Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Elevated Sympathetic Nerve Activity in Borderline Hypertensive Humans Evidence From Direct Intraneural Recordings

Reports of elevated plasma catecholamine levels and augmented responses to autonomic blockade suggest increased sympathetic tone in borderline hypertension. It is not known if this reflects greater sympathetic neural outflow. We directly recorded muscle sympathetic nerve activity (microneurography) in 15 normotensive and 12 borderline hypertensive age-matched men to determine whether borderline hypertensive individuals have elevated sympathetic nerve activity. Supine heart rate, blood pressure, plasma norepinephrine, and efferent muscle sympathetic nerve activity (peroneal nerve) were measured after 6 days of both low and high dietary sodium intake (10 and 400 meq sodium/24 hr). Sympathetic nerve activity was elevated significantly in borderline hypertensive individuals on both low (37±1 in borderline hypertensive individuals vs. 29±1 bursts/min in normotensive individuals; p < 0.01) and high (25+1 in borderline hypertensive individuals vs. 16±1 bursts/min in normotensive individuals; p < 0.01) sodium diets. The borderline hypertensive group had higher systolic (p < 0.01) and diastolic (p < 0.05) blood pressures independent of sodium intake. Across both groups, high sodium intake reduced muscle sympathetic nerve activity (p < 0.001), plasma norepinephrine (p < 0.001), diastolic blood pressure (p < 0.02), heart rate (p < 0.002), and increased weight (p < 0.005). A significant (p < 0.05) group-by-diet interaction was observed for plasma norepinephrine levels. Specifically, compared with the normotensive group, plasma norepinephrine levels in the borderline hypertensive group tended to be higher on low sodium diet (p = 0.08) and lower on high sodium diet (p = 0.23). High sodium intake increased diastolic pressure by over 5 mm Hg in six of 27 subjects (four borderline hypertensive and two normotensive). Sympathetic activity in sodium-sensitive subjects was not elevated compared with sodium-resistant subjects and also declined during high sodium intake. This study supports the hypothesis of elevated central sympathetic neural outflow in borderline hypertension.
Fibrinogen Is Associated With an Increased Risk of Alzheimer Disease and Vascular Dementia

Background and Purpose— Vascular and inflammatory factors may play an important role in the pathogenesis of dementia. Studies reported an association between plasma levels of inflammation markers and the risk of dementia. Both fibrinogen and C-reactive protein are considered inflammatory markers. Fibrinogen also has important hemostatic properties. We investigated the association of fibrinogen and C-reactive protein with dementia. Methods— The study was based on the prospective population-based Rotterdam Study. Fibrinogen was measured in a random sample of 2835 persons. High-sensitivity C-reactive protein was measured in the total cohort of 6713 persons. We identified 395 incident dementia cases during follow-up (mean, 5.7 years). We estimated the associations of fibrinogen and C-reactive protein with dementia using Cox proportional hazard models. Results— Persons with higher levels of fibrinogen had an increased risk of dementia. The hazard ratio for dementia per SD increase of fibrinogen was 1.26 (95% CI, 1.11 to 1.44), adjusted for age and gender, and 1.30 (95% CI, 1.13 to 1.50) after additional adjustment for cardiovascular factors and stroke. For Alzheimer disease, the adjusted hazard ratio was 1.25 (95% CI, 1.04 to 1.49), and for vascular dementia it was 1.76 (95% CI, 1.34 to 2.30). High levels of C-reactive protein were not associated with an increased risk of dementia. Conclusions— High fibrinogen levels were associated with an increased risk of both Alzheimer disease and vascular dementia, but levels of C-reactive protein were not. This suggests that the increased risk of dementia associated with fibrinogen is because of the hemostatic rather than the inflammatory properties of fibrinogen.
Shifting Perspectives: Applying Person-Centered Analyses to Violence Research

Beyond their status as an alternative to traditional variable-centered approaches, person-centered analyses challenge violence and victimization researchers to rethink the data, constructs, and populations they study. Although broadening one’s perspective can be intimidating, person-centered approaches offer violence researchers the opportunity to answer new questions, test theories and taxonomies for the first time, and develop more nuanced understandings of populations under study. Addressing such ranging topics as peer victimization, childhood maltreatment, violence exposure, and risk and coping, the articles in this special issue all use person-centered analyses to examine interpersonal victimization. All four groups of authors use variables indicating participants’ multiple victimization or maltreatment statuses to indicate latent heterogeneity. This person-centered approach facilitates the discovery of underlying, homogeneous subgroups of victims. The authors are then able to test associations between likely subgroup membership and risk factors and outcomes. Aside from their obvious utility to more clearly understand patterns of violence and victimization, personcentered analyses offer straightforward interpretations and implications regarding risk for victimization and patterns of childhood maltreatment seemingly tailored for clinical or policy audiences. In all, the person-centered approach brings both rewards and challenges for violence researchers who choose to integrate it into their program of study; they will undoubtedly find that the former greatly outweighs the latter.
Understanding the impact of industrial context on software engineering research: some initial insights

Contextual variables appear to strongly impact the results of software engineering research. But little attention has been directed at better understanding this apparent impact. This report reviews the small body of research that has investigated industrial context. The report is something of a work in progress and, therefore, lacks some coherence. Therefore, a summary of insights is provided at the beginning of the report, with an appendix containing the remainder of the work.
From the physical to the psychological: Mundane experiences influence social judgment and interpersonal behavior

Abstract Mere physical experiences of warmth, distance, hardness, and roughness are found to activate the more abstract psychological concepts that are analogically related to them, such as interpersonal warmth and emotional distance, thereby influencing social judgments and interpersonal behavior without the individual's awareness. These findings further support the principle of neural reuse in the development and operation of higher mental processes.
Electromagnetic design optimization of a low speed Slotted Switched Reluctance Machine using genetic algorithm

This paper describes the design of a low speed Slotted Switched Reluctance Machine (SSRM) for wind turbine applications. The modeling and the dimensioning of the machine structure are investigated. Teeth shapes and global design are analyzed by optimizing the mass torque. Dimensions are obtained thanks to a genetic algorithm (GA) associated to the finite element method for the resolution of the electromagnetic equations. The optimization is executed 50 times in order to study convergence and to perform a statistical study on dimensioning parameters.
3D virtual hand pointing with EMS and vibration feedback

Pointing is one of the most basic interaction methods for 3D user interfaces. Previous work has shown that visual feedback improves such actions. Here we investigate if electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) and vibration is beneficial for 3D virtual hand pointing. In our experiment we used a 3D version of a Fitts' task to compare visual feedback, EMS, vibration, with no feedback. The results demonstrate that both EMS and vibration provide reasonable addition to visual feedback. We also found good user acceptance for both technologies.
On the coherence of syntactic descriptions

A sentiment which is expressed in a number of recent works in linguistics, e.g. Emonds (1970) and Kisseberth (1970) is that there are certain generalizations about languages which cannot be captured by devices already found in linguistic theory, such as rule ordering and the various collapsing conventions (cf. Chomsky & Halle, 1968). In this paper I will present evidence which suggests that there are generalizations about languages which are not capturable even by a linguistic theory which includes a number of these recent plausible revisions. I will also give an indication of how one might go about capturing these generalizations, given the assumption that they are not spurious ones.
Synthesis of β-Amino Carbonyl Compounds via Mannich reaction using sulfated MCM-41

The formation of carbon-carbon bonds is crucial to the development of organic molecules such as medicines, biodegradable plastics and natural products and a great deal of research has been focused in this area recently. Mannich reaction plays a vital role in the construction of variety of organic molecules [1]. The products of the Mannich reaction are used for the synthesis of amino alcohols, peptides and lactams and as precursors to synthesize amino acids. In this regard, we have synthesized β-amino ketones as products of three component Mannich reaction in the presence of sulfated MCM-41 as a reusable heterogeneous catalyst. The good yields under mild reaction conditions with low catalyst loading make this protocol an attractive one. Moreover there is no formation of by-products making this protocol an important addition to the methods of synthesis of natural products. Many natural products have been discovered to have medicinal values including anti-bacterial, anti-tumor, and anti-cancer properties. Aspirin, for example, was originally found in tree bark and used medicinally by the Greeks and Romans before being synthetically produced in 1899 [2]. The conventional catalysts for classical Mannich reaction of aldehydes, ketones and amines involve mainly organic or mineral acids. A vast literature available for the synthesis of β-amino carbonyl compounds using Mannich reaction includes catalysts such as HClO4-SiO2 [3], bromo dimethylsulfonium bromide (BDMS) [4], TMSCl [5], pTSA [6], SmCl3 [7], Amberlyst-15 [8], AuCl3-PPh3 [9], silica supported sulfuric acid [10], carbon-based solid acid [11], InCl3[12], NbCl5 [13], sulfamic acid [14], Fe3O4cysteine MNP [15], ionic liquid [16], Bismuth(III) chloride [17], sucrose char sulfonic acid [18], boric acid [19] and Zn(OTf)2 [20]. Herein we report the synthesis of β-amino carbonyl compounds in presence of sulfated MCM-41 as a catalyst with good yield.
Traffic Noise, Environmental Awareness, and Pedestrian Behavior

Recent research has confirmed that social behavior, especially helpfulness, is affected by the environmental input level: As the level of environmental bombardment increases, the level of helpfulness decreases. This study was designed to evaluate one explanation for this effect, the restricted awareness explanation. We hypothesized that as environmental bombardment increases, people become less aware of peripheral objects and happenings in their immediate surroundings. This characteristic may be part of a general adjustment to high-input levels, which may also include an increase in walking speed and a decrease in visual scanning of the environment. The results confirmed each of these expectations. During periods of high traffic noise and density, in contrast to low periods, pedestrians were found to be less aware of novel objects placed along their route, to walk faster, and to engage more in a straight-ahead gaze fixation.
Explorer Reflections on monadic lenses

Bidirectional transformations (bx) have primarily been modeled as pure functions, and do not account for the possibility of the side-effects that are available in most programming languages. Recently several formulations of bx that use monads to account for effects have been proposed, both among practitioners and in academic research. The combination of bx with effects turns out to be surprisingly subtle, leading to problems with some of these proposals and increasing the complexity of others. This paper reviews the proposals for monadic lenses to date, and offers some improved definitions, paying particular attention to the obstacles to naively adding monadic effects to existing definitions of pure bx such as lenses and symmetric lenses, and the subtleties of equivalence of symmetric bidirectional transformations in the presence of effects.
Temporal Variation in the Association between Benzene and Leukemia Mortality

Background Benzene is a human carcinogen. Exposure to benzene occurs in occupational and environmental settings. Objective I evaluated variation in benzene-related leukemia with age at exposure and time since exposure. Methods I evaluated data from a cohort of 1,845 rubber hydrochloride workers. Benzene exposure–leukemia mortality trends were estimated by applying proportional hazards regression methods. Temporal variation in the impact of benzene on leukemia rates was assessed via exposure time windows and fitting of a multistage cancer model. Results The association between leukemia mortality and benzene exposures was of greatest magnitude in the 10 years immediately after exposure [relative rate (RR) at 10 ppm-years = 1.19; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.10–1.29]; the association was of smaller magnitude in the period 10 to < 20 years after exposure (RR at 10 ppm-years = 1.05; 95% CI, 0.97–1.13); and there was no evidence of association ≥ 20 years after exposure. Leukemia was more strongly associated with benzene exposures accrued at ≥ 45 years of age (RR at 10 ppm-years = 1.11; 95% CI, 1.04–1.17) than with exposures accrued at younger ages (RR at 10 ppm-years = 1.01; 95% CI, 0.92–1.09). Jointly, these temporal effects can be efficiently modeled as a multistage process in which benzene exposure affects the penultimate stage in disease induction. Conclusions Further attention should be given to evaluating the susceptibility of older workers to benzene-induced leukemia.
Elements needed to support a crisis management collaboration framework

The national airspace security mission objective is to prevent or counter attacks on air vehicles, including attempts to use aircraft as weapons. Execution of this mission requires coordination and collaboration by both civil and military government agencies as well as the private sector, with tightly choreographed activities from a number of independent organizations in multiple locations. However, there is not yet an accepted multi-agency collaboration framework. The elements needed to support such a framework are proposed in this paper, the result of a MITRE Sponsored Research (MSR) project. It addresses the multiple characteristics of joint crisis management collaboration: unrelated organizations, non-collocation, and time sensitivity.
Intelligent Technique Based Shunt Active Filter To Reduce Harmonics In Power Systems

This paper studies a Fuzzy Logic Control Based (FLCB) Shunt Active Filter (SAF) capable of reducing the total harmonics distortion (THD) in Power System (PS). SAF is one of the key controllers in Flexible Alternating Current Transmission System (FACTS) to control the transmission line voltage and can be used in PS to enhance the power transmission capacity and extend the transient stability. In order to improve the power factor, compensate the reactive power and suppress the total harmonic distortion (THD) drawn from a Non-Linear Diode Rectifier Load (NLDRL) of SAF, we propose a Hierarchical neuro-fuzzy current control scheme for a shunt active power filter for the Pulse Width Modulation technique which is used as control for the switches of the Voltage Source Inverter (VSI) or SAF. The synchronous reference D-Q frame theory is used to detect the harmonic currents and to generate the reference compensating currents for SAF. A fuzzy logic based control is developed to regulate the voltage of the DC capacitor. The system with control scheme is implemented in Mat lab/Simulink.
Polymeric Gas-Separation Membranes for Petroleum Refining

Polymeric gas-separation membranes were commercialized 30 years ago. The interest on these systems is increasing because of the simplicity of concept and low-energy consumption. In the refinery, gas separation is needed in many processes such as natural gas treatment, carbon dioxide capture, hydrogen purification, and hydrocarbons separations. In these processes, the membranes have proven to be a potential candidate to replace the current conventional methods of amine scrubbing, pressure swing adsorption, and cryogenic distillation. In this paper, applications of polymeric membranes in the refinery are discussed by reviewing current materials and commercialized units. Economical evaluation of these membranes in comparison to traditional processes is also indicated.
Entrepreneurship in Medium-Size Companies: Exploring the Effects of Ownership and Governance Systems

Corporate entrepreneurship (CE), which embodies a company’s innovation and venturing activities, is necessary in today’s competitive markets. CE is important for organizational renewal, the creation of new business, and improved performance. CE, however, requires strong and continued support from the company’s top executives. Data from 231 medium-size manufacturing companies show that commitment to CE is high when: (1) executives own stock in their company; (2) the board chair and the chief executive officer are different individuals; (3) the board is medium in size; and, (4) outside directors own stock in the company. The relationships between the ratio of outside directors and CE, and institutional ownership and CE, are mixed. CE is also positively associated with future company performance.
Scheduling Dependent Periodic Tasks without Synchronization Mechanisms

This article studies the scheduling of critical embedded systems, which consist of a set of communicating periodic tasks with constrained deadlines. Currently, tasks are usually sequenced manually, partly because available scheduling policies do not ensure the determinism of task communications. Ensuring this determinism requires scheduling policies supporting task precedence constraints (which we call dependent tasks), which are used to force the order in which communicating tasks execute. We propose fixed priority scheduling policies for different classes of dependent tasks: with simultaneous or arbitrary release times, with simple precedences (between tasks of the same period) or extended precedences (between tasks of different periods). We only consider policies that do not require synchronization mechanisms (like semaphores). This completely prevents deadlocks or scheduling anomalies without requiring further proofs.
The PRIAMO study: A multicenter assessment of nonmotor symptoms and their impact on quality of life in Parkinson's disease

We performed a multicenter survey using a semistructured interview in 1,072 consecutive patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) enrolled during 12 months in 55 Italian centers to assess the prevalence of nonmotor symptoms (NMSs), their association with cognitive impairment, and the impact on patients' quality of life (QoL). We found that 98.6% of patients with PD reported the presence of NMSs. The most common were as follows: fatigue (58%), anxiety (56%), leg pain (38%), insomnia (37%), urgency and nocturia (35%), drooling of saliva and difficulties in maintaining concentration (31%). The mean number of NMS per patient was 7.8 (range, 0–32). NMS in the psychiatric domain were the most frequent (67%). Frequency of NMS increased along with the disease duration and severity. Patients with cognitive impairment reported more frequently apathy, attention/memory deficit, and psychiatric symptoms. Apathy was the symptom associated with worse PDQ‐39 score but also presence of fatigue, attention/memory, and psychiatric symptoms had a negative impact on QoL. These findings further support a key role for NMS in the clinical frame of PD and the need to address them specifically in clinical trials using dedicated scales. © 2009 Movement Disorder Society
Development and Characterization of 1C6–203, a New Monoclonal Antibody Specific to Human Thymidine Phosphorylase

Thymidine phosphorylase (dThdPase) is an essential enzyme for activation of the oral cytostatic drug capecitabine and its intermediate metabolite, doxifluridine, to 5-fluorouracil in tumors. Methods to estimate dThdPase expression in tumor tissue might be useful to predict the efficacy of capecitabine and doxifluridine in cancer patients. We established a new monoclonal antibody (MAb), 1C6–203, applicable for dThdPase immunohistochemistry and compared its staining characteristics with those of a previously established MAb, 654–1. In 4% paraformaldehyde-fixed colorectal carcinoma, 1C6–203 and 654–1 stained cancer cells in 19/30 and 9/30 patients, respectively. In 10% formalin-fixed colorectal carcinoma, 1C6–203 and 654–1 stained cancer cells in 18/30 and 6/30 patients, respectively. In negative 10% formalin-fixed tissues, microwave treatment improved the positivity of 654–1-stained cancer cells. These results suggest that an epitope recognized by 1C6–203 is resistant to epitope masking by formaldehyde fixation, whereas that for MAb 654–1 is sensitive. Therefore, MAb 1C6–203 might be more suitable than MAb 654–1 for evaluating dThdPase expression in colorectal carcinoma.
Plasticidad cerebral y hábito en William James: un antecedente para la Neurociencia Social

William James, in the chapter on the habits of “The Principles of Psychology” (1890) introduced as a key concept of plasticity of brain and nervous system. James could not study this phenomenon experimentally, but his proposal was derived from the results of contemporary research in different fields of Biology and Physiology. Plasticity refers to how learning, skill acquisition, interpersonal and social influences and other contextual variables can influence on the physical structure of the brain, modifying and establishing new relationships and neural circuits that in turn can impair their functioning. This concept was studied experimentally in the late Twentieth Century, and it’s a key concept in the current Social Neuroscience, a discipline that seeks to combine and integrate different conceptual and methodological elements from Neuroscience and Social Psychology. This analysis has allowed us, first, to emphasize the meaning and value that James gave to the concept of plasticity in its analysis of habit, and second, to review the meaning of this concept in modern Social Neuroscience, stressing background of the James’ hypotheses in the current concept of brain plasticity.
Does Rudeness Really Matter?: The Effects of Rudeness on Task Performance and Helpfulness

In three experimental studies, we provide an empirical test of how rudeness affects task performance and helpfulness. Different forms of rudeness (rudeness instigated by a direct authority figure, rudeness delivered by a third-party offender, and imagining a situation in which a perpetrator was rude) converged to produce the same effects. Results from these studies showed that rudeness reduced performance on routine tasks as well as creative tasks. We also found that rude behavior decreased helpfulness. We examined the processes that mediated the rudeness-performance relationship and found evidence that disruption to cognitive processes fully mediated the rudeness-performance relationship.