Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
High-dose intramuscular triamcinolone in severe, chronic, life-threatening asthma.

BACKGROUND Despite oral corticosteroid therapy, some patients with asthma have frequent exacerbations requiring emergency room visits, hospitalization, and occasionally, mechanical ventilation. We compared the effects of high-dose intramuscular triamcinolone with oral prednisone in patients with severe chronic asthma. METHODS In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over study that spanned all seasons, we treated 12 patients with high-dose intramuscular triamcinolone (360 mg over the first three days of the treatment period) or low-dose oral prednisone (median dose, 12.5 mg per day throughout the period; range 0 to 30). The two three-month treatment periods were separated by a three-month washout period. During all periods the patients were allowed to take additional doses of prednisone for acute exacerbations of asthma. RESULTS After receiving triamcinolone, the patients had significantly better peak expiratory flow rates than while receiving prednisone (the average [+/- SEM] weekly percent of the predicted value during the triamcinolone period was 91.5 +/- 6.9, as compared with 75.0 +/- 5.9 for the prednisone period; P less than 0.05). During the prednisone period there were 21 emergency room visits and 10 hospitalizations, but there were none during the triamcinolone period (P less than 0.05). There were two episodes of ventilatory failure during the prednisone period. Total steroid doses were significantly smaller during the triamcinolone period than during the prednisone period (P less than 0.04). Steroidal side effects were more pronounced after treatment with triamcinolone than after treatment with prednisone (P less than 0.1). CONCLUSIONS We conclude that high-dose intramuscular triamcinolone is more effective than low-dose prednisone in patients with severe, chronic, life-threatening asthma, but steroidal side effects are somewhat worse.
Host Response to a dam Mutant of Salmonella enterica Serovar Enteritidis with a Temperature-Sensitive Phenotype

ABSTRACT The temperature-sensitive dam mutant strain of Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis SD1 is highly attenuated and induces innate and protective immunity in mice. SD1 activates NF-κB and induces gamma interferon secretion. Early interaction of the SD1 mutant with intestinal epithelial cells was associated with ruffling of enterocytes. Invading bacteria were found inside Peyer's patches after inoculation.
Translating research into practice: implications for organizations and administrators.

Only some 500 years ago German artisan Johannes Guttenberg unleashed the information age with the invention of the printing press. We have come far from the  rst vacuum tube triode in 1906 to the  rst Intel micro processor in 1971 — to where we now talk in terabytes. Scientific knowledge is increasing exponentially; in 1997 Thomas Dodson suggested that over 600,000 articles are published every year in the biomedical literature, and that even the diligent and well-prepared clinician reading two articles a day would, at the end of a year, be 800,000 articles behind! (Dodson, 1997) Given the tremendous growth in knowledge and the rapid pace at which societies and their institutions around us are changing, our as yet unmet challenge of how to get the best available research knowledge into the hands of and used by clinicians in a timely and ef cient manner seems increasingly urgent. Since the 1997 call by the National Forum on Health for a culture of evidence-based decision-making, the term “evidence-based practice” has become a mantra for advocates of contemporary quality health-care systems.This despite the fact that we still know relatively little about the complex factors that in uence research use. Since the creation of the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation in 1997 and the Canadian Institutes for Health Research in 2000 — the latter with a clear and unique mandate for knowledge translation written into its legislation — the knowledge translation agenda has accelerated at an ever increasing rate in Canada, moving across the country like a juggernaut. As we invest signi cant and increasing amounts in this country to get research from the “bench” to the “bedside,” the question How much attention have we focused on the role of organizations and senior administrators? remains largely unasked. This question is particularly relevant if considered in the context of a common oversight in the  eld of research utilization — treating research utilization and evidence-based practice as if they were separate from the broader body of research addressing healthy workplaces, quality workplaces, optimal practice environments, and so on.There have been important research and signi cant efforts undertaken to improve the environCJNR 2003,Vol. 35 No 3, 53–68
Reticular dystrophy of the retinal pigment epithelium. Dystrophia reticularis laminae pigmentosa retinae of H. Sjogren.

Reticular dystrophy of the retinal pigment epithelium was found in a Dutch girl and her brother. The brother developed this dystrophy during infancy. No reports of this peculiar dystrophy are known to us, since H. Sjogren described it in a Swedish family for the first time in 1950. This is the first time that an extensive functional investigation of the retina, as well as fundus photography and fluorescein angiography, is performed in an affected individual. Recessive degenerative deafmutism, spherophakia, and diaphanous irides, which were found in Sjogren's family, were not discovered in the family presented here.
Assembly and Experimental Characterization of Fiber Collimators for Low Loss Coupling

The repeatability of assembled fiber collimator performance was investigated using Corning SMF28 fiber and 4.4mm SLW GRIN lens (0.23 pitch) from NSG with a 1550nm ASE source in a laboratory environment by measuring the beam width and optical coupling loss of collimators assembled in the laboratory. Coupling loss as low as 0.11 dB was obtained consistently, which was a considerable improvement over the standard performance spec of 0.15 to 0.2dB on the GRIN lens. Source fluctuation was measured to be 0.003dB. Intensity profile showed reasonable gaussian beam behavior in the two perpendicular directions. The average coupling loss was 0.112dB with a standard deviation of 0.012dB. The average mode field diameter was 351 microns with standard deviation of 4.6 microns.
Autistic traits and attention to speech: Evidence from typically developing individuals

Abstract Individuals with autism spectrum disorder have a preference for attending to non-speech stimuli over speech stimuli. We are interested in whether non-speech preference is only a feature of diagnosed individuals, and whether we can we test implicit preference experimentally. In typically developed individuals, serial recall is disrupted more by speech stimuli than by non-speech stimuli. Since behaviour of individuals with autistic traits resembles that of individuals with autism, we have used serial recall to test whether autistic traits influence task performance during irrelevant speech sounds. The errors made on the serial recall task during speech or non-speech sounds were counted as a measure of speech or non-speech preference in relation to no sound condition. We replicated the serial order effect and found the speech to be more disruptive than the non-speech sounds, but were unable to find any associations between the autism quotient scores and the non-speech sounds. Our results may indicate a learnt behavioural response to speech sounds.
Schistosome motility measurements: response to drugs.

An instrument is described which measures quantitatively and automatically the body movements of the human blood fluke, Schistosoma mansoni . The normal activity of this parasite shows a complex pattern of bursts of movement alternating with periods of lesser activity. The application of pentobarbital depresses activity; catecholamines and cyclic nucleotides have no effect. We also report the following findings, which confirm and extend earlier visual observations by other workers: serotonin stimulates activity up to 20-fold with immediate onset of action; 5-hydroxytryptophan stimulates by the same amount after a 45-minute delay; and carbamylcholine abolishes activity, and its effects cannot be reversed by serotonin. The instrumentation and methodology described afford a new method for studying effects of potential antischistosomal compounds and for evaluating schistosomes as a model system in neuropharmacology.
Coronary heart disease after prenatal exposure to the Dutch famine, 1944–45

OBJECTIVE To assess the effect of prenatal exposure to maternal malnutrition on coronary heart disease in people born around the time of the Dutch famine, 1944–45. DESIGN Historical cohort study. SETTING Community study. PATIENTS Singletons born alive between November 1943 and February 1947 for whom detailed birth records were available. DESIGN The prevalence of coronary heart disease was compared between those exposed to famine in late gestation (n = 120), in mid-gestation (n = 108), or in early gestation (n = 68), and those born in the year before the famine or those conceived in the year after the famine (non-exposed subjects, n = 440). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Prevalence of coronary heart disease, defined as the presence of angina pectoris according to the Rose questionnaire, Q waves on the ECG, or a history of coronary revascularisation. RESULTS The prevalence of coronary heart disease was higher in those exposed in early gestation than in non-exposed people (8.8% v 3.2%; odds ratio adjusted for sex 3.0, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.1 to 8.1). The prevalence was not increased in those exposed in mid gestation (0.9%) or late gestation (2.5%). People with coronary heart disease tended to have lower birth weights (3215 g v 3352 g, p = 0.13), and smaller head circumferences at birth (32.2 cmv 32.8 cm, p = 0.05), but the effect of exposure to famine in early gestation was independent of birth weight (adjusted odds ratio 3.2, 95% CI 1.2 to 8.8). CONCLUSIONS Although the numbers are very small, this is the first evidence suggesting that maternal malnutrition during early gestation contributes to the occurrence of coronary heart disease in the offspring.
Microsatellite Polymorphisms at the Glucokinase Locus: a Population Association Study in Caucasian Type 2 Diabetic Subjects

Glucokinase has a central role in glucose metabolism in pancreatic beta cells and hepatocytes and is an important candidate gene for Type 2 diabetes. Mutations of the glucokinase gene have been reported in Caucasian pedigrees with maturity‐onset diabetes of the young and late‐onset Type 2 diabetes. In population studies of American Blacks and Mauritian Creoles an association between alleles of a glucokinase polymorphism and Type 2 diabetes has been described. Two microsatellite polymorphisms (GCK 1 and GCK 2) flanking the glucokinase gene were investigated in Caucasian subjects. There was no significant linkage disequilibrium between the alleles of the two polymorphisms. The overall allelic frequencies for GCK 1 and the combined haplotypes did not significantly differ between 95 Type 2 diabetic and 76 normoglycaemic subjects. In an expanded cohort of 151 diabetic subjects the allelic frequencies at GCK 2 were also similar to controls. These results suggest that a single mutation of the glucokinase gene is not a common cause of Type 2 diabetes in English Caucasians.
Portal insulin concentrations rather than insulin sensitivity regulate serum sex hormone-binding globulin and insulin-like growth factor binding protein 1 in vivo.

Serum sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) and insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 1 (IGFBP-1) concentrations have been suggested to be useful markers of insulin sensitivity. As the production of both proteins is inhibited by insulin in the liver, we postulated that their concentrations reflect whole body insulin sensitivity only when the latter parallels changes in endogenous insulin secretion. To test this hypothesis, we determined SHBG and IGFBP-1 concentrations, whole body insulin sensitivity (euglycemic insulin clamp; serum free insulin, approximately 400 pmol/L), and serum insulin and C peptide concentrations in 13 type 1 diabetic patients lacking endogenous insulin secretion and 34 matched normal subjects. Whole body insulin sensitivity was 50% lower in the type 1 diabetic patients (20 +/- 3 mumol/kg.min) than that in the normal subjects (40 +/- 3 mumol/kg.min; P < 0.001). Despite this, serum SHBG (45 +/- 4 vs. 29 +/- 2nmol/L; P < 0.002) and IGFBP-1 (14 +/- 3 vs. 2 +/- 1 micrograms/L; P < 0.002) concentrations were increased in the type 1 diabetic patients. In the normal subjects, SHBG (r = -0.49; P < 0.01) and IGFBP-1 (r = -0.49; P < 0.01) were inversely correlated with serum C peptide and positively correlated with whole body insulin sensitivity (r = 0.54; P < 0.005 and r = 0.54; P < 0.005, respectively). In the type 1 diabetic patients, SHBG and IGFBP-1 concentrations were disproportionately increased when related to insulin sensitivity, but appropriate when related to estimated portal insulin concentrations. Serum T4, free testosterone, and estradiol concentrations were similar in both groups. We conclude that SHBG and IGFBP-1 reflect hepatic insulinization and can only be used as markers of insulin sensitivity in individuals with intact insulin secretion.
Enhance Text Recognition by Image Pre-Processing to Facilitate Library Services by Mobile Devices

Facing the popularity of web searching, libraries continuously invest in the provision of online searching and refurnish physical facilities to attract users during the past decades. In this study, we conducted a technical feasibility study to facilitate library services by applying a novice image pre-processing technique to enhance performance of OCR via mobile devices. Traditional approaches usually apply a global threshold for all pixels and compared, while this will not be suitable for some scenarios, such as non-uniform lightness and complicated background. Different from other studies, our research used the concept of divide and merge to identify local and global thresholds. The experimental results illustrate that the proposed method effectively improves the text recognition. The accuracy rate was raised from 17.7% to 72.05% of all test images. Without counting eight unrecognizable images, the average accuracy rates of our treatment can reach 90.06%. We are confident that this design will not only bring users more convenience in using libraries but help library staff and businessmen to manage the status of books.
Author ' s personal copy Gene expression responses of paper birch ( Betula papyrifera ) to elevated CO 2 and O 3 during leaf maturation and senescence

Gene expression responses of paper birch (Betula papyrifera) leaves to elevated concentrations of CO2 and O3 were studied with microarray analyses from three time points during the summer of 2004 at Aspen FACE. Microarray data were analyzed with clustering techniques, self-organizing maps, K-means clustering and Sammon’s mappings, to detect similar gene expression patterns within sampling times and treatments. Most of the alterations in gene expression were caused by O3, alone or in combination with CO2. O3 induced defensive reactions to oxidative stress and earlier leaf senescence, seen as decreased expression of photosynthesisand carbon fixation-related genes, and increased expression of senescence-associated genes. The effects of elevated CO2 reflected surplus of carbon that was directed to synthesis of secondary compounds. The combined CO2þO3 treatment resulted in differential gene expression than with individual gas treatments or in changes similar to O3 treatment, indicating that CO2 cannot totally alleviate the harmful effects of O3. 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Running Head : AFFECTIVE EMPATHY IN SCHIZOPHRENIA Affective Empathy in Schizophrenia : A Meta-Analysis

Background: Affective empathy, or the emotional response one has to the experiences or emotional states of others, contributes to relationship-maintaining behaviors and is key in fostering social connections, yet no work has synthesized the body of literature for people with schizophrenia. The aim of the present meta-analysis was to determine the extent to which those diagnosed with schizophrenia experience deficits in affective empathy. Methods: A literature search was conducted of studies examining empathy. Data were analyzed using a random effects meta-analytic model with Hedges’s g standardized mean difference effect size. Results: Individuals with schizophrenia exhibited significant, medium deficits in affective empathy (k=37). Measurement type moderated the affective empathy deficit such that performance-based measures showed larger schizophrenia group deficits than self-report measures. Conclusion: Consistent, significant deficits in affective empathy were found comparing people with schizophrenia to healthy controls, especially when using performance-based assessments. The medium effect suggests an important role for empathy in the realm of social cognitive research, and points to the need for further investigation of measurement techniques and associations with functional outcomes.
Volumetric HyperReality , A Computer Graphics Holy Grail for the 21 st Century ?

This paper starts by examining the issues related to integrating real and virtual objects in a virtual reality environment. In particular it discusses the problems of occlusion, shadows and specular reflections. As an alternative to immersive virtual reality, this paper considers existing 3-D display technologies . It then discusses the limitations of these approaches and presents a thought experiment to design a completely general volumetric display. Such a displ ay would convincingly create the illusion of objects with arbitrary optical properties. A metallic object depicted using the display would reflect the visual surroundings of the display . Dielectric materials wo ul d show correct refraction and reflection effects. Light shone on the display would illuminate the virtual objects within it. When programmed to depict empty space, the display would, for all practical purposes, disappear, rendering the contained volume invisible. Incremental steps towards such a device are discussed.
What is this Infamous “ Wildlife / Livestock Disease Interface ? ” A Review of Current Knowledge for the African Continent 1

The wildlife/livestock interface means different things to different people. Impressions vary from images of wild bird contact with intensive pig operations along the avian migration routes of North America to dusty scenes of thirsty and hungry cattle trudging through protected areas of Africa in search of drought-depleted resources. The many facets to the interface, such as health, conservation, environment, culture, and economics, have been issues since livestock became an integral part of the landscape. There are positive and negative aspects to the interface and it has been a source of conflict in many areas, often as a result of misunderstanding and polarisation of opinion between ecocentric and anthropocentric forces in society. To review all aspects of the interface is beyond the scope of this article, and other texts provide useful data (Boyd et al. 1999) for those wishing a more comprehensive view. Attention here is given to those elements relevant to the health of the large-mammal communities and is focused on Africa, where currently there is an urgent need to find solutions to the problems of abject poverty, poor health status for people and animals, and threats to the environment and biodiversity.
A RF-based spatiotemporal RTI localization algorithm using sparse Bayesian learning

This paper concerns the issue of enhancing the robustness in radio tomographic imaging (RTI) with sparse Bayesian learning (SBL), which aims at addressing the localization performance deficiency due to uninformative radio frequency (RF) data. Spatiotemporal RTI is developed to keep data informative and reliable for sparse signal recovery in localization issues. In addition, two robust sparse Bayesian learning algorithms are developed to handle with the low signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) with heterogeneous noise. The localization results highlight advantages of applying proposed robust sparse Bayesian learning algorithms in addressing missing estimations and outlier errors, and finally improving indoor target DFL performance.
Influence of fine structure and envelope variability on gap‐duration discrimination thresholds

The goal of the study was to investigate whether the temporal resolution of the auditory system is influenced by the variability of the stimulus envelope. To do so, the ability to detect an increment in the duration of a temporal gap (the test gap) was measured with an adaptive 3‐IFC procedure. The stimulus consisted of a series of 10‐ms broadband noise pulses. The pulses were separated by a 10‐ms silent period, or temporal gap. In the main experiments, the test gap was either the first or the last gap in a series of 21 pulses. The variability in the stimulus’ envelope was controlled directly by applying a jitter to the onset of the individual pulses in the pulse trains. Additionally, the stimuli were presented with different fine structure variabilities which also induced differences in the variability of the envelope. The gap‐discrimination thresholds for the jittered noise pulse trains showed strong dependence on the amount of jitter as long as the jitter was applied randomly leading to a different pattern for every stimulus. When the jitter was applied as a frozen jitter resulting in a constant pattern of pulses, the thresholds did not increase significantly. A similar result was obtained for the different fine structure variabilities. A frozen fine structure led to thresholds about 1 ms lower than those obtained with random noise stimuli. A measure for the envelope variability was provided by calculating the variances of the envelope spectrum of the gammatone‐filtered stimuli. The results of the calculations show a qualitative correspondence to the experimental results.
Power Management in Battery Powered Handheld Portable Applications

The aim of this paper is to describe the power management system for portable electronics. In the recent years, consumers demand more and more from their mobile devices, including broadband connectivity and leading features such as high-end digital camera functions and HD audio, but one of the most requested features is a longer battery life. Achieving energy efficiency requires significant improvements in the energy usage profile of every system component and a high performance power management system. Other important key features are power density and a low profile of the circuit solution, which can be obtained only with a high frequency converter operation and integration SIP (system in package). In this paper the power management system for portable electronics, from wireless battery charging system to the CPU power management, will be introduced and discussed.
Pathways to excellence.

UK Performance Standards "Safer Together" Value of Sustainable Buildings via Standards like BREEAM MyCREST A Sustainable Building Rating Tool by CIDB How the New AIAC Standard Form of Contract Would Impact The Building Industry Fire EngineeringHackett's Report on the Grenfell Tower Durable and Safe Concrete Structures in the Tropic Post-Tensioning and IBS: Overcoming Problems Inherent in the Malaysian Building Construction Industry Health & Safety Working at Heights CP D P oin ts