Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does timing of dialysis in patients with ESRD and acute myocardial infarcts affect morbidity or mortality?

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Patients with ESRD have an increased incidence of coronary events with a relatively higher risk for mortality after acute myocardial infarction (AMI). We evaluated whether it is safer to delay dialysis in AMI or if delay poses separate risks. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS We conducted a retrospective review of 131 long-term hemodialysis patients who had AMI and were admitted between 1997 and 2005 at three New York City municipal hospitals. Patients were separated into three groups on the basis of time between cardiac symptoms and first dialysis (<24 h, 24 to 48 h, and >48 h). RESULTS A total of 17 (13%) patients died, 10 (59%) of whom had either hypotension or an arrhythmia during their first cardiac care unit dialysis. Although these groups were comparable in acuity and cardiac status, there were no findings of increased morbidity (26, 36, and 20%, respectively) or mortality (11, 18, and 13%, respectively), despite differences in the timing of each group's dialysis. We found that previous cardiac disease, predialysis K+, DeltaK+ after dialysis, and APACHE scores were significantly higher in patients with peridialysis morbidity. CONCLUSIONS We conclude that there is no increased morbidity with early dialysis in AMI, but rather close attention needs to be paid to the rate of decrease in serum potassium in patients with ESRD and their level of acuity when undergoing dialysis.
Gender-Stereotypic Images of Occupations Correspond to the Sex Segregation of Employment

This study examines the role of gender stereotypes in justifying the social system by maintaining the division of labor between the sexes. The distribution of the sexes in 80 occupations was predicted from participants’ beliefs that six dimensions of gender-stereotypic attributes contribute to occupational success: masculine physical, feminine physical, masculine personality, feminine personality, masculine cognitive, and feminine cognitive. Findings showed that, to the extent that occupations were female dominated, feminine personality or physical attributes were thought more essential for success; to the extent that occupations were male dominated, masculine personality or physical attributes were thought more essential. Demonstrating the role of gender stereotypes in justifying gender hierarchy, occupations had higher prestige in that participants believed that they required masculine personality or cognitive attributes for success, and they had higher earnings to the extent that they were thought to require masculine personality attributes.
A Command Oriented Derivation Approach with Product-Specific Architecture Optimization

FROM/BCS is a promising product line engineering method which has the advantage of integrating variability in software development diagrams or models and to explicitly give variants of variation points. This approach has been proposed to allow transposition of industrial chain production to software world. However, to come closer to the real reduction of cost and risk and taking into consideration the evolution of software requirements, the method have to be improved since it does not give a way to set characteristics so as to derive a specific product easily. To address this issue in this paper, through the concept of command, we give a modeling approach that allows requirements fixation. In the new approach named CODA (Command Oriented Derivation Approach), given a requirement variation, the specific product architecture is derived fluently from the generic architecture and the command specification.
Novel Injectable Bioartificial Tissue Facilitates Targeted, Less Invasive, Large-Scale Tissue Restoration on the Beating Heart After Myocardial Injury

Background—Implantation of bioartificial patches distorts myocardial geometry, and functional improvement of the recipient heart is usually attributed to reactive angiogenesis around the graft. With the liquid bioartificial tissue compound used in this study, we achieved targeted large-scale support of the infarcted left ventricular wall and improvement of heart function. Methods and Results—A liquid compound consisting of growth factor-free Matrigel and 106 green fluorescent protein (GFP)-positive mouse (129sv) embryonic stem cells (ESCs) was generated and injected into the area of ischemia after ligation of the left anterior descending artery in BALB/c mice (group I). Left anterior descending artery-ligated mice (group II) and mice with Matrigel (group III) or ESC treatment alone (group IV) were used as the control groups (n=5 in all groups). The hearts were harvested for histology 2 weeks later after echocardiographic assessment with a 15-MHz probe. The liquid injectable tissue solidified at body temperature and retained the geometry of the infarcted lateral wall. Immunofluorescence stains revealed voluminous GFP grafts. The quality of restoration (graft/infarct area ratio) was 45.5±10.8% in group I and 29.1±6.7% in group IV (P=0.034). ESCs expressed connexin 43 at intercellular contact sites. The mice treated with the compound had a superior heart function compared with the controls (P<0.0001 by ANOVA/Bonferroni test; group I: 27.1±5.4, group II:11.9±2.4, group III:16.2±2.8, group IV: 19.1±2.7). Conclusions—Injectable bioartificial tissue restores the heart’s geometry and function in a targeted and nondistorting fashion. This new method paves the way for novel interventional approaches to myocardial repair, using both stem cells and matrices.
Design of Unequal Error Protection LDPC Codes for Higher Order Constellations

We present an optimization method for unequal error protection (UEP)-LDPC codes with higher order constellations. By modifying the density evolution algorithm under the Gaussian approximation, we propose a flexible code design algorithm for a variable number of protection classes and arbitrary modulation schemes with Gray mapping. Our results show that appropriate code design for higher order constellations reduces the overall bit-error rate. Furthermore, the influence on the UEP capability of the code, that is, the difference in bit-error rate between the protection classes, is investigated.
THE INTERNATIONAL C2 JOURNAL

Data mediation is an essential component in the Modeling and Simulation field (M&S). Managing multiple data sources and exchanging data among multiple systems requires sophisticated tools and a powerful process management system. Business Process Management (BPM) provides a framework for modeling and managing business activities, both manual and automated, in a consistent manner. Managing automated processes offers an opportunity to integrate external applications into the platform. By integrating automated data transformation tools into the business processes using graphical programming, we provide an approach to achieve operational interoperability among diverse applications without the need for any application to be aware of any other.
Book Review: Caitlin Killian North African Women in France: Gender, Culture and Identity Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2006, $21.95 pbk (ISBN: 978 0 8047 5421 7), x+279 pp

rience of transitional justice which is represented here, the contributors rarely raise their analytic gaze beyond their own particular context to extrapolate lessons of relevance to the discipline as a whole (with some exceptions, including Sikkink and Walling’s chapter on Argentina). While this may reflect a deliberate and legitimate editorial choice to prioritize accessibility, it does inhibit the collection from progressing beyond political description. This is a shame, both because of the calibre of the contributors, and because it appears to be consonant with a general lack of theoretical engagement in the discipline of transitional justice. However, despite this criticism, I have referred to this book repeatedly in the few weeks it has been sitting on my desk. It is an informative and extremely convenient presentation of transitional justice ‘snapshots’, and while there may be little genuinely novel material for those who are familiar with recent developments and debates, the cohesion of the collection and the panoramic view of the field offered make it a worthwhile investment for students and practitioners alike.
Chronic administration of aldosterone depresses baroreceptor reflex function in the dog.

In a previous study it was shown that acute perfusion of aldosterone into the isolated carotid sinus decreased baroreceptor activity. The aim of the present study was to determine whether chronic, systemic administration of aldosterone also depresses baroreflex function. In six conscious dogs, the baroreflex was determined before and 10 days after an osmotic minipump containing aldosterone (100 micrograms/kg in 2 mL) was implanted. The slope of the relation between systolic arterial pressure and heart rate was significantly blunted after aldosterone administration (9.1 +/- 0.7 versus 13.3 +/- 1.2 for nitroglycerin, P < .01; 23.4 +/- 5.0 versus 40.1 +/- 5.0 for phenylephrine, P < .01). Baroreflex slopes did not change in a sham group (minipump with saline) and an aldosterone plus spironolactone (600 mg/d) group. Plasma aldosterone levels were significantly elevated after the aldosterone minipump was implanted (443 +/- 72 versus 37 +/- 11 pg/mL, P < .001). Mean arterial pressure was not significantly increased after aldosterone (106.5 +/- 3.8 versus 100.4 +/- 2.6 mm Hg, P = .2). On the 10th day after aldosterone or saline infusion, an acute experiment was carried out. Single baroreceptor fibers were recorded from the carotid sinus nerve. Compared with the sham group, the threshold was significantly elevated in the aldosterone group (111.3 +/- 2.1 versus 85.8 +/- 2.8 mm Hg), and the peak discharge rate was markedly decreased (32.5 +/- 1.5 versus 54.7 +/- 2.5 spikes per second, P < .01). The depressed baroreceptor function could be partially restored after a bolus injection of the Na+,K(+)-ATPase inhibitor ouabain (5 micrograms/kg i.v.). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Improved genetic algorithm for magnetic material two-stage multi-product production scheduling: A case study

In this paper an improved genetic algorithm (GA) was present for magnetic material two-stage, multi-product, production scheduling problem (TMPS) with parallel machines. TMPS was changed into molding-stage's multi-product production scheduling problem (MMPS) and the scheduling model was set up for the first time. A set of random solutions were explored first, better feasible solutions were obtained by GA. To shorten the solving time and improve solution accuracy, an improved GA was proposed. We improved GA's crossover operator, adopted heuristic greedy 3PM crossover operator (HG3PMCO) to reduce GA's computational time. Through contrast of computational results of MILP, general GA and improved GA, the improved GA has demonstrated its effectiveness and reliability in solving the molding sintering production scheduling problems and the MILP model set up for the first time is reasonable. At last, the improved genetic algorithm was used in molding stage and sintering stage TMPS of magnetic material.
Gp120 on HIV-1 Virions Lacks O-Linked Carbohydrate

As HIV-1-encoded envelope protein traverses the secretory pathway, it may be modified with N- and O-linked carbohydrate. When the gp120s of HIV-1 NL4-3, HIV-1 YU2, HIV-1 Bal, HIV-1 JRFL, and HIV-1 JRCSF were expressed as secreted proteins, the threonine at consensus position 499 was found to be O-glycosylated. For SIVmac239, the corresponding threonine was also glycosylated when gp120 was recombinantly expressed. Similarly-positioned, highly-conserved threonines in the influenza A virus H1N1 HA1 and H5N1 HA1 envelope proteins were also found to carry O-glycans when expressed as secreted proteins. In all cases, the threonines were modified predominantly with disialylated core 1 glycans, together with related core 1 and core 2 structures. Secreted HIV-1 gp140 was modified to a lesser extent with mainly monosialylated core 1 O-glycans, suggesting that the ectodomain of the gp41 transmembrane component may limit the accessibility of Thr499 to glycosyltransferases. In striking contrast to these findings, gp120 on purified virions of HIV-1 Bal and SIV CP-MAC lacked any detectable O-glycosylation of the C-terminal threonine. Our results indicate the absence of O-linked carbohydrates on Thr499 as it exists on the surface of virions and suggest caution in the interpretation of analyses of post-translational modifications that utilize recombinant forms of envelope protein.
THE PREVALENCE OF CHILD ABUSE AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS (Brief Report)

Abstract This is an investigation into the prevalence of child psychological, physical, emotional, and ritualistic abuse among a sample of university students. A retrospective self-rating questionnaire was completed by 722 University of the North undergraduate students (South Africa) in a classroom setting. The questionnaire addressed the demographic variables of the participants; psychological, physical, and emotional abusive experiences from their parents or adult caretakers before the age of 17 years; and ritualistic abusive experiences before the age of 17 years. The prevalence rates were as follows: 79.1% (N=526) for psychological abused, 16.2% (N=110) for physical abuse, 28.5% (N=194) for emotional abuse, 6.0% (N=37) for ritualistic abuse. The author calls for an awareness campaign in those areas of child abuse and for awareness making of the public about the possible short and long-term effects of such abusive behaviours on children.
Predictive accuracy of political stock markets: Empirical evidence from a European perspective

In a meta study of 25 political stock markets conducted in Germany in the last decade we analyze their predictive success. Although the predictions of political stock markets are highly correlated with the corresponding polls, the markets are able to aggregate additional information. One explanatory variable for variations in predictive success of the German stock markets relative to the polls is market efficiency. Even though the overall predictions of the political stock markets are quite reliable on the aggregate level we find systematic prediction errors on the contract level that can be attributed to the vote share size and to individual trader biases.
Immunohistochemistry of the canine vomeronasal organ

The canine's olfactory acuity is legendary, but neither its main olfactory system nor its vomeronasal system has been described in much detail. We used immunohistochemistry on paraffin‐embedded sections of male and female adult dog vomeronasal organ (VNO) to characterize the expression of proteins known to be expressed in the VNO of several other mammals. Basal cell bodies were more apparent in each section than in rodent VNO and expressed immunoreactivity to anticytokeratin and antiepidermal growth factor receptor antibodies. The thin layer of neurone cell bodies in the sensory epithelium and axon fascicles in the lamina propria expressed immunoreactivity to neurone cell adhesion molecule, neurone‐specific beta tubulin and protein gene product 9.5. Some neurones expressed growth‐associated protein 43 (GAP43): and a number of those also expressed neurone‐specific beta tubulin‐immunoreactivity. Some axon fascicles were double labelled for those two proteins. The G‐protein alpha subunits Gi and Go, involved in the signal transduction pathway, showed immunoreactivity in the sensory cell layer. Our results demonstrate that the canine vomeronasal organ contains a population of cells that expresses several neuronal markers. Furthermore, GAP43 immunoreactivity suggests that the sensory epithelium is neurogenic in adult dogs.
National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis Algorithms for Hierarchical Spatial Reasoning Algorithms for Hierarchical Spatial Reasoning

In several applications, there is the need to reason about spatial relations using multiple local frames of reference organized in aggregation hierarchies. In this paper we deal with direction relations, a special class of spatial relations that describe order in space (e.g., north, northeast). We assume a spatial database of points and regions. Points belong to regions, which may be parts of larger regions and so on. The direction relations between points in the same region are explicitly represented. Inference mechanisms are applied to extract the relation between points in different regions and detect inconsistencies. We study two complementary types of inference. The first one derives the relation between two points that exist in different regions through chains of common points using path consistency. The second type of inference uses the relation between ancestor regions to infer the relation between the points. The paper describes algorithms for both types of inference and discusses their computational complexity. Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank Christos Papadimitriou and Timos Sellis for providing
Examining language patterns and growth of "at risk" bilingual children

The goal of this report was to explore ways to differentiate the performance of early school-aged Spanish-English bilingual children in U.S. public schools, who appear “at-risk” for language impairment versus those who have true risk. We compared the patterns of performance reported for children with typical development and language impairment reported in the literature to those for children with risk described by Bedore et al., (2013) and Perez et al., (in preparation). Children with risk seem quite different than their peers with true language problems on formal measures such as the Bilingual English Spanish Assessment ( BESA ). However these children presented fewer errors or weaknesses in spontaneous speech than did their peers with true language impairment. Language variability and errors are expected in the language of young bilingual children, so it is of utmost importance that language professionals closely assess each of the child’s
Efficient Analysis of Discrete Event Systems: Supervisor Synthesis with Binary Decision Diagrams

Due to the ever-increasing complexity of software and hardware, it is becoming more and more important to develop methods and tools for automatic analysis and synthesis of systems. One obstacle in achieving this goal has been the unmanageable size and complexity of the involved mathematical operations. For example, real-world systems such as manufacturing cells or embedded systems represented as composite discrete-event systems tend to have huge numbers of states. The enormity of these models will make most types of analysis very hard if not impossible. Taking advantage of Binary Decision Diagrams, this work presents a set of algorithms and heuristics for searching the enormous state-space of large discrete event systems in a efficient manner. Furthermore, the author demonstrates how important problems within the field of supervisor control theory can be solved using the presented search methods. It is also shown how the conjunction of such methods and algorithmic optimization is used to gain performance even more.
Effects of the PV-generator's terminals connection to ground on electromagnetic transients caused by lightning in utility scale PV-plants

The connection to ground of the negative or positive terminal of photovoltaic (PV) generators is a common practice to mitigate the effects of the potential induced degradation (PID), which is attributed to chemical reactions (ion's exchange) between the materials that constitute the PV-module during operation. Furthermore, the complex topology of a utility scale PV-plant, its dimensions and the stored energy in the central PV-inverter's DC-link open the hypothesis that overvoltages at the DC- and AC-side of the PV-plant may arise during transients caused by impulse currents. The objective of this publication is to explore the effects of this practice on the operation of utility scale MW-class PV-plants during transients caused by lightning.
The topography of the environment alters the optimal search strategy for active particles

Significance Adopting the right search strategy is of critical importance in a broad range of natural and man-related activities. For example, when foraging in an environment with scarce resources, the search strategy used by animals to look for nourishment is a matter of life or death. It is generally accepted that, under most conditions, the optimal strategy alternates ballistic and diffusive steps. This, however, does not take into account that many search spaces feature complex topographies with boundaries, barriers, and obstacles. Here, we show that the presence of such complexity shifts the optimal strategy toward less ballistic and more diffusive searches. In environments with scarce resources, adopting the right search strategy can make the difference between succeeding and failing, even between life and death. At different scales, this applies to molecular encounters in the cell cytoplasm, to animals looking for food or mates in natural landscapes, to rescuers during search and rescue operations in disaster zones, and to genetic computer algorithms exploring parameter spaces. When looking for sparse targets in a homogeneous environment, a combination of ballistic and diffusive steps is considered optimal; in particular, more ballistic Lévy flights with exponent α≤1 are generally believed to optimize the search process. However, most search spaces present complex topographies. What is the best search strategy in these more realistic scenarios? Here, we show that the topography of the environment significantly alters the optimal search strategy toward less ballistic and more Brownian strategies. We consider an active particle performing a blind cruise search for nonregenerating sparse targets in a 2D space with steps drawn from a Lévy distribution with the exponent varying from α=1 to α=2 (Brownian). We show that, when boundaries, barriers, and obstacles are present, the optimal search strategy depends on the topography of the environment, with α assuming intermediate values in the whole range under consideration. We interpret these findings using simple scaling arguments and discuss their robustness to varying searcher’s size. Our results are relevant for search problems at different length scales from animal and human foraging to microswimmers’ taxis to biochemical rates of reaction.
Delta-sigma modulators using frequency-modulated intermediate values

This paper describes a new first- and second-order delta-sigma modulator concept where the first integrator is extracted and implemented by a frequency modulator with the modulating signal as the input. The result is a simple delta-sigma modulator with no need for digital-to-analog converters, allowing straightforward multibit quantization. Without the frequency modulator, the circuit becomes a frequency-to-digital converter with delta-sigma noise shaping. An experimental first- and second-order modulator has been implemented in a 1.2-/spl mu/m standard digital CMOS process and the results confirm the theory. For the first-order modulator an input signal amplitude of 150 mV resulted in a signal-to-quantization noise ratio (SQNR) of /spl ap/115 dB at 2 MHz sampling frequency and signal bandwidth of 500 Hz.