Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Risk Factors for Early-onset Group B Streptococcal Sepsis: Estimation of Odds Ratios by Critical Literature Review

Objective. To identify and to establish the prevalence of ORs for factors associated with increased risk for early-onset group B streptococcal (EOGBS) infection in neonates. Study Design. Literature review and reanalysis of published data. Results. Risk factors for EOGBS infection include group B streptococcal (GBS)-positive vaginal culture at delivery (OR: 204), GBS-positive rectovaginal culture at 28 (OR: 9.64) or 36 weeks gestation (OR: 26.7), vaginal Strep B OIA test positive at delivery (OR: 15.4), birth weight ≤ 2500 g (OR: 7.37), gestation <37 weeks (OR: 4.83), gestation <28 weeks (OR: 21.7), prolonged rupture of membranes (PROM) >18 hours (OR: 7.28), intrapartum fever >37.5°C (OR: 4.05), intrapartum fever, PROM, or prematurity (OR: 9.74), intrapartum fever or PROM at term (OR: 11.5), chorioamnionitis (OR: 6.43). Chorioamnionitis is reported in most (88%) cases in which neonatal infection occurred despite intrapartum maternal antibiotic therapy. ORs could not be estimated for maternal GBS bacteriuria during pregnancy, with preterm premature rupture of membranes, or with a sibling or twin with invasive GBS disease, but these findings seem to be associated with a very high risk. Multiple gestation is not an independent risk factor for GBS infection. Conclusions. Mothers with GBS bacteriuria during pregnancy, with another child with GBS disease, or with chorioamnionitis should receive empirical intrapartum antibiotic treatment. Their infants should have complete diagnostic evaluations and receive empirical treatment until infection is excluded by observation and negative cultures because of their particularly high risk for EOGBS infection. Either screening with cultures at 28 weeks gestation or identification of clinical risk factors, ie, PROM, intrapartum fever, or prematurity, may identify parturients whose infants include 65% of those with EOGBS infection. Intrapartum screening using the Strep B OIA rapid test identifies more at-risk infants (75%) than any other method. These risk identifiers may permit judicious selection of patients for prophylactic interventions.
Modelling and Reasoning Languages for Social Networks Policies

olicy languages (such as privacy and rights) have had little impact on the wider community. Now that Social Networks have taken off, the need to revisit Policy languages and realign them towards Social Networks requirements has become more apparent. One such language is explored as to its applicability to the Social Networks masses. We also argue that policy languages alone are not sufficient and thus they should be paired with reasoning mechanisms to provide precise and unambiguous execution models of the policies. To this end we propose a computationally oriented model to represent, reason with and execute policies for Social Networks.
Airway smooth muscle relaxation results from a reduction in the frequency of Ca 2 + oscillations induced by a cAMP-mediated inhibition of the IP 3 receptor

Background: It has been shown that the contractile state of airway smooth muscle cells (SMCs) in response to agonists is determined by the frequency of Ca2+ oscillations occurring within the SMCs. Therefore, we hypothesized that the relaxation of airway SMCs induced by agents that increase cAMP results from the down-regulation or slowing of the frequency of the Ca2+ oscillations. Methods: The effects of isoproterenol (ISO), forskolin (FSK) and 8-bromo-cAMP on the relaxation and Ca2+ signaling of airway SMCs contracted with methacholine (MCh) was investigated in murine lung slices with phase-contrast and laser scanning microscopy. Results: All three cAMP-elevating agents simultaneously induced a reduction in the frequency of Ca2+ oscillations within the SMCs and the relaxation of contracted airways. The decrease in the Ca2+ oscillation frequency correlated with the extent of airway relaxation and was concentrationdependent. The mechanism by which cAMP reduced the frequency of the Ca2+ oscillations was investigated. Elevated cAMP did not affect the re-filling rate of the internal Ca2+ stores after emptying by repetitive exposure to 20 mM caffeine. Neither did elevated cAMP limit the Ca2+ available to stimulate contraction because an elevation of intracellular Ca2+ concentration induced by exposure to a Ca2+ ionophore (ionomycin) or by photolysis of caged-Ca2+ did not reverse the effect of cAMP. Similar results were obtained with iberiotoxin, a blocker of Ca2+-activated K+ channels, which would be expected to increase Ca2+ influx and contraction. By contrast, the photolysis of caged-IP3 in the presence of agonist, to further elevate the intracellular IP3 concentration, reversed the slowing of the frequency of the Ca2+ oscillations and relaxation of the airway induced by FSK. This result implied that the sensitivity of the IP3R to IP3 was reduced by FSK and this was supported by the reduced ability of IP3 to release Ca2+ in SMCs in the presence of FSK. Conclusion: These results indicate that the relaxant effect of cAMP-elevating agents on airway SMCs is achieved by decreasing the Ca2+ oscillation frequency by reducing internal Ca2+ release through IP3 receptors. Published: 23 February 2006 Respiratory Research2006, 7:34 doi:10.1186/1465-9921-7-34 Received: 05 December 2005 Accepted: 23 February 2006 This article is available from: http://respiratory-research.com/content/7/1/34 © 2006Bai and Sanderson; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Respiratory Research 2006, 7:34 http://respiratory-research.com/content/7/1/34
Developmental Pattern of Prosocial Motivation

Changes in patterns of prosocial motivation between Grades 2 and 12 were examined in five samples from four countrics: West Germany, Poland, Italy,and the United States. The Prosocial Motivation Questionnaire (PSMQ), an instrument based on theoretical elaborations about evaluative standards operative in prosocial action, was used to assess within-subject preference for five prosocial motives: hedonism, self-interest, conformity, task orientation, and other-orientation. Studied were two samples from Berlin (West; average age range, 11-6 to 18-6 years) and one sample each from Warsaw (11-11 to 18-11), Bologna (11-6 to 18-11), and Phoenix, Arizona (8-4 to 13-4). The major results held for all cities studied and confirm the generalizability of earlier national findings. Specifically, the major findings were as follows: (1) extrinsic motives for prosocial acts (hedonism and self-interest) were least preferred, whereas intrinsic motives (task and other-orientation) were most highly valued, and conformity was always in between; (2) preference for hedonism decreased in the younger samples, preference for conformity decreased in the older samples, and age-related increases were found only for task orientation; and (3) gender differences emerged at age 12, thus confirming prior findings that girls prefer intrinsic motives more than boys do.
The Colour of Money Redux: Immigrant/Ethnic Earnings Disparity in Canada 1991– 2006

In this paper, we investigate how visible minority and immigrant earnings gaps in Canada evolved over 1991 to 2006. Immigrant disparity changes with the duration of residence in Canada, so we evaluate disparity at 5 years in Canada, that is for relatively recent immigrants. We find that, overall, visible minority-and immigrant-based earnings disparity increased substantially over the 15 year period. This pattern is observed broadly for both men and women, in Canada as a whole and in each of its three largest CMAs, for most white and visible minority immigrant groups, and for most Canadian-born visible minority ethnic groups. The decline in relative earnings is large: it is on the order of 20 percentage points for both white and visible minority immigrants and on the order of 10 percentage points for Canadian-born visible minority workers.
Development of the  ${\rm Nb}_{3}{\rm Sn}$ Bronze Strand of TF Conductor Sample for Testing in SULTAN Facility

The results on research of the recent design Nb3Sn bronze strand with increased critical current capacity are presented. The strand has been designed and fabricated for use in full scale ITER TF conductor sample for testing in the SULTAN facility. The verification and qualification of strands have been done. The critical current measurements as a function of temperature in the range from 4.2 K to 15 K in magnetic fields up to 12 T have been performed. The results of testing of current sharing temperature Tcs of strand are discussed. The cable in conduit conductor was manufactured in accordance with ITER recommended scheme option 2. The cable design, thickness of wraps of subcable, void fraction and other characteristics of conductor for TF coil have been investigated to produce sample for testing in the SULTAN facility.
Fuzzy based Optimization for Power Management in Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), sensor node deployment is essential for maximizing the coverage and detection probabilities. But the existing optimization solution suffers from limited energy storage, node death, increased network traffic etc. To solve these issues, we propose a fuzzy based optimization model for power management in wireless sensor networks. The objectives considered in the paper include maximizing network coverage, connectivity, network lifetime and minimizing traffic load. A fuzzy rules table is constructed with the input parameters such as node degree, link quality, residual energy and traffic rate. Depending upon the outcome of the fuzzy logic, the nodes are categorized into good, normal and bad. After the initial deployment of good nodes, the SLEEP and WAKEUP Procedure is applied to maximize the lifetime of wireless sensor networks. By putting nodes to sleep when there are no events, the energy consumption of the sensor nodes can be significantly reduced. In SLEEP and WAKEUP Procedure, asynchronous type is used; it allows each node in the wireless sensor network to set its own SLEEP and WAKEUP schedule independently in order to save energy. Simulation result shows that the proposed Procedure provides maximization of the lifetime of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN).
Integral equations, systems of quadratic equations, and exponential time completeness

The computational complexity of Volterra integral equations of the second kind and of the first kind is investigated. It is proved that if the kernel functions satisfy the Lipschitz condition, then the solutions of Volterra equations of the second kind are polynomial-space computable. If, on the other hand, the kernel functions only satisfy the local Lipschitz condition with the Lipschitz constants growing in an exponential rate, then the solutions could be exponential-time hard. We identify a class of Volterra equations of the first kind that can be converted to Volterra equations of the second kind satisfying the local Lipschitz condition. The complexity of the solutions of these equations is also proved to be exponential-time hard. 1. Int reduction Two important classes of integral equations are Volterra integral equations of the first kind J Y ~(u s, +(s)) d~ =j (Y), o~y<l, (1) o and Volterra integral equations of the second kind O(Y) = f(Y) + iv K(Y, ', d(')) ds, o<y< l,(2) where function ~ is to be solved from given functions K and f. While many numerical algorithms for Volterra Permission to copy without fee all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial advantage, the ACM copyright notice and the title of the publication and its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of the Association for Computing Machinery. To copy otherwise , or to republish, requires a fee and/or specific permission. equations of the second kind have been proposed and studied (see, e.g., Tricomi [1957], Miller [1971] and Baker [1977]), very few general algorithms for Volterra equations of the first kind are known. It is generally recognized that Volterra equations of the first kind are much more difficult to solve than Volterra equations of the second kind. In thk paper, we apply discrete complexity theory to study the complexity of these integral equations. We demonstrate that, in the general cases, the complexity of the solutions for equation (2) is indeed lower than the complexity of the solutions for equation (l). In addition, our main results also show that the Lipschitz condition is critical for the equations to have solutions of reasonable complexity. In order to study the complexity of the solutions 1#1 of these equations, we must first specify the computational model for real-valued functions. The computational model to be used is …
Advanced optimization methods for power systems

Power system planning and operation offers multitudinous opportunities for optimization methods. In practice, these problems are generally large-scale, non-linear, subject to uncertainties, and combine both continuous and discrete variables. In the recent years, a number of complementary theoretical advances in addressing such problems have been obtained in the field of applied mathematics. The paper introduces a selection of these advances in the fields of non-convex optimization, in mixed-integer programming, and in optimization under uncertainty. The practical relevance of these developments for power systems planning and operation are discussed, and the opportunities for combining them, together with high-performance computing and big data infrastructures, as well as novel machine learning and randomized algorithms, are highlighted.
Toward Learning Systems That Integrate Different Strategies and Representations

An understanding of learning { the process by which a learner acquires and re nes a broad range of knowledge and skills { is central to the enterprise of building truly adaptive, exible, robust, and creative intelligent systems. Signi cant theoretical and empirical contributions to the characterization of learning in computational terms have emerged from research in a number of disparate research paradigms. The limitations of individual paradigms and of particular classes of techniques within each paradigm are beginning to be recognized. Converging lines of evidence from multiple sources, both theoretical as well as empirical, suggest that arti cial intelligence systems, in order to be able to deal with complex tasks such as recognizing and describing 3-dimensional objects, or communicating in natural language, must be able to e ectively utilize a range of learning algorithms operating with an adequate repertoire of representational structures. This paper draws on a broad range of research on learning in arti cial intelligence, connectionist networks, statistical and syntactic methods in pattern recognition, and evolutionary models to identify the similarities and di erences among, strengths and limitations of, and promising areas for cross-fertilization between, the di erent paradigms.
European Conference on Information Systems ( ECIS ) 2007 ICT and Innovation in Small Companies

The small business sector is very important to most economies generating significant wealth and employment. It has generally been accepted that small business owners are less likely to embrace innovation and less likely to have a well-defined business strategy. Yet for companies to grow and continue to be successful innovation is critical. Given the importance of this sector there is a need for governments and policy makers to understand innovation in small business particularly in terms of ICT implementation and use in order to formulate appropriate programs and policies. There have been few studies reported in the literature however, that have looked at innovation in the small business sector. This study investigated small Swiss businesses with 10 to 49 employees. A survey of 389 small businesses found that most see themselves as innovative and most use IT to support innovation. Further the study found a strong link between companies who invest in ICT, how these companies use ICT and their level of innovativeness. The study supports a hypothesis model which describes the features of innovative companies, how they use ICT for innovation and strategies they employ for gaining competitive advantage.
Relation between bradycardia dependent long QT syndrome and QT prolongation by disopyramide in humans

Background Recent molecular biological investigations have identified abnormal genes in familial forms of long QT syndrome, but in bradycardia dependent acquired long QT syndrome, no such genetic abnormality has yet been identified. Objective To investigate the relation between the responses of QT interval to pacing change and to disopyramide. Methods This study included 13 patients with bradyarrhythmia who had undergone pacemaker implantation. The patients were divided into two groups: group I (n = 8), patients with QT prolongation (QT interval ⩾ 500 ms) during bradycardia; group II (n = 5), patients without QT prolongation (QT interval < 500 ms) during bradycardia. The responses of QT interval caused by the change of pacing rate were determined and compared with the changes of the QT interval after disopyramide administration. Results The QT interval in group I was significantly longer than that in group II when the pacing rate was decreased from 110 to 50 beats/min: mean (SD) 451 (16) v416 (17) ms at 90 beats/min (p = 0.0033), and 490 (19)v 432 (18) ms at 70 beats/min (p = 0.0002), respectively. The QT interval was prolonged significantly by disopyramide in both groups, but the change was more pronounced in group I than in group II: 78 (33) v 35 (10) ms (p < 0.05). Conclusions This study suggests that the patients showing bradycardia dependent QT prolongation are also more markedly affected by disopyramide and that abnormal potassium channel may be the underlying mechanism.
Testing the Effects of Active Listening

Active or empathic listening is a basic social work practice skill. Past research involving this skill has focused primarily on the relationship between level of empathy and ultimate outcome. Little research has focused on the more immediate effects of this verbal procedure. Focusing on the short-term affective impact of two types of active listening, this article describes a series of replications of an analog experiment. The results, which replicate across experiments, across dependent measures, across client situations and affect, and across experimenters, suggest that differently worded active-listening responses may lead to different short-term client affective outcomes. The implications of these results for future social work research and practice are discussed
Rumination, Dysphoria, and Subjective Experience

An experiment is presented which investigated the relationship between rumination, dysphoria, and subjective experience during a short word-fragment completion task. Consistent with previous work off-task thinking, operationalized as task unrelated thought, was associated with dysphoria. By contrast, rumination was a significant predictor of task appraisal defined as task-related interference (TRI). While rumination did not directly contribute to the experience of task unrelated thinking (TUT), evidence was presented which suggests that when combined with a negative mood a ruminative style may amplify the association between this style of thinking and dysphoria. These findings suggest that we can distinguish between the phenomenological experience associated with rumination as distinct from dysphoria and this dissociation may be important in our ability to explain how self-focused attention contributes to enhanced psychological vulnerability.
Seasonal and spatial changes in blowfly production from small and large carcasses at Durham in lowland northeast England

Colonization by blowflies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) of mouse carcasses exposed in open agricultural land near Durham (54°45′ N) changed from early spring monopolization by Calliphora vicina R. ‐D. to a summer pattern of multiple species exploitation by this species together with Lucilia caesar L. , L. illustris Mg. , L. silvarum Mg. , L. sericata Mg. and L. richardsi Collin.
Classification of Microcalcification based on wave atom transform

Breast cancer is a serious problem for women in the world. It is the most common form of cancer diagnosed in woman, with one in nine women expected to be diagnosed with some form of cancer in their life-time. It is second only to lung cancer in cancer related deaths. Statistics shows that the case of breast cancer in the world is increasing every year. By analyzing a mammogram, pathologists could detect the presence of microcalcification in ones breast. However, microcalcification can be classified into benign and malignant. The later indicates the presence of cancer. Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CADx) designed to help phatologists determine the type of microcalcification in a mammogram. Usually, itâs consisting of two steps, feature extraction and classification. In our methodology, we proposed the use of Wave Atom Transform (WAT) as feature extraction technique and Support Vector Machine (SVM) as classifier. Using this methodology, our experimental result achieved good classification accuracy. However, some of the previous researches have shown better results than ours.
Relationship between respiratory mortality and self-perceptions of aging

Although there is growing evidence that psychological factors affect an individual's susceptibility to respiratory illnesses, psychological predictors of respiratory mortality have received little attention. This study investigated whether an age-specific psychological factor, older individuals’ beliefs about their own aging, predicted the likelihood of their dying from respiratory causes (ICD-9: 460–519). The sample was composed of 620 individuals, aged 50–87 years at baseline, who participated in a longitudinal study with six waves. Our research found that individuals with higher baseline positive self-perceptions of aging were significantly less likely to die of respiratory causes over the next 23 years, after controlling for age, functional health, gender, loneliness, marital status, self-rated health, and socioeconomic status (hazard ratio = 0.695; p < 0.005). This is the first study to link individual beliefs about aging to cause-specific mortality. Future research is warranted to further elucidate the relationship between self-perceptions of aging and resistance to respiratory mortality.
SIRT1 promotes endothelium-dependent vascular relaxation by activating endothelial nitric oxide synthase

Reduced caloric intake decreases arterial blood pressure in healthy individuals and improves endothelium-dependent vasodilation in obese and overweight individuals. The SIRT1 protein deacetylase mediates many of the effects of calorie restriction (CR) on organismal lifespan and metabolic pathways. However, the role of SIRT1 in regulating endothelium-dependent vasomotor tone is not known. Here we show that SIRT1 promotes endothelium-dependent vasodilation by targeting endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) for deacetylation. SIRT1 and eNOS colocalize and coprecipitate in endothelial cells, and SIRT1 deacetylates eNOS, stimulating eNOS activity and increasing endothelial nitric oxide (NO). SIRT1-induced increase in endothelial NO is mediated through lysines 496 and 506 in the calmodulin-binding domain of eNOS. Inhibition of SIRT1 in the endothelium of arteries inhibits endothelium-dependent vasodilation and decreases bioavailable NO. Finally, CR of mice leads to deacetylation of eNOS. Our results demonstrate that SIRT1 plays a fundamental role in regulating endothelial NO and endothelium-dependent vascular tone by deacetylating eNOS. Furthermore, our results provide a possible molecular mechanism connecting the effects of CR on the endothelium and vascular tone to SIRT1-mediated deacetylation of eNOS.