Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of Isoflurane and Halothane When Used to Control Intraoperative Hypertension in Patients Undergoing Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery

The hemodynamic effects of isoflurane and halothane when used to control intraoperative hypertension were evaluated in 20 patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting. The patients were anesthetized with flunitrazepam, fentanyl, pancuronium, and N2O–O2. Control measurements were made after skin incision. When mean arterial pressure increased to 110 mm Hg due to sternal spread or surgical manipulation of the aorta, isoflurane or halothane were used to return arterial pressure to control levels. Using a non-rebreathing system, inspired isoflurane concentrations of 1.5–2.0 vol% or halothane concentrations of 1.0–1.5 vol% were necessary. Measurements were repeated during the hypertensive episode and after treatment with isoflurane or halothane while surgical stimulation continued. Both in halation anesthetics decreased arterial pressure to baseline values within 5–10 min. The lowering of arterial pressure with halothane was not accompanied by significant decreases in the elevated systemic vascular resistance and pulmonary capillary wedge pressure. Cardiac index and stroke volume index decreased markedly when halothane was used (18% and 25%, respectively). In contrast, isoflurane significantly decreased systemic vascular resistance (42%). This reduction of left ventricular afterload was associated with an increase in cardiac index (22%) and a decrease in left ventricular filling pressure. Heart rate did not change significantly. These findings indicate that isoflurane is superior to halothane for controlling intraoperative hypertension during coronary artery bypass surgery.
A systematic review of military head injuries

Introduction This commissioned review discusses military head injuries caused by non-ballistic impacts, penetrating fragments and bullets (including parts of bullets) and behind helmet blunt trauma (BHBT). Method A systematic review of the literature was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses method. The openly accessible literature was reviewed to investigate military head injuries and their severity. Results Fifty-four sources were identified that included pertinent openly accessible information relevant to this topic. Limited injury data exist for non-ballistic head injuries for UK forces, although some international data exist for parachutists. The majority of fatal head injuries are due to projectiles penetrating through the face rather than through the area of the head covered by the helmet. Penetrating head injuries are primarily caused by fragments, but helmets are more commonly perforated by high-energy rifle bullets than by fragments. No reports of a BHBT injury have been located in the literature. Conclusions The description of body segment varies among articles and this makes comparisons among datasets difficult. There is a lack of detail regarding the precise position and severity of injuries, and long-term outcome for casualties. It is demonstrated that wearing military helmets reduces fatalities on and off the battlefield. The risk of BHBT injuries is widely referred to, but evidence of their occurrence is not provided by the authors that describe the risk of BHBT occurring. Further research into the causes and severity of head injuries would be useful for designers of military helmets and other associated personal protective equipment, particularly as advances in materials technology means lighter, thinner and more protective helmets are achievable.
Uno sguardo longitudinale sulle nuove pratiche di intermediazione turistica via internet

The article summarizes the outcomes of a research, began on 1999 at La Sapienza University of Rome and still on. The study focuses on the circulardialogic relation between the social representations and the internet surfing practices, relating to the purchase-research of package tours, studied by the associative network and the questionnaire. Since 2006 the research outcomes showed consistent transformations in the internet stimulus related associative speech, which progressively loose the metaphorical valences whom the medium was anchored in the past. First, the appearance in the associative network of technical words (such as download, html, search engine, etc.) reveals the acquisition of instrumental skills and of practices more and more widespread. Second, the participation to specific social environments, opinions exchange, social comparison (such as forums, social networks, blogs, etc.) becomes more and more frequent, especially with reference to the purchase-research practices of package tours in the internet. This fact promotes the re-intermediation function and cofnidence, necessary to any decision making that becomes an economical negotiation. Moreover, it defines a new trend: the substitution of the traditional function played by the confidence placed on the tour operators or the social relation with the travel agents.
G-CSF, GM-CSF and IL-6 levels in cord blood: Diminished increase of G-CSF and IL-6 in preterms with perinatal infection compared to term neonates

AIM The objectives of this study were 1) to clarify the physiologic regulation of cytokines such as IL-6, G-CSF and GM-CSF in preterm and term neonates and 2) to evaluate the influence of perinatal stress and infection on endogenous cytokine levels. METHOD We examined cord blood levels of G-CSF, GM-CSF and IL-6 using a bioassay in 43 term and 44 preterm neonates. RESULTS Compared to normal neonates (G-CSF: mean (m) = 97.6 +/- 16.3 pg/ml; IL-6: m = 20.2 +/- 4.6 pg/ml), we found elevated G-CSF levels in newborns with perinatal stress (m = 247.1 +/- 72.1 pg/ml; p = 0.003) and increased levels for G-CSF (m = 8980.9 +/- 4388 pg/ml; p = 0.0003) and IL-6 (m = 705 +/- 322.3 pg/ml; p = 0.025) in neonates with infection. Term newborns with infection had higher G-CSF levels than preterms (m = 15575 +/- 9374 pg/ml versus m = 5384.1 +/- 4470.9 pg/ml; p = 0.024). G-CSF levels of newborns with infection were correlated with birth weight (r = 0.50; p = 0.024) but not with gestational age (r = 0.40; p = 0.057). GM-CSF was only detectable in cord blood in 4 cases of normal healthy neonates. CONCLUSIONS The response of G-CSF levels in preterms to infection is diminished. Body cell mass is more important than gestational age to provide high G-CSF levels during states of infection.
Parallel investments in multiple call and put options for the tracking of desired profit profiles

A hierarchical algorithm is presented for optimally and automatically combining various option investments to cost-efficiently realize a desired profit-vs.-underlying-price profile (profit profile). The algorithm assumes that a user-defined reference shape is defined and a set of plain vanilla options in which long and short investment positions can be taken are given. Within the presented framework, the desired profit profile can be of arbitrary piecewise-affine (PWA) shape. Depending on future underlying price predictions, it typically represents a bearish or bullish market outlook, or displays bi-modal shape for conditional market outlooks. The method provides a tool for portfolio optimization that is flexible enough to trade off different user-preferences such as exploiting on conditional market outlooks, realizing leverage, and most notably guaranteeing predictable worst-case losses for risk-minimization. The framework can easily be extended to account for different derivative contracts such as exotic options.
A Fast Turning Method for Biped Robots With Foot Slip During Single-Support Phase

For a biped robot to have the capability to change the direction of locomotion fast without tripping itself is important in enhancing its mobility. This paper proposes a new method to realize a quick and natural turn, or to make an abrupt change in the walking direction of a biped robot by taking advantage of a foot slip, which is created intentionally between the sole of the foot and the ground. By using the slip at the supporting foot, the robot can turn its body, in a single step, beyond the kinetic limit of its yaw joint. Thus, the proposed method makes it possible for the robot to make a single turning motion during the single-support phase in order to achieve a change in the locomotion that would not be possible unless the robot takes multiple steps. This reduces the time and the amount of space needed for a biped robot to make a turn. The mathematical conditions for a foot slip to occur are derived based on a simplified 3-D dynamic model of a biped robot consisting of three parts: a swing leg, a supporting leg, and the rest of the body. Under these conditions, the desired translational and rotational trajectories for the swing foot and the main body are generated based on the expected floor surface condition. Computer simulations and experiments were carried out to prove the effectiveness of the proposed method for a quick and natural turn.
Resolution of the Early Placental Mammal Radiation Using Bayesian Phylogenetics

Molecular phylogenetic studies have resolved placental mammals into four major groups, but have not established the full hierarchy of interordinal relationships, including the position of the root. The latter is critical for understanding the early biogeographic history of placentals. We investigated placental phylogeny using Bayesian and maximum-likelihood methods and a 16.4-kilobase molecular data set. Interordinal relationships are almost entirely resolved. The basal split is between Afrotheria and other placentals, at about 103 million years, and may be accounted for by the separation of South America and Africa in the Cretaceous. Crown-group Eutheria may have their most recent common ancestry in the Southern Hemisphere (Gondwana).
Evaluation of diverse Cell Range Expansion strategies applying CoMP in heterogeneous network

In this paper, we investigate how picocells overlaid in macrocells expand their coverage areas under different Cell Range Expansion (CRE) strategies in a macro-pico heterogeneous network. Through system level simulations, the relationships among the presented CRE strategies are specified from both qualitative and quantitative perspective, in which network topologies using different CRE strategies are displayed, and load balancing performance is compared in terms of CRE user ratio. Relatively good CRE strategies are derived from statistics. Furthermore, as CRE will largely decrease network throughput due to unexpected interference on the downlink path from Macrocell Base Stations (MBSs) to CRE users, we then apply Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) transmission in heterogeneous deployment to deal with the inter-cell interference. Intensive simulations show that CoMP could significantly improve both cell average Spectrum Efficiency (SE) and 5% cell edge SE, and a recommended value of CoMP bias which decides CoMP user ratio is given at last.
Verification of workplace design guidelines for the control room : Can virtual reality replace the physical mock-up ?

Early identification of potential human factors guideline-violations and corrective input into the design process is desired for efficient and cost-effective control room design. Virtual Reality (VR) technology makes it possible to perform evaluation of the design of the control room at an early stage of the design process, but can we trust the results from such evaluations? This paper describes an experimental validation of a VR model against the real world in five different tasks of guideline verification. Preliminary results indicate that guideline verification in the VR model can be done with satisfactory accuracy for a number of evaluations. However, some categories of guidelines require further development of measurement tools and use of higher model resolution than the model used in this study.
Speeding Changeover in Pharmaceutical Packaging

SHAH, ADITYA NARESH. Speeding Changeover in Pharmaceutical Packaging. (Under the direction of Dr. Wilbur L. Meier Jr.) Pharmaceutical companies increasingly are working to improve productivity and reduce costs in their manufacturing and packaging operations. Expanding markets and innovative marketing strategies have lead to an increased demand in pharmaceutical packaging products. To achieve goals of lower costs, greater flexibility, and increased capacity without substantial investment, pharmaceutical packaging plants are working to streamline their operations by application of lean production and management techniques. This thesis discusses the background of lean production particularly as it relates to the pharmaceutical industry and presents an actual application in a packaging facility of a global pharmaceutical manufacturer. It describes lean production techniques used to reduce cleanup and changeover time in pharmaceutical packaging operations. The changeover reduction process involved evaluating the process with production associates and developing new standard procedures for performing the changeover. It discusses the unique characteristics of a pharmaceutical changeover and highlights techniques used to deal with potential issues within a pharmaceutical operation. The resulting changeover time was reduced by 65 percent resulting in dramatically increased capacity without addition of facilities, capital investments, or negative impact upon product or process quality. Speeding Changeover in Pharmaceutical Packaging
MyoD1 expression levels affect meat tenderness in Nellore beef cattle

The MyoD1 gene play a key role in skeletal muscle differentiation through the regulation of musclespecific genes expression. In this work, we have shown that MyoD1 gene expression can influence the Warner – Bratzler shear force (WBSF) measured on the Longissiums dorsi muscle after 7 and 14 days of meat aging in half-sib families of Nelore breed. Lower MyoD1 expression levels were related to lower WBSF measures. The effect of MyoD1 gene expression on meat tenderness may emerge from its function as transcription factor of genes responsible for muscle development, composition and phenotype. Further analysis identifying the mechanisms which control the MyoD1 expression would be useful to elucidate the effect observed in this study.
Typing of Herpesvirus hominis Strains by a Direct Immunofluorescent Technique 1

Summary A direct immunofluorescent (FA) test was used to facilitate typing of Herpesvirus hominis (HVH) strains. Using specific dilutions of fluorescein-conjugated rabbit anti-type 1 and anti-type 2 sera, HVH strains grown in HEp-2 cells could be typed as 1 if they reacted with both conjugated sera and as type 2 if they reacted only with anti-type 2 sera. In addition, a difference in staining between type 1 and type 2 infected cells was observed: type 1 infected cells showed perinuclear staining and fluorescent granules with either conjugated serum; type 2 infected cells showed no coarse granules and had both perinuclear and nuclear staining. There was total agreement between results using the FA technique and those obtained previously by a mieroneutralization (MN) test in the typing of 95 HVH isolates. When an additional 96 HVH isolates were tested by the FA technique only, the type found correlated well with site of isolation. Current experience with 322 HVH isolates typed by the MN test only, FA test only or by both tests provides further perspective on the relation between HVH type, site of isolation, clinical manifestation, and age of the infected individual.
Cross-layer flow and congestion control for datacenter networks

A key feature of the upcoming datacenter networks is their losslessness, achieved by the means of Priority Flow Control (PFC). Inherited from the cluster and HPC networks that traditionally use link level flow control to prevent packet loss across multiple virtual lanes, channels and/or priorities, this feature is now also becoming widely available in the next generation 10, 40 and 100Gbps Ethernet switches and adapters. Nevertheless, excepting storage protocols such as Fibre Channel over Ethernet, PFC is new and unfamiliar to the majority of datacenter applications and protocols. That is, despite PFC's key role in the datacenter and its increasing availability -- supported by virtually all future Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) products -- its impact on the higher layer routing and transport protocols has yet to be investigated. Hence our motivation to assess the performance exposure of three widespread TCP versions to PFC, as well as to the potentially conflicting Quantized Congestion Notification (QCN) congestion management mechanism, which apparently replicates on Layer 2 some more advanced TCP functionality. As workloads of interest we have selected a few revealing commercial and scientific applications. For quantitative performance evaluation we use two distinct methodologies: (a) Our reference is an accurate Layer 2 CEE 10Gbps network simulator intercoupled with TCP implementations extracted from FreeBSD v9; (b) A hardware setup scaled down in speed and size. The main outcome of our work is that PFC can notably improve the TCP performance across all tested configurations and workloads. This result was validated in both environments. Hence our recommendation to enable PFC whenever this is possible. By contrast, QCN can either harm or help depending on its parameter settings, and essentially, on the co-existence of competing UDP or other non-congestion-managed traffic.
Information Seeking on the Web: An Integrated Model of Browsing and Searching

This paper presents findings from a study of how knowledge workers use the Web to seek external information as part of their daily work. Thirty-four users from seven companies took part in the study. Participants were mainly IT specialists, managers, and research/marketing/consulting staff working in organizations that included a large utility company, a major bank, and a consulting firm. Participants answered a detailed questionnaire and were interviewed individually in order to understand their information needs and information seeking preferences. A custom-developed WebTracker software application was installed on each of their work place PCs, and participants' Web-use activities were then recorded continuously during two-week periods. The WebTracker recorded how participants used the browser to seek information on the Web: it logged menu choices, button bar selections, and keystroke actions, allowing browsing and searching sequences to be reconstructed. In a second round of personal interviews, participants recalled critical incidents of using information from the Web. Data from the two interviews and the WebTracker logs constituted the database for analysis. Sixty-one significant episodes of information seeking were identified. A model was developed to describe the common repertoires of information seeking that were observed. On one axis of the model, episodes were plotted according to the four scanning modes identified by Aguilar (1967), Weick and Daft (1983): undirected viewing, conditioned viewing, informal search, and formal search. Each mode is characterized by its own information needs and information seeking strategies. On the other axis of the model, episodes were plotted according to the occurrence of one or more of the six categories of information seeking behaviors identified by Ellis (1989, 1990): starting, chaining, browsing, differentiating, monitoring, and extracting. The study suggests that a behavioral framework that relates motivations (Aguilar) and moves (Ellis) may be helpful in analyzing patterns of Web-based information seeking.
Measurements of Mutation Rates in B Lymphocytes

It is established that somatic mutation is an important source of antibody diversity in vivo. It is also established that Igh-V gene segments are hypermutable in vitro. This is not a completely satisfactory situation. While there is no reason to believe that Igh-V genes are not hypermutable in vivo as well, direct experimental evidence is lacking. Perhaps experiments with transgenic mice will soon fill this gap. It is not so clear how much higher than normal the rate of hypermutation is. As far as we are aware, there are no direct measurements of mutation rates per base pair per cell generation in mammals, certainly not for lymphocyte cell lines. For a variety of reasons, it is difficult to measure very low mutation rates. The general consensus is that the normal rate should be somewhere between 10(-10) and 10(-12) mutations per base pair per cell generation. Therefore, an experiment designed to directly determine a rate using the compartmentalization test would involve hundreds of cultures, each containing at least 10(9) cells. It is not a trivial problem to find one or a few mutants among so many cells. It is simple to study mutation to resistance to a drug, for example, ouabain or azaguanine, but, as we discussed, there are technical and conceptual pitfalls. The vast excess of dead cells influences the growth of a few mutant cells, particularly in lymphocyte cell lines. Even if this problem could be solved, the mutation rate so obtained would be "per gene(s)" and not "per base pair". The problems associated with cytotoxic agents can be avoided by immunofluorescence methods in conjunction with selective cloning or cell sorting. Using these techniques, we have carried out extensive experiments to determine whether the immunoglobulin mutator system acts, at least partially, on genetic elements other than those in or near the heavy chain variable region gene segment. For an opal termination codon in a heavy chain constant region gene segment, the rate of reversion was less than 10(-7) per base pair per cell generation. This upper limit was fixed by the high rate of small deletions at the heavy chain locus. For an allotype mutation at B2m, the gene encoding beta 2 microglobulin, the rate of mutation was less than 10(-8). This upper limit could be lowered by at least two orders of magnitude by using a high-speed cell sorter.
Immediate restoration/loading of immediately placed single implants: is it an effective bimodal approach?

OBJECTIVE To compare systematically the survival and radiographic marginal bone level changes of two immediate implant protocols in the aesthetic region; immediate single implant restoration/loading in extraction sockets (the bimodal approach) compared with the same in healed sites. MATERIAL AND METHODS A literature search of electronic databases, Cochrane Oral Health Group's Trials Register, National Research Register, conference proceedings and abstracts was performed without language restriction up to 1 August 2008. Hand searching included several dental journals and authors were contacted for missing information. Controlled trials that compared immediate restoration/loading of single implants placed in extraction sites with those placed in healed sites were selected. The meta-analysis was prepared according to the guidelines of the Quality of Reporting of Meta-analyses statement. The data were analysed using RevMan version 5.0 software. A fixed effects model was chosen with standardized mean differences for continuous data, and risk ratios for dichotomous data with 95% confidence intervals. RESULTS Ten studies with 629 implants were included. Immediate single implant restoration/loading in extraction sockets in the aesthetic zone was associated with significantly higher risk of implant failure (risk ratio of 3.62, 95% confidence interval 1.15-11.45, P=0.03). However, the bimodal approach showed favourable marginal bone changes after 1 year. CONCLUSION The review and meta-analysis supported the potential advantages offered by this bimodal approach, but indicated a higher risk when compared with immediate restoration/loading in healed ridges. Further long-term, well-conducted, randomized-controlled studies are needed to confirm the validity of this treatment option.