Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
NICE chest pain guidance

To the Editor: The recent editorial in Heart by Fox and Mclean concludes ‘The NICE guidance on chest pain provides a series of important advances over the current status of investigation and triage of chest pain and should be welcomed by the profession’. 1 One of the key recommendations of the recently published National Institute for Health and Clinical excellence (NICE) guidelines for the early management of unstable angina and non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction is the formal assessment of individual risk of future adverse cardiovascular events using the Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) risk stratification score.2 GRACE is a simple risk model that is able to predict the level of risk for individual patients for inhospital and 6-month risks of mortality and mortality or myocardial infarction (MI), based on outcome data derived from a large, multinational, prospective observational study of patients with an acute …
Resistance to teamworking in a UK research and development laboratory

This article presents an ethnographic exploration of resistance to teamworking in a UK research and development laboratory named RDL. It focuses on the nature of autonomy and responsibility and the implications for resistance. It finds that resistance is shaped by the laboratory technicians’ individualistic interactions with technology, the laboratory layout and the technicians’ desire for personal task-related autonomy and individual responsibility rather than team-based accountability. However, although resistance is linked to an individualistic interpretation of work it is supported by collective collusion. The article also finds that resistance is not necessarily anti-work. It is simultaneously oriented towards the interests of the company and individual technicians through the technicians’ desire to perform their job well. Finally, the article demonstrates the local and constructed nature of resistance.
Promotion at Canadian Universities: The Intersection of Gender, Discipline, and Institution

Statistics Canada’s annual census of full-time faculty at all Canadian universities, between 1984 to 1999, is used to measure the effect of gender, discipline, and institution on promotion from assistant to associate professor and from associate to full professor. Accelerated failure time models show that gender has some effect on rates of promotion, but that disciplinary and institutional variation are much greater. Generally, departments in science, engineering, and professional schools promote their faculty more rapidly, while disciplines strongly oriented to training practitioners are slowest. There is considerable variationamong institutions, but this is not strongly linked to institutional characteristics such as size and prestige. All these factors more strongly affect the length of time for promotion from associate to full professor, than for promotion from assistant to associate professor. Nous utilisons le recensement annuel des professeures et professeurs a temps plein des universites canadiennes de Statistiques Canada (1984 a 1999) afi n de mesurer la variation du temps necessaire a la promotion (d’adjoint a agrege puis d’agrege a titulaire) en fonction du sexe, de la discipline et de l’institution. Des modeles statistiques (accelerated failure time models) demontrent que le sexe a un leger effet sur la vitesse de la promotion mais que cet effet est moindre que celui de la discipline et de l’institution. Regle generale, les departements de sciences et de genie ainsi que les ecoles professionnelles (medecine, droit, etc.) promeuvent plus rapidement leurs professeurs, tandis que les domaines de formation pratique (soins infi rmiers, travail social, etc.) sont plus lents. La variation entre institutions est considerable mais n’est associee ni a leur taille, ni a leur prestige. Ces deux facteurs affectent davantage la vitesse de promotion du rang de professeur adjoint a celui de professeur agrege que la titularisation.
Estimating Reading Growth Using Intermittent CBM Progress Monitoring

This study addressed three basic questions involving the amount of measurement needed to obtain valid estimates of reading growth. Participants were 41 students with learning disabilities from Grades 3 to 8, monitored across 10 weeks using curriculum-based measurement (CBM) of words read correctly (WRC). We compared growth slopes based on measurements taken weekly, every 2 weeks, every 3 weeks, every 4 weeks, and every 9 weeks to an estimate of “true slope. ” Results showed that frequency of progress monitoring could be significantly reduced without detracting from the validity of growth estimates. However, validity was negatively affected by minimizing the number of WRC scores collected at each measurement occasion and by employing only one rather than four scores to estimate baseline.
An efficient and modified median root prior based framework for PET/SPECT reconstruction algorithm

Bayesian statistical algorithm plays a significant role in the quality of the images produced by Emission Tomography like PET/SPECT, since they can provide an accurate system model. The major drawbacks associated with this algorithm include the problem of slow convergence, choice of optimum initial point and ill-posedness. To address these issues, in this paper a hybrid-cascaded framework for Median Root Prior (MRP) based reconstruction algorithm is proposed. This framework consists of breaking the reconstruction process into two parts viz. primary and secondary. During primary part, simultaneous algebraic reconstruction technique (SART) is applied to overcome the problems of slow convergence and initialization. It provides fast convergence and produce good reconstruction results with lesser number of iterations than other iterative methods. The task of primary part is to provide an enhanced image to secondary part to be used as an initial estimate for reconstruction process. The secondary part is a hybrid combination of two parts namely the reconstruction part and the prior part. The reconstruction is done using Median Root Prior (MRP) while Anisotropic Diffusion (AD) is used as prior to deal with ill-posedness. A comparative analysis of the proposed model with some other standard methods in literature is presented both qualitatively and quantitatively for a simulated phantom and a standard medical image test data. Using cascaded primary and secondary reconstruction steps, yields significant improvements in reconstructed image quality. It also accelerates the convergence and provides enhanced results using the projection data. The obtained result justifies the applicability of the proposed method.
Spatially mapping of friendliness for human-robot interaction

It is important that robots interact with multiple people. However, most research has dealt with only interaction between one robot and one person and assumed that the distance between them does not change. This paper focuses on the spatial relationships between a robot and multiple people during interaction. Based on the distance between them, our robot selects appropriate functions to use. It does this using a method we developed for spatially mapping the friendliness of each space around the robot. The robot interacts with the highest friendliness spaces (people) selectively, thereby enabling interaction between the robot and multiple people. Our humanoid robot, SIG2 which the proposed method was implemented into, interacted with about 30 visitors, at the Kyoto University Museum. The results obtained using questionnaires after interaction showed that the actions of SIG2 were easy to understand even when it interacted with multiple people at the same time and that SIG2 behaved in a friendly manner.
Factors Associated with Methadone Treatment Duration: A Cox Regression Analysis

This study examined retention rates and associated predictors of methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) duration among 128 newly admitted patients in Taiwan. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to obtain demographic and drug use history. Daily records of methadone taken and test results for HIV, HCV, and morphine toxicology were taken from a computerized medical registry. Cox regression analyses were performed to examine factors associated with MMT duration. MMT retention rates were 80.5%, 68.8%, 53.9%, and 41.4% for 3, 6, 12, and 18 months, respectively. Excluding 38 patients incarcerated during the study period, retention rates were 81.1%, 73.3%, 61.1%, and 48.9% for 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, and 18 months, respectively. No participant seroconverted to HIV and 1 died during the 18-months follow-up. Results showed that being female, imprisonment, a longer distance from house to clinic, having a lower methadone dose after 30 days, being HCV positive, and in the New Taipei city program predicted early patient dropout. The findings suggest favorable MMT outcomes of HIV seroincidence and mortality. Results indicate that the need to minimize travel distance and to provide programs that meet women’s requirements justify expansion of MMT clinics in Taiwan.
Integrins and other cell adhesion molecules

Cell‐cell and cell‐substratum interactions are mediated through several different families of receptors. In addition to targeting cell adhesion to specific extracellular matrix proteins and ligands on adjacent cells, these receptors influence many diverse processes including cellular growth, differentiation, junction formation, and polarity. Several families of adhesion receptors have been identified. These include: 1) the integrins, heterodimeric molecules that function both as cell‐substratum and cell‐cell adhesion receptors; 2) the adhesion molecules of the immunoglobulin superfamily, which are involved in cell‐cell adhesion and especially important during embryogenesis, wound healing, and the inflammatory response; 3) the Cadherins, developmentally regulated, calcium‐dependent homophilic cell‐cell adhesion proteins; 4) the LEC‐CAMs, cell adhesion molecules with lectin‐like domains that mediate white blood cell/endothelial cell adhesion; and 5) homing receptors that target lymphocytes to specific lymphoid tissue. In this review we summarize recent data describing the structure and function of some of these cell adhesion molecules (with special emphasis on the integrin family) and discuss the possible role of these molecules in development, inflammation, wound healing, coagulation, and tumor metastasis. — Albelda, S. M. , Buck, C. A. Integrins and other cell adhesion molecules. FASEB J. 4: 2868‐2880; 1990.
Tweens negotiating identity online – Swedish girls' and boys' reflections on online experiences

How do Swedish tweens (10–14 years old) understand and experience the writing of their online identities? How are such intertwined identity markers as gender and age expressed and negotiated? To find some answers to these questions, participants in this study were asked to write a story about the use of online web communities on pre-prepared paper roundels with buzzwords in the margins to inspire them. Content analysis of these texts using the constant comparative method showed that the main factors determining how online communities are understood and used are the cultural age and gender of the user. Both girls and boys chat online, but girls more often create blogs while boys more often play games. Gender was increasingly emphasised with age; but whereas boys aged 14 described themselves as sexually active and even users of pornography, girls of the same age described themselves as shocked and repelled by pornography and fearful of sexual threats. In this investigation an intersectionalist frame of reference is used to elucidate the intertwined power differentials and identity markers of the users' peer group situation.
White Matter Lesion Progression in LADIS: Frequency, Clinical Effects, and Sample Size Calculations

Background and Purpose— White matter lesion (WML) progression has been advocated as a surrogate marker in intervention trials on cerebral small vessel disease. We assessed the rate of visually rated WML progression, studied correlations between lesion progression and cognition, and estimated sample sizes for clinical trials with pure WML progression vs combined WML progression-cognitive outcomes. Methods— Those 394 participants of the Leukoaraiosis and Disability Study (LADIS) study with magnetic resonance imaging scanning at baseline and 3-year follow-up were analyzed. WML progression rating relied on the modified Rotterdam Progression Scale. The Vascular Dementia Assessment Scale global score and a composite score of specific executive function tests assessed longitudinal change in cognition. Sample size calculations were based on the assumption that treatment reduces WML progression by 1 grade on the Rotterdam Progression Scale. Results— WML progression related to deterioration in cognitive functioning. This relationship was less pronounced in subjects with early confluent and confluent lesions. Consequently, studies in which the outcome is cognitive change resulting from treatment effects on lesion progression will need between 1809 subjects per treatment arm when using executive tests and up to 18 853 subjects when using the Vascular Dementia Assessment Scale score. Studies having WML progression as the sole outcome will need only 58 or 70 individuals per treatment arm. Conclusions— WML progression is an interesting outcome for proof-of-concept studies in cerebral small vessel disease. If cognitive outcome measures are added to protocols, then sample size estimates increase substantially. Our data support the use of an executive test battery rather than the Vascular Dementia Assessment Scale as the primary cognitive outcome measure.
A Novel LDA Algorithm Based on Approximate Error Probability with Application to Face Recognition

Extracting proper features is crucial to the performance of a pattern recognition system. Popular feature extraction techniques like principal component analysis (PCA), Fisher linear discriminant analysis (FLD), and independent component analysis (ICA) extract features that are not directly related to the classification accuracy. In this paper, we propose a new linear discriminant analysis algorithm (LDA) whose criterion function is based on the probability of classification error. The efficiency of this novel algorithm is demonstrated by application to face recognition problems.
Creating Bacterial Strains from Genomes That Have Been Cloned and Engineered in Yeast

Character Transplant When engineering bacteria, it can be advantageous to propagate the genomes in yeast. However, to be truly useful, one must be able to transplant the bacterial chromosome from yeast back into a recipient bacterial cell. But because yeast does not contain restriction-modification systems, such transplantation poses problems not encountered in transplantation from one bacterial cell to another. Bacterial genomes isolated after growth in yeast are likely to be susceptible to the restriction-modification system(s) of the recipient cell, as well as their own. Lartigue et al. (p. 1693, published online 20 August) describe multiple steps, including in vitro DNA methylation, developed to overcome such barriers. A Mycoplasma mycoides large-colony genome was propagated in yeast as a centromeric plasmid, engineered via yeast genetic systems, and, after specific methylation, transplanted into M. capricolum to produce a bacterial cell with the genotype and phenotype of the altered M. mycoides large-colony genome. A Mycoplasma mycoides genome was engineered in yeast and then transplanted into M. capricolum cells to produce a new strain. We recently reported the chemical synthesis, assembly, and cloning of a bacterial genome in yeast. To produce a synthetic cell, the genome must be transferred from yeast to a receptive cytoplasm. Here we describe methods to accomplish this. We cloned a Mycoplasma mycoides genome as a yeast centromeric plasmid and then transplanted it into Mycoplasma capricolum to produce a viable M. mycoides cell. While in yeast, the genome was altered by using yeast genetic systems and then transplanted to produce a new strain of M. mycoides. These methods allow the construction of strains that could not be produced with genetic tools available for this bacterium.
Object location using path separators

We study a novel separator property called <i>k-path separable</i>. Roughly speaking, a <i>k-path separable</i> graph can be recursively separated into smaller components by sequentially removing <i>k</i> shortest paths. Our main result is that every minor free weighted graph is <i>k</i>-path separable. We then show that <i>k</i>-path separable graphs can be used to solve several object location problems: (1) a small-worldization with an average poly-logarithmic number of hops; (2) an (1 + ε)-approximate distance labeling scheme with <i>O</i>(log <i>n</i>) space labels; (3) a stretch-(1 + ε) compact routing scheme with tables of poly-logarithmic space; (4) an (1 + ε)-approximate distance oracle with <i>O</i>(<i>n</i> log <i>n</i>) space and <i>O</i>(log <i>n</i>) query time. Our results generalizes to much wider classes of weighted graphs, namely to bounded-dimension isometric sparable graphs.
The constructive process of memory for sentences and pictures.

The purpose of the present study was to assess the effect of intervening items on the accuracy of recognition memory for pictures and sentences. Subjects were presented a sequence of 24 pictures and sentences, later followed by the presentation of 24 intervening items. Each intervening item corresponded to, but was in the opposite modality as one of the original items. These intervening items were either semantically relevant or irrelevant to the corresponding originals. Subjects then received a "same-different" recognition test which included original and changed items. The presence of a semantically relevant intervening item depressed the obtained values of d' and the probability of a hit, relative to the effects of an irrelevant intervening item. The data are discussed in terms of support for the integration property of constructive memory. The interpretation was that subjects semantically integrated the original items with the relevant intervening items and made subsequent recognition responses on the basis of the integrated memory.
The effect of age of acquisition and its locus in Korean: An eyetracking study

It has been debated whether the effect of age of acquisition (AoA) can be explained by word frequency. Zevin and Seidenberg (2002) reported that the AoA effects observed in previous studies would be confounded with the cumulative frequency. On the other hand, some studies reported the effects of AoA using naming, lexical decision, and eyetracking (Juhaz & Rayner, 2006) and have discussed its locus. This study examined whether there would be independent AoA effects and also explored its locus using equi-biased homophones in Korean.
Effect of age and sex on carotid intima-media thickness, elasticity and brachial endothelial function in healthy adults: the cardiovascular risk in Young Finns Study.

AIMS The objective was to produce reference values and to analyse the associations of age and sex with carotid intima-media thickness (IMT), carotid compliance (CAC), and brachial flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) in young healthy adults. METHODS AND RESULTS We measured IMT, CAC, and FMD with ultrasound in 2265 subjects aged 24-39 years. The mean values (mean +/- SD) in men and women were 0.592 +/- 0.10 vs. 0.572 +/- 0.08 mm (P < 0.0001) for IMT, 2.00 +/- 0.66 vs. 2.31 +/- 0.77%/10 mmHg (P < 0.0001) for CAC, and 6.95 +/- 4.00 vs. 8.83 +/- 4.56% (P < 0.0001) for FMD. The sex differences in IMT [95% confidence interval (CI) for sex difference -0.013 to 0.004 mm, P = 0.37] and CAC (-0.01 to 0.18%/10 mmHg, P = 0.09) became non-significant after adjustments with risk factors and carotid diameter. In FMD, the sex difference was unaltered after adjustments for risk factors, but was reversed after adjustment with brachial diameter (95% CI 0.18-1.32%, P < 0.01). With aging, IMT increased 5.7 +/- 0.4 microm/year and CAC decreased 0.042 +/- 0.003%/10 mmHg/year. The association of age with IMT and CAC was slightly attenuated (12 and 22%, respectively) after adjustments with risk factors, but remained significant (both P < 0.0001). Aging was not significantly related to brachial FMD (P = 0.16). CONCLUSION Reference values produced in the present study can be utilized in the cardiovascular risk stratification among young people. Sex differences in the markers of subclinical atherosclerosis were mostly explained by differences in risk factors and vessel size. This emphasizes the importance of risk factor control in the prevention of atherosclerosis in young adults.
The effect of cold blockade of the medullary chemoreceptors on the CO2 modulation of vascular tone and heart rate.

We have previously reported that a direct relationship exists between neurogenic vascular tone in the cat hindlimbs and arterial CO2 tension . Since this relationship is not appreciably changed by deafferentiation of peripheral chemoreceptors, we have studied the possible role of structures on the ventral surface of the medulla in mediating the CO2 sensitivity of neurogenic tone. The vagosympathetic trunks and the carotid sinus nerves were sectioned bilaterally in cats under sodium pentobarbital anesthesia. The ventral surface of the medulla was perfused with artificial cerebrospinal fluid of physiological , pH, and temperature. The animals were hyperventilated with different mixtures of CO2 (0, 4, and 10% in O2), so as to change from 12.6 ± 1.2 to 57.4 ± 1.8 mmHg (mean ± SE). The perfusion pressure of the hindlimbs, vascularly isolated and perfused at constant flow, was positively correlated with . Bilateral chemosensitive areas of the ventral surface of the medulla oblongata (7 mm caudal to the foramen .
Nonrandom Selection and the Attributable Cost of Surgical-Site Infections

To the Editor: In the April 2002 issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, Hollenbeak et al. claimed to control for selection bias in a model of the additional cost of surgical-site infection. The authors developed a two-stage model to additionally control for a variable that was derived from the risk factors for wound infection. They argued that these risk factors would also independently increase cost, thus acting as true confounders. Presumably, the purpose of including this risk index on the right-hand side of their regression model was to minimize confounding, which Haley describes as severity of illness bias.
A Pedagogia Contemplativa no Ensino Superior: Para uma Abordagem Completa ao que o Ser Humano Convoca

This article presents a theoretical reflection on the contemplative approach to higher education. Starting by considering ancient philosophical traditions, in what regards the education, and the transformation of the self we move on to a reflection on the positive impact of the burst of science, in modernity, and simultaneously the darkening side effects of disregarding other paths towards knowledge, much valued until then, such as the case of the contemplative practices. We draw attention towards the uncontrived necessity of opening a new paradigmatic horizon in the conceptualization of the “human”, which is vigorously propelling the so‑called Contemplative Turn, now with the sound support of science itself. We develop the idea that higher education shall not discard the contemplative pedagogy, taking into account the essence of the concepts of education and universitas, which necessarily comprehend and address, not only the personal development in terms of instruction and technical expertise, but also the wholeness of the human being, in terms of balance, righteousness and self‑acknowledgement. We therefore propose that the contemplative approaches will enable to overcome the dominant stage of objectified consciousness, promoting a genuinely relational form of knowledge. Thereupon, we present a short account on the contemplative education movement, and we summarize the main results of its applicability to higher education programs.