Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Myocardial function may improve equally in diabetic patients following both multivessel percutaneous coronary intervention and coronary artery bypass grafting: results from a CARDia trial substudy.

AIMS The CARDia (Coronary Artery Revascularization in Diabetes) trial compared coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and optimal percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in diabetic patients with multivessel coronary disease. Patients enrolled had symptoms of myocardial ischaemia. As symptom assessment is flawed in diabetic patients, a substudy was undertaken to compare the extent to which these revascularization strategies alter reversible ischaemia. METHODS AND RESULTS Seventy-one patients underwent stress echo at baseline and at 6 months. A 17-segment echocardiographic wall motion score index (WMSI) was assigned at baseline [WMSI(pre)] and at 6 months [WMSI(post)]. An overall score defined the difference: WMSI(∂) = WMSI(pre)--WMSI(post). Of 71 patients recruited, 42 underwent PCI and 29 CABG. Mean WMSI(pre) in the PCI group was 1.63 and mean WMSI(post) was 1.32. Mean WMSI(pre) in the CABG group was 1.69 and mean WMSI(post) was 1.46. The PCI WMSI(∂) was 0.31 and CABG WMSI(∂) was 0.23 (P = 0.8). Of 42 PCI patients, 39 demonstrated ischaemia at baseline. At 6 months 31 had improvements in ischaemia (79%), 5 showed no improvement, and 3 ischaemia worsened. Of 29 CABG patients, 23 demonstrated ischaemia at baseline. At 6 months, 20 had improvements in ischaemia (87%), 2 had no improvement, and in 1 ischaemia worsened. No difference was seen in the number of patients with improvements in reversible ischaemia between PCI and CABG [79 vs. 87%, (P = 0.9)]. CONCLUSION Optimal revascularization in diabetic patients with multivessel disease remains controversial. This subset analysis of the CARDia trial suggests both PCI and CABG achieve similar improvement in reversible ischaemia.
Consumers Waiting in Queues: The Role of First-Order and Second-Order Justice

Past research on queuing has identified social justice as an important determinant of consumers' waiting experiences. In queuing settings, people's perception of social justice depends on whether or not the principle of first in and first out (FIFO) has been violated. In this research, we argue that, aside from and independent of the order of service, consumers also care about whether everyone spends approximately equal amount of time waiting before availing of the product or service. When consumers perceive that they have spent more time waiting than others and when they could attribute this injustice to the service provider, they would be less satisfied with the waiting experience. We also argue that adherence to the FIFO principle is a more salient concern to consumers ("first-order" justice), and equal waiting time ("second-order" justice) matters only when first-order justice is not an issue. Three experiments support the predictions.
An Improved Method for Transforming GPS/INS Attitude to National Map Projection Frame

Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation System (GPS/INS) integrated navigation systems play a very important role in modern photogrammetry and laser scanning by virtue of their capability of direct measurement of high-precision position and attitude data in the WGS 84 datum. In practice, as georeferencing is often conducted in national coordinates, there is a need to transform GPS/INS data to the required national map projection frame first. This letter presents an improved coordinate-transformation-based method for the GPS/INS attitude transformation by taking the datum scale distortion and the length distortion into account. Experimental results show that the transformation errors of our improved method are on the order of magnitude of 1 × 10-5°, which can be safely ignored in aerial photogrammetric processing, whereas the maximum error of the previous coordinate-transformation-based method can be up to several 0.001°.
Estimation of patient age based on plain chest radiographs.

Patient age is an essential part of a clinical history, but it is not always provided by referring physicians. We assessed the ability of four radiologists with different levels of expertise (first-year resident to professor emeritus) to predict patient age based on postero-anterior and lateral chest radiographs from 171 patients. All four were able to predict age with a mean error of less than 15 years, but there were statistically significant differences among them. Surprisingly, observer experience did not correlate with accuracy of patient age estimation. While many factors probably operate, the estimation of patient age relies heavily on "gestalt. "
Elements of General Phonetics

Fifty years - a memoire phonetics and phonology phoneme - the concept and the word segments hylomorphic taxonomy and William Holder Daniel Jones' teaching RP today - its position and its prospects the accents of standard English in Scotland some functions of silent stress stress and some other terms the indication of pronunciation in reference books phonetic iconicity in writing systems paralanguage encounter with aphasia.
Public-Private Partnerships and the Privatization of Financing: An Incomplete Contracts Approach

Governments have begun to embrace public-private partnerships (P3s) as vehicles for providing public services. This paper considers the controversial question of when private financing of public projects is optimal. Private development can dominate public financing through more efficient termination decisions for bad projects, resolving soft budget constraint problems. Due to contractual incompleteness and externalities, on the other hand, private developers cannot commit to large debt repayments, and hence can finance only a subset of valuable projects. Public developers, who do not face the same commitment problems, can finance a larger set of projects.
Law Enforcement's Response to Sexual Assault

Abstract After the major reforms of sexual assault laws between 1960 and 1975, a number of studies examined the changes in sexual assault reports to the police and the prosecution of these cases; however, little research has studied changes in law enforcement investigative procedures of sexual assault cases. This study examines the processes used in the investigation of sexual assault cases by police and sheriff departments in nine counties of North Carolina. The procedures of these departments are compared with a set of new practices identified as effective by Epstein and Langenbahn (1994). These practices, or reforms, include specialized sexual assault investigative units, in-house victim/witness advocates, acceptance of anonymous reports from victims who do not wish to prosecute, written procedures, multiple interviews, confidentiality of the victim from the media, specialized training for investigators as well as patrol officers, and specific criteria for the selection of investigators. The law enforcement departments examined in the current study vary in their implementation of the reforms advocated by Epstein and Langenbahn. The relationships between specific characteristics of the departments and the community and the variation in implementation are not significant; however, the departments' association with the rape crisis centers in their communities is significantly related to the existence of written procedures, a specialized unit, and the use of blind reports. Sexual assault to some degree continues to focus on the issue of consent and the victims' behavior, but there does appear to be an increase in officers' sensitivity to victims' needs.
Impact of clonal evolution on the biological diversity of Trypanosoma cruzi

Trypanosoma cruzi, the agent of Chagas' disease, exhibits considerable biological variability. Moreover, it has been postulated that populations of this protozoan are subdivided into natural clones, which can be separated from each other by considerable levels of evolutionary divergence. The authors have proposed that this long-term clonal evolution may have a profound impact on Trypanosoma cruzi biological diversity. In order to test this hypothesis, 16 T. cruzi stocks representing 3 major clonal genotypes of the parasite were analysed for 8 different in vitro biological parameters. The overall results show a strong statistical linkage between genetic and biological differences. This is in agreement with the working hypothesis, although a notable biological variability is observable among the stocks of each of the 3 major clonal genotypes. The authors propose that T. cruzi genetic variability must be taken into account in any applied study dealing with this parasite.
Evaluation of a Nested-PCR-Derived Sequence-Based Typing Method Applied Directly to Respiratory Samples from Patients with Legionnaires' Disease

ABSTRACT Sequence-based typing (SBT) is a powerful method based on the sequencing of seven genes of Legionella pneumophila isolates. SBT performed directly on clinical samples has been used only in a limited number of cases. In our study, its efficiency was tested with 63 legionellosis respiratory samples. Sixty-three clinical samples, which included 23 samples from sporadic cases and 40 collected during four French outbreaks, confirmed by culture or urinary antigen testing and all positive by L. pneumophila quantitative PCR were subtyped by SBT according to the European Working Group for Legionella Infections standard scheme. Only 28.6% of the samples provided nucleotide sequences by SBT. Nested-PCR-based SBT (NPSBT) applied to the same respiratory samples was thus evaluated with new PCR primers surrounding the first set of primers used for the SBT. Sequencing results were obtained with 90.5% of the samples. Complete allelic profiles (seven genes sequenced) were obtained for 3.2% versus 53.9% of the samples by SBT and NPSBT, respectively. More importantly, of the 28 culture-negative samples, only 4 did not give any sequencing results. Taken together, NPSBT applied directly to clinical specimens significantly improved epidemiological typing compared to the initial SBT, in particular when no isolates are available.
A study on data aggregation scheme over wireless sensor network

Nowadays, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) seen as an emerging technology due to its multi serviceable, low cost and low power sensor nodes, that are deployed randomly and densely over a network to collect a useful information from there. Since the nodes are deployed densely, makes it hard to recharge or replace their batteries. Basically, the node senses the data and transmit it to a base station. The node, which is nearer to the base station may deplete their energy quickly than other nodes due to more traffic relaying on it. Furthermore the nodes may sense and transmit the redundant information to other nodes, which leads to energy wastage. Due to these types of issues, it is difficult to design a data aggregation scheme with optimal energy consumption across the sensing area to enhance the network lifetime. In this paper, a detailed study has been made about the available data aggregation techniques in the form of taxonomy.
Optimization of Direction finding using Beamscan and MVDR technique for Electronic Support Measures

The paper is deliberated towards the study of the Radio Direction finding technique for incoming Radio signals. These radio signals could be friendly or from a hostile source, primarily finding its use for Military as part of Electronic Warfare and other civil application. There are various techniques which are in vogue; they have their advantages and limitations. The conventional technique i.e. Beamscan, for direction finding is studied and beam forming is explained. This technique has inherent limitations of giving inaccurate results under certain conditions, therefore better technique known as Minimum Variance Distortionless Response (MVDR) is used for closely impinging waves. No single technique suffices the requirement of Radio Direction of Arrival estimation for Electronic Support Measures of EW. It is intended that the new methodology devised will optimize the Estimation of Direction of arrival, under all conditions regardless of the technique used with least of Human Operator's intervention.
The Meditative Way: Readings in the Theory and Practice of Buddhist Meditation

Buddhist meditation, while attracting less popular attention than some other meditative disciplines, has given rise to a particularly rich literature in recent years. Despite differences in style and terminology, these modern writings on Buddhist meditation serve much the same purposes as did the manuals and commentaries of the classical masters: to explicate and interpret the Buddha's teachings on meditation, to clarify the nature and value of the various meditative techniques and attainments, and/or to offer advice on the actual practice of meditation. Meditators are increasingly inclined to compare and evaluate critically what the different contemporary meditation masters have to say, to weigh up the results of relevant scientific studies, or to consult translations of the primary texts in search of the Buddha's 'original' teachings on meditation. Writers on meditation are also increasingly adopting an appropriately critical approach, particularly as regards the reliability of textual accounts. Relatively few still commit the old error of assuming that the Pali canon is a complete and faithful record of what the Buddha said on the subject, or that the classical commentators were infallible authorities. The present collection of twenty-eight readings is designed to give meditators, researchers, and general readers ready access to representative samples of those writings, and to the principal relevant texts.
Torque-saturated, inertia-free spacecraft attitude control

Torque-saturated control laws for spacecraft attitude control are considered. These control laws require no knowledge of the mass distribution of the spacecraft and thus are inertia-free. We examine two specific problems. In the first problem, the spacecraft has an arbitrary initial attitude and angular velocity, and the objective is to bring the spacecraft to rest with a specified attitude. In the second problem, the spacecraft has an arbitrary initial attitude and angular velocity, and the objective is to bring the spacecraft to a spin about a specified body axis with a specified attitude. The body axis need not be a principal axis. Both problems are considered under the assumption that the torque, which is continuously variable, is limited by a saturation constraint. Disturbances are assumed to be zero.
Low-connectivity and full-coverage three dimensional wireless sensor networks

Low-connectivity and full-coverage three dimensional Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have many real-world applications. By low connectivity, we mean there are at least <i>k</i> disjoint paths between any two sensor nodes in a WSN, where <i>k</i> ≤ 4. In this paper, we design a set of patterns for these networks. In particular, we design and prove the optimality of <i>1</i>- and <i>2</i>-connectivity patterns under any value of the ratio of communication range <i>r<sub>c</sub></i> over sensing range <i>r<sub>s</sub></i>, among regular lattice deployment patterns. We further propose a set of patterns to achieve <i>3</i>- and <i>4</i>-connectivity patterns and investigate the evolutions among all the proposed low-connectivity patterns. Finally, we study the proposed patterns under several practical settings.
Dynamic graph clustering combining modularity and smoothness

Maximizing the quality index modularity has become one of the primary methods for identifying the clustering structure within a graph. Since many contemporary networks are not static but evolve over time, traditional static approaches can be inappropriate for specific tasks. In this work, we pioneer the NP-hard problem of online dynamic modularity maximization. We develop scalable dynamizations of the currently fastest and the most widespread static heuristics and engineer a heuristic dynamization of an optimal static algorithm. Our algorithms efficiently maintain a modularity-based clustering of a graph for which dynamic changes arrive as a stream. For our quickest heuristic we prove a tight bound on its number of operations. In an experimental evaluation on both a real-world dynamic network and on dynamic clustered random graphs, we show that the dynamic maintenance of a clustering of a changing graph yields higher modularity than recomputation, guarantees much smoother clustering dynamics, and requires much lower runtimes. We conclude with giving sound recommendations for the choice of an algorithm.
Relações socioeconômicas em rede: a governança no arranjo produtivo do vestuário de Cianorte no Estado do Paraná

Este artigo procura analisar a estrutura de governanca do Arranjo Produtivo do Vestuario de Cianorte, no Estado do Parana, a partir do mapeamento das relacoes socioeconomicas que conformam a governanca local. Para isso, fundamenta-se no referencial teorico da sociologia das redes, a partir do qual se pode identificar como os atores integrantes desse APL interagem, como as relacoes socioeconomicas sao construidas e como evoluem ao longo da formacao historica do arranjo. O trabalho aponta que a estrutura de governanca do APL foi construida, historicamente, pela familia pioneira no ramo de confeccoes da regiao e destaca as estrategias utilizadas por estes atores para se consolidarem como liderancas reconhecidas pelos demais atores do arranjo. O estudo demonstra ainda a capacidade da familia pioneira em se manter no poder durante a trajetoria de quase tres decadas desde o inicio da atividade no municipio, adaptando-se as mudancas impostas pelas constantes reestruturacoes da rede, especialmente quando da intervencao de instituicoes publicas e parapublicas no arranjo.
Light-chain mRNA in lymphocyte-predominant and mixed-cellularity Hodgkin's disease.

There is growing evidence for a B-cell lineage of lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin's disease (1). To support this assumption, in situ hybridization techniques were used to detect immunoglobulin light-chain mRNA in 44 formalin-fixed specimens of Hodgkin's lymphoma (22 of lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin's disease; 22 of mixed-cellularity Hodgkin's disease). In addition, immunoglobulin light chains were evaluated by polyclonal antisera. All specimens had been unequivocally diagnosed histologically by the referees of the German Hodgkin Trial and been immunophenotyped by monoclonal antibodies against CD15, CD20, CD30, and CD45. Light-chain mRNA coding either for kappa or for lambda could be detected by an enhanced in situ hybridization protocol using microwave heating in the lymphocytic and histiocytic cells of 14 (64%) of 22 specimens of lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin's disease tested. None of the specimens, however, belonging to one of the classic subtypes of Hodgkin's disease (mixed-cellularity Hodgkin's disease) showed positivity for mRNA in the giant tumor cells. Our results support the idea that lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin's disease represents a B-cell malignancy that is a entity separate from classic Hodgkin's disease. Diverging results of former studies in assessing light-chain mRNA in lymphocytic and histiocytic cells probably reflect problems with the detection threshold, i.e., the sensitivity of the techniques applied.
Qui a raison des parents ou des enfants? Evaluation de l'accord des parents et des enfants dans l'Enquete longitudinale nationale sur les enfants et les jeunes

Nous avons exploite les donnees de l'Enquete longitudinale nationale sur les enfants et les jeunes pour repondre a deux questions : dans quelle mesure les parents et les enfants sont-ils d'accord dans leurs reponses a des questions identiques sur le bien-etre de l'enfance? dans quelle mesure les differences qu'accusent ces reponses influent-elles sur les inferences d'une analyse des donnees a plusieurs variables? On releve seulement une correspondance qui va de faible a passable entre parents et enfants pour ce qui est de l'evaluation du bien-etre de l'enfance. L'accord est plus grand dans le cas de resultats plus observables comme le rendement scolaire. Il est moindre pour des resultats moins observables comme les troubles emotifs. Nous avons procede a une regression des deux jeux de reponses par rapport a un ensemble type de caracteristiques socio-economiques. Nous avons egalement soumis les differences d'inferences des deux ensembles de regressions a des tests, formels ou non.
Cancer symptom transition periods of children and families.

BACKGROUND Children with cancer are reported to experience many symptoms during the cancer trajectory. However, minimal qualitative research has been conducted that explores children's and families' experiences of symptoms. An understanding of the symptom trajectory, grounded in children's and families' experiences, is essential to providing comprehensive and sensitive care to children with cancer and their families. AIM This paper reports a study designed to explore and describe the symptom course in childhood cancer as experienced by children and their families. DESIGN Guided by the philosophy of interpretive interactionism, a longitudinal qualitative study was undertaken. A purposive sample of 39 families of children with cancer who resided in Western Canada participated. The children ranged in age from 4.5 to 18 years and varied in their cancer diagnoses. METHODS Multiple data collection methods included formal and informal interviewing and participant observation. Data were analysed by the constant comparative method. Development of illness narratives added to an understanding of children's and families' experiences. FINDINGS A substantive theory entitled 'Children's and Families' Lived Experience of Childhood Cancer Symptoms' emerged from the findings. This depicts the experience of cancer in relation to children's changing symptom trajectory. A core category of the theory, 'passage through the transition periods', shows how changing symptom experiences affected children's and families' ways of being in the world. These were reflected in six transition periods: (1) it is just the flu; (2) it is more than the flu; (3) it hits home; (4) it is nasty; (5) it is not so bad, it is pretty good; and (6) it is 'dragsville'. The changing roles and responsibilities of family members, and how the family existed in the cancer world, varied depending on the transition period through which they were passing. CONCLUSIONS Transition periods not only reinforce the dynamic nature of the experience of childhood cancer but, more importantly, show how symptoms can greatly affect the quality of children's and families' day-to-day living. Interpreting cancer in the context of the symptom trajectory provides nurses with a new perspective for understanding childhood cancer, and will assist in the development of symptom relief strategies that will help to contain symptoms and improve overall quality of life for children and families.