Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Understanding Cervical Cancer Screening Intentions among Latinas Using An Expanded Theory of Planned Behavior Model

We examined the utility of an expanded theory of planned behavior (TPB) model in predicting cervical cancer screening intentions among Latinas. The model included acculturation and past cervical cancer screening behavior along with attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. This cross-sectional study included a sample of 206 Latinas who responded to a self-administered survey. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the expanded TPB model. Acculturation (p = .025) and past screening behavior (p = .001) along with attitude (p = .019), subjective norms (p = .028), and perceived behavioral control (p = .014) predicted the intention to be screened for cervical cancer. Our findings suggest that the TPB is a useful model for understanding cervical cancer screening intentions among Latinas when both past behavior and culture are included. This research highlights the importance of culture on behavior and indicates a need to develop culturally sensitive, theory-based interventions to encourage screening and reduce cervical cancer-related health disparities in Latinas.
Online correction of respiratory‐induced field disturbances for continuous MR‐thermometry in the breast

MR‐thermometry allows monitoring of the local temperature evolution during minimally invasive interventional therapies. However, for the particular case of MR‐thermometry in the human breast, magnetic field variations induced by the respiratory cycle lead to phase fluctuations requiring a suitable correction strategy to prevent thermometry errors. For this purpose a look‐up‐table‐based multibaseline approach as well as a model‐based correction algorithm were applied to MR‐thermometry to correct for the periodic magnetic field changes. The proposed correction method is compatible with a variety of sensors monitoring the current respiratory state. The ability to remove phase artefacts during MR‐thermometry of the human breast was demonstrated experimentally in five healthy volunteers during 3 min of free‐breathing using pencil‐beam navigators for respiratory control. An increase of 170–530% in temperature precision was observed for the look‐up‐table‐based approach, whereas a further improvement by 16–36% could be achieved by applying the extended model‐based correction. Magn Reson Med, 61:1494–1499, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Mechanism of basic calcium phosphate crystal-stimulated matrix metalloproteinase-13 expression by osteoarthritic synovial fibroblasts: inhibition by prostaglandin E2

Objective: To determine the mechanism of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-13 upregulation in osteoarthritic synovial fibroblasts (OASF) in response to stimulation with basic calcium phosphate (BCP) crystals and to investigate the effect of prostaglandin (PG)E2 on BCP crystal-stimulated MMP expression. Methods: Primary OASF were stimulated with BCP crystals; mRNA expression was measured by real-time reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction and protein levels were assessed by Western blotting. Results: BCP crystals upregulated MMP-13 mRNA expression over 20-fold and increased MMP-13 protein production in OASF. BCP crystal-stimulated MMP-13 mRNA expression was blocked by inhibition of the extracellular regulated kinase (ERK1/2) and p38 mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways and inhibition of the activation of nuclear factor κB. Addition of exogenous PGE2 downregulated BCP crystal-stimulated MMP-13 expression. In contrast, PGE2 upregulated, and had no effect, on BCP crystal stimulated MMP-3 and MMP-1 mRNA expression, respectively. These effects of PGE2 were diminished by L-161,982, a selective EP4 receptor antagonist, and mimicked by CAY10399, a selective EP2 receptor agonist, and forskolin, an adenylate cyclase activator. Conclusions: These data suggest that BCP crystal induction of MMP-13 expression may involve the ERK1/2 and p38 MAPK pathways and activation of nuclear factor κB; this upregulation of MMP-13 may contribute to the accelerated cartilage breakdown in BCP crystal-associated osteoarthritis. PGE2 had contrasting effects on BCP crystal-stimulated MMP-3 and MMP-13 mRNA expression, mediated in an EP2/EP4/cAMP-dependent manner, suggesting that PGE2 may have beneficial as well as deleterious effects in BCP crystal-associated osteoarthritis.
A privacy-preserving and truthful tendering framework for vehicle cloud computing

In this paper, we propose a novel secure and privacy-preserving incentive mechanism in vehicular cloud. The proposed incentive mechanism employs a tendering framework to model the interaction between vehicle cloud server and vehicles. With the proposed incentive mechanism, the cloud server can select participated vehicles to collaborate for its announced tasks, and the selected vehicles can earn payments from participating in and completing the announced tasks. Our mechanism ensures the truthfulness of all the participants and presents an assignment rule that enables VCC to select optimal resources for the tasks. Further, by exploiting homomorphic encryption technique, VCC and RSU cooperate together to run an effective tendering process but without knowing the sensitive information of vehicles.
The cidA murein hydrolase regulator contributes to DNA release and biofilm development in Staphylococcus aureus

The Staphylococcus aureus cidA and lrgA genes have been shown to affect cell lysis under a variety of conditions during planktonic growth. It is hypothesized that these genes encode holins and antiholins, respectively, and may serve as molecular control elements of bacterial cell lysis. To examine the biological role of cell death and lysis, we studied the impact of the cidA mutation on biofilm development. Interestingly, this mutation had a dramatic impact on biofilm morphology and adherence. The cidA mutant (KB1050) biofilm exhibited a rougher appearance compared with the parental strain (UAMS-1) and was less adherent. Propidium iodide staining revealed that KB1050 accumulated more dead cells within the biofilm population relative to UAMS-1, indicative of reduced cell lysis. In agreement with this finding, quantitative real-time PCR experiments demonstrated the presence of 5-fold less genomic DNA in the KB1050 biofilm relative to UAMS-1. Furthermore, treatment of the UAMS-1 biofilm with DNase I caused extensive cell detachment, whereas similar treatment of the KB1050 biofilm had only a modest effect. These results demonstrate that cidA-controlled cell lysis plays a significant role during biofilm development and that released genomic DNA is an important structural component of S. aureus biofilm.
Broadband Via-Free Microstrip Balun Using Metamaterial Transmission Lines

A novel metamaterial broadband microstrip balun design is proposed. The broadband balun consists of a pair of identical metamaterial transmission lines. In the odd mode, a virtual ground is formed between the symmetric plane. The odd mode is allowed while the even mode is rejected. No vias are required to realize the shunt inductors of the metamaterial lines, and no power divider is used. Baluns with good performance can be achieved. In this letter, two baluns are fabricated and measured. For the balun with seven units, the output amplitude difference is less than 0.7 dB, and the differential phase is 181deg plusmn 3deg from 1.6 to 3.6 GHz, while the input return loss is greater than 10 dB.
A Sequential Test for the Specification of Predictive Densities

Summary We develop a specification test of predictive densities, based on the fact that the generalized residuals of correctly specified predictive density models are independent and identically distributed uniform. The proposed sequential test examines the hypotheses of serial independence and uniformity in two stages, wherein the first-stage test of serial independence is robust to violation of uniformity. The approach of the data-driven smooth test is employed to construct the test statistics. The asymptotic independence between the two stages facilitates proper control of the overall type I error of the sequential test. We derive the asymptotic null distribution of the test, which is free of nuisance parameters, and we establish its consistency. Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate excellent finite sample performance of the test. We apply this test to evaluate some commonly used models of stock returns.
Identifying hepatic nuclear factor 1alpha mutations in children and young adults with a clinical diagnosis of type 1 diabetes.

OBJECTIVE HNF-1alpha gene mutations (MODY3) present with marked hyperglycemia in lean young adults and may, therefore, be mistaken for type 1 diabetes, with implications for individual treatment and risk of diabetes in other family members. We examined the prevalence of HNF-1alpha mutations in families with three generations of diabetes identified in a population-based study of childhood diabetes, representing a subpopulation in which misclassification was likely. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS In a study population of 1,470 families, 36 families (2.4%) with three affected generations were identified. In the 18 families in whom DNA samples were available, islet autoantibody testing, HLA class II genotyping, and HNF-1alpha sequencing were performed. RESULTS At least one islet autoantibody was found in 13 of 14 probands, and diabetes-associated HLA class II haplotypes were found in 17 of 18. One proband, who had no islet autoantibodies and was homozygous for the protective HLA haplotype DRB1*02-DQB1*0602, had a novel HNF-1alpha heterozygous nonsense mutation (R54X). This mutation cosegregated with diabetes in the family. The proband, his brother, mother, and maternal grandmother were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes aged 14-18 years and treated with insulin (0.39-0.74 units/kg) from diagnosis. The mother has since been successfully transferred to sulfonylurea treatment. CONCLUSIONS Family history alone is of limited value in identification of individuals with HNF-1alpha mutations, and we propose a stepwise approach that restricts sequencing of the HNF-1alpha gene to those with a family history of diabetes who also test negative for islet autoantibodies.
Technologies and materials for memory with full compatibility to CMOS

As CMOS scaling continuous successfully, technologies for integrating both memory and logic together is highly desirable for high performance and low-power system-on-chip (SOC) with full CMOS compatibility, such as Logic based NVM, floating-body DRAM, MiM based eDRAM, PC-RAM, RRAM, MRAM, FeRAM, . etc. New materials (e.g. GST, metal-oxide, high-k, magnetic junction, .etc.) have greater compatibility in BEOL. Thus, fully CMOS compatible SOC is a promising trend into the future.
Pulmonary rehabilitation for interstitial lung disease.

Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a heterogenous group of about 200 chronic respiratory diseases characterized by exertional dyspnea, significant exercise limitation, decline in health-related quality of life (HRQL). Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is well established in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to improve exercise capacity, dyspnea and HRQL. There is increasing evidence of comparable effects of PR in people with ILD. This review will provide an overview of constitution and the current evidence to support pulmonary rehabilitation in patients with interstitial lung diseases (ILD), in enhancing quality of life and exercise capacity using exercise training and education. Further investigation includes identifying optimal exercise training regimens to extent duration of benefit, educational topics, and intervention tailored to the complex need to people are required.
Influence of the source content and encoding configuration on the perceived quality for scalable video coding

In video coding, it is commonly accepted that the encoding parameters such as the quantization step-size have an influence on the perceived quality. It is also sometimes accepted that using given encoding parameters, the perceived quality does not change significantly according to the encoded source content. In this paper, we present the outcomes of two video subjective quality assessment experiments in the context of Scalable Video Coding. We encoded a large set of video sequences under a group of constant quality scenarios based on two spatially scalable layers. One first experiment explores of the relation between a wide range of quantization parameters for each layer and the perceived quality, while the second experiment uses a subset of the encoding scenarios on a large number of video sequences. The two experiments are aligned on a common scale using a set of shared processed video sequences, resulting in a database containing the subjective scores for 60 different sources combined with 20 SVC scenarios. We propose a detailed analysis of the experimental results of the two experiments, bringing a clear insight of the relation between the encoding parameters combination of the scalable layers and the perceived quality, as well as spreading light on the differences in terms of quality depending on the encoded source content. As an endeavour to analyse these differences, we propose a classification of the sources with regards to their relative behaviour when compared to the average of other source contents. We use this classification to identify potential factors to explain the differences between source contents.
Association between maternal depressive symptoms in the early post-natal period and responsiveness in feeding at child age 2 years.

Maternal depression is a known risk factor for poor outcomes for children. Pathways to these poor outcomes relate to reduced maternal responsiveness or sensitivity to the child. Impaired responsiveness potentially impacts the feeding relationship and thus may be a risk factor for inappropriate feeding practices. The aim of this study was to examine the longitudinal relationships between self-reported maternal post-natal depressive symptoms at child age 4 months and feeding practices at child age 2 years in a community sample. Participants were Australian first-time mothers allocated to the control group of the NOURISH randomized controlled trial when infants were 4 months old. Complete data from 211 mothers (of 346 allocated) followed up when their children were 2 years of age (51% girls) were available for analysis. The relationship between Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) score (child age 4 months) and child feeding practices (child age 2 years) was tested using hierarchical linear regression analysis adjusted for maternal and child characteristics. Higher EPDS score was associated with less responsive feeding practices at child age 2 years: greater pressure [β = 0.18, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.04-0.32, P = 0.01], restriction (β = 0.14, 95% CI: 0.001-0.28, P = 0.05), instrumental (β = 0.14, 95% CI: 0.005-0.27, P = 0.04) and emotional (β = 0.15, 95% CI: 0.01-0.29, P = 0.03) feeding practices (ΔR(2) values: 0.02-0.03, P < 0.05). This study provides evidence for the proposed link between maternal post-natal depressive symptoms and lower responsiveness in child feeding. These findings suggest that the provision of support to mothers experiencing some levels of depressive symptomatology in the early post-natal period may improve responsiveness in the child feeding relationship.
Genomic and phenotypic diversity of Tunisian Theileria annulata isolates

SUMMARY This study describes polymorphism in Theileria annulata, an intracellular protozoan parasite of bovine leucocytes and red blood cells. Fifty-three different stocks of T. annulata, isolated from 17 sites (districts) in Tunisia, have been characterized by anti-parasite monoclonal antibody (MAb) reactivity, glucose phosphate isomerase (GPI) isoenzyme electrophoresis, and Southern blotting with two genomic DNA probes. There appears to be considerable diversity amongst T. annulata stocks from Tunisia, no two isolates being identical, even those from animals on the same farm. Two distinct antigenic populations were detected by MAb 7E7. They were defined by negative and positive cells in the indirect fluorescent antibody test. The percentage of positive cells in different isolates ranged between 0 and 100%. The population variation seen by GPI analysis and DNA probes was greater; 7 different GPI phenotypes were identified amongst the stocks studied, while DNA probes T. annulata Tunis (TaT) 17 and 21 detected up to 5 different variants. The majority of isolates were shown to contain more than one parasite population, the number of variants per isolate ranging from 1 to 4. No correlation between particular parasite phenotypes or genotypes and their geographical site of isolation was observed. Selection of parasite populations in vivo and in vitro is also discussed.
Distributed Power Control for Two-Tier Femtocell Networks with QoS Provisioning Based on Q-Learning

The explosive growth of mobile multimedia services has caused tremendous network traffic in wireless networks and a great part of the multimedia services are delay-sensitive. Therefore, it is important to design efficient radio resource allocation algorithms to increase network capacity and guarantee the delay QoS. In this paper, we study the power control problem in the downlink of two-tier femtocell networks with the consideration of the delay QoS provisioning. Specifically, we introduce the effective capacity (EC) as the network performance measure instead of the Shannon capacity to provide the statistical delay QoS provisioning. Then, the optimization problem is modeled as a non- cooperative game and the existence of Nash Equilibriums (NE) is investigated. However, in order to enhance the self-organization capacity of femtocells, based on non-cooperative game, we employ a Q-learning framework in which all of the femtocell base stations (FBSs) are considered as agents to achieve power allocation. Then a distributed Q-learning-based power control algorithm is proposed to make femtocell users (FUs) gain maximum EC. Numerical results show that the proposed algorithm can not only maintain the delay requirements of the delay-sensitive services, but also has a good convergence performance.
Simulation-based assessment to evaluate cognitive performance in an anesthesiology residency program.

BACKGROUND Problem solving in a clinical context requires knowledge and experience, and most traditional examinations for learners do not capture skills that are required in some situations where there is uncertainty about the proper course of action. OBJECTIVE We sought to evaluate anesthesiology residents for deficiencies in cognitive performance within and across 3 clinical domains (operating room, trauma, and cardiac resuscitation) using simulation-based assessment. METHODS Individual basic knowledge and cognitive performance in each simulation-based scenario were assessed in 47 residents using a 15- to 29-item scenario-specific checklist. For every scenario and item we calculated group error scenario rate (frequency) and individual (resident) item success. For all analyses, alpha was designated as 0.05. RESULTS Postgraduate year (PGY)-3 and PGY-4 residents' cognitive items error rates were higher and success rates lower compared to basic and technical performance in each domain tested (P < .05). In the trauma and resuscitation scenarios, the cognitive error rate by PGY-4 residents was fairly high (0.29-0.5) and their cognitive success rate was low (0.5-0.68). The most common cognitive errors were anchoring, availability bias, premature closure, and confirmation bias. CONCLUSIONS Simulation-based assessment can differentiate between higher-order (cognitive) and lower-order (basic and technical) skills expected of relatively experienced (PGY-3 and PGY-4) anesthesiology residents. Simulation-based assessments can also highlight areas of relative strength and weakness in a resident group, and this information can be used to guide curricular modifications to address deficiencies in tasks requiring higher-order processing and cognition.
Mobile 'comfort' zones: overcoming barriers to enable facilitated learning in the workplace

The affordances of mobile technologies are well documented (Vavoula (2004); Wali (2008); Pachler et al (2010); Cook (2011); Sharples (2013). Linked with the rapid expansion of the ‘SMART’ phones, where users access fast/high quality information, new opportunities are offered to engage students at a time/place of their own choosing. Our small-scale study is located within the dominant discourse of mobile learning literature of context specific learning; it explores the attitudes and habits of trainee teachers using their own mobile devices when working full time in a school setting. Our findings indicate that students have complex/interwoven narratives that relate to issues of identity, personal/private space and their involvement in an emergent community of practice. We map these key themes into a framework for looking strategically at mobile learners in different personal/ professional contexts, and identify of the design barriers to be overcome before the full potential of mobile learning can be successful with our own students when isolated on placement and juggling busy, complex lives.
The contribution of potassium accumulation to outward currents in frog atrium.

1. Voltage‐clamp experiments on frog atrial muscle were designed to distinguish effects due to K accumulation in extracellular spaces from those due to activation of K conductance mechanisms in the membrane. 2. The set of instantaneous current‐voltage relations obtained at various external K concentrations following depolarization to about ‐10 mV for several seconds was found to be quite different from that obtained before the depolarization. Hence the process of increasing the extracellular K concentration cannot account for all the time‐dependent changes in outward current during depolarization. 3. Although the instantaneous current‐voltage relations obtained at different values of external K concentration before prolonged depolarization show the cross‐over phenomenon (Noble, 1965), those obtained at the end of the depolarization did not show this feature. It is concluded that the current‐voltage relations for the channels conducting the time‐dependent K current do not show cross‐over. 4. These results were used to construct a model involving both K activation and K accumulation. This model successfully reproduces the appearance of a very slow component in outward current decay tails which, when subtracted by semi‐exponential curve‐stripping leaves a component with the real time constant of conductance change. The model does not however reproduce the appearance of a fast decaying component without adding a second conductance mechanism, or assuming non‐exponential decay of a single conductance mechanism. 5. It is therefore suggested that i chi, fast is not a perturbation of i chi, slow or of iK1 by the process of K accumulation. This conclusion is reinforced by the results of experiments showing that the relative magnitude of i chi, fast is not greatly changed by substantially increasing the external K concentration in order to reduce the proportionate effect of K accumulation on the K concentration.
Effects of Dietary and Supplemental Forms of Isoflavones on Thyroid Function in Healthy Postmenopausal Women

Because of the health concerns associated with hormone replacement therapy, many women are seeking alternative therapies. Compounds such as soy isoflavones appear to reduce the risk of some age-related diseases and to lessen the severity of menopausal symptoms. However, concerns regarding harmful effects of soy isoflavones on thyroid function have been reported. This 16-week, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial evaluated the effects of soy isoflavones on thyroid-stimulating hormone in healthy postmenopausal women. The results of this study suggest that isoflavones obtained from either soymilk or supplements have no effect on thyroid-stimulating hormone in well-nourished postmenopausal women.