Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Kodu game lab: improving the motivation for learning programming concepts

Integrating games into classroom programs to enrich learning has become easier with the increased range of digital media and the greater access to cost effective computing. In this proposed research a series of exploratory studies is planned to see if student engagement could be enhanced by embedding games and game development into a regular classroom program. An integrated game development environment will be used to provide an exploratory context for creativity and games to engage students in learning programming concepts.
beta-Adrenergic receptors contribute to hypoxaemia induced vasodilation in man.

1. It was the aim of the present study to investigate the role of the beta-adrenergic receptor in hypoxaemia induced vasodilatation in the human forearm. 2. The study was performed in 12 non-smoking male volunteers. In six subjects the local vascular effects of intra-arterially (i.a.) infused propranolol (0.1 mu kg-1 min-1) was determined during normoxaemia and hypoxaemia (peripheral oxygen saturation; SpO2 80%), and compared with the contra-lateral (control) arm. beta-adrenergic receptor blockade by propranolol was confirmed by i.a. infusions of adrenaline. In six other subjects the effects of incremental hypoxaemia (SpO2 90, 85, 80%) on forearm- and finger blood flow was investigated. A difference between these vascular beds is the absence of vascular beta-adrenergic receptors in the finger. Forearm- and finger blood flow were measured by venous occlusion plethysmography. Plasma levels of (nor-)adrenaline were determined in both arterial and venous blood samples. Hypoxaemia was attained by gradual decompression of a hypobaric chamber and individually adjusted. 3. During normoxaemia the single infusion of propranolol did not influence forearm vascular resistance. In contrast, during hypoxaemia a net vasoconstriction was observed in the arm treated with propranolol, which was significantly different (P = 0.009) from the vasodilatation in the control arm (mean difference in response 40%; 95% confidence interval 13.2-66.8). The net arterio-venous spillover of noradrenaline from the forearm increased after the first 15 min of hypoxaemia (P < 0.05) and returned to baseline in the next 15 min. Arterial and venous plasma levels of adrenaline during hypoxaemia remained unchanged compared with normoxaemia. In the second set of experiments incremental levels of hypoxaemia induced a vasoconstriction in the finger, which was significantly different (P = 0.025) from the vasodilatation in the forearm (mean difference in response 300%; 95% confidence interval 63-537). 4. The data indicate that beta-adrenergic receptors contribute to hypoxaemia induced vasodilatation, despite unaltered adrenaline plasma concentrations.
Trust and sources of health information: the impact of the Internet and its implications for health care providers: findings from the first Health Information National Trends Survey.

BACKGROUND The context in which patients consume health information has changed dramatically with diffusion of the Internet, advances in telemedicine, and changes in media health coverage. The objective of this study was to provide nationally representative estimates for health-related uses of the Internet, level of trust in health information sources, and preferences for cancer information sources. METHODS Data from the Health Information National Trends Survey were used. A total of 6369 persons 18 years or older were studied. The main outcome measures were online health activities, levels of trust, and source preference. RESULTS Analyses indicated that 63.0% (95% confidence interval [CI], 61.7%-64.3%) of the US adult population in 2003 reported ever going online, with 63.7% (95% CI, 61.7%-65.8%) of the online population having looked for health information for themselves or others at least once in the previous 12 months. Despite newly available communication channels, physicians remained the most highly trusted information source to patients, with 62.4% (95% CI, 60.8%-64.0%) of adults expressing a lot of trust in their physicians. When asked where they preferred going for specific health information, 49.5% (95% CI, 48.1%-50.8%) reported wanting to go to their physicians first. When asked where they actually went, 48.6% (95% CI, 46.1%-51.0%) reported going online first, with only 10.9% (95% CI, 9.5%-12.3%) going to their physicians first. CONCLUSION The Health Information National Trends Survey data portray a tectonic shift in the ways in which patients consume health and medical information, with more patients looking for information online before talking with their physicians.
Faithful patients: the effect of long-term physician-patient relationships on the costs and use of health care by older Americans.

OBJECTIVES This study examined the impact of duration of physician-patient ties on the processes and costs of medical care. METHODS The analyses used a nationally representative sample of Americans 65 years old or older who participated in the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey in 1991 and had a usual source of care. RESULTS Older Americans have long-standing ties with their physicians; among those with a usual source of care, 35.8% had ties enduring 10 years or more. Longer ties were associated with a decreased likelihood of hospitalization and lower costs. Compared with patients with a tie of 1 year or less, patients with ties of 10 years or more incurred $316.78 less in Part B Medicare costs, after adjustment for key demographic and health characteristics. However, substantial impacts on the use of selected preventive care services and the adoption of certain healthy behaviors were not observed. CONCLUSIONS This preliminary study suggests that long-standing physician-patient ties foster less expensive, less intensive medical care. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings and to understand how duration of tie influences the processes and outcomes of care.
Table Size Reduction Methods for Faithfully Rounded Lookup-Table-Based Multiplierless Function Evaluation

Table-lookup-and-addition methods provide multiplierless function evaluation using multiple lookup tables and a multioperand adder. In spite of their high-speed operation, they are only practical in low-precision applications due to the fast increase in table size with precision width. In this brief, we present two methods for table size reduction by decomposing the original table of initial values into two or three tables with fewer entries and/or smaller bit width. The proposed table decompositions do not incur any extra rounding errors so that the original table can be completely recovered. Experimental results demonstrate significant saving of table sizes compared with the best of the prior designs of the multipartite methods.
Studies with ZD1839 in preclinical models.

ZD1839 (Iressa; AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP, Wilmington, DE) is an orally active, selective inhibitor of epidermal growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase (EGFR-TK) that blocks signaling pathways responsible for driving proliferation, invasion, and survival of cancer cells. In preclinical studies of cell lines and human tumor xenografts, ZD1839 as single-agent therapy produced growth inhibition in a wide variety of common solid tumor types including lung, prostate, breast, colon, and ovarian cancers. In these models, ZD1839 inhibited growth of tumor xenografts with high, moderate, and low expression of EGFR. The A431 vulvar carcinoma model, which expresses abnormally high levels of EGFR, was particularly sensitive to ZD1839 treatment, leading to tumor regression. When ZD1839 was coadministered with cytotoxic chemotherapy agents or radiotherapy, additive or even synergistic antitumor activity was achieved. The inhibition observed with ZD1839 treatment was not restricted to advanced metastatic tumors, but also extended to early lesions such as breast xenografts of human ductal carcinoma in situ. Inhibition of EGFR-TK has also been shown to delay the onset of tumor development in a transgenic animal model. The diverse and profound antitumor activities attained with ZD1839 treatment in tumor cells and in xenograft tumor models provided the rationale for clinical development of ZD1839. Ongoing preclinical studies continue to support the importance of EGFR-TK activity in the biology of solid tumors.
Ethics and Learning Analytics: Charting the (Un)Charted

As the field of learning analytics matures, and discourses surrounding the scope, definition, challenges, and opportunities of learning analytics become more nuanced, there is benefit both in reviewing how far we have come in considering associated ethical issues and in looking ahead. This chapter provides an overview of how our own thinking has developed and maps our journey against broader developments in the field. Against a backdrop of technological advances and increasing concerns around pervasive surveillance and the role and unintended consequences of algorithms, the development of research in learning analytics as an ethical and moral practice provides a rich picture of fears and realities. More importantly, we begin to see ethics and privacy as crucial enablers within learning analytics. The chapter briefly locates ethics in learning analytics in the broader context of the forces shaping higher education and the roles of data and evidence before tracking our personal research journey, highlighting current work in the field, and concluding by mapping future issues for consideration.
A Scalable Digitalized Buffer for Gigabit I/O

A serial input-output (I/O) composed of inverters and transmission gates only is proposed to achieve high supply voltage scalability and low area overhead. The inverter with an inductive biasing circuit can extend bandwidth, and reduce the simultaneous switching noise simultaneously. With a TSMC 0.18-mum CMOS process, the I/O occupies an area of 0.014 mm2 and operates from 4 Gbps@1.9 V to 1.5 Gbps@1.1 V.
Incorporation of future costs in health economic analysis publications: current situation and recommendations for the future

Future costs are not usually included in economic evaluations. The aim of this study was to assess the extent of published economic analyses that incorporate future costs. A systematic review was conducted of economic analyses published from 2008 to 2013 in three general health economics journals: PharmacoEconomics, Value in Health and the European Journal of Health Economics. A total of 192 articles met the inclusion criteria, 94 of them (49.0%) incorporated future related medical costs, 9 (4.2%) also included future unrelated medical costs and none of them included future nonmedical costs. The percentage of articles including future costs increased from 2008 (30.8%) to 2013 (70.8%), and no differences were detected between the three journals. All relevant costs for the perspective considered should be included in economic evaluations, including related or unrelated, direct or indirect future costs. It is also advisable that pharmacoEconomic guidelines are adapted in this sense.
Anaerobic and aerobic batch cultivations of Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutants impaired in glycerol synthesis

Glycerol is formed as a by‐product in production of ethanol and baker's yeast during fermentation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae under anaerobic and aerobic growth conditions, respectively. One physiological role of glycerol formation by yeast is to reoxidize NADH, formed in synthesis of biomass and secondary fermentation products, to NAD+. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether introduction of a new pathway for reoxidation of NADH, in a yeast strain where glycerol synthesis had been impaired, would result in elimination of glycerol production and lead to increased yields of ethanol and biomass under anaerobic and aerobic growth conditions, respectively. This was done by deletion of GPD1 and GPD2, encoding two isoenzymes of glycerol 3‐phosphate dehydrogenase, and expression of a cytoplasmic transhydrogenase from Azotobacter vinelandii, encoded by cth. In anaerobic batch fermentations of strain TN5 (gpd2‐Δ1), formation of glycerol was significantly impaired, which resulted in reduction of the maximum specific growth rate from 0.41/h in the wild‐type to 0.08/h. Deletion of GPD2 also resulted in a reduced biomass yield, but did not affect formation of the remaining products. The modest effect of the GPD1 deletion under anaerobic conditions on the maximum specific growth rate and product yields clearly showed that Gdh2p is the important factor in glycerol formation during anaerobic growth. Strain TN6 (gpd1‐Δ1 gpd2‐Δ1) was unable to grow under anaerobic conditions due to the inability of the strain to reoxidize NADH to NAD+ by synthesis of glycerol. Also, strain TN23 (gpd1‐Δ1 gpd2‐Δ1 YEp24‐PGKp‐cth‐PGKt) was unable to grow anaerobically, leading to the conclusion that the NAD+ pool became limiting in biomass synthesis before the nucleotide levels favoured a transhydrogenase reaction that could convert NADH and NADP+ to NADPH and NAD+. Deletion of either GPD1 or GPD2 in the wild‐type resulted in a dramatic reduction of the glycerol yields in the aerobic batch cultivations of strains TN4 (gpd1‐Δ1) and TN5 (gpd2‐Δ1) without serious effects on the maximum specific growth rates or the biomass yields. Deletion of both GPD1 and GPD2 in strain TN6 (gpd1‐Δ1 gpd2‐Δ1) resulted in a dramatic reduction in the maximum specific growth rate and in biomass formation. Expression of the cytoplasmic transhydrogenase in the double mutant, resulting in TN23, gave a further decrease in μmax from 0.17/h in strain TN6 to 0.09/h in strain TN23, since the transhydrogenase reaction was in the direction from NADPH and NADP+ to NADH and NADP+. Thus, it was not possible to introduce an alternative pathway for reoxidation of NADH in the cytoplasm by expression of the transhydrogenase from A. vinelandii in a S. cerevisiae strain with a double deletion in GPD1 and GPD2. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Steroid release in vitro by two luteal cell types in the corpus luteum of the pregnant sow.

Corpora lutea from sows at 30, 60 and 90 days of gestation were dissociated enzymically, and the components of the resulting cell suspension were separated by sedimentation at unit gravity. Two luteal cell populations of 30-50 micronm diameter and 15-20 micronm diameter were obtained and superfused for up to 18 h with Dulbecco's modified Eagle medium, the cells being supported in a column in a matrix of Biogel. Fractions were collected every 30 min and assayed for progesterone and oestradiol-17beta. At 30 and 60 days of gestation the large luteal cells produced progesterone at an initial rate of approximately 100 ng/h/10(5) cells, which decreased to half this rate at 90 days. The smaller cells also released progesterone into the medium at approximately 15-20 ng/h/10(5) cells at all stages of gestation. At 30 days of gestation, neither cell type released significant amounts of oestradiol-17beta, but from 60 days onwards ,significant and increasing quantities were measured in the superfusates from the larger cells. Both cell types were perfused with porcine LH at the three stages of gestation, and both showed an immediate response in terms of progesterone release which decreased in magnitude with increasing age of gestation. The response of the smaller cells was greater than that of the larger cells.
The Influence of Network Impedance on Conducted Disturbances Within the High-Voltage Traction Harness of Electric Vehicles

Currently, automotive traction systems are increasingly being revised from combustion engine drives to electric propulsion. The high power cables of electric vehicles are routed close to various communication, sensor, or control units. This circumstance results in a tightened challenge for the developing engineers, who need to ensure the electromagnetic compatibility of these miscellaneous and adjacent systems. A trial-and-error approach in the development process of electromagnetic interference filters can only be avoided if the influence of the network impedances within the high voltage traction harness on conducted RF disturbances is known. This contribution presents the current methodology of determining the conducted emissions of power inverters for electric driven cars. It highlights the differences between the traditional low-voltage cable wiring and novel high-voltage traction harnesses, and their impact on the network impedances. An adaption of the line impedance stabilization networks used recently to the characteristic impedance of the high-voltage cables applied shows the influence of termination mismatch on conducted emissions within the traction harness. High-voltage components employed in a car are usually supplied by a traction accumulator battery, which acts as transmission line termination. The influence of a battery's input impedances on disturbances within a component level EMC test setup is shown.
Risk factors for the development of cytomegalovirus disease after allogeneic stem cell transplantation.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease remains an important complication of allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT). We studied viral load kinetics and correlated the viral load and other transplant factors with the development of CMV disease. DESIGN AND METHODS We studied 162 consecutive patients who were CMV seropositive or had CMV seropositive donors. Quantification of CMV DNA was performed by real-time polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS CMV DNA detected was detected in 105 of the 162 patients. The mean peak viral loads were similar at first and subsequent reactivations. The serologic status of the donors and recipients prior to SCT significantly influenced the viral load. The cumulative incidence of CMV disease was 1.8% at 100 days and 6.3% at 365 days after SCT. The peak viral load were higher in patients who developed CMV disease than in patients without CMV disease (log10 3.5; SE +/- 0.26/200,000 cells vs. log10 2.7; SE +/- 0.09/200,000 cells; p=0.02). However, in multivariate analysis, only acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) grade II-IV and a graft from a CMV-negative donor to a CMV-positive patient were significant risk factors for CMV disease. In patients who required more than one course of pre-emptive therapy, acute GVHD and the rate of decrease in viral load during first pre-emptive therapy were significant risk factors for subsequent development of CMV disease. INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSIONS A decrease in viral load during pre-emptive therapy is an important factor for later development of CMV disease.
Mediating role of maternal serum interleukin-1beta and tumor necrosis factor-alpha in the association between environmental tobacco smoke exposure in pregnancy and low birth weight at term

Abstract Objectives: To explore the mediation effects of maternal serum interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) on the association between environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure during pregnancy and low birth weight (LBW) at term. Methods: ETS exposure, birth weight, blood sample and covariates were collected from 195 pregnant women delivered term LBW infants and 195 controls delivered normal birth weight infants in two Maternity and Child Hospitals in Guangdong, China. Maternal serum IL-1β and TNF-α were measured by flow cytometry. Logistic regression models and path analyses explored the mediation effects of maternal IL-1β and TNF-α on the association between ETS exposure and LBW. Results: LBW was significantly associated with maternal ETS exposure (OR = 2.14 (95% CI =1.06–4.32)). TNF-α and IL-1β were significantly associated with both LBW (OR = 1.87 (1.41–2.47) and OR = 1.53 (1.14–2.05)) and ETS (β = 0.32 (0.04–0.60) and β = 0.27 (0.05–0.49)). Traditional mediation analyses indicated the separate mediation effect of TNF-α and IL-1β was 32.2% and 24.6%, respectively. Path analysis revealed the combined mediation effects of TNF-α and IL-1β as 29.4% in the pathway from ETS exposure to LBW. Conclusions: Maternal serum IL-1β and TNF-α may play a mediating role in the association between maternal ETS exposure during pregnancy and term LBW.
Evidence for the Biosynthesis of a Prolactin‐Releasing Factor From the Ovine Pars Tuberalis, Which is Distinct from Thyrotropin‐Releasing Hormone

This study demonstrates the presence of two prolactin‐releasing (PR) factors in media conditioned by primary pars tuberalis cells prepared from dispersed pars tuberalis tissue. One factor was identified as thyrotropin‐releasing hormone (TRH) on the basis of immunoreactivity and following purification by high‐performance liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. The origin of TRH in the pars tuberalis conditioned media was investigated by measuring the expression of glutaminyl‐cyclase (QC) by in situ hybridization. QC expression was not detected in pars tuberalis‐specific cells, but was relatively abundant in cells in the pars distalis and hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus. These data suggest that TRH is not synthesized by the ovine pars tuberalis and more likely originated from the hypothalamic neuronal processes from the paraventricular nucleus that terminate in the median eminence. The second component of the conditioned media PR bioactivity was insensitive to the TRH‐antiserum, less than 1 kDa and was not retained by the C18 reverse‐phase column. The biosynthesis of the PR bioactivity by pars tuberalis cells was investigated using cycloheximide, forskolin and melatonin. Cycloheximide reduced the level of PR bioactivity produced by the pars tuberalis cells. Melatonin inhibited the increased level of PR bioactivity stimulated by forskolin. Collectively, these data demonstrate the synthesis of at least one regulator of prolactin secretion by ovine pars tuberalis‐specific cells.
Prototype of the telematics map cloud service

User experience of the vehicles' telematics services depends on quality of bidirectional network connection between the vehicle and stationary high-performance computing system. In this case, there is a task of ensuring continuous data transmission between the vehicle and stationary computing system in the conditions of highly dynamic networks. The answer is to retrieve data about surrounding networks from external sources. The source may be a telematics map - set of low-level methods, which provide management routines for data about available networks. While vehicle moves along the route, these methods handle the data about surrounding networks, generalize them by geographical and temporal principles, execute queries to a database retrieving list of networks available in the area. As a result, we can schedule connections to wireless networks throughout the route. The article covers technical aspects of implementation of the telematics map information system: data collection and generalization technologies, networks list composition rules. The prototype demonstrates ability to solve the task of networks lists management in moving vehicle under real world radio conditions.