Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phase I evaluation of carboplatin by use of a dosing strategy based on a targeted area under the platinum concentration-versus-time curve and individual glomerular filtration rate in cats with tumors.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether a carboplatin dose calculation that is based on a targeted area under the concentration-versus-time curve (AUC(Target)) and individual glomerular filtration rate (GFR) accurately predicts carboplatin-associated myelotoxicoses in tumor-bearing cats, and to determine the maximum tolerated AUC(Target). ANIMALS 32 cats with tumors. PROCEDURES In each cat, plasma clearance of technetium Tc 99m-labeled diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid was measured to assess GFR. Carboplatin was administered IV. The dose was calculated by use of an equation as follows: Dose = AUC(Target) x 2.6 x GFR x body weight. Initial AUC(Target) was 2.0 min.mg. mL(-1) and was increased in increments of 0.50 min.mg. mL(-1) in cohorts of 3 cats. To assess myelotoxic effects, CBCs were performed weekly for > or = 4 weeks. Following identification of the maximum tolerated AUC(Target), additional cats were treated at that AUC(Target) and plasma platinum concentrations were measured in 6 cats. RESULTS The AUC(Target) values ranged from 2.0 to 3.0 min.mg. mL(-1). Neutropenia was the dose-limiting toxicosis, and the maximum tolerated AUC(Target) was 2.75 min.mg. mL(-1). Nineteen cats received this dose of carboplatin; 13 became neutropenic, but only 1 developed severe neutropenia (< 500 neutrophils/microL), and none had neutropenia-associated clinical signs. In the cats that had plasma platinum concentration determined, the difference between AUC(Target) and the measured value ranged from -0.23 to 0.31 min.mg. mL(-1) (median, 0.20 min.mg.mL(-1)). CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE In cats, carboplatin-associated myelotoxicoses were accurately and uniformly predicted by use of the proposed dosing strategy. The maximum tolerated AUC(Target) for a single dose of carboplatin was 2.75 min.mg. mL(-1).
Pedagogy Meets PowerPoint: A Research Review of the Effects of Computer-Generated Slides in the Classroom

The present essay offers a comprehensive review of the effects of computer-generated slides in the classroom, beginning with an overview of the ongoing debate over whether. To date, much of this debate has been testimonial in nature; in an effort to move beyond testimonials, this essay will attempt to ground the pedagogical debate over PowerPoint in various learning theories. Extant research on such slides is examined in four subcategories: (1) student reactions; (2) learning outcomes; (3) learning styles; and (4) slide variation effects. This essay closes with a discussion of how various research findings help inform (but by no means settle) the debate over PowerPoint and pedagogy.
Basic Income, Self‐Respect and Reciprocity

Why should I let the toad work Squat on my life? Can’t I use my wit as a pitchfork And drive the brute off? Six days of the week it soils With its sickening poison — Just for paying a few bills! That's out of proportion. From Philip Larkin, ‘Toads’. ABSTRACT This paper mounts a Rawlsian argument for unconditional basic income on the grounds that it maximins the distribution of income and wealth understood as a social basis of self-respect. The most important objection to this argument available to Rawlsians is that basic income violates the demands of reciprocity, where reciprocity in any scheme of distribution is a requirement of justice. The second half of the paper addresses this objection. It is argued there that even if the objection can be made successfully by Rawlsians (and this is not clear), it is not sufficient to divest them of a commitment to basic income, given some practical considerations about the implementation of alternatives to basic income.
The impact of employment on fatherhood across family generations in white British, Polish and Irish origin families

This paper draws on data from an intergenerational study of fatherhood to consider how fatherhood has changed and how employment conditions and occupational status shape fatherhood, particularly their involvement with their children and, via an analysis of four cases, continuities and discontinuities are identified across the family generations. The study involved three generational chains of men which included grandfathers, sons and grandsons from three ‘ethnicities’; those of white British origin, Polish origin and Irish origin. While most agreed that fatherhood had changed, in particular the way fathers communicate and express affection to their children, other changes were also seen as important – increased material consumption, changes in children's lives and child-focused parenting. On the other hand, employment commitment and working conditions continue to constrain men's involvement with their children in both generations. A different pattern was also evident among a minority of the fathers who modified their employment to take on some childcare responsibilities, while a handful in low-status jobs had wives who were the main earners in the household, a situation that enabled them to take on a significant role in childcare.
Student engagement: rhetoric and reality

Recently, there has been much interest in higher education literature and policy on the concepts of student engagement and disengagement. While most academic writings recognise the significance of student engagement, they have tended to concentrate on it in relation to academic activities. Increasingly, universities are ‘cascading’ down the need to improve student engagement to schools and ultimately to individual academics. This article asserts that ideas about student engagement in the university context are often fragmented, contradictory and confused. Even the meaning of the term ‘student engagement’ is uncertain. Further, while government and universities urge attention to student engagement, many of their actions, it may be argued, have contributed to greater student disengagement. Relying on the available literature, we argue that the student experience as a whole is the key to engagement and, thus, efforts to re-engage students cannot be successful until a ‘whole-of-university’ approach is adopted.
Optimal detection for diffusion-based communications in the presence of ISI

Communications based on diffusion refers to the transfer of information using molecules as message carriers whose propagation is governed by the laws of Brownian motion. Molecular communication is considered to be one of the most promising approaches for the end-to-end communication between nanoscale devices. In this paper, both an optimal and a suboptimal receiver detection scheme are proposed for a diffusionbased binary digital communication system in the presence of ISI. The transmission of binary information is accomplished by using On-Off Keying (OOK) with only one molecule. The proposed system can serve as the theoretical basis for end-to-end communication in molecular nanonetworks where molecules of different types are used by different nanoscale devices. The effect of channel memory resulting from the residual molecule diffusion from previous transmissions is treated analytically in the formulation of the detection schemes. Numerical results show that the proposed detection schemes can maximize the mutual information over a practical range of the parameter of signaling interval without a priori information. A channel capacity of 1 bit per channel utilization during a signaling interval can be ultimately achieved by extending the duration of the signaling interval, even with infinite channel memory.
Isolation of proteolytic bacteria from mealworm (Tenebrio molitor) exoskeletons to produce chitinous material

The use of insects as a source of protein is becoming an important factor for feeding an increasing population. After protein extraction for food use, the insect exoskeleton may offer the possibility for the production of added value products. Here, the aim was to isolate bacteria from the surface of farmed mealworms (Tenebrio molitor Linnaeus, 1758) for the production of chitinous material from insect exoskeletons using microbial fermentation. Isolates were screened for proteases and acid production that may aid deproteination and demineralisation of insects through fermentation to produce chitin. Selected isolates were used single-step (isolated bacteria only) or two-step fermentations with Lactobacillus plantarum (DSM 20174). Two-step fermentations with isolates from mealworm exoskeletons resulted in a demineralisation of 97.9 and 98.5% from deproteinated mealworm fractions. Attenuated total reflectance-Fourier- transform infrared spectroscopy analysis showed that crude chitin was produced. However, further optimisation is needed before the process can be upscaled. This is, to our knowledge, the first report using microbial fermentation for the extraction of chitin from insects.
CLI-095 decreases atherosclerosis by modulating foam cell formation in apolipoprotein E-deficient mice

Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) is considered to have a critical role in the occurrence and development of atherosclerosis in atherosclerosis-prone mice; however, it remains uncertain whether treatment with a TLR4 inhibitor may attenuate atherosclerosis. The present study aimed to determine the vascular protective effects of the TLR4 inhibitor CLI-095 on apolipoprotein E-deficient (ApoE−/−) mice. ApoE−/− mice were fed either chow or a high-fat diet, and were treated with or without CLI-095 for 10 weeks. The mean atherosclerotic plaque area in the aortic sections of CLI-095-treated mice was 54.3% smaller than in the vehicle-treated mice (P=0.0051). In vitro, murine peritoneal macrophages were treated with or without CLI-095, and were subsequently stimulated with oxidized low-density lipoprotein. Treatment with CLI-095 markedly reduced the expression levels of lectin-like oxidized low-density lipoprotein receptor-1 and acyl-coenzyme A:cholesterol acyltransferase-1, and significantly upregulated the expression levels of ATP-binding cassette transporter A1, predominantly via suppressing activation of the TLR4/nuclear factor-κB signaling pathway. The results of the present study indicated that the TLR4 inhibitor CLI-095 has the ability to suppress the progression of atherosclerosis in an in vivo model by reducing macrophage foam cell formation.
Letter by Venema et al Regarding Article, "Validating a Predictive Model of Acute Advanced Imaging Biomarkers in Ischemic Stroke".

We read the study by Bivard et al,1 in which they develop a model that predicts functional outcome in patients with acute ischemic stroke based on clinical and advanced imaging characteristics, with great interest. Prognostic modeling for acute ischemic stroke is a very relevant topic and may be useful in identifying individual patients with no or little benefit from reperfusion therapy. Unfortunately, we noted several methodological shortcomings in the model development and validation. We will discuss some of these and propose recommendations for future prediction studies in stroke research. One of the first steps in prediction modeling is the coding of predictors. Bivard et al1 have dichotomized the continuous predictors (age, baseline National Institutes …
Gender Matters

This two-phase study investigates the process of developing resilience through participation in outdoor adventure programming. In this study, resilience is conceptualized as experiencing growth through a disruptive event. In the first phase, a pre–post survey measure was used to assess resilience in university students who were enrolled in a semester-long adventure education program, a three-credit leisure class, or a one-credit leadership class. The second phase involved semi-structured interviews to better understand the results from Phase 1, which indicated an interaction effect between gender and time. Of particular interest was the finding that males decreased in reported levels of resilience, while females experienced increased levels. The salience of gender roles to adventure education programming is considered as an explanation for these results.
WHEN BAD ISNT ALL BAD : STRATEGIC USE OF SAMPLE INFORMATION IN GENERALIZATION AND STEREOTYPING

The influence of the reliability and valence of sample information on generalization to in-group and out-group target populations was investigated in 2 studies. In both studies the valence of the information was either favorable (i.e., a positive in-group sample and a negative out-group sample) or unfavorable. The reliability of sample information was manipulated in terms of sample variability (Study 1) and sample size (Study 2). In both studies the perceived central tendency of favorable sample information was directly generalized, but unfavorable and unreliable sample information was not. Moreover, generalizations based on unfavorable and unreliable samples were characterized by enhanced variability estimates for both in-group and out-group populations, thereby undermining unfavorable group differences. These results are discussed in terms of strategic use of sample information in the formation of social stereotypes.
SAHARA: A Simplified AtmospHeric Correction AlgoRithm for Chinese gAofen Data: 1. Aerosol Algorithm

The recently launched Chinese GaoFen-4 (GF4) satellite provides valuable information to obtain geophysical parameters describing conditions in the atmosphere and at the Earth’s surface. The surface reflectance is an important parameter for the estimation of other remote sensing parameters linked to the eco-environment, atmosphere environment and energy balance. One of the key issues to achieve atmospheric corrected surface reflectance is to precisely retrieve the aerosol optical properties, especially Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD). The retrieval of AOD and corresponding atmospheric correction procedure normally use the full radiative transfer calculation or Look-Up-Table (LUT) methods, which is very time-consuming. In this paper, a Simplified AtmospHeric correction AlgoRithm for gAofen data (SAHARA) is presented for the retrieval of AOD and corresponding atmospheric correction procedure. This paper is the first part of the algorithm, which describes the aerosol retrieval algorithm. In order to achieve high-accuracy analytical form for both LUT and surface parameterization, the MODIS Dark-Target (DT) aerosol types and Deep Blue (DB) similar surface parameterization have been proposed for GF4 data. Limited Gaofen observations (i.e., all that were available) have been tested and validated. The retrieval results agree quite well with MODIS Collection 6.0 aerosol product, with a correlation coefficient of R2 = 0.72. The comparison between GF4 derived AOD and Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) observations has a correlation coefficient of R2 = 0.86. The algorithm, after comprehensive validation, can be used as an operational running algorithm for creating aerosol product from the Chinese GF4 satellite.
Why Don ’ t Firms Claim their Tax Refunds ? Evidence from Private Debt Contracts

A puzzle is why a large proportion of firms eligible for income tax refunds do not file claims for such refunds on a timely basis. I hypothesize that firms with private information about higher future profitability and seeking debt financing forgo immediate use of provisions that allow the carryback of net operating losses as a signaling device to separate from firms with lower future profitability in order to obtain more favorable borrowing terms. Firms expecting lower profitability are deterred from mimicking because carrying net operating losses forward is less valuable to them. Consistent with this hypothesis, firms that do not file claims for refunds on a timely basis display higher future profitability and receive lower debt financing costs than firms that file when they first become eligible. These results are stronger when the level of information asymmetry about the borrower’s type is greater. This study is the first to offer a rational explanation for the low take-up rate of tax refunds. As a result, the evidence presented in this study could be relevant to academics and fiscal policy makers that seek to better understand how tax policies affect real decisions. This Draft: February 2016
Articulated Shape Matching by Robust Alignment of Embedded Representations

In this paper we propose a general framework to solve the articulated shape matching problem, formulated as finding point-to-point correspondences between two shapes represented by 2-D or 3-D point clouds. The original point- sets are embedded in a spectral representation and the actual matching is carried out in the embedded space. We analyze the advantages of this choice as well as the reasons for which the task remains a difficult one. In particular, we show that although embedded-space matching still has intrinsic combinatorial difficulties, it can be solved by searching for an optimal orthogonal transformation that aligns the two shape embeddings. Relying on the model based clustering formalism, we propose a probabilistic formulation which casts the matching into an EM algorithm. Outliers are properly handled by the algorithm and a simple strategy is adopted to initialize it. Experiments are performed with three embedding methods (Isomap, LLE, and Laplacian embedding) and with 3-D voxelsets representing a human-motion sequence.
Effects of Exercise Training on Physical Activity in Older People: a Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Recent randomized controlled trials indicated that exercise training for elderly significantly increased their physical fitness. However, very few studies have examined changes in physical activity after exercise training. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether six-month exercise training for older adults can increase and maintain their physical activity in daily life. Methods: Sixty-two men and women aged 60 to 81 years (mean age 67.1 years), living in communities, were randomly allocated into an exercise group (n=32) or a control group (n=33). The intervention started in April 1998 and lasted for 25 weeks. The exercise regimen consisted of endurance training and resistance exercises in a two-hour class conducted at least twice a week. The subjects completed a physical activity diary at each pre-intervention (March 1998), post-intervention (September 1998) and follow-up (April 1999) measurement of physical activity. Physical activity, expressed as total daily energy expenditure, was calculated by multiplying the amount of time spent in each activity and the corresponding METs. Results: Total daily energy expenditure significantly increased from 40.8 kcal/kg/day to 43.5 kcal/kg/day in the exercise group (p=0.03), but did not change in the control group. At the follow-up measurement, the mean total daily energy expenditure in the exercise group remained significantly higher, by 1.7 kcal/kg/day, than that at the pre-intervention (p=0.05). Conclusions: This randomized controlled trial indicated that exercise training for elderly was effective in increasing physical activity in daily life.
Family Process as a Mediator of the Negative Effects of Parental Alcoholism on Young Adult Dating Relationships

The effects of parental alcoholism on young adult dating relationship quality (trust, intimacy, commitment, and satisfaction) were considered in the context of the mediating variable of family process (cohesion, conflict resolution, and family competence). A model was tested with a sample of 287 young adults (95 were adult children of alcoholics) that suggested that healthier family process mediates the negative effects of having an alcoholic parent on dating relationship quality. Structural equation modeling results showed that the model fit the data. Young adults from alcoholic families in which family process was less negatively affected by parental alcoholism were less likely to report lower dating relationship quality than those from families in which family process was more negatively affected by parental alcoholism. Parental divorce was directly related to lower relationship quality. Clinical implications for working with young adult children of alcoholics are discussed.
Mispairs with Watson‐Crick base‐pair geometry observed in ternary complexes of an RB69 DNA polymerase variant

Recent structures of DNA polymerase complexes with dGMPCPP/dT and dCTP/dA mispairs at the insertion site have shown that they adopt Watson‐Crick geometry in the presence of Mn2+ indicating that the tautomeric or ionization state of the base has changed. To see whether the tautomeric or ionization state of base‐pair could be affected by its microenvironment, we determined 10 structures of an RB69 DNA polymerase quadruple mutant with dG/dT or dT/dG mispairs at position n‐1 to n‐5 of the Primer/Template duplex. Different shapes of the mispairs, including Watson‐Crick geometry, have been observed, strongly suggesting that the local environment of base‐pairs plays an important role in their tautomeric or ionization states.
Significance of Limited English Proficiency and Cultural Capital to the Performance in Science of Chinese-Australians.

This investigation of Chinese-Australian students and their learning of chemistry indicates that despite students' efforts to learn chemistry with understanding, difficulties in speaking and writing English were factors that limited performance. An hegemony based on the use of English to learn chemistry and assess performance placed students with limited English proficiency (LEP) in a position of potential failure. However, as might be expected of voluntary minorities, LEP Chinese students endeavored to use English to make sense of what happened in class and to demonstrate the extent to which they had learned chemistry. At the same time, they employed Cantonese in their oral and written discourse and exhibited high levels of commitment to learn, effort, and task orientation in and out of school. These practices were consistent with those expected by the teacher and that typically occurred in schools in their native Hong Kong. The study supports the assertions that learning chemistry can be facilitated when LEP students are provided opportunities to fully employ their native language tools and when the microculture of the classroom fits the macroculture of life outside the classroom. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Increased Risk of Fragility Fractures among HIV Infected Compared to Uninfected Male Veterans

Background HIV infection has been associated with an increased risk of fragility fracture. We explored whether or not this increased risk persisted in HIV infected and uninfected men when controlling for traditional fragility fracture risk factors. Methodology/Principal Findings Cox regression models were used to assess the association of HIV infection with the risk for incident hip, vertebral, or upper arm fracture in male Veterans enrolled in the Veterans Aging Cohort Study Virtual Cohort (VACS-VC). We calculated adjusted hazard ratios comparing HIV status and controlling for demographics and other established risk factors. The sample consisted of 119,318 men, 33% of whom were HIV infected (34% aged 50 years or older at baseline, and 55% black or Hispanic). Median body mass index (BMI) was lower in HIV infected compared with uninfected men (25 vs. 28 kg/m2; p<0.0001). Unadjusted risk for fracture was higher among HIV infected compared with uninfected men [HR: 1.32 (95% CI: 1.20, 1.47)]. After adjusting for demographics, comorbid disease, smoking and alcohol abuse, HIV infection remained associated with an increased fracture risk [HR: 1.24 (95% CI: 1.11, 1.39)]. However, adjusting for BMI attenuated this association [HR: 1.10 (95% CI: 0.97, 1.25)]. The only HIV-specific factor associated with fragility fracture was current protease inhibitor use [HR: 1.41 (95% CI: 1.16, 1.70)]. Conclusions/Significance HIV infection is associated with fragility fracture risk. This risk is attenuated by BMI.