Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effect of Pre-Emptive Dexmedetomidine on the Incidence of Post-Thoracotomy Pain Syndrome in Patients Undergoing Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting

Background Post-thoracotomy pain syndrome (PTPS) is pain that recurs or persists along a thoracotomy incision for at least two months following surgery. Dexmedetomidine (dex) is an α-2 agonist that also has analgesic, sedative-hypnotic, and sympatholytic properties. Objectives To determine the effect of pre-emptive dexmedetomidine on the incidence of PTPS in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Patients and Methods This randomized clinical trial enrolled 104 candidates for elective coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and randomly assigned them to either a dex group or a control group. In the dex group, dexmedetomidine 0.5 µg/kg/hour was infused from the initiation of anesthesia until postoperative extubation in the intensive-care unit. Two months after surgery, the patients were contacted by telephone and interviewed to determine the presence of pain at the thoracotomy scars. Results Fifty-four patients were placed in the control group, and 50 patients were assigned to the dex group. The age, sex, and body mass index were not significantly different between the two groups of study (P > 0.05). The incidence of PTPS was 11/50 (22%) patients in the dex group and 28/54 patients (52%) in the control group. A chi-square test revealed a significant difference in the incidence of PTPS after two months between the dex and control groups (P = 0.032). Conclusions PTPS is a common problem following CABG, and pre-emptive therapy with dex may decrease neuropathic pain.
Virtual MIMO-based wireless sensor networks using LDPC codes

Energy conservation in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is one of the primary performance parameters. In this paper, an energy-efficient virtual multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication architecture based on distributed source coding (DSC) is proposed for energy-constrained, distributed wireless sensor networks. Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) code is one of the practical codes that can be used for DSC to compress close to Slepian-Wolf limit. Simulation results show that employing DSC by using a LDPC code with length 1000 and compression ratio of R=3/5 in a virtual MIMO-based WSN achieves better energy efficiency compared to that of a virtual MIMO-based communication system without DSC.
Particle representations for measure-valued population models 1 June 1 , 1998

Models of populations in which a type or location, represented by a point in a metric space E, is associated with each individual in the population are considered. A population process is neutral if the chances of an individual replicating or dying do not depend on its type. Measurevalued processes are obtained as infinite population limits for a large class of neutral population models, and it is shown that these measure-valued processes can be represented in terms of the total mass of the population and the de Finetti measures associated with an E -valued particle model Ž . Ž Ž . Ž . X X , X , . such that, for each t 0, X t , X t , . is exchange1 2 1 2 able. The construction gives an explicit connection between genealogical and diffusion models in population genetics. The class of measure-valued models covered includes both neutral Fleming Viot and Dawson Watanabe processes. The particle model gives a simple representation of the Dawson Perkins historical process and Perkins’s historical stochastic integral can be obtained in terms of classical semimartingale integration. A number of applications to new and known results on conditioning, uniqueness and limiting behavior are described.
NleG Type 3 Effectors from Enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli Are U-Box E3 Ubiquitin Ligases

NleG homologues constitute the largest family of type 3 effectors delivered by pathogenic E. coli, with fourteen members in the enterohaemorrhagic (EHEC) O157:H7 strain alone. Identified recently as part of the non-LEE-encoded (Nle) effector set, this family remained uncharacterised and shared no sequence homology to other proteins including those of known function. The C-terminal domain of NleG2-3 (residues 90 to 191) is the most conserved region in NleG proteins and was solved by NMR. Structural analysis of this structure revealed the presence of a RING finger/U-box motif. Functional assays demonstrated that NleG2-3 as well as NleG5-1, NleG6-2 and NleG9′ family members exhibited a strong autoubiquitination activity in vitro; a characteristic usually expressed by eukaryotic ubiquitin E3 ligases. When screened for activity against a panel of 30 human E2 enzymes, the NleG2-3 and NleG5-1 homologues showed an identical profile with only UBE2E2, UBE2E3 and UBE2D2 enzymes supporting NleG activity. Fluorescence polarization analysis yielded a binding affinity constant of 56±2 µM for the UBE2D2/NleG5-1 interaction, a value comparable with previous studies on E2/E3 affinities. The UBE2D2 interaction interface on NleG2-3 defined by NMR chemical shift perturbation and mutagenesis was shown to be generally similar to that characterised for human RING finger ubiquitin ligases. The alanine substitutions of UBE2D2 residues Arg5 and Lys63, critical for activation of eukaryotic E3 ligases, also significantly decreased both NleG binding and autoubiquitination activity. These results demonstrate that bacteria-encoded NleG effectors are E3 ubiquitin ligases analogous to RING finger and U-box enzymes in eukaryotes.
Flexible Rule-Based Programming for Autonomic Computing

The ECAP rule programming language DLRL is currently being developed for architecting autonomic systems by coupling deduc- tion and interaction. Three of the fundamental properties of autonomic systems, namely self-conguration , self-optimization and self-healing, are provided by DLRL: high-level program specication that can be user- dened for self-conguration ; program introspection that allows to re- actively adapt on-line program behavior for self-optimization, and pro- gram interaction that provides communication and coordination with the surrounding environment in order to detect deviations from their expected behavior for self-healing. The DLRL, programming model ex- tends pure Prolog by including the modal actions of dynamic logic in the consequent predicates of conditional forward rules. It combines some the well-known renements of resolution along with syntactically guided control strategies to represent and enact problem specications dealing
The two-level approach to data definition and space management in the LIS system implementation language

It has often been remarked that surprisingly few parts of the algorithms which define an operating system require the use of unsafe, low-level language features {1}. Nevertheless, the lack of safety inherent in these parts will propagate to the whole system if an appropriate methodology is not used. It seems desirable to structure programs in such a way that parts with different safety levels are clearly separated and identifiable. The LIS solution to this problem involves the use of two language levels which are used in separate contexts. The general language is a Pascal-like language with the safety that this implies {2, 3}. On the other hand, the use of unsafe features is restricted to so-called implementation parts associated with each declaration level of the program. Several authors {4, 5, 6} have pointed out the advantages of having a two-step data definition, namely, a first step concerned with the semantic properties and a second dealing with the effective realization. In what follows we present the LIS approach to this question and show that the safety levels inherent to these two steps are different. The second step requires implementation specifications which appear in implementation parts.
Cognitive impairment risk

Objective: To determine whether white matter hyperintensity (WMH) progression rate is a better predictor of cognitive impairment risk than baseline WMH volume in healthy elderly individuals. Method: Ninety-eight cognitively intact elderly subjects were followed in the Oregon Brain Aging Study. Forty-nine had at least 3 brain MRIs and annual cognitive and neurologic assessments until diagnosed with persistent cognitive impairment (PCI). Brain, ventricular CSF (vCSF), intracranial volume (ICV), hippocampus, total WMH, periventricular (PV) WMH, and subcortical WMH volumes were measured. Cox proportional hazards survival analyses were used to assess cognitive impairment risk. Results: After adjusting for age, apolipoprotein E4 status, incident hypertension, ICV, entry Mini-Mental State Examination, baseline hippocampus, and both baseline vCSF volume and rate of vCSF volume change, increased progression of total WMH volume (hazard ratio [HR] 1.84, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.3–2.7, p = 0.0007) and PV WMH volume (HR 1.94, 95% CI 1.3–3.1, p = 0.001) conferred higher risk of PCI, whereas baseline WMH volumes did not. Every 1 mL/y increase in PV WMH volume was associated with a 94% increased risk of PCI. Conclusion: Progression of total and periventricular (PV) white matter hyperintensity (WMH) volumes are better predictors of persistent cognitive impairment (PCI) than baseline WMH burden. Greater PV WMH burden progression is associated with the development of PCI, a potential precursor to Alzheimer or vascular dementia. Identification of factors that decrease WMH accumulation over time is needed to maintain cognitive health in our growing elderly population.
An investigation of the effects of magnetic variations on inertial/magnetic orientation sensors

Rigid body orientation can be estimated in a "sourceless manner" through the use of small three degree of freedom sensor modules containing orthogonally mounted triads of micromachined angular rate sensors, accelerometers, and magnetometers. With proper filter design, drift errors can be eliminated. However, variations in the direction of the local magnetic field reference vector can cause errors in the estimated orientation. The experimental work described in this paper attempts to quantify these errors with an eye toward the development of corrective algorithms. To determine the types and magnitudes of errors that can be expected, three different types of inertial/magnetic sensor modules were subjected to controlled changes in the direction and magnitude of the local magnetic field. The amount of magnetic variation caused by several common objects was also measured in order to gain insight into the magnitude of errors that can be expected during operation in a typical environment. The experiments indicate that variations in the direction of the local magnetic field lead to errors only in azimuth estimation when using inertial/magnetic sensor modules. In a common room environment, errors due to local variations caused by objects such as electrical heaters, CRT monitors, and metal furniture can be expected to be no more than 16 degrees. In most cases these errors can be avoided by maintaining a separation of approximately two feet from the source of interference.
The role of the ubiquitin-editing enzyme A20 in diseases of the central nervous system and other pathological processes

In recent years, the ubiquitin-editing enzyme A20 has been shown to control a large set of molecular pathways involved in the regulation of protective as well as self-directed immune responses. Here, we assess the current and putative roles of A20 in inflammatory, vascular and degenerative diseases of the central nervous system and explore future directions of research.
Objective evaluation of phase and magnitude only reconstructed speech: New considerations

The aim of this paper is to make some improvements in the synthesis part of Analysis-Modification-Synthesis (AMS) framework to reconstruct speech with higher quality. In previous works based on this framework [7–12] the number of iterations was fixed on 100. This number of iterations was not chosen in accordance with a specific measure. In this paper, we monitored the quality of reconstructed speech per iteration and through a heuristic criterion, controlled the number of iterations. Our results showed that the required number of iterations depends on frame duration, applied window and whether the speech signal is being reconstructed from magnitude or phase spectrum. In case of phase-only speech reconstruction we need larger number of iterations. By applying rectangular window, the phase-only reconstructed speech surpasses its magnitude-only counterpart in frames longer than 64 ms, qualitatively. However, in case of using Hamming window, depending on applying LSEE or OAM, phase-only reconstructed speech will have better quality than its magnitude-only counterpart in frames longer than 256 ms and 128 ms, respectively.
Using and Reporting the Delphi Method for Selecting Healthcare Quality Indicators: A Systematic Review

Objective Delphi technique is a structured process commonly used to developed healthcare quality indicators, but there is a little recommendation for researchers who wish to use it. This study aimed 1) to describe reporting of the Delphi method to develop quality indicators, 2) to discuss specific methodological skills for quality indicators selection 3) to give guidance about this practice. Methodology and Main Finding Three electronic data bases were searched over a 30 years period (1978–2009). All articles that used the Delphi method to select quality indicators were identified. A standardized data extraction form was developed. Four domains (questionnaire preparation, expert panel, progress of the survey and Delphi results) were assessed. Of 80 included studies, quality of reporting varied significantly between items (9% for year's number of experience of the experts to 98% for the type of Delphi used). Reporting of methodological aspects needed to evaluate the reliability of the survey was insufficient: only 39% (31/80) of studies reported response rates for all rounds, 60% (48/80) that feedback was given between rounds, 77% (62/80) the method used to achieve consensus and 57% (48/80) listed quality indicators selected at the end of the survey. A modified Delphi procedure was used in 49/78 (63%) with a physical meeting of the panel members, usually between Delphi rounds. Median number of panel members was 17(Q1:11; Q3:31). In 40/70 (57%) studies, the panel included multiple stakeholders, who were healthcare professionals in 95% (38/40) of cases. Among 75 studies describing criteria to select quality indicators, 28 (37%) used validity and 17(23%) feasibility. Conclusion The use and reporting of the Delphi method for quality indicators selection need to be improved. We provide some guidance to the investigators to improve the using and reporting of the method in future surveys.
Welfare Effects of Food Desubsidization for Iranian Urban Households

Designing a system of policies for basic goods subsidy adjustments and welfare effects of subsidy reduction widely accentuate by Iranian policy makers and economists. This article tries to answer to the one of the main questions of this matter such as, "What the equivalent amount of money for compensative welfare loss of household is through eliminating bread, sugar and oil subsidies? " By using microeconomic methodology and with regards to the theoretical literature of welfare indices, demand systems and household clustering, we cluster household base on homogeneity of consumption behaviors and estimate linear approximate almost ideal demand systems (LA\AIDS) for different clusters in five independent groups and also compute welfare indices (equivalent income, compensated variation and the cost of living index). After that, we analyze results of bread, sugar and edible oils price adjustment in five groups of households. For cluster one to three, relative effects of bread price is greater than sugar and edible oils and for clusters four and five, relative effect for edible oils is greater than bread and sugar. Finally, we introduce "Policy Effects Matrix" for bread and conclude that its price adjustment policy is decreasing from cluster one to five.
Situated facial displays: towards social interaction

Most interactive programs have been assuming interaction with a single user. We propose the notion of "Social Interaction" as a new interaction paradigm between multiple humans and computers. Social interaction requires that first a computer has the multiple participants model, second its behaviors are not only determined by internal logic but also affected by perceived external situations, and finally it actively joins the interaction. An experimental system with these features was developed. It consists of three subsystems, a vision subsystem that processes motion video input to examine an external situation, an action/reaction subsystem that generates an action based on internal logic of a task and a situated reaction triggered by perceived external situation, and a facial animation subsystem that generates a three dimensional face capable of various facial displays. From the experiment using the system with a number of subjects, we found that subjects generally tended to try to interpret facial displays of the computer. Such involvement prevented them from concentrating on a task. We also found that subjects never recognized situated reactions of the computer that were unrelated to the task although they unconsciously responded to them. These findings seem to imply subliminal involvement of the subjects caused by facial displays and situated reactions.
Climate Change, Humans, and the Extinction of the Woolly Mammoth

Woolly mammoths inhabited Eurasia and North America from late Middle Pleistocene (300 ky BP [300,000 years before present]), surviving through different climatic cycles until they vanished in the Holocene (3.6 ky BP). The debate about why the Late Quaternary extinctions occurred has centred upon environmental and human-induced effects, or a combination of both. However, testing these two hypotheses—climatic and anthropogenic—has been hampered by the difficulty of generating quantitative estimates of the relationship between the contraction of the mammoth's geographical range and each of the two hypotheses. We combined climate envelope models and a population model with explicit treatment of woolly mammoth–human interactions to measure the extent to which a combination of climate changes and increased human pressures might have led to the extinction of the species in Eurasia. Climate conditions for woolly mammoths were measured across different time periods: 126 ky BP, 42 ky BP, 30 ky BP, 21 ky BP, and 6 ky BP. We show that suitable climate conditions for the mammoth reduced drastically between the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene, and 90% of its geographical range disappeared between 42 ky BP and 6 ky BP, with the remaining suitable areas in the mid-Holocene being mainly restricted to Arctic Siberia, which is where the latest records of woolly mammoths in continental Asia have been found. Results of the population models also show that the collapse of the climatic niche of the mammoth caused a significant drop in their population size, making woolly mammoths more vulnerable to the increasing hunting pressure from human populations. The coincidence of the disappearance of climatically suitable areas for woolly mammoths and the increase in anthropogenic impacts in the Holocene, the coup de grâce, likely set the place and time for the extinction of the woolly mammoth.
Chemosensory Coding by Neurons in the Coeloconic Sensilla of the Drosophila Antenna

Odor coding is based on the diverse sensitivities and response properties of olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs). In the Drosophila antenna, ORNs are housed in three major morphological types of sensilla. Although investigation of the Drosophila olfactory system has been expanding rapidly, the ORNs in one of these types, the coeloconic sensilla, have been essentially unexplored. We define four functional types of coeloconic sensilla through extracellular physiological recordings. Each type contains at least two neurons, with a total of at least seven distinct ORN classes that vary remarkably in their breadth of tuning. Analysis of 315 odorant–ORN combinations reveals how these neurons sample odor space via both excitation and inhibition. We identify a class of neurons that is narrowly tuned to small amines, and we find humidity detectors that define a cellular basis for hygroreception in Drosophila. The temporal dynamics of responses vary widely, enhancing the potential for complexity in the odor code. Molecular and genetic analysis shows that a broadly tuned ORN, antennal coeloconic 3B (ac3B), requires the odor receptor gene Or35a for its response in vivo. The activity of ac3B is not required for the response of the other ORN within that sensillum, ac3A. The functional analysis presented here, revealing a combination of highly specialized neurons and a broadly tuned ORN, along with the ancient origin of coeloconic sensilla, suggests that the specificities of these ORNs may reflect basic needs of an ancestral insect.
A normally masked nuclear matrix antigen that appears at mitosis on cytoskeleton filaments adjoining chromosomes, centrioles, and midbodies

mAbs were generated against HeLa nuclear matrix proteins and one, HIB2, which selectively stained mitotic cells, was selected for further study. Western blot analysis showed H1B2 antibody detected a protein of 240 kD in the nuclear matrix fractions. The H1B2 antigen was completely masked in immunofluorescently stained interphase cells. However, removing chromatin with DNase I digestion and 0.25 M ammonium sulfate extraction exposed the protein epitope. The resulting fluorescence pattern was bright, highly punctate, and entirely nuclear. Further extraction of the nuclear matrix with 2 M NaCl uncovers an underlying, anastomosing network of 9-13 nm core filaments. Most of the H1B2 antigen was retained in the fibrogranular masses enmeshed in the core filament network and not in the filaments themselves. The H1B2 antigen showed remarkable behavior at mitosis. As cells approached prophase the antigen became unmasked to immunofluorescent staining without the removal of chromatin. First appearing as a bright spot, the antibody staining spread through the nucleus finally concentrating in the region around the condensed chromosomes. The antibody also brightly stained the spindle poles and, more weakly, in a punctate pattern in the cytoskeleton around the spindle. As the chromosomes separated at anaphase, H1B2 remained with the separating daughter sets of chromosomes. The H1B2 antigen returned to the reforming nucleus at telophase, but left a bright staining region in the midbody. Immunoelectron microscopy of resinless sections showed that, in the mitotic cell, the H1B2 antibody did not stain chromosomes and centrioles themselves, but decorated a fibrogranular network surrounding and connected to the chromosomes and a fibrogranular structure surrounding the centriole.