Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A comparison of the differential effects of atracurium and/or lidocaine on succinylcholine-induced fasciculation

The purpose of this pilot study was to determine the feasibility of conducting a full study comparing the differential effects of pre-treatment with atracurium, pre­ treatment with lidocaine, and pre-treatment with atracurium and lidocaine on the severity of fasciculations in patients who received succinylcholine. The research question under examination was: will there be any difference in the observed severity of fasciculation in subjects receiving succinylcholine who also receive one of three pharmacological regimens consisting of either lidocaine, atracurium, or lidocaine and atracurium in combination? Since the date that d-tubocuraine became commercially unavailable, no alternative pharmaceutical agent has been identified in the published literature as an optimal medication, either by dose or regimen, to prevent the occurrence or decrease the severity of fasciculations, following the administration of the depolarizing muscle relaxant succinylcholine. Muscle fasciculations have been associated with myalgia, as well as increases in intragastric, intracranial, and intraocular pressure. The bulk of investigation in this area, to date, has focused on the use of the non-depolarizing muscle relaxants rocuronium and atracurium. These muscle relaxants have been used alone and in combination with the local anesthetic, lidocaine, as a pretreatment prior to the administration of succinylcholine. All three of these medications (rocuronium, atracurium, and lidocaine) have demonstrated effectiveness at decreasing fasciculations when administered alone and in combination. No specific dosing schema, however, has been universally demonstrated to be most effective in decreasing or eliminating fasciculations in association with succinylcholine use.
Evaluation of Traffic Control Devices, Year 3

This project was established to provide a means of conducting small-scale research activities on an as-needed basis so that the results could be available within months of starting the specific research. This report summarizes the research activities that were conducted between September 2010 and August 2011. There were five primary activities and five secondary activities. The five primary activities were evaluating nighttime visibility along rural highways with bright signs, continuing the evaluation of lead-free thermoplastic pavement markings, evaluating contrast pavement marking layouts, continuing the evaluation of accelerated pavement marking test decks, and providing district support for hurricane evacuation routing. In addition, the researchers also started to evaluated criteria for setting 80 mph and 85 mph speed limits, evaluated bridge clearance signing, narrowed the focus of a rotational sign sheeting study, provided technical support for the Texas Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), and provided technical support for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) sign sheeting specification.
Relations between the invasive Cinnamomum verum and the endemic Phoenicophorium borsigianum on Mané island, Seychelles

In the Seychelles the endemic palm Phoenicophorium borsigianum and the aggressively invasive alien Cinnamomum verum are competitors in a series of habitats. The extent to which demographic variables (relative growth rates of leaf area (RGRAL) and height (RGRR) together with mortality and recruitment) were important determinants of the competitive ability of the above species was investigated. It was studied whether competitive relations between Cinnamomum and Phoenicophorium can change with light intensity as a result of different morphological responses and to what extent native plants such as Phoenicophorium can establish, regenerate and potentially outcompete Cinnamomum in important biodiversity sites in mountain mist forest and intermediate forest habitats. The light intensity in terms of diffuse site factors (DifSF) was estimated at 32 microsites from hemispherical photographs using a computerized image analysis system. A new plant growth analysis function, the so-called leaf area height index (ALHI), has been introduced and a principal components analysis (PCA) was carried out to evaluate the seedling performance of Cinnamomum and Phoenicophorium. Competition between Cinnamomum and Phoenicophorium was greatly influenced by the amount of available photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). For both species there was a negative correlation between mean leaf area of seedlings and light levels. Phoenicophorium responded significantly better in terms of RGRAL and ALHI to low gap light levels than Cinnamomum. Both species showed no further response to direct sunlight with levels of 98.7 % diffuse site factor. Phoenicophorium and probably other palms endemic to the Seychelles such as Deckenia nobilis and Roscheria melanochaetes act as a filter affecting the distribution and abundance of establishing Cinnamomum seedlings. Mortality of Cinnamomum was strongly negatively correlated with levels of PAR while Phoenicophorium showed no such correlation. Unlike Phoenicophorium, Cinnamomum could establish and regenerate only in light levels of >7.5 % diffuse site factor.
Common Ranking and Stability of Overlapping Coalitions

Mauleon, Roehl and Vannetelbosch (GEB, 2018) develop a general theoretical framework to study the stability of overlapping coalition settings. Each group possesses a constitution that contains the rules governing both the composition of the group and the conditions needed to leave the group and/or to become a new member of the group. They propose the concept of constitutional stability to study the group structures that are going to emerge at equilibrium in overlapping coalition settings. They combine requirements on constitutions and preferences for guaranteeing both the existence and the emergence of constitutionally stable group structures. In this paper, we show that an alternative way to exclude the ocurrence of closed cycles is to look for constitutions that allow for a common ranking.
Dynamics of community structure and phosphate status of picocyanobacterial populations in the Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea

We monitored the genetic diversity and phosphate (P) status of Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus populations during an annual cycle (1999‐2000) in the Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea, using DNA probes and antibodies against the protein PstS, a molecular marker of P stress. The usual spring Synechococcus bloom was not observed in this year, and the picophytoplankton was dominated by Prochlorococcus from April to December. A single high light (HL)‐ adapted ecotype of Prochlorococcus, HLII, dominated, and this dominance extended even to the base of the euphotic zone for much of the year. Low light (LL)‐adapted ecotypes only appeared between July and October and were confined to waters deeper than 50 m. The Synechococcus population was also dominated by a single clade (clade II), with the exception of a peak of clade III genotypes in June. Highest PstS expression from the collective Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus populations, indicative of P stress, was observed during the acutely oligotrophic summer, whereas low expression occurred during the winter and spring. Prochlorococcus abundance appeared unaffected by P stress and only decreased with the beginning of winter mixing, whereas P stress might have caused the decline of the Synechococcus population in May 1999.
Métodos de delimitação dos lenhos juvenil e adulto de três folhosas e propriedades biométricas de suas fibras

RESUMO – Diante da importância do conhecimento das respectivas regioes do lenho juvenil e adulto para a industria de base madeireira, este estudo foi realizado com o objetivo de delimitar, por meio das metodologias de retas de regressao e do incremento anual, as regioes dos lenhos juvenil e adulto das madeiras de acoitacavalo, nogueira-peca e platano. O parâmetro anatomico utilizado nas delimitacoes foi o comprimento de fibra. Adicionalmente, foram medidas outras propriedades anatomicas: diâmetro de fibra, diâmetro de lume e espessura de fibra. As propriedades das fibras foram descritas estatisticamente em razao da diferenciacao entre os lenhos proposta em cada metodologia, a fim de comparacao. Conforme os metodos das retas de regressao e do incremento anual, as idades de segregacao entre os lenhos foram de 21 e 19 anos para a madeira de acoitacavalo e 16 e 14 anos para a madeira de nogueira-peca. Para a madeira de platano, ambas as metodologias definiram que o lenho segregou com 14 anos. Pode-se verificar que nao houve distincao entre os resultados obtidos com as duas metodologias de delimitacao dos lenhos juvenil e adulto, exceto quanto ao comprimento de fibras do lenho juvenil. O metodo do incremento anual foi considerado preferencial, em razao da fonte de erro verificada no metodo das retas de regressao. Palavras-chave: Luehea divaricata; Carya illinoinensis; Platanus acerifolia. DELIMITATION METHODS OF JUVENILE AND MATURE WOODS OF THREE HARDWOODS AND BIOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF THEIR FIBERS
ELECTROLYTE MOVEMENT IN THE ISOLATED MIDGUT OF THE COCKROACH (PERIPLANETA AMERICANA L.)

1. The perfused cockroach midgut ventriculus in vitro maintains a p.d. of approximately 12mV. (lumen negative to haemolymph) in chloride Ringer. The p.d. comprises chiefly a lumen-side Na diffusion potential and a haemolymph-side K diffusion potential. 2. The size of the p.d. is greatly enhanced in sulphate Ringer, but reduced by various metabolic inhibitors, e.g. N2 and 2,4-dinitrophenol. Ouabain inhibits the p.d. from the haemolymph side but is ineffective on the lumen side. 3. The ventriculus preparation also exhibits a net Na efflux of approximately 0. 3µ-equiv. /hr. Ouabain inhibits Na efflux by almost 55% and K influx by less than 40%. 4. It is suggested that a linked Na-K pump is indirectly responsible for the p.d. and directly involved in the Na transport into the haemolymph.
Drug safety and automation intelligence

In the area of digitalization, the documentation on patients of health systems (pharmacovigilance) is also being stored in electronic format. Because of this fact the volume of digital information generated in the hospitals is growing exponentially. Professionals often have to manage an excess of data and different kinds of information. The manner in which this sensitive information is presented to the doctors can help in the decision-making process and also alleviate the workload of several services within a hospital. All these facts make the creation of a robust system an important challenge for the Natural Language Processing, Text Mining & Artificial Intelligence research community. In this context the goal of this work is to obtain the Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) that are stated in the Electronic Health Records (EHRs) in a robust way. This need arises when experts have to prescribe a drug, since before that, they have to know if the patient has suffered from adverse reactions to substances or drugs. The final system should present the ADRs in the given EHR, showing the drug-disease pairs that triggered each ADR event. Today, the web has influenced people like never before. If a person wants to search an information, neither does he/she go to the library nor is he/she asks his/her friends and family, as there are many information sites on the web which provide a variety of information. The information is most of the times in either structured, semi structured or unstructured format. Efficient strategies for identification and extraction of information about adverse drug effects from free-text resources are needed to support pharmacovigilance research. Therefore, this work focuses on the adaptation of a machine learning-based relation extraction system for the identification and extraction of drug-related adverse effects from case reports. It relies on a ontology-driven methodology. Qualitative evaluation of the system show robust results
Broiler transportation conditions in a Brazilian commercial line and the occurrence of breast PSE (Pale, Soft, Exudative) meat and DFD-like (Dark, Firm, Dry) meat

The objective of this work was to investigate the effect of road transportation conditions on the occurrence of broiler PSE-(Pale, Soft, Exudative) and DFD-like (Dark, Firm, Dry) meats in the Brazilian commercial slaughterhouse plant. Samples of Pectoralis major m from 47-day-old broilers of commercial lineage were analyzed. The results indicated that water-bathing birds just before journey over 3.0km promoted the occurrence of 46.0% of PSE and 4.0% of DFD-like meat, while birds under non-water bathing conditions presented 14.7 and 2.0%, respectively. For a distance of 68.0km, the occurrences of PSE-and DFD-like meat were 44.0 and 0.0% under water bathing conditions, and 52.0 and 0.0% without water bathing, respectively. Water bathing at the farm was a critical manoeuvre for increasing the unfavourable truck microenvironment for short journey, whereas conversely for longer journey it was less stressful influencing the broiler breast meat quality.
Round Trip Time Prediction Using Recurrent Neural Networks With Minimal Gated Unit

Round trip time (RTT) can influence the performance of network applications, and it will be of great significance to predict the RTT for the network applications with strict quality of service requirements. However, it is challenging to accurately predict the RTT due to the intrinsic asymmetric and unequal characteristics of Internet network. To overcome this challenge, a novel approach based on recurrent neural networks with a minimal gated unit is proposed for the prediction of the RTT. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method shows the considerable advantages compared with other approaches in the RTT prediction.
Susceptibility to SIV Infection After Adenoviral Vaccination in a Low Dose Rhesus Macaque Challenge Model

Background: Vaccination with the Merck human adenovirus serotype-5 (HAdV-5) vectored HIV-1 subtype B gag/pol/nef vaccine was unexpectedly associated with enhanced susceptibility to HIV-1 infection in uncircumcised HAdV-5 seropositive men. It has been hypothesized that vaccination may have resulted in activated CD4+ T lymphocytes trafficking to mucosal sites thereby increasing targets for HIV infection. We have previously shown that AdV-vector vacci-nation in rhesus macaques resulted in an increase in the frequency of activated mucosal CD4+ T cells. However, whether this increase in activation is sufficient to increase susceptibility to HIV/SIV infection is unclear. Methods: To examine this scenario, we developed a preliminary, proof-of-concept vaccination-challenge model in order to examine vaccine-induced SIV susceptibility in rhesus macaques. Rhesus macaques (n = 10/group) were vaccinated with a simian AdV-7 (SAdV-7)-vector encoding an irrelevant insert (SARS spike) and challenged 5 weeks post-prime in an escalating dosing regimen starting with sub-infectious doses (1:10,000 or 2TCID50) of SIVmac251. Results: In contrast to our previous study, the SAdV-7 vaccine regimen did not induce detectable mucosal CD4+ T cell activation at the time points assessed in animals obtained from a different vendor and housed in a different facility. Within the power of the study, we did not observe significantly increased SIV acquisition in SAdV-7-vaccinated (5/10) versus placebo-vaccinated (3/10) macaques after repeated low-dose intra-rectal SIVmac251 challenge (P < 0.2). Conclusions: These results lay groundwork for future experiments to assess vaccine-induced SIV susceptibility in rhesus macaques. Further larger-scale studies are necessary to confirm the AdV-vector vaccination associated trend towards increased SIV/HIV acquisition and clarify associated mechanisms.
Patterns of Outcome in Human Papilloma Virus Positive Oropharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Treated Primarily with Radical Radiotherapy

Introduction: The aims of this study were to determine patterns of outcome and prognostic factors in human papilloma virus positive oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC+) treated primarily with radical radiotherapy. Materials and methods: We identified 54 patients at a tertiary hospital in South Australia who received treatment with curative intent for OPSCC+ with radical radiotherapy ± chemotherapy or cetuximab from 1st January, 2010 to 31st March, 2017. We explored the effect of patient, tumour and radiotherapy factors on treatment outcomes. The primary endpoint was overall survival and the secondary endpoint was disease-free survival. Results: The median age was 59, with most patients being male (82%). The majority had advanced disease (89% stage IV). The median follow-up was 22.5 months. The one-year and two-year overall survival and disease-free survival rates were 89% and 79% and 77% and 68% respectively. Active smoking during radiotherapy was associated with trends to shortened overall survival (p=0.084) and reduced time to recurrence (p˃0.1). However, there was no statistically significant relationship between any other patient, tumour or treatment factors and disease-free or overall survival. Discussion: Despite advanced stage at presentation, radiotherapy ± concurrent systemic therapy results in favorable outcomes for OPSCC+. Active smoking during radiotherapy may compromise overall survival. We strongly recommend smoking cessation prior to commencing radiotherapy for OPSCC+. In addition, we note that smokers involved in de-intensification trials may be at increased risk of poor outcomes.
Medical Image Authentication Using Quartic Digital Signature Algorithm

The transmission of medical data in remote places using telemedicine technology requires secured and authenticated data transmission. In this paper, a novel technique is proposed to address authenticated mode of transmission using digital signature which incorporates curve coordinate system. The authentication functions and hash codes are used in the proposed algorithm and the keys are generated for secure transmission. The use of Quartic Digital Signature Algorithm (QDSA) provides authenticity and integrity. The Signature generated encapsulated in the DICOM header and transmitted to the receiver for verification. The proposed technique is demonstrated and evaluated using different modalities of DICOM images.
Effect of Leadership Styles on Employee Performance in Export Processing Zones in Kenya: A

In recent times, many organizations in the Kenyan EPZ industry, have recorded cases of immoral and unethical practices, gratifications, high labour turnover, inability to meet basic required obligations, and incessant financial distress syndrome, which has led to many entities being merged and acquired or closing down. This may be as a result of lack of effective leadership. It is on this premise that this research work set out to examine the effects of leadership styles on employee performance in Export Processing Zones in Kenya. This was guided by the following specific objectives; determining the effect of transactional leadership style on employee performance, ascertaining the effect of transformational leadership style on employee performance and evaluating the effect of authoritarian leadership style on employee performance in Mombasa in Apparel EPZ Ltd. The study adopted a descriptive research design on a population of 676 which was further sampled to 43 through stratified sampling. The study findings indicated that transactional and transformational leadership style, in which employees are allowed to have sense of belonging, carry out higher responsibility with little supervision, and followers are helped to achieve their visions and needs enhance organizational efficiency. It is concluded that transactional and transformational leadership styles are the best for the management of Export Processing Zones in Kenya to be adopted in order for them to wax stronger in a global competitive environment. It was recommended that managers use a composition of transactional leadership and transformational leadership as a core managerial strategy in the organization. It was also suggested that managers to be trained to use both styles of leadership and along with the increasing need for new skills and competencies of leadership as a result of changes in community, leadership training program is more
Neuroprotective Function of Non-Proteolytic Amyloid-β Chaperones in Alzheimer’s Disease

This chapter attempts to explore protective role of chaperone proteins in the neurodegenerative diseases caused by amyloidosis. These chaperones prevent amyloid pathology either directly, through chemical interactions with amyloidogenic species to mediate their refolding, solubilization and degradation, or indirectly, by scavenging reactive oxygen species produced as by-products of amyloid aggregation. Here we focus on structural and morphological changes during aggregation of amyloids which have been identified using Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography, Electron microscopy, Atomic force microscopy and other biophysical techniques as well as interactions between chaperone proteins and amyloid moieties. Non-proteolytic chaperones mediate amyloid clearance and metabolism through conformational changes due to proximity binding. In this chapter, we delineate these interactions as well as the molecular mechanism of chaperones used to sequester ROS products of amyloidosis with focus on amyloid- β peptides associated with the Alzheimer’s disease.
ENERGY EFFICIENT NETWORK MANUFACTURING SYSTEM USING CONTROLLED ELITIST NON-DOMINATED SORTING GENETIC ALGORITHM

Recent manufacturing systems did not just confine to optimal utilization of resources due to the global stance on strict environmental regimes. Collaborative effort to achieve sustainable practices in the decentralized manufacturing environment is a new complex problem. In this paper, with a networked manufacturing system we try to achieve both traditional as well as sustainable parameters by optimizing the performances such as makespan, machine utilization, and energy consumption. Thereafter, we formulate the problem as a mixed-integer non-linear programming (MINLP) model. To handle this NP-hard problem and to find the optimal solutions a Controlled elitist non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (CE-NSGA-II) has been adopted. Finally, the results are analyzed with different scenarios to prove the proposed approach validation.
Internet Measurement: Past, Present and Future

This report summarizes observations about the past, present and future of research in the ﬁeld of Internet measurement. Our goal is to broadly survey the range of past results in this area. We argue that Internet measurement research has resulted in a wide range of fundamental results, and these results have had signiﬁcant impact on the broad domain of networking research. We show that measurement research has had a widespread impact on industry as well. We conclude with some observations future directions for research in this area.
A Mathematical Model for Optimal Production, Inventory and Transportation Planning with Direct Shipment

We develop the mixed integer linear programming model for an integrated decision of production, inventory and transportation planning problem. Our model combines the direct shipment into distribution decisions. In direct shipment, a manufacturer directly delivers the products to retailers by bypassing warehouse, thereby saving transportation cost from a plant to warehouse, and inventory holding cost at warehouse. The objective is to minimize overall cost comprising of production setup cost, inventory holding cost, transportation cost and reorder cost. The model is solved to optimality using CPLEX. From the numerical experiment, the results show that the firm could generate the cost saving of 28.93% and reduce the number of trucks used approximately 49.88% by incorporating the direct shipment. However, CPLEX takes large computation time, more than 10,000 seconds in many large size problems, to solve the problem optimally. In the future research, we will develop and propose a time-partitioning heuristic algorithm to efficiently solve the problem. The performance of the proposed heuristic will be compared with CPLEX’s.