Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical causes of death of 2372 older persons in a nursing home during 15-year follow-up.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the causes of death in older persons in a nursing home. DESIGN The major clinical cause of death of all persons aged 60 years older residing in a nursing home during a 15-year period was investigated in a prospective study. The author carefully reviewed the major cause of death with the physicians who took care of all persons who died either in the nursing home or after transfer to a general hospital. SETTING A large nursing home in which 2372 of 3164 older persons (75%) died during a 15-year period. PATIENTS The 2372 persons who died included 766 men and 1606 women, mean age 81 +/- 8 years. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS A total of 2372 of 3164 persons (75%) died during the 15-year period,. Seven hundred sixty-six of 1023 men (75%) and 1606 of 2141 women (75%) died (P not significant). The major cause of death in these 2372 persons was sudden cardiac death in 25%, myocardial infarction in 18%, refractory congestive heart failure in 11%, thromboembolic stroke in 6%, cerebral hemorrhage in 1%, pulmonary embolism in 2%, mesenteric vascular infarction diagnosed at surgery in 1%, peripheral vascular disease, including dissecting aneurysm of aorta and ruptured abdominal aneurysm, in <1%, pneumonia in 15%, urosepsis in 4%, bacterial endocarditis in 1%, sepsis from abdominal abscess or gastrointestinal or biliary tract in 1%, sepsis from decubiti, gangrene of lower extremity, and osteomyelitis in <1%, cancer in 9%, renal failure in 3%, gastrointestinal or liver disease in 2%, hematologic disorders in 1%, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in 1% of persons. CONCLUSIONS The major cause of death of persons in the nursing home was cardiovascular disease, which accounted for 63% of deaths. The second major cause of death was infectious disease, accounting for 21% of deaths. Cancer accounted for 9% of deaths, renal failure for 3% of deaths, gastrointestinal or liver disease for 2% of deaths, hematologic disorders for 1% of deaths, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease for 1% of deaths.
A Study on Consumer Ethnocentrism and Social Comparison in Rural India: Implications for Marketing Strategy

Though rural India is the next growth destination for firms, rural-specific marketing research is scarce in literature. Rural marketing strategy for majority firms in India is based on generalized urban findings irrespective of significant differences between rural and urban consumers and their preferences. This study is an attempt to evaluate the utility of Consumer Ethnocentrism (CE) and attention to social comparison information (ATSCI) as possible drivers of a rural-specific marketing strategy in the Indian context. Data were collected from 177 rural consumers belonging to both the tribe and non-tribe category from Tripura, a hilly state located in North-Eastern India. Data analysis was carried out by using appropriate statistical techniques such as Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), and Friedman’s Test. From the results of the analysis, it could be concluded that rural consumers were open towards foreign goods and that social comparison was an important factor during purchase. Age and education were found to be predictors of ethnocentric tendencies and gender was a predictor for social comparison. CE and ATSCI were also found to be the two independent constructs in case of rural India. These findings of this study would be helpful in formulating a rural specific marketing strategy in the Indian context.
Cost Comparison between SISO and MIMO Deployments in Future Wide Area Cellular Networks

Future cellular networks are expected to provide significantly higher capacity than today's systems. To support this higher capacity a denser deployment might be necessary. An alternative way is to deploy Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) base stations (BSs), called advanced BSs, so that the system capacity is improved without increasing the BSs density. This paper compares Single-Input-Single-Output (SISO) BS deployments with MIMO BS deployments from a cost perspective. We use a deployment methodology starting with a sparse density of BSs. By deploying additional BSs sequentially the number of BSs is increased until the traffic demand in the network area is supported. Providing equal service level, i.e., supporting the same traffic demand, by means of different deployment realizations enables a relevant comparison between the alternative single and multiple antenna systems. With the models and assumptions used here, results show that in order to support the same users' service level, the cost of deploying MIMO BSs is significantly less compared to increasing the density of SISO BSs. The cost gain is due to the reducing of the number of required BSs for the case of MIMO deployment.
Kaleidoscope: Adding colors to Kademlia

Kademlia is considered to be one of the most effective key based routing protocols. It is nowadays implemented in many file sharing peer-to-peer networks such as BitTorrent, KAD, and Gnutella. This paper introduces Kaleidoscope, a novel routing/caching scheme designed to significantly reduce the cost of lookup operations in Kademlia by using a color-based distributed cache. Moreover, Kaleidoscope greatly improves load balancing among the nodes and reduces the well documented hot spots problem. The paper also includes an extensive performance study demonstrating the benefits of Kaleidoscope.
A Practical Tutorial on an IGBT Drive

This study presents a comprehensive and economical implementation of a drive circuitry for IGBTs based on the bootstrap technology. The drive is designed for medium power levels. The circuit includes desaturation and short circuit current detection. The development of the drive is explained from a practical standpoint, and the design is implemented on a circuit board and evaluated through laboratory experiments. The experimental results show that the designed circuit performed according to the specifications
HA-IDS: A heterogeneous anomaly-based intrusion detection system

In this research, we propose a heterogeneous anomaly-based intrusion detection system (HA-IDS) which is built on both of Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) platforms. An essential anomaly-based IDS comprises of the two main components: Feature Construction Module (FC) to extract and collect network header information, and Classification Module (CM) to categorize connections' behaviors. In our proposed system, FC is implemented on FPGA to handle large-scale data while CM is deployed on GPU using Back-propagation Neuron Network to utilize the parallel computing for improving the system performance. We employ our proposed system on GPU — GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1080 and FPGA — Xilinx Virtex-5 XC5VTX240T chip. The experiment result shows that the training outcome on GPU is faster than that on CPU by up to 12x. The testing system throughput in real-time is 200Mbps with more than 80% in Accuracy Rate. This work proves that this is promising to take advantages of these two platforms to apply to a particular issue.
Double pole four throw CMOS switch in a transceiver of MIMO systems

Multiple antennas system is used to replace traditional single antenna circuitry in radio transceiver system in order to improve transmission capability and reliability. With multiple antennas, data transfer rate can be increased by a factor of n, where n is the number of antennas used in the transceiver. To avoid the uses of multiple RF chain associated with the multiple antennas, an antenna selection system, RF switch, is essential. The desired switching system must have a simple structure and low cost yet still can capture all the advantage of Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) systems. In this paper, we propose a Double Pole Four Throw (DP4T) RF switch using Complementary Oxide Metal Semiconductor (CMOS) technology. This switch is low in cost, and capable of selecting data streams to or from the two antennas for transmitting or receiving processes, respectively. Since the operating frequencies of the switch are 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz, it is useful in Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) and other IEEE 802.11 applications. Our DP4T CMOS Switch exhibits insertion losses of 0.7456 dB and 0.8550 dB for 2.4 and 5.0 GHz, respectively, with a 1dB compression point of 31.86 dBm. Furthermore, our switch also experience minimal distortion, negligible voltage fluctuation, and low power supply of only 1.2 V.
Cystein‐serine‐rich nuclear protein 1, Axud1/Csrnp1, is essential for cephalic neural progenitor proliferation and survival in zebrafish

The CSRNP (cystein‐serine‐rich nuclear protein) family has been conserved from Drosophila to human. Although knockout mice for each of the mammalian proteins have been generated, their function during vertebrate development has remained elusive. As an alternative to obtain insights on CSRNP's role in development, we have analysed the expression pattern and function of one member of this family, axud1, during zebrafish development. Our expression analysis indicates that axud1 is expressed from cleavage to larval stages in a dynamic pattern, becoming restricted after gastrulation to anterior regions of the developing neuraxis and later on concentrated predominantly in proliferating domains of the brain. Knockdown analysis using antisense morpholinos shows that reducing Axud1 levels impairs neural progenitor cell proliferation and survival, revealing an essential function of this gene for the growth of cephalic derivatives. The brain growth phenotypes elicited by decreasing Axud1 expression are specific and independent of anterior‐posterior patterning events, initial establishment of neural progenitors, or neural differentiation occurring in this tissue. However, Axud1 is necessary for six3.1 expression and is positively regulated by sonic hedgehog. Phylogenetic examination shows that axud1 is likely to be the ortholog of the only member of this family present in Drosophila, as well as to the previously described mouse CSRNP1 and to human AXUD1 (Axin upregulated‐1). Thus, we provide evidence as to the role of axud1 in brain growth in vertebrates. Developmental Dynamics, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The antiarrhythmic effect of vagal stimulation after acute coronary occlusion: Role of the heart rate

Background: Strong evidence suggests a causal link between autonomic disturbances and ventricular arrhythmias. However, the mechanisms underlying the antiarrhythmic effect of vagal stimulation are poorly understood. The vagal antiarrhythmic effect might be modulated by a decrease in heart rate. Methods: the proximal anterior interventricular artery was occluded in 16 pigs by clamping under general anaesthesia. Group 1: heart rates remained spontaneous (n = 6; 12 occlusions); Group 2: heart rates were fixed at 190 beats per minute (bpm) with atrial electrical stimulation (n = 10; 20 occlusions). Each pig received two occlusions, 30 min apart, one without and one with vagal stimulation (10 Hz, 2 ms, 5–20 mA). The antiarrhythmic effect of vagal activation was defined as the time to the appearance of ventricular fibrillation (VF) after occlusion. Results: In Group 1, vagal stimulation triggered a significant decrease in basal heart rate (132 ± 4 vs. 110 ± 17 bpm, p < 0.05), and delayed the time to VF after coronary occlusion (1102 ± 85 vs. 925 ± 41 s, p < 0.05). In Group 2, vagal stimulation did not modify the time to VF (103 ± 39 vs. 91 ± 20 s). Analyses revealed that heart rate and the time to VF were positively linearly related. Conclusions: Maintaining a constant heart rate with atrial electrical stimulation in pigs prevented vagal stimulation from modifying the time to VF after acute coronary occlusion.
Effects of different protein sources on fermentation metabolites and nutrient digestibility of brachycephalic dogs

Abstract Benefits to microbial fermentation in the colon and as a consequence less flatulence can be promoted for the health of adult dogs according to the amount and protein source. The present study evaluated different protein sources in dry food for brachycephalic dogs regarding microbial fermentation and nutrient digestibility. Four dry dog foods with similar protein content were formulated for adult maintenance: poultry meal (PM) diet; wheat gluten (WG) diet; PM + WG diet; and PM + WG + hydrolysed protein (HP) diet. Eight French bulldog adult dogs were arranged in a 4 × 4 Latin square design during the 28 d trial. Fresh faeces were collected for assessment of nutrient digestibility and analyses of faecal pH, SCFA, biogenic amines, ammonia and lactate. Means were compared by the PROC MIXED procedure of SAS and by Tukey's test, considering P ≤ 0·05. The animals fed the WG and PM + WG diets showed higher digestibility for DM (P < 0·05), organic matter (P < 0·05), crude protein (P < 0·001) and lower faeces production (P < 0·02) than the PM and PM + WG + HP diets. Feeding diet PM + WG + HP resulted in lower faecal score and pH (P < 0·05) compared with other diets. Concentrations of fermentation metabolites were not statistically significantly different among diets. In conclusion, WG alone or in combination with PM improved protein and DM digestibility. Fermentation products were not affected by protein source.
Progesterone Enhances Functional Recovery after Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion in Male Mice

Sex differences have been observed in the outcome after ischemia that are believed to be attributable to sex steroid hormones. The present study investigated the possible benefits of progesterone administration after focal cerebral ischemia. Male mice underwent 60-minute middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) and received progesterone (8 mg/kg, intraperitoneally) or vehicle (dimethyl sulfoxide) 1, 6, and 24 hours after MCAO. The lesion volume at 48 hours after MCAO was significantly reduced (P < 0.05) in progesterone-treated mice compared with vehicle-treated mice. All other mice underwent tests of well being (survival rate and body weight recovery), motor ability (grid test and rotarod), and cognitive ability (water maze) for up to 21 days. MCAO significantly worsened outcome in all of these tests compared with shams. Progesterone treatment was beneficial in that compared with vehicle, it significantly improved survival rate, weight recovery, and motor ability. This improvement was most apparent during water maze testing, where progesterone-treated mice were indistinguishable from shams in terms of acquiring the task. These results indicate beneficial effects of progesterone administration after cerebral ischemia and illustrate the need to further investigate the mechanisms of progesterone action.
The diffusion and popularity of Lean in Norway: An exploratory survey

Abstract Although commentators have noted that Lean currently is receiving a great deal of attention in Norway, little is known about how and to what extent Lean is used by Norwegian organizations. The overall purpose of this paper is to present the results of an explorative survey that attempts to map the diffusion and popularity of Lean in Norway. The results indicate that the adoption rate is still quite low, but that Lean is relatively more widely used in industries such as manufacturing and accounting, auditing and finance. Furthermore, the results indicate that Norwegian organizations are relatively recent adopters of Lean. Among users there is a general consensus that Lean has positive effects on organizational performance. At the same time, a wide range of implementation challenges are reported. These findings are discussed in relation to the extant literature on Lean.
The Impact of Liberalizing Preferential Rules of Origin on Trade and Upgrading in the Clothing Industry: A Review of the Evidence

This paper seeks to explore the relationship between the rules of origin (ROO) governing preferential trade regimes and trade and investment flows. We focus on the regimes in the key markets of the EU and the US. Firstly we look at overall imports, where we do not find liberal ROO to be a key factor defining sourcing choices, although it seems to impact on growth rates. We explore trade and investment flows in key clothing sources subject to liberal ROO and find large variations in the extent to which they appear to be capturing value added. Bangladeshi industry is largely domestic and has low levels of imported inputs, while Nicaragua, Jordan and Cambodia are highly reliant on FDI and seem to import the vast majority of the inputs to their clothing industries. Our findings underline the complexity of structuring trade (and indeed investment) regimes in a manner which encourages sustainable economic development.
The SUVmax for 18F-FDG Correlates With Molecular Subtype and Survival of Previously Untreated Metastatic Breast Cancer

Aim The objectives of this study were to determine if the baseline SUVmax measured by 18F-FDG PET/CT correlates with molecular subtype and to explore the impact of baseline SUVmax on the survival of patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC). Methods Patients with MBC were screened with PET/CT from February 2007 until December 2010. Multivariate linear regression analysis was performed to identify independent variable correlation with SUVmax. Prognostic variables identified by univariate analysis, with P < 0.1, were analyzed in the multivariate Cox model. Results A total of 244 MBC patients were eligible for this study. Multivariate linear regression analysis showed that molecular subtype, visceral metastasis, and number of metastatic organs could be used to predict the logarithmic values of SUVmax (lgSUVmax) for previous untreated MBC patients, whereas for those with 1 or more line previous treatment, the number of metastatic organs was identified as the only independent variable correlating with lgSUVmax. Cox regression analysis indicated that only in patients with previously untreated MBC did baseline SUVmax (continuous variable) act as an independent prognostic factor (hazard ratio = 1.049 for progression-free survival, 1.124 for overall survival). Conclusions Baseline SUVmax correlates with molecular subtypes only in previously untreated MBC patients. PET/CT imaging can be used as a potential prognostic tool for patients with newly diagnosed MBC.
Optimization-based systematic data drop in rate-limited networked control system

Recently, high-speed communication networks, e.g., the Internet, have witnessed rapid developments. Therefore, the construction of control systems employing such networks is becoming a real possibility. The realization of such systems, however, has a problem of the rate limitation of the network. In this case, a systematic data dropping strategy will contribute to the effective utilization of limited network resources. In this study, a systematic data dropping strategy having the following features is proposed: data sending or dropping is determined based on the observed state variables and the past sequences of data sending/dropping without assuming any predetermined rules. First, the control system is modeled as a mixed logical dynamical system (MLDS). Second, the data sending/dropping sequence is obtained by solving a mixed integer programming problem. Third, a model predictive control based controller is constructed. Some numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the usefulness of the developed method.
Database and Informatic Challenges in Representing Both Diploid and Tetraploid Xenopus Species in Xenbase

At the heart of databases is a data model referred to as a schema. Relational databases store information in tables, and the schema defines the tables and provides a map of relationships that show how the different table/data types relate to one another. In Xenbase, we were tasked to represent genomic, molecular, and biological data of both a diploid and tetraploid Xenopus species. When the database model was built over a decade ago, we had very little information on the nature of the X.laevis tetraploidization, but a Chado-based data model was proposed that could deal with the various forms of data in both species. Once the X.laevis genome was sequenced and annotated, it became clear that the data schema is very like the evolutionary schema that resulted in the X.laevis genome.
Essential Role for Endocytosis in the Growth Factor-stimulated Activation of ERK1/2 in Endothelial Cells*

Background: Growth factor receptors in endothelial cells are an important therapeutic target for anti-angiogenic therapy. Results: Inhibitors of endocytosis suppress ERK1/2 activation downstream of growth factor receptors in endothelial cells. Conclusion: Receptor internalization is required for pro-angiogenic growth factors to activate ERK1/2 in endothelial cells. Significance: Agents that disrupt receptor internalization could be developed as a means to inhibit angiogenesis in cancer. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) stimulates angiogenesis by binding to VEGF receptor 2 (VEGFR2) on endothelial cells (ECs). Downstream activation of the extracellular related kinases 1/2 (ERK1/2) is important for angiogenesis to proceed. Receptor internalization has been implicated in VEGFR2 signaling, but its role in the activation of ERK1/2 is unclear. To explore this question we utilized pitstop and dynasore, two small molecule inhibitors of endocytosis. First, we confirmed that both inhibitors block the internalization of VEGFR2 in ECs. We then stimulated ECs with VEGF in the presence and absence of the inhibitors and examined VEGFR2 signaling to ERK1/2. Activation of VEGFR2 and C-Raf still occurred in the presence of the inhibitors, whereas the activation of MEK1/2 and ERK1/2 was abrogated. Therefore, although internalization is not required for activation of either VEGFR2 or C-Raf in ECs stimulated with VEGF, internalization is necessary to activate the more distal kinases in the cascade. Importantly, inhibition of internalization also prevented activation of ERK1/2 when ECs were stimulated with other pro-angiogenic growth factors, namely fibroblast growth factor 2 and hepatocyte growth factor. In contrast, the same inhibitors did not block ERK1/2 activation in fibroblasts or cancer cells stimulated with growth factors. Finally, we show that these small molecule inhibitors of endocytosis block angiogenesis in vitro and in vivo. Therefore, receptor internalization may be a generic requirement for pro-angiogenic growth factors to activate ERK1/2 signaling in human ECs, and targeting receptor trafficking may present a therapeutic opportunity to block tumor angiogenesis.