Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Update on the propofol infusion syndrome in ICU management of patients with head injury

Purpose of review The propofol infusion syndrome is a rare condition characterized by the occurrence of lactic acidosis, rhabdomyolysis and cardiovascular collapse following high-dose propofol infusion over prolonged periods of time. Patients with traumatic brain injury are particularly at risk of developing this complication because large doses of propofol are commonly used to control intracranial pressure, whereas vasopressors are administered to augment cerebral perfusion pressure. In this review, we provide an update on the literature with particular emphasis on patients with traumatic brain injury. Recent findings Several new case reports and reviews, as well as a number of experiments, have contributed significantly to our increased understanding of the cause of the syndrome. At the basis of the syndrome lies an imbalance between energy utilization and demand resulting in cell dysfunction, and ultimately necrosis of cardiac and peripheral muscle cells. Uncertainty remains whether a genetic susceptibility exists. Nonetheless, the growing number of case reports has made it possible to identify several risk factors. Summary Propofol infusion syndrome is a rare but frequently lethal complication of propofol use. In patients with risk factors, such as traumatic brain injury, it is suggested that an infusion rate of 4 mg/kg per hour should not be exceeded. Early warning signs include unexplained lactic acidosis, lipemia and Brugada-like ECG changes. When these occur, propofol infusion should be discontinued immediately.
Release bursts vs. formant transitions in Polish stop place perception

A perception study with acoustically manipulated tokens sought to establish the relative weight of noise vs. formant transition cues in the perception of stop place of articulation by Polish listeners, and to replicate previous findings from a crowdsourced experiment. Results suggest that noise cues are primary for Poles in stop place identification. It is argued that this finding is compatible with other aspects of Polish phonology, including the obligatory release of coda stops, and the relatively pure quality of vowels in the language.
Industrial Agglomeration and Economic Development

The paper outlines a static equilibrium model, which analyses the economic development in a two-country case by considering interregional migration in R&D-sectors. The effects of migration and firm decisions on both industrial agglomeration and economic development will be shown: lock-in-effects and free market entry will lead to a concentration of firms. In addition, the consideration of fundamental and secondary research activity leads to a higher number of firms and products by means of cost reduction and spillover effects. The resulting demand of unskilled and skilled labor will be met by sectoral and interregional migration. This reinforces the concentration of economic activity and leads to a higher degree of specialization and economic development. The formation of single equilibria is shown under consideration of exogenous shocks: diminishing transportation cost will turn economies, originally equally endowed and with the same economic structure, to spatial concentration and uneven economic development.
Racial/Ethnic Differences in the Modifying Effect of Community Violence on the Association between Paternity Status and Preterm Birth

Preterm birth (PTB) is a major public health concern in the US. Lack of established paternity has been linked with increased risk of PTB. Community violence (CV) may modify the association, and racial/ethnic differences may exist. Using a geographically defined cohort of women in Richmond, Virginia (N = 27,518), we examined racial/ethnic differences in the modifying effect of CV on the association between paternity status and PTB. Results showed that lack of established paternity was associated with incremental greater odds of PTB across CV quartiles in NH-Whites (quartile-1: AOR = 1.42, 95% CI = 0.95–2.12; quartile-2: AOR = 1.45, 95% CI = 0.57–3.71; quartile-3: AOR = 3.12, 95% CI = 2.67–6.32), NH-Blacks (quartile-1: AOR = 1.16, 95% CI = 0.85–1.58; quartile-2: AOR = 1.32, 95% CI = 0.82–2.12; quartile-3: AOR = 1.64, 95% CI = 1.24–2.16), and Hispanics (quartile-1: AOR = 1.29, 95% CI = 0.65–2.55; quartile-2: AOR = 1.34, 95% CI = 0.67–2.69). Odds of PTB were highest among NH-White women. Public health practitioners should be aware of the negative effect of lack of paternal presence on PTB in women resident in high violence rate communities and racial/ethnic differences that exist.
Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia in developing countries

Background: Little is known about the prevalence of, or associations with behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) in developing countries. Methods: Individuals diagnosed as having dementia according to DSM-IV criteria (mild and moderate cases as defined by the Clinical Dementia Rating scale only), together with their main caregiver, were recruited from 21 centers in 17 developing countries. People with dementia were directly assessed with the Community Screening Interview for Dementia and the Geriatric Mental State Schedule (GMS); GMS data were processed by the AGECAT computer program to yield diagnostic information on 8 psychiatric syndromes. Caregivers answered direct questions about behavioral symptoms of dementia (BSD) and completed the Zarit Burden Inventory. Results: At least one BSD was reported in 70.9% of the 555 participants. At least one case-level AGECAT psychiatric syndrome (not including the organic syndrome) was exhibited by 49.5% of people with dementia. Depression syndromes (43.8%) were most common followed by anxiety neurosis (14.2%) and schizophreniform/paranoid psychosis (10.9%). Caregivers were more likely to report BSD in people with dementia who were married, younger and better educated. More advanced dementia, poorer functioning and the presence of depression or anxiety were each associated with BSD. BSD, and psychiatric syndromes (anxiety neurosis and schizophreniform/paranoid psychosis) predicted caregiver strain after controlling for cognitive impairment. BPSD are poorly understood, leading to shame and blame. Conclusions: BPSD are common among people with dementia in developing countries, though we found marked regional variations. Representative population studies are needed to clarify prevalence and impact, but our research suggests considerable unmet need, with much scope for intervention. Raising awareness of the problem should be the first step.
EXCESS LACTATE: AN INDEX OF REVERSIBILITY OF SHOCK IN HUMAN PATIENTS.

"Excess lactate," an indicator of oxygen debt, has been studied as a metabolic index of severity of the shock state in human patients. The levels of excess lactate correspond to severity of circulatory failure, and an excess of more than 4 millimoles per liter prognosticates a fatal outcome. The validity of this index was confirmed by studies on experimental hemorrhagic shock in dogs. It provides a parameter for measurement of "reversibility" and serves as an objective clinical guide.
The Energy Metabolism Dysfunction in Psychiatric Disorders Postmortem Brains: Focus on Proteomic Evidence

Psychiatric disorders represent a great medical and social challenge and people suffering from these conditions face many impairments regarding personal and professional life. In addition, a mental disorder will manifest itself in approximately one quarter of the world's population at some period of their life. Dysfunction in energy metabolism is one of the most consistent scientific findings associated with these disorders. With this is mind, this review compiled data on disturbances in energy metabolism found by proteomic analyses of postmortem brains collected from patients affected by the most prevalent psychiatric disorders: schizophrenia (SCZ), bipolar disorder (BPD), and major depressive disorder (MDD). We searched in the PubMed database to gather the studies and compiled all the differentially expressed proteins reported in each work. SCZ studies revealed 92 differentially expressed proteins related to energy metabolism, while 95 proteins were discovered in BPD, and 41 proteins in MDD. With the compiled data, it was possible to determine which proteins related to energy metabolism were found to be altered in all the disorders as well as which ones were altered exclusively in one of them. In conclusion, the information gathered in this work could contribute to a better understanding of the impaired metabolic mechanisms and hopefully bring insights into the underlying neuropathology of psychiatric disorders.
Leadership in the time of change

Last years, the environment has placed more challenges for the organizations to cope with. The economic crisis brings new issues in the front of the leaders, forcing them to question again the ways of leading and the possibilities to get most of value from their human resources potential. The passage to the new society and economy, the knowledge based economy, which was seen as the highest level in humanity development, proves to be a process that is not smoothly at all. Developing the change competency for the leaders means to acquire that knowledge and abilities that are able to provide the best answer for a certain working situation or a challenging external context, with getting the best results for organization and its stakeholders.
An improved analysis methodology for translational profiling by microarray

Translational regulation plays a central role in the global gene expression of a cell, and detection of such regulation has allowed deciphering of critical biological mechanisms. Genome-wide studies of the regulation of translation (translatome) performed on microarrays represent a substantial proportion of studies, alongside with recent advances in deep-sequencing methods. However, there has been a lack of development in specific processing methodologies that deal with the distinct nature of translatome array data. In this study, we confirm that polysome profiling yields skewed data and thus violates the conventional transcriptome analysis assumptions. Using a comprehensive simulation of translatome array data varying the percentage and symmetry of deregulation, we show that conventional analysis methods (Quantile and LOESS normalizations) and statistical tests failed, respectively, to correctly normalize the data and to identify correctly deregulated genes (DEGs). We thus propose a novel analysis methodology available as a CRAN package; Internal Control Analysis of Translatome (INCATome) based on a normalization tied to a group of invariant controls. We confirm that INCATome outperforms the other normalization methods and allows a stringent identification of DEGs. More importantly, INCATome implementation on a biological translatome data set (cells silenced for splicing factor PSF) resulted in the best normalization performance and an improved validation concordance for identification of true positive DEGs. Finally, we provide evidence that INCATome is able to infer novel biological pathways with superior discovery potential, thus confirming the benefits for researchers of implementing INCATome for future translatome studies as well as for existing data sets to generate novel avenues for research.
Real time hand-eye system: interaction with moving objects

The paper presents the results in controlling the robot manipulator handling the moving object of various types. Two series of experiments were carried out using the rod swinging on the bifilar suspension, and the tennis balls swinging as spherical pendulums. The main part of the experiments with the rod was devoted to finding efficient ways for its fast and reliable capturing. The experiments with the ball were focused on modifying the motion of the ball in such a way for its orbit has the desirable parameters. In particular, the ball was directed to reach the motionless target placed inside the working space, or perform a rendezvous with another ball having an independent free motion. The TV camera supplied the computer with the visual data of the scene. The dynamical models of the motion of the objects were used for statistical processing the visual data and determining the parameters of the motion. These parameters were used for controlling the robot.
The Psoriatic Arthritis Registry of Turkey: results of a multicentre registry on 1081 patients

Objective. The aim was to assess the characteristics of PsA, find out how well the disease is controlled in real life, demonstrate the treatments and identify the unmet needs. Methods. The PsA registry of Turkey is a multicentre Web-based registry established in 2014 and including 32 rheumatology centres. Detailed data regarding demographics for skin and joint disease, disease activity assessments and treatment choices were collected. Results. One thousand and eighty-one patients (64.7% women) with a mean (S.D.) PsA duration of 5.8 (6.7) years were enrolled. The most frequent type of PsA was polyarticular [437 (40.5%)], followed by oligoarticular [407 (37.7%)] and axial disease [372 (34.4%)]. The mean (S.D.) swollen and tender joint counts were 1.7 (3) and 3.6 (4.8), respectively. Of these patients, 38.6% were on conventional synthetic DMARD monotherapy, 7.1% were on anti-TNF monotherapy, and 22.5% were using anti-TNF plus conventional synthetic DMARD combinations. According to DAS28, 86 (12.4%) patients had high and 105 (15.2%) had moderate disease activity. Low disease activity was achieved in 317 (45.7%) patients, and 185 (26.7%) were in remission. Minimal disease activity data could be calculated in 247 patients, 105 of whom (42.5%) had minimal disease activity. The major differences among sexes were that women were older and had less frequent axial disease, more fatigue, higher HAQ scores and less remission. Conclusion. The PsA registry of Turkey had similarities with previously published registries, supporting its external validity. The finding that women had more fatigue and worse functioning as well as the high percentage of active disease state highlight the unmet need in treatment of PsA.
Determinants of Female Labour Force Participation in the Host Country

Though female labour force participation (FLFP) rates have been widely analysed across countries, the analysis of migrant women's participation has been consistently ignored in the literature. The few studies that have been conducted concentrate largely on sociological and anthropological aspects of migrant women (see Foner (1976)). This article will investigate immigrant FLFP rates, which are generally found to be different from their counterparts in the immigrants' country of origin. To evaluate the immigrant FLFP rate we analyse and quantify the nature and significance of its various demographic, socio‐economic and cultural determinants.
Occupation and Mortality. I

THE lecture which I have the honour to give is introductory to a course of six lectures, to be given by various specialists, which, although they cannot, of course, cover the whole range of the sanitation of industries and occupations, will, it is hoped, give a practical insight into some of the more important problems connected with this subject. The importance of the 8ubject. -A moment’s reflection will show the enor mous influence of a man’s occupation on his health. At least one-third of each working day is spent under the conditions implied in this occupation, and it may therefore be credited with this proportion of the total influence exerted by the circumstances of life on health. The influence exerted
Koszt zmiany organizacyjnej a konkurencja w środowisku złożonym - podejście agentowe

The article presents agent-based approach to research on cost of organizational change and its impact on competition level in complex environment. The multi-agent simulation model used here is based on the model proposed in [16] which utilizes Kauffman’s NK model of fitness landscape. The main novelty of this approach is introduction of the new parameter representing the cost of organizational change. Fig. 3 and 4 show the results of conducted simulation. As one can see, in general the cost of change is the reason for lesser competition level, it also lowers the average utility of agents.
The role of antibiotic-loaded cement in the treatment of an infection after a hip replacement.

Since the mid-1960’s. total hip replacement has become one of the most popular and successful procedures performed by orthopaedists. However, devastating consequences may result if an infection occurs. Numerous treatment methods have been proposed. The results of attempts to retain an implant. in case of infection, have been unpredictable. MUller’7 described a small series of five patients in whom a deep infection occurred within three weeks after the operation and who were managed with a thorough d#{233}bmidement, retention of the implant, and intravenous administration of antibiotics; there was only one failure. Steinbnink”’ noted that an early infection (occurring within three weeks after the operation) may be treated with extensive d#{233}bnidement and suction-irrigation followed by systemic antibiotic therapy for seven days. This was based on previous work by Mella-Schmidt and Steinbrink”, in which such an approach was successful for the treatment of thirty-five (45 per cent) of seventy-seven infections at the site of a total hip or knee replacement (sixty-four hips and thinteen knees). With better technique and earlier diagnosis, the authors were able to improve this salvage rate to nineteen (56 per cent) of thirty-four between 1984 and 1987 and to thirty-one (66 per cent) of forty-seven when good suction-drainage was established. The same outcome also may apply to acute hematogenous infections that are treated within a few days after the onset of the infection. regardless of the length of time after the initial procedure. In a large review of 3215 total hip arthroplasties3’. only eight of forty-two implants that were surrounded by a deep infection were salvaged with d#{233}bnidement, irrigation, and administration of antibiotics. Most of the implants that could be salvaged were those around which the infection had occurred within
Biochar particle size, shape, and porosity act together to influence soil water properties

Many studies report that, under some circumstances, amending soil with biochar can improve field capacity and plant-available water. However, little is known about the mechanisms that control these improvements, making it challenging to predict when biochar will improve soil water properties. To develop a conceptual model explaining biochar’s effects on soil hydrologic processes, we conducted a series of well constrained laboratory experiments using a sand matrix to test the effects of biochar particle size and porosity on soil water retention curves. We showed that biochar particle size affects soil water storage through changing pore space between particles (interpores) and by adding pores that are part of the biochar (intrapores). We used these experimental results to better understand how biochar intrapores and biochar particle shape control the observed changes in water retention when capillary pressure is the main component of soil water potential. We propose that biochar’s intrapores increase water content of biochar-sand mixtures when soils are drier. When biochar-sand mixtures are wetter, biochar particles’ elongated shape disrupts the packing of grains in the sandy matrix, increasing the volume between grains (interpores) available for water storage. These results imply that biochars with a high intraporosity and irregular shapes will most effectively increase water storage in coarse soils.
Measuring the 3D motion space of the human ankle.

BACKGROUND The 3D motion space of the human ankle is an important area of study in medicine. The 3D motion space can provide significant information for establishing more reasonable rehabilitation procedures and standards of ankle injury care. OBJECTIVE This study aims to measure the 3D motion space of the human ankle and to use mathematical methods to quantify it. METHODS A motion capturing system was used to simultaneously capture the 3D coordinates of points marked on the foot, and convert these coordinate values into rotation angles through trigonometric functions and vectors. The mathematical expression of the ankle's motion space was obtained by screening, arranging, and fitting the converted data. RESULTS The mathematical expression of the 3D motion space of the participants was obtained. We statistically analyzed the data and learned that, in terms of 3D motion space, the right foot is more flexible than the left foot and the female foot is more flexible than the male foot. CONCLUSIONS The adduction and abduction rotation ranges are affected by the plantar flexion or dorsal flexure rotation angles. This relationship can be expressed mathematically, which is significant in the study of the ankle joint.
Optimal Bail-out and Bail-in policy mix: Lessons from the Banco Espírito Santo (BES) failure

This paper evaluates the optimal bail-out and bail-in mix in the case of bankruptcy of Banco Espirito Santo (BES), SA, the second largest Portuguese private bank. The solution after the crisis of the BES, was to partition the bank into a good bank (Novo Banco (New Bank)) and keep the toxic assets and problematic ones in a bad bank, the old BES bank, which would also receive those assets and bonds which were correlated with the ESFG (Espirito Santo Financial Group). We show, in general, that the optimal policy mix parameter for the regulator’s bail-out and bail-in is contingent on the correlations between the shocks of residuals to the deposits and the shocks to the assets (equity and bonds). We develop three cases: case A, regulation under perfect information and no shocks, a kind of benchmark; case B; with subcases B1 and B2, which reflect respectively perfect positive correlation between the deposit and assets shocks, and perfect negative correlation; and finally case C, which reflect a general correlation between the deposits and assets, between -1 and 1. The conclusions, based upon simulations, tend to show that the optimal regulator problem in A was to intervene with optimal bail-out policy mix correspondence between deposit rates (r ) and assets (ra); while at B1 and B2 the optimal mix bail-out case is around 50% with deviation being derived from the correlation between deposits and assets’ residuals. The main lesson that can be derived from the BES implosion, is that market value of the Novo Banco (New Bank) can be effectively assured if the market decouples for real the Novo Banco from BES, because if the correlation is a perfect fit (+1), new problems might arise in the near future.
Characteristics of silicon nano wire as piezoresistor for nano electro mechanical systems

In order to confirm ability of silicon nano wire piezoresistors as sensing element of mechanical sensors, current-voltage (I-V) characteristics and the piezoresistive effect were investigated. Electron beam (EB) direct writing and RIE were used for fabrication. Fabricated polycrystalline Si (poly-Si) nano wire piezoresistors have triangular or trapezoid cross sections. The minimum width is 53 nm and thickness is 32 nm. A remarkable phenomenon was observed. The longitudinal piezoresistive coefficient /spl pi//sub l/ of the nano wire piezoresistor increased with a decrease in the cross section area, while the transverse piezoresistive coefficient /spl pi//sub t/ was approximately zero and invariant despite variation of the cross section area. The maximum value of /spl pi//sub l/ was 22/spl times/10/sup -5/ (1/MPa) at impurity concentration N=5/spl times/10/sup 19/ (cm/sup -3/).