Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neuroticism as a Moderator of Direct and Mediated Relationships Between Introversion-Extraversion and Well-Being

Among personality traits, extraversion has received major theoretical and empirical attention as predictor of subjective well-being (SWB), whereas the role of emotional stability-neuroticism has been partially neglected. The present study aims to study the role of neuroticism in the relationship between introversion-extraversion and SWB. In particular, we explored if the trait of neuroticism moderates the relationships between introversion-extraversion and SWB dimensions (Satisfaction with life, Mastery, Vigour, Social Cheerfulness), directly and by mediation of self-esteem. Indeed, previous studies have suggested that self-esteem is positively associated with high extraversion and low neuroticism and that it positively mediates the relationship between SWB and personality traits in adolescents. For this purpose, a sample of high school students (N = 1173) completed the Oxford Happiness Inventory, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the Big Five Questionnaire. In a latent variable model, we examined the interaction effects (direct and indirect) of extraversion and neuroticism on SWB dimensions. Our results showed that the nature of differences between introverts and extraverts on SWB could be related to the level of neuroticism in relation to Satisfaction with life. Moreover, self-esteem mediated the relationship between personality traits and SWB. In particular, mediated moderation effect analysis showed that self-esteem mediates completely the relationship between the interaction term (extraversion x neuroticism) and Mastery, and partially the relationship with Satisfaction with life. Moreover, moderated mediation effect analysis showed that high levels of neuroticism moderate the effect of extraversion on Satisfaction with life and Mastery through the mediation of self-esteem. In conclusion, our results suggest that although extraversion has a cardinal role on SWB dimensions related to Vigour and Social Cheerfulness, neuroticism and the mediating role of self-esteem should more properly considered in relation to Satisfaction with life and Mastery.
Geospatial portfolios for analysis/decision making (GeoPAD)

This paper describes GeoPAD, a project for the design and implementation of an extensively standards-based, but flexible Web-based Portfolio Manager software tool for creating, modifying, and managing geospatial portfolios to support analysis and decision making in critical situations, such as geohazard response, public security/safety scenarios, and defence and homeland security situations.
Binding and structure‐activity‐relation of benzo[f]isoquinoline‐ and norcodeinone‐derivatives at μ‐opioid receptors in the rat cerebral cortex

1 We have probed the ligand binding site of the μ‐opioid receptor using a series of isoquinoline‐ and norcodeinone‐derivatives; in these morphine‐ and codeine‐analogues, the position of the piperidine‐nitrogen as well as its mobility is altered relative to that found in morphine. 2 The μ‐receptor in rat cortical membranes was labelled with [3H]‐naloxone and competition experiments were carried out in the absence and presence of Gpp(NH)p and NaCl: conditions, which are associated with affinity shifts for agonists whilst antagonist affinity remains unaffected. Moving the piperidine‐nitrogen closer to the phenolic ring or reducing its mobility by incorporation into an additional ring drastically decreases the affinity. 3 In contrast, we find that the piperidine‐nitrogen in a distal position is well tolerated provided that additional structural criteria, in particular a phenolic hydroxyl‐group and a 6 carbon ring corresponding to ring C in morphine, are met. This assumption was verified by the synthesis of WB4/PH (4aR, 10bS, 11R)‐10, 11‐epoxy‐1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6‐hexahydro‐9‐hydroxy‐3‐methyl‐4a,10b‐butano‐benzo[f]isochinolin‐12‐on(10). This compound is an agonist with an affinity comparable to that of morphine. 4 We therefore conclude that both the mobility of the piperidine nitrogen of the ligand and of its counterpart anionic site in the ligand binding pocket of the μ‐opioid receptor (presumably aspartic acid) are important determinants for fruitful interaction. The mobility of the anionic site is restricted in one direction but is sufficient to bridge the 2Å distance that exists between the position of the nitrogen in morphine and WB4/PH.
A Novel QoE-Based Carrier Scheduling Scheme in LTE-Advanced Networks with Multi-Service

Carrier aggregation is one of the key techniques for the advancement of long-term evolution (LTE- Advanced) networks. This article proposes a quality- of-experience (QoE)-based carrier scheduling scheme for networks with multiple services. The proposed scheme aims at maximizing the user QoE, which is determined by both the application-level and network-level quality of services. Packet delay, as an essential factor affecting QoE, is first discussed under the context of QoE optimization as well as the data rate. The component carriers are dynamically scheduled according to the network traffic load by the proposed novel scheme. Simulation results show that our approach can achieve significant improvement in QoE and fairness over conventional approaches.
p53 expression and regulation by NMDA receptors in the developing rat brain

The p53 tumor suppressor gene, which is considered the guardian of the genome, encodes a phosphoprotein, which is a sequence‐specific transcriptional activator or repressor of target genes. The role of p53 in developmental processes has not been studied extensively, although its expression appears to undergo temporal and spatial changes during prenatal and postnatal development. In the present study, we assessed the levels of p53 mRNA and protein in the developing rat brain and its relation to developmental cell death. Furthermore, we investigated the potential role of n‐methyl‐d‐aspartate (NMDA) receptors in regulating p53 expression, since these receptors are involved in the control of cell death. We found that p53 mRNA and protein were detectable in the rat brain throughout perinatal development. In embryos, p53 immunoreactivity was mainly localized in the nuclei of neuroepithelial cells, with a maximum in staining at embryonic day (E)12. In the neuroepithelium, we also found significant numbers of TdT‐mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL)‐positive cells, both in dividing periventricular cells and in migrating neurons. In neonates, immediately after birth there was a reduction in the number of apoptotic cells, which then increased to reach a maximum at postnatal day (P)5. Postnatally, apoptotic as well as p53‐positive cells were detected in most brain areas. p53 immunoreactivity was also highest on P5. In most cells, p53 immunoreactivity and the TUNEL signal colocalized. p53 immunoreactivity as well as the number of TUNEL‐ positive cells were dramatically decreased in the brains of newborns treated with MK‐801, an NMDA receptor antagonist. Our results show that p53 is involved in the control of developmental cell death, and that NMDA receptors play a regulatory role in the expression of the p53 gene, and thus in apoptosis occurring in the developing rat brain. J. Neurosci. Res. 56:427–440, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Cost-Effectiveness of Primary Care Management With or Without Early Physical Therapy for Acute Low Back Pain: Economic Evaluation of a Randomized Clinical Trial

Study Design. Economic evaluation of a randomized clinical trial. Objective. Compare costs and cost-effectiveness of usual primary care management for patients with acute low back pain (LBP) with or without the addition of early physical therapy. Summary of Background Data. Low back pain is among the most common and costly conditions encountered in primary care. Early physical therapy after a new primary care consultation for acute LBP results in small clinical improvement but cost-effectiveness of a strategy of early physical therapy is unknown. Methods. Economic evaluation was conducted alongside a randomized clinical trial of patients with acute, nonspecific LBP consulting a primary care provider. All patients received usual primary care management and education, and were randomly assigned to receive four sessions of physical therapy or usual care of delaying referral consideration to permit spontaneous recovery. Data were collected in a randomized trial involving 220 participants age 18 to 60 with LBP <16 days duration without red flags or signs of nerve root compression. The EuroQoL EQ-5D health states were collected at baseline and after 1-year and used to compute the quality adjusted life year (QALY) gained. Direct (health care utilization) and indirect (work absence or reduced productivity) costs related to LBP were collected monthly and valued using standard costs. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was computed as incremental total costs divided by incremental QALYs. Results. Early physical therapy resulted in higher total 1-year costs (mean difference in adjusted total costs = $580, 95% CI: $175, $984, P = 0.005) and better quality of life (mean difference in QALYs = 0.02, 95% CI: 0.005, 0.35, P = 0.008) after 1-year. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was $32,058 (95% CI: $10,629, $151,161) per QALY. Conclusion. Our results support early physical therapy as cost-effective relative to usual primary care after 1 year for patients with acute, nonspecific LBP. Level of Evidence: 2
Why we need narratives of healing and qualitative pain research.

Every practitioner of pain medicine knows the complexities of treating chronic pain. Quantitative research helps provide answers to biomedical questions, and we have good validated psychometric measures for quantitating psychosocial dimensions, but these fall far short of illuminating the full dimensions of the pain experience. The complex psychosocial contributions for understanding pain's pathology and the therapeutic effects of various treatments cannot be underestimated. These elements of human pain are subjective and “qualitative. ” Yet the field of qualitative research is nascent, challenging to conduct and controversial in its interpretation. Ever mindful of the challenges, Zheng and colleagues, within this issue, present us with “Chaos to Hope: A Narrative of Healing,” a fascinating account of the journeys experienced by people in chronic non-cancer pain and, in particular, the effect, for good or ill, of taking opioids to relieve that pain [1]. It is a valiant effort. The pain narratives are insightful and probably generalizable. They are also troubling because they suggest to us what we may be doing wrong. The authors describe the human effects of real-world pain that go beyond a pain intensity or …
Tensor-driven extraction of developmental features from varying paediatric EEG datasets

Objective. Constant changes in developing children’s brains can pose a challenge in EEG dependant technologies. Advancing signal processing methods to identify developmental differences in paediatric populations could help improve function and usability of such technologies. Taking advantage of the multi-dimensional structure of EEG data through tensor analysis may offer a framework for extracting relevant developmental features of paediatric datasets. A proof of concept is demonstrated through identifying latent developmental features in resting-state EEG. Approach. Three paediatric datasets () were analyzed using a two-step constrained parallel factor (PARAFAC) tensor decomposition. Subject age was used as a proxy measure of development. Classification used support vector machines (SVM) to test if PARAFAC identified features could predict subject age. The results were cross-validated within each dataset. Classification analysis was complemented by visualization of the high-dimensional feature structures using t-distributed stochastic neighbour embedding (t-SNE) maps. Main results. Development-related features were successfully identified for the developmental conditions of each dataset. SVM classification showed the identified features could accurately predict subject at a significant level above chance for both healthy and impaired populations. t-SNE maps revealed suitable tensor factorization was key in extracting the developmental features. Significance. The described methods are a promising tool for identifying latent developmental features occurring throughout childhood EEG.
Protease-Activated Receptor 2 Mediates Eosinophil Infiltration and Hyperreactivity in Allergic Inflammation of the Airway1

Trypsin and mast cell tryptase can signal to epithelial cells, myocytes, and nerve fibers of the respiratory tract by cleaving proteinase-activated receptor 2 (PAR2). Since tryptase inhibitors are under development to treat asthma, a precise understanding of the contribution of PAR2 to airway inflammation is required. We examined the role of PAR2 in allergic inflammation of the airway by comparing OVA-sensitized and -challenged mice lacking or overexpressing PAR2. In wild-type mice, immunoreactive PAR2 was detected in airway epithelial cells and myocytes, and intranasal administration of a PAR2 agonist stimulated macrophage infiltration into bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. OVA challenge of immunized wild-type mice stimulated infiltration of leukocytes into bronchoalveolar lavage and induced airway hyperreactivity to inhaled methacholine. Compared with wild-type animals, eosinophil infiltration was inhibited by 73% in mice lacking PAR2 and increased by 88% in mice overexpressing PAR2. Similarly, compared with wild-type animals, airway hyperreactivity to inhaled methacholine (40 μg/ml) was diminished 38% in mice lacking PAR2 and increased by 52% in mice overexpressing PAR2. PAR2 deletion also reduced IgE levels to OVA sensitization by 4-fold compared with those of wild-type animals. Thus, PAR2 contributes to the development of immunity and to allergic inflammation of the airway. Our results support the proposal that tryptase inhibitors and PAR2 antagonists may be useful therapies for inflammatory airway disease.
Smart sensor using function approximation

This paper reports a neural network (NN) implementation of function approximation. Function approximation (aka, nonlinear regression) identifies input-output relationship from given input-output data set. Concept of function approximation is applied to develop a smart position sensor. Smart position sensor consists of three standard sensors that are coupled with a neural network to produce an estimate of the location of an object in one dimension. MATLAB is used to construct and train the multi layer feed forward neural network. Hardware implementation of trained neural network is done on Arduino Uno microcontroller board.
Neuropsychological deficits and functional impairment in bipolar depression, hypomania and euthymia.

OBJECTIVE To examine whether patients with bipolar disorder (BD) have subtle neuropsychological deficits that manifest clinically as cognitive and functional compromise, and this study attempted to determine the pattern of such cognitive deficits and their functional impact across all three phases of BD. We hypothesised that euthymia does not equate with normal neuropsychological function and that each phase has a characteristic pattern of deficits, with disturbance in attention and memory being common across all phases of the illness: (i) bipolar depression - psychomotor slowing and impairment of memory; (ii) hypomania by frontal-executive deficits and (iii) euthymia - a mild disturbance of attention, memory and executive function. METHODS Twenty-five patients with a diagnosis of bipolar I disorder underwent neuropsychological testing over a period of 30 months in the natural course of their illness while hypomanic and/or depressed and/or euthymic. The results from these assessments were compared with findings from neuropsychological tests conducted on 25 healthy controls matched for age, sex, education and handedness. RESULTS Initial analyses revealed modest impairment in executive functioning, memory and attention in both hypomanic and depressed bipolar patients, with additional fine motor skills impairment in the latter. Memory deficits, also noted in euthymic patients, were non-significant after controlling for confounding variables, although bipolar depressed patients remained significantly impaired on tests of verbal recall. Bipolar depressed and hypomanic patients differed with respect to the nature of their memory impairment. Depressed patients were more impaired as compared with euthymic patients on tests of verbal recall and fine motor skills. Psychosocial functioning was impaired across all three patient groups, but only in depressed and hypomanic patients did this correlate significantly with neuropsychological performance. CONCLUSIONS The mood-state-related cognitive deficits in both bipolar depression and hypomania compromise psychosocial function when patients are unwell. In euthymic patients, subtle impairments in attention and memory suggest that an absence of symptoms does not necessarily equate to 'recovery'. The possibility of persistent cognitive deficits in BD is an issue of profound clinical and research interest that warrants further investigation; however, future research needs to adopt more sophisticated neuropsychological probes that are able to better define state and trait deficits and determine their functional impact.
An Improved Algebraic Solution for TDOA Localization With Sensor Position Errors

This letter proposes an improved version of the popular two-stage weighted least squares (TSWLS) algorithm for source localization using time difference of arrival (TDOA) measurements in the presence of sensor position errors. The new technique remains to be closed-form and approximately efficient as TSWLS. But it exhibits lower estimation bias and better robustness to increased noise over TSWLS via using a new Stage-2 processing, where the localization error of its Stage-1 is estimated and subtracted from the Stage-1 output to generate the final source position estimate. Simulations corroborate the theoretical developments.
Purpose in life and depressive symptoms in persons living with HIV disease.

PURPOSE To examine relationships among purpose in life, HIV disease severity, demographic variables, and depressive symptoms in people living with HIV disease (PLWHIV). The hypothesis tested was that purpose in life is a stronger predictor of depressive symptoms than is HIV disease severity. DESIGN Descriptive, correlational study using a convenience sample of 123 PLWHIV recruited from an urban infectious disease clinic in a university teaching hospital in the Southeast United States. METHODS A self-administered questionnaire, including a sociodemographic tool, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), and the Purpose in Life Scale (PIL), was used to collect data. Concurrent severity of HIV disease measures included HIV RNA viral load, CD4+ T-lymphocyte count, and the Revised HIV Medical Symptom Scale. Analytical methods included descriptive and inferential statistics and hierarchical regression analysis. FINDINGS Depressive symptoms were greater and purpose in life was lower than in normative samples. Purpose in life was a stronger predictor of depressive symptoms than was HIV disease severity. CONCLUSIONS Purpose in life was more important than were laboratory markers of disease progression for predicting depressive co-morbidity. Results from this study indicate the need for routine assessment of depressive symptoms in PLWHIV. Purpose in life should be explored as a potential buffer for depressive symptoms.
Protein Adsorption and Platelet Adhesion on the Surface of an Oxygenator Membrane

Platelet adhesion on an oxygenator membrane is associated with thrombocytopenia or thrombus formation during extra-corporeal circulation. The authors evaluated protein adsorption and platelet adhesion on three oxygenator hollow fiber membranes fabricated with polypropylene, silicone, and double layer polyolefin. Adsorbed proteins were analyzed by bicinchoninic acid protein assay, sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and Western blot. Platelet adhesion was assessed with enzyme immunoassays using monoclonal antibodies directed against CD42b and CD61. After 3 hr of incubation at 37°C in whole blood, the amount of adsorbed protein was the least on silicone and increased from silicone < double polyolefin < polypropylene. The adsorbed protein pattern was similar; however, silicone showed less adsorption for all protein bands, and the γ; chain of fibrinogen was not detected. In contrast, double polyolefin showed the highest fibrinogen adsorption. The optical density at a wavelength of 450 nm for CD42b was 1.47 ± 0.35 in polypropylene, 1.16 ± 0.38 in silicone, and 1.85 ± 0.19 in double polyolefin (p < 0.01 vs silicone) and for CD61 0.98 ± 0.39 in polypropylene, 0.91 ± 0.22 in silicone, and 1.69 ± 0.25 in double polyolefin (p < 0.01 vs silicone and polypropylene). These data suggest that silicone is advantageous for long term extracorporeal respiratory support in terms of less platelet adhesion and no plasma leakage through the pores.
[Quantitative electroencephalogram analysis confirms the presence of frontal lobe deficit among attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity children].

BACKGROUND [corrected] The Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity (ADDH) Barkley model predicts concomitant deficits in working memory and in the development of a sense of time as a consequence of poor behavioral inhibition. OBJECTIVE To evaluate electrophysiologically Barkley's theory (1997). SUBJECTS AND METHODS We studied the electroencephalogram (EEG) of fifteen right-handed, normal limit IQ ADDH children (inattentive subtype), aged 7-11 years, and a control group. Subjects were studied at rest, with the eyes open (RO) while performing a time estimation task (ET). Forty-two data matrices were analyzed in three conditions: RO, ET and ET-RO, to assess broad-band spectral parameters; the anteriority, temporal-referenced and laterality quotients (Aq, Aqt and Lq, respectively); and the theta/alpha and theta/beta ratios. RESULTS Analyses of variance revealed significant differences for ES-RA, in absolute (Aq &Aqt) and relative powers (Aq). Discriminant function analysis was able to predict group membership with an accuracy over 80%, but it decreased slightly when the leave-one-out method was applied Linear discrimination based on right hemisphere Aqt values showed the highest discrimination accuracy. CONCLUSIONS These results support Barkley's theory, suggesting further evaluation of the temporal-referenced anteriority quotient as a promising electrophysiological tool for the diagnosis and follow up of ADDH children.
Age is not a prognostic factor in children with Wilms tumor beyond stage I in Africa

Patients under age 4 with stage I favorable histology (FH) Wilms tumor have a reported survival advantage. Among children above 10 years, a poorer prognosis has been associated with a higher prevalence of diffuse anaplasia. Purpose: To determine if, in our practice, patients with Wilms tumors >8 years of age (stage II–V) have a poorer prognosis than those aged <8 years or <4 years.