is reflected back to space. In this paper we show how a small modification of the periodic layered array can solve the above fundamental problem and provide a perfect impedance match regardless of the incident wave polarization, while preserving the giant slow-wave resonance characteristic of amore » degenerate photonic band edge. Both features are of critical importance for many practical applications, such as the enhancement of various light-matter interactions, light amplification and lasing, optical and microwave filters, antennas, etc.« less
The intensity-difference limen for Gaussian-enveloped stimuli as a function of level: tones and broadband noise.

Van Schijndel et al. [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 105, 3425-3435 (1999)] have proposed that the internal excitation evoked by an auditory stimulus is segmented into "windows" according to the stimulus spectrum and stimulus length. This "multiple looks" model accounts for the mid-duration hump they observed in plots of intensity-difference limens (DLs) versus pip duration for Gaussian-shaped 1- and 4-kHz tones, an effect replicated by Baer et al. [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 106, 1907-1916 (1999)]. However, van Schijndel et al. and Baer et al. used few levels. A greater number of levels were used by Nizami (1999) for Gaussian-shaped 2-kHz tone-pips whose equivalent rectangular duration (D) was 1.25 ms. The DLs show the mid-level hump known for clicks [Raab and Taub, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 46, 965-968 (1969)]. At some duration this pattern must become the "near-miss to Weber's law. " To determine this duration, as well as the level-dependence of the mid-duration hump, DLs were established for Gaussian-shaped 2-kHz tone-pips of D = 1.25, 2.51, and 10.03 ms at levels of 30-90 dB SPL. The across-subject average DLs for the tone-pips rise up at mid-levels for D= 1.25 and D = 2.51 ms. The DLs for D=2.51 ms are larger, creating the mid-duration hump. At all durations, the new DLs are smaller at high levels than at low levels, consistent with the near-miss to Weber's law. DLs were also obtained here for Gaussian-shaped broadband-noise pips of D=0.63, 1.25, 2.51, 5.02, and 10.03 ms. The DLs for the noise-pip show a mid-level hump for all pip durations. The noise-pip DLs decrease as the pip lengthens, such that the plot of DL versus log duration shows a linear decline, with no mid-duration hump. Analysis of variance reveals that the mid-level hump coexists with the classical patterns of level-dependence, perhaps reflecting the existence of two level-encoding mechanisms, one that depends on firing-rates counted over single neurons and which is responsible for the classical patterns, and one that depends on the initial coordinated burst of neuronal spikes caused by rapid ramping, and which presumably causes the mid-level hump.
500 years of humanoid robots automata have been around longer than you think [Resources_Review]

When science fiction critics Eric S. Rabkin and Robert E. Scholes argued in the 1970s that "no one would go through the trouble of building and maintaining a robot to hand wash clothes or pick up the telephone receiver," they were apparently unaware that Japanese researchers had already made a long-term commitment to develop humanoid robots that could do exactly that. The goal was to care for the elderly in the 21st century. To this end, throughout the 1980s and 1990s, industrial giants Honda, Mitsubishi, and Toyota, as well as university research labs around the world, began demonstrating humanoid prototypes. More recently, the desire to operate in disaster sites like Fukushima has motivated even more researchers to explore humanoid designs.
Positron emission tomographic evaluation of histological malignancy in gliomas using oxygen-15 and fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose.

HEADTOME III, a high resolution PET, has been employed using 15O and 18F labelled pharmaceuticals to evaluate histological malignancy of gliomas preoperatively. PET study was applied on eighteen preoperative gliomas including two recurrent cases. Haemocirculatory and metabolic indices of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF), cerebral blood volume (rCBV), oxygen extraction fraction (rOEF), cerebral metabolic rates for oxygen (rCMRO2) and glucose (rCMRGI) were measured in the viable portion of the tumour, and the contralateral grey and white matter. In the tumour region, rCBF and rCBV were variable and unrelated to grades of tumour malignancy. rCMRO2 and rOEF values reduced significantly (p less than 0.01) relative to the contralateral brain tissue. The average rCMRGI values was 3.00 +/- 1.06 mg 100 ml-1 min-1 (mean +/- SD) for 7 low grade gliomas (grade II), and 5.91 +/- 3.61 mg 100 ml-1 min-1 for 11 high grade gliomas (grade III and IV). These results would support that anaerobic glycolysis increased in the metabolism of gliomas with malignancy. In comparison with normal volunteers, rCBF, rCMRO2, and rCMRGI values in the contralateral grey matter of gliomas were markedly reduced (p less than 0.01, p less than 0.05, p less than 0.01, respectively) possibly due in part to raised intracranial pressure and depressed cerebral functional activity, so that rOEF was increased to a level of approximately 0.5. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Tumor pretargeting for radioimmunodetection and radioimmunotherapy.

UNLABELLED The limited success of the sole use of monoclonal antibodies for cancer detection and treatment has led to the development of multistep methods using antibodies in conjunction with low molecular weight agents. For tumor pretargeting, it is important to optimize dose and schedule of relevant agents and to understand barriers to targeted delivery. Here, we address these issues for the anti-carcinoembryonic antigen bifunctional antibody-hapten and the streptavidinylated antibody-biotin systems using a recently developed physiologically based pharmacokinetic model. METHODS For baseline conditions of a standard 70-kg man with a 20-g tumor embedded in the liver, the model was used in conjunction with the Medical Internal Radiation Dosimetry schema to: estimate absorbed doses in tumor and normal tissues; determine the dose dependence of effector agent accumulation in tumor; simulate tumor-to-background effector agent uptake ratio; and calculate the therapeutic ratio for different antibody forms and radionuclides. Alternative drug administration schemes and variable tumor physiological conditions were considered. RESULTS Model simulations showed that 131I-labeled biotin with the streptavidinylated F(ab')2 provided the highest therapeutic ratio under the optimized conditions. The simulations also showed that biotin with the bifunctional streptavidinylated immunoglobulin G provided the highest tumor-to-liver uptake ratio during the early period. Sensitivity analysis showed that antibody extravasation was the major factor limiting the accretion of the effector agent in tumor, whereas antigen expression in normal tissues and tumor antigen shedding had little effect on the absorbed doses. CONCLUSION Tumor pretargeting should provide a definite advantage over direct antibody targeting with up to a 200% increase in tumor-to-background ratio in radioimmunodetection and up to a 76% increase in tumor-to-bone marrow therapeutic ratio in radioimmunotherapy. Rapid antibody clearance from the bloodstream before effector agent injection is expected to improve the therapeutic ratio marginally (3%-10%). However, continuous plasmapheresis dramatically increased the tumor-to-background ratio by a factor of 10 in RAID and the tumor-to-bone marrow therapeutic ratio by more than 110% for short-lived radionuclides in RAIT. Apart from drastic measures such as extended plasmapheresis, pretargeting selectivity was neither sensitive enough for radioimmunodetection nor effective enough for radioimmunotherapy in patients with typical solid tumors even using the optimized protocols.
Long-term outcomes in elderly survivors of in-hospital cardiac arrest.

BACKGROUND Little is known about the long-term outcomes in elderly survivors of in-hospital cardiac arrest. We determined rates of long-term survival and readmission among survivors of in-hospital cardiac arrest and examined whether these outcomes differed according to demographic characteristics and neurologic status at discharge. METHODS We linked data from a national registry of inpatient cardiac arrests with Medicare files and identified 6972 adults, 65 years of age or older, who were discharged from the hospital after surviving an in-hospital cardiac arrest between 2000 and 2008. Predictors of 1-year survival and of readmission to the hospital were examined. RESULTS One year after hospital discharge, 58.5% of the patients were alive, and 34.4% had not been readmitted to the hospital. The risk-adjusted rate of 1-year survival was lower among older patients than among younger patients (63.7%, 58.6%, and 49.7% among patients 65 to 74, 75 to 84, and ≥85 years of age, respectively; P<0.001), among men than among women (58.6% vs. 60.9%, P=0.03), and among black patients than among white patients (52.5% vs. 60.4%, P=0.001). The risk-adjusted rate of 1-year survival was 72.8% among patients with mild or no neurologic disability at discharge, as compared with 61.1% among patients with moderate neurologic disability, 42.2% among those with severe neurologic disability, and 10.2% among those in a coma or vegetative state (P<0.001 for all comparisons). Moreover, 1-year readmission rates were higher among patients who were black, those who were women, and those who had substantial neurologic disability (P<0.05 for all comparisons). These differences in survival and readmission rates persisted at 2 years. At 3 years, the rate of survival among survivors of in-hospital cardiac arrest was similar to that of patients who had been hospitalized with heart failure and were discharged alive (43.5% and 44.9%, respectively; risk ratio, 0.98; 95% confidence interval, 0.95 to 1.02; P=0.35). CONCLUSIONS Among elderly survivors of in-hospital cardiac arrest, nearly 60% were alive at 1 year, and the rate of 3-year survival was similar to that among patients with heart failure. Survival and readmission rates differed according to the demographic characteristics of the patients and neurologic status at discharge. (Funded by the American Heart Association and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.).
The Neurobiology of Sensory and Language Processing in Language-Impaired Children

Clinical, behavioral, and neurophysiological studies of developmental language impairment (LI), including reading disability (RD), have variously emphasized different factors that may contribute to this disorder. These include abnormal sensory processing within both the auditory and visual modalities and deficits in linguistic skills and in general cognitive abilities. In this study we employed the event-related brain potential (ERP) technique in a series of studies to probe and compare Merent aspects of functioning within the same sample of LI/RD children. Within the group multiple aspects of processing were affected, but heterogeneously across the sample. ERP components linked to processing within the superior temporal gyrus were abnormal in a subset of children that displayed abnormal performance on an auditory temporal discrimination task. An early component of the visual ERP was reduced in amplitude in the group as a whole. The relevance of this effect to current conceptions of substreams within the visual system is discussed. During a sentence processing task abnormal hemispheric specialization was observed in a subset of children who scored poorly on tests of grammar. By contrast the group as a whole displayed abnormally large responses to words requiring contextual integration. The results imply that multiple factors can contribute to the profile of language impairment and that different and specific deficits occur heterogeneously across populations of LI/RD children.
The student-run free clinic: an ideal site to teach interprofessional education?

Abstract Student-run free clinics (SRFCs) often include an interprofessional group of health professions students and preceptors working together toward the common goal of caring for underserved populations. Therefore, it would seem that these clinics would be an ideal place for students to participate in an interprofessional collaborative practice and for interprofessional education to occur. This article describes a prospective, observational cohort study of interprofessional attitudes and skills including communication and teamwork skills and attitudes about interprofessional learning, relationships and interactions of student volunteers in a SRFC compared to students who applied and were not accepted to the clinic and to students who never applied to the clinic. This study showed a decrease in attitudes and skills after the first year for all groups. Over the next two years, the total score on the survey for the accepted students was higher than the not accepted students. The students who were not accepted also became more similar to students who never applied. This suggests a protective effect against declining interprofessional attitudes and skills for the student volunteers in a SRFC. These findings are likely a function of the design of the clinical and educational experience in the clinic and of the length of contact the students have with other professions.
Spectrum-efficient Index Modulation with Improved constellation Mapping

Recently, a scheme called Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) with Generalized Index Modulation (OFDM-GIM) is proposed, in which the number of active subcarriers in an OFDM sub-block is adjustable and a higher spectral efficiency is achieved compared with the conventional Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing with Index Modulation(OFDM-IM) scheme. In this paper, based on the general index modulation structure, a spectrum-efficient Index Modulation with Improved Mapping is proposed. In this scheme, each sub-block can use different constellation mappings as well as different numbers of active subcarriers to transmit information. We further propose the corresponding transmitter and the receiver structures. The simulation results show that the proposed system achieves a higher spectrum efficiency and better BER performance compared with the existing OFDM-IM schemes.
Convergent validity assessment of formatively measured constructs in PLS-SEM

Purpose Researchers often use partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to estimate path models that include formatively specified constructs. Their validation requires running a redundancy analysis, which tests whether the formatively measured construct is highly correlated with an alternative measure of the same construct. Extending prior knowledge in the field, this paper aims to examine the conditions favoring the use of single vs multiple items to measure the criterion construct in redundancy analyses. Design/methodology/approach Merging the literatures from a variety of fields, such as management, marketing and psychometrics, we first provide a theoretical comparison of single-item and multi-item measurement and offer guidelines for designing and validating suitable single items. An empirical comparison in the context of hospitality management examines whether using a single item to measure the criterion variable yields sufficient degrees of convergent validity compared to using a multi-item measure. Findings The results of an empirical comparison in the context of hospitality management show that, when the sample size is small, a single item yields higher degrees of convergent validity than a reflective construct does. However, larger sample sizes favor the use of reflectively measured multi-item constructs, but the differences are marginal, thus supporting the use of a global single item in PLS-SEM-based redundancy analyses. Originality/value This study is the first to research the efficacy of single-item versus multi-item measures in PLS-SEM-based redundancy analyses. The results illustrate that a convergent validity assessment of formatively measured constructs can be implemented without triggering a pronounced increase in survey length.
Effective Delivery Styles and Content for Self-management Interventions for Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain: A Systematic Literature Review

Objectives:The objective of the study was to report the evidence for effectiveness of different self-management course characteristics and components for chronic musculoskeletal pain. Methods:We searched 9 relevant electronic databases for randomized, controlled trials (RCTs). Two reviewers selected studies against inclusion criteria and assessed their quality. We classified RCTs according to type of course delivery (group, individual, mixed or remote), tutor (healthcare professional, lay or mixed), setting (medical, community or occupational), duration (more or less than 8 weeks), and the number and type of components (psychological, lifestyle, pain education, mind body therapies, and physical activity). We extracted data on pain intensity, physical function, self-efficacy, global health, and depression and compared these outcomes for self-management and usual care or waiting list control. We used random effects standardized mean difference meta-analysis. We looked for patterns of clinically important and statistically significant beneficial effects for courses with different delivery characteristics and the presence or absence of components across outcomes over 3 follow-up intervals. Results:We included 46 RCTs (N=8539). Group-delivered courses that had healthcare professional input showed more beneficial effects. Longer courses did not necessarily give better outcomes. There was mixed evidence of effectiveness for components of courses, but data for courses with a psychological component showed slightly more consistent beneficial effects over each follow-up period. Discussion:Serious consideration should be given to the development of short (<8 weeks) group and healthcare professional-delivered interventions but more research is required to establish the most effective and cost-effective course components.
High dietary phosphorus density is a risk factor for incident chronic kidney disease development in diabetic subjects: a community-based prospective cohort study.

Background: High serum phosphorus concentrations are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, the relation between dietary phosphorus intake and CKD development has not been well evaluated.Objective: In this study, we investigated the impact of dietary phosphorus density on the development of incident CKD in a cohort of subjects with normal renal function.Design: Data were retrieved from the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study, a prospective community-based cohort study. The study cohort consisted of subjects aged 40-69 y, who were followed up biennially from 2001 to 2014. A total of 873 subjects with diabetes mellitus (DM) and 5846 subjects without DM (non-DM) were included in the final analysis. The primary endpoint was incident CKD, defined as a composite of estimated glomerular filtration rate <60 mL · min-1 · 1.73 m-2 and/or the development of proteinuria.Results: In the DM and non-DM groups, the mean ages of the participants were 55.6 ± 8.7 and 51.4 ± 8.6 y, the numbers of male subjects were 454 (52.0%) and 2784 (47.6%), and the mean estimated glomerular filtration rates were 91.6 ± 14.0 and 94.5 ± 14.0 mL · min-1 · 1.73 m-2, respectively. The mean values of dietary phosphorus density, defined as the ratio of a single-day dietary phosphorus amount to the total daily calorie intake, were 0.51 ± 0.08 mg/kcal in the DM group and 0.51 ± 0.07 mg/kcal in the non-DM group. During the follow-up, CKD newly developed in 283 (32.4%) and 792 subjects (13.5%) in the DM and non-DM groups, respectively. When the subjects were divided into quartiles according to the dietary phosphorus density in each group, the highest quartile was significantly associated with the development of incident CKD by multiple Cox proportional hazard analysis in the DM group (P = 0.02) but not in the non-DM group (P = 0.72). Conclusions: High dietary phosphorus density is associated with an increased risk of CKD development in DM patients with normal renal function. The causality in this association needs to be tested in a randomized controlled trial.
Crystal structure of the human eIF4AIII–CWC22 complex shows how a DEAD-box protein is inhibited by a MIF4G domain

Significance The fate of eukaryotic mRNAs is intimately linked to the complement of proteins that associate with them to form mRNA—protein complexes, the so-called messenger ribonucleoprotein particles (mRNPs). Transitions in the architecture of an mRNP lead to specific functional consequences. DEAD-box proteins are key players in orchestrating these structural rearrangements: They associate with RNA in response to ATP binding and dissociate from it upon ATP hydrolysis. In this paper, we have elucidated the molecular mechanisms by which a DEAD-box protein, which in human cells marks spliced mRNPs for a specialized surveillance pathway, is recognized by the MIF4G domain of a splicing factor. This structure shows how a MIF4G domain can act as a negative regulator of DEAD-box ATPase activity. DEAD-box proteins are involved in all aspects of RNA processing. They bind RNA in an ATP-dependent manner and couple ATP hydrolysis to structural and compositional rearrangements of ribonucleoprotein particles. Conformational control is a major point of regulation for DEAD-box proteins to act on appropriate substrates and in a timely manner in vivo. Binding partners containing a middle domain of translation initiation factor 4G (MIF4G) are emerging as important regulators. Well-known examples are eIF4G and Gle1, which bind and activate the DEAD-box proteins eIF4A and Dbp5. Here, we report the mechanism of an inhibiting MIF4G domain. We determined the 2.0-Å resolution structure of the complex of human eIF4AIII and the MIF4G domain of the splicing factor Complexed With Cef1 (CWC22), an essential prerequisite for exon junction complex assembly by the splicing machinery. The CWC22 MIF4G domain binds both RecA domains of eIF4AIII. The mode of RecA2 recognition is similar to that observed in the activating complexes, yet is specific for eIF4AIII. The way the CWC22 MIF4G domain latches on the eIF4AIII RecA1 domain is markedly different from activating complexes. In the CWC22–eIF4AIII complex, the RNA-binding and ATP-binding motifs of the two RecA domains do not face each other, as would be required in the active state, but are in diametrically opposite positions. The binding mode of CWC22 to eIF4AIII reveals a facet of how MIF4G domains use their versatile structural frameworks to activate or inhibit DEAD-box proteins.