Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interpretation of Serum Calcium in Patients with Abnormal Serum Proteins

Two hundred consecutive specimens received in this laboratory for “liver function tests” showed a wide range of abnormal protein concentrations. Calcium concentration correlated closely with albumin (r = 0·867) but less closely with total protein (r = 0·682). A simple formula for adjusting calcium concentration was derived from the regression equation of calcium on albumin. Adjusted calcium = calcium - albumin + 4·0, where calcium is in mg/100 ml and albumin in g/100 ml. Low calcium concentrations were found in 49 (24·5%) and raised concentrations in six (3%) of the 200 blood specimens taken for liver function tests. After adjustment, the 95% limits of the observed range were identical with the 95% limits of the normal range determined in this laboratory. Unlike adjustments based on total protein or specific gravity, the adjustment on albumin in 39 specimens which showed hypergammaglobulinaemia on electrophoresis gave normal calcium concentrations.
A standoff with history: at the site of the ‘Bad River Gathering’

In the United States, the Lewis and Clark Expedition is legendary. Launched in 1804, it marked the will of the emerging state to expand and grow. In 2004 the grateful country commemorated this remarkable occasion by launching the bicentennial celebrations for the Corps of Discovery. There was much to remember the explorers by: their brave exploits in the unknown territory, their thorough descriptions of geography and wildlife, but also their peaceful dealings with the native inhabitants. In the face of this almost perfect record, one encounter with the Indian population stands out: the meeting of the Corps with the Teton Sioux on the bank of the Bad River. The most serious confrontation with the native population, the event, which could be easily construed as disastrous by both sides, was nonetheless chosen for a celebratory re-enactment on location by the community of Pierre and Fort Pierre in the fall of 2004. The authors of this article had an opportunity to view the performance. In the wake of that experience, they examined the event in the process of its unfolding in an attempt to show how it is constituted ‘historically’. Leaning in on Paul Ricoeur's problematization of history in terms of narrative transfiguration, they argue and demonstrate that the process of turning the past into history – in this instance in terms of a celebratory public re-enactment – is the product of a complex transformation that is capable of subverting history, yet does not always succeed in this task.
Graph grammar-based transformation for context-aware architectures supporting group communication

Handling context-aware dynamically adaptable architectures contributes to the design of self-configuring software systems. This kind of problem for communicating systems is even more challenging since adaptation should address simultaneously the different levels. This is necessary for handling both changes in the low level constraints and evolutions in the high level requirements. In this paper, we address this problem by providing a model-based, rule-oriented approach that supports the adaptation process based on a run-time transformation of the system architecture. Such architecture may represent the different possible service compositions and the associated architectural configurations. We consider the multi-level models of the communicating system architecture and the intra-level architecture transformations as the elementary adaptation actions. We handle consistently the related inter-level adaptation actions by considering additional architectural relationships viewing the lower level architecture as a refinement of the upper level.We provide the algorithms characterizing the multi-level architecture-based adaptation process. We then develop a rule-oriented implementation using graph grammar and handling architectural transformations as graph transformation rules. We consider Emergency Response and Crisis Management Systems (ERCMS) as a case study from the more general group communication systems to which our results apply.
A novel approach to ionospheric scintillation detection based on an open loop architecture

Ionospheric scintillation monitoring is becoming an increasing research activity in order to devise countermeasures to the harmful effects ionospheric activity has on positioning services based on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). The amount of amplitude fluctuations in GNSS signals due to scintillation is estimated by the �������� index. For this purpose, traditional closed loop architectures are employed in the receiver. In this paper we investigate an alternative measurement parameter based on the Skewness of the histogram of the processed samples. The new metric could relay information akin to that of the S4 and it is estimated on an open loop receiver architecture.
A killing defect of natural killer cells as an underlying immunologic abnormality in childhood systemic lupus erythematosus.

OBJECTIVE To elucidate the nature of the natural killer (NK) cell system in children with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), we performed phenotypic and functional studies of circulating NK cells during the course of childhood SLE. For comparison, similar examinations were undertaken in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA). METHODS Twenty-five children with SLE and 27 children with JRA were studied; 5 of these children with SLE were examined 6 to 67 months before the overt progression to SLE. The number and cytolytic function of NK cells were determined, using flow cytometry, 51Cr release, and single-cell cytotoxicity assays. RESULTS At the diagnosis of SLE, a decrease in NK cells defined as CD16+ or CD56+ was the most prominent of the numerical changes in lymphocyte subsets. In regard to cytolytic function, NK activity in children with SLE was greatly reduced at diagnosis: at the single cell level, their NK cells were defective in killing and recycling abilities. Although the relative number of NK cells and their recycling capacity returned to normal with the improvement of active SLE, the killing defect persisted during the inactive phase; there was no persistent NK cell abnormality in JRA. Reduced NK activity due to a killing defect was demonstrable early in the course of SLE: the NK activity and killing capacity values were profoundly decreased in 5 children before the overt progression to SLE. CONCLUSION It would appear that NK cell functional abnormality, characterized by a killing defect, is an underlying immunological abnormality during the course of childhood SLE.
Effects of Temporally Asynchronous Interaction on Simple Multi-Agent Behavior

This paper reflects preliminary research into emergent multiagent interaction in a “temporally asynchronous” environment. Many traditional approaches to modeling multi-agent systems involve synchronizing all agent activity in a world to a single “universal” clock. In other words, all agent behavior is regulated by a single timer where all agents act and interact deterministically in time. However, if the goal is to model simulated agents which accurately portray the behavior of real-world entities; this timing mechanism yields a restricted representation of actual agent interaction. In addition to the behavioral autonomy normally associated with agents, simulated agents must also have temporal autonomy in order to interact realistically. This paper examines the effects of altering and extending the basic synchronous behavior of a well known cellular automata system—John Conway’s Game of Life—to function as a platform for the simulation “temporally asynchronous” multi-agent interaction.
Hypoxic Injury to Developing Glial Cells: Protective Effect of High Glucose

ABSTRACT: Hypoxic injury to differentiating glial cells is a critical event in the development of periventricular leukomalacia, the major hypoxic-ischemic lesion of the premature infant. This study has addressed the effects of hypoxia on differentiating glial cells, primarily astrocytes. Primary cultures of dissociated newborn rat brain, which are composed predominantly of differentiating astroglia, were used. Efflux of lactate dehydrogenase, an enzyme enriched in astroglia, was used to quantitate cellular injury. Three major findings are reported. First, differentiating astrocytes were resistant to hypoxic injury for many hours, although by 24 h of hypoxia severe cellular injury (lactate dehydrogenase efflux of 86% of total and morphologic changes) was obvious. Second, increase of glucose in the culture medium from the approximately physiological concentration of 5.6 to 15 mM had a marked protective effect versus hypoxia, i.e. lactate dehydrogenase efflux was totally prevented during 24 h of hypoxia in 15 mM glucose. Third, the protective effect of high glucose appeared to be related to increased utilization by glycolysis, because there was a direct correlation between the resistance to hypoxic cellular injury and the amount of lactate generated and of glucose consumed by the cells. Thus, the cells with the lowest lactate dehydrogenase efflux (and highest glucose supplementations) had medium lactate concentrations as high as 32-36 mM. These concentrations of lactate are approximately double the reported threshold concentration of lactate considered to produce cellular necrosis in in vivo models of hypoxic injury, primarily in mature animals. The data raise the possibility that hypoxic injury to differentiating glia can be prevented or ameliorated by increase in glucose availability.
Migration and health in Southern Africa: 100 years and still circulating

Migration has deep historical roots in South and Southern Africa and to this day continues to be highly prevalent and a major factor shaping South African society and health. In this paper we examine the role of migration in the spread of two diseases nearly 100 years apart: tuberculosis following the discovery of gold in 1886 and HIV in the early 1990s. Both cases demonstrate the critical role played by human migration in the transmission and subsequent dissemination of these diseases to rural areas. In both cases, migration acts to assemble in one high-risk environment thousands of young men highly susceptible to new diseases. With poor living and working conditions, these migration destinations act as hot-spots for disease transmission. Migration of workers back to rural areas then serves as a highly efficient means of disseminating these diseases to rural populations. We conclude by raising some more recent questions examining the current role of migration in Southern Africa.
Hildahood: Taking the Interpersonal Theory of Nursing to the Neighborhood

This article examines the use of problematic patterns of interpersonal interactions as an intervention focus that is based on the interpersonal theory of nursing developed by Hildegard Peplau. In previous articles, interpersonal change strategies have been suggested that focus on the patterns that emerge between the client and the nurse. This article proposes an elaboration of the technique by shifting the focus from the "virtual" interactions that occur in the laboratory of the therapeutic nurseclient relationship to the "real" relations between the clients and their significant others. Measurement of the effect of the intervention by the appearance, intensity, and persistence of changes in outcomes along the lines predicted by the theory are illustrated.
SpanFS: A Scalable File System on Fast Storage Devices

Most recent storage devices, such as NAND flash-based solid state drives (SSDs), provide low access latency and high degree of parallelism. However, conventional file systems, which are designed for slow hard disk drives, often encounter severe scalability bottlenecks in exploiting the advances of these fast storage devices on many-core architectures. To scale file systems to many cores, we propose SpanFS, a novel file system which consists of a collection of micro file system services called domains. SpanFS distributes files and directories among the domains, provides a global file system view on top of the domains and maintains consistency in case of system crashes. SpanFS is implemented based on the Ext4 file system. Experimental results evaluating SpanFS against Ext4 on a modern PCI-E SSD show that SpanFS scales much better than Ext4 on a 32-core machine. In micro-benchmarks SpanFS outperforms Ext4 by up to 1226%. In application-level benchmarks SpanFS improves the performance by up to 73% relative to Ext4.
Risk factors for renal‐cell carcinoma in a French case‐control study

A hospital‐based case‐control study of renal‐cell carcinoma was conducted in France from 1987 to 1991. A total of 196 histologically confirmed cases (138 males and 58 females) and 347 controls (235 males and 112 females), matched for sex, age at interview, hospital and interviewer, were included. The risk of renal‐cell carcinoma was not apparently increased with number of cigarettes per day, duration of smoking or early age at first cigarette smoking in males. No significant trend was found in the risks with increasing Quetelet index (Ql) at the age of 20 in males. On the contrary, the risks increased significantly with an increasing Ql prior to diagnosis. In females, the trends in risks were significant both for the relative weight at the age of 20 and prior to diagnosis. The consumption of regular or decaffeinated coffee, tea or alcoholic beverages was not associated with renal‐cell carcinoma, in males or in females. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Use of a 2.0-mm locking plate/screw system for mandibular fracture surgery.

PURPOSE In this study, we examined the use of a 2.0-mm locking bone plate/screw system in mandibular surgery. PATIENTS AND METHODS All patients who were treated with a 2.0-mm locking bone plate/screw system during an 8-month period for fractures of the mandible or other defects of the mandible were prospectively studied. Ease of use of locking plate/screw system, characteristics of the fractures and defects, and complications were tabulated. RESULTS A total of 80 fractures in 59 patients were treated with the 2.0-mm locking plate/screw system. One hundred two 2.0-mm locking plates were applied to the 80 fractures; 58 fractures received 1 plate and 22 fractures received 2 plates. There were no intraoperative difficulties associated with their application. Fracture reductions were considered to be excellent in all cases. At the latest follow-up, all fractures had healed, but 2 patients had slight malocclusions. Six patients developed postsurgical infections. Only 1 patient required hospitalization for treatment of the infection; all others were managed in the outpatient clinic. Four patients required removal of their plates for varying reasons. CONCLUSIONS The use of a 2.0-mm locking plate/screw system was found to be simple and to provide sound fixation in all cases.
ACCOUNTING FOR ACHIEVEMENT IN ATHENS: A COUNT DATA ANALYSIS OF NATIONAL OLYMPIC PERFORMANCE

We model summer Olympic medal counts using count data analysis. The advantage of this methodology is its explicit recognition of the discrete non-negative form of the dependent variable; i.e. the total number of medals won by a nation in a summer Olympiad. Using data from the most recent 2004 Summer Games in Athens, Poisson and negative binomial count data regression models are constructed. The chosen model is negative binomial and attaches statistical significance to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, the age dependency ratio, and a relatively cold climate. In contrast to previous studies, population, health expenditure per capita, and the effect of being a host or neighbour nation of an Olympiad are all insignificant in explaining medal counts. We also find no “cricket effect” or “rugby effect. ”
A Methodological Approach to Modelling Trustworthiness in Online Collaborative Learning

Trustworthiness and technological security solutions are closely related to online collaborative learning as they can be combined with the aim of reaching information security requirements for e-Learning participants and designers. In this paper, we justify the need of trustworthiness models as a functional requirement devoted to improve information security. To this end, we propose a methodological approach to modelling trustworthiness in online collaborative learning. Our proposal sets out to build a theoretical approach with the aim to provide e-Learning designers and managers with guidelines for incorporating security into online collaborative activities through trustworthiness assessment and prediction.
Enhancing Autonomy and Computational Efficiency of the Self-Organizing Fuzzy Neural Network for a Brain Computer Interface

This paper presents a number of enhancements to the self-organizing fuzzy neural network (SOFNN). Firstly, the SOFNN is described and a modification to the learning algorithm to improve computational efficiency is introduced. Secondly, a sensitivity analysis (SA) of the predefined SOFNN parameters is presented using electroencephalogram (EEG) data recorded from three subjects during left/right motor imagery-based brain-computer interface (BCI) experiments. This SA was carried out to determine if a general set of parameters could be used for predicting various non-stationary EEG time-series dynamics for multiple subjects. The SOFNN modifications significantly enhance computational efficiency and the SA results suggest that it may be possible to select a general set of parameters for different motor imagery-based EEG signals thus potentially enhancing the SOFNNs autonomy for application in a BCI.
Metalloprotease Vsm Is the Major Determinant of Toxicity for Extracellular Products of Vibrio splendidus

ABSTRACT Genomic data combined with reverse genetic approaches have contributed to the characterization of major virulence factors of Vibrio species; however, these studies have targeted primarily human pathogens. Here, we investigate virulence factors in the oyster pathogen Vibrio splendidus LGP32 and show that toxicity is correlated to the presence of a metalloprotease and its corresponding vsm gene. Comparative genomics showed that an avirulent strain closely related to LGP32 lacked the metalloprotease. The toxicity of LGP32 metalloprotease was confirmed by exposing mollusk and mouse fibroblastic cell lines to extracellular products (ECPs) of the wild type (wt) and a vsm deletion mutant (Δvsm mutant). The ECPs of the wt induced a strong cytopathic effect whose severity was cell type dependent, while those of the Δvsm mutant were much less toxic, and exposure to purified protein demonstrated the direct toxicity of the Vsm metalloprotease. Finally, to investigate Vsm molecular targets, a proteomic analysis of the ECPs of both LGP32 and the Δvsm mutant was performed, revealing a number of differentially expressed and/or processed proteins. One of these, the VSA1062 metalloprotease, was found to have significant identity to the immune inhibitor A precursor, a virulence factor of Bacillus thuringiensis. Deletion mutants corresponding to several of the major proteins were constructed by allelic exchange, and the ECPs of these mutants proved to be toxic to both cell cultures and animals. Taken together, these data demonstrate that Vsm is the major toxicity factor in the ECPs of V. splendidus.
Comparisons of ‘Education Reform’ in Britain and the USA: a new era?

ABSTRACT This paper compares and contrasts the origins, objectives and outcomes of the New Right education reform movements in Britain and the USA. It considers whether the education reforms will create a new era for schools, in terms of diversity of public and private provision and social, sexual and racial differentiation. This is despite the emphasis on quality or excellence in education as opposed to equality of educational opportunity. The origins of the reform movements are to be found in both the politics and economic developments of the ‘social democratic’ or ‘liberal’ bipartisan political consensus. The objectives of the reforms are to deal with declining international competitiveness and the raising of educational standards through consumer or parental choice. The outcomes are likely not to be a general raising of standards but rather a bifurcation in terms of a complex mix of class, race and gender.
Effects of Regulatory Mutations upon Methionine Biosynthesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: Loci eth2-eth3-eth10

The effects of mutations occurring at three independent loci, eth2, eth3, and eth10, were studied on the basis of several criteria: level of resistance towards two methionine analogues (ethionine and selenomethionine), pool sizes of free methionine and S-adenosyl methionine (SAM) under different growth conditions, and susceptibility towards methionine-mediated repression and SAM-mediated repression of some enzymes involved in methionine biosynthesis (met group I enzymes). It was shown that: (i) the level of resistance towards both methionine analogues roughly correlates with the amount of methionine accumulated in the pool; (ii) the repressibility of met group I enzymes by exogenous methionine is either abolished or greatly lowered, depending upon the mutation studied; (iii) the repressibility of the same enzymes by exogenous SAM remains, in at least three mutants studied, close to that observed in a wild-type strain; (iv) the accumulation of SAM does not occur in the most extreme mutants either from endogenously overproduced or from exogenously supplied methionine: (v) the two methionine-activating enzymes, methionyl-transfer ribonucleic acid (tRNA) synthetase and methionine adenosyl transferase, do not seem modified in any of the mutants presented here; and (vi) the amount of tRNA(met) and its level of charging are alike in all strains. Thus, the three recessive mutations presented here affect methionine-mediated repression, both at the level of overall methionine biosynthesis which results in its accumulation in the pool, and at the level of the synthesis of met group I enzymes. The implications of these findings are discussed.
Two Small RNAs Conserved in Enterobacteriaceae Provide Intrinsic Resistance to Antibiotics Targeting the Cell Wall Biosynthesis Enzyme Glucosamine-6-Phosphate Synthase

Formation of glucosamine-6-phosphate (GlcN6P) by enzyme GlcN6P synthase (GlmS) represents the first step in bacterial cell envelope synthesis. In Escherichia coli, expression of glmS is controlled by small RNAs (sRNAs) GlmY and GlmZ. GlmZ activates the glmS mRNA by base-pairing. When not required, GlmZ is bound by adapter protein RapZ and recruited to cleavage by RNase E inactivating the sRNA. The homologous sRNA GlmY activates glmS indirectly. When present at high levels, GlmY sequesters RapZ by an RNA mimicry mechanism suppressing cleavage of GlmZ. The interplay of both sRNAs is believed to adjust GlmS synthesis to the needs of the cell, i.e., to achieve GlcN6P homeostasis. Bacilysin (tetaine) and Nva-FMDP are dipeptide antibiotics that impair cell envelope synthesis by inhibition of enzyme GlmS through covalent modification. However, although taken up efficiently, these antibiotics are less active against E. coli for reasons unknown so far. Here we show that the GlmY/GlmZ circuit provides resistance. Inhibition of GlmS causes GlcN6P deprivation leading to activation of GlmY and GlmZ, which in turn trigger glmS overexpression in a dosage-dependent manner. Mutation of glmY or glmZ disables this response and renders the bacteria highly susceptible to GlmS inhibitors. Thus, E. coli compensates inhibition of GlmS by increasing its synthesis through the GlmY/GlmZ pathway. This mechanism is also operative in Salmonella indicating that it is conserved in Enterobacteriaceae possessing these sRNAs. As GlmY apparently responds to GlcN6P, co-application of a non-metabolizable GlcN6P analog may prevent activation of the sRNAs and thereby increase the bactericidal activity of GlmS inhibitors against wild-type bacteria. Initial experiments using glucosamine-6-sulfate support this possibility. Thus, GlcN6P analogs might be considered for co-application with GlmS inhibitors in combined therapy to treat infections caused by pathogenic Enterobacteriaceae.