Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Altruism, the values dimension of caring self-efficacy concept in Iranian pediatric nurses

Background: Self-efficacy is the most influential among factors affecting nurses’ performance. Yet, understanding of the constituent elements of the caring self-efficacy concept was not considered. This study was to introduce altruism as one of the main aspects of caring self-efficacy in pediatric nurses. Materials and Methods: This is part of a larger study on the concept of caring self-efficacy conducted with qualitative content analysis approach in Iran. Participants included 27 clinical pediatric nurses and instructors, selected purposively. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analyzed using conventional content analysis method. Results: Theme “altruism” as one of the main themes extracted from the analysis of the interviews in this study. This theme includes two main categories of “humanistic care” and “caring attitude. ” Conclusions: This paper introduces altruism as one of the values aspects of caring self-efficacy in pediatric nurses. Efficient nurse with features Humanistic care, through the provision of maternal care and family-centered care and caring attitudes resulting from religious beliefs and loving children to care for the children.
Impact of CYP2C19 polymorphisms on the efficacy of clobazam therapy.

BACKGROUND Clobazam-induced adverse reactions have been reported in cases with CYP2C19 defective allele(s). However, the relevance of the CYP2C19 genotypes to clobazam therapy remains to be clarified. METHODS The association between CYP2C19 genotypes and the antiepileptic and adverse effects of clobazam was retrospectively investigated in 110 Japanese subjects, in relation to clobazam and N-desmethylclobazam (N-clobazam) concentrations. RESULTS There were 41 (37.3%) homozygous extensive metabolizers (EMs), 44 (40.0%) heterozygous EMs, and 25 (22.7%) poor metabolizers (PMs). The response rate was significantly greater in PMs and heterozygous EMs than homozygous EMs with a gene-dose effect (65.2, 47.6 and 33.3%, respectively), and the adjusted odds ratio (95% CI) of PM versus homozygous EMs was 9.88 (2.47-39.56; p = 0.001). However, the genotypes did not affect the development of tolerance or adverse reactions, although the incidence of some adverse symptoms was insignificantly higher in PMs. The N-clobazam concentration (microg/ml) increased with the number of CYP2C19-defective alleles (0.92 +/- 0.61, 2.14 +/- 1.69 and 7.70 +/- 6.04, respectively; p < 0.001), while the clobazam concentration was 1.5-fold greater in those with at least one variant. CONCLUSION CYP2C19 genotype had an impact on the efficacy of clobazam, thus indicating that N-clobazam plays an important role in long-term clobazam therapy.
Sleep mode management in cellular networks: a traffic based technique enabling energy saving

Because of the environmental policies that pursue a significant reduction of global greenhouse gas and to the ambition of the network operators to keep under control operational and maintenance expenditures, energy efficiency has recently become one of the most relevant issues for present and future research activities. This contribution deals with the management of the base station sleep mode in a cellular network. The forecasting based sleep mode algorithm, justified by daily and weekly periodic behaviour of traffic, is presented and evaluated for general deployments of second and third generation cellular networks. The energy consumption of each base station and the area power consumption are the metrics, which are considered for our simulations. The results show a significant increase of the energy efficiency during low traffic periods with respect to the usual scenario, thanks to the adoption of the proposed strategy. The forecasting based sleep mode algorithm has been also compared with a strategy based on real‐time measurements and the results show similar performances while the number of updates of the network configuration and the global complexity are decreased. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Multiplication-free radial basis function network

For the purpose of adaptive function approximation, a new approximation scheme is proposed which is nonlinear in its parameters. The goal is to reduce significantly the computational effort for a serial processor, by avoiding multiplication in both the evaluation of the function model and the computation of the parameter adaptation. The approximation scheme makes use of a grid-based Gaussian basis function network. Due to the local support of digitally implemented Gaussian functions, the function representation is parametric local and therefore well-suited for an implementation on a microcomputer. A gradient descent based nonlinear learning algorithm is presented and the convergence of the algorithm is proved.
Passivity-based strategy for constructing large-scale and expanding network systems

We propose a strategy for constructing a large-scale network system that is stable independently of network expansion. The strategy is composed of two rules. One is on network nodes: every node has a passivity property that is realized by local feedback control. The other is on a network connection: network nodes are connected each other such that specific network structure is satisfied. We further analysis performance of the entire network system and local node. Finally, we present a numerical example of stable power network system construction in order to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy.
Interactive Visual Analysis - an Opportunity for Industrial Simulation

Computational simulation has become an important factor in industrial development as well as in scientific work. Significant amounts of time and money are spent on the simulation of real-world phenomena such as combustion processes, fluid flow, wheather phenomena, etc. Along with the rapid development of computer hardware as well as simulation software, also the results of simulation develop quickly in terms of size and complexity. It is common practice these days that simulation datasets are computed for grids with millions of grid cells. Often, simulation datasets are computed for a large set of timesteps and usually many data attributes are simulated for all the grid cells (or vertices) and for all the time steps. This often results in large and complex data files (sized in the orders of Gigabytes). In selected application fields, however, these numbers can be still a lot larger – super computing, for example, commonly results in data files which are Terabytes of size.
CGDB: A database of membrane protein/lipid interactions by coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations

Membrane protein function and stability has been shown to be dependent on the lipid environment. Recently, we developed a high-throughput computational approach for the prediction of membrane protein/lipid interactions. In the current study, we enhanced this approach with the addition of a new measure of the distortion caused by membrane proteins on a lipid bilayer. This is illustrated by considering the effect of lipid tail length and headgroup charge on the distortion caused by the integral membrane proteins MscS and FLAP, and by the voltage sensing domain from the channel KvAP. Changing the chain length of lipids alters the extent but not the pattern of distortion caused by MscS and FLAP; lipid headgroups distort in order to interact with very similar but not identical regions in these proteins for all bilayer widths investigated. Introducing anionic lipids into a DPPC bilayer containing the KvAP voltage sensor does not affect the extent of bilayer distortion.
Anti-ulcerogenic activity of Typhonium flagelliforme aqueous leaf extract against ethanol-induced gastric mucosal injury in rats

Typhonium flagelliforme (Araceae) is an indigenous medicinal plant of Malaysia which is endowed with curative properties against a variety of illness including injuries, oedema, coughs, pulmonary ailments, bleeding and cancer. In this study, T. flagelliforme aqueous leaf extract was used to investigate its gastroprotective effect in adult Sprague Dawley rats which were divided into four groups. The rats were orally pre-treated with sterile distilled water (ulcer control groups), omeprazole 20 mg/kg (reference group), 250 and 500 mg/kg of T. flagelliforme (experimental groups) one hour before oral administration of absolute ethanol to generate gastric mucosal injury. After an additional hour, the rats were sacrificed and the ulcer areas of the gastric walls were determined. The ulcer control group exhibited severe mucosal injury, whereas groups pre-treated with T. flagelliforme extracts exhibited significant protection of gastric mucosal injury. These finding were also confirmed by histological studies. These results suggest that T. flagelliforme promotes ulcer protection as ascertained grossly by significant reduction of ulcer area and histology by comparatively decreases in ulcer areas, reduction or absence of edema and leucocytes infiltration of submucosal layer compared to ulcer control group.
Proteome Analysis of Human Arterial Tissue Discloses Associations Between the Vascular Content of Small Leucine-Rich Repeat Proteoglycans and Pulse Wave Velocity

Objectives—We hypothesized that arterial stiffness is associated with changes in the arterial protein profile, particularly of extracellular matrix components. We aimed at determining differentially expressed proteins by quantitative proteome analysis in arterial tissue from patients with different degrees of arterial stiffness. Approach and Results—Arterial stiffness, assessed by carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV), central blood pressure and augmentation index by pulse wave analysis were measured the day before surgery in a group of patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting. Protein extracts of well-defined, homogenous, nonatherosclerotic individual samples of the left mammary artery from 10 of these patients with high PWV and 9 with low PWV were compared by quantitative proteome analysis, using tandem mass tag labeling and nano–liquid chromatography mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry. Of 418 quantified proteins, 28 were differentially expressed between the groups with high and low PWV (P<0.05). Three of 7 members of the extracellular matrix family of small leucine-rich repeat proteoglycans displayed significant differences between the 2 groups (P=0.0079; Fisher exact test). Three other ECM proteins were differentially regulated, that is, collagen, type VIII, &agr;-1 and &agr;-2 and collagen, type IV, &agr;-1. Several proteins related to smooth muscle cell function and structure were also found in different amounts between the 2 groups. Conclusions—Changes in the arterial amounts of small leucine-rich proteoglycans, known to be involved in collagen fibrillogenesis, and of some nonfibrillar collagens in combination with alterations in proteins related to functions of the human arterial smooth muscle are associated with arterial stiffness, as determined by PWV.
Color Logic of Apparent Motion

Two shapes of either the same or different color will seem to be in smooth apparent motion with like-colored mates, at proper conditions of flash timing and spacing. An experiment is reported in which the condition was tested for unlike-colored pairs, for example red–green alternated with green–red. The question of interest was how the visual system would resolve the disparity of color. An ‘intelligent’ solution would rotate the shapes in three dimensions. Like-colored and unlike-colored pairs were found to move and transform similarly, however, the resolution being dependent more upon timing than upon color. The notion of intelligence as it might be applied to vision is discussed in light of these results.
Arbeitsbedingungen und Perspektiven von Zeitarbeitern

Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass vormals beschaftigte Zeitarbeiter weitaus ofter ihre fruhere Stelle durch eine Betriebsstilllegung oder durch eine arbeitgeberseitige Kundigung verloren als andere Arbeitnehmer; auch hatten sie im Vergleich zu diesen zum Zeitpunkt der Beendigung des letzten Arbeitsverhaltnisses weitaus seltener konkrete Perspektiven hinsichtlich einer Anschlussbeschaftigung. Zeitarbeiter schatzen den folgenden Stellenwechsel im Vergleich zu Stellenwechslern in der Gesamtwirtschaft zwar weniger positiv ein, aber vor dem Hintergrund der eigenen Erwerbsbiographie stufen sie die Arbeitsbedingungen in der neuen Anstellung uberwiegend gleichwertig oder sogar besser als in der vorausgegangenen ein. Insgesamt sind Zeitarbeiter kaum unzufriedener mit der Arbeit als vergleichbare Arbeitnehmer in anderen Beschaftigungsverhaltnissen. Wahrend hinsichtlich der Einschatzung des herrschenden Arbeitsklimas und der Fortbildungsmoglichkeiten keine bedeutenden Unterschiede vorliegen, geben Zeitarbeiter haufiger als vergleichbare Arbeitnehmer an, belastenden Umwelteinflussen und Unfallrisiken ausgesetzt zu sein. In Bezug auf die beruflichen Perspektiven schatzen Zeitarbeiter das Risiko, ihren Arbeitsplatz zu verlieren, nicht hoher ein als andere. Allerdings ist fur sie die Wahrscheinlichkeit groser, von sich aus bald eine neue Stelle zu suchen, einen beruflichen Neuanfang zu machen oder in die Selbstandigkeit uberzuwechseln, denn einen beruflichen Aufstieg im gegenwartigen Betrieb erachten Zeitarbeiter als wenig wahrscheinlich. Alles in allem erscheinen die Arbeitsbedingungen und die beruflichen Perspektiven von Zeitarbeitern im Vergleich zu Arbeitnehmern in der Gesamtwirtschaft gemessen an den Erwartungen weitaus heterogener; die Bedingungen sind aber nicht, wie bislang oft angenommen, durchweg schlechter.
Promotion of the self-renewal capacity of human acute leukemia cells by Wnt3A.

BACKGROUND Wnt/beta-catenin signaling is involved in the growth of various types of cancer cells. Wnt3A has been reported to promote the self-renewal of hematopoietic stem cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS The effects of recombinant Wnt3A protein on the in vitro growth of four acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and four acute T-lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) cell lines was examined. RESULTS Wnt3A stimulation either had no effect on, or slightly suppressed, the short-term growth of these cell lines. In three cell lines, Wnt3A promoted clonogenic cell recovery after suspension culture, suggesting the promotion of the self-renewal capacity of leukemic stem or progenitor cells. Immunoblot analysis showed that Wnt3A stimulation reduced phosphorylated beta-catenin and increased beta-catenin in these cells, indicating that Wnt3A stimulation activated Wnt/beta-catenin signaling. CONCLUSION Wnt3A stimulation did not promote the growth of whole cell populations, but did promote the self-renewal of leukemic stem/progenitor cells in some AML and T-ALL cell lines.
Quality of life parameters in terminal oncological patients in a home care unit

El estudio pretende revisar la metodologia y las dificultades asociadas a la evaluacion de la calidad de vida en pacientes oncologicos en situacion terminal y avanzada. Para ello se evalua la calidad de vida informada a traves de una escala estandarizada, el cuestionario de calidad de vida de la EORTC, el QLQ-C30, y se observa si es sensible a la recepcion de cuidados paliativos en el domicilio. Se pretende al mismo tiempo, comparar estos resultados con los posibles cambios reportados por los pacientes sobre sus sintomas fisicos, sobre la percepcion del apoyo social y sobre los marcadores de ansiedad depresion, tras el ingreso en una Unidad de Hospitalizacion a Domicilio (UHaD). El trabajo se realizo con 42 pacientes a los que se evaluo en dos ocasiones, al ingreso en la UHaD y al cabo de 1, 2, 3 o 4 semanas. Se recogen variables sociodemograficas y clinicas, y los datos se analizan mediante analisis de covarianza de medidas repetidas, y a traves de t de Student para muestras relacionadas. Los resultados indican que tan solo la variable dolor del QLQ-C30 cambia significativamente tras el ingreso en la UHaD (p<.045). Por el contrario, la mayoria de las variables referidas a sintomatologia clinica y evaluadas por el medico, descienden significativamente tras el ingreso en la unidad (vomitos: p<.003; dolor: p<.000; estrenimiento: p<.000 y sueno: p<.000). Los niveles de ansiedad y depresion, que al ingreso ya revelan ausencia de patologia, no se modifican desde los valores iniciales. El indice de Karnofsky no cambia significativamente tras el ingreso en la Unidad. Se discute la adecuacion del uso del termino calidad de vida en la enfermedad terminal.
An all-digital A/D converter TAD with 4-shift-clock construction for sensor interface in 0.65-μm CMOS

TAD (Time A/D converter)-composite architecture with 4-shift-clock construction for both fast conversion and increased resolution is presented. An all-digital A/D converter using TAD architecture includes the following: 1) a ring-delay-line (RDL), that is a loop inverter chain, with 16 delay units (DUs), in which delay times are modulated by an A/D conversion voltage Vin for the DU supply voltage; 2) pulse latches; 3) an encoder; and 4) an RDL-frequency counter. The operating principle is to count the number of DUs through which the pulse passes within a sampling time interval Ts with (1/4)LSB-offset for 4-TAD-module by applying a new method named “Clock-Edge-Shift construction (CKES)” to achieve ADC speed-up and resolution-improvement effectively. The 15-bit TAD ADC with 1.2 mm2 using a 0.65-μm CMOS achieved both 2.9 mV/LSB at 10 MS/s and 5.7 mV/LSB at 20 MS/s, respectively, by applying the CKES construction with 4-TAD-composite core, resulting in the same level as 0.25-μm digital CMOS performance.
The Role of Demand SIde Management in the Economics of Microgrids

Microgrid design entails the selection and sizing of appropriate energy generation and storage technology to meet a known or proposed load profile. For traditional generation technology (i.e. thermal generating plants), it is well known that the incremental costs of meeting high peak demand is much higher than the average cost and hence negatively impacts microgrid economics. On the other hand, for microgrids with high renewable penetration, the situation is more complicated. The times of greatest resource constraint are generally not coincident with peak demand. In this study, we will discuss techniques of identifying the times of greatest resource constraint, methods of addressing them through efficiency measures and demand response, and the economic impacts of this approach. Studies to date have indicated that demand response programs that are implemented as little as 5% of the time can save nearly 50% in capital costs. Introduction & Background: In many respects, the process of microgrid design echoes the process that electric utilities have been following since Edison begin the first commercial operation in 1882[1]. With a knowledge of the load, the generation and distribution systems have to be sized to accommodate the worst case condition, the peak load. In addition, since the grid demand has historically been consumer driven, grid operators are required to provide a capacity surplus (operating reserve) to accommodate unanticipated loads and/or outages[2]. While the simplest solution would be a single power plant with nameplate capacity 10% higher than the known peak, this solution is also quite impractical for a number of reasons. Single large power plants typically don’t follow load very well and new load is not easy to accommodate without significant capital expense for new plants. Utilities approach the problem with a fleet of generators with various characteristics. On one end of the spectrum are large thermal plants (typically coal or nuclear) that are expensive to build but can generate electricity at a relatively low per kWh rate. On the other extreme are single cycle combustion turbines that are capable of much better variable performance and can be built in small increments (10’s of MW) with lower up-front costs but the variable costs are relatively higher. The optimal combination can be found using load screening curves that compare the annual load arranged
MACULAR TELANGIECTASIA–CHANGES IN MACULAR PIGMENT OPTICAL DENSITY DURING A 5-YEAR FOLLOW-UP

Purpose: To quantitatively analyze the distribution of macular pigment (MP) over a period of 5 years and for monitoring progression of macular telangiectasia. Methods: Macular pigment concentration (autofluorescence, excitation wavelengths: 488 and 514 nm) was determined at baseline and after 5 years in 43 eyes of 22 subjects (46–80 years; mean, 65.6 years; 10 men) participating in the macular telangiectasia project. Results: Mean MP density at 0.5° declined in the segment (one eighth of a circle) with the highest MP optical density (−0.04 density units; P= 0.015), where density units (DU), and also averaged in the 2 segments that divided segments with detectable MP from those in which MP was no longer detectable (−0.04 density units; P = 0.0005). In the first segment mentioned, 2° values decreased to a lesser extent and not significantly. The diameter of MP loss expanded horizontally from 2.64 mm to 2.74 mm (P = 0.0001) but not vertically. Macular pigment density in the “halo” of peripheral MP at a mean of 5.44° (4.53–6.21°) increased (+0.01 DU; P= 0.01). Conclusion: Five years of follow-up resulted in central (0.5°) reduction and peripheral (4.53–6.21°) accumulation of MP. Longer period of follow-up may disclose significant changes in paracentral locations. The area of central MP loss expands in particular in a horizontal direction and less vertically. Centrifugal movement of MP during disease may explain our findings.
An automatic fuzzy clustering segmentation algorithm with aid of set partitioning

As one of the most popular methods for image segmentation, fuzzy C-means algorithm suffers two unavoidable initialization difficulties including obtaining initial cluster centroids and deciding cluster number, which affect the algorithm performance. Motivated by the above, an automatic fuzzy clustering algorithm is proposed in this paper, where observation matrix, judgment matrix and set partitioning are used to select appropriate clustering number automatically. Experimental results show that automatic fuzzy clustering algorithm not only can spontaneously estimate the appropriate number of clusters but also can achieve better segmentation quality.
Optimal LMI-based state feedback stabilizer for uncertain nonlinear systems with time-Varying uncertainties and disturbances

This article presents a nonlinear state feedback stabilizer using linear matrix inequalities for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems with Lipschitz nonlinearities. The proposed controller improves the transient performance and steady state accuracy simultaneously. To improve the stabilization performance, a nonlinear function is included in the control law and is optimally tuned using a modified random search algorithm. Simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the offered method. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity, 2015
Material and Device Architecture Engineering Toward High Performance Two-Dimensional (2D) Photodetectors

Photodetectors based on two-dimensional (2D) nanostructures have led to a high optical response, and a long photocarrier lifetime because of spatial confinement effects. Since the discovery of graphene, many different 2D semiconductors have been developed and utilized in the ultrafast and ultrasensitive detection of light in the ultraviolet, visible, infrared and terahertz frequency ranges. This review presents a comprehensive summary of recent breakthroughs in constructing high-performance photodetectors based on 2D materials. First, we give a general overview of 2D photodetectors based on various single-component materials and their operating wavelength (ultraviolet to terahertz regime). Then, we summarize the design and controllable synthesis of heterostructure material systems to promote device photoresponse. Subsequently, special emphasis is put on the accepted methods in rational engineering of device architectures toward the photoresponse improvements. Finally, we conclude with our personal viewpoints on the challenges and promising future directions in this research field.