Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Warming and drought alter C and N concentration, allocation and accumulation in a Mediterranean shrubland

We investigated the effects of warming and drought on C and N concentrations, nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), and C and N accumulation in different ecosystem compartments. We conducted a 6‐year (1999–2005) field experiment to simulate the climate conditions projected by IPCC models for the coming decades in a Mediterranean shrubland. We studied the two dominant species, Globularia alypum and Erica multiflora, and an N‐fixing species, Dorycnium pentaphyllum, also abundant in this shrubland. Warming (1 °C) decreased N leaf concentrations by 25% and increased N stem concentrations by 40% in G. alypum. Although warming changed the available ammonium in soil in some seasons, it did not increase total soil N contents. Drought (19% average reduction in soil moisture) decreased leaf N concentrations in the two dominant shrub species, E. multiflora and G. alypum by 16% and 19%, respectively, and increased stem N concentrations by 56% and 40%, respectively. Neither warming nor drought changed the leaf N concentrations in the N‐fixing species D. pentaphyllum, although warming increased stem N concentration by 9%. In G. alypum, the increase of stem N concentrations contributed to the observed increase of N accumulation in stem biomass in drought treatments with respect to control plots (8 kg N ha−1). Neither warming nor drought changed NUE in the period 1999–2005. Warming increased soil organic C relative to drought. The effects of warming and drought on C and N concentrations, on N accumulation and on leaf/stem N distribution were not the result of dilution or concentration effects produced by changes in biomass accumulation. Other factors such as the changes in soil N availability, photosynthetic capacity, and plant internal C and N remobilization must be involved. These changes which differed depending on the species and the plant tissue show that the climate change projected for the coming decades will have significant effects on the C and N cycle and stoichiometry, with probable implications for ecosystem structure and function, such as changes in plant–herbivore relationships, decomposition rates or community species composition.
Applications of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic imaging to tablet dissolution and drug release

Introduction: Solid oral dosage forms are the most commonly used method for administering active pharmaceutical ingredients to patients. Understanding the mechanisms and processes of drug release is essential for improving the design of pharmaceutical tablets. Areas covered: In this review, recent approaches where attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopic imaging has been applied to study tablet dissolution and drug release have been investigated. Drug release studies of model pharmaceutical systems composed of drug/polymer mixtures in the presence of aqueous solutions have been discussed, as has the subsequent combination with UV/Vis spectroscopic detection to quantify the amount of drug dissolved as a function of time. The use of a single-reflection ATR accessory with a diamond crystal allows for in situ FTIR imaging of tablet compaction and dissolution. Expert opinion: ATR-FTIR imaging can address the challenges of investigating the mechanisms of drug release from a range of innovative new delivery systems. Unlike standard dissolution tests, this spectroscopic imaging method obtains insight and information about changes within the tablet during dissolution. Areas where ATR-FTIR imaging has shown further potential to be particularly useful are for the study of multi-layered solid tablets, high-throughput analysis, use of microfluidic devices and for surface-enhanced ATR-FTIR spectroscopy.
The safety profile of infliximab in patients with Crohn's disease: the Mayo clinic experience in 500 patients.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The aim of this study was to evaluate the short- and long-term safety of infliximab in patients with Crohn's disease in clinical practice. METHODS The medical records of 500 consecutive patients treated with infliximab at the Mayo Clinic were reviewed and abstracted for demographic features and adverse events. The likelihood of a causal relationship to infliximab for each adverse event was determined by calculating an intrinsic likelihood (imputability) score. RESULTS The 500 patients received a median of 3 infusions and had a median follow-up of 17 months. Forty-three patients (8.6%) experienced a serious adverse event, of which 30 (6%) were related to infliximab. Acute infusion reactions occurred in 19 of 500 patients (3.8%). Serum sickness-like disease occurred in 19 of 500 patients and was attributed to infliximab in 14 (2.8%). Three patients developed drug-induced lupus. One patient developed a new demyelination disorder. Forty-eight patients had an infectious event, of which 41 (8.2%) were attributed to infliximab. Twenty patients had a serious infection: 2 had fatal sepsis, 8 had pneumonia (of which 2 cases were fatal), 6 had viral infections, 2 had abdominal abscesses requiring surgery, one had arm cellulitis, and one had histoplasmosis. Nine patients had a malignant disorder, 3 of which were possibly related to infliximab. A total of 10 deaths were observed. For 5 of these patients (1%), the events leading to death were possibly related to infliximab. CONCLUSIONS Short- and long-term infliximab therapy is generally well tolerated. However, clinicians must be vigilant for the occurrence of infrequent but serious events, including serum sickness-like reaction, opportunistic infection and sepsis, and autoimmune disorders.
Exploring Obstacles to and Opportunities for Professional Success Among Ethnic Minority Medical Students

Purpose To explore the barriers and facilitators experienced by ethnic minority medical students in achieving personal and professional success. Method In 2002 and 2003, 43 minority medical students participated in one of six two-hour focus groups located in Philadelphia, Pa; Kansas City, Mo; Baltimore, Md; Miami, Fl; New York, NY; and Los Angeles, Calif. Focus groups consisted of an average of seven (range 5–10) individuals. Eighty-eight percent were of black/African descent, 10% were Hispanic, and 2% were Asian/Pacific Islanders. Students discussed their views of personal and professional success, including opportunities and obstacles, and completed a brief demographic survey. Discussions were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim, and reviewed for thematic content in a three-stage independent review/adjudication process. Results All 748 comments were grouped into themes relating to definitions of success (35%) and to perceived facilitators (25%) or inhibitors (40%) of success. Participants strove to achieve professional/academic status, financial security, and quality of life. In so doing, participants identified facilitators of success, including support systems, professional exposure, financial aid, and personal characteristics. Lack of financial and social support, challenges with standardized tests, experiences with racial stereotyping and discrimination, and self-imposed barriers were among inhibitors to success. Conclusions The opportunities for and barriers to academic success identified by minority students should be heeded by educators and administrators who develop programs and policies to recruit minority medical students and to ensure their professional development. To enhance the institutional climate for diversity, programs that improve cultural awareness and reduce biases among all students, faculty, staff, and administrators are needed.
Attenuation of the dynamic yield point of shocked aluminum using elastodynamic simulations of dislocation dynamics.

When a metal is subjected to extremely rapid compression, a shock wave is launched that generates dislocations as it propagates. The shock wave evolves into a characteristic two-wave structure, with an elastic wave preceding a plastic front. It has been known for more than six decades that the amplitude of the elastic wave decays the farther it travels into the metal: this is known as "the decay of the elastic precursor. " The amplitude of the elastic precursor is a dynamic yield point because it marks the transition from elastic to plastic behavior. In this Letter we provide a full explanation of this attenuation using the first method of dislocation dynamics to treat the time dependence of the elastic fields of dislocations explicitly. We show that the decay of the elastic precursor is a result of the interference of the elastic shock wave with elastic waves emanating from dislocations nucleated in the shock front. Our simulations reproduce quantitatively recent experiments on the decay of the elastic precursor in aluminum and its dependence on strain rate.
Does the Entry of Third-Party Remanufacturers Always Hurt Original Equipment Manufacturers?

Researchers and managers broadly agree that the entry of third-party remanufacturers (TPRs) hurts original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) because of the cannibalization problem. Thus, OEMs should always try to deter the entry of TPRs. In this article, we present a contrasting view: Competing OEMs without remanufacturing capacities sometimes benefit from the entry of TPRs. The key feature of our model is that there exists a group of newness-conscious consumers in the market who do not buy the remanufactured product regardless of the price, whereas a group of functionality-oriented consumers (FOCs) may buy a remanufactured one at a low price. In a steady-state-period setting, we investigate how the number of TPRs affects the OEMs’ profits. We find that, from the perspective of two competing OEMs: (i) The entry of one or many TPRs may lead to a higher profit; (ii) The entry of many TPRs may be better than the entry of one TPR; and (iii) The impact of the entry of one or many TPRs may be reversed as FOCs’ willingness-to-pay for the remanufactured product increases.
Amphetamine psychosis: a "model" schizophrenia mediated by catecholamines.

Because of its close clinical similarity to acute paranoid schizophrenia, amphetamine psychosis may serve as a useful experimental model for schizophrenia. Molecular and clinical studies suggest that both the schizophrenia-like symptoms of amphetamine psychosis and the specific ability of phenothiazines to relieve the symptoms of schizophrenia and amphetamine psychosis may be the result of interactions with dopamine systems in the brain. The author discusses some implications of the roles dopamine and norepinephrine may play in mediating some schizophrenic symptoms.
ProBoPortable: does the cellular phone software promote emergent division of labor in project-based learning?

This paper describes the design and evaluation of a cellular phone application called "ProBoPortable", which displays information regarding the task status and division of labor in a project-based learning (PBL). The authors have developed a cellular phone application that cooperates with a Web-based groupware to enhance the learners' reorganization of learning activity in PBL. The research conducted in an undergraduate course revealed that ProBoPortable can enhance awareness regarding the status of learners' collaborations in PBL.
Lactobacillus helveticus heterogeneity in natural cheese starters: the diversity in phenotypic characteristics

The study of wild strains from natural habitats is a useful means of understanding better the heterogeneity within a species of biotechnological importance, and of obtaining atypical isolates with unknown capabilities. In the present research carried out on different Lactobacillus helveticus strains isolated from natural cheese starters, it was observed that several biotechnologically important characteristics can differ greatly between strains. Biotypes were found which differ in terms of fructose, maltose and trehalose fermentation, acidifying activity, proteolytic and peptidase activity, and antibiotic and lysozyme resistance. The possibility of choosing Lact. heleveticus strains with specific biotechnological profiles will influence the quality and the variety of dairy products.
Variations in the ospB gene of Borrelia burgdorferi result in differences in monoclonal antibody reactivity and in production of escape variants

An escape variant of Borrelia burgdorferi, selected with a monoclonal antibody to OspB, expressed a truncated form of OspB, the result of point mutations in the ospB gene leading to a premature termination codon. A single amino acid position in the C terminus of OspB was critical for monoclonal antibody recognition. The variations in the ospB gene suggest a mechanism for the evasion of the immune response by these organisms and may also have implications for current diagnostic and vaccine efforts.
ShapeGenetics: Using Genetic Algorithms for Procedural Modeling

In this paper, we show that genetic algorithms (GA) can be used to control the output of procedural modeling algorithms. We propose an efficient way to encode the choices that have to be made during a procedural generation as a hierarchical genome representation. In combination with mutation and reproduction operations specifically designed for controlled procedural modeling, our GA can evolve a population of individual models close to any high‐level goal. Possible scenarios include a volume that should be filled by a procedurally grown tree or a painted silhouette that should be followed by the skyline of a procedurally generated city. These goals are easy to set up for an artist compared to the tens of thousands of variables that describe the generated model and are chosen by the GA. Previous approaches for controlled procedural modeling either use Reversible Jump Markov Chain Monte Carlo (RJMCMC) or Stochastically‐Ordered Sequential Monte Carlo (SOSMC) as workhorse for the optimization. While RJMCMC converges slowly, requiring multiple hours for the optimization of larger models, it produces high quality models. SOSMC shows faster convergence under tight time constraints for many models, but can get stuck due to choices made in the early stages of optimization. Our GA shows faster convergence than SOSMC and generates better models than RJMCMC in the long run.
Monoclonal anti-human monocyte antibodies OKM1 and OKM5 possess distinctive tissue distributions including differential reactivity with vascular endothelium.

Les monocytes/macrophages (MO) tissulaires ou des poumons sont heterogenes quant a leur phenotype et sont composes de sous-populations qui conservent des fonctions distinctes. Les cellules endotheliales (EC) et les MO partagent des antigenes non HLA-DR non exprimes sur les lymphocytes B, ni sur les autres tissus. La plupart des EC exprime specifiquement le phenotype OKM1 − OKM5 + , identique a la sous-population MO du sang circulant responsable de la presentation des antigenes dans la reaction lymphocytaire mixte (RLM), ce qui semble tres important dans les transplantations d'organes
Profiles of social networking sites users in the Netherlands

Online social networking has become a reality and integral part of the daily personal, social and business life. The extraordinary increase of the user numbers of Social Networking Sites (SNS) and the rampant creation of online communities presents businesses with many challenges and opportunities. From the commercial perspective, the SNS are an interesting and promising field: online social networks are important sources of market intelligence and also offer interesting options for co-operation, networking and marketing. For SMEs especially the Social Networking Sites represent a simple and low cost solution for listening the customer’s voice, reaching potential customers and creating extensive business networks. This paper presents the results of a national survey mapping the demographic, social and behavioral characteristics of the Dutch users of SNS. The study identifies four different user profiles and proposes a segmentation framework as basis for better understanding the nature and behavior of the participants in online communities. The findings present new insights to marketing strategists eager to use the communication potential of such communities; the findings are also interesting for businesses willing to explore the potential of online networking as a low cost yet very efficient alternative to physical, traditional networking.
Accurate computations of matrices with bidiagonal decomposition using methods for totally positive matrices

A class of sign‐symmetric P‐matrices including all nonsingular totally positive matrices and their inverses as well as tridiagonal nonsingular H‐matrices is presented and analyzed. These matrices present a bidiagonal decomposition that can be used to obtain algorithms to compute with high relative accuracy their singular values, eigenvalues, inverses, or their LDU factorization. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Young children pronounce object words more accurately than action words

ABSTRACT Young children's productions of novel words serving as names of objects and actions were compared. Although the object and action names were matched according to consonant and syllable structure, accurate production of newly emerging consonants was greater for the object words for each of the measures used: spontaneous production and unsolicited imitation during the word exposure sessions, and responses to production probes administered during and following the exposure sessions. These findings are attributed to the fact that action words have greater semantic complexity than object words, and that the increased processing requirements involved in referring to actions reduce the capacity to use newly developing sounds in these words.
Integrating Web Information to Generate Chinese Video Summaries

Text summarizing is a well-known and developed research topic, which aims to extract the informative sentences to form a small story instead of full document. Traditional text summarization techniques focus on the news article’s summarizing, however, this technique could not apply to video films directly. The video summarization is a newly approach that is able to handle different media types and using text summarization techniques to produce a video summary. In this paper, we proposed a video summarization system that extracts important summaries from a given video via expanding lexical information from web. The experiment show that the integrating web information can help to generate human-readable summary results even the OCR recognition rate is limited.
ETHICS AND DEONTOLOGY OF MEDICAL EDUCATION AND NURSES IN PORTUGUAL

This article discusses deontological issues of health care professions in relation to their ethical foundation. We present four models of teaching ethics and deontology in doctors’ training and the results of a PhD research on the teaching of these subjects in nurses’ training in Portugal. Given the importance of bioethics in deontological training of health care professions, we present a comparative analysis of. bioethical principles enunciated by Beauchamp and Childress (1979), related to ‘ethics of justice’, and Kemp’s(2000) proposal, associated to an ‘ethics of care’. Given the ambiguity of these bioethical expressions, we focus on the analysis of its contents and the need to discuss the fundamentals of ethical training of doctors and nurses in relation to the ethical theories they are derived from. Utilitarian ethics, duty ethics, virtue ethics, when the analysis of bioethics’ fundaments is not trained, the duty of caring of suffering can be put at risk.
INFORMIRANOST PACIJENATA O GASTROSKOPIJI KAO DIJAGNOSTIČKOM ZAHVATU

U svrhu stjecanja uvida u nacin ostvarivanja prava pacijenata na informiranost o dijagnostickim zahvatima, provedeno je anketiranje 100 ispitanika. 97% zna da je gastroskopija pregled jednjaka, želuca i dvanaesnika, a 66% je informirano o nacinu, tijeku izvođenja i mogucim komplikacijama dijagnosticke pretrage. Upucenost u pripremu prije dijagnosticke pretrage navodi 97% ispitanika. Najvise informacija ispitanici su dobili u Jedinici za endoskopiju, njih 39%. Najvise informacija ispitanici su dobili od medicinskih sestara (43% ispitanika), te lijecnika (40% ispitanika). Medijan ocijene zadovoljstva kolicinom i kvalitetom pruženih informacija na Likertovoj skali od 1 do 10 kod ispitanika je izvrsnih 8.
Special issues in assessing care of Medicaid recipients.

OBJECTIVES The authors describe the process used to develop and test survey items targeted to Medicaid consumers for the Consumer Assessment of Health Plans Study (CAHPS). In addition, the authors highlight the special challenges in locating and surveying Medicaid recipients and provide recommendations for increasing response rates. METHODS The RAND CAHPS team reviewed the literature and existing questionnaires to identify health care issues and concepts important to Medicaid consumers. Three focus groups and 66 one-on-one cognitive interviews were conducted to test the relevance of our concepts and items and to identify additional concepts important to Medicaid consumers. After the cognitive interviews, the CAHPS Medicaid consumer survey was field tested using a sample of 930 adults and children receiving both Medicaid and Aid to Families with Dependent Children in Los Angeles County and Oklahoma. To determine if one particular mode were preferable for surveying a Medicaid population, our field test sample was divided randomly into a telephone-mode sample, a mixed-mode sample, and a second telephone-mode sample with enhanced locating procedures. Before finalizing the CAHPS 1.0 surveys, the full CAHPS item set was subjected to a formal literacy review. RESULTS The results of the focus groups and cognitive testing informed iterative versions of the list of concepts addressed by the Medicaid-targeted items. Concepts that were not relevant to Medicaid consumers or that consumers were unable to accurately attribute to a health plan were discarded. New concepts addressing important aspects of health care and the health care experience of Medicaid consumers were identified and added. Item wording and format were revised and refined based on the findings from focus groups, cognitive testing, the field test, and the formal literacy review. In the field test, the mixed-mode method achieved the best results with a 56% completion rate. CONCLUSIONS The testing and formatting efforts described in this article, in combination with a formal literacy review, led to the development of a Medicaid questionnaire that measures the important health care experiences of Medicaid consumers in a format that is "respondent-friendly. " Our recommendations for surveying Medicaid recipients can benefit any survey of a Medicaid population.
Development of MDII ( Moral Development Interview Inventory )

Moral development has been a debatable construct. Several instruments have been made to measure this construct with limited usability. Therefore, on theoretical background of Piaget and Kohlberg, the researchers have developed a comprehensive structured interview inventory named as MDII (Moral Development Interview Inventory) for measuring moral development stages of children and adults. The inventory contains ten dilemmas based on distinct universal ethical values along with a comprehensive scoring key. Validity and reliability of the instrument has been determined by concurrent and test re test methods respectively. Chronback alpha and other correlation coefficients declared substantial validity and reliability for the interview inventory. Development of MDII (Moral Development Interview Inventory) 2