Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Circulating Myeloid‐Related Protein–8/14 is Related to Thromboxane‐Dependent Platelet Activation in Patients With Acute Coronary Syndrome, With and Without Ongoing Low‐Dose Aspirin Treatment

Background Platelet activation is involved in acute coronary syndromes (ACS). Incomplete suppression by low‐dose aspirin treatment of thromboxane (TX) metabolite excretion (urinary 11‐dehydro‐TXB2) is predictive of vascular events in high‐risk patients. Myeloid‐related protein (MRP)‐8/14 is a heterodimer secreted on activation of platelets, monocytes, and neutrophils, regulating inflammation and predicting cardiovascular events. Among platelet transcripts, MRP‐14 has emerged as a powerful predictor of ACS. Methods and Results We enrolled 68 stable ischemic heart disease (IHD) and 63 ACS patients, undergoing coronary angiography, to evaluate whether MRP‐8/14 release in the circulation is related to TX‐dependent platelet activation in ACS and IHD patients and to residual TX biosynthesis in low‐dose aspirin–treated ACS patients. In ACS patients, plasma MRP‐8/14 and urinary 11‐dehydro‐TXB2 levels were linearly correlated (r=0.651, P<0.001) but significantly higher than those in IHD patients (P=0.012, P=0.044) only among subjects not receiving aspirin. In aspirin‐treated ACS patients, MRP‐8/14 and 11‐dehydro‐TXB2 were lower versus those not receiving aspirin (P<0.001) and still significantly correlated (r=0.528, P<0.001). Higher 11‐dehydro‐TXB2 significantly predicted higher MRP‐8/14 in both all ACS patients and ACS receiving aspirin (P<0.001, adj R2=0.463 and adj R2=0.497) after multivariable adjustment. Conversely, plasma MRP‐8/14 (P<0.001) and higher urinary 8‐iso‐prostaglandin F2α (P=0.050) levels were significant predictors of residual, on‐aspirin, TX biosynthesis in ACS (adjusted R2=0.384). Conclusions Circulating MRP‐8/14 is associated with TX‐dependent platelet activation in ACS, even during low‐dose aspirin treatment, suggesting a contribution of residual TX to MRP‐8/14 shedding, which may further amplify platelet activation. Circulating MRP‐8/14 may be a target to test different antiplatelet strategies in ACS.
Consequences of neonatal seizures in the rat: Morphological and behavioral effects

Whereas neonatal seizures are a predictor of adverse neurological outcome, there is controversy regarding whether seizures simply reflect an underlying brain injury or can cause damage. We subjected neonatal rats to a series of 25 brief flurothyl‐induced seizures. Once mature the rats were compared with control littermates for spatial learning and activity level. Short‐term effects of recurrent seizures on hippocampal excitation were assessed by using the intact hippocampus formal preparation and long‐term effects by assessing seizure threshold. Brains were analysed for neuronal loss, sprouting of granule cell axons (mossy fibers), and neurogenesis. Compared with controls, rats subjected to neonatal seizures had impaired learning and decreased activity levels. There were no differences in paired‐pulse excitation or inhibition or duration of afterdischarges in the intact hippocampal preparation. However, when studied as adults, rats with recurrent flurothyl seizures had a significantly lower seizure threshold to pentylenetrazol than controls. Rats with recurrent seizures had greater numbers of dentate granule cells and more newly formed granule cells than the controls. Rats with recurrent seizures also had sprouting of mossy fibers in CA3 and the supragranular region. Recurrent brief seizures during the neonatal period have long‐term detrimental effects on behavior, seizure susceptibility, and brain development.
Oliver's Twist

Despite the explosion of interest in cooking, there has been little research into the meanings that men bring to their cooking practices. This article examines how a mode of domestic masculinity is negotiated in Jamie Oliver's television shows and cookbooks. Drawing on Marjorie DeVault's work, in which she argues that cooking is a way in which women construct themselves as `recognizably womanly', the article argues that in The Naked Chef cooking is constructed as `recognizably manly' through association with `recognizable masculinities'. The construction of the masculine domestic cook involves disavowing the extent to which cooking is a form of labour and constructing it as a `fun' leisure and lifestyle activity. The article draws on Bourdieu's work to suggest that the ability to experience cooking as leisure is dependent on a distance from both economic and temporal constraints, a position that is both classed and gendered.
Testing Competing Institutional Explanations of the Democratic Peace: The Case of Dispute Duration

Drawing upon two alternative versions of the institutional explanation for the democratic peace, we suggest competing hypotheses about the relationship between democratic political institutions and the length of dispute participation. One set of hypotheses originates in the argument that because of the bargaining arrangements internal to democratic states, disputes between democratic states will necessarily be drawn out, so that in the time that it takes to secure the domestic political base for war, diplomats have time to find nonwar solutions. A second set of hypotheses, derived from the selectorate argument about how institutions shape the behavior of leaders who want to remain in power, leads to the expectation that selection effects over which disputes to participate in make disputes between democracies shorter than disputes between pairs of other types of states. Using a Weibull survival model we analyze data on the length of Militarized Interstate Disputes during the period 1816 to 1992; we find clear support for the selectorate explanation. Two ancillary hypotheses from the selectorate argument are also tested and supported by the data.
The Discriminability of Rapists from Non-Sex Offenders Using Phallometric Measures

The authors examined how well identified rapists could be discriminated from non-sex offenders using phallometric assessments, what variables might moderate this discrimination, and whether rapists respond more to descriptions of rape than to consenting sex. Eleven primary and five secondary phallometric studies involving 415 rapists and 192 non-sex offenders were examined using meta-analytic techniques. Study effect sizes averaged 0.82 (95% confidence interval 0.16 to 1.49). Only stimulus set was a statistically significant moderator of effect size: Stimulus sets that contained more graphic rape descriptions produced better discrimination between rapists and non-sex offenders. There was a trend for stimulus sets that contained more exemplars off rape descriptions to achieve better discrimination. Also, rapists responded more to rape than to consenting sex cues in 9 of the 16 data sets and in all 8 of those using the more effective stimulus sets.
Testing models of sub‐slab anisotropy using a global compilation of source‐side shear wave splitting data

Recently, a number of source‐side shear wave splitting measurements that directly constrain anisotropy in the upper mantle beneath subducting slabs have been published. Such measurements have yielded an observational foundation on which to base our understanding of the dynamics of the sub‐slab mantle. Here we compile measurements from recent studies of source‐side splitting beneath slabs that employ identical measurement and processing techniques. We use this compilation to test the predictions of a number of recently proposed conceptual models for the dynamics of the sub‐slab mantle, including those that invoke three‐dimensional return flow beneath slabs, strong radial anisotropy in suboceanic asthenosphere that is entrained via subduction, and a model based on the correlation between sub‐slab splitting behavior and the age of the subducting lithosphere. We find that a model in which fast splitting directions are determined by slab age matches the observations better than either the 3‐D return flow or radial anisotropic models. Based on this observation, we propose that the sub‐slab mantle is characterized by two distinct anisotropic and mantle flow regimes. Beneath younger lithosphere (<95 Ma), we propose that the sub‐slab mantle is characterized by 2‐D entrained flow resulting in an entrained mantle layer. Beneath older lithosphere (>95 Ma), the entrained layer is thin and effectively serves as decoupling layer; the dynamics of the sub‐slab region beneath old lithosphere is therefore dominated by three‐dimensional return flow. This variation in the amount of mechanical coupling may be facilitated by the onset of small‐scale convection beneath older lithosphere.
Feminist Relational Advocacy

This article describes a qualitative study of how low-income women who are struggling with symptoms of depression experience feminist relational advocacy, a new model that is informed by feminist, multicultural, and community psychology theories. Using qualitative content analysis of participant interviews, the authors describe the processes and outcomes of feminist relational advocacy from participants' perspectives; they also consider how emergent themes fit with principles of the model, including the importance of women's narratives, the inseparability of emotional and practical support, the centrality of the advocacy relationship, and oppression as a source of emotional distress. The article concludes with a discussion of the practice and research implications of the study, highlighting the possibilities of feminist relational advocacy as a new tool for counseling psychologists and the lessons for advocacy models in general.
Laplacian Framework for Interactive Mesh Editing

Recent works in geometric modeling show the advantage of local differential coordinates in various surface processing applications. In this paper we review recent methods that advocate surface representation via differential coordinates as a basis to interactive mesh editing. One of the main challenges in editing a mesh is to retain the visual appearance of the surface after applying various modifications. The differential coordinates capture the local geometric details and therefore are a natural surface representation for editing applications. The coordinates are obtained by applying a linear operator to the mesh geometry. Given suitable deformation constraints, the mesh geometry is reconstructed from the differential representation by solving a sparse linear system. The differential coordinates are not rotation-invariant and thus their rotation must be explicitly handled in order to retain the correct orientation of the surface details. We review two methods for computing the local rotations: the first estimates them heuristically using a deformation which only preserves the underlying smooth surface, and the second estimates the rotations implicitly through a variational representation of the problem. We show that the linear reconstruction system can be solved fast enough to guarantee interactive response time thanks to a precomputed factorization of the coefficient matrix. We demonstrate that this approach enables to edit complex meshes while retaining the shape of the details in their natural orientation.
Design of a parallel vector access unit for SDRAM memory systems

We are attacking the memory bottleneck by building a "smart" memory controller that improves effective memory bandwidth, bus utilization, and cache efficiency by letting applications dictate how their data is accessed and cached. This paper describes a parallel vector access unit (PVA), the vector memory subsystem that efficiently "gathers" sparse, strided data structures in parallel on a multi-bank SDRAM memory. We have validated our PVA design via gate-level simulation, and have evaluated its performance via functional simulation and formal analysis. On unit-stride vectors, PVA performance equals or exceeds that of an SDRAM system optimized for cache line fills. On vectors with larger strides, the PVA is up to 32.8 times faster. Our design is up to 3.3 times faster than a pipelined, serial SDRAM memory system that gathers sparse vector data, and the gathering mechanism is two to five times faster than in other PVAs with similar goals. Our PVA only slightly increases hardware complexity with respect to these other systems, and the scalable design is appropriate for a range of computing platforms, from vector supercomputers to commodity PCs.
Increased whole-body protein turnover in sick children with newly diagnosed leukemia or lymphoma.

Using a single dose, [15N]glycine turnover technique, whole body rates of proteins synthesis and breakdown were assessed in six healthy children and in eight children with newly diagnosed leukemia (DeWys, W. D. Cancer Res., 42: 721s-726s, 1982) or lymphoma (Baracos, V., Rodemann, H. P., Dinarello, C. A., and Goldberg, A. L. N. Engl. J. Med., 308: 553-558, 1983). Based on excretion of 15N as urinary ammonia, synthesis (g protein per kg body weight per day) was significantly (p less than 0.025) higher in the cancer patients [5.4 +/- 1.5 (S.D.)] compared to the controls (3.6 +/- 0.9); breakdown was also higher (p less than 0.02) in the patients (5.5 +/- 1.8) compared to the controls (3.1 +/- 1.1). When only the seven patients with leukemia were considered, there also were significant increases in synthesis (5.4 +/- 1.6, p less than 0.05) and breakdown (5.4 +/- 1.9, p less than 0.025) compared to controls. Increases in both synthesis and breakdown were also observed in the patients when the protein turnover data were expressed as a function of the rate of creatinine excretion or the calculated lean body mass. We conclude that whole body protein turnover is increased in sick children at the time of diagnosis with some forms of newly diagnosed cancer.
Becoming Dialogical: Psychotherapy or a Way of Life?

After birth the first thing we learn is becoming a participant in dialogue. We are born in relations and those relations become our structure. Intersubjectivity is the basis of human experience and dialogue the way we live it. In this paper the dilemma of looking at dialogue as either a way of life or a therapeutic method is described. The background is the open dialogue psychiatric system that was initiated in Finnish Western Lapland. The author was part of the team re-organizing psychiatry and afterwards became involved in many different types of projects in dialogical practices. Lately the focus has shifted from looking at speech to seeing the entire embodied human being in the present moment, especially in multifarious settings. Referring to studies on good outcomes in acute psychosis, the contribution of dialogical practice as a psychological resource will be clarified.
Crecimiento urbano y cambios del uso/ cobertura del suelo en las ciudades de Necochea y Quequén, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Urbanization is a territorial and socioeconomic process that induces a radical transformation of land/use cover. It produces great changes in the environment and therefore, is the principal cause of environmental problems and risks. Based on aerial photographs and satellital images, urban growth dynamics and land/use cover change were evaluated at the coastal urban area of Necochea municipality (Argentina). Between 1967 and 2004, urban land/cover use increased from 21,95 to 28,44 % while non urban land/cover use descended. Population growth excedeed urban expansion rate, estimating that the densifi cation of urban occupation is notably higher than the urban sprawl growth.
THE EFFECT OF EOSIN UPON TETANUS TOXIN AND UPON TETANUS IN RATS AND GUINEA-PIGS

The s tudy of the action of certain photodynamic substances upon living cells, ferments, and toxins has brought out highly interestL~g facts. The literature upon this subject is already large and will be briefly reviewed in the paper of one of us (Noguchi) upon the action of these chemicals upon snakevenom. 1 Jodlbauer and v. Tappeiner 2 studied the action of certain fluorescent substances upon diphtheria and te tanus toxins. They found tha t when the toxins were mixed with o.o 5 per cent. of eosin and exposed for three days to diffuse sunlight their toxicity had greatly diminished. The sample of te tanus toxin thus treated produced in ~ to xo m. 1. d. local te tanus only, while in 2 5 m. 1. d. and over it was fatal. Huber ~ stated that the addition of one per cent. of eosin to te tanus toxin, and an exposure of six hours to the sunlight, suffice to destroy the poison, but if the mixture is kept in the dark the poison is not deprived of its toxicity. The dose used by Huber in test ing toxicity was ~ m.l. d. Huber also noted a loss of hmmolytic power. Our experiments with te tanus toxin were begun last spring and were completed before Huber 's paper appeared. They embrace the study, first, of the influence of certain aniline dyes upon tetanolysin; second, the effect of eosin upon te tanospasmin; and, third, the influence of eosin upon the course of experimental te tanus in rats and guinea-pigs.
Giving voice to the dual-career couple

Changes in the nature of careers, and also of families, mean new challenges for the increasing number of dual-career couples in society. Each couple faces multiple concerns, including two individual careers, a shared relationship and the interdependence among all of these elements. This paper contributes to the counselling literature by reporting two case studies in which a new methodological approach was adopted, intended to make a couple's concerns explicit and provide a platform for further action. Using the holistic model of the intelligent career, a facilitated process was used to elicit first subjective, then inter-subjective career data, enabling the partners to make sense of their individual careers within a context of their shared relationship. The preliminary results suggest the methodology may provide a novel and useful way to give ‘voice’ to—and in turn facilitate action by—the dual-career couple.
CONCEPTUALIZING MUSIC THROUGH MATHEMATICS AND THE GENERALIZED INTERVAL SYSTEM

Anyone who has listened to a piece of music and tried to anticipate the next few measures understands that music is full of recognizable patterns. For centuries, theorists have attempted to analyze these patterns in order to better appreciate musical works. Only in the last century, however, has music theory been significantly extended into the world of mathematics. One of the primary figures behind this development, David Lewin connected music theory with abstract algebra by creating the Generalized Interval System, or GIS. The GIS forms an excellent basis for analysis because it incorporates the notions of pitch classes and pitch-class intervals which are so fundamental to music theory. At the same time, the GIS provides mathematic structure by rendering the musical notions of transposition and inversion as mathematical group actions on the musical space associated with a GIS. The following sections will formally define the Generalized Interval System, and then provide examples of both the musical and mathematical importance of this construct.
ON THE REPRESENTATION OF THE RIGID SUB-SYSTEMS OF A PLANE LINK SYSTEM

A combinatorial characterization of the rigidity of plane link systems was fIrst established by Laman(9) (he used the term 'skeletal structure' instead of 'link syst,em' of this paper). This paper presents a combinatorial analysis method for the structures of plane link systems. More precisely, the proposed method affords a representa­ tion of the family of all the rigid sub-systems of a plane link system. A link system is a mechanical object composed of rods and joints(links). A rod is a rigid bar connected with some other rods by joints at its ends and it moves freely around a joint. A link system was first studied systematically by Laman(9) , who estab­ lished a graph-theoretic charact-erization of the rigidity of link systems on a 2-dimensional space. But the generalization of the results of Laman to the 3-dimensional case is not yet known. As for the further researches about this problem, we refer to (2)(4). Bolker-Crapo(3) presented a matroid-theoretic approach to the bracing problem on a one-story-building. Lovasz(12) reduced the pinning down problem of a plane link system to a matroid parity problem. This paper presents a method for the representation of the inner struc­ tures of a plane link system. The main tool used in this paper is based on matroid theory.
The predictors of the intention to leave school early among a representative sample of Irish second‐level students

Early school-leaving exerts substantial costs on the individual and society. The literature indicates that quitting school early is predicted by an enmeshed group of indicators including academic and behavioural difficulties in school, deprived economic background and disengagement with the educational process. The attitudes and background of a representative sample of 1311 Irish second-level students were assessed. Data were gathered on intention to leave school early, elements of the Theory of Planned Behaviour towards school completion, students’ academic attainment, ability to ‘discount-delay’ (defer gratification), along with socio-demographic data. Analysis indicated that positive attitudes about the potential of the Leaving Certificate and parents and teachers perceived to be strongly pro-school completion are key to the intention to stay on. Performing well academically was a contributing factor, as was ability to discount-delay. Economic deprivation and gender did not exert a direct influence on .
Optimal trajectory planning for nonlinear systems: robust and constrained solution

SUMMARY This paper presents a solution to the problem of generating constrained robust trajectory planning for nonlinear mechatronic systems. By using an indirect variational solution method, the necessary optimality conditions deriving from the Pontryagin's minimum principle are imposed, and lead to a differential Two-Point Boundary Value Problem (TPBVP); numerical solution of the latter is accomplished by means of collocation techniques. The robustness to parametric mismatches is obtained trough the use of sensitivity functions, while a hard constraint on actuator effort is obtained using a smoothing technique. Numerical results shows that the robustness can be greatly improved, and that the inclusion of constraints on actuator effort does not affect it.
Design evaluation of OpenCL compiler framework for Coarse-Grained Reconfigurable Arrays

OpenCL is undoubtedly becoming one of the most popular parallel programming languages as it provides a standardized and portable programming model. However, adopting OpenCL for Coarse-Grained Reconfigurable Arrays (CGRA) is challenging due to divergent architecture capability compared to GPUs. In particular, CGRAs are designed to accelerate loop execution by software pipelining on a grid of functional units exploiting instruction-level parallelism. This is vastly different from a GPU in that it executes data parallel kernels using a large number of parallel threads. Therefore, an OpenCL compiler and runtime for CGRAs must map the threaded parallel programming model to a loop-parallel execution model so that the architecture can best utilize its resources. In this paper, we propose and evaluate a design for an OpenCL compiler framework for CGRAs. The proposed design is composed of a serializer and post optimizer. The serializer transforms parallel execution of work-items to an equivalent loop-based iterative execution in order to avoid expensive multithreading on CGRAs. The resulting code is further optimized by the post optimizer to maximize the coverage of software-pipelinable innermost loops. In order to achieve the goal, various loop-level optimizations can take place in the post optimizer using the loops introduced by the serializer for iterative execution of OpenCL kernels. We provide an analysis of the propose framework from a set of well-studied standard OpenCL kernels by comparing performance of various implementations of benchmarks.