Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The home advantage in sport competitions: Courneya and Carron's (1992) conceptual framework a decade later

This paper had three aims. The first was to review research carried out on the home advantage from 1992 to the present. The second was to examine the extent to which a conceptual framework proposed by Courneya and Carron (1992) was/is viable as a tool to highlight and organize an understanding of the home advantage. The final aim was to provide suggestions for future research.
Nurses and Barriers to Screening for Intimate Partner Violence

PurposeTo elicit thoughts from perinatal and emergency room nurses about barriers to screening for intimate partner violence (IPV). Design and MethodsA survey was developed and distributed in hospitals and on a national perinatal listserv. Three hundred eighty-five nurses responded. ResultsResponses were grouped by content into the four most prominent categories: lack of privacy and time, need for resources and protocols, legal questions, and personal belief issues. The survey found that time alone with the patient to ask sensitive questions and offer support and safety information is a challenge for nurses, as are language barriers. Clinical ImplicationsNurses who completed this survey suggested that routine screening intervals during prenatal care and after delivery may improve identification of IPV, because privacy may be less of a challenge in a clinic or office. Nurses would like brief, clear resources that include local IPV services and hotline numbers. They also would like regular continuing education about IPV in the clinical setting, including all aspects of IPV assessment, identification, and management.
Pulse Series Based UWB CR System

Ultra-wideband (UWB) based cognitive radio (CR) system combines the advantages of these two spectrum sharing techniques and is considered as one of the candidates of the next generation short range wireless communication technology. We propose narrow band interference (NBI) suppression method which can be adopted in ultra-wideband (UWB) based cognitive radio (CR) system in this paper. The proposed scheme is based on a series of pulse waveforms and can reduce the system complexity to some degree. We evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme and compare it with a conventional UWB scheme. The evaluation results verify that the proposed scheme can suppress the NBls effectively.
Fat deposition in ruminants.

Fat deposition inescapably accompanies skeletal growth and muscle accretion. In early growth deposition of fat and protein occur simultaneously, but beyond a certain body weight protein accretion becomes negligible, and fat gain becomes a large and constant fraction of weight gain. This pattern of tissue development forms the basis of the most successful current strategy for minimising carcass fat, namely the use of large, latematuring animals. At slaughter weight, these animals are much leaner than smaller, early-maturing animals. Other strategies that may be used to reduce fat deposition include the administration of natural and synthetic growth promotants, and padrenergic agonists, but two of the most effective agents, growth hormone and P-agonists, have not been approved for use in livestock production. Immunological approaches, which include enhancement of the activity of endogenous growth hormone and the reduction of fat deposits by injection of antibodies to the animals’ own adipocytes, show great promise, and may provide the meat industry with efficient and consumer acceptable methods of producing leaner animals.
[Socioeconomic status and risk of congenital malformations].

OBJECTIVE to analyse the relationship between socioeconomic factors and the prevalence at birth of a selected group of congenital malformations (CM): neural tube defects (NTD), orofacial clefts (OFC), Down syndrome (DS). DESIGN matched case-control study. The aim of the study was to compare the parental socioeconomic status of 485 children affected by one of the selected congenital malformations with an appropriate control group, using both a synthetic index, as well as comparing each socioeconomic characteristic. Socioeconomic measures included maternal and paternal education and employment. SETTING Delivery certificate database from 18 Italian regions, years 2002-2003. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES odds ratio (OR) measuring the association between the presence at birth of specific CMs and socioeconomic factors, estimated through logistic regression models. RESULTS the study showed a higher risk for NTD (OR 2.73; 95% CI 1.36-5.50) and OFC (OR 1.18; 95% CI 1.05-1.33)for parents in a low social class. As well, the estimated risk of DS is slightly higher, though not statistically significant (OR 1.08; 95% CI 0.98-1.19). Among the socioeconomic variables taken into consideration, the mother's education level represented a significant risk factor associated with OFC occurrence. CONCLUSION the results suggested that the socioeconomic level may represent a selective risk factor for specific CMs, confirming the role that social inequalities have on health, in particular on reproductive health. Such evidences should be considered when programming specific actions aimed at preventing congenital malformations.
The risk of lymphedema after breast cancer surgical treatment.

UNLABELLED The aim of this study is to emphasize the importance of knowing the predisposing factors of the occurrence of homolateral upper limb lymphedema after breast cancer surgery. MATERIAL AND METHODS The study included 1104 patients with breast cancer, who were hospitalized in the IIIrd Surgical Clinic, lasi, between 2000 and 2010, for surgical treatment followed by oncological adjuvant therapy. The surgical intervention was conservative in 228 cases and modified radical mastectomy - Madden type - in 876 patients. Periodic clinical follow-ups were done every 3 months during the first postoperative year, every 6 months during the second year and annually thereafter. RESULTS Early lymphedema occurring in the first 14 postoperative days or between day 14 and day 21 was found in 8 patients. Late lymphedema, occurring up to 12 months or more after surgery, was diagnosed in 41 patients. Medium and severe lymphedema occurred at 42 patients. We evaluated the preexisting risk factors, the risk factors related to the type of surgery and those related to the cancer staging. CONCLUSIONS It's ideal to identify predisposing factors of developing lymphedema related to breast cancer surgery before applying any type of treatment, There are therapeutic methods (general, drug therapy, physiotherapy) and methods related to the surgical act that influences the prophylaxis of lymphedema or have an amazing effect on already occurred lymphedema.
Toxicity assessment of intratumoral injection of the herpes simplex type I thymidine kinase gene delivered by retrovirus in patients with refractory cancer.

Introduction of the herpes simplex type I thymidine kinase (HSV-TK) gene into tumor tissue, followed by ganciclovir, initiates a phosphorylation cascade that induces formation of a toxic ganciclovir triphosphate. Animal trials suggest that this ganciclovir triphosphate has antitumor activity. Here we report application of the HSV-TK transfection approach using a retroviral construct. Sixteen patients (median age 61.5 years) with refractory carcinoma (13 melanoma, 1 breast cancer, 1 nonsmall-cell lung cancer, and 1 osteogenic sarcoma) received intratumoral injection of HSV-TK retroviral vector at escalating doses (0.2x10(7) cfu per injection x 5 daily doses) and we evaluated them for toxicity and activity. We observed grade III pain associated with cellulitis in one patient following injection. Analysis of blood samples drawn between 3 and 28 weeks from 14 patients for replication-competent retrovirus by PCR analysis of the amphotrophic envelope revealed no replication-competent retrovirus. We injected 21 lesions. We identified no tumor responses of the injected lesions. Of 13 patients with advanced melanoma, 6 survived over one year. Thus, injection of retroviral delivered HSV-TK in patients with refractory cancer was well-tolerated.
Secondary Hypertension in Sub-Saharan African Populations: A Retrospective Study between 2011 and 2016 at Regional Hospital of Saint-Louis, Senegal

Introduction: High blood pressure (HBP) is a worldwide health issue responsible of high cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Even though essential HBP is far the most frequently reported in patients, secondary causes must be known because of their severity and the possibility of aetiological treatment. No recent epidemiological data are available about secondary causes of HBP in black African populations. The aim of this study was to describe aetiological patterns of secondary HBP in patients followed at Saint-Louis Hospital. Patients and Method: We conducted a retrospective and descriptive study in regional hospital of Saint-Louis. All patients aged ≥15 years old admitted from January 1st 2011 to January 31st 2015 in internal medicine, nephrology, emergency and cardiology departments were included. Clinical, paraclinical data and patients outcomes were collected from medical records. Hypertension was defined according to JNC8 criteria. Secondary HBP was considered if explorations identified a clear aetiology to hypertension. Statistical analysis was done with Excel 2010 and STATA 12.0. Results: We included 9253 patients with mean age of 35 ± 12 years (15 - 83 years) and sex-ratio of 1.6. Overall 67.5% of patients had hypertension and secondary causes were found in 10.5% of them. The majority of patients presented clinical symptoms suggesting a secondary cause of HBP and first-line laboratory explorations were normal in half of cases. Renal diseases were responsible for 79.1% of secondary HBP cases mainly dominated by glomerulonephritis (22.6%), vascular nephropathies (18.7%) and autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (5.8%). They were followed by preeclampsia (13.6%) and endocrinal aetiologies such as hyperthyroidism (5.8%), hypercorticism (0.5%), pheochromcytoma (0.5%), primary hyperparathyroidism (0.4%) and Conn’s adenoma (0.1%). Combination of ≥3 antihypertensive drugs was necessary in 71.5% of cases and surgical treatment was performed in three patients. Blood pressure was normalized in only 27.7% of patients. Conclusion: Secondary causes are frequent in our young patients with HBP. In the majority of patients complete clinical examination and minimal laboratory investigations recommended by World Health Organisation can give an aetiological orientation that needs further radiological and hormonal explorations.
An approach to verify component-based designs

Ensuring design correctness is an important task in the software development and in particular component-based protocol development. We developed a component-oriented design approach for the design of communication protocols and distributed systems. The approach aims at the reuse of components represented by Unified Modeling Language (UML) diagrams. In this paper we propose a verification approach to verify our component-based protocol designs by combing trace equivalence and model checking. Foremost, the internal and external component behaviors are verified independently regarding their formal correctness. Next, the correctness and consistency of compositions are verified. This is achieved by generating the component adaptation path as traces during the composition. The requirements, i.e., safety and liveness properties, are formulated using linear temporal logic formulae. We apply the Spin tool as our model checking mechanism. For this, we present a method for automatically transforming the protocol design components into PROMELA.
Atomistic Analysis of Thermoelectric Properties of Silicon Nanowires

The spds-spin-orbit-coupled tight-binding model and linearized Boltzmann transport theory is applied to calculate the electrical conductivity, the Seebeck coefficient, and the power factor of silicon nanowires (NWs) with diameters D<12nm. Using experimentally measured values for the lattice thermal conductivity we estimate the room temperature thermoelectric figure of merit to be ZT~1. Keywords— nanowires, thermoelectrics, power factor, Seebeck, Boltzmann, bandstructure, surface roughness scattering.
In situ and invasive lobular neoplasia of the breast

Lobular neoplasia of the breast represents a group of related malignancies with clinical implications ranging from risk lesions [atypical lobular hyperplasia and lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS)] through to aggressive invasive lesions, notably invasive pleomorphic lobular carcinoma. The diversity in lobular carcinoma is evident at the morphological level, at the molecular marker level and in cytogenetic profiles. Research in these areas is already changing the face of the disease group, for example suggesting that some lobular and ductal carcinomas are closely related and even that one of the lobular group, the tubulo‐lobular carcinomas, should, in fact, be regarded as a ductal cancer. More research is required to understand the long‐term pathogenic implications of a diagnosis of in situ lobular neoplasia, particularly pleomorphic LCIS, and to understand the genetics behind the well‐recognized high risk of bilateral disease. For invasive carcinoma, molecular studies will allow refinement of therapy and the possibility of novel targeted therapies, for example directed against fibroblast growth factor receptor 1.
Changes in core electron temperature fluctuations across the ohmic energy confinement transition in Alcator C-Mod plasmas

The first measurements of long wavelength (kyρs < 0.3) electron temperature fluctuations in Alcator C-Mod made with a new correlation electron cyclotron emission diagnostic support a long-standing hypothesis regarding the confinement transition from linear ohmic confinement (LOC) to saturated ohmic confinement (SOC). Electron temperature fluctuations decrease significantly (∼40%) crossing from LOC to SOC, consistent with a change from trapped electron mode (TEM) turbulence domination to ion temperature gradient (ITG) turbulence as the density is increased. Linear stability analysis performed with the GYRO code (Candy and Waltz 2003 J. Comput. Phys. 186 545) shows that TEMs are dominant for long wavelength turbulence in the LOC regime and ITG modes are dominant in the SOC regime at the radial location (ρ ∼ 0.8) where the changes in electron temperature fluctuations are measured. In contrast, deeper in the core (ρ < 0.8), linear stability analysis indicates that ITG modes remain dominant across the LOC/SOC transition. This radial variation suggests that the robust global changes in confinement of energy and momentum occurring across the LOC/SOC transition are correlated to local changes in the dominant turbulent mode near the edge.
Estimation of Higher Sobolev Norm from Lower Order Approximation

Given an accurate piecewise constant flux approximation $q$ of a smooth (but unknown) exact flux $p$, how can one compute a Sobolev norm of $p$ over a small domain $\omega$? This question arises in a duality argument of goal-oriented finite element a posteriori error analysis. Two equivalent practical estimators $\eta_{M}$ and $\eta_{\mathcal{E}}$ are presented for an approximation $\! q\! $ of $|p|_{H^1(\omega)}$ and model situations are addressed where $\! q\! $ is asymptotically an upper and +lower bound of $|p|_{H^1(\Omega)}$.
Profiling of microRNA in oral cancer cells identifying miR-10 b functions in oncogenesis and upregulates in plasma of oral cancer patients

Oral cancer is the 6 th leading cancer, and is still increasing with years. Since this cancer usually occurs in the middle age male, at the high peak of life responsibility, it has tremendous impact of family and society. MicorRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous, non-coding small RNA, which consist of 21-23 nucleotides. They serve widespread functions as regulatory molecules in post-transcriptional gene silencing for the regulation of cellular bio-functions. And the dysregulation of miRNAs has been implicated in malignancy. Agilent system was used to perform miRNA profiling in 6 cancer cell lines and 5 lines of normal keratinocytes for identification of differently expressed miRNAs. There were 23 miRNAs selected as candidates which were shown more than 2-fold change with the FDR<0.1. Among these miRNAs, 19 of them were elevated and 4 were decreased in oral cancer cell lines. miR-10b was validated by qPCR analysis showed significantly up-regulated in cancer cells. Furthermore, the biological function of miR-10b was investigated after alteration of miR-10b expression. Reduction of miR-10b by antisense oligonucleotide further resulted in retard of cell migratory and invasive ability, however, no significant alterations on cell growth or chemo/radio-sensitivity. In analyzing miR-10b expression in 24 normal and 29 plasma samples from oral cancer patients, miR-10b was up-regulated 3.3 fold in the cancer patients (P<0.0001). Taken together, miR-10b plays a role in the carcinogenesis through promoting cancer cell migratory and invasive function, and plasma miR-10b may serve as a biomarker for oral cancer patients.
Regulation of Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1α Expression and Function by the Mammalian Target of Rapamycin

ABSTRACT Hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1) is a heterodimeric transcription factor containing an inducibly expressed HIF-1α subunit and a constititutively expressed HIF-1β subunit. Under hypoxic conditions, the HIF-1α subunit accumulates due to a decrease in the rate of proteolytic degradation, and the resulting HIF-1α-HIF-1β heterodimers undergo posttranslational modifications that promote transactivation. Recent studies suggest that amplified signaling through phosphoinositide 3-kinase, and its downstream target, mTOR, enhances HIF-1-dependent gene expression in certain cell types. In the present study, we have explored further the linkage between mTOR and HIF-1 in PC-3 prostate cancer cells treated with hypoxia or the hypoxia mimetic agent, CoCl2. Pretreatment of PC-3 cells with the mTOR inhibitor, rapamycin, inhibited both the accumulation of HIF-1α and HIF-1-dependent transcription induced by hypoxia or CoCl2. Transfection of these cells with wild-type mTOR enhanced HIF-1 activation by hypoxia or CoCl2, while expression of a rapamycin-resistant mTOR mutant rendered both HIF-1α stabilization and HIF-1 transactivating function refractory to inhibition by rapamycin. Studies with GAL4-HIF-1α fusion proteins pinpointed the oxygen-dependent degradation domain as a critical target for the rapamycin-sensitive, mTOR-dependent signaling pathway leading to HIF-1α stabilization by CoCl2. These studies position mTOR as an upstream activator of HIF-1 function in cancer cells and suggest that the antitumor activity of rapamycin is mediated, in part, through the inhibition of cellular responses to hypoxic stress.
Granulocyte colony‐stimulating factor‐mobilized peripheral blood CD34+ cells from children contain the same levels of long‐term culture‐initiating cells producing the same numbers of colony‐forming cells as those from adults, but display greater in vitro monocyte/macrophage potential

Autologous peripheral blood progenitor cell (PBPC) transplantation is now commonly used in children. The ontogenic differences in haematopoiesis published in recent years suggest differences in the categories of mobilized PBPCs between children and adults. We investigated the frequency and distribution of mature progenitor cells (colony‐forming cells, CFCs) and primitive progenitor cells [CD34+ CD38− and CD34+ Thy‐1+ cells, long‐term culture‐initiating cells (LTC‐ICs)] in children and adults mobilized using granulocyte colony‐stimulating factor alone. We found similar proportions of granulocyte colony‐forming units (CFU‐G) and/or macrophage CFUs (CFU‐M), mixed lineage CFUs (CFU‐Mix) and megakarocyte CFUs (CFU‐Mk), CD34+ CD38− and CD34+ Thy‐1+ cells, and LTC‐ICs (16·5 ± 3·5 vs. 10·65 ± 5 per 104 CD34+ cells), which produced the same number of CFCs (5 ± 1 vs. 6 ± 1 CFCs/LTC‐ICs) in PB CD34+ cells from children and adults. However, we noted a higher proportion of erythroid blast‐forming units (BFU‐E) in PB CD34+ cells from adults (× 1·5, P = 0·003). Using cord blood as a third ageing point, we observed an inverse age‐related propensity for commitment to the monocyte/macrophage lineage that was still found after normalizing the data per body weight and processed blood mass. This ontogeny‐related programming was detected from the LTC‐IC level, which produced 1·7 times more CFU‐M in children than in adults (P = 0·048). These subtle differences in commitment between children and adults, shown here for the first time, are of interest for the in vitro manipulation of PBPCs and, in particular, for application in adoptive immunotherapy in children.
A Soft-Switched Asymmetric Flying-Capacitor Boost Converter With Synchronous Rectification

The multilevel flying-capacitor boost converter was analyzed for asymmetric voltage operation-this permits loss optimization that takes advantage of different voltage class MOSFETs. A cost-motivated design of a suitable zero-voltage zero-current switching snubber is then developed that permits a great reduction of the inductor size. With the proposed snubber, synchronous rectification operation is compared to that of diode boost, with a particular attention to the contribution of nonlinear MOSFET parasitics. Experimental results from a 2-kW/30-kHz prototype justify the effectiveness of this solution with a conversion efficiency around 99% ± 0.1% for a wide load range.
Preliminary Data on the Efficacy of the Incredible Years Basic Parent Programme in New Zealand

Objective: The aim of the present study was to conduct a preliminary examination of the efficacy and cultural acceptability of the Incredible Years Basic Parent Programme (IYBPP Au: (abstract objective) please confirm change of IYBPP definition to ‘Incredible Years Basic) using data provided by the New Zealand Ministry of Education. Methods: Data were gathered on a series of 214 parents attending IYBPP for at least nine sessions. These data included (i) pre-test and post-test T scores on the Eyberg intensity and problem scales; (ii) pre-test and post-test scores on the parent version of the child Social Competence Scale; and (iii) parent satisfaction ratings. Results: Pre-test–post-test comparisons indicated significant improvements in behaviour and social competence scores (p<0.001). Effect sizes ranged from 0.50 to 0.77. Effects were similar for Maori and non-Maori subjects. Parental satisfaction with the programme was high, with Maori and non-Maori parents reporting similar levels of satisfaction. Conclusions: These preliminary data are consistent with the view that IYBPP is an effective and culturally appropriate programme. There is a need for a more comprehensive evaluation using pilot research to assess the fidelity of programme delivery and randomized trials to assess programme efficacy.
Probing the Nature of Intermittently Stuck Bits in Dynamic RAM Cells

A new method is presented and demonstrated to quantify the leakage currents in Intermittently Stuck Bits (ISB's) in SDRAM's, which have been exposed to neutron or proton irradiation. It is argued that these ISB's are caused by Single Particle Displacement Damage Effects (SPDDE's), in the form of displacement damage complexes comprising one or more damage clusters. The leakage current histories of ISB's are compared with a model of the behavior of the displacement damage complexes believed to cause the ISB's.