Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of COER‐Verapamil on Circadian Pattern of Forearm Vascular Resistance and Blood Pressure

Controlled‐onset extended‐release verapamil (COER‐V) is designed so drug concentrations rise sharply in the early morning to coincide with the peak incidence of cardiovascular events. The primary objective of this study was to compare the diurnal pattern of forearm vascular resistance (FVR) between hypertensives and normotensives and to determine the effect of COER‐V on FVR's diurnal pattern. The authors also studied the effects of COER‐V on 24‐hour ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) and the early morning blood pressure rise. Baseline 24‐hour ABP was recorded, and FVR was determined by venous occlusion plethysmography at 7 a.m., 2 p.m. , and 9 p.m. in 23 untreated hypertensives; FVR was also determined in 10 matched, normotensive controls. Plethysmography studies and 24‐hour ABP were repeated and S‐ and R‐verapamil concentrations determined over 24 hours by HPLC following ≥4 weeks of therapy. The diurnal pattern of FVR differed between hypertensives and normotensives, with normotensives exhibiting an FVR decline between 2 p.m. and 9 p.m. , while FVR rose at 9 p.m. in hypertensives. COER‐V appeared to minimize the diurnal variation in FVR in hypertensives, although there were no significant differences at any single time point (baseline 7 a.m.: 58 +24; 2 p.m.: 48 + 13; and 9 p.m.: 55 + 19 vs. COER‐V at 7 a.m.: 51 +23; 2 p.m.: 51 +17; and 9 p.m.: 54 ± 17 mmHg/ml/min/100 g). COER‐V effectively reduced ABP throughout the 24‐hour period (p < 0.05). No significant differences were found in the slopes of the early morning rise in BP or change in morning trough‐to‐peak BP at baseline and on the drug. The data suggest that hypertension alters the normal diurnal pattern in FVR and that COER‐V minimizes the diurnal variation in this parameter. In addition, the authors conclude that COER‐V is an effective antihypertensive that lowers BP throughout a 24‐hour period, but it does not blunt the early morning rate of BP rise despite peak S‐verapamil concentrations in the early morning.
Spite and Reciprocity in Auctions

The paper presents a complete information model of bidding in second price sealed-bid and ascending-bid (English) auctions, in which potential buyers know the unit valuation of other bidders and may spitefully prefer that their rivals earn a lower surplus. Bidders with spiteful preferences should overbid in equilibrium when they know their rival has a higher value than their own, and bidders with a higher value underbid to reciprocate the spiteful overbidding of the lower value bidders. The model also predicts different bidding behavior in second price as compared to ascending-bid auctions. The paper also presents experimental evidence broadly consistent with the model. In the complete information environment, lower value bidders overbid more than higher value bidders, and they overbid more frequently in the second price auction than in the ascending price auction. Overall, the lower value bidder submits bids that exceed value about half the time. These patterns are not found in the incomplete information environment, consistent with the model.
Legal Requirements, Compliance and Practice: An Industry Case Study in Accessibility

U.S. laws and regulations are designed to support broad societal goals, such as accessibility, privacy and safety. To demonstrate that a product complies with these goals, businesses need to identify and refine legal requirements into product requirements and integrate the product requirements into their ongoing product design and testing processes. We report on an industry case study in which product requirements were specified to comply with Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998. This study sought to identify: limitations in existing requirements-acquisition methods; compliance gaps between previously specified product requirements and Section 508; and additional sources of knowledge that are necessary to refine legal requirements into product requirements to comply with the law. Our study reveals the need for a community of practice and generalizable techniques that can reduce ambiguity, complexity and redundancy in legal and product requirements and manage innovation in product requirements. We present these findings with several examples from Section 508 regulations and actual product requirements that are implemented in Cisco products.
SPOTWorld and the Sun SPOT

We describe the Sun Small Programmable Object Technology, or Sun SPOT. The Sun SPOT is a small wireless computing platform that runs Java directly, with no operating system. The system comes with an on-board set of sensors, and I/O pins for easy connection to external devices. We also describe SPOTWorld, an integrated management and code deployment tool for working with Sun SPOTs.
A two-output high frequency series-resonant induction heater

This paper presents the development of a two-output high frequency series-resonant induction heater whose concept is to reduce a size and a number of components. This prototype can control two-unit output power by using 3-legs of full-bridge series-resonant inverter; one leg for common control and others for each independently control. The prototype can provide the rated power of 2.154 kW and 2.245 kW for each output, operating frequency of 50.45 kHz with 91.46% of inverter efficiency. That means the power can be adjusted from 0.89 to 2.154 kW and 0.986 to 2.245 kW by the asymmetrical voltage cancellation methodology.
Breaking the disposable technology paradigm: opportunities for sustainable interaction design for mobile phones

We present a qualitative study of mobile phone ownership, replacement and disposal practices geared towards identifying design opportunities towards sustainable mobile phone interfaces. Our work investigates how people understand the lifespan of their phones, what factors, such as style, service contracts, and functionality, affect how they attribute value to their phones, and their awareness and actions regarding mobile phone sustainability. Our findings reveal the complexity of the actions and decision-making processes involved in phone ownership and replacement. We use these findings to present open areas for sustainable interaction design and generate seed ideas for designs and services to provoke thought and further exploration towards more sustainable mobile phone interfaces and practices.
Isolating the Effects of Vection and Optokinetic Nystagmus on Optokinetic Rotation-Induced Motion Sickness

Objective: This study investigates isolated effects of vection and optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) on visually induced motion sickness (VIMS) provoked by rotating optokinetic drum patterns. Background: VIMS was the subject of recent standardization activities, but the effects of OKN have not been studied in the absence of vection. Method: Experiment 1 suppressed OKN by eye fixation and examined VIMS severity (both ordinal and ratio scale) and time spent in saturated vection at four pattern rotating velocities of 0, 2, 14, and 34 degrees per second (dps). Experiment 2 suppressed vection by adding a peripheral visual field rotating in the opposite direction to the rotating patterns. VIMS severity and OKN slow-phase velocity were studied at four rotating velocities of 0, 30, 60, and 90 dps. Results: Results from Experiment 1 indicated that VIMS severity increased as the pattern velocity increased from 0 dps to 34 dps. Results from Experiment 2 indicated that as the velocity of the rotating pattern increased, the slow-phase velocity of OKN and the severity of VIMS increased and peaked in the 60-dps condition. In both experiments, ratio-scaled nausea data significantly correlated with ordinal-scaled nausea ratings. Conclusion: VIMS can still occur in the absence of either vection or OKN. Interestingly, the profile of the summed results of the two experiments matches nicely with the profile reported by Hu et al. in which neither OKN nor vection were controlled. Application: Potential applications include modeling and reduction of VIMS in computer gaming environments.
An ontology-based knowledge representation using OWL for Indonesian local regulations

Inconsistencies in legislation can significantly hinder the effectiveness and efficiency of the central and local government administrations. The Indonesian government requires standard harmonization of each piece of legislation to prevent such problems. However, this process is often manual and requires the involvement of multiple experts with varying backgrounds. This leads to high resource expenses regarding human resources, cost, and time. To address this, a software system should be developed to detect potential disharmony among legislation. However, the system requires a well-constructed legislation conceptual model represented in an appropriate modeling language. This research aims to develop the Indonesian local regulation ontology in web ontology language (OWL), where no such ontology exists. The ontology was created using the Ontology Development 101 methodology and evaluated using competency questions and expert judgment approaches. The resulting ontology becomes a basis for developing an automatic recommendation system to detect potentially inconsistent legislation in future works.
Inhibition of Proliferation and Modulation of Estradiol Metabolism: Novel Mechanisms for Breast Cancer Prevention by the Phytochemical Indole-3-Carbinol

Abstract Aberrant proliferation is an early-occurring intermediate event in carcinogenesis whose inhibition may represent preventive intervention. Indole-3-carbinol (13C), a glucosinolate metabolite from cruciferous vegetables, inhibits organ site carcinogenesis in rodent models. Clinically relevant biochemical and cellular mechanisms for the anticarcinogenic effects of 13C, however, remain unclear. Experiments were conducted on reduction mammoplasty derived 184-B5 cells initiated with chemical carcinogen (184-B5/BP) or with oncogene (184-B5/HER), and on mammary-carcinoma-derived MDA-MD-231 cells to examine whether (i) 13C inhibits aberrant proliferation in initiated and transformed cells, and (ii) inhibition of aberrant proliferation is associated with altered cell-cycle progression, estradiol (E2) metabolism, and apoptosis. Aberrant proliferation in 184-B5/BP, 184-B5/HER, and MDA-MB-231 cells was evident by a 55%-67% decrease in the ratio of quiescent (Q = GO) to proliferative (P = S + M) phase of the cell cycle, a 72%-90% decrease in apoptosis, and a 76%-106% increase in anchorage-dependent growth. These cells also exhibited a 88%-90% decrease in the ratio of C2 to C16α-hydroxylation products of E2. Treatment of 184-B5/ BP, 184-B5/HER, and MDA-MB-231 cells to cytostatic dose of 50 μM13C resulted in an 137%-210% increase in Q/P 13C ratio, a 4- to 18-fold increase in E2, metabolite ratio, a 2-fold increase in cellular apoptosis, and a 54%-61% inhibition of growth. The preventive efficacy of 13C on human mammary carcinogenesis may be due in part to its ability to regulate cell-cycle progression, increase the formation of antiproliferative E2 metabolite, and induce cellular apoptosis.
New Techniques for DNA Sequence Classification

DNA sequence classification is the activity of determining whether or not an unlabeled sequence S belongs to an existing class C. This paper proposes two new techniques for DNA sequence classification. The first technique works by comparing the unlabeled sequence S with a group of active motifs discovered from the elements of C and by distinction with elements outside of C. The second technique generates and matches gapped fingerprints of S with elements of C. Experimental results obtained by running these algorithms on long and well conserved Alu sequences demonstrate the good performance of the presented methods compared with FASTA. When applied to less conserved and relatively short functional sites such as splice-junctions, a variation of the second technique combining fingerprinting with consensus sequence analysis gives better results than the current classifiers employing text compression and machine learning algorithms.
90-kDa Ribosomal S6 Kinase Is a Direct Target for the Nuclear Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptor 1 (FGFR1)

Fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 (FGFR1) is a transmembrane protein capable of transducing stimulation by secreted FGFs. In addition, newly synthesized FGFR1 enters the nucleus in response to cellular stimulation and during development. Nuclear FGFR1 can transactivate CRE (cAMP responsive element), activate CRE-binding protein (CREB)-binding protein (CBP) and gene activities causing cellular growth and differentiation. Here, a yeast two-hybrid assay was performed to identify FGFR1-binding proteins and the mechanism of nuclear FGFR1 action. Ten FGFR1-binding proteins were identified. Among the proteins detected with the intracellular FGFR1 domain was a 90-kDa ribosomal S6 kinase (RSK1), a regulator of CREB, CBP, and histone phosphorylation. FGFR1 bound to the N-terminal region of RSK1. The FGFR1-RSK1 interaction was confirmed by co-immunoprecipitation and colocalization in the nucleus and cytoplasm of mammalian cells. Predominantly nuclear FGFR1-RSK1 interaction was observed in the rat brain during neurogenesis and in cAMP-stimulated cultured neural cells. In TE671 cells, transfected FGFR1 colocalized and coimmunoprecipitated, almost exclusively, with nuclear RSK1. Nuclear RSK1 kinase activity and RSK1 activation of CREB were enhanced by transfected FGFR1. In contrast, kinase-deleted FGFR1 (TK–), which did not bind to RSK1 failed to stimulate nuclear RSK1 activity or RSK1 activation of CREB. Kinase inactive FGFR1 (K514A) bound effectively to nuclear RSK1, but it failed to stimulate RSK1. Thus, active FGFR1 kinase regulates the functions of nuclear RSK1. The interaction of nuclear FGFR1 with pluripotent RSK1 offers a new mechanism through which FGFR1 may control fundamental cellular processes.
Temporal fascia as interpositioning material in cases of temporomandibular ankylosis.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficacy of temporal fascia as interpositioning material after treatment of TMJ ankylosis with gap arthroplasty. DESIGN An interventional study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY The study was carried out at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Mayo Hospital, Lahore, during June 1999 to June 2001. PATIENTS AND METHODS A total of 51 patients, 23 males and 28 females, of temporomandibular ankylosis were treated with gap arthroplasty and temporal fascia was used as interpositioning material. RESULTS Out of 51 cases, 28 had excellent results, 20 were declared good and 3 presented with recurrence. CONCLUSION Temporal fascia works as excellent interpositioning material with minimum morbidity and no complications. Moreover, it is easier to raise, comes from same operation field and is dispensable.
Towards Learning to Ignore Irrelevant State Variables

Hierarchical methods have attracted much recent attention as a means for scaling reinforcement learning algorithms to increasingly complex, real-world tasks. These methods provide two important kinds of abstraction that facilitate learning. First, hierarchies organize actions into temporally abstract high-level tasks. Second, they facilitate task dependent state abstractions that allow each high-level task to restrict attention only to relevant state variables. In most approaches to date, the user must supply suitable task decompositions and state abstractions to the learner. How to discover these hierarchies automatically remains a challenging open problem. As a first step towards solving this problem, we introduce a general method for determining the validity of potential state abstractions that might form the basis of reusable tasks. Weions that might form the basis of reusable tasks. We build a probabilistic model of the underlying Markov decision problem and then statistically test the applicability of the state abstraction. We demonstrate the ability of our procedure to discriminate among safe and unsafe state abstractions in the familiar Taxi domain.
Modelling Transport and Deposition of Coarse Particles in Viscoplastic Tailings Beach Flows

The flow of thickened mine tailings within a tailings storage facility is a complex interaction between unconstrained viscoplastic free surface flow and possible coarse particle settling within the flow depth. The broad focus of this work is developing a robust framework for modelling tailings beach flows. Modelling tailings flow evolution in three dimensions within a storage facility will ultimately provide greater understanding of beach slope formation, as well as the ability to optimize deposition sequencing. This thesis focuses on the first step of developing a tailings model considering the transport and settling of mono-sized coarse particles within two dimensional (length and depth) laminar viscoplastic carrier fluid sheet flow. The 2D model consists of a semi-implicit finite difference shallow water sheet flow model for predicting the viscoplastic flow depth and discharge down the beach. The coarse particle transport and hindered settling within the flow are predicted using a scalar transport model. The scalar transport and shallow water flow model are coupled together using coarse particle rheology augmentation. Two key novel advancements were made through the model development. The first is coupling the coarse particle rheology augmentation within the free surface flow to the coarse particle hindered settling behavior with depth. This coupling allows for the rheology augmentation due to the coarse solid fraction to be incorporated seamlessly into both the fluid flow solver and the particle settling model. The second advancement is expanding the rheology augmentation and hindered settling coupling to particle flows beyond the Stoke’s flow regime. Ultimately, the 2D model results are compared against Spelay’s (2007) laminar settling experimental measurements for oil sand thickened tailings (TT) and composite tailings (CT) slurries, along with Spelay’s 1D settling model. The 2D model provides improved prediction of the particle concentration
POWER2: Next generation of the RISC System/6000 family

Since its announcement, the IBM RISC System/6000@ processor has characterized the aggressive instruction-level parallelism approach to achieving performance. Recent enhancements to the architecture and implementation provide greater superscalar capability. This paper describes the architectural extensions which improve storage reference bandwidth, allow hardware square-root computation, and speed floating-point-to-integer conversion. The implementation, which exploits these extensions and doubles the number of functional units, is also described. A comparison of performance results on a variety of industry standard benchmarks demonstrates that superscalar capabilities are an attractive alternative to aggressive clock rates.
Design and implementation of overlay multicast protocol for multimedia streaming

In this paper, we propose a new protocol called shared tree streaming (or STS in short) protocol that is designed for interactive multimedia streaming applications. STS is a decentralized protocol that constructs a shared tree called s-DBMDT (sender-dependent degree-bounded minimum diameter tree) as an overlay network that involves all the participants of the application. For a given set of nodes where some of them are senders, s-DBMDT is a spanning tree where the maximum delay on the tree from those senders is minimized and the degree constraint on each node is held. We believe that this is the first approach that defines s-DBMDT construction problem and presents a distributed protocol for the purpose. Our performance evaluation is based on experiments in both simulated networks and real networks that strongly shows the efficiency and usefulness of STS protocol.
Long-term effects of elemental mercury on renal function in miners of the Idrija Mercury Mine.

BACKGROUND The kidneys are one of the main target organs for elemental mercury (Hg(0)). The influence of Hg(0) on kidneys has been extensively studied but the long-term effects on this organ have not yet been determined with certainty. The basic aim of this research was to study the effects of a long-term exposure to Hg(0) vapours on the renal function in miners in the post-exposure period. METHODS The population studied comprised 53 miners (33 active and 20 retired) from the Idrija Mercury Mine as the exposed miners group and 53 unexposed workers as the control group. On the basis of mine exposure records (air and biological monitoring), the environmental and biological indicators of the past exposure to Hg(0) were calculated for each miner. Kidney function was determined in both groups, i.e. in the exposed miners as well as in the controls. Glomerular kidney function was evaluated by a quantitative analysis of albumin and IgG in urine. Tubular kidney function, however, was determined by a quantitative analysis of alpha(1)-microglobulin in urine and by the enzymatic activity of N-acetyl-beta-d-glucosaminidase (NAG). RESULTS The mean exposure time in miners was 15 years. The total number of cycles of exposure ranged from 13 to 119. The mean annual time-weighted exposure was 0.29 mg m(-3) and the mean integrated exposure intensity (IEI) was 1413 mg m(-3)-h. Throughout the period of exposure the average urine mercury concentration in miners was 68.24 microg l(-1) and the average sum of peak urine mercury concentrations was 3901 microg l(-1). Albumin, IgG and alpha(1)-microglobulin in urine were significantly elevated in the exposed miners compared with the unexposed controls (t = 2.17, P = 0.03; t = 2.81, P < 0.01; and t = 2.07, P = 0.04). No significant differences were found in the urine NAG activity when the exposed miners and the unexposed workers were compared. Among the indicators of renal function only alpha(1)-microglobulin in the urine correlated significantly with the IEI (r = 0.73; P <or= 0.01) and with the sum of peak mercury urine concentrations (r = 0.67; P <or= 0.01) in the group of miners who still worked, while no significant correlations were found between these parameters in the group of the retired miners. CONCLUSION The results of the differences in albumin, IgG and alpha(1)-microglobulin concentrations in urine between the exposed miners and unexposed controls suggest that a long-term occupational exposure to Hg(0) could cause renal dysfunction. A high correlation between alpha(1)-microglobulin in urine and the IEI as well as between alpha(1)-microglobulin in urine and the sum of peak urine mercury concentrations in the group of active but no longer exposed miners indicates that a long-term occupational exposure to Hg(0) may cause a non-permanent tubular dysfunction.
Quantitation of Carotid Stenosis with Continuous‐Wave (C‐W) Doppler Ultrasound

Two methods for determining the degree of stenoses developing on the origin of the internal carotid were tested using non-invasive Doppler ultrasonic imaging (DOPSCAN) of the carotid bifurcations. Spectral analysis of Doppler audio recordings was utilized in determining the maximum frequencies found within the stenosis, as well as the ratio of the frequency downstream to the stenosis, to the frequency within the stenosis. The theoretical relationships between blood flow, velocity, and pressure drop are defined for all grades of stenosis and they predict that carotid flow will not be reduced unless the lumen diameter is less than 1.5 mm. At critical diameter reductions, below 1 mm, the frequencies in human carotids do not exceed 16 KHz because turbulence limits peak velocities. If the maximum systolic frequency exceeds 5 KHz, when 5 MHz probes are directed at a 30° angle from the body axis, there is always present stenosis up to diameters of less than 3.5 mm by x-ray angiographic measurements. Frequency ratio studies confirm that plaque growth is not symmetrical but they did not improve x-ray angiography correlations because of the limitations of x-ray in measuring cross sectional areas from projection films and limitations of the spot size of x-ray tubes.