Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of blood pressure signal in patients with different ventricular ejection fraction using linear and non-linear methods

Changes in the left ventricle function produce alternans in the hemodynamic and electric behavior of the cardiovascular system. A total of 49 cardiomyopathy patients have been studied based on the blood pressure signal (BP), and were classified according to the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in low risk (LR: LVEF>35%, 17 patients) and high risk (HR: LVEF≤35, 32 patients) groups. We propose to characterize these patients using a linear and a nonlinear methods, based on the spectral estimation and the recurrence plot, respectively. From BP signal, we extracted each systolic time interval (STI), upward systolic slope (BPsl), and the difference between systolic and diastolic BP, defined as pulse pressure (PP). After, the best subset of parameters were obtained through the sequential feature selection (SFS) method. According to the results, the best classification was obtained using a combination of linear and nonlinear features from STI and PP parameters. For STI, the best combination was obtained considering the frequency peak and the diagonal structures of RP, with an area under the curve (AUC) of 79%. The same results were obtained when comparing PP values. Consequently, the use of combined linear and nonlinear parameters could improve the risk stratification of cardiomyopathy patients.
Influence of Electric Loading and Magnetic Saturation on Cogging Torque, Back-EMF and Torque Ripple of PM Machines

The torque ripple of a permanent magnet (PM) machine is mainly due to the cogging torque and distortions of the back-emf waveforms, winding inductances and current waveforms. Both the cogging torque and back-emf are normally calculated at open-circuit conditions. However, they are affected by the electric loading and magnetic saturation. This paper investigates the influence of the load conditions on the cogging torque and back-emf waveform by employing a frozen permeability finite element technique. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the rotor skew on the minimization of the cogging torque, thus torque ripple, is also highlighted. It is found that the cogging torque magnitude is significantly increased under load conditions due to more flux leakage through tooth tips. However, the more important issue is that the cogging torque periodicity also changes, thus the rotor skew technique becomes less effective. In addition, the back-emf waveform under load conditions contains more harmonics, which leads to more electromagnetic torque ripple. It is also proven that the cogging torque, back-emf harmonics and consequently the output torque ripple are effectively diminished if the machine is skewed by one actual cogging torque period, i.e., when the electrical loading influence is considered. The analysis results are supported by experimental measurements.
Be Who You Want to Be: The Philosophy of Facebook and the Construction of Identity

The philosophical concepts of personal identity and social identity and their influence on each other and in particular on our sense of selves is amply evident on Facebook, the social networking site. Facebook is an extension of language, and as we participate in it, it participates in the 'dynamic, ongoing social process' of personal and social identity as a communicative creation.
Minor Events and the Risk of Deep Venous Thrombosis

Summary Background Deep venous thrombosis is a common disease, with genetic and acquired risk factors. Many patients have a history of minor events (short periods of immobilisation such as prolonged travel, short illness, minor surgery or injuries) before onset of venous thrombosis. However, the role of these minor events has received little formal study. Also, we do not know how minor events might interact with the presence of genetic prothrombotic defects (factor V Leiden mutation, factor II mutation, protein C, S and antithrombin deficiency). Patients and Methods On the basis of case-control data from a thrombosis service in the Netherlands, we added a follow-up period for a casecross-over analysis of minor events as risk factors, and a case-only analysis for the interaction with factor V Leiden. A total of 187 patients with first, objectively diagnosed venous thrombosis of the legs, aged 15–70, without underlying malignancies and without major acquired risk factors entered the study. For the analysis of minor events in the case-cross-over analysis, we used a matched odds ratio; in the caseonly analysis, we used the multiplicative synergy index. Results In 32.6% of the 187 patients with deep venous thrombosis who did not have major acquired risk factors, minor events were the only external risk factors. Minor events increased the risk of thrombosis about 3-fold, as estimated in the case-cross-over analysis (odds ratio 2.9, 95% confidence interval 1.5–5.4). The synergy index between minor events and factor V Leiden mutation in the case-only analysis was 0.7 (95% confidence interval 0.3–1.5). Therefore, persons with factor V Leiden mutation who experience a minor event will have an estimated risk increase of about 17-fold, which exceeds the sum of the individual risk factors. Conclusions Minor events are likely to play an important role in the development of deep venous thrombosis, especially in the presence of genetic prothrombotic conditions.
Blood thicker than water: kinship, disease prevalence and group size drive divergent patterns of infection risk in a social mammal

The importance of social- and kin-structuring of populations for the transmission of wildlife disease is widely assumed but poorly described. Social structure can help dilute risks of transmission for group members, and is relatively easy to measure, but kin-association represents a further level of population sub-structure that is harder to measure, particularly when association behaviours happen underground. Here, using epidemiological and molecular genetic data from a wild, high-density population of the European badger (Meles meles), we quantify the risks of infection with Mycobacterium bovis (the causative agent of tuberculosis) in cubs. The risk declines with increasing size of its social group, but this net dilution effect conceals divergent patterns of infection risk. Cubs only enjoy reduced risk when social groups have a higher proportion of test-negative individuals. Cubs suffer higher infection risk in social groups containing resident infectious adults, and these risks are exaggerated when cubs and infectious adults are closely related. We further identify key differences in infection risk associated with resident infectious males and females. We link our results to parent–offspring interactions and other kin-biased association, but also consider the possibility that susceptibility to infection is heritable. These patterns of infection risk help to explain the observation of a herd immunity effect in badgers following low-intensity vaccination campaigns. They also reveal kinship and kin-association to be important, and often hidden, drivers of disease transmission in social mammals.
A Woman's Right to Be Spanked: Testing the Limits of Tolerance of S/M in the Socio-Legal Imaginary

What conditions must be in place for s/m sexuality to be tolerated in law and culture? In this article, I consider the film "Secretary" as a lens to explore the imaginative limits of our socio-legal culture regarding sadomasochism. In Part One, I compare "Secretary" to the film "91/2 weeks". I deconstruct the narrative and aesthetic components of the two films that uphold their contrasting normative visions, arguing that Secretary did indeed chart new ground for the sadomasochist sexual subject. Yet a close discursive analysis reveals that Secretary relied upon other hegemonies to make the s/m couple acceptable and intelligible: their whiteness, their attractiveness, their male-top/female-bottom gender dynamic, the mildness of their kinks, and their interpolation into the law of marriage. In Part Two, I consider Secretary in relation to a trilogy of British cases on s/m, R v. Brown, R. v. Wilson, and R. v. Emmett, and one American divorce case on s/m, Twyman v. Twyman. Reading these cases in relation to Secretary reveals the extent to which tolerance of s/m in the socio-legal imaginary is contingent upon marital privacy and spousal fidelity. This comparative analysis seeks to reveal the complexity involved in assessing the (counter) hegemonic impact of these recent socio-legal texts on s/m.
A comparative analysis of suicide and parasuicide

A prospective study was conducted to analyse the spectrum of suicide attempters and completers at Kasturba Hospital, Manipal, India, over a period of three years (January 2001 to December 2004). The present study comprised a total sample population of 246 cases, of whom 90 died and 156 survived the attempt (1:1.73). Men outnumbered women in the deceased group and women surpassed men in the survivor group. The mean age for the deceased group was 42 years compared with 30 years for the survivor group. Prior attempted suicide in the deceased group was 6.6%. Eighty-three percent of the total population studied opted for ‘chemical methods’, where insecticides topped the list (64.6%) in both the deceased and the survivor group. Among those who preferred ‘physical methods’, 50% died and 50% survived. In the current study, 17% of the subjects had received a psychiatric consultation, of whom 91.3% were diagnosed in the spectrum of ‘depressive disorders. ’ Knowledge about the legalities of suicide was lacking in 65% of victims and their kin.
Outdoor programs and environmental beliefs: Investigating the stability of outcomes and levels of salience

The effects that outdoor programs have on participant feelings about the outdoor environment and wilderness areas are often assumed to be both powerful and positive. Moreover, it is believed that participation in outdoor or wilderness-based programs usually results in participants who have more pro-environmental and pro-wilderness beliefs, values, and attitudes. This study identified and measured changes in environmental attitudes and beliefs after participation in an outdoor leadership program. In addition, the strength or salience of these beliefs and changes in levels of salience was also investigated. The results of this study suggest that environmental beliefs and attitudes were relatively “durable” over the three testing periods. That is, there was little change in reported values over the three measurement times (beginning of the semester, just prior to a three-week expedition, and immediately after the expedition). In addition, participants in the treatment group consistently reported higher levels of pro-environmental beliefs and attitudes when contrasted with a comparison group. Finally, there was a strong association between levels of agreement toward selected environmental attitudes and beliefs, and their concurrent levels of reported salience surrounding those beliefs.
Mental health services for parents affected by mental illness

Purpose of review Despite an increasing awareness of support needs of families affected by parental mental illness, there is a lack of adequate mental healthcare provision for parents. As contemporary mental health services are both user-focused and evidence based, the present review focuses on knowledge regarding the subjective perspective on parenting issues among affected parents and the evidence base for parenting programs. Recent findings There has been a shift in the research focus from adverse effects of parental mental illness on children toward inclusion and the subjective perspective in affected mothers and, more recently, fathers with mental health problems. Parents report on role conflicts, parenting difficulties, and stigma. Despite a broad spectrum of parental needs, many parents are reluctant to use services. There is an increasing evidence base for intervention programs. Summary Adequate care for parents affected by mental illness requires sensitivity for parents’ subjective perspective, interagency collaboration, standard intake practice, high level of professional knowledge and skills, provision of family-friendly environments, evidence-based parenting programs comprising both individual and group approaches and peer support. There is a lack of research on other parenting needs such as desire for children, coping with custody loss, and childlessness related to mental illness.
PLAYING IN THE SAME TWITTER NETWORK

New media platforms such as Twitter allow users to choose from a wide range of political information sources including traditional media, politicians, bloggers and other Twitter users. This study extends the theory of channel complementarity by considering the complementary selection of information sources that occur within a single social media space. This study also conceptualizes information seeking as a social network created by follow relationships on Twitter, allowing tracking actual patterns of source selection. We applied this theoretical and methodological framework to examine information seeking on Twitter related to four US gubernatorial races. We identified the main types of highly followed accounts (i.e. information hubs). Traditional news media outlets (national and local) accounted for nearly half of the information hubs, and grassroots sources such as activists and other users accounted for nearly a third. The patterns of follow relationships indicated local and national subgroups (i.e. clusters) of users identified based on network topology. Local clusters included a subgroup of more densely interconnected users in which local news media and political candidates were hubs. National clusters included a subgroup of more sparsely interconnected users in which national media and online-only news sources served as hubs. High-density clusters were also more likely to host information sources that exhibited two-way information flow with other users, while low-density clusters preferred hubs that follow traditional one-to-many information flow. Theoretical and practical implications for news media and political candidates are discussed.
Development of Hindi speech stimuli to elicit auditory brainstem responses: Necessity and acoustic-phonetic considerations

Abstract Objective: Speech evoked auditory brainstem responses (spABRs) provide a window to understand the neurophysiological processing of speech in the brain. The temporal and spectral characteristics of speech sounds are faithfully represented in the subcortical responses; thus, these responses can be used to assess specific impairments in auditory processing. However, the spABRs are known to be affected by the acoustic properties of speech, language experience and training. Hence, the establishment of language specific speech stimuli is warranted for brainstem processing. The objective of the study was to develop Hindi speech stimuli for brainstem response recordings. Study design: The Hindi stop-voiced and voiceless phoneme of CV combination of 40 ms was synthesized. The behavioural identification score and discrimination ability of the selected stimuli were obtained from children (6–13 years) and adults (18–25 years) with normal hearing (NH) and moderate sensorineural hearing loss (HI). Brainstem evoked responses to stimulus |da| were gained from normal hearing and hearing impaired adults. Results: The identification and discrimination scores of stimuli between NH and HI children and adults were calculated. Statistically significant differences in the mean identification scores of synthesized speech stimuli were obtained. The mean, median, standard deviation, minimum, maximum and 95% confidence interval values of electrophysiological responses to speech stimulus were measured for the discrete peaks and V-A complex for both the groups. Conclusion: This article has delineated a comprehensive methodological approach for the development of Hindi speech stimuli and the recording of auditory brain stem responses to speech stimuli. The acoustic characteristic of the stimulus |da| was faithfully represented at brainstem level in normal hearing adults and found to be statistically different from HI individuals. This suggests that spABR offers an opportunity to segregate normal speech encoding from abnormal speech processing and implies that alterations in brainstem responses could have clinical significance for the identification of subjects with possible speech processing disorders.
Trust Happens: A Multi-Route Model of Trust Formation in Virtual Teams

For over a decade, the dominant theoretical model of trust formation in virtual teams has been a rational assessment of team members' ability, integrity and benevolence. Building on the traditional dual process theories of cognition and newer theories of unconscious cognition, we argue that although this model is appropriate in some cases, there are other ways of forming trust in virtual teams. In this paper, we examine how two distinctly different forms of cognition – planned, rational cognition and unconscious, automatic cognition – are both used to form trust and the situational factors that lead team members to engage in one or the other. Because these forms of cognition are separate and distinct, we develop a process model to explain how and why the different forms of cognition are invoked. Within each part of the process model, we develop a separate variance model that examines the factors that would affect trust formed by that process.
Enabling Parametric Feasibility Analysis in real-time calculus driven performance evaluation

This paper advocates a rigorously formal and compositional style for obtaining key performance and/or interface metrics of systems with real-time constraints. We propose a hierarchical approach that couples the independent and different by nature frameworks of Modular Performance Analysis with Real-time Calculus (MPARTC) and Parametric Feasibility Analysis (PFA). Recent work on Real-time Calculus (RTC) has established an embedding of state-based component models into RTC-driven performance analysis for dealing with more expressive component models. However, with the obtained analysis infrastructure it is possible to analyze components only for a fixed set of parameters, e. g. , fixed CPU speeds, fixed buffer sizes etc., such that a big space of parameters remains unstudied. In this paper, we overcome this limitation by integrating the method of parametric feasibility analysis in an RTC-based modeling environment. Using the PFA tool-flow, we are able to find regions for component parameters that maintain feasibility and worst-case properties. As a result, the proposed analysis infrastructure produces a broader range of valid design candidates, and allows the designer to reason about the system robustness.
Alterations of Na+ currents in myocytes from epicardial border zone of the infarcted heart. A possible ionic mechanism for reduced excitability and postrepolarization refractoriness.

Previously, we have shown abnormalities in Vmax and in the recovery of Vmax in myocytes dispersed from the epicardial border zone (EBZ) of the 5-day infarcted canine heart (myocytes from the EBZ [IZs]). Thus, we sought to determine the characteristics of the whole-cell Na+ current (INa) in IsZs and compare them with the INa of cells from noninfarcted hearts (myocytes from noninfarcted epicardium [NZs]). INa was recorded using patch-clamp techniques under conditions that eliminated contaminating currents and controlled INa for measurement (19 degrees C, 5 mmol/L [Na+]zero). Peak INa density (at -25 mV) was significantly reduced in IZs (4.9 +/- 0.44 pA/pF, n = 36) versus NZs (12.8 +/- 0.55 pA/pF, n = 54; P < .001), yet the half-maximal activation voltage (V0.5), time course of decay, and time to peak INa were no different. However, in IZs, V0.5 of the availability curve (I/Imax curve) was shifted significantly in the hyperpolarizing direction (-80.2 +/- 0.48 mV in NZs [n = 45] versus -83.9 +/- 0.59 mV in IZs [n = 27], P < .01). Inactivation of INa directly from a depolarized prepotential (-60 mV) was significantly accelerated in IZs versus NZs (fast and slow time constants [T1 and T2, respectively] were as follows: NZs [n = 28], T1 = 71.5 +/- 5.6 ms and T2 = 243.7 +/- 17.1 ms; IZs [n = 21], T1 = 36.3 +/- 2.4 ms and T2 = 153 +/- 11.3 ms; P < .001). Recovery of INa from inactivation was dependent on the holding potential (VH) in both cell types but was significantly slower in IZs. At (VH) = -90 mV, INa recovery had a lag in 18 (82%) of 22 IZs (with a 17.6 +/- 1.5-ms lag) versus 2 (9%) of 22 NZs (with 5.9- and 8.7-ms lags); at VH = -100 mV, T1 = 60.9 +/- 2.6 ms and T2 = 352.8 +/- 28.1 ms in NZs (n = 41) versus T1 = 76.3 +/- 4.8 ms and T2 = 464.4 +/- 47.2 ms in IZs (n = 26) (P < .002 and P < .03, respectively); at VH = -110 mV, T1 = 33.4 +/- 1.8 ms and T2 = 293.5 +/- 33.6 ms in NZs (n = 21) versus T1 = 44.3 +/- 2.9 ms and T2 = 388.4 +/- 38 ms in IZs (n = 18) (P < .002 and P < .07, respectively). In sum, INa is reduced, and its kinetics are altered in IZs. These changes may underlie the altered excitability and postrepolarization refractoriness of the ventricular fibers of the EBZ, thus contributing to reentrant arrhythmias in the infarcted heart.
Correlated substitution analysis and the prediction of amino acid structural contacts

It has long been suspected that analysis of correlated amino acid substitutions should uncover pairs or clusters of sites that are spatially proximal in mature protein structures. Accordingly, methods based on different mathematical principles such as information theory, correlation coefficients and maximum likelihood have been developed to identify co-evolving amino acids from multiple sequence alignments. Sets of pairs of sites whose behaviour is identified by these methods as correlated are often significantly enriched in pairs of spatially proximal residues. However, relatively high levels of false-positive predictions typically render such methods, in isolation, of little use in the ab initio prediction of protein structure. Misleading signal (or problems with the estimation of significance levels) can be caused by phylogenetic correlations between homologous sequences and from correlation due to factors other than spatial proximity (for example, correlation of sites which are not spatially close but which are involved in common functional properties of the protein). In recent years, several workers have suggested that information from correlated substitutions should be combined with other sources of information (secondary structure, solvent accessibility, evolutionary rates) in an attempt to reduce the proportion of false-positive predictions. We review methods for the detection of correlated amino acid substitutions, compare their relative performance in contact prediction and predict future directions in the field.
Isolation of coronavirus envelope glycoproteins and interaction with the viral nucleocapsid

The two envelope glycoproteins and the viral nucleocapsid of the coronavirus A59 were isolated by solubilization of the viral membrane with Nonidet P-40 at 4 degrees C followed by sucrose density gradient sedimentation. Isolated E2 consisted of rosettes of peplomers, whereas E1, the membrane glycoprotein, was irregular and amorphous. Under certain conditions significant interactions occurred between components of Nonidet P-40-disrupted virions. Incubation of the Nonidet P-40-disrupted virus at 37 degrees C resulted in formation of a complex between one of the viral glycoproteins, E1, and the viral nucleocapsid. This was caused by a temperature-dependent conformational change in E1, resulting in aggregation of E1 and interaction with the viral RNA in the nucleocapsid. E1 also bound rRNA. The E1-nucleocapsid complexes can be distinguished on sucrose and Renografin density gradients from native viral nucleocapsids. The separation of the membrane glycoprotein E1 from the peplomeric glycoprotein E2 permitted preparation of antisera against these isolated proteins. A model is proposed for the arrangement of the three major structural proteins in the coronavirus A59 virion in relation to the viral envelope and RNA.