Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Atherogenic indices and smoking habits in cigarette smokers

Background and Objective: Dyslipidemia is a mechanistic factor between cigarette smoking and cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Normolipidemic smokers may still be at risk of CVD, hence the need to better characterize serum lipids with atherogenic indices. This study aimed at determining atherogenic indices in relation to smoking habits in cigarette smokers. Materials and Methods: The case–control study compared lipid indices of sixty male smokers with six anthropometrically matched non-smokers. Three comparable subgroups of smoking habits were statistically tested. Associations of serum lipids, atherogenic indices, and smoking habits were also determined. Results: Significant high (P < 0.001) atherogenic indices, proatherogenic lipids (total cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c), very LDL-c, non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol [HDL-c]), and significant low (P < 0.001) HDL-c were observed in smokers compared to controls. Significant differences (P < 0.002) in serum lipids and atherogenic indices were observed within the subgroups of cigarette sticks smoked per day. Significant positive (P < 0.002) correlation of cigarette sticks smoked per day with proatherogenic lipids and atherogenic indices was observed in smokers, whereas significant inverse (P < 0.001) correlation was observed with HDL-c. Conclusion: Atherogenic indices proved to be a better predictor of cardiovascular risk, especially in settings of seeming normal lipid profile.
Embracing Laws for Developmental Successions

A model permitting to derive each next embryonic shape from a preceded one is suggested. It implies that each embryonic shape is associated with a definite pattern of mechanical stresses having a tendency to be hyperrestored (restored with an overshoot) after any deviation from the initial value. We describe several morphomechanical feedbacks deduced from the model and apply them to gastrulation of amphibian embryos and to other morphogenetic processes, including the main types of Metazoa development. We relate this model to Van der Pol non-linear equations and discuss the role of genetic and epigenetic parameters in modifying hyper-restoration responses. Key-Words: Self-organization Morphogenesis – Mechanical stresses – Gastrulation – Shape models.
5382 Relaxometry and Contrast Optimization for Laryngeal Imaging at 3 Tesla

Relaxometry and Contrast Optimization for Laryngeal Imaging at 3 Tesla Meredith Ireene Taylor, Haonon Wang, James Badal, Kevin Perkins, Daniel J. Park, Joshua Kaggie, Jonathan Wisco, and Neal K. Bangerter Electrical and Computer Engineering, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, United States, Utah Center for Advanced Imaging Research, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States, Department of Physiology and Developmental Biology, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, United States
Global drivers of population density in terrestrial vertebrates

Aim: Although the effects of life history traits on population density have been investigated widely, how spatial environmental variation influences population density for a large range of organisms and at a broad spatial scale is poorly known. Filling this knowledge gap is crucial for global species management and conservation planning and to understand the potential impact of environmental changes on multiple species. Location: Global. Time period: Present. Major taxa studied: Terrestrial amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Methods: We collected population density estimates for a range of terrestrial vertebrates, including 364 estimates for amphibians, 850 for reptiles, 5,667 for birds and 7,651 for mammals. We contrasted the importance of life history traits and environmental predictors using mixed models and tested different hypotheses to explain the variation in population density for the four groups. We assessed the predictive accuracy of models through cross-validation and mapped the partial response of vertebrate population density to environmental variables globally. Results: Amphibians were more abundant in wet areas with high productivity levels, whereas reptiles showed relatively higher densities in arid areas with low productivity and stable temperatures. The density of birds and mammals was typically high in temperate wet areas with intermediate levels of productivity. The models showed good predictive abilities, with pseudo- R 2 ranging between 0.68 (birds) and 0.83 (reptiles). Main conclusions: Traits determine most of the variation in population density across species, whereas environmental conditions explain the intraspecific variation across populations. Species traits, resource availability and climatic stability have a different influence on the population density of the four groups. These models can be used to predict the average species population density over large areas and be used to explore macroecological patterns and inform conservation analyses.
Effects of a blended learning model integrating situated multimedia lessons and cognitive apprenticeship method on the clinical reasoning skills of nursing students

Background: Current instructional methods have not been successful in equipping nursing students with clinical reasoning skills enabling them to provide quality care to patients. The present research aimed to examine the effects of a blended learning model integrating situated multimedia lessons and cognitive apprenticeship method on the clinical reasoning skills of nursing students. Methods: In this quasi-experiment and control pretest-posttest study, 56 third year nursing students at the Royal Thai Navy College of Nursing were paired based on their academic performance and then assigned to the experimental group or the control group using a simple random sampling method. The experimental group attended a ten-day class integrating the delivery of situated multimedia lessons containing six instructional stages: introduction, observation of the expert cognitive modeling, practice and reflection, demonstration of knowledge, application, and conclusion. In contrast, the control group took a ten-day blended learning class without the incorporation of situated multimedia lessons and cognitive apprenticeship method. The Script Concordance Test was employed to evaluate the participants’ pretest-posttest clinical reasoning skills. Results: The average clinical reasoning scores at start of experimental and control groups were rather similar. The posttest clinical reasoning score of the experimental group was significantly higher than its pretest score ( Mean =73.07±6.58 and 56.12±9.97; p <.001). The score of experimental group at posttest was significantly higher than the control group ( Mean =73.07±6.58 and 68.83±7.85, p <.05 ) . Conclusion: A blended learning model integrating situated multimedia lessons and cognitive apprenticeship method can enhance the clinical reasoning skills of nursing students. However, the application of the model should involve the preparation of learners in terms of self-directed learning and thinking skills, which form the basis of clinical reasoning skills.
Catheter Ablation at the Forefront : The Tribulations of Clinical Trials

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) has become an essential component of ventricular tachycardia (VT) management. In the era of implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs), antiarrhythmic therapy and RFA are frequently required for patients with both primary prevention and secondary prevention indications for ICD implant. ‘‘VTablation’’ encompasses ablation across a spectrum of various ventricular arrhythmias. In addition to ablation of monomorphic VT in the setting of structural heart disease, the evolving field also includes VT in structurally normal hearts (idiopathic VT), premature ventricular contractions (PVC) ablation (for symptoms and optimization of cardiomyopathy), and ablation of ventricular fibrillation via targeting of triggering PVCs. While these sub-categories of VTablation represent significant advancement in the breadth of the field, the focus of this article is to review the evidence for catheter ablation of monomorphic VT in the setting of structural heart disease and to discuss future studies that are anticipated.
MAGNETIC PARAMETERS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH HEAVY METALS IN URBAN DUSTS OF MEXICO CITY

Environmental magnetism techniques have been used as proxy for the heavy metals (HM) monitoring by its correlation with magnetic parameters due its relatively low cost and high resolution. The objective of this work was to explore the relationship between the magnetic properties and HM on urban dusts samples. The magnetic susceptibility (χ) and the saturation isothermal remanent magnetization (SIRM) were measured. The content of HM were analyzed with the X ray fluorescence technique. Discriminant analyses were used to gather the samples in groups, considering the color indexes, and were related with both magnetic parameters and HM content applying multiple regressions. Five groups of samples were classified by dust-color. Group 1 correspond to very dark dusts, group 2 to dark gray, 3 to dark reddish gray, 4 to gray and 5 to reddish. On the first four groups good multiple regressions were found between magnetic susceptibility and HM, with the following values: R 2 > 35%. In the case of SIRM the five groups reached values of R 2 > 37% and p < 0.09. In general SIRM proved to be more sensitive magnetic
Full-field absolute phase measurements in the heterodyne interferometer with an electro-optic modulator

A novel method for full-field absolute phase measurements in the heterodyne interferometer with an electro-optic modulator is proposed in this paper. Instead of the commonly-used half-wave voltage to drive the electro-optic modulator, a saw-tooth voltage signal with the amplitude being lower than its half-wave voltage is used. The interference signals become a group of periodical sinusoidal segments. The initial phase of each sinusoidal segment depends on the phase difference induced by the test sample. In real measurements, each segment is taken by a fast camera and becomes discrete digital points. After a series of operations, the starting point of the sampled sinusoidal segment can be determined accurately. Next, the period of the sampled sinusoidal segments is lengthened and they can be modified to a continuous sinusoidal wave by using a least-square sine fitting algorithm. The initial phase of the continuous sinusoidal wave can also be estimated. Subtracting the characteristic phase of the modulator from the initial phase, the absolute phase measured at the pixel can be obtained without the conventional reference signals. These operations are applied to other pixels, and the full-field absolute phase measurements can be achieved. The phase retardation of a quarter-wave plate is measured to show the validity of this method.
Design and Simulation of Voltage Source Grid Connected Inverter (VSI)

Design and simulation of a voltage source grid connected inverter (VSI) have been introduced in this paper. A grid connected PV array of 250 KW connected to a 25-kV grid via a three-phase voltage source inverter (VSI) was designed and simulated. Mathematical and electrical equations of the design have been presented. Different components of the system have been described and simulated using MATLAB/ SIMULINK. A control unit of the grid-side inverter controlling the maximum power point tracking (MPPT), DC voltage regulator, current regulator, pulse width modulation (PWM) and phase lock loop (PLL) circuit have been discussed.
Isolation of Brucella from a White’s tree frog (Litoria caerulea)

Introduction: Brucellosis is a zoonotic disease that has a significant economic, social and public health impact in many parts of the world. The causative agents are members of the genus Brucella currently comprising 11 species and with an expanding known host range in recent years. Case presentation: One of a pair of White’s tree frogs (Litoria caerulea) developed skin lesions from which a pure growth of a haemolytic organism was obtained. The isolate was identified as Brucella melitensis by matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry, although the colony morphology was inconsistent with this identification. Applying the classical biotyping approach used to subdivide members of the genus Brucella, the isolate did not correspond to any known Brucella sp. However, PCR targeting of genes specific for members of the genus Brucella was strongly positive and 16S rRNA gene sequencing revealed a close relationship with extant Brucella spp. In order to place the isolate more accurately, a multilocus sequencing approach was applied, which confirmed that the isolate represented a novel member of the emerging ‘atypical’ Brucella group, which includes isolates from human disease, from rodents and, more recently, reported isolations from frogs in Germany. Conclusion: This case represents the first report of isolation of a Brucella sp. from frogs outside Germany and suggests that these isolates may be widespread. Whilst there is no evidence to date that these isolates represent a zoonotic threat, the association of other ‘atypical’ Brucella sp. with human disease suggests that appropriate measures should be taken to avoid unnecessary contact with potentially infected amphibians until the zoonotic potential of this group is better understood.
HE 0230−4323 revisited: a new rapidly pulsating sdB star

HE 0230−4323 is a hot sdB star in a binary system. An earlier work demonstrated that the light curve of the system shows a strong (∼4 per cent) reflection effect and also appears to exhibit photometric variations of the type associated with the slowly pulsating class of sdB star (multiple periods in the range ∼1–2 h). In this paper, we show that HE 0230−4323 is, in fact, a rapidly pulsating sdB with at least five frequencies between 3227 and 3532 μHz (periods between 310 and 283 s). The long periods previously claimed were the result of undersampling the light curve at a time interval very close to that of the short periods. The interpretation of the very slow variation (∼0.45 d) as a reflection effect in a close binary is unaffected by these new results.
Efeitos de conteúdos apreciativos e depreciativos de premissas no raciocínio dedutivo de estudantes de psicologia

Recent studies in cognitive psychology show evidence of the infl uence of affective content in statements relating to performance in deductive reasoning tasks. This study investigates the infl uence of evaluative Cagnin, S. , Leme, M. I. S. 820 Trends Psychol. , Ribeirão Preto, vol. 26, no 2, p. 819-834 Junho/2018 content related to the education and professional practice of psychologists on the performance of psychology students in tasks involving categorical syllogisms. It also aims to investigate if there is a relationship between the academic integration of these students, who were evaluated by means of the “Questionário de Vivências Acadêmicas reduzido” (QVA-r), and their sensitivity to this content in logical tasks. Participants were 480 psychology students from Brazilian public universities. They were randomly assigned three evaluative content situations: neutral, appreciative and depreciative. Results suggest that depreciative content has a negative effect on the performance of female students. No relevant relationships were found between academic integration (personal, interpersonal, career, studies and institutional) and the number of valid replies to the syllogisms, which points to the effect per se of this content. The results are relevant in an academic context, since the problem-situations experienced by college students may contain evaluative content that can have an infl uence on deductive reasoning and other processes of a different nature.
The Earnings Returns to Graduating with Honors: Evidence from Law Graduates

This paper aims at studying the causal effects of graduating from a university with an honors degree on subsequent earnings. While a rich body of literature has focused on estimating returns to human capital, few studies have analyzed returns at the very top of the education distribution. We highlight the importance of honors degrees for future labor market success in the context of German law graduates. Using a difference-in-differences research design combined with entropy balancing, we find that graduates of law who passed the state bar exam with an honors degree receive a significant earnings premium of about 14%. The results are robust to various sensitivity analyses.
Towards an automatic lidar cirrus cloud retrieval for climate studies

Abstract. This paper presents a methodology to calculate lidar ratios for distinct cirrus clouds that has been developed and implemented for a site located in the Southern Hemisphere. The cirrus cloud lidar data processing aims to consider a large cloud variability and cirrus cloud monitoring through a robust retrieval process. Among cirrus features estimates for complex scenes that lidar systems can provide, we highlight cloud geometrical information and extinction-to-backscatter ratio (known as lidar ratio or LR). In general, direct information on cirrus cloud microphysics is difficult to derive because LR depends on the presence of ice crystals and their properties such as shape, size, composition and orientation of particles. An iterative process to derive a stable LR value has been proposed. One of the keys is to restrict the analysis to conditions allowing accurate multilayer events. This method uses nonparametric statistical approaches to identify stationary periods according to cloud features and variability. Measurements performed in the region of the metropolitan city of Sao Paulo (MSP) have been used to implement and test the methodology developed for cirrus cloud characterization. Good results are represented by examining specific cases with multilayer cirrus cloud occurrence. In addition to the geometrical parameters obtained, cirrus LR values were calculated for a single day ranging from 19 ± 01 sr to 74 ± 13 sr for 2 observed layers. This large difference in LR can indicate a mixture of ice crystal particles with different sizes and shapes in both layers of the cirrus clouds. Trajectory analyses indicate that both of these cloud layers can be associated with different air mass and should be considered as 2 distinct clouds in climatology.
Iteratively Trained Interactive Segmentation : Supplementary Material

To initialise the click channels, we use the click sampling strategies proposed by [2]. The sampling algorithm works as follows. Positive clicks. First, the number of positive clicks npos is sampled from [1,Npos]. Then, npos clicks are randomly sampled from the object pixels, which can be obtained from the ground truth mask. Each of these clicks are sampled such that any two clicks are ds pixels away from each other and dm pixels away from the object boundary. Negative clicks. For sampling negative clicks, we use multiple strategies to encode the user click patterns. Let us define a strategy set S = {s1,s2,s3}. First, a strategy is randomly sampled from set S and then the sampled strategy is used to generate nneg clicks on the input image. Here, nneg is a number sampled from [0,Ni] where i ∈ [1,2,3] and Ni represents the maximum number of clicks for each strategy. The strategies used here are explained in detail below. • s1: In the first strategy, n1 clicks are sampled randomly from the background pixels such that they are within a distance of do pixels from the object boundary. The clicks are filtered in the same way as the positive clicks. • s2: The second strategy is to sample n2 clicks on each of the negative objects. Here again, the clicks are filtered to honour the same constraints as in the first strategy. • s3: Here, N3 clicks are sampled to cover the object boundaries. This helps to train the interactive network faster.
High Arctic lakes as sentinel ecosystems: Cascading regime shifts in climate, ice cover, and mixing

Climate and cryospheric observations have shown that the high Arctic has experienced several decades of rapid environmental change, with warming rates well above the global average. In this study, we address the hypothesis that this climatic warming affects deep, ice‐covered lakes in the region by causing abrupt, threshold‐dependent shifts rather than slow, continuous responses. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data show that lakes (one freshwater and four permanently stratified) on Ellesmere Island at the far northern coastline of Canada have experienced significant reductions in summer ice cover over the last decade. The stratified lakes were characterized by strong biogeochemical gradients, yet temperature and salinity profiles of their upper water columns (5‐20 m) indicated recent mixing, consistent with loss of their perennial ice and exposure to wind. Although subject to six decades of warming at a rate of 0.5°C decade−1, these lakes were largely unaffected until a regime shift in air temperature in the 1980s and 1990s, when warming crossed a critical threshold forcing the loss of ice cover. This transition from perennial to annual ice cover caused another regime shift whereby previously stable upper water columns were subjected to mixing. Far northern lakes are responding discontinuously to climate‐driven change via a cascade of regime shifts and have an indicator value beyond the regional scale.
Adverse Drug Reaction Monitoring in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Patients in a Tertiary Care Centre

1 Assistant Professor, Dept of Pharmacology, Travancore Medical College, Thattamala P.O, Kollam, Kerala 691020, India 2 Professor & Head of Department, Pharmacology, Sree Mookambika Institute of Medical Science, Kulasekharam, Kanyakumari district, Tamilnadu – 629161, India 3 Anitha Kumari K, Professor & Head of Department, Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Government Medical College, Trivandrum – 695011, India 4 Sanjeev Nair, Associate Professor, Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Government Medical College, Trivandrum – 695011, India Corresponding Author Sangeetha Purushothaman *Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology, Travancore Medical College, Thattamala P.O, Kollam, Kerala 691020, India Email: sangeethap85@gmail.com ABSTRACT Polypharmacy and comorbidities makes the patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) highly susceptible to adverse drug reactions (ADRs). ADRs are associated with considerable morbidity, mortality, high direct and indirect medical costs. This study was undertaken to map out the ADR profile of COPD patients in the inpatient setting. The pattern, frequency, risk factors and causality of ADRs were assessed. The study was a cross sectional survey conducted among inpatients with COPD in a tertiary care hospital in Kerala. ADRs were monitored based on daily questioning for symptoms. Descriptive statistics was used for data analysis. 71% of the patients developed ADRs. Theophylline was the most frequently prescribed drug. Highest proportion of ADRs were due to Systemic Corticosteroids. Overall, the commonest ADR was dyspepsia, however Causality assessment showed that hyperglycemia due to systemic steroids was the most frequent ADR for which a causality could be suggested. Physicians should be especially vigilant about hyperglycemia associated with systemic use of steroids. Presence of comorbidities were not associated with increased prevalence of ADRs; but there was a higher prevalence among males which was statistically significant. Keywords-ADR, ADR monitoring, COPD, Pharmacovigilance, Polypharmacy.