Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Peripheral Augmentation Index Defines the Relationship Between Central and Peripheral Pulse Pressure

Peripheral systolic blood pressure is amplified above central aortic systolic pressure, but the late systolic shoulder of the peripheral pulse may approximate central systolic pressure. Because late systolic pressure also determines the peripheral augmentation index, a measure of pressure wave reflection within the systemic circulation, this implies a direct relationship between amplification and augmentation. We compared the late systolic shoulder of the peripheral pressure waveform with estimates of central systolic pressure obtained using a transfer function in 391 subjects undergoing diagnostic coronary angiography and/or elective angioplasty (30% with insignificant coronary artery disease). In a subset (n=12) we compared the late systolic shoulder of the peripheral pulse with central pressure obtained with a catheter placed in the aortic root. Measurements were made at baseline, during atrial pacing, and during administration of nitroglycerin. Late systolic shoulder pressure closely approximated transfer function estimates of central pressure (R=0.96; P<0.0001; mean difference±SD: 0.5±5.2 mm Hg). Despite changes in waveform morphology induced by pacing and nitroglycerin (reducing mean values±SE of the augmentation index from 76±3.8% to 66±4.6% and 60±3.3%, respectively), there was close agreement between the late systolic shoulder of the peripheral pulse and measured values of central pressure (R=0.96; P<0.001; mean difference: 1.7±4.8 mm Hg). In conclusion, the late systolic shoulder of the peripheral pulse closely approximates central systolic pressure and peripheral augmentation index, the ratio of central:peripheral pulse pressure. Interventions to lower augmentation index and peripheral vascular resistance will have multiplicative effects in lowering central blood pressure.
Liderança: Um Retrato da Produção Científica Brasileira.

Leadership, a theme belonging to the organizational behavior field, has been intensively studied on the international scene for about a century. What about in Brazil? This paper aims to analyze the Brazilian scientific production on leadership published in 15 national psychology and management journals between 1996 and 2013. It consists of a systematic literature review of 35 empirical research articles about leadership roles and profiles. The findings show the predominance of cross-sectional exploratory studies that apply qualitative methods, collect data via interviews and use content analysis on data. The private sector and services received most attention. Analysis of article characteristics leads to the conclusion that Brazilian scientific production on this theme lags behind other areas of the organizational behavior field and research done abroad. We discuss core problems and challenges and propose recommendations for the further development of a national research agenda on leadership.
A game-theoretic approach for relay assignment over distributed wireless networks

To achieve full cooperative diversity gains while still maintaining spectral and energy efficiency, relay assignment schemes for cooperative communications have been extensively studied in recent research. These schemes select only the best relay from multiple relaying candidates to cooperate with a communication link. In this paper, we formulate the problem of relay assignment as a non-cooperative, mixed strategy, repeated game, where relaying candidates are modeled as rational players. We then propose a Game Theory based Relay Assignment scheme GTRA, in which each player plays against all the other players, and determines whether to cooperate with a communication link on a packet-by-packet basis in a distributed manner. To adapt to dynamic environments, an adaptive learning algorithm is utilized by players to learn optimal strategies of relay assignment, as well as orienting the game to converge to a set of correlated equilibriums. We compare GTRA with BR, a fictitious game based approach. The simulation results show that GTRA outperforms BR in terms of network throughput, especially in environments where the channel fading becomes severe. It is also shown that GTRA can converge to a correlated equilibrium in a short period that enables it to work well in dynamic environments.
The Utility of Positive Orientation in Predicting Job Performance and Organisational Citizenship Behaviors

The contribution of positive orientation to organisational behavior has been assessed in three studies. Positive orientation has been conceptualised as a basic disposition to view life and experience from a positive outlook and operationalised as the common latent factor at the core of self-esteem, life satisfaction, and optimism. In Study 1 (n= 203), positive orientation predicted in-role job performance over the effects of its lower-order components (self-esteem, optimism, and life satisfaction), the Big Five, and positive affectivity. In Study 2 (n= 372), positive orientation predicted extra-role performance (Organisational Citizenship Behaviors), beyond the effects due to its lower-order components, the Big Five, and positive affectivity. In Study 3 (n= 311), a brief self-reported measure of positive orientation predicted in-role job performance above Core Self-Evaluations and the conscientiousness trait. The contribution of positive orientation to a better understanding of organisational behavior is discussed.
Rapid iron loading in a pregnant woman with transfusion-dependent thalassemia after brief cessation of iron chelation therapy

In general, in women with transfusion‐dependent thalassemia, during pregnancy, iron chelation therapy is ceased. We report a splenectomized patient, who was an excellent complier with chelation therapy, who before embarking on a pregnancy showed no evidence of iron overload, with normal cardiac, thyroid function and glucose metabolism. Laboratory findings showed ferritin 67 μg/L, myocardial T2* of 34 ms and liver magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) liver iron concentration of 1 mg/g dry weight. She became pregnant by in vitro fertilization in October 2006, delivery occurred in June 2007. She breast fed for 2 months. After 12 months without iron chelation, ferritin was 1583 μg/L. Quantitative MRI showed myocardial T2* of 27 ms, that the liver iron concentration had increased to 11.3 mg/g dry weight, indicative of moderate to heavy iron load. This case demonstrates that iron overload can develop rapidly and that physicians caring for patients with transfusion‐dependent thalassemia should be particularly alert to any discontinuation of chelation therapy over time.
A high gain YBCO antenna array with integrated feed and balun

A supergain antenna array of closely spaced printed dipoles made of thick film YBCO was designed and experimentally tested. An optimization of the directive gain with respect to interelement spacing, dipole length, and other circuit parameters, subject to constraints in array size, was performed by combining the spectral domain method of moments and transmission line theory. The design procedure accounts far losses associated with the strip material, both at the feed and the radiating dipoles, and power dissipation in the substrate. A practical design of a sixteen element array is demonstrated, with an integrated feeding network and a balun, also made of high-T/sub c/ superconductors (HTS). Performance is compared against simulated data. The superconducting array has gain significantly higher than that of a similar supercooled silver array albeit at the expense of transmission bandwidth. It is shown that supergain is practically achievable by miniature, printed HTS dipole arrays. <<ETX>>
Herpes zoster as a marker of underlying malignancy

Background Both herpes zoster and malignancy are associated with immunosuppression. However, the association between herpes zoster and the subsequent diagnosis of malignancy is unclear. We undertook this study to assess whether a diagnosis of herpes zoster is a risk factor for subsequent malignancy. Methods For this matched retrospective cohort study, a physician billing database was used to identify individuals 18 years of age or older with a diagnosis of herpes zoster and no prior diagnosis of cancer or HIV infection. Individuals with a herpes zoster diagnosis were matched one-to-one to individuals without a herpes zoster diagnosis, and both groups were examined for up to 5 years for diagnosis of cancer. Results A total of 542 575 individuals with a diagnosis of herpes zoster were identified. Compared with matched controls, these patients were more likely (p < 0.001) to have a history of myocardial infarction, asthma, congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes mellitus, and hypertension. The incidence of cancer was significantly greater among individuals with herpes zoster than among those without herpes zoster, for both men and women and across all time intervals studied (up to 5 years). The greatest adjusted hazard ratio was seen 180 days after a herpes zoster diagnosis (1.19, 95% confidence interval 1.12–1.25); the hazard ratio decreased as the time from herpes zoster diagnosis increased. Lymphoma was the type of cancer with the greatest relative increase in incidence following diagnosis of herpes zoster. Interpretation There is a risk of malignancy following an episode of herpes zoster in both men and women and in all age groups 18 years and over. The risk is greatest during the first 180 days following the diagnosis of herpes zoster.
Identification and Biochemical Properties of Two New Acetylcholinesterases in the Pond Wolf Spider (Pardosa pseudoannulata)

Acetylcholinesterase (AChE), an important neurotransmitter hydrolase in both invertebrates and vertebrates, is targeted by organophosphorus and carbamate insecticides. In this study, two new AChEs were identified in the pond wolf spider Pardosa pseudoannulata, an important predatory natural enemy of several insect pests. In total, four AChEs were found in P. pseudoannulata (including two AChEs previously identified in our laboratory). The new putative AChEs PpAChE3 and PpAChE4 contain most of the common features of the AChE family, including cysteine residues, choline binding sites, the conserved sequence ‘FGESAG’ and conserved aromatic residues but with a catalytic triad of ‘SDH’ rather than ‘SEH’. Recombinant enzymes expressed in Sf9 cells showed significant differences in biochemical properties compared to other AChEs, such as the optimal pH, substrate specificity, and catalytic efficiency. Among three test substrates, PpAChE1, PpAChE3 and PpAChE4 showed the highest catalytic efficiency (Vmax/KM) for ATC (acetylthiocholine iodide), with PpAChE3 exhibiting a clear preference for ATC based on the VmaxATC/VmaxBTC ratio. In addition, the four PpAChEs were more sensitive to the AChE-specific inhibitor BW284C51, which acts against ATC hydrolysis, than to the BChE-specific inhibitor ISO-OMPA, which acts against BTC hydrolysis, with at least a 8.5-fold difference in IC50 values for each PpAChE. PpAChE3, PpAChE4, and PpAChE1 were more sensitive than PpAChE2 to the tested Carb insecticides, and PpAChE3 was more sensitive than the other three AChEs to the tested OP insecticides. Based on all the results, two new functional AChEs were identified from P. pseudoannulata. The differences in AChE sequence between this spider and insects enrich our knowledge of invertebrate AChE diversity, and our findings will be helpful for understanding the selectivity of insecticides between insects and natural enemy spiders.
Making a Scientist: Discursive "Doing" of Identity and Self-Presentation During Research Interviews

Die Teilnahme an einem Interview ist fur die meisten Leute eine nicht-alltagliche Tatigkeit. In unserem tatigkeitstheoretischen Ansatz wird das Interview und was die Teilnehmer sind oder werden als Produkt des Interviewhandelns angesehen. Im Gegensatz zu dem in der Moderne entwickelten Identitatskonzept, das dem Individuum unveranderliche Eigenschaften zuschreibt, sehen wir Identitat als eine interaktiv erreichte Produktion an – anders gesagt, Identitat und Tatigkeit stehen in einem dialektischen Verhaltnis. Interviews sind daher Situation, in denen Identitat und Selbstprasentation situativ von sozialen Agenten mit diskursiven Mitteln ausgehandelt werden. In diesem Beitrag machen wir das Interview zum Gegenstand unserer Analyse und heben seine kollaborative Natur hervor, die seiner ublichen Beschreibung als neutrales Datenerhebungsinstrument entgegensteht. Unsere Fallstudie des Interviews mit einem weltberuhmten Umweltwissenschaftler zeigt, wie Identitat und verschiedene Aspekte der Selbstprasentation diskursiv konstruiert werden. In der Analyse bedienen wir uns der GOFFMAN'schen Konzepte des Standpunktes (footing) und des Interesses (stake). Unser Interviewteilnehmer wurde in dem Interview als zentrales Mitglied der Naturwissenschaften konstruiert, inklusive der Naturwissenschaftlern als typisch zugeschriebenen Eigenschaften, wie "Expertise", "Objektivitat", "Leidenschaft" und "Selbstlosigkeit". Das diskursive "Herstellen" von Identitat und Selbstprasentation wahrend Interviews ist ein zentraler Effekt, so dass wir warnen, Interviews als "unproblematische Methode" anzusehen. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0401123
Efficient management of last-level caches in graphics processors for 3D scene rendering workloads

Three-dimensional (3D) scene rendering is implemented in the form of a pipeline in graphics processing units (GPUs). In different stages of the pipeline, different types of data get accessed. These include, for instance, vertex, depth, stencil, render target (same as pixel color), and texture sampler data. The GPUs traditionally include small caches for vertex, render target, depth, and stencil data as well as multi-level caches for the texture sampler units. Recent introduction of reasonably large last-level caches (LLCs) shared among these data streams in discrete as well as integrated graphics hardware architectures has opened up new opportunities for improving 3D rendering. The GPUs equipped with such large LLCs can enjoy far-flung intra- and inter-stream reuses. However, there is no comprehensive study that can help graphics cache architects understand how to effectively manage a large multi-megabyte LLC shared between different 3D graphics streams. In this paper, we characterize the intra-stream and inter-stream reuses in 52 frames captured from eight DirectX game titles and four DirectX benchmark applications spanning three different frame resolutions. Based on this characterization, we propose graphics stream-aware probabilistic caching (GSPC) that dynamically learns the reuse probabilities and accordingly manages the LLC of the GPU. Our detailed trace-driven simulation of a typical GPU equipped with 768 shader thread contexts, twelve fixed-function texture samplers, and an 8 MB 16-way LLC shows that GSPC saves up to 29.6% and on average 13.1% LLC misses across 52 frames compared to the baseline state-of-the-art two-bit dynamic re-reference interval prediction (DRRIP) policy. These savings in the LLC misses result in a speedup of up to 18.2% and on average 8.0%. On a 16 MB LLC, the average speedup achieved by GSPC further improves to 11.8% compared to DRRIP.
Hatching by example: a statistical approach

We present a new approach to synthetic (computer-aided) drawing with patches of strokes. Grouped strokes convey the local intensity level that is desired in drawing. The key point of our approach is learning by example: the system does not know a priori the distribution of the strokes. Instead, by analyzing a sample (training) patch of strokes, our system is able to synthesize freely an arbitrary sequence of strokes that "looks like" the given sample. Strokes are considered as parametrical curves represented by a vector of random variables following a Markovian distribution. Our method is based on Shannon's N-gram approach and is a direct extension of Efros's texture synthesis models [EL99; EF01]. Nevertheless, one major difference between our method and traditional texture synthesis is the use of such curves as a basic element instead of pixels. We define a statistical metric for comparison between different patches containing various layouts of strokes. We hope that our method performs a first step towards capturing a very difficult notion of style in drawing --- hatching style in our case. We illustrate our method by varied examples, ranging from typical hatching in traditional drawing to highly heterogeneous sets of strokes.
Hate groups targeting unauthorized immigrants in the US: discourses, narratives and subjectivation practices on their websites

The narratives and images on websites of US hate groups that oppose undocumented immigrants represent and reproduce discourses that contribute to the subject formation of group members, who feel ethically obliged to counter unauthorized immigration. Left alone by the government, which is seen as unreliable and uncaring of patriotic values, they position themselves as heroic saviours of the nation. We argue that these hate groups’ ‘games of truth’ develop in response to the perception that irregular immigration threatens specific social orders and values, for instance about citizenship, national identity and otherness. This article helps to understand the ways in which anti-immigrant narratives serve the functions of countering these threats and of asserting the group members’ ethical obligation as a form of care of the self. In other words, from a Foucaultian viewpoint, we interpret the problematizations of ‘illegal’ immigration as discursive practices for the subject formation of hate group members.
Human impacts on open ocean mercury concentrations

We develop an empirically constrained multicompartment box model for mercury cycling in open ocean regions to investigate changes in concentrations resulting from anthropogenic perturbations of the global mercury cycle. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we explicitly consider the effects of variability in measured parameters on modeled seawater concentrations. Our simulations show that anthropogenic enrichment in all surface (25%) and deep ocean waters (11%) is lower than global atmospheric enrichment (300–500%) and varies considerably among geographic regions, ranging from >60% in parts of the Atlantic and Mediterranean to <1% in the deep Pacific. Model results indicate that open ocean mercury concentrations do not rapidly equilibrate with atmospheric deposition and on average will increase if anthropogenic emissions remain at their present level. We estimate the temporal lag between changes in atmospheric deposition and ocean mercury concentrations will vary from decades in most of the Atlantic up to centuries in parts of the Pacific.
meet2trade: A generic electronic market platform ∗

Presently, a multiplicity of trading systems provide electronic markets with various market rules to professional and private investors in different sectors. This range only partially reflects the individual requirements dependent on the type of product and the environmental context of the trade. There is need for individual solutions satisfying these specific requirements regarding the tradable product, the trading rules and the services. The development of new electronic markets is challenging, since many factors influence the market outcome and hence the markets success. Software tools are required to systematically support the Market Engineering (ME) process. This paper presents the generic trading platform meet2trade that (i) enables users to individually configure their own electronic market, (ii) realizes innovative trading features such as order types or bundle trading, and (iii) provides support for analyzing electronic markets through an experimental system for game theoretic analysis and an agent-based simulation environment for computational approaches.
Corpus callosum in aging and neurodegenerative diseases

SUMMARY The corpus callosum (CC) is a major white matter bundle that connects primarily homologous areas of the cortex. The structure may be involved in interhemispheric communication and enable the lateralization of certain cerebral functions. Despite its possible role as the main conduit for interhemispheric communication, interest from researchers has, at times, been sparse. Renewed interest has led to research that has shown that the CC may play a role in both cognitive aging and neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer´s disease and frontotemporal dementia. Studies employing structural MRI and diffusion-weighted MRI have found distinct subregional patterns of callosal atrophy in aging, Alzheimer´s disease and frontotemporal dementia. Furthermore, imaging studies may help to elucidate the underlying pathological mechanisms of callosal atrophy. The present review aims to provide an overview of the current knowledge of the structure and function of the CC and its role in aging and neurodegenerativ.
Responses by Pregnant Jehovah's Witnesses on Health Care Proxies

OBJECTIVE: To review the treatment options presented on the New York State Health Care Proxy for Jehovah's Witnesses, which is signed by pregnant women when they present for care. METHODS: Chart reviews were performed for all women who presented to labor and delivery at our institution from 1997 to 2002 and identified themselves as Jehovah's Witnesses. A patient was included in the study if a completed health care proxy was available in her chart. Data were derived from the health care proxy and from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine's Blood Product Checklist for Jehovah's Witness Patients. Variables of interest included age, race, parity, and antenatal and perinatal complications. RESULTS: A total of 61 patients were identified. Of these, 39.3% agreed to accept a variety of donated blood products, 9.8% would accept donated packed red blood cells, and 50.1% would accept neither from a homologous donor. With respect to nonstored autologous blood, 55% of respondents would accept either intraoperative normovolemic hemodilution or transfusion of their own blood obtained by a cell salvage system. No significant differences in responses were noted for any of the above-mentioned variables. CONCLUSION: This review refutes the commonly held belief that all Jehovah's Witnesses refuse to accept blood or any of its products. In this population of pregnant women, the majority were willing to accept some form of blood or blood products. This information can be used to help health care providers counsel a patient when she is initially faced with considering these issues and may help to remove the stigma of accepting one of the options. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: III