Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N1 Viruses Elicit an Attenuated Type I Interferon Response in Polarized Human Bronchial Epithelial Cells

ABSTRACT The unparalleled spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza A (HPAI) H5N1 viruses has resulted in devastating outbreaks in domestic poultry and sporadic human infections with a high fatality rate. To better understand the mechanism(s) of H5N1 virus pathogenesis and host responses in humans, we utilized a polarized human bronchial epithelial cell model that expresses both avian alpha-2,3- and human alpha-2,6-linked sialic acid receptors on the apical surface and supports productive replication of both H5N1 and H3N2 viruses. Using this model, we compared the abilities of selected 2004 HPAI H5N1 viruses isolated from humans and a recent human H3N2 virus to trigger the type I interferon (IFN) response. H5N1 viruses elicited significantly less IFN regulatory factor 3 (IRF3) nuclear translocation, as well as delayed and reduced production of IFN-β compared with the H3N2 virus. Furthermore, phosphorylation of Stat2 and induction of IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs), such as MX1, ISG15, IRF7, and retinoic acid-inducible gene I, were substantially delayed and reduced in cells infected with H5N1 viruses. We also observed that the highly virulent H5N1 virus replicated more efficiently and induced a weaker IFN response than the H5N1 virus that exhibited low virulence in mammals in an earlier study. Our data suggest that the H5N1 viruses tested, especially the virus with the high-pathogenicity phenotype, possess greater capability to attenuate the type I IFN response than the human H3N2 virus. The attenuation of this critical host innate immune defense may contribute to the virulence of H5N1 viruses observed in humans.
Improving nurse–physician teamwork through interprofessional bedside rounding

Background Teamwork between physicians and nurses has a positive association with patient satisfaction and outcomes, but perceptions of physician–nurse teamwork are often suboptimal. Objective To improve nurse–physician teamwork in a general medicine inpatient teaching unit by increasing face-to-face communication through interprofessional bedside rounds. Intervention From July 2013 through October 2013, physicians (attendings and residents) and nurses from four general medicine teams in a single nursing unit participated in bedside rounding, which involved the inclusion of nurses in morning rounds with the medicine teams at the patients’ bedside. Based on stakeholder analysis and feedback, a checklist for key patient care issues was created and utilized during bedside rounds. Assessment To assess the effect of bedside rounding on nurse–physician teamwork, a survey of selected items from the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) was administered to participants before and after the implementation of bedside rounds. The number of pages to the general medicine teams was also measured as a marker of physician–nurse communication. Results Participation rate in bedside rounds across the four medicine teams was 58%. SAQ response rates for attendings, residents, and nurses were 36/36 (100%), 73/73 (100%), and 32/73 (44%) prior to implementation of bedside rounding and 36 attendings (100%), 72 residents (100%), and 14 (19%) nurses after the implementation of bedside rounding, respectively. Prior to bedside rounding, nurses provided lower teamwork ratings (percent agree) than residents and attendings on all SAQ items; but after the intervention, the difference remained significant only on SAQ item 2 (“In this clinical area, it is not difficult to speak up if I perceive a problem with patient care”, 64% for nurses vs 79% for residents vs 94% for attendings, P=0.02). Also, resident responses improved on SAQ item 1 (“Nurse input is well received in this area”, 62% vs 82%, P=0.01). Conclusion Increasing face-to-face communication through interprofessional bedside rounding can improve the perceptions of nurse–physician teamwork, particularly among residents and nurses.
Synthesis of binary sequences with good autocorrelation and crosscorrelation properties by simulated annealing

Simulated annealing is a statistical computational technique for obtaining approximate solutions to combinatorial optimization problems. An efficient simulated annealing algorithm is used to design binary sequence sets which have good autocorrelation and crosscorrelation properties. Some of the synthesized results are presented, and their properties are better than any other known in the literature. The synthesized binary sequence sets promise to be practically applicable.
Aligning Culture Typologies to Innovative Employee Benefits: Using Cameron and Quinn's Competing Value Framework

Abstract In recent years, major upheavals in the global business environment have paved way for an intensely competitive global marketplace. As such, competition to retain the most skilled and talented employee has grown and organizations use innovative and unconventional strategies to combat this situation. The unique attribute that differentiates successful companies all over the world is their unique organizational culture that helps in achieving organizational effectiveness and helps in retaining and attracting talented personnel. Therefore, HR practitioners nowadays are considering organization culture and innovative employee benefit as an important impetus of employee behavior. As Organization Culture and employee benefits are interrelated constituents of a broad organizational system framework that helps in achieving strategic goals of the organization, alignment and synchronization between the two is very important. When these two important variables of the organization system are not in congruence with each other they send conflicting signals that creates confusion in the minds of employees. This paper investigates the relationship between employee benefits and various organization culture typologies and suggests the best possible scenario for optimal performance. Based on Competing Values Framework which is the most detailed model that describes content and strength of organization culture. We have used various typologies viz. clan, adhocracy, market, and hierarchy and unconventional employee benefits like flexi-time, Employee referral scheme, Educational Benefit and Workplace recreation to put forth 4 propositions . More specifically, authors developed a theoretical framework which finds that clan culture emphasizes on flexi-time & educational benefits programs; adhocracy culture emphasizes on referral scheme & worksite recreational benefits, and market culture is positively associated with employee referral programs Keywords: Organizational Culture, Employee Benefits, Flexi Time, Employee Referral Scheme, Educational Benefit
Green tea epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) promotes neural progenitor cell proliferation and sonic hedgehog pathway activation during adult hippocampal neurogenesis.

SCOPE Adult hippocampal neurogenesis is a lifelong feature of brain plasticity that appears to be critically involved in adult brain function and neurological disease. Recent studies suggest that (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), which is the main polyphenolic constituent of green tea, may be used for the prevention and treatment of various neurodegenerative diseases. We hypothesized that EGCG promotes adult neurogenesis, which may be beneficial to hippocampus-dependent learning and memory. METHODS AND RESULTS We show that EGCG treatment significantly increased the number of 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU)-labeled cells in adult hippocampal neural progenitor cell (NPC) cultures and in the dentate gyrus of adult mice. Meanwhile, EGCG markedly improved spatial cognition in mice. These events are associated with the sonic hedgehog (Shh) signaling pathway. We observed that EGCG triggered a robust upregulation of Shh receptor (Patched) mRNA and protein expression in cultured NPCs as well as an upregulation of the downstream Shh transcriptional target Gli1. These changes were further confirmed in the hippocampus of mice administered EGCG. The blockage of the Shh signal with the pharmacological inhibitor cyclopamine attenuated EGCG-induced hippocampal neurogenesis. CONCLUSION Our results provide strong evidence that EGCG enhances adult hippocampal neurogenesis.
The intervention of surveillance across classification systems.

PURPOSE To analyze the intervention of surveillance across nursing classification systems. DATA SOURCES Published literature and book chapters. DATA SYNTHESIS Surveillance is a clearly established nursing intervention used in multiple practice settings and in response to many diagnoses. The literature and definitions are divided into surveillance of populations and surveillance of individuals. CONCLUSIONS General agreement exists on the process of surveillance, but not on whether there is a time element to surveillance. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS Research is needed on outcomes of surveillance and best practices established. The similarity in definitions of surveillance may allow comparison of outcomes when the diagnosis and practice setting are the same, regardless of the classification systems.
Lymph Node Harvested in Laparoscopic Versus Open Colorectal Cancer Approaches: A Meta-analysis

Increasing researches have reported the safety and efficacy of laparoscopic versus open approach for colorectal cancer resection; however, the number of lymph nodes harvested in the 2 approaches is still unclear. This meta-analysis is to compare the number of lymph node harvested in these 2 methods. We searched the PUBMED, the EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library up to July 1, 2011 for relevant studies. Twenty-four randomized controlled trials, comprising 6264 participants, met our criterion. We found no difference in the number of lymph nodes harvested in these 2 approaches (weighted mean difference=−0.25; 95% confidence interval, −0.57 to 0.08; P=0.542), as well as in subgroups of colon cancer and of rectal cancer. Our meta-analysis suggests that laparoscopic surgery could achieve the same effectiveness with open surgery in relation to lymph node harvested. Surgeons should pay appropriate attention on the excision of lymph nodes, which are associated with long-term benefits of patients.
Maternal serum concentrations of the chemokine CXCL10/IP-10 are elevated in acute pyelonephritis during pregnancy

Objective. Acute pyelonephritis is one of the most frequent medical complications of pregnancy, as well as a common cause of antepartum hospitalization. Interferon (IFN)-γ inducible protein, CXCL10/IP-10, is a member of the CXC chemokine family with pro-inflammatory and anti-angiogenic properties. The purpose of this study was to determine whether maternal serum concentrations of CXCL10/IP-10 change in patients with acute pyelonephritis during pregnancy. Study design. This cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the difference in maternal serum concentrations of CXCL10/IP-10 in pregnant women with acute pyelonephritis (N = 41) and normal pregnant women (N = 89). Pyelonephritis was defined in the presence of a positive urine culture, fever, and maternal clinical signs; blood cultures were performed in 36 cases. Maternal serum concentrations of CXCL10/IP-10 were measured by a sensitive immunoassay. Non-parametric statistics were used for analysis. Results. (1) The median serum concentration of CXCL10/IP-10 in pregnant patients with pyelonephritis was significantly higher than in normal pregnant women (median 318.5 pg/mL, range 78.8–2459.2 vs. median 116.1 pg/mL, range 40.7–1314.3, respectively; p < 0.001); (2) maternal median serum concentrations of CXCL10/IP-10 did not differ significantly among patients with acute pyelonephritis with and without bacteremia (positive blood cultures: median 362.6 pg/mL, range 100.2–2459.2 vs. negative blood cultures: median 298.9 pg/mL, range 108.5–1148.7, respectively; p = 0.3). Conclusions. Pyelonephritis in pregnant women is associated with an increased maternal serum concentration of the chemokine CXCL10/IP-10.
The Development of Human-System Interactivity Metrics for Ubiquitous Service Applying User-Centered Design Methodology

As the ubiquitous era took off, the interactions between ubiquitous services and users have come to take an important position. So it is necessary to develop new evaluation method that evaluates interactivity with a user-centered perspective. The main objective of this study is the development of user-centered interactivity evaluation metrics of ubiquitous service attributes. Detailed goals of this study are as follows. First, existing ubiquitous service evaluation methodologies are reviewed to define the evaluation attributes for ubiquitous service evaluation. Second, user oriented interactive metrics that can overcome the limitations of those service evaluation methodologies, such as personal service evaluation techniques, usability evaluation techniques and psychometrics based evaluation techniques, are developed. As a validation study, suggested evaluation metrics is utilized to evaluate the u-home service, and priority of each metrics is derived. The suggested evaluation metrics can be used to evaluate the interactivity level of ubiquitous service and identify the potential users and their requirements at the stage of service development.
High Expression of Cathepsin E is Associated with the Severity of Airflow Limitation in Patients with COPD

Abstract Background: It was reported that Cathepsin E (Cat E) plays a critical role in antigen processing and in the development of pulmonary emphysema. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of Cat E and airflow limitation in the pathogenesis of COPD. Methods: Sixty-five patients with COPD, 20 smoking control subjects without COPD and 15 non-smoking healthy control subjects were enrolled. Cat E and EIC (Elastase inhibitory capacity) expressions were measured by ELISA in sputum and serum samples and compared according to different subgroups. Results: Cat E concentrations were significantly higher in patients with COPD than smoking control and non-smoking control subjects (P < 0.01). The levels of CatE were inversely correlated with FEV1% predicted in COPD patients (r = −0.95, P < 0.01). The levels of EIC were inversely positively correlated with FEV1% predicted in COPD patients (r = 0.926, P < 0.01). Levels of Cat E were also inversely correlated with the levels of EIC (r = −0.922, P < 0.01). Conclusions: Cat E contributes to the severity of airflow limitation during progression of COPD.
An Integrational Framework of Organizational Moral Development, Legitimacy, and Corporate Responsibility: A Longitudinal, Intersectoral Analysis of Citizenship Reports

In this article, we outline a unique conceptual framework connecting legitimacy types (Suchman, 1995), theories of corporate responsibility (Brummer, 1991), and levels of organizational moral development based on Kohlberg's (1971) moral development stages. In addition, based on Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) categories, we found empirical support for our framework, by content analyzing Fortune 500 corporate citizenship reports from four different industries (i.e., chemicals, motor vehicle/auto parts, pharmaceutical, and utilities), at three data points (i.e., 2002, 2007, and 2012). Our analysis indicates that motor vehicle/auto parts and chemicals industries are at a higher developmental level, and portray moral legitimacy along with social demandingness corporate responsibility in recent years; while the pharmaceutical and utilities sectors are at a lower developmental level, showing signs of pragmatic legitimacy, alongside classical and stakeholder corporate responsibility strategies. This article contributes to the current organizational moral development literature by developing and finding empirical support of a conceptual framework of organizational moral development, legitimacy, and corporate responsibility. In particular, our findings provide a deeper understanding of the differences in moral development levels across four focal industries over a 10‐year timespan.
Genotype frequencies of human neutrophil antigen‐3 in the Chinese Zhuang and Dong populations

Individuals with the human neutrophil antigen (HNA)‐3b/3b type can produce HNA‐3a antibodies, which have been reported to cause severe, sometimes fatal transfusion‐related acute lung injury (TRALI). Our study aimed to determine the genotype frequency of HNA‐3a/3b which will be helpful to estimate the potential risk for forming anti‐HNA‐3a, the clinically relevant antibody linked to TRALI in two different ethnic groups of southern China. Five hundred unrelated and healthy blood donors (284 male, 216 female; 300 Zhuangs, 200 Dongs) from the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region were simultaneously typed for the HNA‐3 allele using a polymerase chain reaction sequence‐based typing (PCR‐SBT) method. Genotype frequencies of HNA‐3a/3a, HNA‐3a/3b and HNA‐3b/3b were 51.7%, 39.7% and 8.6% in the Zhuang population, and 44.0%, 49.0% and 7.0% in the Dong population, respectively. Homozygous HNA‐3b/3b genotype frequency among the Zhuang population (8.6%) was significantly higher than previously reported in African Americans (0.4%), Brazilians (3.6%) and English Caucasians (2.9%) (p < .05). And the HNA‐3b/3b genotype frequency among the Dong population was higher than African Americans (0.4%) (p < .05). This study showed Chinese Zhuang and Dong populations possessed a higher frequency of HNA‐3b/3b genotype, suggesting that they may be at greater risk for developing anti‐HNA‐3a alloantibodies that may cause severe cases of TRALI. A molecular‐based identification of the HNA‐3b/3b genotype in all multiparous female blood donors was suggested to reduce the risk of TRALI following plasma and whole blood allogeneic transfusions.
Architectonic Subdivisions of Neocortex in the Galago (Otolemur garnetti)

In the present study, galago brains were sectioned in the coronal, sagittal, or horizontal planes, and sections were processed with several different histochemical and immunohistochemical procedures to reveal the architectonic characteristics of the various cortical areas. The histochemical methods used included the traditional Nissl, cytochrome oxidase, and myelin stains, as well as a zinc stain, which reveals free ionic zinc in the axon terminals of neurons. Immunohistochemical methods include parvalbumin (PV) and calbindin (CB), both calcium‐binding proteins, and the vesicle glutamate transporter 2 (VGluT2). These different procedures revealed similar boundaries between areas, which suggests that functionally relevant borders were being detected. These results allowed a more precise demarcation of previously identified areas. As thalamocortical terminations lack free ionic zinc, primary cortical areas were most clearly revealed by the zinc stain, because of the poor zinc staining of layer 4. Area 17 was especially prominent, as the broad layer 4 was nearly free of zinc stain. However, this feature was less pronounced in the primary auditory and somatosensory cortex. As VGluT2 is expressed in thalamocortical terminations, layer 4 of primary sensory areas was darkly stained for VGluT2. Primary motor cortex had reduced VGluT2 staining, and increased zinc‐enriched terminations in the poorly developed granular layer 4 compared to the adjacent primary somatosensory area. The middle temporal visual (MT) showed increased PV and VGluT2 staining compared to the surrounding cortical areas. The resulting architectonic maps of cortical areas in galagos can usefully guide future studies of cortical organizations and functions. Anat Rec, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Digital signal injection technique for cancellation of receive-band spurious emissions in FDD cellular transmitters

In this paper, we demonstrate a new technique for cancelling the deterministic spurious emissions from the power amplifier into the corresponding receive band in Frequency-Division Duplex (FDD) systems. Some cellular bands such as band 31 (TX: 455MHz and RX: 465MHz) have very narrow duplex spacing (only 10MHz). In these bands, power amplifier emissions due to nonlinearities are strong enough to severely desensitize the receiver even with 60-70dB transmit signal rejection in the duplexer. We have developed a fully digital technique for spurious cancellation, based on accurate modeling of PA receive band emissions, characterizing the transmitter chain in receive band, and injecting into the transmitter at baseband a cancelling signal located at the duplex spacing offset from the main transmit signal. Experimental results show receiver sensitivity improvement by more than 10dB.
Genetic algorithm guided clustering

Genetic algorithms provide an approach to optimization. Unsupervised clustering algorithms attempt to optimize the placement of like objects into homogeneous classes or clusters. We describe an approach to using genetic algorithms to optimize the clusters created during unsupervised clustering. Hard partitions of the feature space are the members of the population. They evolve into better partitions based upon the fitness function which is a version of the hard c-means optimization function. The methods of crossover and mutation are described. An example of the clustering performance of this approach is shown with the Iris data. The genetic guided clustering is shown to outperform hard c-means on the Iris data in terms of the number of patterns which are correctly placed into a partition whose majority class is the same as the assigned pattern. <<ETX>>
Metabolic Effects of Norepinephrine and Dobutamine in Healthy Volunteers

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effects of norepinephrine (n = 9) and dobutamine (n = 7) on carbohydrate and protein metabolism in healthy volunteers in comparison with a control group (n = 9). Norepinephrine (0.1 &mgr;g/kg min), dobutamine (5 &mgr;g/kg min), or placebo was infused for 240 min. The plasma concentration of glucose, lactate, epinephrine, norepinephrine, insulin, and glucagon were determined. Glucose and urea production and leucine flux were measured using a tracer technique. Norepinephrine caused a persisting rise in plasma glucose concentration, whereas the increase in glucose production was only transient. A minor increase in plasma lactate concentration was observed, but it did not exceed the physiological range. No change in leucine flux, urea production, or plasma concentration of insulin, glucagon, or epinephrine was found. Dobutamine slightly decreased glucose production, whereas the plasma concentration of glucose and lactate did not change. The reduction in leucine flux was paralleled by a decrease in urea production. No change in the plasma concentration of insulin, glucagon, or the catecholamines was observed. In conclusion, both norepinephrine and dobutamine have only minor metabolic effects. Because glucose production is enhanced by &agr;1- and &bgr;2-adrenoceptor stimulation, we conclude that dobutamine is only a weak agonist at these adrenoceptors. These minor metabolic actions may make both compounds suitable for critically ill patients because no further increase in metabolic rate should be caused.