Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Learning from the law. A review of 21 years of litigation for nerve injury following central neuraxial blockade in obstetrics

Medicolegal claims for neurological injury following the use of central neuraxial blockade in childbirth represent the second most common claim against obstetric anaesthetists. We present an analysis of 55 cases from a database of 368 obstetric anaesthetic claims. Common themes that emerge from the analysis include: consent; nature of nerve injury (non‐anaesthetic; direct; chemical; compressive); recognition; and management. Specific advice arising from these cases includes: the importance of informing patients of the risks of nerve damage; keeping below the conus of the cord for intrathecal procedures; responding appropriately if a patient complains of paraesthesia; and having a high index of suspicion if recovery of normal neurological function is delayed. As ever, principles of good practice, including respect for patient autonomy, early provision of information, good communication and a high standard of record‐keeping, will minimise the frustration of patients that can then lead them to seek a legal route to redress if they suffer an injury following central neuraxial blockade.
Subjective Age in Older Korean Americans: The Impact of Functional Disability Mediated by Attitudes Toward Aging

The present study aims to examine how subjective age of older Korean Americans would be affected by functional disability and attitudes toward aging. We hypothesized that (a) both functional disability and attitudes toward aging would have a direct effect on subjective age and (b) the effect of functional disability on subjective age would be mediated by attitudes toward aging. Our analyses of the survey data with 208 community-dwelling Korean Americans aged 60 and older (mean age = 69.6, SD = 7.51) showed that the indirect effect of functional disability on subjective age through attitudes toward aging [–. 020 (.009)] was significant (bias-corrected 95% confidence interval [–.039, –.006]). The findings suggest that functional disability fosters negative attitudes toward aging, which in turn leads to the feelings of being older than actual age. Our study suggests ways to preserve and promote positive perceptions of age and aging.
Impact of dietary vitamin D3 supplements in nursery diets on subsequent growth and bone responses of pigs during an immune challenge.

Limited evidence is available to validate beneficial responses from extra nutrient supplements for mediation of growth suppression that results from immune challenges. Extra-renal roles of vitamin D metabolites in immune function implicates vitamin D3 supplements as a nutrient for potential beneficial effects. The current objective was to assess growth and bone ash responses to dietary vitamin D3 (D) supplements for growing pigs undergoing an immune challenge. At weaning, 216 crossbred pigs (4 pigs/pen, 6 pens/treatment) were randomly allotted within sex and weight blocks to 1 of 9 treatments. Treatments included D supplements (0, 100, or 800 IU/kg) in a factorial arrangement with 3 vaccine (V) protocols; no injection (0xV), a single 2 mL injection of a Lawsoniaintracellularis vaccine at d 14 (1xV), or 2 mL injections of the same vaccine at d 0 and d 7 (2xV). An adjustment diet with no supplemental D was fed for 1 wk, then assigned D diets for 2 wk (P2). After P2 all pigs were phase-fed standard diets (D = 280 IU/kg) to assess subsequent growth to 115 kg. No differences due to D supplements or vaccination protocol were detected in ADG (0.233 + 0.021 kg/d) or GF (0.642 + 0.028 kg/d) over the 21-d nursery trial, however ADFI was lower (P < 0.10) in pigs fed D levels of 0 vs. 100 and 800 (0.340 vs. 0.375, 0.372 + 0.027 kg/d). Bone mineral content (BMC, g) from whole body dual energy x-ray absorptiometry scans at 9 wk (n = 4 pigs/treatment) was lower in pigs fed 0 vs. 100 and 800 IU of D (287 vs. 325, 323 + 34.1 g/pig). Growth from nursery to 115 kg was lower (P < 0.01) in pigs fed D levels of 0 vs.100 and 800 (0.828 vs. 0.876, 0.889 + 0.021 kg/d). At market, approximately 2/3 of pigs showed positive L. intracellularis serology titers regardless of treatment. Limited evidence for D-mediation of an immune challenge using the vaccination protocols may be a consequence of limited vaccine effects on growth in the nursery and seroconversion of most pigs to L. intracellularis by market.
Stress jump: experimental work and theoretical modeling

A stress jump, defined as the instantaneous gain or loss of stress on startup or cessation of a deformation, has been predicted by various models and has relatively recently been experimentally observed. In 1993, Liang and Mackay measured shear stress jump data of xanthan gum solutions, and in 1996, Orr and Sridhar reported extensional stress jump data of Boger fluids. Shear stress jumps of suspensions and liquid crystal polymers have also been observed. In this contribution, experimental work as well as a variety of theoretical models, which are able to predict a stress jump, are reviewed.
A Comparison Between Manual Count, Flow Cytometry and Quantitative Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction as a Means of Determining Babesia rossi Parasitaemia in Naturally Infected Dogs

Light microscopic manual count is the current gold standard for parasite quantification. The ability to determine parasite density in whole blood is crucial to understanding disease pathogenesis and finding a suitable automated method of Babesia rossi parasite quantification would facilitate higher throughput and provide results that are more objective. This study investigated both peripheral capillary and central venous whole blood to estimate the correlations between light microscopy, flow cytometry and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Peripheral capillary and central venous blood were sampled from 40 naturally B. rossi-infected dogs and 10 healthy control dogs. Samples were analysed by reverse line blot hybridization assay to confirm a mono-B. rossi infection. Capillary blood parasite density was detected using light microscopic manual counting and venous blood parasitaemia detected by manual counts, flow cytometry and qPCR. A significant correlation was found between the venous manual counts and flow cytometry (rs = 0.465; P < 0.001), as well as qPCR (rs = − 0.500; P < 0.001). A significant correlation was also observed between the capillary manual counts compared to venous manual counts (rs = 0.793; P < 0.001), flow cytometry (rs = 0.399; P = 0.004), and qPCR (rs = − 0.526; P < 0.001). The study results suggest that qPCR is of value as an alternative to the gold standard manual count for detecting B. rossi parasitaemia in canine whole blood and that flow cytometry may be useful with further refinement of issues such as background fluorescence and the influence of reticulocytes.
Control of Phase and Phase Slope with Reinvestigation of 1D CRLH Transmission Lines

The conventionally classified waves are reclassified in this paper, including the waves associated with metamaterial (MTM) transmission lines. Various types of guided waves in periodic structures are analyzed for 1D Composite Right/Left Handed (CRLH) transmission lines (TL). In addition, dispersion diagrams for 1D CRLH, RH, and LH TLs are presented in terms of radiation conditions. We have refined the design equations of the conventional 1D CRLH TL and proposed a condition to realize the desired phase shift and its slope per unit cell. This condition has been applied to the conventional Wilkinson power divider and realized into MTM added 90° hybrid coupler. Based on the 10 dB return loss and the 90±10° phase shift, the bandwidths of the MTM added 90° hybrid coupler are 82.25 % and 103.5 % against the conventional 23 % and 52.5 %, respectively.
ff19SB: Amino-acid specific protein backbone parameters trained against quantum mechanics energy surfaces in solution.

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations have become increasingly popular in studying the motions and functions of biomolecules. The accuracy of the simulation, however, is highly determined by the molecular mechanics (MM) force field (FF), a set of functions with adjustable parameters to compute the potential energies from atomic positions. However, the overall quality of the FF, such as our previously published ff99SB and ff14SB, can be limited by assumptions that were made years ago. In the updated model presented here (ff19SB), we have significantly improved the backbone profiles for all 20 amino acids. We fit coupled ϕ/ψ parameters using 2D ϕ/ψ conformational scans for multiple amino acids, using as reference data the entire 2D quantum mechanics (QM) energy surface. We address the polarization inconsistency during dihedral parameter fitting by using both QM and MM in solution. Finally, we examine possible dependency of the backbone fitting on side chain rotamer. To extensively validate ff19SB parameters, we have performed a total of ~5 milliseconds MD simulations in explicit solvent. Our results show that after amino-acid specific training against QM data with solvent polarization, ff19SB not only reproduces the differences in amino acid specific Protein Data Bank (PDB) Ramachandran maps better, but also shows significantly improved capability to differentiate amino acid dependent properties such as helical propensities. We also conclude that an inherent underestimation of helicity is present in ff14SB, which is (inexactly) compensated by an increase in helical content driven by the TIP3P bias toward overly compact structures. In summary, ff19SB, when combined with a more accurate water model such as OPC, should have better predictive power for modeling sequence-specific behavior, protein mutations, and also rational protein design.
Laboratory-based deployment and investigation of PMU and OpenPDC capabilities

Power systems operate in a more complicated condition than they used to. Changes in the wholesale electricity market alongside the difficulties in upgrading the transmission system have caused transmission systems to face more challenging network wide issues. Therefore, having a Wide Area Measurement System (WAMS) is vital with regard to ensuring secure and reliable operation. Traditionally, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems were designed for monitoring of the power systems by polling the Remote Terminal Units (RTUs) at all the substations. However, the gathering of data is done at a slow rate of every few seconds so the monitoring is relatively static and infrequent. By using Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) data can be provided in higher rates, commonly once every cycle, and with higher accuracy. The measured data from PMU is transmitted to a central location called Phasor Data Concentrator (PDC), where data can be collected, managed and processed. PMU-based WAMS has a significant role to play in enabling “Smart Grids” at the transmission level. Brunel University has deployed a PMU and local PDC using openPDC to visualize, process and archive grid measured data locally in the laboratory. In this paper we present an investigation on openPDC features and a preliminary study that has been performed based on the PMU deployment. (6 pages)
TO ESTIMATE FUZZY CLUSTERING PARAMETERS FOR SENTINEL-1 A SAR IMAGES

Optical and SAR data are efficient data sources for shoreline monitoring. The processing of SAR data such as feature extraction is not an easy task since the images have totally different structure than optical imagery. Determination of threshold value is a challenging task for SAR data. In this study, SENTINEL-2A optical data was used as ancillary data to predict fuzzy membership parameters for segmentation of SENTINEL-1A SAR data to extract shoreline. SENTINEL-2A and SENTINEL-1A satellite images used were taken in September 9, 2016 and September 13, 2016 respectively. Three different segmentation algorithms which are selected from object, learning and pixel-based methods. They have been exploited to obtain land and water classes which have been used as an input data for parameter estimation. Thus, the performance of different segmentation algorithm has been investigated and analysed. In the first step of the study, Mean-Shift, Random Forest and Whale Optimization algorithms have been employed to obtain water and land classes from the SENTINEL-2A image. Water and land classes derived from each algorithm – are used as input data, and then the required parameters for the fuzzy clustering of SENTINEL-1A SAR image, were calculated. Lake Constance, Germany has been chosen as the study area. In this study, additionally an interface plugin has been developed and integrated into the open source Quantum GIS software platform. The developed interface allows non-experts to process and extract the shorelines without using any parameters. But, this system requires pre-segmented data as input. Thus, the batch process calculates the required parameters. * Corresponding author
Explorer DECADAL PREDICTION Can It Be Skillful ?

Citation for published version: Meehl, GA, Goddard, L, Murphy, J, Stouffer, RJ, Boer, G, Danabasoglu, G, Dixon, K, Giorgetta, MA, Greene, AM, Hawkins, E, Hegerl, G, Karoly, D, Keenlyside, N, Kimoto, M, Kirtman, B, Navarra, A, Pulwarty, R, Smith, D, Stammer, D & Stockdale, T 2009, 'DECADAL PREDICTION Can It Be Skillful? ' Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, vol 90, no. 10, pp. 1467-+. DOI: 10.1175/2009BAMS2778.1
Foundations of the self-force problem in arbitrary dimensions

Bodies coupled to electromagnetic or other long-range fields are subject to radiation reaction and other effects in which their own fields can influence their motion. Self-force phenomena such as these have been poorly understood for spacetime dimensions not equal to four, despite the relevance of differing dimensionalities for holographic duals, effectively two-dimensional condensed matter and fluid systems, and so on. We remedy this by showing that forces and torques acting on extended electromagnetic charges in all dimensions $d \geq 3$ have the same functional form as the usual test body expressions, except that the electromagnetic field appearing in those expressions is not the physical one; it is an effective surrogate. For arbitrary even $d \geq 4$, our surrogate field locally satisfies the source-free field equations, and is conceptually very similar to what arises in the Detweiler-Whiting prescription previously established when $d=4$. The odd-dimensional case is different, involving effective fields which are not necessarily source-free. Moreover, we find a 1-parameter family of natural effective fields for each odd $d$, where the free parameter--a lengthscale--is degenerate with (finite) renormalizations of a body's stress-energy tensor. While different parameter choices can result in different forces, they do so without affecting physical observables. Having established these general results, explicit point-particle self-forces are derived in odd-dimensional Minkowski spacetimes. Simple examples are discussed for $d=3$ and $d=5$, one of which illustrates that the particularly slow decay of fields in three spacetime dimensions results in particles creating their own "preferred rest frames:" Initially-static charges which are later perturbed have a strong tendency to return to rest. Our results easily extend also to the scalar and gravitational self-force problems.
Impact of Implant Length on Survival of Rough-Surface Implants in Nonaugmented Posterior Areas: A Systematic Review and Meta-Regression Analysis.

PURPOSE Short implants have been considered as an alternative to regular implants even where native bone is potentially adequate. Hence, the aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of implant length on its survival. MATERIALS AND METHODS A systematic literature search of randomized controlled trials and prospective studies was performed using the PubMed (MEDLINE), EMBASE, and Cochrane databases. Meta-regression analysis determined the effect of the length on the implant survival rate. RESULTS Sixty-six studies comprising 4,525 implants were included in the meta-regression analysis. Overall, for each additional 1 mm of length, the survival rate was increased by 0.42 percentage points (P = .056). In the maxilla, an additional 1 mm in length implied 0.68 percentage points more in the rate (P < .001), while in the mandible, statistical significance was not reached. Eventually, the implant survival rate in the 3- to 5-year period was strongly affected by the length of the implants in the maxilla, since it increased by 2% for each additional 1 mm of length. CONCLUSION In the presence of adequate native bone, placement of longer/regular-sized implants should be chosen over placement of short implants in the maxilla. However, in a posterior mandible, short implants offer a judicious alternative.
Neurocircuitry of Reward and Addiction: Potential Impact of Dopamine–Glutamate Co-release as Future Target in Substance Use Disorder

Dopamine–glutamate co-release is a unique property of midbrain neurons primarily located in the ventral tegmental area (VTA). Dopamine neurons of the VTA are important for behavioral regulation in response to rewarding substances, including natural rewards and addictive drugs. The impact of glutamate co-release on behaviors regulated by VTA dopamine neurons has been challenging to probe due to lack of selective methodology. However, several studies implementing conditional knockout and optogenetics technologies in transgenic mice have during the past decade pointed towards a role for glutamate co-release in multiple physiological and behavioral processes of importance to substance use and abuse. In this review, we discuss these studies to highlight findings that may be critical when considering mechanisms of importance for prevention and treatment of substance abuse.
Discriminating small wooded elements in rural landscape from aerial photography: a hybrid pixel/object-based analysis approach

While small, fragmented wooded elements do not represent a large surface area in agricultural landscape, their role in the sustainability of ecological processes is recognized widely. Unfortunately, landscape ecology studies suffer from the lack of methods for automatic detection of these elements. We propose a hybrid approach using both aerial photographs and ancillary data of coarser resolution to automatically discriminate small wooded elements. First, a spectral and textural analysis is performed to identify all the planted-tree areas in the digital photograph. Secondly, an object-orientated spatial analysis using the two data sources and including a multi-resolution segmentation is applied to distinguish between large and small woods, copses, hedgerows and scattered trees. The results show the usefulness of the hybrid approach and the prospects for future ecological applications.
Renal Ca2+ and Water Handling in Response to Calcium Sensing Receptor Signaling: Physiopathological Aspects and Role of CaSR-Regulated microRNAs

Calcium (Ca2+) is a universal and vital intracellular messenger involved in a diverse range of cellular and biological processes. Changes in the concentration of extracellular Ca2+ can disrupt the normal cellular activities and the physiological function of these systems. The calcium sensing receptor (CaSR) is a unique G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) activated by extracellular Ca2+ and by other physiological cations, aminoacids, and polyamines. CaSR is the main controller of the extracellular Ca2+ homeostatic system by regulating parathyroid hormone (PTH) secretion and, in turn, Ca2+ absorption and resorption. Recent advances highlight novel signaling pathways activated by CaSR signaling involving the regulation of microRNAs (miRNAs). miRNAs are naturally-occurring small non-coding RNAs that regulate post-transcriptional gene expression and are involved in several diseases. We previously described that high luminal Ca2+ in the renal collecting duct attenuates short-term vasopressin-induced aquaporin-2 (AQP2) trafficking through CaSR activation. Moreover, we demonstrated that CaSR signaling reduces AQP2 abundance via AQP2-targeting miRNA-137. This review summarizes the recent data related to CaSR-regulated miRNAs signaling pathways in the kidney.
Biliary Stone Disease in Patients with Neuroendocrine Tumors Treated with Somatostatin Analogs: A Multicenter Study.

BACKGROUND Somatostatin analogs (SSAs) are the mainstay of neuroendocrine tumor (NET) treatment. Biliary stone disease is reported as a common side effect of SSAs, with a frequency ranging from 10% to 63%. Studies on SSA-treated patients for acromegaly report an increased incidence of biliary stone disease compared with the general population, whereas data on patients with NETs are few. Guidelines are based on weak evidence, thus resulting in conflicting recommendations. The aim of the study is to evaluate biliary stone disease incidence, complications, and risk factors in a large population of SSA-treated patients with NETs. MATERIALS AND METHODS A retrospective analysis of a prospectively collected database was performed. Patients with a diagnosis of NET in seven dedicated centers from 1995 to 2017 were included at the time of SSA start. RESULTS A total of 754 SSA-treated patients were evaluated. Patients with history of cholecystectomy or with known biliary stone disease were excluded; 478 patients were included. Among them, 118 patients (24.7%) received prophylactic ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA). During the study period, 129 patients (27.0%) developed biliary stone disease; of them, 36 (27.9%) developed biliary complications. On multivariate analysis, primary gastrointestinal (GI)-NET (hazard ratio [HR] 1.76) and related surgery (HR 1.58) were independent risk factors for biliary stone disease. CONCLUSION We report a high incidence of biliary stone disease particularly in GI-NET or GI surgery. UDCA prophylaxis does not seem to have a protective role. Our data suggest that all patients with primary GI-NET or undergoing abdominal surgery should be considered for prophylactic cholecystectomy; no conclusion could be drawn on the indication of prophylactic cholecystectomy in patients with primary pancreatic or thoracic NET for whom abdominal surgery is not planned. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE The results of this study confirm an increased rate of gallstones development and related complications in patients with neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) treated with somatostatin analogs (SSAs). NETs of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and related surgery are independent risk factors for biliary stone disease development. Therefore, all patients with primary GI-NET or undergoing abdominal surgery should be considered for prophylactic cholecystectomy. Data on other subgroups are not exhaustive, and management also evaluating additional clinical features (life expectancy, surgical and anesthesiological risks) should be considered. Prophylactic treatment with ursodeoxycholic acid does not seem to be a protective factor for SSA-related biliary stone disease.