Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Frequency and Associated Factors of Amphotericin B Nephrotoxicity in Hospitalized Patients in Hematology-Oncology Wards in the Southwest of Iran

Background Nephrotoxicity is the most clinically significant adverse reaction of amphotericin B. Different aspects of amphotericin B (AmB) nephrotoxicity have not been studied well in our population. Objectives The purpose of this study was to assess the frequency, time onset, and possible associated factors of AmB nephrotoxicity in hospitalized patients in hematology-oncology wards in the southwest of Iran. Patients and Methods A cross-sectional, observational study was performed over a period of 9 months at 2 hematology-oncology and 1 hematopoietic stem cell transplantation wards at Namazi Hospital. Patients aged 15 years or older with no documented history of acute kidney injury or chronic kidney disease who were scheduled to receive formulations of AmB intravenously for at least 1 week were included. The required demographic and clinical data of the patients were recorded. Urine urea, creatinine, sodium, potassium, and magnesium levels were measured at days 0, 3, 5, 7, 10, and 14 of the AmB treatment. AmB nephrotoxicity based on serum creatinine increase, renal potassium wasting, hypokalemia, and hypomagnesemia were determined. Results Among the 40 patients recruited for the study, 11 (27.5%) patients developed AmB nephrotoxicity with a mean ± standard deviation onset of 6.73 ± 2.36 days. In 5 patients, AmB nephrotoxicity resolved spontaneously without any intervention. According to the multivariate logistic regression model, none of the studied demographic, clinical, and paraclinical variables were significantly associated with AmB nephrotoxicity. The duration of hospitalization (P = 0.541) and the mortality rate (P = 0.723) were comparable between the patients with and without AmB nephrotoxicity. Hypokalemia and renal potassium wasting were identified in 45% and 27.5% of the patients during AmB treatment, respectively. Conclusions Nearly one-third (27.5%) of our cohort developed nephrotoxicity within the first week of AmB treatment. Hypokalemia and renal potassium wasting were more notable, affecting about one-half and one-third of the AmB recipients, respectively.
A New Hybrid Genetic Algorithm for the Job Shop Scheduling Problem with Setup Times

In this paper we face the Job Shop Scheduling Problem with Sequence Dependent Setup Times by means of a genetic algorithm hybridized with local search. We have built on a previous work and propose a new neighborhood structure for this problem which is based on reversing operations on a critical path. We have conducted an experimental study across the conventional benchmarks and some new ones of larger size. The results of these experiments show clearly that our approach outperforms the current state-of-the-art methods.
Heavy metal content in halophytic plants from inland and maritime saline areas

We investigated the concentration of Aluminium (Al), Cobalt (Co), Chromium (Cr), Copper (Cu), Iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn), Nickel (Ni) and Zinc (Zn) in the root and aboveground organs of four halophyte species (Salicornia europaea, Suaeda maritima, Salsola soda and Halimione portulacoides), as well as in the soil from maritime and inland saline areas. The aim of our research was to evaluate the capability of some halophyte species to absorb different heavy metals and to detect differentiation of heavy metal accumulation within populations from inland and maritime saline areas. Generally, the plant roots had significantly higher concentrations of metals when compared to stems and leaves. Zinc was the only metal with concentrations significantly higher in the leaves than in the root and stem. Populations from maritime saline areas had higher trace root and stem metal concentrations than populations from inland saline areas. Excepting zinc, populations from inland saline areas had higher heavy metal concentrations in the leaves. The factors that affected metal accumulation by halophytes included the percentage of salt in the soil. We also discuss the potential use of these halophytes in phytoremediation.
Human DNA Replication-related Element Binding Factor (hDREF) Self-association via hATC Domain Is Necessary for Its Nuclear Accumulation and DNA Binding*

We previously demonstrated that hDREF, a human homologue of Drosophila DNA replication-related element binding factor (dDREF), is a DNA-binding protein predominantly distributed with granular structures in the nucleus. Here, glutathione S-transferase pulldown and chemical cross-linking assays showed that the carboxyl-terminal hATC domain of hDREF, highly conserved among hAT transposase family members, possesses self-association activity. Immunoprecipitation analyses demonstrated that hDREF self-associates in vivo, dependent on hATC domain. Moreover, analyses using a series of hDREF mutants carrying amino acid substitutions in the hATC domain revealed that conserved hydrophobic amino acids are essential for self-association. Immunofluorescence studies further showed that all hDREF mutants lacking self-association activity failed to accumulate in the nucleus. Self-association-defective hDREF mutants also lost association with endogenous importin β1. Moreover, electrophoretic gel-mobility shift assays revealed that the mutations completely abolished the DNA binding activity of hDREF. These results suggest that self-association of hDREF via the hATC domain is necessary for its nuclear accumulation and DNA binding. We also found that ZBED4/KIAA0637, another member of the human hAT family, also self-associates, again dependent on the hATC domain, with deletion resulting in loss of efficient nuclear accumulation. Thus, hATC domains of human hAT family members appear to have conserved functions in self-association that are required for nuclear accumulation.
Forecasting Time Series Water Levels on Mekong River Using Machine Learning Models

Forecasting water levels on Mekong river is an important problem needed to be studied for flood warning. In this paper, we investigate the application to forecasting of daily water levels at Thakhek station on Mekong river using machine learning models such as LASSO, Random Forests and Support Vector Regression (SVR). Experimental results showed that SVR was able to achieve feasible results, the mean absolute error of SVR is 0.486(m) while the acceptable error of a flood forecast model required by the Mekong River Commission is between 0.5(m) and 0.75(m).
An argumentation system for reasoning with LPm

Inconsistent knowledge-bases can entail useful conclusions when using the three-valued semantics of the paraconsistent logic LP. However, the set of conclusions entailed by a consistent knowledge-base under the three-valued semantics is smaller than set of conclusions entailed by the knowledge-base under a two-valued semantics. Preferring conflict-minimal interpretations of the logic LP; i.e., LPm, reduces the gap between these two sets of conclusions. Preferring conflict-minimal interpretations introduces non-monotonicity. To handle the non-monotonicity, this paper proposes an assumption-based argumentation system. Assumptions needed to close branches of a semantic tableaux form the arguments. Stable extensions of the set of derived arguments correspond to conflict minimal interpretations and conclusions entailed by all conflict-minimal interpretations are supported by arguments in all stable extensions.
The Cultural Contemplation of Inquiry Teaching in China

In China, the theoretical research of inquiry teaching has achieved fruitful results, but some misunderstanding and problems still exist in practice: There are some inquiry teaching that is the lack of clear teaching objectives; some inquiry teaching that is the lack of “inquiry” in teaching; some teachers unilaterally use inquiry teaching instead of the traditional teaching; some inquiry teaching processes are mere formalities; there is the lack of teaching standards. In this paper, we review inquiry teaching from the perspective of the culturology and try to improve the rational thinking of the practice of inquiry teaching. In establishing a cultural contemplation view for the inquiry teaching, teachers need to change their personal philosophy and cultural views, create democratic and harmonious cultural atmosphere, form a stable inquiry community and take a cultural evaluation method.
Applications of molecular genetics to gastrointestinal and liver diseases. I. Technical approaches

Recent developments in recombinant DNA techniques have allowed an understanding of the molecular genetics of many diseases, some affecting the gastrointestinal tract and liver. DNA probes which detect sequences within or near disease genes can be selected by direct approaches, if the gene product or primary gene function is known, or by indirect methods when the chromosomal location is known. Such probes have resulted in extensive family studies which can now define risks to family members of developing a genetic disease. The development of the polymerase chain reaction will also be of considerable use in clinical genetics and in the diagnosis of some infectious diseases. The techniques are summarized and examples of their use are given. A glossary of terms is also provided.
Dynamic routing of restorable bandwidth-guaranteed tunnels using aggregated network resource usage information

This paper presents new algorithms for dynamic routing of restorable bandwidth-guaranteed paths. We assume that connection requests one-by-one and have to be routed with no a priori knowledge of future arrivals. In order to guarantee restorability, in addition to determining an active path to route each request, an alternate link (node) disjoint backup (restoration) path has to be determined for the request at the time of connection initiation. This joint on-line routing problem is becoming particularly important in optical networks and in multiprotocol label switching (MPLS)-based networks due to the trend in backbone networks toward dynamic provisioning of bandwidth-guaranteed or wavelength paths. A straightforward solution for the restoration problem is to find two disjoint paths. However, this results in excessive resource usage. Given a restoration objective, such as protection against single-link failures, backup path bandwidth usage can be reduced by judicious sharing of backup paths amongst certain active paths while still maintaining restorability. The best sharing performance is achieved if the routing of every path in progress in the network is known to the routing algorithm at the time of a new path setup. We give an integer programming formulation for this problem which is new. Complete path routing knowledge is a reasonable assumption for a centralized routing algorithm. However, it is not often desirable, particularly when distributed routing is preferred. We show that an aggregate information scenario which uses only aggregated and not per-path information provides sufficient information for a suitably developed algorithm to be able to perform almost as well as the complete information scenario. Disseminating this aggregate information is feasible using proposed traffic engineering extensions to routing protocols. We formulate the dynamic restorable bandwidth routing problem in this aggregate information scenario and develop efficient routing algorithms. We show that the performance of our aggregate information-based algorithm is close to the complete information bound.
Re)Envisioning the Tourism Experiences of People with Vision Impairment

Whilst tourism has been recognised as a tool for tackling social exclusion, disability has been a neglected area of tourism. Moreover, few studies have focused on the experiences of vision impaired people in part due to an assumption that they can derive little from seeing ‘the sights’ and experiencing a place at its full potential. My research aims to gain a profound and in-depth understanding of the tourism experiences of vision impaired people to discover the meaning and significance of tourism in their lives while also capturing embodied experiences in tourism places and spaces. Underpinned by the social, sociology of impairment and affirmation models of disability, the study’s emancipatory disability research philosophy places vision impaired people’s voices at its heart as the study’s co-researchers. Phase One involved four focus groups of vision impaired people at Cardiff Vale and Valleys while Phase Two is based on in-depth conversations with five vision impaired people and their families in South East Wales. Phase One identifies individual, social and environmental barriers to positive participation while Phase Two highlights the need for effective staff training, universal design, accessible information and illustrates that embodied experiences involve the synaesthesia of the senses connecting with multi-sensory tourism environments. Vision impairment does not necessarily preclude appreciation of visual impressions and my co-researchers have demonstrated from non-vision and low vision perspectives that meaningful tourism experiences are achievable. However, the research also presents a complex and diverse picture of needs and aspirations in tourism engagement. The thesis concludes with a series of recommendations for enquiry, practice and policy. It is suggested that inclusive thinking by the tourism industry, scholars and vision impaired people themselves hold the key to improving rights of citizenship and enabling vision impaired people to find an equal sense of place in the world.
Censored quantile regressions and the length of unemployment periods in West Germany

In this paper, we estimate the effect of different macro and micro variables on the distribution of unemployment duration in West Germany using censored quantile regressions. We analyze unemployment periods of more than 91,000 observations from the years 1981 to 1997 drawn from the IAB employment subsample. The latter is an administrative data set that is representative with respect to the socially insured workforce. Surprisingly, we find that the educational degree and variables indicating the macroeconomic environment such as the unemployment rate have a weak effect only. On the other hand, variables reflecting the (un-)employment history of an individual such as the length of tenure, recall to the same employer in the past, recent unemployment, and the position in the population income distribution before unemployment have the strongest effects on unemployment duration. We conclude that work history variables are the ones most suitable in characterizing the unemployment duration of an individual. From a methodological point of view, it is interesting that some regression coefficients have a different sign depending on the quantiles of the unemployment duration distribution. This clearly is a violation of the classical proportional hazard assumption which is very common in unemployment duration analysis.
AmazingStore: available, low-cost online storage service using cloudlets

"Cloud-based" Internet services rely on the availability and reliability of managed data centers. Recent events indicate that data centers tend to create centralized points of failure, and providing resilience to large-scale faults remains a significant challenge for both providers and users of cloud infrastructures. Running data centers also incurs high hard-ware and network costs, particularly for storage-intensive applications such as data synchronization and backup. In this paper, we show how to improve data availability while reducing costs in storage clouds, by augmenting centralized clouds with an efficient client-side storage system. We introduce AmazingStore, a low-cost cloud storage system that provides high data availability while protecting against correlated failures. We describe our initial experiences with an already deployed prototype and outline opportunities in this modified cloud model.
Brewing complications: the effect of acute ethanol exposure on wound healing

Ethanol consumption is linked to a higher incidence of traumatic wounds and increases the risk for morbidity and mortality following surgical or traumatic injury. One of the most profound effects of acute ethanol exposure on wound healing occurs during the inflammatory response, and altered cytokine production is a primary component. Acute ethanol exposure also impairs the proliferative response during healing, causing delays in epithelial coverage, collagen synthesis, and blood vessel regrowth. The accumulated data support the paradigm that acute ethanol intoxication prior to injury significantly diminishes a patient's ability to heal efficiently.
Tris[4-(dimethylamino)pyridinium][(bis-μ-dichlorido)-decaaquadichloridodineodymium(III)] pentachloride dihydrate

The title compound, (C7H11N2)3[Nd2Cl4(H2O)10]Cl5·2H2O, consists of three 4-(dimethylamino)pyridinium cations, one of which is disordered about an inversion center, one [Nd2Cl4(H2O)10]2+ dication possessing inversion symmetry, five chloride anions, one of which is disordered over two inversion centers, and two lattice water molecules. The 4-(dimethylamino)pyridinium cations are protonated at the pyridine N atoms and form N—H⋯Cl hydrogen bonds with Cl− counter-ions. The dimethylamino groups (C/N/C) lie close to the plane of the pyridinium rings, making dihedral angles of 1.6 (6)° and 6.5 (3)°. In the crystal, the [Nd2Cl4(H2O)10]2+ dications are linked via O—H⋯O and O—H⋯Cl hydrogen bonds, forming sheets lying parallel to the bc plane. These sheets are linked via O—H⋯Cl hydrogen bonds, forming a three-dimensional network. The 4-(dimethylamino)pyridinium cations are located in the cavities and linked to the framework by C—H⋯Cl interactions.
A Review of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Use in the Treatment of Schizophrenia

Patients with schizophrenia often fail to respond to standard antipsychotic medications or have a partial treatment response. Few treatment options are available for these patients. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) was developed and investigated over the last 10 years as a potential treatment option for various psychiatric conditions. Increasingly, studies are focusing on potential applications of rTMS in schizophrenia. To date, most of these studies were symptom-specific rather than focused on the treatment of the disorder in general. The most extensive literature focuses on the use of low-frequency stimulation to attempt to disrupt or reduce the intensity of persistent refractory auditory hallucinations. This research tends to suggest that rTMS could have a role in this subset of patients. There is also preliminary but limited evidence that rTMS could have a role in reducing the negative symptoms of schizophrenia and perhaps in augmenting cognitive function. These findings also highlight the pressing need for further research including multisite studies to confirm the value of these options.
Racism, Gun Ownership and Gun Control: Biased Attitudes in US Whites May Influence Policy Decisions

Objective Racism is related to policies preferences and behaviors that adversely affect blacks and appear related to a fear of blacks (e.g., increased policing, death penalty). This study examined whether racism is also related to gun ownership and opposition to gun controls in US whites. Method The most recent data from the American National Election Study, a large representative US sample, was used to test relationships between racism, gun ownership, and opposition to gun control in US whites. Explanatory variables known to be related to gun ownership and gun control opposition (i.e., age, gender, education, income, conservatism, anti-government sentiment, southern vs. other states, political identification) were entered in logistic regression models, along with measures of racism, and the stereotype of blacks as violent. Outcome variables included; having a gun in the home, opposition to bans on handguns in the home, support for permits to carry concealed handguns. Results After accounting for all explanatory variables, logistic regressions found that for each 1 point increase in symbolic racism there was a 50% increase in the odds of having a gun at home. After also accounting for having a gun in the home, there was still a 28% increase in support for permits to carry concealed handguns, for each one point increase in symbolic racism. The relationship between symbolic racism and opposition to banning handguns in the home (OR1.27 CI 1.03,1.58) was reduced to non-significant after accounting for having a gun in the home (OR1.17 CI.94,1.46), which likely represents self-interest in retaining property (guns). Conclusions Symbolic racism was related to having a gun in the home and opposition to gun control policies in US whites. The findings help explain US whites’ paradoxical attitudes towards gun ownership and gun control. Such attitudes may adversely influence US gun control policy debates and decisions.
Universality classes for deterministic surface growth.

We study the growth of a surface through deterministic local rules. A scaling theory for the generalized deterministic Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation ${\ensuremath{\partial}}_{t}$h=D \ensuremath{\Delta}h+\ensuremath{\lambda}\ensuremath{\Vert}\ensuremath{\nabla}h${\ensuremath{\Vert}}^{\ensuremath{\beta}}$, with \ensuremath{\beta}\ensuremath{\ge}1, is developed. A one-dimensional surface model, which corresponds to \ensuremath{\beta}=1, is solved exactly. It can be obtained as a limiting case of ballistic deposition, or as the deterministic limit of the Eden model. We determine the scaling exponents, the correlation functions, and the skewness of the surface. We point out analogies to the Burgers equation (\ensuremath{\beta}=2), for which such detailed properties are not known.
Multicultural Aspects of Disabilities: A Guide to Understanding and Assisting Minorities in the Rehabilitation Process, by Willie V. Bryan

Book Reviews Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work This book of 16 chapters consists of the following four major sections: Part One: Culture and Multiculturalism; Part Two; Disability; Part Three: Disabilities and Multiculturalism; and Part Four: Helping. In Part One, Bryan writes about how “culture is common behavior, beliefs, attitudes, and values shared by a group of people” (p. 8), learned by socialization. Pointing out that people with disabilities “consist of all human characteristics in existence, all racial and ethnic backgrounds, all social and economic levels, and both genders,” (p. 11), the author discusses the difficulty in qualifying people with disabilities as a cultural group. He also recognizes that people with disabilities have more in common with typical individuals than with other people with disabilities. However, he supports the presence of a disability culture. He suggests recent legislation supports the idea of a disability culture by recognizing discrimination against people with disabilities as similar to that faced by racial minorities. Part Two: Disability contains two chapters on Disability and Rehabilitation and Discrimination and Disability. Bryan defines those with a disability as having the following characteristics: