Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How do children's nurses make clinical decisions? Two preliminary studies.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To gain an understanding of how children's nurses make clinical decisions. BACKGROUND Several studies have explored how nurses make clinical decisions and the factors that may affect the decision-making strategies used. However, the results of these studies are contradictory. Further, little is known about children's nurses' decision-making strategies. DESIGN The think aloud technique. METHODS Nurses (n = 12) from three surgical wards and nurses (n = 15) from three medical wards in a Scottish children's hospital were presented with clinical scenarios and asked to think aloud. The verbal protocols were analysed to provide an indication of how children's nurses made decisions. Whether there were any differences in decision-making between experienced and less experienced nurses and between graduates and non-graduates was also explored. RESULTS Analysis of verbal protocols obtained using the think aloud technique suggested that all the nurses in the sample used a hypothetico-deductive (analytical) model of decision-making. Further, all participants appeared to use backward reasoning strategies regardless of their level of expertise. This is a characteristic of non-expert decision-making. Experienced and less experienced nurses collected similar additional information before planning nursing interventions, supporting the conjecture that they were functioning at a non-expert level in relation to decision-making. No differences were seen in the information collected by graduate and non-graduate nurses. CONCLUSIONS The decision-making strategies of children's nurses need exploring further and further research is needed to identify factors that may affect decision-making strategies. Several strategies to support nurses' clinical decision-making have been proposed but need testing to ascertain their effectiveness. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE In clinical practice nurses make numerous decisions throughout the course of a shift. Sub-optimal decision-making strategies may adversely affect the quality of nursing care provided. It is imperative, therefore, to ascertain how nurses make clinical decisions and the factors that may influence the decision-making strategies used.
Memory Ability of Children with Complex Communication Needs

Phonological memory is central to language and reading and writing skills. Many children with complex communication needs (CCN) experience problems with reading and writing acquisition. The reason could be because of the absence of articulatory ability, which might have a negative affect on phonological memory. Phonological and visuo-spatial short-term memory and working memory were tested in 15 children with CCN, aged 5 – 12 years, and compared to children with natural speech matched for gender, and mental and linguistic age. Results indicated weaker phonological STM and visuo-spatial STM and WM in children with CCN. The lack of articulatory ability could be assumed to affect subvocal rehearsal and, therefore, phonological memory which, in turn, may affect reading and writing acquisition. Weak visuo-spatial memory could also complicate the use of Bliss symbols and other types of augmentative and alternative communication.
A Model of Magnetization and Relaxation of Ferrimagnetic Particles in the Lung

Based on the previous experimental data on Fe3O4 particles in the lungs, a mathematical model has been developed of the dynamic behavior of these particles. The model treats magnetized particles in the lungs as permanent magnetic dipoles in a fluid medium, and is an extension of the classical theory of paramagnetism. Although the model is based on simple assumptions, it gives results which approximate the observed phenomena. Interpretation of our experimental data with this model gives an estimate of the energy responsible for randomizing the orientations of particles of approximately 10-18 J. We estimate the apparent viscosity of the surrounding medium to be approximately 100°N . s/M2. The model calculation and experimental results indicate that the randomizing process of the particle orientations is caused by some intracellular processes in alveolar macrophages.
Metformin Prevents Myocardial Reperfusion Injury by Activating the Adenosine Receptor

Metformin improves cardiovascular outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes compared with other glucose-lowering drugs. Experimental studies have shown that metformin can increase the intracellular concentration of adenosine monophosphate, which is a major determinant of the intracellular formation of adenosine. We hypothesize that metformin, given at reperfusion, can limit myocardial infarct size due to increased adenosine receptor stimulation. Isolated perfused hearts from Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to 35 minutes of regional ischemia and 120 minutes of reperfusion. Perfusion with metformin (50 μM) for the first 15 minutes of reperfusion reduced infarct size (percent area at risk) from 42% ± 2% to 19% ± 4% (n ≥ 6; P < 0.01), which was blocked by a concomitant perfusion with the adenosine receptor antagonist 8-p-sulfophenyltheophylline (100 μM; 43% ± 3%) or nitrobenzylthioinosine (a blocker of transmembranous adenosine transport; 1 μM; 45% ± 5%). In addition, intravenous administration of metformin (5 mg/kg) reduced infarct size in a rat in situ model of myocardial infarction (34% ± 6% vs. 62% ± 5%; P < 0.01), which was completely abolished by 8-p-sulfophenyltheophylline (61% ± 3%). We conclude that metformin, given at reperfusion, reduces infarct size in a rat model of myocardial infarction, which is critically dependent on adenosine receptor stimulation, probably via increased intracellular formation of adenosine.
Hidden champions or black sheep? The role of underpricing in the German mini-bond market

This paper presents a first empirical examination of all available German mini-bond offerings between 2010 and 2015. We compare the default probability according to a mini-bond’s initial rating with that implied by credit risk models and show that rating agencies can create rating inflation by issuing overly favorable ratings. This creates a favorable opportunity for lower quality firms to compete for funding. In this environment, high-quality firms have an incentive to use mini-bond underpricing to signal their quality. Our data highlight that, according to information-based corporate finance theory, higher underpricing is correlated with higher quality mini-bond issuer`s and lower early default rates.
Bedside Ultrasound of Quadriceps to Predict Rehospitalization and Functional Decline in Hospitalized Elders

Objective To evaluate the capacity of total anterior thigh thickness, quadriceps muscle thickness, and quadriceps contractile index, all measured by bedside ultrasound, to predict rehospitalization, functional decline, and death in elderly patients 3 months after hospital discharge. To evaluate intra and interobserver reproducibility of the dominant thigh evaluation method by point of care ultrasound. Methods Cohort study of patients aged 65 years or more admitted to a medium complexity unit in a teaching hospital in southern Brazil. Comprehensive geriatric assessment and ultrasound evaluation of the dominant thigh of each participant were performed. After 3 months of hospital discharge, telephone contact was made to evaluate the outcomes of rehospitalization or death and functional decline—assessed by the 100 points Barthel scale and defined as a decrease of five or more points. Results 100 participants were included. There was no statistically significant difference between intraobserver measurements in the GEE method analysis (p > 0.05), and the mean bias obtained in Bland–Altman plots was close to zero in all four analyses performed, suggesting good intra and interobserver agreement. There was a significant correlation between the echographic measurements (quadriceps thickness and contractile index) and gait speed, timed up and go, and handgrip tests. There was a significant association between contractile index (quadriceps thickness over total anterior thigh thickness multiplied by 100) lower than 60% and functional decline (relative risk 1.35; CI 95% 1.10–1.65; p = 0.003) as well as between the thickness of the quadriceps and rehospitalization or death, in both individuals with preserved walking capacity and in bedridden elders (relative risk 1.34; CI 95% 1.02–1.75; p = 0.04). Conclusion The ultrasonographic method to evaluate thigh thickness was easily applicable and reproducible. The thickness of the quadriceps could predict rehospitalization or death, even in those patients without walking capacity—unable to perform gait speed and timed up and go tests. Additionally, the contractile index was associated with functional decline after 3 months of hospital discharge. This is a promising result, which highlights the bedside ultrasound of the quadriceps as a potential tool for the prognosis evaluation of bedridden hospitalized elderly patients.
Global Liquidity, Financialization and Commodity Price Inflation

This paper examines the effect of global liquidity and financialization on commodity price inflation. The novelty of the paper lies in exploiting recent advances in our understanding of global liquidity by separating private liquidity from official liquidity and digging into disaggregated level non-commercial commodity traders data. Private liquidity is found to be inflationary, while official liquidity is not. Among the non-commercial traders, both, active money managers and passive swap dealers seem to have played an important role in commodity inflation dynamics during the period 2006–2012. The paper also discusses emerging policy issues in a rapidly changing global commodities market.
Voting Among Virtually Generated Versions of a Classification Problem

A classifier combining strategy, virtual voting by random projection (VVRP), is presented. VVRP takes advantage from the bounded distortion incurred by random projection in order to improve accuracies of stable classifiers like discriminant analysis (DA) where existing classifier combining strategies are known to be failed. It uses the distortion to virtually generate different training sets from the total available training samples in a way that does not have the potential for overfitting. Then, a majority voting combines the base learners trained on these versions of the original problem. VVRP is very simple and just needs determining a proper dimensionality for the versions, an often very easy task. It is shown to be stable in a very large region of the hyperplane constructed by the dimensionality and the number of the versions. VVRP improves the best state-of-the-art DA algorithms in both small and large sample size problems in various classification fields.
Isolation and identification of Pseudomonas syringae facilitated by a PCR targeting the whole P. syringae group.

We present a reliable PCR-based method to avoid the biases related to identification based on the conventional phenotypes currently used in the identification of Pseudomonas syringae sensu lato, a ubiquitous environmental bacterium including plant pathogens. We identified a DNA target suitable for this purpose by applying a comparative genomic pipeline to Pseudomonas genomes. We designed primers and developed PCR conditions that led to a clean and strong PCR product from 97% of the 185 strains of P. syringae strains tested and gave a clear negative result for the 31 non-P. syringae strains tested. The sensitivity of standard PCR was determined with pure strains to be 10(6) bacteria mL(-1) or 0.4 ng of DNA μL(-1). Sensitivity could be improved with the touchdown method. The new PCR-assisted isolation of P. syringae was efficient when deployed on an environmental sample of river water as compared to the isolation based on phenotypes. This innovation eliminates the need for extensive expertise in isolating P. syringae colonies, was simpler, faster and very reliable. It will facilitate discovery of more diversity of P. syringae and research on emergence, dispersion and evolution to understand the varied functions of this environmental bacterium.
Silkiness in brown mink pelts characterized with optical methods.

In mink production, silkiness refers to a silky fur surface. The sensory evaluation of silkiness may be based on information perceived by the eyes and the hands. Silkiness is assumed to depend on hair fiber properties such as guard hair straightness, glossiness, and smoothness. Our objective was to characterize the dorsal surface of brown mink pelts by means of optical variables and relate these to the visual grades of silkiness, thereby forming some objective criteria of silkiness. Two groups of brown male mink pelts (winter coat) that originated from a selection trial with a focus on silkiness were used. The pelts came from a basic (Group 1992) population and a selected (Group 1994) generation. Group 1992 was graded visually on a scale from 1 to 6 (most silky); Group 1994 was graded on a scale from 1 to 8 (most silky). With goniophotometric, nondestructive methods, the reflectance from each pelt surface was measured describing the angle-dependent distribution of reflection in the shape of angular reflectance curves. The measurements were performed along (w-reflectance curve) and across (c-reflectance curve) the guard hairs. The w-curve included a maximum assumed to be related to silkiness. Specular gloss, indicated by the maximum reflectance (s) in the direction of mirror reflection, was positively correlated with silkiness. For Group 1994, s = 72.94 + . 49 x silkiness; r2 = . 33, P = . 0003. Correspondingly, an area representing specular (S) plus diffuse (D) reflectance (S + D) under the curve was positively correlated with silkiness. A decreasing band width of the w-curve at 90% of maximum specular reflectance (w90) was related to an increase of silkiness (Group 1992: r = -.50, P < .01). Furthermore, both s/w90 and (S + D)/w90 were positively correlated with silkiness (Group 1992: r = .49, P < .01 and r = .51, P < .01, respectively). Measures of contrast gloss involving relations or differences between specular and diffuse reflectance were not suitable. From our results, a high degree of specular gloss, indicated by s, explained and was related to an essential part of silkiness and general sensory quality of the pelts investigated. Also, s was relatively easy to measure. Thus, even if the objective variables did not correlate perfectly with visual judgments, s was considered to be the most usable objective variable in characterizing silkiness.
Phytophthora infestans effector AVR3a is essential for virulence and manipulates plant immunity by stabilizing host E3 ligase CMPG1

Fungal and oomycete plant pathogens translocate effector proteins into host cells to establish infection. However, virulence targets and modes of action of their effectors are unknown. Effector AVR3a from potato blight pathogen Phytophthora infestans is translocated into host cells and occurs in two forms: AVR3aKI, which is detected by potato resistance protein R3a, strongly suppresses infestin 1 (INF1)-triggered cell death (ICD), whereas AVR3aEM, which evades recognition by R3a, weakly suppresses host ICD. Here we show that AVR3a interacts with and stabilizes host U-box E3 ligase CMPG1, which is required for ICD. In contrast, AVR3aKI/Y147del, a mutant with a deleted C-terminal tyrosine residue that fails to suppress ICD, cannot interact with or stabilize CMPG1. CMPG1 is stabilized by the inhibitors MG132 and epoxomicin, indicating that it is degraded by the 26S proteasome. CMPG1 is degraded during ICD. However, it is stabilized by mutations in the U-box that prevent its E3 ligase activity. In stabilizing CMPG1, AVR3a thus modifies its normal activity. Remarkably, given the potential for hundreds of effector genes in the P. infestans genome, silencing Avr3a compromises P. infestans pathogenicity, suggesting that AVR3a is essential for virulence. Interestingly, Avr3a silencing can be complemented by in planta expression of Avr3aKI or Avr3aEM but not the Avr3aKI/Y147del mutant. Our data provide genetic evidence that AVR3a is an essential virulence factor that targets and stabilizes the plant E3 ligase CMPG1, potentially to prevent host cell death during the biotrophic phase of infection.
Towards real-time in situ polyp detection in WCE images using a boosting-based approach

This paper presents a new embeddable method for polyp detections in Wireless Capsule Endoscopic - WCE images. this approach consists first of extracting candidate polyps within the image using geometric considerations about related shape, and second, in classifying (polyp/non-polyp) obtained candidates by a boosting-based method using texture features. The proposed approach has been designed in accordance with the hardware constraints related to FPGA implementation for integration within WCE imaging device. The classification performance of the method have been evaluated on a large dataset of 300 polyps, and 1200 non-polyps images. Experiments show interesting and promising performance: the boosting-based classification is characterized by a sensitivity of 91%, a specificity of 95% and a false detection rate of 4.8%, the detection rate of the overall processing chain being of 68%. The performance of the boosting-based classification are in accordance with the most recent reference on this particular topic using the same dataset. Building of a dedicated WCE image database should permit the improvement of the global detection rate.
Nucleosome repeat length and linker histone stoichiometry determine chromatin fiber structure

To understand how nuclear processes involving DNA are regulated, knowledge of the determinants of chromatin condensation is required. From recent structural studies it has been concluded that the formation of the 30-nm chromatin fiber does not require the linker histone. Here, by comparing the linker histone-dependent compaction of long, reconstituted nucleosome arrays with different nucleosome repeat lengths (NRLs), 167 and 197 bp, we establish that the compaction behavior is both NRL- and linker histone-dependent. Only the 197-bp NRL array can form 30-nm higher-order chromatin structure. Importantly for understanding the regulation of compaction, this array shows a cooperative linker histone-dependent compaction. The 167-bp NRL array displays a limited linker histone-dependent compaction, resulting in a thinner and topologically different fiber. These observations provide an explanation for the distribution of NRLs found in nature.
Drivers of and barriers to urban energy in the UK: a Delphi survey

A survey of energy activity in urban areas in the UK was carried out in 2012 with the aim of better understanding the range of activity in this field and of aiding decision-making to facilitate the roll out of a more decentralised approach. Adopting a sociotechnical approach, urban energy was understood not simply as the decentralisation of generation, but also as efforts to promote ways of living and working that contribute towards lower energy consumption. A Delphi approach consisting of a two-stage iterative web-based survey received responses across the public, private and third sectors. Indicative findings suggest a wealth of drivers for urban energy and different “driver profiles” for the sectors, and therefore the need for flexible policy approaches. The survey builds on research that highlights pervasive barriers to progress in this field and, therefore, to the importance of developing solutions that enable urban energy to make a more significant contribution to the UK energy budget.
Effects of environmental stresses on the cell cycle of two marine phytoplankton species.

Cell cycle phase durations of cultures of Hymenomonas carterae Braarud and Fagerl, a coccolithophore, and Thalassiosira weissflogii Grun. , a centric diatom, in temperature-, light- or nitrogen-limited balanced growth were determined using flow cytometry. Suboptimal temperature caused increases in the duration of all phases of the cell cycle (though not equally) in both species, and the increased generation time of nitrogen-limited cells of both species was due almost wholly to expansion of G(1) phase. In H. carterae light limitation caused only G(1) phase to expand, but in T. weissflogii both G(2) + M and G(1) were affected. These results are discussed in relation to cell division phasing patterns of these two species and to models of phytoplankton growth. Simultaneous measurements of protein and DNA on individual cells indicated that under all conditions, the protein content of cells in G(1) was a constant proportion of that of G(2) + M cells. Simultaneous measurements of RNA and protein on each cell indicated that the amounts of these two cell constituents were always tightly correlated. Under conditions of nitrogen limitation both protein and RNA per cell decreased to less than one-third of the levels found in nonlimited cells. This indicates, at least for nitrogen-replete cells, that neither protein nor RNA levels are likely to act as the trigger for cell cycle progression. Strict control by cell size is also unlikely since mean cell volume decreased as growth rates were limited by light and nitrogen supply, but increased with decreasing temperature.
Identification of the intermediate hosts of Habronema microstoma and Habronema muscae under field conditions

Abstract A polymerase chain reaction (PCR)‐based assay was used for the specific detection of Habronema microstoma and Habronema muscae (Nematoda, Spirurida) in order to identify the intermediate hosts of both nematode species under field conditions. A total of 1087 netted and 165 laboratory‐bred flies were tested. Flies were identified as Musca domestica Linnaeus 1758, Musca autumnalis De Geer 1776, Haematobia irritans (Linnaeus 1758), Haematobia titillans (De Geer 1907) and Stomoxys calcitrans (Linnaeus 1758) (Muscidae). Genomic DNA was extracted from pools of fly heads, thoraces and abdomens, and 703 samples were subjected to a duplex two‐step semi‐nested PCR assay to specifically detect diagnostic regions within the ribosomal ITS2 sequence of both H. microstoma and H. muscae. Stomoxys calcitrans specimens were positive for H. microstoma DNA and M. domestica specimens were positive for H. muscae DNA. In particular, PCR‐positive samples derived from both farm‐netted and laboratory‐bred flies. The present study represents the first evidence of the vectorial competence of different fly species as intermediate hosts of Habronema stomachworms under field conditions. We discuss the roles of S. calcitrans and M. domestica in transmitting H. microstoma and H. muscae.