Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hypoxic Preconditioning Confers Long-Term Reduction of Brain Injury and Improvement of Neurological Ability in Immature Rats

Exposure to preconditioning (PC) hypoxia 24 h before a severe hypoxic-ischemic (HI) insult reduces development of injury in the immature brain. Several protective regimens have proved effective in the short-term but not in the long-term perspective. The aim of the present study, therefore, was to evaluate the PC effect on long-term morphologic and neurologic outcome in the developing brain. Six-day-old rats were subjected to hypoxia (36°C, 8.0% O2; PC/HI group) and sham controls to normoxia (36°C; HI group) for 3 h. Twenty-four hours later, all rats were exposed to cerebral HI produced by unilateral carotid artery occlusion combined with 1 h, 15 min of hypoxia (36°C, 7.7% O2). A cylinder test was used to evaluate forelimb asymmetry to determine sensorimotor function at 4, 6, and 8 wk of age. Spatial/cognitive ability was assessed by Morris water maze trials at 7 wk of recovery. Neuropathologic analysis was performed 8 wk after insult. Brain damage was reduced (p < 0.0001) in PC/HI (45.0 ± 11.1 mm3) in comparison with HI (159.3 ± 12.2 mm3) rats. A bias for using the ipsilateral forelimb in wall movements was observed in the cylinder test in HI compared with PC/HI rats at 4 (p < 0.001), 6 (p < 0.01), and 8 (p < 0.0001) wk of age. Results of the Morris water maze test revealed differences (p < 0.0001) in average path length between groups on the third and fourth day of trials. Hypoxic PC before HI reduced brain injury by 72% at 8 wk after the insult and provided long-term improvement of sensorimotor and spatial/cognitive functions.
Design of Slow and Fast Light Photonic Crystal Waveguides for Single-photon Emission Using a Bloch Mode Expansion Technique

— We design slow and fast light photonic crystal waveguides for single-photon emission using a Bloch mode expansion and scattering matrix technique. We propose slow light designs that increase the group index-waveguide mode volume ratio for larger Purcell enhancement, and address eﬃcient slow-to-fast-light waveguide coupling.
IWBase : Provenance Metadata for Understanding and Trusting Answer Justifications

If users are expected to depend on answers from applications and services on the web, they need to have methods for asking for information that will increase their understanding and their trust in the answers. One way of increasing a user’s understanding and trust is to provide a summarized or detailed description of how the answer was obtained. This process would typically depend on some kind of proof structure defending the answer but this alone (no matter how understandable and/or thorough the proof is) is not enough. Any presentation of why a user should depend on an answer also critically depends on metadata concerning elements used in the proof such as underlying data sources, their authoritativeness, reasoning methods used, any uncertainties, etc. In this paper, we introduce IWBase, a comprehensive OWL-based distributed and scalable infrastructure for effectively creating, storing, evolving, and using proofrelated metadata for explanations. IWBase metadata is used to annotate answer justifications encoded in the Proof Markpup Language (PML). IWBase is currently in use by a number of DARPA and ARDA projects.
Human papillomavirus DNA testing for cervical cancer screening in low-resource settings.

BACKGROUND In many low-resource settings, there are barriers to cytologic screening for cervical cancer. This study evaluates human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA testing as an alternative screening method. METHODS Cervical samples from 2944 previously unscreened South African women aged 35-65 years were tested for high-risk types of HPV with the use of the Hybrid Capture I (HCI) assay. Women also had a Pap smear, direct visual inspection of the cervix, and Cervicography(TM). Women positive on any screening test were referred for colposcopy. Samples from women with biopsy-confirmed, low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (SILs) (n = 95), high-grade SILs (n = 74), or invasive cervical cancer (n = 12) and a random sample of women with no cervical disease (n = 243) were retested for HPV DNA with the use of the more sensitive Hybrid Capture II (HCII) assay. All P values are two-sided. RESULTS High-risk HPV DNA was detected in 73.3% and 88.4% of 86 women with high-grade SIL or invasive cancer and in 12.2% of 2680 and 18.1% of 243 women without evidence of cervical disease, with the use of the HCI and HCII assays, respectively. HPV DNA testing with the HCII assay was more sensitive than cytology for detecting high-grade SIL and invasive cancer (McNemar's test, P =.04), and testing with the HCI assay was of equivalent sensitivity (P =.61). Cytology had a statistically significantly better specificity (96.8%) than either the HCI assay (87.8%) or the HCII assay (81.9%) (P<.01). Receiver operating characteristic curves identified test cutoff values that allow HPV DNA testing to identify 57% of women with high-grade SIL or cancer, while classifying less than 5% of women with no cervical disease as HPV DNA positive. CONCLUSIONS HPV DNA testing has a sensitivity equivalent to, or better than, that of cytology. Since HPV DNA testing programs may be easier to implement than cytologic screening, HPV testing should be considered for primary cervical cancer screening in low-resource settings.
Assessing the functional consequence of loss of function variants using electronic medical record and large-scale genomics consortium efforts

Estimates from large scale genome sequencing studies indicate that each human carries up to 20 genetic variants that are predicted to results in loss of function (LOF) of protein-coding genes. While some are known disease-causing variants or common, tolerated, LOFs in non-essential genes, the majority remain of unknown consequence. We explore the possibility of using imputed GWAS data from large biorepositories such as the electronic medical record and genomics (eMERGE) consortium to determine the effects of rare LOFs. Here, we show that two hypocholesterolemia-associated LOF mutations in the PCSK9 gene can be accurately imputed into large-scale GWAS datasets which raises the possibility of assessing LOFs through genomics-linked medical records.
S100P Predicts Prognosis and Drug Resistance in Gastric Cancer

Purpose S100P has been shown to participate in processes of various human malignancies. In this study, we analyzed the tissue expression of S100P in gastric cancer and evaluated its significance. Methods We determined the S100P expression in 156 gastric cancer patients by quantitative RT-PCR. Tumor characteristics and overall survival (OS) for each patient were examined. In vitro experiments were conducted to examine whether ectopic expression of S100P modifies the proliferation and drug resistance of gastric cancer cells. Results Higher expression of S100P occurred in human gastric cancer tissues in comparison with normal controls. Highly expressed S100P in gastric cancer was correlated with TNM stage and prognosis. The 5-year survival rate was significantly lower in patients with high levels of S100P expression than in patients with low levels of expression. Ectopic expression of S100P was associated with an increase in tumor cell proliferation and drug resistance. Conclusion The expression of S100P in human gastric cancer tissues was upregulated in comparison with normal controls. By establishing an association between S100P expression and shortened OS, increase in proliferation and drug resistance, this study indicates that S100P may be a useful prognostic marker for gastric cancer patients.
Postgraduate research supervision: a critical review of current practice

Changes in the funding and delivery of research programmes at the university level have, in recent years, resulted in significant changes to research supervision. This paper critically reviews key influences effecting postgraduate supervision. Analysis draws on literature spanning 2000–2010 to determine the appropriateness of traditional models of postgraduate research curricula and supervision for the New Zealand context. Influences discussed include the research context, faculty issues, supervision pedagogy and models of supervision. Each area is analysed for strengths and challenges and contribution to the knowledge economy. From this review, the authors propose strategies for the development of postgraduate research supervision: faculty development, including supervisor education, and formalised research training for students.
Determining the Impact of Business Strategies Using Principles from Goal-oriented Measurement

In practice, the success or failure of business strategies is often determined by management as a gut feeling without taking into account quantitative information. If data is collected, it is often unclear how the data contributes to higher-level goals of the organization. GQM + Strategies ® provides mechanisms for explicitly linking measurement goals to higher-level goals, and also to goals and strategies at the level of the entire business. It is based on experiences with software-related organizations, but is intended to be applicable in all kinds of businesses. This article gives an overview of the basic concepts and presents a practical case.
bla IMP-9 and Its Association with Large Plasmids Carried by Pseudomonas aeruginosa Isolates from the People's Republic of China

ABSTRACT A novel plasmid-mediated metallo-β-lactamase (IMP-9) is described in seven isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa from Guangzhou, China, isolated in 2000. The gene was carried on a large (∼450-kb) IncP-2 conjugative plasmid. This is the first report of carriage of blaIMP genes on such large plasmids.
Alcohol use and intimate partner violence as predictors of separation among U.S. couples: a longitudinal model.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between partner violence (male-to-female and female-to-male) and heavy drinking (consuming five or more drinks per occasion) and the effect of this relationship on marital separation. METHOD Married and cohabiting couples were selected through multistage random probability sampling from U.S. households. In 1995, 1,635 couples were interviewed; 1,392 of these couples were re-interviewed in 2000. The final analysis included couples who were still married or living with the same partner (intact n = 1,136) from the baseline, and couples who had broken up (nonintact n = 191) sometime during the 5-year follow-up period. RESULTS The findings indicate that couples who reported female-perpetrated violence, female alcohol-related problems and male heavy-drinking episodes (one to three times a month) were 2.5-3 times more at risk for separation. On the other hand, female heavy drinking (one to three times a month) is less likely to predict separation. Cohabiting couples are also more at risk for separation than married couples. Couples with longer relationships are less at risk for separation. CONCLUSIONS Marital counseling, therapy or intervention programs must address issues pertaining to partner violence and alcohol use among couples while concurrently providing information about healthy relationships and helping couples develop skills to attain them. The importance of preventing partner violence is increasingly recognized in the field of public health.
Weaving a Semantic Web Across OSS Repositories: Unleashing a New Potential for Academia and Practice

Several public repositories and archives of "facts" about libre software projects, maintained either by open source communities or by research communities, have been flourishing over the Web in recent years. These have enabled new analysis and support for new quality assurance tasks. This paper presents some complementary existing tools, projects and models proposed both by OSS actors or research initiatives that are likely to lead to useful future developments in terms of study of the FLOSS phenomenon, and also to the very practitioners in the FLOSS development projects. A goal of the research conducted within the HELIOS project is to address bugs traceability issues. In this regard, the authors investigate the potential of using Semantic Web technologies in navigating between many different bugtracker systems scattered all over the open source ecosystem. By using Semantic Web techniques, it is possible to interconnect the databases containing data about open-source software projects development, which enables OSS partakers to identify resources, annotate them, and further interlink those using dedicated properties and collectively designing a distributed semantic graph.
The Italian version of the affective Gottschalk-Gleser content analysis scales: A step toward concurrent validation.

A first approach to the validation of the Italian version of the Gottschalk-Gleser Content Analysis Scales of Anxiety and Hostility is presented. To assess the validity of the Affective Content Analysis Scales the Gottschalk-Gleser standard procedure for obtaining verbal samples was followed and concurrently self-report measurements of comparable emotional constructs were applied. A short form of the Differential Emotions Scale (DES) was administered three times to 50 university students to measure the emotional state before as well as after speech sampling and the affectivity associated with the narrated life event. To investigate whether the Gottschalk-Gleser Affect Scales measure emotional traits the State-Trait-Anxiety-Inventory, an S-R Inventory of Anxiety, the Shame-Guilt Scale (Battacchi, Codispoti, & Marano, 1994) and the Irritability Scale (Caprara, Borgogni, Cinanni, di Giandomenico, & Passerini, 1985) were applied. Though the correlations between the measures were generally low, evidence of con.
Dependence of MIMO System Performance on the Joint Properties of Angular Power

In this paper, we use a novel MIMO channel model to characterize the dependence of ergodic capacity and diversity order on the joint statistics of the angular power density. The scattering environment of a MIMO channel is characterized by a double directional angular power distribution, describing the power transferred in each direction from transmitter aperture to receiver aperture. Angular power, which is typically separable Kronecker-modelled, is here generalized to include joint distribution properties using well-known bivariate probability density functions. We show that the joint properties of the power density, namely the shape and the orientation of power distribution contours, have significant impact on capacity and diversity of non-line-of-sight (NLOS) channels
Attitudes and Perceptions Toward Hand Hygiene Among Healthcare Workers Caring for Critically Ill Neonates

Abstract Background: Infectious complications are frequent among critically ill neonates. Hand hygiene is the leading measure to prevent healthcare-associated infections, but poor compliance has been repeatedly documented, including in the neonatal setting. Hand hygiene promotion requires a complex approach that should consider personal factors affecting healthcare workers' attitudes. Objective: To identify beliefs and perceptions associated with intention to comply with hand hygiene among neonatal healthcare workers. Methods: An anonymous, self-administered questionnaire (74 items) based on the theory of planned behavior was distributed to 80 neonatal healthcare workers to assess intention to comply, attitude toward hand hygiene, behavioral and subjective norm perceptions, and perception of difficulty to comply. Variables were assessed using multi-item measures and answers to 7-point bipolar scales. All multi-item scales had satisfactory internal consistency (alpha > 0.7). Multivariate logistic regression identified independent perceptions or beliefs associated with a positive intention to comply. Results: The response rate was 76% (61 of 80). Of the 49 nurses and 12 physicians responding, 75% believed that they could improve their compliance with hand hygiene. Intention to comply was associated with perceived control over the difficulty to perform hand hygiene (OR, 3.12; CI95, 1.12 to 8.70; P = .030) and a positive perception of how superiors valued hand hygiene (OR, 2.89; CI95, 1.08 to 7.77; P = .035). Conclusion: Our data highlight the importance of the opinions of superiors and a strong perceived controllability over the difficulty to perform hand hygiene as possible internal factors that may influence hand hygiene compliance.
Refreshing the Voluntary National Content Standards in Economics

The second edition of the Voluntary National Content Standards in Economics was published by the Council for Economic Education in 2010. The authors examine the process for revising these precollege content standards and highlight several changes that appear in the new document. They also review the impact the standards have had on precollege economic education since the original edition was released in 1997, and conclude with their response to comments offered by participants in a January 2012 American Economic Association conference session titled, “What Economics Should We Teach Before Students Enter College? The Voluntary National Content Standards in Economics and the AP. ”
Complex low density lattice codes for the 2×2 MIMO fading channel

A transmission scheme for a 2 × 2 multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel utilizing a complex low density lattice codes (CLDLC's) is presented in this paper. The code is of small size and small degree, and the scheme reduces the number of dimensions per channel use from 2 to 4/3. For decoding, we derive an iterative max-product algorithm for the MIMO channel combined with the code. When the a-priori probabilities are Gaussians, there is an interesting connection between the passed messages and minimum mean square error estimation. Using the CLDLC structure and the reduced dimensionality of the transmission scheme, we present a very efficient parametric decoding algorithm for the 2×2 MIMO channel. At a rate of 8 bits per channel use the proposed simple and computationally efficient transmission scheme outperforms the Alamouti scheme by 3.5 dB, and has a gap of 1.7 dB from the golden code.
Adolescent Victimization

The present study examined how risk and protective factors were associated with adolescent victimization by testing four competing models from resiliency research—the compensatory, risk-protective, protective-protective, and challenge models. Models were tested separately by gender. The data for this study were based on a multistate project that surveyed 992 eighth-grade students between the ages of 12 and 15 years (54% female, 54% White) in at-risk urban and rural schools. Models incorporated family conflict, anger expression, external locus of control, witnessing violence, and involvement in risky behaviors as risk factors; protective factors included social connectedness, parental monitoring, and neighborhood cohesion. Results indicated support for the challenge model for both male and female early adolescents. Implications for prevention work and future research are discussed.
Effects of flight speed upon muscle activity in hummingbirds

SUMMARY Hummingbirds have the smallest body size and highest wingbeat frequencies of all flying vertebrates, so they represent one endpoint for evaluating the effects of body size on sustained muscle function and flight performance. Other bird species vary neuromuscular recruitment and contractile behavior to accomplish flight over a wide range of speeds, typically exhibiting a U-shaped curve with maxima at the slowest and fastest flight speeds. To test whether the high wingbeat frequencies and aerodynamically active upstroke of hummingbirds lead to different patterns, we flew rufous hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus, 3 g body mass, 42 Hz wingbeat frequency) in a variable-speed wind tunnel (0–10 m s−1). We measured neuromuscular activity in the pectoralis (PECT) and supracoracoideus (SUPRA) muscles using electromyography (EMG, N=4 birds), and we measured changes in PECT length using sonomicrometry (N=1). Differing markedly from the pattern in other birds, PECT deactivation occurred before the start of downstroke and the SUPRA was deactivated before the start of upstroke. The relative amplitude of EMG signal in the PECT and SUPRA varied according to a U-shaped curve with flight speed; additionally, the onset of SUPRA activity became relatively later in the wingbeat at intermediate flight speeds (4 and 6 m s−1). Variation in the relative amplitude of EMG was comparable with that observed in other birds but the timing of muscle activity was different. These data indicate the high wingbeat frequency of hummingbirds limits the time available for flight muscle relaxation before the next half stroke of a wingbeat. Unlike in a previous study that reported single-twitch EMG signals in the PECT of hovering hummingbirds, across all flight speeds we observed 2.9±0.8 spikes per contraction in the PECT and 3.8±0.8 spikes per contraction in the SUPRA. Muscle strain in the PECT was 10.8±0.5%, the lowest reported for a flying bird, and average strain rate was 7.4±0.2 muscle lengths s−1. Among species of birds, PECT strain scales proportional to body mass to the 0.2 power (∞Mb0.2) using species data and ∞Mb0.3 using independent contrasts. This positive scaling is probably a physiological response to an adverse scaling of mass-specific power available for flight.
Dipyridamole Decreases Platelet‐Derived Growth Factor Levels in Human Serum

Mitogenic activities on confluent f ibroblasts by sera from patients with scleroderma and normal controls were studied. In experiments using eight different fibroblast strains (one human fetal lung fibroblast, one foreskin fibroblast, three adult skin fibroblast, and three scleroderma fibroblast), pooled scleroderma serum showed lower mitogenic activity by 3 H-thymidine incorporation assay than pooled normal serum. Individual serum investigations revealed that 11 of 33 patients (33%) showed low mitogenic activities; all 11 patients were receiving dipyridamoie. Of 15 patients, 11 (73%) receiving dipyridamoie showed low mitogenic activities; none of 18 patients not receiving dipyridamoie showed low mitogenic activities. Approximately 70% of this serum activity was inhibited by the addition of antl-platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) antibody indicating that most of this serum activity seemed to be derived from PDGF. Western blot analysis of extracts of normal sera before and after administration of dipyridamoie with antihuman PDGF antibody showed a large decrease in the amount of immunoreactive PDGF present. These data indicate that dipyridamoie is an effective drug to lower release of PDGF during blood clotting.
Of Friends and Fences: Europe’s Neighbourhood Policy and the ‘Gated Community Syndrome’

Abstract The goal of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), the European Union’s recently launched initiative towards its ‘near abroad’, is “to avoid new dividing lines across the continent” and to establish around Europe’s edges a ‘ring of friends’ with whom the EU can enjoy “close, peaceful and co‐operative relations”. This paper argues that, despite its stated objectives, the ENP is actually reproducing — if not reinforcing — some of the existing barriers between the EU and its neighbours and, more problematically, is creating new ones. This tension is a symptom of a pathological condition affecting the ENP that is called here the ‘gated community syndrome’. In order to explain how the ENP ‘caught’ the syndrome, a sociological account is proposed, centred on the concept of ‘Schengen culture of internal security’. This account provides an alternative to institutionalist arguments that make reference to the legacy of the enlargement process, or to the contradictory dynamics characterizing the EU’s ‘external governance’ to explain the ENP’s shortcomings. It also sheds some light on the future of the ENP and whether it might be ‘cured’ of the gated community syndrome.