Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Satisfaction, commitment and professionalism of newly employed nurses.

Over their first year of work all nurses employed in a large hospital reported decreased job satisfaction, decreased organizational commitment, and decreased professionalism. This happened with both new graduates and experienced nurses alike; only Master's prepared nurses did not report this decline. The results suggest that employers need to assess the initial expectations of new nurses and either meet more of those expectations or help new nurses form more realistic expectations about their jobs.
Effects of prebiotic, cryoprotectant and encapsulation with hydrocolloids on the survivability of Lactobacillus acidophilus during freeze drying

The effects of encapsulation with hydrocolloids, low methoxyl pectin (LMP) and iota-carrageenan (IC), prebiotic (inulin), cryoprotectant (sucrose) as well as cations (CaÂ²â�o and Kâ�o) on the survivability of Lactobacillus acidophilus upon freeze drying were investigated. Lactobacillus acidophilus was entrapped within gel beads formed by dripping technique, at which the suspension of bacterial cell and hydrocolloids was dripped into a cation solution through a needle of 0.40 mm in diameter. After freeze drying, there was loss of cell viability for both free and encapsulated bacteria (p<0.05). Encapsulation with LMP or IC Significantly increased (p<0.05) the survivability as compared to non-encapsulated bacteria after freeze drying. The addition of inulin increased the survivability only when Lactobacillus acidophilus was encapsulated with LMP (p<0.05). As compared to encapsulated bacteria, the effect of sucrose on non-encapsulated bacteria was more pronounced (p<0.05). The presence and increasing concentrations of CaÂ²â�o ions for bead formation however decreased the survivability of Lactobacillus acidophilus. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) showed that the removal of water during freeze drying resulted in changes in bead shapes from spherical to non-spherical, regardless of the concentrations of hydrocolloids and the type of cations used for both LMP and IC. Overall, encapsulation with LMP or IC, addition of inulin and sucrose provide protective effect for Lactobacillus acidophilus. Nevertheless, the survivability of encapsulated Lactobacillus acidophilus was still below the generally accepted requirement of 10â�· CFU/g in a food product.
The Role of the Carotid Body in Mediating the Cerebrovascular Response to Altered Arterial Carbon Dioxide Tension

The role of the carotid bifurcation chemoreceptors in mediating the cerebrovascular response to altered arterial Pco2 has been suggested to be large. In the present study the cerebrovascular response to raised Pco2 was measured in a group of baboons before and after bilateral inactivation of the carotid bodies. The results suggest that these chemoreceptors do play a part in the cerebral vasodilator response to raised Pco2. The role of the carotid body, however, appears to be relatively minor as it only accounted for ± 40% of the total response and became significant only at arterial Pco2 levels of more than 50 mm Hg. It is postulated that the peripheral chemoreceptors in the carotid bifurcation mediate part of the cerebrovascular response to altered Paco2 but that the role is quantitatively small.
Developing a Governance Model for Successful Business Process Standardization

Standardization of business processes is considered as an important instrument in the context of business process management. However, research in that field has mostly focused on the impact of business process standardization on business process performance while only a few attempts have been made to determine the success factors for effective process standardization, yet. Moreover, a major issue in any standardization initiative is to convince decision makers to follow the standard. This is particularly true when it comes to process standardization: how can a firm be sure that its different divisions have implemented the process standard and that the employees adhere to the rules? Following an action design research approach, we introduce a governance model that consists of a role concept for ensuring successful process standardization. As part of the research process, we provide first steps of evaluation through a qualitative case study at an international aviation company.
Histamine H1 Receptor Antagonists Inhibit Autoregulation of Renal Blood Flow in the Dog

Histamine Hi and H2 receptors are present in the canine renal circulation. We have examined the effects of H1 and H2 receptor antagonists on autoregulation of renal blood flow in the dog. Renal arterial pressure was reduced in a step-wise fashion to 80 mm Hg by means of an adjustable aortic clamp positioned above the left renal artery. Infusion of H2 antagonists, cimetidine or ranitidine, into the left renal artery at 10−5 mol/min had no effect on autoregulation of renal blood flow or on the reactive hyperemia that occurred when the aortic constriction was released. By contrast, intrarenal infusion of 10−5 mol/min chlorpheniramine, an H, receptor antagonist, reversibly attenuated reactive hypermia and the ability of the kidney to autoregulate renal blood flow. Similar results were obtained with other, chemically dissimilar H1 antagonists (terfenadine, diphenhydramine, and pyrilamine). The effects of chlorpheniramine on autoregulation of glomerular filtration rate also were evaluated. Before chlorpheniramine was infused (at 10−5 mol/min), the reduction of renal arterial pressure to 90 mm Hg had no effect on the glomerular filtration rate, whereas, during infusion of the H1 antagonist, the glomerular filtration rate fell significantly when renal arterial pressure was reduced to 90 mm Hg. Infusion of histamine (1 μg/kg Per min) with increasing amounts of cimetidine, chlorpheniramine, diphenhydramine, or pyrilamine resulted in virtually identical dose-dependent decreases in histamine-induced renal vasodilahon. However, even with 10−5 mol/min cimetidine or 10−5 mol/min chlorpheniiamine, diphenhydramine, or pyrilamine, a significant histamine-induced renal vasodilation was observed. Thus, the amount of H1 antagonist required to inhibit histamine activation of H1 receptors is the same as needed to block autoregulation. Finally, renal vascular reactivity as estimated by acetylcholine-induced vasodilation was not substantially affected by chlorpheniramine or by pyrilamine. These observations provide evidence in support of a role for histamine as a chemical mediator of renal autoregulation.
Tolerance: One Transplant for Life

Abstract Recently, The Transplantation Society convened a workshop to address the question, “What do we need to have in place to make tolerance induction protocols a ‘standard of care’ for organ transplant recipients over the next decade? ” In a productive 2-day meeting, there was wide-ranging discussion on a broad series of topics, resulting in five consensus recommendations as follows: (1) establish a registry of results for patients enrolled in tolerance trials; (2) establish standardized protocols for sample collection and storage; (3) establish standardized biomarkers and assays; (4) include children 12 years and older in protocols that have been validated in adults; and (5) establish a task force to engage third-party payers in discussions of how to fund tolerance trials. Future planned workshops will focus on progress in implementing these recommendations and identifying other steps that the community needs to take.
Plasticity of connections underlying locomotor recovery after central and/or peripheral lesions in the adult mammals

This review discusses some aspects of plasticity of connections after spinal injury in adult animal models as a basis for functional recovery of locomotion. After reviewing some pitfalls that must be avoided when claiming functional recovery and the importance of a conceptual framework for the control of locomotion, locomotor recovery after spinal lesions, mainly in cats, is summarized. It is concluded that recovery is partly due to plastic changes within the existing spinal locomotor networks. Locomotor training appears to change the excitability of simple reflex pathways as well as more complex circuitry. The spinal cord possesses an intrinsic capacity to adapt to lesions of central tracts or peripheral nerves but, as a rule, adaptation to lesions entails changes at both spinal and supraspinal levels. A brief summary of the spinal capacity of the rat, mouse and human to express spinal locomotor patterns is given, indicating that the concepts derived mainly from work in the cat extend to other adult mammals. It is hoped that some of the issues presented will help to evaluate how plasticity of existing connections may combine with and potentiate treatments designed to promote regeneration to optimize remaining motor functions.
Increased Risk of Arrhythmic Events in Long-QT Syndrome With Mutations in the Pore Region of the Human Ether-a-go-go–Related Gene Potassium Channel

Background—The hereditary long-QT syndrome is characterized by prolonged ventricular repolarization and a variable clinical course with arrhythmia-related syncope and sudden death. Mutations involving the human ether-a-go-go–related gene (HERG) channel are responsible for the LQT2 form of long-QT syndrome, and in cellular expression studies these mutations are associated with reduction in the rapid component of the delayed rectifier repolarizing current (IKr). We investigated the clinical features and prognostic implications of mutations involving pore and nonpore regions of the HERG channel in the LQT2 form of this disorder. Methods and Results—A total of 44 different HERG mutations were identified in 201 subjects, with 14 mutations located in the pore region (amino acid residues 550 through 650). Thirty-five subjects had mutations in the pore region and 166 in nonpore regions. Follow-up extended through age 40 years. Subjects with pore mutations had more severe clinical manifestations of the genetic disorder and experienced a higher frequency (74% versus 35%;P <0.001) of arrhythmia-related cardiac events occurring at earlier age than did subjects with nonpore mutations. Multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression analysis revealed that pore mutations dominated the risk, with hazard ratios in the range of 11 (P <0.0001) for QTc at 500 ms, with a 16% increase in the pore hazard ratio for each 10-ms increase in QTc. Conclusion—Patients with mutations in the pore region of the HERG gene are at markedly increased risk for arrhythmia-related cardiac events compared with patients with nonpore mutations.
Novel Whole Body Plethysmography System for the Continuous Characterization of Sleep and Breathing in a Mouse Innovative Methodology

Novel whole body plethysmography system for the continuous characterization of sleep and breathing in a mouse. —Sleep is associated with marked alterations in ventilatory control that lead to perturbations in respiratory timing, breathing pattern, ventilation, pharyngeal collapsibility, and sleep-related breathing disorders (SRBD). Mouse models offer powerful insight into the pathogenesis of SRBD; however, methods for obtaining the full complement of continuous, high-fidelity respiratory, electroencephalographic (EEG), and electromyographic (EMG) signals in unrestrained mice during sleep and wake have not been developed. We adapted whole body plethysmography to record EEG, EMG, and respiratory signals continuously in unrestrained, unanesthetized mice. Whole body plethys-mography tidal volume and airflow signals and a novel noninvasive surrogate for respiratory effort (respiratory movement signal) were validated against simultaneously measured gold standard signals. Compared with the gold standard, we validated 1) tidal volume 2 ϭ 0.79 – 0.84, P Ͻ 0.001). The expiratory airflow signal, however, demonstrated a decrease in amplitude compared with the gold standard. Integrating respiratory and EEG/EMG signals, we fully characterized sleep and breathing patterns in conscious, unrestrained mice and demonstrated inspiratory flow limitation in a New Zealand Obese mouse. Our approach will facilitate studies of SRBD mechanisms in inbred mouse strains and offer a powerful platform to investigate the effects of environmental and pharmacological exposures on breathing disturbances during sleep and wakefulness. SLEEP IS ASSOCIATED WITH MARKED alterations in ventilatory control that lead to perturbations in breathing patterns, frank periods of hypoventilation, and upper airway obstruction (35, 43). In susceptible individuals, these changes precipitate a spectrum of sleep-related breathing disorders (SRBD) including obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and hypoventilation syndromes (35, 43). SRBD are highly prevalent in Western society and have been linked to numerous clinical sequelae, including stroke, hypertension, diabetes, and frank respiratory failure (13, 25, 30, 31, 38, 47). In humans, the polysomnogram, which encompasses respiratory (tidal volume, airflow, and effort) and electroencephalographic (EEG)/electromyographic (EMG) signals, is a pivotal tool for characterizing SRBD and sleep-related respiratory disturbances, including periodic apneas and hypopneas and alterations in gas exchange, tidal volume, and airflow. Animal models can offer powerful insight into the patho-genesis of SRBD. Investigators have demonstrated recurrent central and obstructive apnea episodes with continuous recordings of airflow and respiratory effort in several large-animal models (7, 17, 22, 29). Nevertheless, these studies have been hindered by difficulty in procuring, instrumenting, and acclimatizing the animals to polysomnographic recordings. Mice and rats have also been utilized to characterize ventilatory …
Latanoprost Therapy After Sunken Eyes Caused by Travoprost or Bimatoprost

Purpose. To report clinical results of switching to latanoprost therapy in patients with deepening of the upper eyelid sulcus caused by travoprost and bimatoprost. Methods. Prospective, clinical, observational case reports. Four patients presented with eyelid changes giving the eye a sunken eye appearance; two were being treated with travoprost and two with bimatoprost. Both patients on bimatoprost and one of the patients on travoprost therapy were switched to latanoprost while the eyelid sign was evident. The other patient discontinued the travoprost therapy for 4 months and switched to latanoprost therapy 1 month later, i.e., 5 months after discontinuing travaprost therapy. The physical changes in the eyelids were documented by photography and the intraocular pressure by Goldmann applanation tonometry. Results. Three patients had a resolution of the sunken eye appearance 2 to 3 months after switching to latanoprost. The one patient who switched to latanoprost after recovery of the sunken eye had no recurrence during a 6 months follow-up period. There were no significant changes in the intraocular pressure in any of the subjects. Conclusions. A deepening of the upper eyelid sulcus is a complication of prostaglandin F2&agr; analogs. However, this side effect may be less common with latanoprost and eyes with this side effect caused by travoprost or bimatoprost may tolerate latanoprost therapy.
High Thermal Conductivity Materials

Every university student becomes familiar with the concept of thermal conductivity, a fundamental physical property of materials, through his or her textbooks. Initial work on high thermal conductivity was carried out in 1911 by Eucken, who discovered that diamond was a reasonably good conductor for heat at room temperature. Theoretical support for this discovery was established by Debye in 1914.
Ferroelectric and Piezoelectric Properties of Bi4Ti3O12 Single Crystals Grown by Top-Seeded Solution Growth Method at High Oxygen Pressure

High-performance single crystals of ferroelectric Bi4Ti3O12 (BiT) have been successfully obtained via the top-seeded solution growth under high oxygen pressure (Po2) atmosphere. Crystals grown at 960°C at a Po2 of 0.9 MPa exhibited a well-saturated hysteresis loop with a remanent polarization of 48 mC/cm2 and a coercive field of 29 kV/cm. The results of piezoresponse force microscopy indicate that polarization switching is accomplished throughout the BiT crystals obtained. Electric-field-induced strain measurements along the a axis yield a piezoelectric constant d11* of 37 pm/V for BiT.
Graph Mining, Social Network Analysis, and Multirelational Data Mining

We have studied frequent-itemset mining in Chapter 5 and sequential-pattern mining in Section 3 of Chapter 8. Many scientific and commercial applications need patterns that are more complicated than frequent itemsets and sequential patterns and require extra effort to discover. Such sophisticated patterns go beyond sets and sequences, toward trees, lattices, graphs, networks, and other complex structures. As a general data structure, graphs have become increasingly important in modeling sophisticated structures and their interactions, with broad applications including chemical informatics, bioinformatics, computer vision, video indexing, text retrieval, and Web analysis. Mining frequent subgraph patterns for further characterization, discrimination, classification, and cluster analysis becomes an important task. Moreover, graphs that link many nodes together may form different kinds of networks, such as telecommunication networks, computer networks, biological networks, and Web and social community networks. Because such networks have been studied extensively in the context of social networks , their analysis has often been referred to as social network analysis. Furthermore, in a relational database, objects are semantically linked across multiple relations. Mining in a relational database often requires mining across multiple interconnected relations, which is similar to mining in connected graphs or networks. Such kind of mining across data relations is considered multirelational data mining. In this chapter, we study knowledge discovery in such interconnected and complex structured data. Section 9.1 introduces graph mining, where the core of the problem is mining frequent subgraph patterns over a collection of graphs. Section 9.2 presents concepts and methods for social network analysis. Section 9.3 examines methods for mul-tirelational data mining, including both cross-relational classification and user-guided multirelational cluster analysis.
Research on Mars Surface Image Visual Feature Extraction Algorithm

Visual feature extraction was the basic of mars surface topography reconstruction. The deep research was done to extract mars surface image visual feature in the unstructured mars surface environment. On this basis, the paper gave the mars surface image visual feature extraction algorithm. The experimental results show that the algorithm has good adaptability to illumination change and rotation transformation of mars surface image. Meanwhile, the paper could extract the abundant visual features of mars surface image.
Drum transcription with non-negative spectrogram factorisation

This paper describes a novel method for the automatic transcription of drum sequences. The method is based on separating the target drum sounds from the input signal using non-negative matrix factorisation, and on detecting sound onsets from the separated signals. The separation algorithm factorises the spectrogram of the input signal into a sum of instrument spectrograms, each having a fixed spectrum and a time-varying gain. The spectra are calculated from a set of training signals, and the time-varying gains are estimated with an algorithm stemming from non-negative matrix factorisation. Onset times of the instruments are detected from the estimated time-varying gains. The system gave better results than two state-of-the-art methods in simulations with acoustic signals containing polyphonic drum sequences, and overall hit rate of 96% was accomplished. Demonstrational signals are available at http://www.cs. tut.fi/~paulus/demo/.
Effects of intracellular pH, blood, and tissue oxygen tension on T1ρ relaxation in rat brain

The effects of intracellular pH (pHi), paramagnetic macroscopic, and microscopic susceptibility on T1 in the rotating frame (T1ρ) were studied in rat brain. Intracellular acidosis was induced by hypercapnia and pHi, T1ρ, T2, diffusion, and cerebral blood volume (CBV) were quantified. Taking into account the CBV contribution, a prolongation of parenchymal T1ρ by 4.5% was ascribed to a change in tissue water relaxation caused by a one unit drop in pHi. Blood T1ρ was found to prolong linearly with blood oxygenation saturation (Y). The macroscopic susceptibility contribution to parenchymal T1ρ was assessed both through BOLD and an iron oxide contrast agent, AMI‐227. The T1ρ data from these experiments could be described by intravascular effects with insignificant effects of susceptibility gradients on tissue water. Tissue oxygen tension (PtO2) was manipulated and monitored with microelectrodes to assess its plausible contribution to microscopic susceptibility and relaxation. Parenchymal T1ρ was virtually unaffected by variations in the PtO2, but T1 was shortened in hyperoxia and T2 showed a negative BOLD effect in hypoxia. It is demonstrated that pHi directly modulates tissue T1ρ, possibly through its effect on proton exchange; however, neither BOLD nor PtO2 directly influence tissue T1ρ. The observations are discussed in the light of physicochemical mechanisms contributing to the ischemic T1ρ changes. Magn Reson Med 48:470–477, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Statin Pretreatment and Microembolic Signals in Large Artery Atherosclerosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background and Purpose— Scarce data indicate that statin pretreatment (SP) in patients with acute cerebral ischemia because of large artery atherosclerosis may be related to lower risk of recurrent stroke because of a decreased incidence of microembolic signals (MES) during transcranial Doppler monitoring. Methods— We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of available observational studies reporting MES presence/absence or MES burden, categorized according to SP status, in patients with acute cerebral ischemia because of symptomatic (≥50%) large artery atherosclerosis. In studies with partially-published data, authors were contacted for previously unpublished information. We also performed a sensitivity analysis of studies with data on MES burden categorized according to SP status, and an additional subgroup analysis in patients receiving higher-dose SP (atorvastatin 80 mg or rosuvastatin 40 mg daily). Results— Seven eligible study protocols were identified (610 patients, 54% with SP). SP was associated with a reduced risk of MES detection during transcranial Doppler monitoring (risk ratio=0.67; 95% CI, 0.45–0.98), with substantial heterogeneity between studies (I2=52%). In studies reporting MES burden (n=4), a significantly lower number of MES were identified in patients with compared with those without SP (mean difference=−0.92; 95% CI, −1.64 to –0.19), with no evidence of heterogeneity between studies (I2=49%). Subgroup analysis revealed that higher-dose SP reduced the risk of detecting MES (risk ratio=0.23; 95% CI, 0.06–0.88), with no evidence of heterogeneity between studies (I2=0%). Conclusions— SP seems to be associated with a lower incidence and burden of MES in patients with acute cerebral ischemia because of large artery atherosclerosis.