Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of extending the platelet storage time on platelet utilization: predictions from a mathematical model of prophylactic platelet support

summary Bacterial culturing (BCU) or photochemical treatment (PCT) of platelet (PLT) concentrates may permit extending the storage time to 7 days at the cost of decreased viability of transfused PLTs. This study was aimed at predicting the impact this may have on the routine management of patients on prophylactic PLT support.
Initial identification & selection bias versus the eventual confirmation of talent: evidence for the benefits of a rocky road?

Abstract The relative age effect (RAE), whereby earlier birthdate children within a selection year are more commonly selected as talented, has been highlighted in the literature. As a consequence, these young athletes get into specialised training earlier and in greater numbers, leading (it is suggested) to a disproportionate opportunity for success. However, this disproportionality seems not to be manifest in senior teams. Accordingly, we examine the identification and conversion rates for academy rugby players, examining a sample of all players passing into and either graduating, or being dismissed from, a major English rugby academy. Data demonstrated a reversal of the RAE “benefit”, whereby late-birth players were less likely to be selected, but more likely to achieve senior professional status. Possible reasons are explored and, on the basis of our data, we propose a psychologically based explanation of greater “growth” due to additional challenge experienced by these initially disadvantaged younger players.
Perceived parental control processes, parent-child relational qualities and psychological well-being of Chinese adolescents in intact and non-intact families in Hong Kong

This paper examines whether Chinese adolescents' perceptions (N = 3,017) of parental behavioral control (parental knowledge, expectation, monitoring, discipline, and demandingness as well as parental control based on indigenous Chinese concepts), parental psychological control, parent-child relational qualities (perceived parental trust, child's trust of the parents, child's readiness to communicate with the parents, and child's satisfaction with parental control), and adolescent psychological well-being (hopelessness, mastery, life satisfaction and self-esteem) differed in intact and non-intact families. Results showed that relative to non-intact families, parental behavioral control processes were higher and parent-child relational qualities were better in intact families. In contrast, parental psychological control was higher in non-intact families than in intact families. Finally, the psychological well-being of adolescents in non-intact families was poorer than that of adolescents in intact families.
MoRule: Optimized rule placement for mobile users in SDN-enabled access networks

With the surging popularity of smartphones and tablets, mobile network traffic has dramatically increased in recent years. Software defined network (SDN) provides a scalable and flexible structure to simplify network traffic management. It has been shown that rule placement plays an important role in the performance of SDN. However, since most existing work considers static network topologies of wired networks, it cannot be directly applied for mobile networks. In this paper, we propose MoRule, an efficient rule management scheme to optimize the rule placement for mobile users. To deal with the challenges of user mobility and rule capacity constraints of switches, we design a heuristic algorithm with low-complexity to minimize the rule space occupation while guaranteeing that the mobile traffic processed by local switches is no less than a threshold. By conducting extensive simulations, we demonstrate that our proposed algorithm significantly outperforms random solutions under various network settings.
1655 Revolutionary Effects of New Information Technologies

Revolutionary Effects of New Information Technologies In markets with imperfect information and heterogeneity, the information technology affects the rate at which agents meet, which in turn affects the distribution of production technologies across firms. We show that in models for such markets there are typically multiple equilibria because reservation utility levels and the lowest production technology in use affect each other. The adoption of novel information technologies may then entail a revolution in the sense of a move from an inefficient to an efficient equilibrium. Inefficient production technologies are removed even in sectors where the new information technology has only recently been introduced. The effect is much larger than a marginal comparative-statics effect on a given equilibrium. The results apply to markets for consumer products, labor, intermediate goods, and (public) institutional services. JEL Classification: D43, D83, L11, L15, O33, J42, L86
ADESÃO AO TRATAMENTO NO GRUPO DE HIPERTENSOS DO BAIRRO JOAQUIM ROMÃO - JEQUIÉ/BA

O presente estudo objetivou analisar a adesao/ abandono ao tratamento no grupo de hipertensos do bairro Joaquim Romao, no Municipio de Jequie-Bahia. Trata-se de um estudo de carater descritivo com delineamento transversal, no qual participaram trinta e cinco pacientes hipertensos cadastrados em um centro de saude. Para tal foi utilizada uma entrevista semi-estruturada, onde as informacoes foram organizadas e tabuladas em um banco de dados no Microsoft Excel, sendo realizado tratamento estatistico descritivo e apresentados atraves de graficos. A partir dos resultados encontrados percebeu-se que a falta de adesao dos pacientes ao tratamento da hipertensao arterial ainda atinge niveis elevados, e que o programa desenvolvido pelo centro de saude apresenta deficiencias em sua organizacao e funcionamento, a partir do momento em que faltam medicamentos, alem da dificuldade de acesso do paciente ao sistema de saude. Por conta disso, urge despertar para a necessidade de desenvolver um trabalho voltado para aumentar o grau de conhecimento da populacao sobre a importância do controle da hipertensao arterial; capacitar os profissionais para melhor orientar os individuos hipertensos; garantir acesso destes pacientes a servicos basicos de saude, com resolubilidade; e incentivar politicas e programas comunitarios.
Causes of death during tuberculosis treatment in Tomsk Oblast, Russia.

SETTING Tuberculosis (TB) incidence and mortality in Russia have risen dramatically over the past 15 years. OBJECTIVE To identify risk factors and causes of death among TB patients in Russia. DESIGN A retrospective study conducted to determine the risk factors and causes of death in patients receiving TB therapy in Tomsk, Siberia. RESULTS Of 1916 patients who initiated treatment between 1 January 2002 and 31 December 2003, 183 (9.6%) died during treatment, 38 (21%) in the first week of therapy. Twenty-five per cent of deaths were not directly attributable to TB. Risk factors for death included older age, previous treatment for TB, multidrug resistance and alcoholism. CONCLUSIONS The high death rate during TB treatment observed in this cohort likely reflects an increased risk of dying not only from TB, but also from comorbid conditions, such as alcoholism and cardiovascular disease. Overall, alcoholism and late presentation both contributed substantially to the mortality in this cohort.
A Network Perspective on Individual Level Ambidexterity in Organizations

Addressing the call for a deeper understanding of ambidexterity at the individual level, we propose that managers' networks are an important yet understudied factor in the ability to balance the trade-off between exploring for new business and exploiting existing business. Analyses of 1,449 ties in the internal and external networks of 79 senior managers in a management consulting firm revealed significant differences in the density, contact heterogeneity, and informality of ties in the networks of senior managers who engaged in both exploration and exploitation compared with managers that predominately explored or exploited. The findings suggest that managers' networks are important levers for their ability to behave ambidextrously and offer insights into the microfoundations of organizational ambidexterity.
Generalized twin-nonlinear two-box digital predistorter for GaN based LTE Doherty power amplifiers with strong memory effects

In this paper, a generalized twin-nonlinear two-box predistorter is proposed for the linearization of highly nonlinear Doherty power amplifiers exhibiting strong memory effects. The proposed predistorter is made of the cascade of a memoryless look-up table followed by a generalized memory polynomial function and thus can be seen as a two-box implementation of the generalized memory polynomial model. The generalized twin-nonlinear two-box predistorter is experimentally benchmarked against the generalized memory polynomial model. The linearization performances of both models when applied on a GaN based Doherty power amplifier driven by a 20MHz LTE signal, demonstrate the superiority of the proposed predistorter which achieves better linearity performance while requiring a lower number of coefficients. Indeed, an extra 5dB is obtained in the ACLR while the number of predistorter coefficients is reduced by more than 60%.
Fabricación y caracterización de materiales biomiméticos compuestos cerámico-metal

Este trabajo recoge la fabricacion y caracterizacion de compuestos ceramicometal o CERMETS en los sistemas SiC/Si/Al y SiC/Si/TiSi2. El proceso de fabricacion se ha basado en el desarrollado para la obtencion de carburo de silicio biomorfico o bioSiC© por el Grupo de Materiales Biomimeticos y Multifuncionales de la Universidad de Sevilla, infiltracion reactiva con silicio en preformas carbonosas obtenidas a partir de precursores celulosicos. Pero en lugar de usar silicio, se han tomado mezclas de este con alumino o titanio en distintas proporciones para conseguir una matriz ceramica de SiC, restando en sus intersticios o poros, proporciones de Si/Al o Si/TiSi2 a medida. A fin de conseguir la maxima reproducibilidad posible y homogeneidad en las propiedades mecanicas, se ha optado por utilizar como precursor celulosico, tableros de fibras comerciales conocido como MDF o DM en lugar de maderas naturales. En la busqueda de las condiciones optimas de fabricacion de muestras quimica y estructuralmente estables en ambos sistemas a temperaturas de procesado por debajo del punto de fusion del silicio y potencialmente funcionales, se ha puesto de manifiesto, que no es posible introducir en los poros cualquier cantidad de alumino, o bien por la aparicion de fases indeseable, o bien por la aparicion de defectos que pongan en peligro la integridad estructural del material. Sin embargo para las muestras infiltradas con mezcla de silicio y titanio no existe tal limitacion. La caracterizacion microestructural de las muestras obtenidas con exito, asi como la cuantificacion de las fases cristalinas presentes en las mismas, se realizado mediante analisis no destructivos como el analisis de imagenes obtenidas por microscopia electronica de barrido, o la difraccion y fluorescencia de rayos X, poniendo especial interes en los metodos de refinamiento Rietveld y Lebail de los patrones de difraccion polvo. Como novedad se ha introducido la tomografia axial computerizada o TAC. Mecanicamente las muestras se han caracterizado mediante ensayos de dureza, deformacion en compresion y dilatometria. De ellos se ha constatado la variacion que representa la introduccion de una fase metalica con respecto a las propiedades mecanicas del bioSiC©, y la posibilidad de conseguir propiedades a medida segun las proporciones de la fase metalica en los poros, como por ejemplo el coeficiente de dilatacion, que en este trabajo se ha descubierto que resulta ser negativo en el bioSiC©, independientemente del precuror celulosico pirolizado para obtenerlo. Este inesperado resultado, ha desembocado en una busqueda de su origen, hallandose en el precursor celulosico pirolizado, esto es, la preforma carbonosa presenta un coeficiente de dilatacion negativo que es trasferido al bioSiC© dada la instantanea trasformancion en carburo cuando entra en contacto con silicio liquido.
Normoalbuminuric type 1 diabetic patients with retinopathy have an impaired tubular response to desmopressin: its relationship with plasma endothelin-1.

OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was to evaluate whether normoalbuminuric type 1 diabetic patients with diabetic retinopathy (DR) have an impaired tubular response to desmopressin (dDAVP, a synthetic analog of vasopressin) administration, and its relationship with plasma and urine endothelin-1 (ET-1) levels. DESIGN This was an interventional case-control study. SETTING The study was conducted at a referral center. PARTICIPANTS Fifteen normoalbuminuric type 1 diabetic patients with DR were compared with 30 normoalbuminuric type 1 diabetic patients without DR. Both groups were matched by age, gender, body mass index, glycosylated hemoglobin, and the main laboratory markers of kidney function. INTERVENTION After a 12-h period of water deprivation, dDAVP (0.3 microg/kg) was infused over 20 min. Urine was collected at baseline and 1, 2, and 3 h after dDAVP administration. ET-1 was assessed by ELISA. RESULTS dDAVP induced a lower rise in urine osmolality in patients with DR (from 650 +/- 206 to 754 +/- 224 mosmol/kg; P = 0.02) than in diabetic patients without DR (from 714 +/- 194 to 905 +/- 163 mosmol/kg; P < 0.0001). In addition, fractional excretion of Na+ decreased in patients without DR (from 0.45 +/- 0.30 to 0.29 +/- 0.29%; P = 0.04) but not in the diabetic patients with DR (from 0.36 +/- 0.22 to 0.36 +/- 0.40%; P = 0.96). Plasma ET-1 levels were inversely correlated with the response of urinary osmolality after dDAVP administration (r = -0.62; P = 0.008). CONCLUSIONS Normoalbuminuric type 1 diabetic patients with DR have impaired renal response to dDAVP that is related to plasma ET-1 levels. Further studies are required to elucidate whether this tubular resistance to dDAVP might favor dehydration in these patients.
Skeletal muscle phosphatidylcholine fatty acids and insulin sensitivity in normal humans

Clore, John N. , Jing Li, Ranjodh Gill, Shona Gupta, Robert Spencer, Amin Azzam, Wilhelm Zuelzer, William B. Rizzo, and William G. Blackard. Skeletal muscle phosphatidylcholine fatty acids and insulin sensitivity in normal humans. Am. J. Physiol. 275 (Endocrinol. Metab. 38): E665– E670, 1998. —The fatty acid composition of skeletal muscle membrane phospholipids (PL) is known to influence insulin responsiveness in humans. However, the contribution of the major PL of the outer (phosphatidylcholine, PC) and inner (phosphatidylethanolamine, PE) layers of the sarcolemma to insulin sensitivity is not known. Fatty acid composition of PC and PE from biopsies of vastus lateralis from 27 normal men and women were correlated with insulin sensitivity determined by the hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp technique at insulin infusion rates of 0.4, 1.0, and 10.0 mU·kg21 ·min21. Significant variation in the half-maximal insulin concentration (ED50) was observed in the normal volunteers (range 24.0–146.0 μU/ml), which correlated directly with fasting plasma insulin (r 5 0.75, P , 0.0001). ED50 was inversely correlated with the degree of membrane unsaturation (C20C22 polyunsaturated fatty acids; r 5 0.58, P , 0.01) and directly correlated with fatty acid elongation (ratio of 16:0 to 18:0, r 5 0.45, P , 0.05) in PC. However, no relationship between fatty acid composition and insulin sensitivity was observed in PE (NS). These studies suggest that the fatty acid composition of PC may be of particular importance in the relationship between fatty acids and insulin sensitivity in normal humans.
Treated Greywater Reuse for Hydroponic Lettuce Production in a Green Wall System: Quantitative Health Risk Assessment

The scarcity and pollution of freshwater are extremely crucial issues today, and the expansion of water reuse has been considered as an option to reduce its impact. This study aims to assess the efficiency of an integrated greywater treatment system and hydroponic lettuce production as a part of a green wall structure, and to evaluate the health risk associated with the production and consumption of lettuce through a quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) and a chemical health risk assessment. The study was conducted based on the unique configuration of a source separation system; an on-site greywater treatment system; a green wall structure as a polishing step; and hydroponic lettuce production in the green wall structure. The final effluent from the system was used to grow three lettuce varieties by adding urine as a nutrient solution. Both water samples and plant biomass were collected and tested for Escherichia coli (E. coli) and heavy metals contamination. The system has gained a cumulative 5.1 log10 reduction of E. coli in the final effluent and no E. coli found in the plant biomass. The estimated annual infection risk for Cryptosporidium, Campylobacter, and Norovirus was 10−6–10−8, 10−8–10−10, and 10−10–10−11 respectively. These results indicate that the system attained the health-based targets, 10−6 disability adjusted life years (DALYs) per person per year. Similarly, the health risk index (HRI) and targeted hazard quotient (THQ) results did not exceed the permissible level, thus the chemical health risk concern was insignificant.
Differential Recognition of β-Lactam Antibiotics by Intestinal and Renal Peptide Transporters, PEPT 1 and PEPT 2 (*)

This study was initiated to determine if there are differences in the recognition of β-lactam antibiotics as substrates between intestinal and renal peptide transporters, PEPT 1 and PEPT 2. Reverse transcription-coupled polymerase chain reaction and/or Northern blot analysis have established that the human intestinal cell line Caco-2 expresses PEPT 1 but not PEPT 2, whereas the rat proximal tubule cell line SKPT expresses PEPT 2 but not PEPT 1. Detailed kinetic analysis has provided unequivocal evidence for participation of PEPT 2 in SKPT cells in the transport of the dipeptide glycylsarcosine and the aminocephalosporin cephalexin. The substrate recognition pattern of PEPT 1 and PEPT 2 was studied with cefadroxil (a cephalosporin) and cyclacillin (a penicillin) as model substrates for the peptide transporters constitutively expressed in Caco-2 cells (PEPT 1) and SKPT cells (PEPT 2). Cyclacillin was 9-fold more potent than cefadroxil in competing with glycylsarcosine for uptake via PEPT 1. In contrast, cefadroxil was 13-fold more potent than cyclacillin in competing with the dipeptide for uptake via PEPT 2. The substrate recognition pattern of PEPT 1 and PEPT 2 was also investigated using cloned human peptide transporters functionally expressed in HeLa cells. Expression of PEPT 1 or PEPT 2 in HeLa cells was found to induce H+-coupled cephalexin uptake in these cells. As was the case with Caco-2 cells and SKPT cells, the uptake of glycylsarcosine induced in HeLa cells by PEPT 1 cDNA and PEPT 2 cDNA was inhibitable by cyclacillin and cefadroxil. Again, the PEPT 1 cDNA-induced dipeptide uptake was inhibited more potently by cyclacillin than by cefadroxil, and the PEPT 2 cDNA-induced dipeptide uptake was inhibited more potently by cefadroxil than by cyclacillin. It is concluded that there are marked differences between the intestinal and renal peptide transporters in the recognition of β-lactam antibiotics as substrates.
A short-term follow-up of enthesitis and arthritis in the active phase of juvenile onset spondyloarthropathies.

OBJECTIVE To describe the characteristics of enthesitis and arthritis in the active inflammatory stage of juvenile onset spondyloarthropathies (SpA) during a short-term follow-up. PATIENTS AND METHODS The study group included data of 33 patients with juvenile-onset SpA with enthesitis in > or = 3 sites, arthritis in > or = 4 joints, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) of > or = 25 mm/h despite treatment, who participated in a 26-week, double-blind, sulfasalazine versus placebo trial that showed no significant differences between groups in regard to enthesitis and arthritis. RESULTS Twenty-seven boys and 6 girls (mean age: 15.3 +/- 3.5 years; mean disease duration: 4.1 +/- 2.7 years) with the seronegative enthesopathy and arthropathy (SEA) syndrome (n = 20) or ankylosing spondylitis (AS; n = 13) comprised the group. Throughout the study, the mean (+/- SD) number of swollen joints and tender entheses were 4.6 +/- 2.5 and 8.3 +/- 5.4. The entheses and joints most frequently involved were the calcaneal attachments of the plantar fascia (87.9%) and Achilles tendon (81.8%) and the ankle (87.9%) and knee (72.7%), respectively. There was pain in the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine in 39.4%, 69.7%, and 63.6% of patients and in the sacroiliac joints in 48.5%. Mid-foot involvement (or tarsitis) occurred in 29 patients (87.9%). Except for the feet, the simultaneous occurrence of enthesitis and arthritis in other sites was rare. Overall, there were no significant differences between SEA syndrome and AS patients. CONCLUSIONS Disease activity shows a significant trend for entheses and joints of the feet and a significant prevalence of axial enthesitis in juvenile onset SpA. Mid-foot involvement appears to be the most characteristic and potentially, the most severe form of disease in these patients.
The development of the cerebral cortex in the embryonic mouse: An electron microscopic serial section analysis

The techniques of reconstructions of cells from serial thin sections and autoradiography after tritiated thymidine injections have been employed to study the early histogenesis of the cerebral cortex in the embryonic day‐15 (E15) mouse. The autoradiographic studies show that cells below the E15 cortical plate in the intermediate layer are destined to migrate through the preexisting cortical plate cells to take up a more superficial position. Having this information, it has been possible, through reconstructions of large numbers of cells (more than 150) throughout the thickness of the cerebral vesicle, to identify some of the important morphogenetic events of cortical histogenesis. The following scheme is proposed. The first step in neuronal differentiation involves the detachment of the ventricularly directed process of the ventricular cell from the junctional region next to the ventricle. In thin sections, these junctions have the appearance of zonulae adherentes, but freeze cleavage experiments performed in this study show that, in addition, some of them resemble small gap junctions while others appear to be remnants of tight junctions or possibly linear gap junctions. Detachment of the ventricular process accompanies the migration of the nucleus and perikaryon through the ventricular layer. Within the intermediate layer the migrating cells become rounded and sprout numerous processes. Some cells may undergo a mitotic division at this stage. Eventually the differentiating cells sprout a longer lateral process which is oriented tangentially to the pial surface. This process originates from the anterior surface of the soma and at its tip has the characteristics of an axonal growth cone. The cells migrate externally and radially with simultaneous elongation of the primitive axon. In the subcortical plate region of the intermediate layer all cells contain an anteriorly directed axon. Subsequently the cells sprout an apical process which extends into the cortical plate, and the nucleus and perikaryon apparently migrate radially within this process. The result is that the primitive axon first descends into the intermediate layer proper before turning to run tangentially. Dendritic growth and further differentiation begins once the cells reach their definitive position in the cortical plate.