Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Cognitive Systems Engineering Perspective of Construction Safety

In recent IGLC Conferences some papers have taken a cognitive systems engineering perspective of construction safety. The assumption underlying those papers has been that traditional safety management tools have failed to recognise that it is unavoidable to work close to edge where control is lost and that new mechanisms are necessary to increase the ability of workers to work safely under such circumstances. Based on data collected in five construction sites in which the authors have implemented a Safety Planning and Control model, this paper sets a preliminary discussion on the applicability of some cognitive systems engineering concepts to construction safety. Due to the nature of the data available, the discussion is structured in four topics: identification of pressures and performance migrations towards unsafe zones of work; pre-task safety planning as a mechanism to develop judgement in workers; visibility of the boundaries of safe performance; incident analysis from the cognitive perspective. A set of opportunities for future research is outlined, such as the development of mechanisms to both identify and monitor pressures and the development of structured protocols to carry out investigations from a cognitive perspective.
Sub-word unit talker verification using hidden Markov models

A talker verification system based on characterizing talker utterances as sequences of subword units represented by hidden Markov models (HMMs) was implemented and tested. Two types of subword units were studied: phonelike units (PLUs) and acoustic segment units (ASUs). PLUs are based on phonetic transcriptions of spoken utterances and ASUs are extracted directly from the acoustic signal without use of any linguistic knowledge. The ASU representation has the advantage of not requiring transcriptions of training utterances. Verification performance was evaluated on a 100-talker database of 20000 isolated digit utterances. The experiments show only small differences in performance between PLU- and ASU-based representations. Overall, the verification equal-error rate is approximately 7 to 8% for one-digit test utterances (approximately 0.5 s in duration) and 1% or less for seven-digit test utterances (approximately 3.5 s in duration). In addition, a technique for updating models, using data from current test utterances, was devised and implemented. Using this adaptation technique, the error rate falls to 6% for one-digit utterances and less than 0.5% for seven-digit utterances. The experiment confirms that excellent verification performance can be obtained using HMMs of subword units. <<ETX>>
A simple and reliable PCR-based method for detection and screening of transgenic plants transformed with the same endogenous gene

To detect integration of a transgene in genetically modified plants that have a native copy of the gene, a simple and reliable PCR-based method has been established. This method is then used to screen for transgenic wheat plants that have been transformed with the high molecular weight glutenin subunit Dy10 gene. Two PCR primers were designed, the forward one matched upstream flanking nucleotide sequences in the pBlueScript KS vector and the reverse primer hybridizes with a Dy10 specific. Use of these primers produced a distinguishable marker only from the transgene with no appreciable signal detected from the endogenous gene.
Treatment with bivalirudin (Hirulog) as compared with heparin during coronary angioplasty for unstable or postinfarction angina. Hirulog Angioplasty Study Investigators.

BACKGROUND Heparin is often administered during and after coronary angioplasty to prevent closure of the dilated vessel. However, ischemic or hemorrhagic complications occur in 5 to 10 percent of treated patients. We studied whether these complications could be prevented when the direct thrombin inhibitor bivalirudin (Hirulog) was used in place of heparin. METHODS We performed a double-blind, randomized trial in 4098 patients undergoing angioplasty for unstable or postinfarction angina. Patients were assigned to receive either heparin or bivalirudin immediately before angioplasty. The primary end point were death in the hospital, myocardial infarction, abrupt vessel closure, or rapid clinical deterioration of cardiac origin. RESULTS In the total study group, bivalirudin did not significantly reduce the incidence of the primary end point (11.4 percent, vs. 12.2 percent for heparin) but did result in a lower incidence of bleeding (3.8 percent vs. 9.8 percent, P < 0.001). In the prospectively stratified subgroup of 704 patients with postinfarction angina, bivalirudin therapy resulted in a lower incidence of the primary end point (9.1 percent vs. 14.2 percent, P = 0.04) and a lower incidence of bleeding (3.0 percent vs. 11.1 percent, P < 0.001), but in a similar cumulative rate of death, myocardial infarction, and repeated revascularization in the six months after angioplasty (20.5 percent vs. 25.1 percent, P = 0.17). CONCLUSIONS Bivalirudin was at least as effective as high-dose heparin in preventing ischemic complications in patients who underwent angioplasty for unstable angina, and it carried a lower risk of bleeding. Bivalirudin, as compared with heparin, reduced the risk of immediate ischemic complications in patients with postinfarction angina, but this difference was no longer apparent after six months.
Potentiation of neurotoxicity in double-mutant mice with Pink1 ablation and A53T-SNCA overexpression

The common age-related neurodegeneration of Parkinson's disease can result from dominant causes like increased dosage of vesicle-associated alpha-synuclein (SNCA) or recessive causes like deficiency of mitophagy factor PINK1. Interactions between these triggers and their convergence onto shared pathways are crucial, but currently conflicting evidence exists. Here, we crossed previously characterized mice with A53T-SNCA overexpression and with Pink1 deletion to generate double mutants (DMs). We studied their lifespan and behavior, histological and molecular anomalies at late and early ages. DM animals showed potentiated phenotypes in comparison with both single mutants (SMs), with reduced survival and strongly reduced spontaneous movements from the age of 3 months onwards. In contrast to SMs, a quarter of DM animals manifested progressive paralysis at ages >1 year and exhibited protein aggregates immunopositive for pSer129-SNCA, p62 and ubiquitin in spinal cord and basal brain. Brain proteome quantifications of ubiquitination sites documented altered degradation of SNCA and the DNA-damage marker H2AX at the age of 18 months. Global brain transcriptome profiles and qPCR validation experiments identified many consistent transcriptional dysregulations already at the age of 6 weeks, which were absent from SMs. The observed downregulations for Dapk1, Dcaf17, Rab42 and the novel SNCA-marker Lect1 as well as the upregulations for Dctn5, Mrpl9, Tmem181a, Xaf1 and H2afx reflect changes in ubiquitination, mitochondrial/synaptic/microtubular/cell adhesion dynamics and DNA damage. Thus, our study confirmed that SNCA-triggered neurotoxicity is exacerbated by the absence of PINK1 and identified a novel molecular signature that is detectable early in the course of this double pathology.
Transfer of Vitamins E and A from Yolk to Embryo during Development of the King Penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus)

Since the yolk lipids of the king penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus) are rich in n‐3 fatty acids, which are potentially susceptible to peroxidative damage, the yolk contents and yolk‐to‐embryo transfer of antioxidants and lipid‐soluble vitamins were investigated under conditions of natural incubation in the wild. The concentration of vitamin E in the unincubated egg was 155 μg/g wet yolk, of which 88% was α‐tocopherol and the rest was γ‐tocopherol. Vitamin A (2.9 μg/g) was present in the yolk entirely as retinol; no retinyl esters were detected. Throughout the latter half of the incubation period, vitamins E and A were taken up from the yolk into the yolk sac membrane (YSM) and later accumulated in the liver, with vitamin A being transferred in advance of vitamin E. In the YSM, vitamin A was present almost entirely as retinyl ester, indicating that the free retinol of the yolk is rapidly esterified following uptake. Retinyl esters were also the predominant form in the liver. The retinyl esters of the liver and YSM displayed different fatty acid profiles. At hatching, the brain contained relatively little vitamin E (4.7 μg/g) compared to the much higher concentration in the liver (482.9 μg/g) at this stage. Ascorbic acid was not detected in the yolk but was present at a high concentration in the brain at day 27 (404.6 μg/g), decreasing to less than half this value by the time of hatching. This report is the first to delineate the yolk‐to‐embryo transfer of lipid‐soluble vitamins for a free‐living avian species. The yolk fatty acids of the king penguin provide an extreme example of potential oxidative susceptibility, forming a basis for comparative studies on embryonic antioxidant requirements among species of birds whose yolk lipids differ in their degree of unsaturation.
Group V allergens in grass pollens: IV. Similarities in amino acid compositions and NH2‐terminal sequences of the Group V allergens from Lolium perenne, Poa pratensis and Dactylis glomerata

Monoclonal antibodies (PpV4) raised against Phleum pratense group V allergen were used for immuno‐affinity chromatography of cross‐reacting group V allergens from related grass species. Fractions enriched in group V allergen were obtained from Lolium perenne, Poa pratense and Dactylis glomerata extracts. The major components in these fractions were found in the Mwr range 25–28 kD. IgE binding to these components was shown using a pool of grass allergic sera, by SDS‐PAGE immunoblotting. These fractions were electroblotted from tricine SDS‐PAGE gels onto a polyvinylidenedifluoride membrane and selected group V bands were directly cut out and used for amino acid analysis and NH2‐terminal sequencing.
Ezrin function is required for ROCK‐mediated fibroblast transformation by the Net and Dbl oncogenes

The small G protein RhoA and its GDP/GTP exchange factors (GEFs) Net and Dbl can transform NIH 3T3 fibroblasts, dependent on the activity of the RhoA effector kinase ROCK. We investigated the role of the cytoskeletal linker protein ezrin in this process. RhoA effector loop mutants which can bind ROCK induce relocalization of ezrin to dorsal actin‐containing cell surface protrusions, as do Net and Dbl. Both processes are inhibited by the ROCK inhibitor Y27632, which also inhibits association of ezrin with the cytoskeleton, and phosphorylation of T567, conserved between ezrin and its relatives radixin and moesin. ROCK can phosphorylate the ezrin C‐terminus in vitro. The ezrin mutant T567A cannot be relocalized by activated RhoA, Net or Dbl or by ROCK itself, and also inhibits RhoA‐mediated contractility and focal adhesion formation. Moreover, ezrin T567A, but not wild‐type ezrin, restores contact inhibition to Net‐ and Dbl‐transformed cells, and inhibits the activity of Net and Ras in focus formation assays. These results implicate ROCK‐mediated ezrin C‐terminal phosphorylation in transformation by RhoGEFs.
Early pulmonary inflammation in infants with cystic fibrosis.

The mechanisms underlying the initiation of lung disease and early respiratory morbidity in cystic fibrosis (CF) are poorly understood. By identifying infants with CF through a statewide neonatal screening program, we investigated whether airway inflammation was present in these infants, with the goal of furthering our understanding of the early events in this lung disease. Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) from 16 infants with CF (mean age, 6 mo) and 11 disease control infants (mean age, 12 mo) was examined for the following inflammatory parameters: (1) neutrophil count; (2) activity of free neutrophil elastase; (3) elastase/alpha 1-antiprotease inhibitor complexes; and (4) the level of interleukin-8 (IL-8). We also quantified the spontaneous level of expression of IL-8 mRNA transcripts by airway macrophages. Each index of airway inflammation was increased in the BALF of infants with CF as compared with control infants. In addition, both the number of neutrophils and IL-8 levels were increased in infants with CF who had negative cultures (n = 7) for common bacterial CF-related pathogens, as well as for common respiratory viruses and fungi at the time of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL). These findings suggest that airway inflammation is already present in infants with CF who are as young as 4 wks. Furthermore, although many different cell types (e.g., epithelial cells) may express IL-8, airway macrophages appear to be a source of this chemokine, and may thus play a prominent role in early neutrophil influx into the lung.
Assessing Team Leadership in Emergency Medicine: The Milestones and Beyond.

BACKGROUND Team leadership is a critical skill for emergency medicine physicians that directly affects team performance and the quality of patient care. There exists a robust body of team science research supporting team leadership conceptual models and behavioral skill sets. However, to date, this work has not been widely incorporated into health care team leadership education. OBJECTIVE This narrative review has 3 aims: (1) to synthesize the team science literature and to translate important concepts and models to health care team leadership; (2) to describe how team leadership is currently represented in the health care literature and in the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Milestones for emergency medicine; and (3) to propose a novel, evidence-based framework for the assessment of team leadership in emergency medicine. METHODS We conducted a narrative review of the team science and health care literature. We summarized our findings and identified a list of team leadership behaviors that were then used to create a framework for team leadership assessment. RESULTS Current health care team leadership measurement tools do not incorporate evidence-based models of leadership concepts from other established domains. The emergency medicine milestones include several team leadership behaviors as part of a larger resident evaluation program. However, they do not offer a comprehensive or cohesive representation of the team leadership construct. CONCLUSIONS Despite the importance of team leadership to patient care, there is no standardized approach to team leadership assessment in emergency medicine. Based on the results of our review, we propose a novel team leadership assessment framework that is supported by the team science literature.
A cross-layer scheme for resource reservation based on multi-protocol label switching over mobile IP version6

The last decades have brought tremendous improvement in wireless internet and its technologies. This has inspired the development of a variety of new services in business and consumer markets. The real time applications such as voice over internet protocol (VOIP) and other multimedia traffic such as Internet Protocol television have driven the demand for increasing and guaranteed bandwidth requirements in the network. Due to the mobility feature within a MN, mobile networks need a more sophisticated mechanism for quality of service provision. Beside, custom routing methods in a Mobile IPv6 network deliver a packet via specific tunnel. In the tunnel, intermediate routers are incapable to retrieve necessary information for guarantee quality of service due to adding headers in IPv6-in-IPv6 encapsulation. The purpose of this paper is to propose an approach to guarantee end-to-end QoS over Mobile IPv6 networks. This research paper focuses on tunnel redundancy in routing mechanisms over Mobile IPv6. In this paper, we propose a cross layer scheme to overcome negative effect of tunneling over Mobile IPv6 networks whenever a RSVP messages traverse via tunneling.
Differential Cytotoxicity of Bacillus anthracis and Bacillus cereus Culture Filtrates

In recent years, a number of methods have been devised which can be used for differentiation of Bacillus anthracis and B. cereus species. These include deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) base ratio analysis (McDonald et a]., J. Bacteriol. 85:1071, 1963), antigenic analysis by agar diffusion (Fen-Ke, Acta Vet. Hung. 12:373, 1962) and differential toxicity of culture filtrates for laboratory animals (Bonventre and Eckert, J. Bacteriol. 85:499, 1963). The present communication describes a striking difference in cytotoxicity of B. cereus and B. anthracis culture filtrates incubated with various tissue-culture cell lines. The toxic filtrate of B. cereus was obtained by growing strain B-48 at 37 C in fresh beef infusion broth for 12 hr. Sterile filtrates were tested for lethal activity in mice before incubation with the tissue-culture cells. The anthrax "lethal factor" (obtained from R. Lincoln, Fort Detrick, Frederick, Md.) was prepared according to Thorne, Molnar, and Strange (J. Bacteriol. 79:450, 1960) as a sterile filtrate of B. anthracis (Sterne). The rat assay was used to determine lethal activity of the anthrax filtrates (Beall, Taylor, and Thorne, J. Bacteriol. 83:1274, 1962). Two established cell lines and a primary explant were used for the detection of a cytopathic effect (CPE): a guinea pig spleen (GPS) line provided originally by A. Ross, Fort Detrick, the buccal carcinoma cell (KB) obtained from H. C. Bubel, Cincinnati, Ohio, and a primary explant of mouse-embryo (ME) tissue. The GPS and ME cells were grown in Earle's salts-lactalbumin hydrolysate medium plus 10% calf serum and the KB cells, in Eagle's medium. Tissue cultures were seeded into Leighton tubes with 1 ml of suspension containing approximately 4 X 105 cells and were incubated at 37 C until a complete monolayer formed. Growth media were then drained from the tubes and replaced by the toxic culture filtrates diluted with fresh tissueculture fluids. Dilutions of the bacterial culture filtrates to be tested were made in sterile distilled water and mixed with concentrated (two times) tissue-culture medium in a 1: 1 ratio before application to the monolayers. Specific cytotoxicity was evaluated by microscopic examination at intervals after incubation at 37 C. The degree of CPE was judged by rounding and degeneration of cells and detachment from the monolayer surface on the glass.
Prematurity and Congenital Heart Disease

Significant advances in technology and therapy have led to dramatic improvements in the survival of preterm babies over the last 2 decades. Similarly, improvements in surgical and cardiac intensive care techniques have increased the feasibility of supporting even very small babies to the point of surgical repair, leading some to adopt an approach of early and complete surgical repair in preterm infants, with the aim of minimizing potential preoperative morbidity associated with extended medical management or surgical palliation. 1,2 However, multiple diagnostic and therapeutic challenges complicate the care of premature infants. Major errors in echocardiography are more common in neonates weighing less than 2.5 kg, 3 and the ideal timing and type of surgical intervention in premature infants remains unknown. These problems are compounded by the need for critical care practices that optimize management of immature cardiopulmonary, gastrointestinal, and neurological systems. This review will summarize some of the recent advances in neonatal and perinatal medicine, which have the potential to contribute to improved management of preterm infants with critical cardiac disease.
Relationships in Business Markets : An Empirical Examination of Trust , Reliance , and Commitment

Past years have seen a plethora of studies on the construct of trust in business relationships. Despite the significance of trust in developing relationships, research on trust still has two main deficiencies. First, previous studies attempted to stretch the concept of trust from interpersonal towards interorganizational relationships which resulted in a cross-level fallacy, as the emotional characteristic of trust only makes sense at the interpersonal level. Second, despite the obvious benefits of trust, long-term and successful business relationships not based on trust can exist, as relationships between firms are invariably based on considerations of mutual interest. Trust is not the only construct enabling such mutual interest. To develop the concept of trust as exemplified in the current literature on business relationships, this study uses an argument proposed in the study by Mouzas et al. (2007) and validates the distinct importance of interorganizational reliance vis-à-vis interpersonal trust in business markets. Despite the importance of issues around reliance in business relationships, there exists a remarkable absence of studies on reliance in business marketing research. This paper distinguishes between trust and reliance and applies them respectively to the interpersonal and interorganizational levels. We use data from 404 companies in the construction industry to empirically examine the effects of trust, reliance and commitment on several key indicators of relationship quality, including communication, social satisfaction, economic satisfaction and long-term orientation. Our analysis using Structural Equation Modeling shows that trust is positively related to affective commitment, social satisfaction and communication, while reliance is positively related to behavioral commitment, economic satisfaction, and long-term orientation. This supports trust and reliance as the key factors which distinctly affect interpersonal and interorganizational relationships and thus have different effects on business relationship
Distribution and origin of calcitonin gene‐related peptide (CGRP) immunoreactivity in the sensory innervation of the mammalian eye

The occurrence, distribution, and origin of immunoreactive calcitonin gene‐related peptide (CGRP) in nerves of rat, guinea pig, cat, and monkey eyes were investigated by immunocytochemistry, radioimmunoassay, and chromatography. A rich network of CGRP‐immunoreactive nerve fibres was noted in the anterior uvea, which was widely distributed in both dilator and constrictor papillae muscles and extended to the ciliary body and uveal blood vessels. Numerous CGRP‐immunoreactive neuronal cells were present in the trigeminal ganglion. The extractable CGRP was 8.6 ± 1.8 pmoles/gm of tissue in the iris and 44.0 ± 8.1 pmoles/gm in the trigeminal ganglion. Following damage to the Gasserian ganglion a marked decrease of CGRP immunoreactivity was observed in the anterior uvea (control 11.3± 1.6 pmoles/gm; operated 1.4 ± 0.1 pmoles/gm) confirming the origin of the immunoreactive fibres from trigeminal primary sensory neurons. The sensory nature of the CGRP‐immunoreactive fibres was substantiated by the depletion of CGRP immunoreactivity observed after treatment with capsaicin, which is known to cause selective degeneration of sensory neurons. Comparative studies on the distribution and colocalisation of CGRP and the putative sensory neurotransmitter substance P revealed a closely parallel distribution of the two peptides in certain regions of the uvea and their coexistence in a subpopulation of trigeminal primary sensory neurons. This study suggests that the sensory nervous system in the eye is more heterogeneous in terms of its putative neurotransmitters than previously indicated.