LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Racism and Social Capital: The Implications for Social and Physical Well-Being

Racism can be manifest at the cultural, institutional and individual levels, and can exert effects at the intrapersonal level if targeted individuals internalize attitudes toward their own racial/ethnic groups. The general aim of this article is to examine the ways in which all levels of racism undermine the development of peer relations, one component of social capital; and consequently affect the health and well-being of targeted individuals. The evidence suggests that cultural racism inculcates attitudes that may foster race-related social distancing; institutional racism isolates individuals from the opportunities to develop the skills needed to develop cross race-relations and promotes engagement with peers who exhibit antisocial behavior; interpersonal racism may erode the quality of routine interpersonal exchanges and engender anxiety about interacting with cross-race peers; and internalized racism may undermine the benefits of cross-race peer interactions. To the degree that racism affects the ability to form, maintain and benefit from peer relationships, it can contribute to racial disparities in economic, social and health-related outcomes and undermine the types of social cohesion that promote national unity.
A large-scale immuno-epidemiological simulation of influenza A epidemics

BACKGROUND
Agent based models (ABM) are useful to explore population-level scenarios of disease spread and containment, but typically characterize infected individuals using simplified models of infection and symptoms dynamics. Adding more realistic models of individual infections and symptoms may help to create more realistic population level epidemic dynamics.


METHODS
Using an equation-based, host-level mathematical model of influenza A virus infection, we develop a function that expresses the dependence of infectivity and symptoms of an infected individual on initial viral load, age, and viral strain phenotype. We incorporate this response function in a population-scale agent-based model of influenza A epidemic to create a hybrid multiscale modeling framework that reflects both population dynamics and individualized host response to infection.


RESULTS
At the host level, we estimate parameter ranges using experimental data of H1N1 viral titers and symptoms measured in humans. By linearization of symptoms responses of the host-level model we obtain a map of the parameters of the model that characterizes clinical phenotypes of influenza infection and immune response variability over the population. At the population-level model, we analyze the effect of individualizing viral response in agent-based model by simulating epidemics across Allegheny County, Pennsylvania under both age-specific and age-independent severity assumptions.


CONCLUSIONS
We present a framework for multi-scale simulations of influenza epidemics that enables the study of population-level effects of individual differences in infections and symptoms, with minimal additional computational cost compared to the existing population-level simulations.
High-Level Rent Seeking and Corruption in African Regimes : Theory and Cases

2 Introduction 1 An intense debate has raged for years over Africa's economic difficulties. Aside from the obvious problems of warfare, drought, and disease, the usual suspect is economic policy. However, the record of over a decade of structural adjustment efforts is difficult to read. A recent analysis by the World Bank provides significant evidence that improved policies lead to improved prospects for growth, and that the continuing economic problems in Africa are the result of a failure to carry liberalization far enough (World Bank 1993a). According to that analysis, no African governments were rated as having " good " economic policies and only one, Ghana, was deemed " adequate; " with an annual growth rate of 1.3 percent per capita (1987-1991). Opponents of World Bank/IMF policy have criticized the Bank's analysis on numerous grounds, but even World Bank economists mutter that rates of private investment and economic growth are higher in Viet Nam and China (whose economic policies still bear a strong socialist imprint) than almost anywhere in Africa. Something more than standard macroeconomic policy failures must be at work. This paper focuses on one of the " usual suspects "-rent seeking by officials at the highest government levels. Based on both theory and concrete African examples, it demonstrates how such rent seeking can harm an economy and stifle investment and growth. " Rent seeking " is often used interchangeably with " corruption, " and there is a large area of overlap. While corruption involves the misuse of public power for private gain, rent seeking derives from the economic concept of " rent "-earnings in excess of all relevant costs (including a market rate of return on invested assets). Rent is equivalent to what most non-economists think of as monopoly 3 profits. Rent seeking is then the effort to acquire access to or control over opportunities for earning rents. These efforts are not necessarily illegal, or even immoral. They include much lobbying and some forms of advertising. Some can be efficient, such as an auction of scare and valuable assets. However, economists and public sector management specialists are concerned with what Jagdish Bhagwati termed " directly unproductive " rent seeking activities, because they waste resources and can contribute to economic inefficiency (Bhagwati 1974, see also Krueger 1974). Corruption and other forms of rent seeking have been well-documented in every society on earth, from the banks of the Congo River …
ScudWare: A Semantic and Adaptive Middleware Platform for Smart Vehicle Space

Compared with smart spaces addressed previously, the smart vehicle space is quite special. First, unlike room, it is a high mobile space. Second, it requires frequent information exchange with the outer environment; for instance, it may need local traffic information and other local services. The complex vehicle space needs a software infrastructure of high adaptation to meet the complex and easy variational situations. This paper proposes a semantic and adaptive middleware platform, i.e., ScudWare, for smart vehicle space. In ScudWare, techniques of multiagent, context-aware, and adaptive component management are smoothly synthesized. It consists of three key components, namely 1) semantic virtual agents; 2) a semantic context management service; and 3) an adaptive component management service. This enables entities in smart vehicle space to interact autonomously, provides semantic-integration context awareness, and supports component-based adaptability and scalability. A test bed of smart car space is built to evaluate the ScudWare, which demonstrates the effectiveness and efficiency of ScudWare
Effects of levosimendan/furosemide infusion on Plasma Brain Natriuretic Peptide, echocardiographic parameters and cardiac output in end-stage heart failure patients

BACKGROUND
Acute decompensation heart failure (ADHF) remains a cause of hospitalization in patients with end-stage congestive HF. The administration of levosimendan in comparison with a standard therapy in CHF patients admitted for ADHF was analysed.


MATERIAL/METHODS
Consecutive patients admitted for ADHF (NYHA class III-IV) were treated with levosimendan infusion 0.1 µg/kg/min or with furosemide infusion 100-160 mg per day for 48 hours (control group). All subjects underwent determination of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), non-invasive cardiac output (CO), and echocardiogram at baseline, at the end of therapy and 1 week after therapy.


RESULTS
Seven patients admitted for 20 treatments in 16 months (age 66 years; mean admission/year 5.4) were treated with levosimendan and compared with 7 patients admitted for 15 treatments (age 69.1 years; mean admission/year 6.1). At the end of levosimendan therapy, BNP decreased (from 679.7 ± 512.1 pg/ml to 554.2 ± 407.6 pg/ml p = 0.03), and 6 MWT and LVEF improved (from 217.6 ± 97.7 m to 372.2 ± 90.4 m p = 0.0001; from 22.8 ± 9.1% to 25.4 ± 9.8% p = 0.05). Deceleration time, E/A, E/E', TAPSE, pulmonary pressure and CO did not change significantly after levosimendan therapy and after 1 week. At follow-up, only 6-min WT and NYHA class showed a significant improvement (p = 0.0001, p = 0.001 respectively). The furosemide infusion reduced NYHA class and body weight (from 3.4 ± 0.6 to 2.3 ± 0.5 p = 0.001; from 77.5 ± 8.6 kg to 76 ± 6.6 kg p = 0.04), but impaired renal function (clearances from 56.3 ± 21.9 ml/min to 41.2 ± 10.1 ml/min p = 0.04).


CONCLUSIONS
Treating end-stage CHF patients with levosimendan improved BNP and LVEF, but this effect disappeared after 1 week. The amelioration of 6 MWT and NYHA class lasted longer after levosimendan infusion.
Selective Control of the Upper Extremity Scale: validation of a clinical assessment tool for children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy.

AIM
The ability to determine the relationship between selective motor control and upper extremity function in children with unilateral cerebral palsy (CP), and to measure the functional outcome and efficacy of interventions designed to improve selective motor control, has been limited by the lack of an objective, validated tool. The primary objective of this study is to describe the development of a clinical tool entitled Selective Control of the Upper Extremity Scale (SCUES), and present evidence of its validity and reliability.


METHOD
Content validity was established through an expert panel (eight clinicians, mean and median of 17y of clinical experience, range 2-30y). Intra- and interrater reliability was determined by six occupational therapists who scored 10 participant studies. Construct validity of the SCUES was established by comparison to the spontaneous functional analysis section of the Shriners Hospitals Upper Extremity Evaluation, the Manual Ability Classification System, and the Box and Block test for 25 children with unilateral CP.


RESULTS
The content validity ratio values were greater than 0 (indicating >50% agreement) for 33 of the 34 items (97%), and equal or greater than 0.5 (indicating ≥75% agreement) for 26 of the 34 items (76%). Intrarater reliability was excellent (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] >0.75) for all segments and joints of the affected extremity. Interrater reliability was excellent for all segments and joints of the affected extremity except the shoulder (ICC=0.72). The SCUES was strongly correlated with the SHUEE (Spearman's rho=0.69, p=0.003). The SCUES was not correlated with the Manual Ability Classification System (rho=-0.24, p=0.369) or the Box and Block test (rho=0.47, p=0.066).


INTERPRETATION
Psychometric analysis of the SCUES revealed comparable validity to other accepted video-based clinical assessment tools for the upper extremity in children with CP.
Lucid dreaming verified by volitional communication during REM sleep.

SUMMARY
The occurrence of lucid dreaming (dreaming while being conscious that one is dreaming) has been verified for 5 selected subjects who signaled that they knew they were dreaming while continuing to dream during unequivocal REM sleep. The signals consisted of particular dream actions having observable concomitants and were performed in accordance with pre-sleep agreement. The ability of proficient lucid dreamers to signal in this manner makes possible a new approach to dream research--such subjects, while lucid, could carry out diverse dream experiments marking the exact time of particular dream events, allowing derivation of of precise psychophysiological correlations and methodical testing of hypotheses.
Batson What ’ s Wrong with Morality ?

Why do moral people so often fail to act morally? Standard scientific answers point to poor moral judgment (based on deficient character development, reason, or intuition) or to situational pressure. I consider a third possibility: a relative lack of truly moral motivation and emotion. What has been taken for moral motivation is often instead a subtle form of egoism. Recent research provides considerable evidence for moral hypocrisy—motivation to appear moral while, if possible, avoid the cost of actually being moral—but very little evidence for moral integrity—motivation to actually be moral. The lack of truly moral motivation may, in turn, be linked to a lack of truly moral emotion, at least in response to violation of certain moral standards.
Intelligent automatic overtaking system using vision for vehicle detection

There is clear evidence that investment in intelligent transportation system technologies brings major social and economic benefits. Technological advances in the area of automatic systems in particular are becoming vital for the reduction of road deaths. We here describe our approach to automation of one the riskiest autonomous manœuvres involving vehicles – overtaking. The approach is based on a stereo vision system responsible for detecting any preceding vehicle and triggering the autonomous overtaking manœuvre. To this end, a fuzzy-logic based controller was developed to emulate how humans overtake. Its input is information from the vision system and from a positioning-based system consisting of a differential global positioning system (DGPS) and an inertial measurement unit (IMU). Its output is the generation of action on the vehicle’s actuators, i.e., the steering wheel and throttle and brake pedals. The system has been incorporated into a commercial Citroën car and tested on the private driving circuit at the facilities of our research center, CAR, with different preceding vehicles – a motorbike, car, and truck – with encouraging results. 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Effect of Multisensory Training on Writing Skills of Children with Dysgraphia

Aim: To find the effect of multisensory training on writing skills in children with dysgraphia. Objective: To assess the writing skills in children with dysgraphia. To assess visual perception, motor coordination and visuomotor integration skills in children with dysgraphia. To evaluate the effect of multisensory training on writing skills in children with dysgraphia. Methodology: 30 dysgraphic children were selected for study according to screening test of writing assessment measure (WAM) and Berry visual motor integration scale. Participants were into two groups .15 samples in experimental group and 15samples in control group. Experimental group underwent 12 sessions of intervention. Result: Statistical significant is present in experimental group with regard to the effectiveness of multisensory training on writing skills in children with dysgraphia. Statistical significance have been observed in experimental group pre and post test “t” values of VMI, VP, MC are 5.29,14.78 and 13.22. Conclusion: The result of this study shows there is a significant improvement in writing skills for dysgraphic children after multisensory training programs.
The gmwm R package: a comprehensive tool for time series analysis from state-space models to robustness

The gmwm R package for inference on time series models is mainly based on the quantity called wavelet variance which is derived from a wavelet decomposition of a time series. This quantity provides a means to summarize and graphically represent the features of time series in order to identify possible models. Moreover, it is used as a moment condition for model estimation through the generalized method of wavelet moments. Based on the latter method, this package not only provides an alternative method to estimate classical ARMA models but also delivers a general framework for the robust estimation of many time series models as well as a quick and efficient estimation of many linear state-space models.
School Attachment: perspectives of low‐attached high school students

Abstract Attachment to school plays a vital role in the success or failure of today's middle and high school students. Many researchers identified attachment to school as contributing to student self‐esteem, motivation, effort, behaviour and academic achievement. However, definitions of school attachment have been varied and based largely upon observation of student behaviour. In an attempt to elucidate this definition, the construct of school attachment was examined from the perspective of students who were classified as low‐attached to school. Specifically, in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews of 10 students were conducted and analysed qualitatively. Results indicated that students who were low‐attached described their lives at school as lonely and isolated, and saw themselves as alienated from the school community. They perceived a low level of support and encouragement from the school personnel and from their peers. A broad understanding of school attachment as well as factors which contribute to stud...
Levels of Oxidized LDL and Advanced Glycation End Products–Modified LDL in Circulating Immune Complexes Are Strongly Associated With Increased Levels of Carotid Intima-Media Thickness and Its Progression in Type 1 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE
High cholesterol levels in circulating immune complexes (IC), surrogate markers of modified LDL, are associated with increased carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) and cardiovascular events in type 1 diabetes. Different modifications of LDL are involved in IC formation, but which of these are predictive of vascular events is not known. Therefore, we measured oxidized LDL (oxLDL), advanced glycation end products-modified LDL (AGE-LDL), and malondialdehyde-modified LDL (MDA-LDL) in IC and determined their relationship with increased carotid IMT and compared the strength of the association with that observed with conventional risk factors.


RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
Levels of oxLDL, AGE-LDL, and MDA-LDL were measured in circulating IC isolated from sera of 479 patients of the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial/Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications (DCCT/EDIC) cohort, collected at baseline. Internal and common carotid IMT were measured 8 and 14 years later by DCCT/EDIC.


RESULTS
OxLDL, AGE-LDL, and MDA-LDL levels in circulating IC were significantly correlated with diabetes duration, BMI, and lipid and blood pressure, but not with age. Multivariate logistic regression models indicated that individuals in the highest versus lowest quartile of oxLDL and AGE-LDL in IC had a 6.11-fold [confidence interval (CI) 2.51-14.8] and a 6.4-fold (CI 2.53-16.2) increase in the odds of having high carotid IMT, respectively, after adjusting for conventional risk factors. Parallel analyses resulted in odds ratios of 2.62 (CI 1.24, 5.55) for LDL-C, 1.45 (CI 0.69, 3.03) for diastolic blood pressure, and 2.33 (CI 1.09, 4.99) for A1C.


CONCLUSIONS
OxLDL and AGE-LDL in circulating IC were significantly associated with progression and increased levels of carotid IMT in type 1 diabetes.
A qualitative validation of the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire

Background: In an overview of quality-of-life questionnaires that have been used to measure treatment effects in clinical trials in congestive heart failure (CHF), it was concluded that ‘no QoL instrument has measured quality of life in CHF trials in a reliable or reproducible fashion’ and that the usefulness of these instruments in clinical trials was hampered by a lack of sensitivity to changes in health status. Aim: The aim of our study was to qualitatively explore issues of validity, specificity, and sensitivity with regard to the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure (MLHF) questionnaire in patients with severe heart failure. Methods: We included 31 patients with severe heart failure in a 2-year prospective longitudinal case study. Each patient was interviewed two or three times in a semi-structured way, resulting in a total of 76 interviews. We used simple qualitative techniques such as respondent observation and respondent debriefing to collect data on practical and interpretative problems that patients experience in conducting the task of completing the questionnaire. Results: The introduction to the questionnaire, which contains essential instructions, was almost never read. Patients did not interpret items as intended. Some items posed problems to respondents because of their wording or because they were considered not applicable to the respondents' circumstances. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the MLHF does not measure the concept that it is intended to measure, but our study does not provide a remedy. However, problems regarding individual items and response categories can be remedied.
Heparin and air filters reduce embolic events caused by intra-arterial cerebral angiography: a prospective, randomized trial.

BACKGROUND
Intra-arterial cerebral angiography is associated with a low risk for neurological complications, but clinically silent ischemic events after angiography have been seen in a substantial number of patients.


METHODS AND RESULTS
In a prospective study, diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) before and after intra-arterial cerebral angiography and transcranial Doppler sonography during angiography were used to evaluate the frequency of cerebral embolism. One hundred fifty diagnostic cerebral angiographies were randomized into 50 procedures, each using conventional angiographic technique, or systemic heparin treatment throughout the procedure, or air filters between the catheter and both the contrast medium syringe and the catheter flushing. There was no neurological complication during or after angiography. Overall, DW-MRI revealed 26 new ischemic lesions in 17 patients (11%). In the control group, 11 patients showed a total of 18 lesions. In the heparin group, 3 patients showed a total of 4 lesions. In the air filter group, 3 patients exhibited a total of 4 lesions. The reduced incidence of ischemic events in the heparin and air filter groups compared with the control group was significantly different (P=0.002). Transcranial Doppler sonography demonstrated a large number of microembolic signals that was significantly lower in the air filter group compared with the heparin and control groups (P<0.01), which did not differ from each other.


CONCLUSIONS
Air filters and heparin both reduce the incidence of silent ischemic events detected by DW-MRI after intra-arterial cerebral angiography and can potentially lower clinically overt ischemic complications. This may apply to any intra-arterial angiographic procedure.