Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analyse cinématique tridimensionnelle du rachis cervical sain et pathologique in vivo.

Le rachis cervical est une structure multi-corps reliant le thorax et le crâne. Ses dereglements mecaniques et leurs consequences sont une problematique actuelle. La biomecanique fournit des outils pertinents pour quantifier la cinematique cervicale a partir de donnees objectives aidant au diagnostic ou a l'evaluation de l'efficacite d'un traitement therapeutique. L'objectif de ce travail est d'apporter une contribution a l'analyse de l'impact de pathologies cervicales degeneratives ou traumatiques sur sa cinematique 3D in vivo. Une approche globale permettant de caracteriser de maniere non-invasive les mobilites cervicales a ete mise en place a partir d'un protocole specifique evalue en precision et reproductibilite. La caracterisation de l'influence de l'âge et du genre a ete proposee sur un large panel de sujets asymptomatiques. Cette base de donnees a servi de reference pour mettre en evidence la faisabilite de la caracterisation de signatures pathologiques a partir de cas d'application. Une approche segmentaire a ete proposee afin de quantifier la contribution de chaque etage vertebral dans le mouvement. Une methode de reconstruction 3D personnalisee du rachis cervical a partir de cliches stereoradiographiques a ete mise en place pour quantifier les amplitudes segmentaires cervicales dans les 3 plans de l'espace en cliches pseudo-dynamiques. Ce travail de these permet d'aborder la cinematique 3D cervicale in vivo de maniere originale et complete. Cette etude ouvre des perspectives interessantes sur la combinaison entre approche globale et approche segmentaire du rachis cervical, permettant de mieux comprendre et quantifier les dereglements cervicaux.
Behavior, blood pressure variability, and hypertension.

Inquiries into the pathogenetic role of neurogenic and behavioral influences in the development of essential hypertension have been most profitably pursued in borderline hypertensives. In such individuals the confounding effects of vascular and cardiac structural adaptations to high blood pressure are minimized, and unadulterated autonomic nervous system influences are exposed. Repeated demonstrations in borderline hypertensives of personality characteristics of submissiveness, sociability, and inwardly directed anger (1-3), coupled with observations of widespread abnormalities of the autonomic control of hemodynamics (4), including reciprocally increased sympathetic and decreased parasympathetic drives (5), have focused research efforts in biobehavioral substrates of early essential hypertension on abnormalities of the central nervous system processing of environmental inputs. Further characterization of abnormal blood pressure regulation in borderline hypertension has been pursued by the application of controlled laboratory mental stressors; mental arithmetic (6), color-word interference (7), and shock avoidance tasks (8), among others, consistently provoke hyperresponsive pressor reactions in borderlines. Enthusiastic proponents have hypothesized that abnormal behavior, that is, a characteristic central processing mode, evokes repeated hyperreactive pressor events during daily life, provoking cardiovascular or renal adaptations that result in sustained hypertension (9, 10). The purposes of this editorial are to explicate some of the assumptions and implications of this scheme as they relate to the natural history of human essential hypertension and to propose an agenda for future research in the field. Human essential hypertension is identified as a disease with a natural history characterized by a steady increase of blood pressure, which if untreated leads to the development of cardiovascular target organ damage.
Discontinuation of and changes in drug therapy for hypertension among newly-treated patients: a population-based study in Italy

Objectives To assess rates and determinants of treatment discontinuation of or changes in initial antihypertensive drug therapy in a large cohort of patients from Lombardia (Italy). Methods The cohort included 445 356 patients aged 40 –80 years who received their first antihypertensive drug prescription (monotherapy) during 1999–2002. Discontinuation was defined by the absence of any antihypertensive prescription during a 90-day period following the end of the latest prescription. If during the same period a drug of a different class was added or replaced the initial prescription, treatment modification was regarded as combination or switching, respectively. Competing risks methodology was used to estimate and compare cause-specific cumulative incidence. Results Cumulative incidences of discontinuation, combination and switching were respectively 33, 14 and 15% at 6 months, 41, 18 and 17% at 1 year, and 50, 25 and 19% at 5 years since initial treatment. Compared with patients starting treatment with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, the rate of discontinuation was less for patients on angiotensin receptor blockers with a hazard ratio of 0.92 (95% confidence interval =0.90-0.94), whereas increased discontinuation was observed for patients starting with other drugs, mainly β-blockers with a hazard ratio of 1.64 (1.62-1.67); and diuretics with a hazard ratio of 1.83 (1.81-1.85). Conclusion In the general population of Lombardia, discontinuation of the initial single antihypertensive drug treatment is a common phenomenon, whereas switching to another monotherapy and to combination treatment occur at similarly much lower rates. Blockers of the renin-angiotensin system are associated with the lowest incidence of treatment discontinuation.
Effects of positive airway pressure therapy on neurobehavioral outcomes in children with obstructive sleep apnea.

RATIONALE Positive airway pressure therapy is frequently used to treat obstructive sleep apnea in children. However, it is not known whether positive airway pressure therapy results in improvements in the neurobehavioral abnormalities associated with childhood sleep apnea. OBJECTIVES We hypothesized that positive airway pressure therapy would be associated with improvements in attention, sleepiness, behavior, and quality of life, and that changes would be associated with therapy adherence. METHODS Neurobehavioral assessments were performed at baseline and after 3 months of positive airway pressure therapy in a heterogeneous group of 52 children and adolescents. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Adherence varied widely (mean use, 170 ± 145 [SD] minutes per night). Positive airway pressure therapy was associated with significant improvements in attention deficits (P < 0.001); sleepiness on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (P < 0.001); behavior (P < 0.001); and caregiver- (P = 0.005) and child- (P < 0.001) reported quality of life. There was a significant correlation between the decrease in Epworth Sleepiness Scale at 3 months and adherence (r = 0.411; P = 0.006), but not between other behavioral outcomes and adherence. Behavioral factors also improved in the subset of children with developmental delays. CONCLUSIONS These results indicate that, despite suboptimal adherence use, there was significant improvement in neurobehavioral function in children after 3 months of positive airway pressure therapy, even in developmentally delayed children. The implications for improved family, social, and school function are substantial. Clinical trial registered with www.clinicaltrials. gov (NCT 00458406).
Stroke services, stroke networks: is there an ideal model?

Prolonged and significant pain relief can be achieved with repetitive TMS Since the report in 1990 by Tsubokawa1 that epidural motor cortex stimulation was effective in alleviating neuropathic pain, there have been multiple reports of the technique with varying results. A predictive test to improve outcome would have been invaluable in selecting patients for such procedures. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in single sessions were reported to have a predictive effect by Migita2, Canavero3, Lefaucheur4, and others. However, the effects of such a technique over longer periods of time …
Die Art der Ausbildung von Lehrern und die Lerngewinne ihrer Schüler. Eine Übersicht über aktuelle empirische Forschung

Lehrer sind eine der zentralen Ressourcen des Schulsystems. Deshalb zielt die vorliegende Forschungsubersicht auf die "Qualitat" von Lehrern. Dabei gelangten Forscher und Analytiker zu unterschiedlichen Interpretationen. Die Ubersicht uber die empirische Forschung zum Lehrer beginnt mit einer Beschreibung der Methode zur Erstellung der Ubersicht. Im zweiten Teil erfolgt die Anwendung der Methode. Es wird die Frage gestellt, ob Lehrer mit bestimmten Eigenschaften einen groseren Einfluss auf die Lernergebnisse der Schuler haben als solche Lehrer, denen diese Eigenschaften fehlen. Vier Bereiche der Einschatzung der Qualitat spielen dabei eine Rolle: die Einschatzung der Qualitat der Ausbildungsstatte, die Examensergebnisse, die inhaltlichen Studienerfahrungen und die Art der Qualifikation oder die Zulassung zum Lehrerberuf. Abschliesend werden Konsequenzen fur Bildungsforschung und Bildungsverwaltung erortert. (DIPF/Sch.)
Mapping the Corporate Blogosphere: Linking Audience, Content, and Management to Blog Visibility

: Blogs have been a common part of the Web for many years. Individuals create most blogs for their own purposes, but corporations have also begun to develop corporate blogs as a means for communicating with their stakeholders (e.g., customers, partners, investors). In this paper, we extend theory by generating what Gregor (2006) would call a type I theory. Specifically, we develop a theoretical framework for classifying and analyzing corporate blogs that examines blogs’ target audience, their content (focus and function), and how one should manage them. We use this framework to analyze the impact of these characteristics on the visibility of blogs operated by a sample of Fortune 500 companies. Our results show that a blog’s target audience and how its content and management fit with this audience can have significant impacts on blog visibility. We believe this framework provides a useful foundation for studying corporate blogs in the future. use blogs as a medium of corporate communication. We develop a framework for classifying corporate blogs with which we successfully classify a sample of blogs from Fortune 500 companies. We link the dimensions of this corporate blog framework to one important outcome (visibility). Researchers can use this framework to guide future exploration of corporate blog phenomena, and practitioners can use this framework and our recommendations for best practice to help create blogs as part of their corporate communication strategies.
A Novel Clinically Relevant Approach to Tip the Balance Toward Regulation in Stringent Transplant Model

Background. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) actively regulate alloimmune responses and promote transplantation tolerance. Thymoglobulin, a rabbit polyclonal antithymocyte globulin (ATG), is a widely used induction therapy in clinical organ transplantation that depletes peripheral T cells. However, resistance to tolerance induction is seen with certain T-cell depleting strategies and is attributed to alterations in the balance of naïve, memory and Tregs. The exact mechanism of action of ATG and its effects on the homeostasis and balance between Tregs and T-effector-memory cells (Tem) are unknown. Methods. A novel antibody reagent, rabbit polyclonal anti-murine thymocyte globulin (mATG), generated by the same process used to manufacture Thymoglobulin, was used alone or in combination with CTLA4Ig or sirolimus (SRL) in a stringent fully major histocompatibility complex-mismatched murine skin allograft model to study graft survival and mechanisms involved. Results. mATG depletes T cells but preferentially spares CD25+ natural Tregs which limit skewing of T-cell repertoire toward Tem phenotype among the recovering T cells. T-cell depletion with mATG combined with CTLA4Ig and SRL synergize to prolong graft survival by tipping the Treg/Tem balance further in favor of Tregs by preserving Tregs, facilitating generation of new Tregs by a conversion mechanism and limiting Tem expansion in response to alloantigen and homeostatic proliferation. Conclusions. Simultaneous T-cell depletion with ATG and costimulatory blockade, combined with SRL, synergizes to promote regulation and prolong allograft survival in a stringent transplant model. These results provide the rationale for translating such novel combination therapy to promote regulation in primate and human organ transplantation.
QCA based design of reversible carry lookahead generator

In nanoscale logic computing, dissipated heat and device area are the key areas of interest. Ideally zero heat dissipation can be achieved in reversible circuits by preserving information. Among several nano-devices, QCA has elevated functionality in designing reversible circuits at nanoscale. Reversible circuit for carry lookahead generator and its realization in QCA have been reported in this paper. To achieve the proposed design, Toffoli gate based reversible AND operation and BJN gate based reversible OR operations have been used. The designs are verified by comparing the simulation outcome with the theoretical values. This comparison establishes the computing accuracy of the proposed designs. The design can function as a heart for faster low power reversible parallel adder at nanoscale level.
Practical Issues in Ontology Engineering

An opening device is taught for packages comprising a substantially rigid outer wall portion and an inner layer of substantially gas-tight material (preferably a metallic foil), wherein the outer wall portion includes a first tearing notch defining an opening and a second tearing notch defining a grip tongue. The outer wall and the inner wall being interconnected substantially over their total surfaces facing each other with said outer wall portion and said inner layer being separated within an area substantially under said grip tongue. Preferably, the grip tongue is located completely within the opening defined by said first tearing notch.
Ultrastructural morphometric abnormalities of sural nerve endoneurial microvessels in diabetes mellitus

We evaluated 433 transversely sectioned microvessels from 54 sural nerves of diabetic patients with (43) and without (11) polyneuropathy and compared the findings with those of 366 microvessels from 50 sural nerves from controls, spanning the same ages. Whereas the number of microvessels per square millimeter and lumen areas and their size distribution were not significantly different between diabetic patients and controls, striking changes of the vessel wall were found in the nerves of diabetic patients. Mural area containing reduplicated basement membranes and pericyte degeneration were significantly increased in diabetic when compared with control nerves. A very low frequency of microvessel degeneration and endothelial cell separation was also encountered but only in diabetics with polyneuropathy. The microvessel changes we have found in nerve largely confirm and strengthen our previous findings. This study provides additional strong support for the idea that the mural changes of endoneurial microvessels do not relate to aging but do relate to diabetes mellitus. The structural alterations of endoneurial microvessel mirror changes seen in diabetic retinopathy and are sufficiently severe that they may accompany and account for functional alterations of the blood–nerve barrier and endoneurial microenvironment. It remains to be shown whether and how these changes relate to the development of polyneuropathy.
Toggling and Circular Partial Distortion Elimination Algorithms to Speedup Speaker Identification based on Vector Quantization

Vector quantization (VQ) efficiently competes with contemporary speaker identification techniques. However, VQ-based real-time speaker identification systems suffer latency due to distance computation between a large number of feature vectors and code vectors of speakers’ codebooks to find the best match in the database. The identification time depends on dimension and count of extracted feature vectors as well as the number of codebooks. Previous speedup techniques in VQ-based speaker identification decrease test vector count through prequantization and prune out unlikely speakers. However reported speedup factors come with accuracy degradation. This paper proposes techniques to speedup closest code vector search (CCS) based on stationarity of speech. In this paper proximity relationship is substantiated among code vectors extracted through LBG process of codebook generation. Based upon the high correlation of proximate code vectors, circular partial distortion elimination (CPDE) and toggling-CPDE algorithms have been proposed in this paper to speedup CCS. Further speedup is proposed through pruning test feature vector sequence for unlikely codebooks during best match speaker search. Our empirical results show that an average speedup factor up to 5.8 for 630 registered speakers of TIMIT 8kHz corpus and 6.6 for 230 speakers of NIST-1999 database have been achieved through integrating the proposed techniques.
WebAlive: a new paradigm for bringing things to life on the web

In this poster, we propose WebAlive, a new paradigm that brings any Thing in the realm of reality to `life' on the Web by creating an entangled virtual existence for it. For example, consider a physical object like the lamp on your desk. As a human, you are aware of its existence. You can see it, touch it, feel it, interact with it (turn it on, o, etc.), investigate its attributes (color, material, etc.). You can even alter or trash it. Now, imagine that the lamp had a virtual counterpart on the Web such that the two of them were entangled with each other. A software agent on the Web can now become aware of its existence, it can perform actions on it, learn about its attributes and even (with the right capability) alter it just how it was accessible to you. Referring to the most broadest definition of the word Thing, we can extend this entanglement concept beyond physical things like devices, objects, people, etc. to all intelligible things like entities, processes, concepts, ideas, etc. By doing so, we can open a new realm of possibilities where we could have digital access to the world around us. This poster provides an introduction to the paradigm and presents an approach to realize it using Web standards.
Trastorno por Déficit de Atención con Hiperactividad (TDAH) como posible factor mediador para intento suicida en niño de 10 años: Reporte de un caso

El proposito de este articulo es hacer la descripcion de un caso clinico donde se observa una convergencia entre el diagnostico de TDAH e intento suicida, en ausencia de otras enfermedades psiquiatricas comorbidas, describiendo los antecedentes y el proceso de evaluacion. Se trata de un paciente de 10 anos de edad, con diagnostico de TDAH (de acuerdo a los criterios clinicos del DSM IV TR), quien es hospitalizado al presentar intento suicida de alta letalidad por ahorcamiento en ausencia de comorbilidad psiquiatrica alguna, evaluado clinicamente, usando multiples fuentes de informacion y por medio de escalas clinimetricas. A pesar de que la tasa de TDAH es alta en poblaciones con ideacion, intentos y suicidio completado, (casi el doble que los controles)(1), son relativamente pocas las investigaciones que se han realizado de dicha asociacion y ademas suelen intentar explicar la suicidalidad mediante la psicopatologia comorbida (Trastornos afectivos, de ansiedad, de personalidad, abuso de sustancias), sin cuestionar la relacion TDAH-riesgo suicida como mecanismo explicativo de forma independiente. La disfuncion ejecutiva que se presenta en el TDAH, particularmente, la impulsividad, pudiera estudiarse como un posible mecanismo mediador en el riesgo suicida.
Recent experiences with on-line PD testing of MV XLPE and EPR cable

Within the last decade, developments in both detection technology as well as signal processing technology have added significantly to the diagnostic knowledge which can be extracted from on-line partial discharge measurements performed on medium voltage cable systems. Consequently, the diagnostic assessments of the insulation condition of cables and cable accessories improved significantly. In this paper, practical experiences gained throughout the past years of applying non-invasive on-line PD measurements on medium voltage cable systems to assess the insulation condition are outlined and discussed. A framework for application of on-line PD measurements for condition assessment of medium voltage cable systems for predictive maintenance purposes is proposed
Risk factors related to febrile morbidity after abdominal hysterectomy.

OBJECTIVE To assess risk factors related to febrile morbidity (FM) after abdominal hysterectomy for non-malignant diseases. MATERIAL AND METHOD Retrospective review and analysis of the data was carried out on the medical records of patients who had undergone total abdominal hysterectomy (TAH) with or without bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (BSO) for non-malignant gynecological diseases during the period of January 1, 2006 to July 31, 2007. Patients who had had fever before surgery, had been treated with antibiotics within 1 week prior to surgery, had an emergency operation or incomplete data were excluded RESULTS FM was found in 47 of the 450 patients (10.4%) and unexplained fever was the most common cause of febrile morbidity. Type of operation, operative time, estimated blood loss, indication for surgery, antibiotic therapy use, and surgeons' skill were all statistically significant risk factors when univariate analysis was used. After multiple logistic regressions were analyzed, however, only type of operation and skill of surgeons were still significant risk factors. CONCLUSION The significant risk factors related to febrile morbidity were type of operation, and surgeons' skill.
Agmatine protection against chlorpromazine-induced forebrain cortex injury in rats

This study was conducted to investigate whether agmatine (AGM) provides protection against oxidative stress induced by treatment with chlorpromazine (CPZ) in Wistar rats. In addition, the role of reactive oxygen species and efficiency of antioxidant protection in the brain homogenates of forebrain cortexes prepared 48 h after treatment were investigated. Chlorpromazine was applied intraperitoneally (i.p.) in single dose of 38.7 mg/kg body weight (BW) The second group was treated with both CPZ and AGM (75 mg/kg BW). The control group was treated with 0.9% saline solution in the same manner. All tested compounds were administered i.p. in a single dose. Rats were sacrificed by decapitation 48 h after treatment Treatment with AGM significantly attenuated the oxidative stress parameters and restored antioxidant capacity in the forebrain cortex. The data indicated that i.p. administered AGM exerted antioxidant action in CPZ-treated animals. Moreover, reactive astrocytes and microglia may contribute to secondary nerve-cell damage and participate in the balance of destructive vs. protective actions involved in the pathogenesis after poisoning.
Children ’ s body mass indexCohort , age and socio-economic influences

Australian and international policy-makers recognise the childhood obesity epidemic (Wang & Lobstein, 2006) to be one of the most serious threats to the future health of the population and the viability of the health care system (Ludwig, 2007). Among its many adverse associations, having a high childhood body mass index (BMI) increases both cardiovascular risk in children (Andersen et al., 2008) and cardiovascular events in these children when they reach adulthood (Baker, Olsen, & Sorensen, 2007).