Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Insights into the adaptive significance of vertical pupil shape in snakes

Pupil shape in vertebrates ranges from circular to vertical, with multiple phylogenetic shifts in this trait. Our analyses challenge the widely held view that the vertical pupil evolved as an adaptation to enhance night vision. On functional grounds, a variable‐aperture vertical pupil (i) allows a nocturnal species to have a sensitive retina for night vision but avoid dazzle by day by adjusting pupil closure, and (ii) increases visual acuity by day, because a narrow vertical pupil can project a sharper image onto the retina in the horizontal plane. Detection of horizontal movement may be critical for predators that wait in ambush for moving prey, suggesting that foraging mode (ambush predation) as well as polyphasic activity may favour the evolution of vertical pupil shape. Camouflage (disruption of the circular outline of the eye) also may be beneficial for ambush predators. A comparative analysis in snakes reveals significant functional links between pupil shape and foraging mode, as well as between pupil shape and diel timing of activity. Similar associations between ambush predation and vertically slit pupils occur in lizards and mammals also, suggesting that foraging mode has exerted major selective forces on visual systems in vertebrates.
Optimal joint base station and user equipment (BS-UE) admission control for energy-efficient green wireless cellular networks

Although dynamic base station (BS) operation (switch off or sleep mode) schemes can improve energy efficiency in cellular networks, the quality of service (QoS) (e.g., service blocking and service latency) experienced by users may be significantly affected by these energy-efficient schemes. On the other hand, to guarantee user QoS, user equipment (UE) admission control has been studied extensively. However, these two important areas have traditionally been addressed separately. In this paper, we propose a common framework to jointly study dynamic BS operation and UE admission. Specifically, we introduce a novel concept of BS admission control, and propose an optimal joint BS-UE admission control scheme considering both dynamic BS operation and dynamic UE traffic. The proposed scheme can maximize energy efficiency while guaranteeing user QoS. Simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.
Comparison of clinical with pathological nodal staging from systematic mediastinal lymph node dissection in early resectable non-small cell lung cancer.

INTRODUCTION We compared the accuracy of clinical nodal (cN) status N0-1 with that of pathological nodal (pN) status obtained from systematic mediastinal lymph node dissection (SMLD) in primary non-small cell lung cancer. METHODS Data from 22 consecutive patients, who underwent lung cancer resection and SMLD of at least three mediastinal lymph node stations, from November 2001 to May 2003, were ana1ysed retrospectively. Only patients with cN0-1 status on computed tomography (CT) referred for surgery, were included in this study. RESULTS Mean age of patients was 66.6 +/- 8.1 years with a male to female ratio of 17:5. Mean number of lymph node stations dissected was 5.8 +/- 1.8. 41 percent had squamous cell carcinoma, 45.5 percent had adenocarcinoma, and 4.5 percent each had large cell carcinoma, bronchioalveolar carcinoma or a lymphoepithelial carcinoma. pN2 metastases were found in 27.3 percent of patients. The sensitivity of cN0-1 was only 12.5 percent, with a specificity of 92.9 percent and an area under the receiver operating characteristics curve of 0.53. The positive and negative predictive values of cN0-1 status were 50 percent and 65 percent, respectively, with an accuracy of 59 percent. 41 percent of patients were understaged with 27.3 percent in pathological stage III. Curative resections were achieved in 59 percent of patients. CONCLUSION The sensitivity of cN0-1 status based on CT alone is extremely poor when compared with pN status from SMLD. Based on cN0-1 status alone without SMLD, 27.3 percent of patients in pN2 would have been understaged. We recommend that all patients with cN0-1 status should undergo SMLD of at least three appropriate mediastinal node stations, for more accurate staging.
Health-related quality of life of outpatients with systolic and isolated diastolic dysfunction: Sado Heart Failure Study.

BACKGROUND The impact of isolated diastolic dysfunction (IDD) and systolic dysfunction (SD) on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS To evaluate HRQOL in patients with IDD and SD under treatment, information on outpatients aged 60-84 years was extracted from the records of 4,500 consecutive individuals who underwent echocardiographic examination at Sado General Hospital. The medical records of these patients were reviewed and a questionnaire, including the Medical Outcome Study Short Form 36, was mailed to 71 IDD and 99 SD patients; answers were obtained from 66 and 91 patients, respectively. The HRQOL of patients with cardiac dysfunction was impaired even when echocardiographic parameters improved with treatment. Patients with IDD showed an impairment of HRQOL similar to those with SD. Compared with males, female patients had a larger and more significant reduction in the physical and mental components of the HRQOL score. These scores correlated positively with exercise capacity in patients with IDD or SD. CONCLUSIONS Impaired HRQOL, in both its mental and physical components, is a serious problem for IDD and SD patients under treatment. Because exercise intolerance may underlie the reduced HRQOL, improving exercise capacity could be an important target for managing outpatients with heart failure.
Survival Analysis Part 15 of a Series on Evaluation of Scientific Publications

Cite this as: I n many areas of medicine, the primary target parameter is the time until an event occurs. Examples include the time from diagnosis of lung cancer to death, the time from fitting dentures to first repair, and the time from the beginning of treatment for urinary incontinence until successful treatment outcome. An “event” may be either success (cure) or failure (death). It is important that both the beginning of the period of time and the time of the event are clearly defined. The time between the two is generally called survival time, even when the event which ends it is not death. Almost all specialized medical publications include articles in which survival analysis techniques are used. A recent example of this is a trial in patients with brain tumors. Von Hoff et al. (1) investigated 280 children and young people with medulloblastoma in the two-arm, randomized trial HIT ’91 (HIT = Hirntumor [German for brain tumor]). Patients in arm 1 received chemotherapy before and after radiotherapy (“sandwich” chemotherapy), while patients in arm 2 first received radiotherapy and then chemotherapy (maintenance chemotherapy). The trial investigated whether one of the two types of treatment led to longer patient survival times. In order to interpret the results and value of such publications correctly, readers should be familiar with the methods used to analyze survival times. This article provides a step-by-step introduction to survival analysis techniques based on the HIT ’91 trial and enables readers to understand and interpret them themselves.
Deterministic differential Games under Probability Knowledge of Initial Condition

We study a zero-sum differential game where the players have only an unperfect information on the state of the system. In the beginning of the game only a random distribution on the initial state is available. The main result of the paper is the existence of the value obtained through an uniqueness result for Hamilton-Jacobi-Isaacs equations stated on the space of measure in ℝn. This result is the first step for future work on differential games with lack of information.
Superantigen‐mediated cellular cytotoxicity is dependent on antigen expression, but independent of the P‐glycoprotein multidrug resistance phenotype

Superantigen‐activated T cells can be targeted by monoclonal antibodies (mAb) to lyse MHC class II negative tumour cells. In this study we determined the susceptibility of the T‐lymphoblastoid leukaemic cell line CCRF‐CEM and its multidrug resistant sublines CCRF VCR100, CCRF VCR1000 and CCRF ADR5000 to lysis by monoclonal antibody‐targeted and superantigen‐activated T cells (superantigen‐dependent cellular cytotoxicity, SDCC). A recombinant fusion protein of protein A and the superantigen Staphylococcus enterotoxin A (SEA) was used together with the mAbs anti‐CD7, anti‐CD38, anti‐CD45RA and 4E3 (anti‐P‐glycoprotein) to correlate susceptibility to SDCC with expression of the MDR1‐gene product. Our results demonstrated SDCC to be independent of MDR1‐gene expression. This was further confirmed by blocking the function of Pgp in the leukaemic cell lines with a cyclosporine A derivative, which had no influence on SDCC. As expected, expression of the respective cell surface antigens on target cells had a strong impact on SDCC, although other factors seem to influence efficiency of SDCC as well.
Spaced Retrieval Enhances Memory for a Name–Face–Occupation Association in Older Adults With Probable Alzheimer's Disease

ABSTRACT The authors trained 4 older adults with probable Alzheimer's disease to recall a name–face–occupation association using the spaced retrieval technique. Six training sessions were administered over a 2-week period. On each trial, participants selected a target photograph and stated the target name and occupation at increasingly longer retention intervals, contingent upon successful recall. Two transfer tasks were included to determine whether the trained association transferred to the person whose picture served as the training stimulus. Results yielded a positive effect of spaced retrieval on memory for the trained association. Analyses of errors revealed that participants remembered the target person's occupation more often than his or her name. There was modest evidence of transfer of the name–face–occupation association to the actual person. Implications of these data for memory remediation and quality of life in cognitively impaired older adults are considered.
Feasibility of carotid artery stenting with double cerebral embolic protection in high‐risk patients

Previous trials comparing carotid artery stenting (CAS) with carotid endarterectomy have shown that the former can increase the stroke rate. However, in the last years, because of the improvements either of the technique or the improvement of the stents and embolic protection devices (EPD), CAS has become a very competitive procedure. In this study, we tried to assess the feasibility and the safety of using double EPD (proximal and distal) in high‐risk patients.
Voice-Related Symptoms and Their Effects on Quality of Life

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to identify the extent to which selected voice symptoms formed underlying constructs called factors, and the degree to which these factors influenced specific quality-of-life domains among a group of relatively healthy older adults. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was completed in October 2010 by 461 individuals 50 years of age and older. The questionnaire items included demographics, medical history, health, voice use, and voice symptoms. Quality-of-life indicators were used from the Short Form 36 Health Survey, an 8-scale measure of functional health and well-being. Results: Two clusters of symptoms were identified in the factor analysis. One cluster, consisting of 5 voice-related symptoms and labeled “phonatory effort,” shared all significant negative correlations with health outcomes, whereas the other cluster, consisting of 2 voice-related symptoms and labeled “chronic throat condition,” had a pattern of sharing significant negative correlations with only 3 health outcomes. All voice symptoms had significant negative correlations with general health, bodily pain, and energy/fatigue. Conclusions: Voice-related symptoms share complex relationships with and have negative effects on health outcomes. The specific mechanisms of impact need further research in order for us to better understand these effects on quality of life and how to prevent and treat the symptoms.
Research on information organization model for microblog platform

This paper introduces the features of microblog platform, and presents four layer model for macro organization of such platform. We also mention event based microblog information recording and organization methods, define the core information behavior, event and information entities as well as the basic dimentions of different entities. We discuss the user interface in the view of navigation and information unit display.
Integrating Gerontology and Community Concepts Through Simulation

Abstract This article describes an innovative simulation experience for nursing students. Faculty from a community health nursing course and a course in gerontology worked together to provide a comprehensive simulation experience that combined low-fidelity and high-fidelity experiences that provided an integrated learning experience and gave faculty with an opportunity to collaborate to improve outcomes. Student and faculty feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Future plans include incorporating a third didactic course, Leadership and Management, and working with other disciplines to demonstrate interprofessional collaboration.
A novel mems charge-pump circuit

This paper presents a novel MEMS charge-pump circuit design and simulation for PLL applications. The proposed circuit increases switching speed, minimizes power consumption and reduces the static Charge and Charge injection cancellation. The Advanced Design System (ADS), from Agilent Technologies are used in the proposed structure for high frequency applications. The use of electrostatic MEMS switches is attractive because of its advantages, such as very low power consumption, low insertion loss and high isolation. This paper introduces a use of special design MEMS as a charge pump circuit, replacing the GaAs FET switch with MEMS switch. The proposed charge pump circuit can generate higher output voltage with 66.3% improvement when compared with the charge pump using MOS devices.
Building Competence: A Historical Perspective of Competency-Based Education

A flurry of new instructional approaches has recently emerged in post-secondary education; one approach receiving the most attention is competency-based education (CBE). While many think CBE is relatively new, its roots are deeply seeded in decades-old pedagogical philosophies. The frequency with which CBE is now appearing in conversations about higher education instruction and reform gives the false impression that most practitioners actually know what CBE is, or how it contrasts with other instructional approaches. In fact, the modern dilemma faced by many in higher education is that few institutional leaders have a comprehensive understanding of what CBE is, how it differs from other instructional approaches, the historical significance behind it, and how it might be used to effect pedagogical change and instructional innovation. This chapter explores the historical basis of CBE, its benefits and detriments, and its operational elements.
CLINICAL OUTCOMES OF INTRAVITREAL BEVACIZUMAB VERSUS PHOTODYNAMIC THERAPY WITH OR WITHOUT BEVACIZUMAB FOR MYOPIC CHOROIDAL NEOVASCULARIZATION: A 7-Year Follow-up Study

Purpose: To compare the long-term visual outcomes of intravitreal bevacizumab (IVB) with those of photodynamic therapy (PDT) for myopic choroidal neovascularization over a 7-year period. Methods: Eyes treated with IVB (17 eyes) or PDT (20 eyes) that were followed up for at least 7 years were included in this retrospective study. Myopic maculopathy was classified according to the international photographic classification before treatment. The best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and the chorioretinal atrophy (CRA) size were measured before and after treatment over a 7-year period. Results: The mean change in BCVA at 7 years was greater in the IVB group than in the PDT group (P = 0.044). While BCVA improved from baseline throughout the 7-year period in the IVB group (P = 0.029), there was no improvement in the PDT group (P = 0.266). In subgroup analysis for 18 eyes with preoperative tessellated fundi (Category 1), there was no difference in BCVA improvement (P = 0.166) and CRA size between the 2 groups at 7 years. However, for 17 eyes with preoperative diffuse CRA (Category 2), BCVA remained unchanged in the IVB group and decreased in the PDT group (P = 0.030) at 7 years. Conclusion: IVB resulted in superior long-term functional and anatomical outcomes compared with PDT. In particular, PDT resulted in a greater BCVA decrease and CRA increase compared with IVB in eyes with preoperative diffuse CRA. However, the clinical outcomes were not different in eyes with preoperative tessellated fundi.
Design optimisation of field-intensified permanent magnet machine

In this paper, with the application of an electric vehicle traction drive, the design optimisation of field-intensified permanent magnet machines is considered and explained. Two rotor types are considered in the design optimisation namely a simple salient-pole rotor and a rotor with internal flux barriers. The optimisation algorithm used is explained in detail and optimised machine structures are presented and discussed. Due to high torque ripple a new topology is implemented whereby the adjacent rotor poles and barriers are made asymmetric to avoid skewing the PM rotor. The FE results of the optimised machines are verified by laboratory measurements.
Experimental models for anxiolytic drug discovery in the era of omes and omics

Introduction: Animal behavioral models have become an indispensable tool for studying anxiety disorders and testing anxiety-modulating drugs. However, significant methodological and conceptual challenges affect the translational validity and accurate behavioral dissection in such models. They are also often limited to individual behavioral domains and fail to target the disorder's real clinical picture (its spectrum or overlap with other disorders), which hinder screening and development of novel anxiolytic drugs. Areas covered: In this article, the authors discuss and emphasize the importance of high-throughput multi-domain neurophenotyping based on the latest developments in video-tracking and bioinformatics. Additionally, the authors also explain how bioinformatics can provide new insight into the neural substrates of brain disorders and its benefit for drug discovery. Expert opinion: The throughput and utility of animal models of anxiety and other brain disorders can be markedly increased by a number of ways: i) analyzing systems of several domains and their interplay in a wider spectrum of model species; ii) using a larger number of end points generated by video-tracking tools; iii) correlating behavioral data with genomic, proteomic and other physiologically relevant markers using online databases and iv) creating molecular network-based models of anxiety to identify new targets for drug design and discovery. Experimental models utilizing bioinformatics tools and online databases will not only improve our understanding of both gene–behavior interactions and complex trait interconnectivity but also highlight new targets for novel anxiolytic drugs.
Attitudes towards Collaboration in Multicultural Teams in the opinion of Polish and Chinese Students

Abstract The main goal of this paper is to present results of research that addresses the issue of attitudes towards working in both multicultural and single culture teams among Polish and Chinese students. The relationship between those attitudes and factors that includes individual experiences of research participants as well as characteristics of team tasks was analyzed. The research was conducted with students of one Polish and one Chinese technical university as participants. Research findings indicate that there are several important similarities as well as differences in preferences of two analyzed groups. The most important differences pertain to stronger preference of Polish students towards working in a single-culture team when the task requires assuming responsibility, trust and mutual understanding of team members. Additionally, the declared level of experience in single-culture and multicultural team was differently related with preferences towards these two kinds of team among Polish and Chinese participants. Obtained results may be utilized in order to develop recommendations for effective educational efforts aimed at developing multicultural teamwork competencies of future managers and specialists from both of these countries.
Low frequency chronic electrical stimulation of normal and dystrophic chicken muscle.

The fast‐twitch posterior latissimus dorsi muscle of normal and genetically dystrophic chickens was subjected to continuous indirect electrical stimulation at 10 Hz for periods of 4‐8 weeks. To sustain this in vivo nerve stimulation an internally implantable miniature stimulator device was designed. This regime of stimulation caused complete fatigue of the normal muscle within 5 min of its initiation. The dystrophic muscles maintained a very small degree of contractile activity during this initial phase. Tangible twitching of the muscle returned in 5 week birds between 3 and 5 days and in 10 week birds between 11 and 16 days after implantation. After 4 weeks of stimulation, no significant change was measured in the time‐to‐peak of the isometric twitch response, nor in the half‐relaxation time. The resistance to fatigue was significantly increased in the stimulated muscles when tested with a series of tetani at 40 Hz. The mean fibre area was decreased, in all muscles stimulated for longer than 3 weeks, in comparison to their contralateral controls, except where fibre splitting in dystrophic birds abnormally reduced the control value. The majority fibre type of the muscle was changed from type IIB to IIA. The histochemical reactions for both NADH‐linked oxidation and phosphorylase were distinctly increased in the stimulated muscles. In normal muscle, stimulation increased somewhat the number of nuclei per unit area and changed their intracellular distribution, so that a greater proportion was found adjacent to the sarcolemma. The normal posterior latissimus dorsi muscle responded to chronic stimulation with increases of 3‐6‐fold in its acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity. The maximum change in AChE occurred after 2 weeks stimulation; a steady level, 3 times that of the control unstimulated muscle, persisted at later times. Chronic stimulation suppressed the over‐production of AChE that is characteristic of dystrophic chicken fast‐twitch muscle, to attain a level comparable to the AChE activity in a stimulated normal muscle. Stimulation exerted a strong normalizing influence on dystrophic muscle, as assessed morphologically. The characteristic fibre rounding, fibre hypertrophy and myonuclear proliferation were reduced. This influence was most marked where the stimulation was initiated before the major pathological changes had occurred, but was also significant when commenced in strongly affected birds of 10‐11 weeks.