Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The “Jewelry Addict”: Allergic Contact Dermatitis from Repetitive Multiple Children's Jewelry Exposures

A 9‐year‐old girl with atopic dermatitis developed persistent plaques on the lips, hands, and fingers that were unresponsive to topical steroids. Her mother reported that she was “addicted” to costume jewelry and developed rashes in reaction to a number of adornments, ranging from rubber bracelets to costume metal jewelry and belt buckles. A careful history of jewelry exposures was taken and patch testing was performed to identify allergenic sources. Patch testing revealed allergy to nickel, gold, and thiuram mix. The case illustrates the importance of investigating a range of different types of allergens when evaluating for jewelry sensitivity in children with frequent use of accessories, including rubber jewelry, plastics, dyed yarns, beads, metals, and ceramics. This article provides an overview of jewelry allergies and the potential allergens requiring screening.
Experiments with Oval: a radically tailorable tool for cooperative work

This article describes a series of tests of the generality of a “radically tailorable” tool for cooperative work. Users of this system can create applications by combining and modifying four kinds of building blocks: objects, views, agents, and links . We found that user-level tailoring of these primitives can provide most of the functionality found in well-known cooperative work systems such as gIBIS, Coordinator, Lotus Notes, and Information Lens. These primitives, therefore, appear to provide an elementary “tailoring language” out of which a wide variety of integrated information management and collaboration applications can be constructed by end users.
Targeting seasonal climate forecasts for integration into household level decisions: the case of smallholder farmers in Lesotho

Seasonal climate forecasts have been promoted as a means to increase the resilience of marginal groups in Africa. The manifestations of this are still to be seen. This paper argues that successful dissemination and adoption of the forecast requires an in-depth profile of the characteristics and needs of user groups. The case study of a mountainous village in southern Lesotho is used to highlight the decisions which one group of marginal users – smallholder farmers – might make in response to the forecast. A participatory role-play exercise explores what information households presently receive and how new climate forecast information could be integrated into seasonal decision making. Results show that there are a number of low-input options available to these farmers for responding to the forecast. Adoption, however, is going to require repeated exposure to the forecast in conjunction with forecast development that is suited to users’ needs. The case study is linked back to the larger scale by suggesting paths that seasonal climate forecast development could take if it is to contribute to improving livelihood sustainability among marginal groups.
Effective velocities in fractured media: a numerical study using the rotated staggered finite‐difference grid

The modelling of elastic waves in fractured media with an explicit finite‐difference scheme causes instability problems on a staggered grid when the medium possesses high‐contrast discontinuities (strong heterogeneities). For the present study we apply the rotated staggered grid. Using this modified grid it is possible to simulate the propagation of elastic waves in a 2D or 3D medium containing cracks, pores or free surfaces without hard‐coded boundary conditions. Therefore it allows an efficient and precise numerical study of effective velocities in fractured structures. We model the propagation of plane waves through a set of different, randomly cracked media. In these numerical experiments we vary the wavelength of the plane waves, the crack porosity and the crack density. The synthetic results are compared with several static theories that predict the effective P‐ and S‐wave velocities in fractured materials in the long wavelength limit. For randomly distributed and randomly orientated, rectilinear, non‐intersecting, thin, dry cracks, the numerical simulations of velocities of P‐, SV‐ and SH‐waves are in excellent agreement with the results of the modified (or differential) self‐consistent theory. On the other hand for intersecting cracks, the critical crack‐density (porosity) concept must be taken into account. To describe the wave velocities in media with intersecting cracks, we propose introducing the critical crack‐density concept into the modified self‐consistent theory. Numerical simulations show that this new formulation predicts effective elastic properties accurately for such a case.
Advances in Thermokarst Research

The term thermokarst describes the processes and landforms that involve collapse of the land surface as a result of the melting of ground ice. We review the literature that has contributed to our understanding of patterns, processes and feedbacks, and the environmental consequences of thermokarst, focusing on hillslope, thaw lake and wetland processes. Advances in remote sensing techniques, and their application in a broad suite of change detection studies, indicate recent increases in the rates and magnitude of thermokarst including retrogressive thaw slumping, lake expansion and the transformation of frozen peatlands to collapsed wetlands. Field‐based studies and modelling have enhanced the knowledge of processes and feedbacks associated with warming permafrost, changes in talik geometry and accelerated thaw slump activity, and thaw lake expansion. Hydrological processes can strongly influence the rates of thaw lake and gully development, and the degradation of frozen peatlands. Field studies and calibrated modelling efforts that investigate the drivers of thermokarst and test conceptual ideas of landscape evolution will be critical to further advance the prediction of landscape and ecosystem change. Thermokarst research provides an important context for studying the environmental implications of permafrost degradation. Hillslope thermokarst can alter the water quality of lakes and streams with implications for aquatic ecosystems. Investigation of the interactions between thermokarst and hydrologic and ecological processes has improved knowledge of the feedbacks that accelerate change or lead to stabilisation in terrestrial and thaw lake environments. Finally, the influence of permafrost thaw on soil carbon dynamics will be an important focus of thermokarst research because of feedbacks with the global climate system. Copyright © Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada 2013.
RepFlow: Minimizing flow completion times with replicated flows in data centers

Short TCP flows that are critical for many interactive applications in data centers are plagued by long flows and head-of-line blocking in switches. Hash-based load balancing schemes such as ECMP aggravate the matter and result in long-tailed flow completion times (FCT). Previous work on reducing FCT usually requires custom switch hardware and/or protocol changes. We propose RepFlow, a simple yet practically effective approach that replicates each short flow to reduce the completion times, without any change to switches or host kernels. With ECMP the original and replicated flows traverse distinct paths with different congestion levels, thereby reducing the probability of having long queueing delay. We develop a simple analytical model to demonstrate the potential improvement. Further, we conduct NS-3 simulations and Mininet implementation and show that RepFlow provides 50%-70% speedup in both mean and 99-th percentile FCT for all loads, and offers near-optimal FCT when used with DCTCP.
An Intact Zinc Ring Finger Is Required for Tumor Necrosis Factor Receptor-associated Factor-mediated Nuclear Factor-κB Activation but Is Dispensable for c-Jun N-terminal Kinase Signaling*

The diverse biological effects of the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor superfamily are believed to be mediated in part through TNF receptor-associated factors (TRAFs), a family of cytoplasmic adaptor proteins which can activate intracellular signaling pathways, including the nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) pathways. TRAFs 2, 5, and 6 strongly activate both pathways when overexpressed; however, TRAF 3 (a close homologue of TRAF 5) does not significantly activate either pathway. The current study addresses the structural basis for this difference by substituting corresponding domains of TRAF 5 into TRAF 3 and testing activation of both pathways. A small region of TRAF 5 (the first zinc finger and 10 residues of the second zinc finger) is sufficient to convert TRAF 3 into an activator of both pathways. Also, an intact zinc ring finger is required for NF-κB activation but not JNK activation. In agreement with this finding, TRAF 2A, a TRAF 2 splice variant with an altered ring finger, is a specific activator of JNK. These findings suggest that different domains of TRAFs may be involved in NF-κB and JNK signaling. Also, alternative splicing of TRAFs may represent a novel mechanism whereby TNF family receptors can mediate distinct downstream effects in different tissues.
Validating and Linking the GIMMS Leaf Area Index (LAI3g) with Environmental Controls in Tropical Africa

The recent Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS) LAI3g product provides a 30-year global times-series of remotely sensed leaf area index (LAI), an essential variable in models of ecosystem process and productivity. In this study, we use a new dataset of field-based LAITrue to indirectly validate the GIMMS LAI3g product, LAIavhrr, in East Africa, comparing the distribution properties of LAIavhrr across biomes and environmental gradients with those properties derived for LAITrue. We show that the increase in LAI with vegetation height in natural biomes is captured by both LAIavhrr and LAITrue, but that LAIavhrr overestimates LAI for all biomes except shrubland and cropland. Non-linear responses of LAI to precipitation and moisture indices, whereby leaf area peaks at intermediate values and declines thereafter, are apparent in both LAITrue and LAIavhrr, although LAITrue reaches its maximum at lower values of the respective environmental
Effect of high-dose rosuvastatin loading before percutaneous coronary intervention in female patients with non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndrome.

BACKGROUND Early loading statin therapy before percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is associated with reduced mortality and periprocedural myocardial injury. The aim of this study was to study the effect of rosuvastatin loading therapy before PCI in female patients with non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndrome (NSTEACS). METHODS Consecutive 117 female patients with NSTEACS were randomly assigned to either the group of rosuvastatin loading before PCI (20 mg 12 hours before angioplasty procedure, with a further 10 mg dose 2 hours before procedure, the loading dose group, n = 59) or the no rosuvastatin treatment group before PCI (control group, n = 58). Periprocedural myocardial injury, periprocedural changes of high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), interleukin (IL)-1, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-a in serum and the incidence of major adverse cardiac events (MACE) 3 months and 6 months later were assessed. RESULTS The incidence of periprocedural myocardial injury was higher in control group than loading dose group (CKMB: 10.17% vs. 25.86%, P = 0.027; Troponin I: 11.86% vs. 29.31%, P = 0.019). MACE occurred in 1.69% of patients in loading dose group and 12.07% of those in control group 3 months after procedure (P = 0.026), 3.39% vs. 17.24% at 6 months (P = 0.014). The levels of hs-CRP, IL-1, IL-6, and TNF-a in serum were not significantly different between the two groups before PCI, but after PCI they were significantly higher in control group. CONCLUSIONS High-dose rosuvastatin loading before PCI significantly reduced periprocedural myocardial injury and periprocedural inflammation cytokines release and improved 3-month and 6-month clinical outcomes in female patients with NSTEACS who underwent PCI.
Distinguishing theories of dysfunction, treatment and care. Reflections on ‘Describing rehabilitation interventions’

Background: An editorial by Wade (Clinical Rehabilitation 2005; 19: 811-18. suggested a method for describing rehabilitation interventions. Objective: To review the editorial critically, and to suggest a more complete theory. Editorial: The editorial develops a model identifying factors that should be considered when analysing a complex rehabilitation problem, and provides a high-level description of the rehabilitation process. It explicitly does not address theories of behaviour change. New ideas: Three additional theoretical models are needed. The first considers the mechanisms that link the factors identified in Wade's model. For example how does self-esteem (in personal context) actually influence activity performance? This is a theory of dysfunction. The second needs to discuss how treatments alter their target. For example how does cognitive behavioural therapy alter pain perception and/or alter activity performance? This is a theory of treatment. It may be related to the theory of dysfunction. The third, which is less certain, needs to consider the process of giving support (maintaining the status quo). For example, how should one offer continuing opportunities for meaningful social role performance to someone with major cognitive losses? This is a theory of care. Conclusion: The two models that Wade integrated in his conceptual framework (the World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning (WHO ICF) and the rehabilitation process) should primarily be considered as descriptive in character. Theories are still needed to understand how activity limitation arises and how treatments alter activity limitation, and possibly how a patient is supported to maintain a certain level of activity.
Dynamic models of residential water demand

Static, Fisher-Kaysen, Koyck, flow adjustment (Bergstrom), and stock adjustment econometric models of the demand for residential water are tested for their ability to explain the monthly residential demand for water in Tucson. Marginal price and a second price-related variable are used in the estimating equations to account for block rates and fixed charges in the water rate schedule. The other independent vari ables are household income and evapotranspiration minus rainfall. The Fisher-Kaysen model produced very poor statistical results. The estimated long-run marginal price elasticities of demand varied from −0.266 to −0.705. The short-run marginal price elasticity estimates varied from −0.179 to −0.358 except for the linear flow adjustment model with a value of −2.226. This unexpected result casts some doubt on the applicability of the flow adjustment model to estimating the price elasticity of demand with monthly data.
An assessment of SPOT capability for cartographic applications in Indonesia

Abstract An assessment of the operational cartographic capability of SPOT in Indonesia is presented from the points of view of (1) the size of the smallest distinguishable land cover units through computation of the percentages of pure pixels per unit and dominant unit per pixel and (2) planimetric accuracy. Generally speaking, units larger than 0.16 and 0.05ha can be distinguished with SPOT multispectral (XS) and panchromatic (P) data respectively. For full images, basic manipulations (bilinear transformation or shift, enlargement and rotation) of level-IB SPOT digital data and photographs provide standard deviation accuracies towards local Transverse Mercator (LTM) maps of 2 and 3 pixels, respectively. Due to the poor reliability of most LTM maps, SPOT should undoubtedly be used as a major cartographic data source in Indonesia.
A High-Speed Low-Voltage Phase Detector for Clock Recovery From NRZ Data

A novel topology of phase detector (PD) for applications in clock recovery systems from nonreturn-to-zero data is presented in this paper. The PD operates directly on the data stream, without requiring preprocessing, and behaves like a sampling-type PD, providing a sinusoidal phase characteristic. The triple-tail cell principle is exploited to obtain a circuit topology suitable to low-voltage high-speed applications, with a very simple structure and thus limited jitter generation. A model is proposed to understand circuit behavior and optimize its design. The PD has been used in a clock-and-data recovery circuit for 10-Gb/s optical communications, and measurements in agreement with SONET specifications are reported.
Comprehensive Dissection of Transcriptome Data and Regulatory Factors in Pancreatic Cancer Cells

Features of pancreatic cancers include high mortality rates caused by rapid tumor progression and a lack of effective therapy. Underpinning the molecular mechanisms involved in the alteration of the gene expression program in the pancreatic cancer remains to be understood. In the current study, we performed a comprehensive analysis using 282 pancreatic tumor and normal samples from seven independent expression data sets to provide a better view on the interactions between different transcription factors (TFs) and the most affected biological pathways in pancreatic cancer. We highlighted common differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and common affected processes within pancreatic cancer samples. We revealed 16 main DE‐TFs that regulated gene expression alterations as well as the most significant processes in pancreatic cancer compared to normal cells. For example, we found the upregulated FOXM1 to be a top regulator of pancreatic cellular transformation based on results from different analyses, including from its regulation of gene regulatory networks, its presence in protein complex, its significant regulation of genes related to cancer pathways, and its regulation of most of the identified DE‐TFs. Furthermore, we provided a model and assessed the role of different DE‐TFs in the regulation of the most affected pancreatic‐ and cancer‐specific processes. In conclusion, our bioinformatics meta‐analysis of high throughput expression data sets, besides clarifying common affected genes and pathways, also showed the mechanisms involved in regulating these common profiles. Our results, especially for DE‐TFs, could potentially be useful for screening for pancreatic cancer, and for confirming or determining novel pharmacological targets. J. Cell. Biochem. 118: 3976–3985, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Forage Intake and Wastage by Ewes in Pea/Hay Barley Swath Grazing and Bale Feeding Systems

Harvested feed costs, particularly during the winter, are traditionally the highest input associated with a ruminant livestock operation. Although swath grazing has been practiced for over 100 years and literature exists for cattle use of swath grazing, no published results are available on use of swath grazing by sheep. Sixty mature, white-faced ewes were used in a completely randomized design repeated 2 years to evaluate whether feeding method (swath grazed or fed as baled hay in confinement) of intercropped field pea ( Pisum sativum L.) and spring barley ( Hordeum vulgare L.) forage affected ewe ADG (average daily gain), forage DMI (dry matter intake), and wastage. The study was conducted at Ft. Ellis Research Station in Bozeman, MT during the summers of 2010 and 2011. Each year, 30 ewes were allocated to 3 confinement pens (10 ewes/pen) and 30 ewes were
Smelling home can prevent dispersal of reef fish larvae

Many marine fish and invertebrates show a dual life history where settled adults produce dispersing larvae. The planktonic nature of the early larval stages suggests a passive dispersal model where ocean currents would quickly cause panmixis over large spatial scales and prevent isolation of populations, a prerequisite for speciation. However, high biodiversity and species abundance in coral reefs contradict this panmixis hypothesis. Although ocean currents are a major force in larval dispersal, recent studies show far greater retention than predicted by advection models. We investigated the role of animal behavior in retention and homing of coral reef fish larvae resulting in two important discoveries: (i) Settling larvae are capable of olfactory discrimination and prefer the odor of their home reef, thereby demonstrating to us that nearby reefs smell different. (ii) Whereas one species showed panmixis as predicted from our advection model, another species showed significant genetic population substructure suggestive of strong homing. Thus, the smell of reefs could allow larvae to choose currents that return them to reefs in general and natal reefs in particular. As a consequence, reef populations can develop genetic differences that might lead to reproductive isolation.
Proceedings of MobiSys 2003: The First International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services

Remote execution can transform the puniest mobile device into a computing giant able to run resource-intensive applications such as natural language translation, speech recognition, face recognition, and augmented reality. However, easily partitioning these applications for remote execution while retaining application-speciﬁc information has proven to be a difﬁcult challenge. In this paper, we show that automated dynamic re-partitioning of mobile applications can be reconciled with the need to exploit application-speciﬁc knowledge. We show that the useful knowledge about an application relevant to remote execution can be captured in a compact declarative form called tactics . Tactics capture the full range of meaningful partitions of an application and are very small relative to code size. We present the design of a tactics-based remote execution system, Chroma, that performs comparably to a runtime system that makes perfect partitioning decisions. Furthermore, we show that Chroma can automatically use extra resources in an over-provisioned environment to improve application performance.
Immunological and Metabolic Effects of Prophylactic Insulin Therapy in the NOD-scid/scid Adoptive Transfer Model of IDDM

Prophylactic insulin therapy prevents IDDM in spontaneous animal models of the disease and has shown promise in preventing the disease in humans. Although large clinical trials have been formed to use this therapy, a comparative analysis of the efficiency of different pharmaceutical forms and doses of insulin in preventing IDDM has not been performed, and the mechanism underlying the observed prevention of disease is unknown. In the NOD-scid/scid adoptive transfer model of IDDM (10(7) new-onset NOD splenocytes injected intravenously into 6- to 8-week NOD/scid-scid recipients; insulitis develops at 6–9 days post-transfer and 100% IDDM by 32 days post-transfer), life-table (log-rank) analyses revealed that IDDM can be delayed (compared with insulin-free diluent, once daily, n = 8) with equivalent efficiency by prophylactic administration (–9–50 days post-transfer) of high (metabolism-altering) doses of short-acting (0.5 U, once daily, regular, n = 13) or long-acting (0.5 U, once daily, ultralente, n = 9) insulin as well as non-metabolism-altering low-dose insulin (0.02 U, once daily, regular, n = 8). Furthermore, IDDM was delayed with somatostatin (0.2 μg, twice daily, n = 11), an agent that suppresses endogenous insulin production. No significant difference was seen between the preventative effects of these agents. In an assessment of when therapies can be initiated and still maintain clinical efficiency, only prophylactic somatostatin therapy delayed IDDM (n = 10, P = 0.02) when initiated at 14 days post-transfer, whereas the short-acting insulin regimen did not retard the onset of IDDM (n = 8, P = 0.25) compared with diluent-treated controls. The 24-h urinary C-peptide levels were significantly reduced with short-acting (−56%, P = 0.01) and long-acting (–67%, P = 0.02) insulin products and somatostatin (–59%, P = 0.02) compared with diluent-treated controls. These results indicate that both immunological and metabolic (i.e., β-cell rest) factors may contribute to the beneficial effects of prophylactic insulin therapy.