Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PROLONGATION OF SECOND HEART TRANSPLANTS IN RATS

Second clinical kidney grafts often survive longer than first grafts. Using a rat cardiac allograft model, we examined the conditions under which survival of a second graft can be longer than first graft survival. In the BUF-to-LEW combination, following rejection of the first transplant, second cardiac allografts from the same donor strain implanted immediately survived longer than the first grafts (P = 0.047). Although the mean survival time of first grafts was 9.0 days, second grafts implanted in the same animals survived 19.5 days. In contrast, when ACI donors were used for the same LEW recipients, the second grafts were rejected in 3 days compared with 6.6 days for first grafts. Donor-specific spleen cell transfusions in these combinations resulted in prolonged survival in the BUF to LEW combination, but had no effect when the donor strain was ACI. Second grafts from BUF had prolonged survival following rejection of the first graft. Thus the histocompatibility difference was a determining factor of whether or not prolongation would be obtained. Another factor was timing of the second transplant. If 7 days were allowed to elapse following rejection of the first graft before implantation of the second, the enhancement effect was lost. Moreover, in the LEW-to-ACI combination in which second grafts were rejected rapidly, removal of the first graft after 7 days (before rejection), resulted in prolonged survival of the second graft. There is, therefore, a window of time before rejection of first grafts and shortly thereafter, when the enhancement effect can be obtained. Passive transfer of serum in the BUF-to-LEW combination resulted in enhancement, but transfer of splenic cells was ineffective. We conclude that graft rejection can result in induction of enhancement during a specific period, after which this effect is lost; and that enhancement can be obtained only in certain strain combinations. This suggests that human patients with heart transplants that reject might benefit from a second graft, even from a donor with a mismatch similar to the first graft.
Prostaglandins during pregnancy and the perinatal period.

Administration of prostaglandins (PGs) E-2 and F-2{alpha} will provoke contractions of the human uterus at any stage of pregnancy. The use of these compounds for the induction both of labour at term and of abortion is now widespread and well documented (Bygdeman, 1980). Recently, it has been found that PGs can effect cervical ripening and this property is being put to good clinical advantage (Bygdeman, 1980). There is evidence also that prostaglandin synthetase inhibitors (PGSI) can inhibit uterine contractions in pregnant and non-pregnant women (Wiqvist, 1979). Unfortunately, the therapeutic potential of PGSI, as a treatment for pre-term labour, is drastically reduced by the adverse side effect (now well documented) of closure of the ductus arteriosus in utero, after transplacental passage of the drug, leading to primary pulmonary hypertension of the newborn. The occurrence of this phenomenon is consistent with results from studies using experimental animals, strongly suggesting that PGE maintains the patency of the ductus arteriosus in utero (Coceani, Olley & Bodach, 1976).
Characterizing Urban growth of Nanjing, China, by using multi-stage remote sensing images and landscape metrics

Remote sensing technique has advantages in exploring the spatiotemporal trends of urbanization compared with traditional socioeconomic indicators (e.g. population growth, employment shifts, etc.). Details in urban change and growth can be effectively identified using multi-temporal images of remote sensing by multi-scales analysis approaches at the metropolitan, city or district level. In this study, the temporal and spatial characteristics of urban growth of Nanjing, China from 1988 to 2007 were investigated by using multi-stage remote sensing images and landscape metrics. The results show that land use changes exhibit distinctive spatial differences from the urban zone to the suburban districts. The total urban expansion was faster in the period from 2000 to 2007 than in the period from 1988 to 2000. Urban built-up area expanded due to the increased population and rapid economic development and government policy led to the rapid growth towards the Jiangning district area. The variety of landscape metrics results from land use changes indicate the general trend and detail spatial pattern of urbanization in each administrative district during the study period. This study also confirms that the combination of multistage remote sensing images analysis with landscape metrics is an effective way in characterizing the complex spatial patterns of urbanization in Nanjing well.
La influencia de las características del descuento de precio promocional minorista sobre las ventas: aplicación de un modelo semiparamétrico

Tradicionalmente, los trabajos que se han ocupado de estudiar la curva de respuesta al descuento de precio promocional minorista no han considerado aquellos aspectos del descuento relacionados con su duracion en dias. Dada la esperable influencia de esta dimension temporal, en el presente trabajo hemos analizado su relacion con las ventas promocionales. Para ello, hemos aplicado una metodologia, de regresion semiparametrica basada en Maquinas de Vectores Soporte a los datos de escaner disponibles. Los resultados muestran como el efecto acelerador de la actividad promocional sobre las ventas es especialmente importante durante los primeros dias del periodo promocional y durante el fin de semana.
Human Resource Practices in Pakistan Banking Sector : A Conceptual Framework Including Personality Traits , Emotional Intelligence and Employee Performance

Measuring the employee performance in the bank sector has become a vital policy tool for all bankers since it enhances the overall performance through applying different human resource practices. Recently, personality traits and emotional intelligence have become more accepted at the level of human resource researches especially in the growing banking sectors. However, the nature of relationship among these variables and other human resource practices is still under study especially in relation to the employee’s performance. This paper presents a conceptual framework including the human resource practices and its effect on the employee performance. It also suggests studying the mediating effect of personality traits as well as the moderating effect of emotional intelligence on this relationship.
Shared and Nonshared Symptoms in Youth-Onset Psychosis and ADHD

Objective: We compared ratings of behavior and attention problems between youth-onset psychosis and ADHD, two disorders in which attentional impairments play a key role, and examined the effect of psychostimulant use on age of onset in psychosis. Method: Parent and teacher ratings of behavioral problems and ADHD symptoms were collected using the Achenbach CBCL, TRF, and SNAP-IV Teacher Rating Scales on 42 participants with psychosis, 36 with ADHD and 57 controls (ages 8-19). Results and Conclusions: Results suggested that academic, externalizing, and attention problems reflect symptoms shared between the disorders, whereas internalizing, social and thought problems reflect factors that differ between disorders. Furthermore, participants with psychosis who had been prescribed psychostimulants had a younger age of onset of psychotic symptoms than those who had not. This difference could reflect dissimilarities in symptom severity symptom between subgroups or potentially harmful effects of psychostimulants in individuals predisposed to develop psychosis.
Vocal Communication in Sooty-headed Bulbul; Pycnonotus aurigaster

Studies of vocal communication in Sooty-headed Bulbul were carried out from January to December 2011. Vocal recordings and behavioral observations were made in their natural habitats at some localities of Lampang, Thailand. After editing, cuts of high quality recordings were analyzed with the help of AvisoftSASLab Pro (version 4.40) software. More than one thousand element repertoires in five groups were found within two vocal structures. The two structures were short sounds with single element and phrases composed of elements, the frequency ranged from 1-10 kHz. Most phrases were composed of 2 to 5 elements that were often dissimilar in structure, however, these phrases were not as complex as song phrases. The elements and phrases were combined to form many patterns. The species used ten types of calls; i.e. alert, alarm, aggressive, begging, contact, courtship, distress, exciting, flying and invitation. Alert and contact calls were used more frequently than other calls. Aggressive, alarm and distress calls could be used for interspecific communication among some other bird species in the same habitats. Keywords—Vocal communication, Call, Bird, Sooty-headed
SAT-based speedpath debugging using X traces

Due to timing variations induced by process variations and environmental effects, speedpath debugging becomes a major concern in the design of high performance VLSI circuits. In this paper, we propose an efficient approach to speedpath debugging based on Boolean Satisfiability (SAT). We use a time-discrete model of the circuit for analyzing effects of delays within the circuit. For efficiency we overapproximate sensitized paths using advanced techniques from formal hardware verification. Our approach achieves 88% decrease in the size of the debug instance leading to 71% decrease in the debugging time compared to previous work. At the same time, our new approach achieves a high diagnosis accuracy.
Discrepancy between Mycobacterium tuberculosis-Specific Gamma Interferon Release Assays Using Short and Prolonged In Vitro Incubation

ABSTRACT The sensitivities of various gamma interferon release assays (IGRAs) for the detection of past latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection are not known. In this study, we aimed to assess the effects of various IGRA formats and in vitro incubation periods on test outcome. The results of the tuberculin skin test (TST) were compared with those of the QuantiFERON-TB Gold in-tube (QFT-GIT) test, an overnight enzyme-linked immunospot assay (ELISPOT), and a 6-day lymphocyte stimulation test (LST) by using the same M. tuberculosis-specific peptides and samples from 27 TST-positive persons with a history of exposure to M. tuberculosis, 4 patients cured of tuberculosis (TB), and 9 TST-negative controls. Among the TST-positive persons, the LST was more frequently positive (92%; P < 0.01) than either the QFT-GIT test (33%) or ELISPOT (46%). While good agreement was observed between the QFT-GIT test and ELISPOT (κ = 0.71) and between TST and LST (κ = 0.78), the agreement between TST or LST, on the one hand, and the QFT-GIT test or ELISPOT, on the other, was poor. These data indicate that the QFT-GIT test and overnight ELISPOT are less sensitive for the detection of past latent TB than the 6-day LST. The observed discrepancies between these IGRAs are most likely related to differences in incubation periods. Whether TST-positive persons with positive LST results but negative QFT-GIT and ELISPOT results are at risk for the development of TB needs to be elucidated before short-incubation IGRAs can be used for the screening of individuals for latent TB before immunosuppressive treatment.
Protective effects of hot spring water drinking and radon inhalation on ethanol-induced gastric mucosal injury in mice

ABSTRACT Radon therapy using radon (222Rn) gas is classified into two types of treatment: inhalation of radon gas and drinking water containing radon. Although short- or long-term intake of spa water is effective in increasing gastric mucosal blood flow, and spa water therapy is useful for treating chronic gastritis and gastric ulcer, the underlying mechanisms for and precise effects of radon protection against mucosal injury are unclear. In the present study, we examined the protective effects of hot spring water drinking and radon inhalation on ethanol-induced gastric mucosal injury in mice. Mice inhaled radon at a concentration of 2000 Bq/m3 for 24 h or were provided with hot spring water for 2 weeks. The activity density of 222Rn ranged from 663 Bq/l (start point of supplying) to 100 Bq/l (end point of supplying). Mice were then orally administered ethanol at three concentrations. The ulcer index (UI), an indicator of mucosal injury, increased in response to the administration of ethanol; however, treatment with either radon inhalation or hot spring water inhibited the elevation in the UI due to ethanol. Although no significant differences in antioxidative enzymes were observed between the radon-treated groups and the non-treated control groups, lipid peroxide levels were significantly lower in the stomachs of mice pre-treated with radon or hot spring water. These results suggest that hot spring water drinking and radon inhalation inhibit ethanol-induced gastric mucosal injury.
Comparison of pyogenic liver abscesses of biliary and cryptogenic origin. An eight-year analysis in a University Hospital.

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study is to delineate the clinical features of pyogenic liver abscesses of biliary and cryptogenic origin, and to compare the differences in outcome of patients between the two groups. METHODS We studied 86 patients, aged 19 years or older, with pyogenic liver abscess admitted to Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan, between January 1996 and December 2003. The demographic data and medical information of the patients were reviewed and recorded. Of the 86 patients, 34 were classified into the biliary group and 52 were classified into the cryptogenic group. RESULTS Patients with pyogenic liver abscesses of biliary origin had a higher frequency of underlying malignancy and Murphy's sign compared to those with pyogenic liver abscesses of cryptogenic origin. With respect to specific pathogens, Escherichia coli were more prevalent in the biliary group while Klebsiella pneumoniae were more prevalent in the cryptogenic group. Anaerobic isolates were less frequently cultured in the cryptogenic group than in the biliary group. After adjustment for age, sex, and the duration of symptoms before admission, there was no difference in mortality between both groups (biliary vs cryptogenic: 15% vs 8%; adjusted OR, 1.43; 95% CI, 0.24-8.25; p = 0.899). After adjustment for confounders, patients in the biliary group had higher frequencies of time to defervesce >1 week after admission (68% vs 40%; adjusted OR, 3.05; 95% CI, 1.09-9.04, p = 0.030) and hospital stay >3 weeks (47% vs 15%; adjusted OR, 4.34; 95% CI, 1.45-13.91; p = 0.007) than those in the cryptogenic group. CONCLUSIONS This report highlights that pyogenic liver abscesses of cryptogenic origin had a benign clinical response, which was associated with shorter duration of hospitalisation and time to defervesce after admission, compared to those of biliary origin.
The open empire : a history of China to 1600

Departing from the dynastic structure typical of other histories, Valerie Hansen charts the broad social changes that transcend the artificial chronological boundaries of dynasties, enriching her narrative with discussions of everyday life in the distant past. Peopling the pages are nobles, peasants, women, students, writers, and rebels--all offering their own distinct and colorful perspective. Illuminating the many ways in which Chinese society has been influenced by foreign cultures, The Open Empire depicts China as a country with a dynamic, open history.
Exfoliation of black phosphorus in ionic liquids

We report the characterization and formation of sonication-assisted liquid phase exfoliation of bulk black phosphorus (BP) crystals with the incorporation of two representative ionic liquids (ILs) ([Emim][Tf2N] and [Bmim][Tf2N]) as green dispersing media was attempted, which resulted in stable dispersion of multi-layer BP flakes with unsuspected high oxidation resistance and chemical/structural integrity due to the presence of IL layer on top of BP flakes. There are two unveiled issues for the generation of BP dispersion in ILs. First, thin films of BP flakes can be simply prepared through our approach. Because self-oxidation of BP in ambient condition can be significantly minimized in ILs, vacuum filtration step can be adopted to produce BP thin films in ambient condition. Second, the binding of IL molecules on BP flakes has been firstly demonstrated by the time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry characterization. In addition to the exploitation of ILs as the green solvents with less environmental harmfulness, IL-based exfoliation of BP might be easily scalable because harsh control of atmospheric oxygen and moisture is unnecessary in this approach.
MAXIMUM‐LIKELIHOOD ESTIMATION OF POPULATION DIVERGENCE TIMES AND POPULATION PHYLOGENY IN MODELS WITHOUT MUTATION

In this paper we present a method for estimating population divergence times by maximum likelihood in models without mutation. The maximum‐likelihood estimator is compared to a commonly applied estimator based on Wright's FST statistic. Simulations suggest that the maximum‐likelihood estimator is less biased and has a lower variance than the FST‐based estimator. The maximum‐likelihood estimator provides a statistical framework for the analysis of population history given genetic data. We demonstrate how maximum‐likelihood estimates of the branching pattern of divergence of multiple populations may be obtained. We also describe how the method may be applied to test hypotheses such as whether populations have maintained equal population sizes. We illustrate the method by applying it to two previously published sets of human restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) data.
Improved performance characteristics of the von Willebrand factor ristocetin cofactor activity assay using a novel automated assay protocol

Summary. Background, objectives and methods: An accurate, sensitive and precise assay for reliable determination of the ristocetin cofactor activity of von Willebrand factor (VWF:RCo) in plasma and von Willebrand Factor (VWF)‐containing concentrates has been evaluated. The assay is based on a commercially available automated protocol with modifications including a combination of adding additional ristocetin and the use of two calibration curves for the high and low measuring ranges. Results: Addition of extra ristocetin resulted in improved measurement of VWF recoveries from various VWF‐containing concentrates that were underestimated using the standard automated protocol. The modifications resulted in improved assay performance over an extended measuring range (2.00–0.03 IU mL−1). Accuracy was tested using VWF deficiency plasma spiked with the 1st international standard (IS) for VWF concentrate. Seven dilutions, ranging from 1.80 to 0.05 IU mL−1, were analyzed and resulted in measured concentrations between 80% and 100% of the assigned potency of the standard. Linearity was determined from the regression plot of the same concentrate dilutions and resulted in a correlation coefficient of 0.998. The repeatability, expressed as coefficient of variation, was 2% in the normal range (0.90 IU mL−1) and 8% at the level of 0.05 IU mL−1. The corresponding reproducibility results were 2% and 15% at the normal and low measuring ranges, respectively. Conclusions: Analysis of patients with von Willebrand disease (VWD) indicates that the modified automated BCS® protocol has a superior discrimination power compared with the standard protocol. This is especially true in samples with low VWF, as in patients with type 3 VWD.
Implementing Electronic Meeting Systems at IBM: Lessons Learned and Success Factors

Businesses of the future will rely more than ever on the work of teams. Making better use of the team times spend in meetings will be a high priority, as will being able to adapt rapidly to change. Electronic meeting systems (EMS), which apply information technology to support the meeting process, can help accomplish these goals. This paper describes and discusses the implementation of EMS at IBM in an alliance with the University of Arizona. During the past three years, the project has grown from initial support for a single site to 33 IBM sites, with more on the way. Over 15,000 people have used the ever-expanding and evolving EMS tool kit. Use of EMS has improved group performance by an average of 55 percent, with even more dramatic reductions in project calendar time. The lessons learned and success factors at IBM can assist managers in effectively introducing EMS to their organizations.
Adult Distal Humeral Metaphyseal Fractures: Epidemiology and Results of Treatment

Objectives To examine the epidemiology and results of treatment of fractures of the distal humeral metaphysis. Design Observational cohort study. Setting An orthopaedic trauma unit, which provides all the fracture care for a well-defined catchment population. Patients/Participants A consecutive series of 320 patients with distal humeral fractures admitted to the unit between January 1988 and June 1997. Intervention We adopted a protocol of open reduction and fixation of all displaced fractures (greater than 5 mm of displacement in any plane) in patients who were medically fit for anesthesia. Postoperative immobilization was a cylinder cast for 6 weeks. Patients with undisplaced fractures or who were medically unfit were also treated nonoperatively in cylinder casts for 6 weeks. Main Outcome Measurements Epidemiological examination of patient subgroups and the incidence of complications of treatment. Results The overall incidence of distal humeral fractures in adults during this time was 5.7 cases per 100,000 in the population per year with an almost equal male to female ratio. There was a bimodal age distribution, simple falls were the most common overall cause of fracture, and the majority of the fractures were extra-articular (AO/OTA type A) or complete articular fractures (AO/OTA type C). The risk of complications during treatment was generally low in most patients, and the majority healed their fractures uneventfully. Overall, 90.6% of fractures united within 12 weeks and just under half of the remaining 9.4% patients with union complications healed without requiring further operative intervention by 24 weeks. The risk of union complications was higher following high-energy injuries, open fractures, and nonoperative treatment. Although the AO/OTA classification was not predictive of union complications, the “low” transcondylar (type A2.3 and A3) and simple intercondylar fracture (type C1.3) configuration had a greater risk of union complications than the “high” subtype. The rate of infection, myositis ossificans, and other implant-related complications were higher following operative treatment of type C fractures than type A and B fractures. Conclusions The epidemiology of a consecutive unselected series of adult distal humeral fractures is defined in this study. The majority of these fractures are best treated surgically by rigid open reduction and internal fixation, except for “low” Type A and C fractures, which have a higher risk of union complications. The role of total elbow arthroplasty to treat these more complex injuries requires further evaluation.
Towards Computational Developmental Model based on Synthetic Approaches

Cognitive developmental robotics (CDR) [1] has been tackling the issue of how human cognitive functions develop by means of a synthetic approach that developmentally constructs cognitive functions. “Physical embodiment” is the core idea of CDR, and is revisited to make its role clearer, that is, to enable information structuring through interactions with the environment, including other agents. This paper attempts to reveal the developmental process of human cognitive function from a viewpoint of synthetic approach towards building a computational developmental model for the process with brief introductions of existing CDR approaches.