Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Habitat Assessment for Florida Panther Population Expansion into Central Florida

Abstract One of the goals of the Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi) recovery plan is to expand panther range north of the Caloosahatchee River in central Florida. Our objective was to evaluate the potential of that region to support panthers. We used a geographic information system and the Mahalanobis distance statistic to develop a habitat model based on landscape characteristics associated with panther home ranges. We used cross-validation and an independent telemetry data set to test the habitat model. We also conducted a least-cost path analysis to identify potential habitat linkages and to provide a relative measure of connectivity among habitat patches. Variables in our model were paved road density, major highways, human population density, percentage of the area permanently or semipermanently flooded, and percentage of the area in natural land cover. Our model clearly identified habitat typical of that found within panther home ranges based on model testing with recent telemetry data. We identified 4 potential translocation sites that may support a total of approximately 36 panthers. Although we identified potential habitat linkages, our least-cost path analyses highlighted the extreme isolation of panther habitat in portions of the study area. Human intervention will likely be required if the goal is to establish female panthers north of the Caloosahatchee in the near term.
Dynamics of Inequality

In this study, the authors analyze the dynamic relationship between Chinese women’s education, their utilization of newly available medical pregnancy care, and their infants’ mortality risk. China has undergone enormous social, economic, and political changes over recent decades and is a novel context in which to examine the potential influence of social change and technological innovation on health disparities. The authors consider efficacy, or the ability to quickly absorb and effectively utilize new medical innovations, and argue that the social stratification of efficacy provides an important conceptual link between education and the greater likelihood of benefitting from medical innovations. Using the 2001 National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Survey data and multilevel, multiprocess models, the authors show that Chinese infants born to better educated mothers retained a survival advantage over the turbulent decades between 1970 and 2000. This occurs largely because educated mothers more actively sought prenatal care and professional delivery assistance use.
Periodic Output Feedback for Spatial Control of AHWR: A Three-Time-Scale Approach

This paper presents a novel technique of designing Periodic Output Feedback (POF) based controller for three-timescale systems. This design method is investigated for spatial control of Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR). The numerically ill-conditioned system of AHWR is first decomposed into three subsystems, namely, slow, fast1 and fast 2 by direct block-diagonalization and then a composite controller is designed which provides an output injection gain. This output injection gain has been used to compute POF gain, which is then applied to the vectorized nonlinear model of AHWR to achieve spatial control. This controller is tested via simulations carried out under different transient conditions and the results of simulation are presented.
Sensorimotor incongruence triggers sensory disturbances in professional violinists: an experimental study.

OBJECTIVES Professional violinists are at increased risk of developing disabling symptoms, such as tightness, stiffness, cramps, swelling and numbness in the upper limbs. In the majority of the symptoms, a demonstrable nociceptive aetiology cannot be defined. It has been suggested that a conflict between sensory input and motor intention can generate sensory disturbances. The purpose of this study was (i) to examine whether a sensorimotor conflict triggers sensory changes in professional violinists and (ii) to determine whether a conflict between motor intention and sensory feedback contributes to pathological symptoms in professional violinists. METHOD Twenty students following a professional master education in violin performed a coordination task simulating sensorimotor incongruence. Sensory changes were reported and rated after each stage of the protocol. RESULTS Twelve (60%) violinists reported sensory changes at some stage in the test protocol. The maximum number of reports of sensory changes occurred when the subjects moved their arms incongruently viewing the mirror (i.e. the stage of the protocol with the highest level of sensorimotor conflict). During performance of the coordination task viewing the mirror, a significant difference in sensory changes between violinists with and without baseline symptoms was revealed (P = 0.012 and P = 0.025). CONCLUSION Violinists with baseline symptoms may have a reduced threshold for sensorimotor incongruence. A conflict between the efferent motor output and the afferent sensorimotor input may play a role in symptoms without a discernible or local nociceptive aetiology in violinists. Further research is required.
The &kgr;-Opioid Receptor Agonist U-50488 Blocks Ca2+ Channels in a Voltage- and G Protein–Independent Manner in Sensory Neurons

Background and Objectives &kgr;-Opioid receptor (&kgr;-OR) activation is known to play a role in analgesia and central sedation. The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of the &kgr;-OR agonist, U-50488 (an arylacetamide), on Ca2+ channel currents and the signaling proteins involved in acutely isolated rat dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons expressing the putative promoter region of the tetrodotoxin-resistant Na+ channel (NaV 1.8) that is known to be involved in pain transmission. Methods Acutely isolated rat DRG neurons were transfected with cDNA coding for enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP), whose expression is driven by the NaV 1.8 promoter region. Thereafter, the whole-cell variant of the patch-clamp technique was used to record Ca2+ channel currents in neurons expressing EGFP. Results Exposure of EGFP-expressing DRG neurons to U-50488 (0.3–40 &mgr;M) led to voltage-independent inhibition of the Ca2+ channel currents. The modulation of the Ca2+ currents did not appear to be mediated by the G&agr; protein subfamilies: G&agr;i/o, G&agr;s, G&agr;q/11, G&agr;14, and G&agr;z. Furthermore, dialysis of the hydrolysis-resistant GDP analog, GDP-&bgr;-S (1 mM), did not affect the U-50488–mediated blocking effect, ruling out involvement of other G protein subunits. Finally, U-50488 (20 &mgr;M) blocked Ca2+ channels heterologously expressed in HeLa cells that do not express &kgr;-OR. Conclusion These results suggest that the antinociceptive actions mediated by U-50488 are likely due to both a direct block of Ca2+ channels in sensory neurons as well as G protein modulation of Ca2+ currents via &kgr;-OR–expressing neurons.
Contribution to Face Analysis from RGB Images and Depth Maps. (Contribution à l'analyse de visages à partir d'images RVB et de cartes de profondeur)

Automatic human face analysis refers to the processing of facial images by machines in order to infer useful information, such as identity, gender, ethnicity, mood, etc. Face analysis has many interesting applications in security, human computer interaction, social media analysis, etc. Therefore, though face analysis is a well-established computer vision problem, it is still an active research topic attracting considerable attention from researchers. The research community mainly aims to develop more robust systems with the ability to fulfill the requirements of current applications. This thesis contributes to a number of face analysis tasks: face verification and identification, gender recognition, ethnicity recognition and kinship verification. Faces from three different imaging supports i.e. RGB images, depth maps and videos are used throughout the thesis. We present novel approaches and in-depth studies for solving and improving the face analysis problem. First, we tackle face verification problem from RGB images. The local binary patterns based face verification scheme has been revised through proposing novel efficient representations, which cope with the original approach drawbacks while improving the verification performance. Next, the problems of identity, gender and ethnicity recognition are investigated from both RGB and depth images. The aim is to assess the usefulness low-quality depth images, acquired with Microsoft Kinect low-cost sensor, in coping with facial analysis tasks. The performance of RGB images and depth maps are compared to show the ability of the latter ones to deal with sever environment illumination circumstances. Furthermore, the thesis contributes to the problem of kinship verification from videos, where the family relationship between two persons is checked by comparing their facial attributes. The dynamics of faces are efficiently coded by the means of spatio-temporal descriptors and deep features. The value of using videos in kinship problem is shown by comparing their performance against that of still images. Throughout the thesis, various benchmark databases are used and extensive experiments are carried out to validate our proposed approaches and developed methods. Besides, the results of the proposed approaches are compared against the state of the art, highlighting our contributions and showing improvements. Future directions for the presented contributions are outlined at end of the thesis.
Patients' conscious recollections from cardiac anesthesia.

OBJECTIVE To estimate the current incidence of conscious recollections from the time of anesthesia, the contribution of anesthetic drugs to this incidence, and the patients' experience of cardiac anesthesia and surgery. DESIGN Prospective, horizontal survey of cardiac surgery patients using structured interview method. SETTING Tertiary care university hospital. PARTICIPANTS All cardiac surgery patients during 1 year (n = 1,218). INTERVENTIONS None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Of 1,218 patients operated on, 929 were interviewed. The patients' memories were classified to estimate the number of patients with possible or definite intraoperative awareness and later conscious recall. The use of anesthetics was estimated from anesthetic charts for patients with awareness and recall and control patients. These charts were compared using Poisson regression. The incidence of definite awareness with recall was 0.5% (5 patients), and the incidence of possible recall was 2.3% (21 patients). A lower dose of midazolam was used for the patients with awareness and recall. Only 1 patient rated the experience of awareness as the worst perioperative memory. Benzodiazepine premedication caused amnesia for the preoperative period but not for the time of anesthesia. CONCLUSION The incidence of awareness and recall is similar to the incidence reported during general surgery. Cardiac surgery does not carry increased risk of awareness. Benzodiazepines given during anesthesia are effective in decreasing the incidence of recalled awareness, and the experience of awareness is not often particularly traumatizing. Premedication with benzodiazepine is not effective in preventing recollection of anesthesia, however.
Resolving Ethical Issues in Stem Cell Clinical Trials: The Example of Parkinson Disease

Stem cells derived from pluripotent cells offer the hope of new treatments for diseases for which current therapy is inadequate. Clinical trials are essential in developing effective and safe stem cell therapies and fulfilling this promise. However, such clinical trials raise ethical issues that are more complex than those raised in clinical trials using drugs, cord blood stem cells, or adult stem cells. Several clinical trials are now being carried out with stem cells derived from pluripotent cells, and many more can be expected in light of the rapid scientific progress in the field. Degenerative neurological diseases are desirable targets for stem cell clinical trials. The FDA has approved Phase 1 clinical trials of neural stem cell transplantation for Batten Disease, Pelizaeus-Merzbacher Disease, and spinal cord injury. In Parkinson Disease (PD), stem cell transplantation could correct the primary pathophysiological defect — inadequate levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine. Current treatment is unsatisfactory in late-stage PD.
Influence of acute hyperglycemia in human sepsis on inflammatory cytokine and counterregulatory hormone concentrations.

AIM In human sepsis, a prominent component of the hypermetabolite is impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and hyperglycemia. Elevations in plasma glucose concentration impair immune function by altering cytokine production from macrophages. We assessed the role of glucose in the regulation of circulating levels of insulin, glucagon, cortisol, IL-6 and TNF-alpha in human sepsis with normal or impaired glucose tolerance. METHODS According to the results of intravenous glucose tolerance test, forty patients were classified into two groups: control group (n=20) and IGT group (n=20). Plasma glucose levels were acutely raised in two groups and maintained at 15 mmol/L for 3 hours. Plasma insulin, glucagon and cortisol levels were measured by radioimmunoassay, the levels of TNF-alpha and IL-6 were detected by ELISA. RESULTS In IGT group, the fasting concentrations of plasma glucose, insulin, glucagon, cortisol, IL-6 and TNF-alpha levels were significantly higher than those in control group (P<0.05). During clamp, the control group had a higher average amount of dextrose infusion than the IGT group (P<0.01). In control group, plasma insulin levels rose from a basal value to a peak at an hour (P<0.05) and maintained at high levels. Plasma glucagon levels descended from a basal value to the lowest level within an hour (P<0.01) and low levels were maintained throughout the clamp. In IGT group, plasma insulin was more significantly elevated (P<0.01), and plasma glucagon levels were not significantly declined. Plasma cortisol levels were not significantly changed in two groups. In control group, plasma IL-6 and TNF-alpha levels rose (P<0.01) within 2 hours of the clamp and returned to basal values at 3 hours. In IGT group, increased levels of plasma cytokine lasted longer than in control group (3 hours vs 2 hours, P<0.05), and the cytokine peaks of IGT group were higher (P<0.05) than those of control group. CONCLUSION Acute hyperglycemia pricks up hyperinsulinemia and increases circulating cytokine concentrations and these effects are more pronounced in sepsis with IGT. This suggests a potential modulation of immunoinflammatory responses in human sepsis by hyperglycemia.
Spasticity in rats with sacral spinal cord injury.

We have investigated sacral spinal cord lesions in rats with the goal of developing a rat model of muscular spasticity that is minimally disruptive, not interfering with bladder, bowel, or hindlimb locomotor function. Spinal transections were made at the S2 sacral level and, thus, only affected the tail musculature. After spinal transection, the muscles of the tail were inactive for 2 weeks. Following this initial period, hypertonia, hyperreflexia, and clonus developed in the tail, and grew more pronounced with time. These changes were assessed in the awake rat, since the tail is readily accessible and easy to manipulate. Muscle stretch or cutaneous stimulation of the tail produced muscle spasms and marked increases in muscle tone, as measured with force and electromyographic recordings. When the tail was unconstrained, spontaneous or reflex induced flexor and extensor spasms coiled the tail. Movement during the spasms often triggered clonus in the end of the tail. The tail hair and skin were extremely hyperreflexive to light touch, withdrawing quickly at contact, and at times clonus could be entrained by repeated contact of the tail on a surface. Segmental tail muscle reflexes, e.g., Hoffman reflexes (H-reflexes), were measured before and after spinalization, and increased significantly 2 weeks after transection. These results suggest that sacral spinal rats develop symptoms of spasticity in tail muscles with similar characteristics to those seen in limb muscles of humans with spinal cord injury, and thus provide a convenient preparation for studying this condition.
Cardiovascular disease with diabetes or the metabolic syndrome: should statins or fibrates be first line lipid therapy?

Purpose of review Subgroups with diabetes or with features of the metabolic syndrome have been increasingly highlighted in large clinical endpoint trials with lipid therapy. This review will focus on the results of trials with statins or fibrates and examine the strength of the evidence for major cardiovascular event reduction with each kind of therapy in these high-risk subgroups that typically have low-to-moderate levels of LDL cholesterol. Recent findings Of six statin trials in populations with moderately increased LDL cholesterol only one, the Heart Protection Study, has shown that statin therapy will significantly reduce the major coronary heart disease events of non-fatal myocardial infarction or coronary heart disease death in diabetes. None of these trials has shown that statins have a particular predilection for reducing cardiovascular events in individuals with higher levels of body weight or other features of the metabolic syndrome. There are far fewer trial data with fibrates than with statins. However, the Veterans Affairs High Density Lipoprotein Intervention Trial has shown that a fibrate can significantly reduce major cardiovascular events, most particularly coronary heart disease death, in those with diabetes as well as those without diabetes who have insulin resistance. Indeed, all fibrate trials show that this therapy appears to selectively benefit the individual with obesity and features of the metabolic syndrome. Summary Based principally on evidence from the Veterans Affairs High Density Lipoprotein Intervention Trial and the cumulative experience with statins, trial data would thus far suggest that the patient with a modest increase in LDL cholesterol who has diabetes or features of the metabolic syndrome might be likely to achieve more substantial cardiovascular benefit from fibrate than from statin therapy.
Importance to question sinonasal symptoms and to perform rhinoscopy and rhinomanometry in cystic fibrosis patients

Cystic fibrosis (CF) patients almost regularly reveal sinonasal pathology. The purpose of this study was to assess association between objective and subjective measurements of sinonasal involvement comparing nasal airflow obtained by active anterior rhinomanometry (AAR), nasal endoscopic findings, and symptoms assessed with the Sino‐Nasal Outcome Test‐20 (SNOT‐20).
Fucosyltransferases: Differential plasma and tissue alterations in hepatocellular carcinoma and cirrhosis

To determine whether abnormal metabolism of l‐fucose in hepatocellular carcinoma is accompanied by alterations in the activities of fucosyltransferases, the latter were determined in plasma and liver tissue of patients with this disease and in cirrhotic and normal subjects. Activities of α‐2/α‐3 and α‐6‐l ‐fucosyltransferases were all significantly greater in plasma from patients with hepatocellular carcinoma than in plasma from cirrhotic patients or normal subjects (p < 0.025). The activity of each enzyme was dependent, to a similar extent, on Mn2+, Mg2+ and triton X‐10, irrespective of the source, and all displayed pH optimums in the range of 7.5 to 8.0.
Situated Immersion: An Experience of Dialogue

For me, the ability to dialogue is one of the oldest and most cherished of human activities. The engagement of one person with another in the mutuality of dialogue can be an enormously powerful force. Through a recent experience at the Institute of Human Becoming in Pittsburgh, I have come to realize that dialogue is at the heart of the process of teaching-learning. I am a doctoral student in nursing and am also engaged in a full-time nursing practice. Both of these roles demand ongoing learning. I recently found myself looking for the connections between the new knowledge I was learning in my student role, engaged with faculty and peers and reading textbooks, and that which was familiar to me in my role as an experienced nurse. The new knowledge I was discovering existed only as words in text and not as living knowledge with personal meaning in my life. I began to realize that for me to effectively integrate my doctoral learning with my familiar practice roles, I needed scholarly conversation grounded in the human exchange of ideas. What I was missing was a dialogue that connected me as a practicing nurse to the nursing theory I was learning in my student role. For me to have a living connection between nursing theory and nursing practice, I realized that I needed to be situated within a space and time for supportive learning while being immersed in studying a specific nursing theory. Through my lived experience of attending the Institute of Human Becoming in the summer of 1999, I was able to find an experience matched to my need for dialogue. This experience I have entitled “situated immersion. ” Situated immersion connected me to a specific nursing theory, the theory of human becoming, which has transformed my nursing practice.
Temperature-insensitive current-mode square-rooting circuit using OTAs

A simple current-mode square-rooting circuit with temperature compensation employing operational transconductance amplifiers (OTAs) as active elements is proposed. It has been designed by using only four OTAs without the employment of additional passive elements. The current gain of the proposed circuit can be electronically controlled, thanks to the tunability property of the OTA. Simulation results are obtained to verify the theoretical analysis of the proposed circuit technique.
Contributions of Kv3 Channels to Neuronal Excitability

ABSTRACT: Four mammalian Kv3 genes have been identified, each of which generates, by alternative splicing, multiple protein products differing in their C‐terminal sequence. Products of the Kv3.1 and Kv3.2 genes express similar delayed‐rectifier type currents in heterologous expression systems, while Kv3.3 and Kv3.4 proteins express A‐type currents. All Kv3 currents activate relatively fast at voltages more positive than −10 mV, and deactivate very fast. The distribution of Kv3 mRNAs in the rodent CNS was studied by in situ hybridization, and the localization of Kv3.1 and Kv3.2 proteins has been studied by immunohistochemistry. Most Kv3.2 mRNAs (∼90%) are present in thalamic‐relay neurons throughout the dorsal thalamus. The protein is expressed mainly in the axons and terminals of these neurons. Kv3.2 channels are thought to be important for thalamocortical signal transmission. Kv3.1 and Kv3.2 proteins are coexpressed in some neuronal populations such as in fast‐spiking interneurons of the cortex and hippocampus, and neurons in the globus pallidus. Coprecipitation studies suggest that in these cells the two types of protein form heteromeric channels. Kv3 proteins appear to mediate, in native neurons, similar currents to those seen in heterologous expression systems. The activation voltage and fast deactivation rates are believed to allow these channels to help repolarize action potentials fast without affecting the threshold for action potential generation. The fast deactivating current generates a quickly recovering afterhyperpolarization, thus maximizing the rate of recovery of Na+ channel inactivation without contributing to an increase in the duration of the refractory period. These properties are believed to contribute to the ability of neurons to fire at high frequencies and to help regulate the fidelity of synaptic transmission. Experimental evidence has now become available showing that Kv3.1‐Kv3.2 channels play critical roles in the generation of fast‐spiking properties in cortical GABAergic interneurons.