Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Robust Goodness of Fit Test Based on the Forward Search

The most frequency used goodness of fit tests are based on measuring the distance between the theoretical distribution function and the empirical distribution function (EDF), but presence of outliers influences these tests strongly. In this study, we propose a simple robust method for goodness of fit test by using the "Forward Search" (FS) method. The FS method is a powerful general method for identifying outliers and their effects on the hypothesized model. The performance and the ability of the procedure to capture the structure of data, even in the presence of outliers, are illustrated by some simulation studies and real data examples.
Six-year follow-up of the SPHERE RCT: secondary prevention of heart disease in general practice

Objective To determine the long-term effectiveness of a complex intervention in primary care aimed at improving outcomes for patients with coronary heart disease. Design A 6-year follow-up of a cluster randomised controlled trial, which found after 18 months that both total and cardiovascular hospital admissions were significantly reduced in intervention practices (8% absolute reduction). Setting 48 general practices in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Participants 903 patients with established coronary heart disease at baseline in the original trial. Intervention The original intervention consisted of tailored practice and patient plans; training sessions for practitioners in medication prescribing and behavioural change; and regular patient recall system. Control practices provided usual care. Following the intervention period, all supports from the research team to intervention practices ceased. Outcome measures Primary outcome: hospital admissions, all cause and cardiovascular; secondary outcomes: mortality; blood pressure and cholesterol control. Results At 6-year follow-up, data were collected from practice records of 696 patients (77%). For those who had died, we censored their data at the point of death and cause of death was established. There were no significant differences between the intervention and control practices in either total (OR 0.83 (95% CI 0.54 to 1.28)) or cardiovascular hospital admissions (OR 0.91 (95% CI 0.49 to 1.65)). We confirmed mortality status of 886 of the original 903 patients (98%). There were no significant differences in mortality (15% in intervention and 16% in control) or in the proportions of patients above target control for systolic blood pressure or total cholesterol. Conclusions Initial significant differences in the numbers of total and cardiovascular hospital admissions were not maintained at 6 years and no differences were found in mortality or blood pressure and cholesterol control. Policymakers need to continue to assess the effectiveness of previously efficacious programmes. Trial registration number Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN24081411.
Ossifying chondrolipoma of the thigh: radiographic pathologic correlation

Lipomas are the most common benign soft-tissue tumors occurring in the subcutis or muscular regions. Histologically, lipoma consists of mature adipose cells, similar to normal adipose cells. Lipomas can occasionally have areas of bone or cartilage formation and are classified as osteolipomas or chondrolipomas, respectively.1,2 However, there have been few reported cases of lipoma with both ossification and cartilage formation.3,4 Here, we report an extremely rare case of ossifying intramuscular chondrolipoma in the thigh and review its radiographic and pathologic correlation. According to the guidance of the local institutional review board, the patient and her guardian provided informed written consent.
An adaptive 3-D discrete cosine transform coder for medical image compression

A new three-dimensional (3-D) discrete cosine transform (DCT) coder for medical images is presented. In the proposed method, a segmentation technique based on the local energy magnitude is used to segment subblocks of the image into different energy levels. Then, those subblocks with the same energy level are gathered to form a 3-D cuboid. Finally, 3-D DCT is employed to compress the 3-D cuboid individually. Simulation results show that the reconstructed images achieve a bit rate lower than 0.25 bit per pixel even when the compression ratios are higher than 35. As compared with the results by JPEG and other strategies, it is found that the proposed method achieves better qualities of decoded images.
Analysis of the impact of selected socio-demographic factors on quality of life of asthma patients

Aim To evaluate the influence of selected socio-demographic factors on quality of life of patients with different degrees of asthma severity. Material and methods The study was conducted in 2009–2010 in the Clinic of Allergology, Clinical Immunology and Internal Diseases in Dr J. Biziel University Hospital No. 2 in Bydgoszcz. Patients were divided into a tested group (126) and a control group (86). The criterion for the division was the degree of asthma control according to GINA 2006. The following tools were used: the author's questionnaire containing questions about socio-demographic and clinical data, and the WHOQOL-100. Results In the tested group, a statistically significant correlation was observed between quality of life and age (p < 0.002 for the entire population), education (p < 0.05 in the group with controlled asthma, p = 0.0005 for the entire population), professional activity (p < 0.003 in the group with partially controlled asthma, p < 0.05 with uncontrolled asthma and p < 0.0001 in the entire population), marital status (p = 0.025 for the entire population) and financial situation (p < 0.0001; p < 0.0002; p < 0.009 in all groups; p < 0.0001 in the entire population). There was no significant difference between quality of life, and sex and the place of residence of the respondents. Conclusions Age, education, professional activity, marital status and financial situation affect the assessment of quality of life in patients with asthma. Socio-demographic factors such as sex and the place of residence do not influence the assessment of quality of life in patients with asthma.
Low power, high linearity wideband receiver front-end for LTE application

This paper presents a low power wideband receiver front-end implemented in 0.18 um CMOS technology for LTE application. The front-end includes a low-noise amplifier and a quadrature passive current commutating mixer. The inductive peaking LNA is designed using common gate topology for wideband matching with low power consumption. A noise cancellation technique is adopted for the LNA to achieve NF lower than 3dB. A variable gain transconductance amplifier is realized to expanse receiver dynamic range. The tranconductance cell with dynamic bias is designed for high linearity mixer performance. The receiver front-end operates from 0.7 to 2.7 GHz covering all frequency band of 3GPP LTE standard. The front-end shows 38 dB voltage conversion gain, 4.5 dB DSB NF, −10 dBm in-band IIP3 and −6 dBm out-of-band IIP3 while consuming 15 mA from a 1.8 V supply.
X-Ray Galaxy Clusters in NoSOCS: Substructure and the Correlation of Optical and X-Ray Properties

We present a comparison of optical and X-ray properties of galaxy clusters in the northern sky, using literature data from BAX and optically selected clusters in DPOSS. We determine the recovery rate of X-ray-detected clusters in the optical as a function of richness, redshift, and X-ray luminosity, showing that the missed clusters are typically low-contrast systems when observed optically (either poor or at high redshifts). We employ four different statistical tests to test for the presence of substructure using optical two-dimensional data. We find that approximately 35% of the clusters show strong signs of substructure in the optical. However, the results are test-dependent, with variations also due to the magnitude range and radius utilized. We have also performed a comparison of X-ray luminosity and temperature with optical galaxy counts (richness). We find that the slope and scatter of the relations between richness and the X-ray properties are heavily dependent on the density contrast of the clusters. The selection of substructure-free systems does not improve the correlation between X-ray luminosity and richness, but this comparison also shows much larger scatter than one obtained using the X-ray temperature. In the latter case, the sample is significantly reduced because temperature measurements are available only for the most massive (and thus high-contrast) systems. However, the comparison between temperature and richness is very sensitive to the exclusion of clusters showing signs of substructure. The correlation of X-ray luminosity and richness is based on the largest sample to date (~750 clusters), while tests involving temperature use a similar number of objects as previous works (≲100). The results presented here are in good agreement with existing literature.
Towards Services Discovery Based on Service Goal Extraction and Recommendation

Faced with the increasing services and users' personalized requirements, it remains a big challenge for users to effectively and accurately discover and reuse interested services. Goal oriented requirements modeling has attracted more and more attentions in services discovery and modeling, but little work has focused on extracting intentional goals from service descriptions. In this paper, based on the ranked domain keywords, we investigate how to extract domain-specific service goals from service descriptions, which can contribute to services discovery and recommendation. Programmable Web, a publicly accessible service repository, is selected as the testbed. Experiments show the feasibility of the proposed approach.
Healthy Life-Years Lost and Excess Bed-Days Due to 6 Patient Safety Incidents

Background: There is little satisfactory evidence on the harm of safety incidents to patients, in terms of lost potential health and life-years. Objective: To estimate the healthy life-years (HLYs) lost due to 6 incidents in English hospitals between the years 2005/2006 and 2009/2010, to compare burden across incidents, and estimate excess bed-days. Research Design: The study used cross-sectional analysis of the medical records of all inpatients treated in 273 English hospitals. Patients with 6 types of preventable incidents were identified. Total attributable loss of HLYs was estimated through propensity score matching by considering the hypothetical remaining length and quality of life had the incident not occurred. Results: The 6 incidents resulted in an annual loss of 68 HLYs and 934 excess bed-days per 100,000 population. Preventable pressure ulcers caused the loss of 26 HLYs and 555 excess bed-days annually. Deaths in low-mortality procedures resulted in 25 lost life-years and 42 bed-days. Deep-vein thrombosis/pulmonary embolisms cost 12 HLYs, and 240 bed-days. Postoperative sepsis, hip fractures, and central-line infections cost <6 HLYs and 100 bed-days each. Discussion: The burden caused by the 6 incidents is roughly comparable with the UK burden of Multiple Sclerosis (80 DALYs per 100,000), HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis (63 DALYs), and Cervical Cancer (58 DALYs). There were marked differences in the harm caused by the incidents, despite the public attention all of them receive. Decision makers can use the results to prioritize resources into further research and effective interventions.
Early Literacy Instruction for First-Grade Students At-Risk for Emotional and Behavioral Disorders.

This study investigated the effectiveness of an early literacy program for first grade students classified as at-risk for emotional and behavioral disorders, who were nonresponsive to previous schoolwide interventions, and who performed in the bottom one-third of their class on a standardized reading assessment. This study, which consisted of a multiple-probe across intervention groups experimental design aimed to produce literacy and behavior results previously obtained by other well-known researchers. Results indicated growth in oral reading fluency for all five participants, in nonsense word fluency for four out of the five participants, and a decreased display of total disruptive behaviors for all. Findings reaffirm outcomes obtained in previous investigations; specifically, improved early literacy skills are concomitant with ongoing decreases in disruptive classroom behavior. Limitations are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided. EARLY LITERACY INSTRUCTION FOR FIRST-GRADE STUDENTS AT-RISK FOR EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS
Refinement of a Database of Spectral Surface Reflectivity in the Range 335-772 nm Derived from 5.5 Years of GOME Observations

[1] A global database of Lambert-equivalent reflectivity (LER) of the Earth's surface has been constructed by analyzing observations of the reflectivity at the top of the atmosphere made by the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME). Since its launch on board the ERS-2 satellite in April 1995, the GOME instrument has been measuring spectra of the Earth between 237 and 794 nm, with a spectral resolution between 0.2 and 0.4 nm and a spatial resolution between 40 × 80 and 40 × 320 km2. The LER database covers eleven 1-nm-wide wavelength bins centered at 335, 380, 416, 440, 463, 494.5, 555, 610, 670, 758, and 772 nm, which were selected for various retrieval applications. The database has a spatial resolution of 1° × 1°, is made for each month of the year, and pertains to the period June 1995–December 2000. Typical spectra of various surface types are presented. Attention is paid to instrument degradation and residual cloud contamination. We have found satisfactory agreement between our database at 380 nm and the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) LER database at 340–380 nm, with negligible average difference and a standard deviation of 0.013. The database presented here can be used to improve retrievals of trace gases, clouds and aerosols from GOME, Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer or Atmospheric Cartography (SCIAMACHY), Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), and GOME-2.
Buying stolen goods: the ambiguity in trading consumer-to-consumer

Abstract This study investigates the buying of stolen goods in Denmark. The study consists of a self-report survey based on a representative sample of the general Danish population (n = 2311) and six focus group interviews consisting of both informants experienced with buying stolen goods and of those with no experience (n = 37). The survey showed that 4.8% had bought stolen goods, while 15.7% were uncertain whether they had bought stolen goods. Young people, males, and unemployed were more likely to purchase stolen goods. No clear correlation between income and buying stolen goods was found. Focus groups suggest the buyers of stolen goods did not buy stolen goods because they could not afford legitimate products. We recommend targeting consumers not interested in buying stolen goods with information about how to avoid such activity.
Looking Back

As I write, James Austin has been appointed editor of JMTE and it is my turn, after 6 years, to transfer all JMTE responsibilities to him. James Austin, University of Colorado Boulder, is a widely published researcher and a highly qualified reviewer having served on most of our profession’s most prestigious review committees during his distinguished career. So he brings a wealth of experience and wisdom to this editor post. Indeed JMTE is in good hands. Special thanks go to the following as they rotate off the JMTE Editorial Review Committee: William Bauer, Rhonda Hackworth, Jessica Napoles, and John Scheib. Thanks to continuing reviewers: Suzanne Burton, Tami Draves, Margaret Berg, Warren Haston, Daniel Hellman, and Nathan Kruse. And please welcome new JMTE reviewers: Jeremy Manternach, Elizabeth Parker, Sean Powell, and Chad West. I want to recognize the commitment of these reviewers. I appreciate the hours of reading, thoughtful peer reviews, difficult decisions, and occasionally the necessity of ignoring one’s own scholarship to consider that of others—all part of being an excellent reviewer. For information on how JMTE reviewers are selected and further details about peer review, see Killian (2012).
Calcium-based plasticity model explains sensitivity of synaptic changes to spike pattern, rate, and dendritic location

Multiple stimulation protocols have been found to be effective in changing synaptic efficacy by inducing long-term potentiation or depression. In many of those protocols, increases in postsynaptic calcium concentration have been shown to play a crucial role. However, it is still unclear whether and how the dynamics of the postsynaptic calcium alone determine the outcome of synaptic plasticity. Here, we propose a calcium-based model of a synapse in which potentiation and depression are activated above calcium thresholds. We show that this model gives rise to a large diversity of spike timing-dependent plasticity curves, most of which have been observed experimentally in different systems. It accounts quantitatively for plasticity outcomes evoked by protocols involving patterns with variable spike timing and firing rate in hippocampus and neocortex. Furthermore, it allows us to predict that differences in plasticity outcomes in different studies are due to differences in parameters defining the calcium dynamics. The model provides a mechanistic understanding of how various stimulation protocols provoke specific synaptic changes through the dynamics of calcium concentration and thresholds implementing in simplified fashion protein signaling cascades, leading to long-term potentiation and long-term depression. The combination of biophysical realism and analytical tractability makes it the ideal candidate to study plasticity at the synapse, neuron, and network levels.
Healthy and safe school environment, Part II, Physical school environment: results from the School Health Policies and Programs Study 2006.

BACKGROUND As society continues to focus on the importance of academic achievement, the physical environment of schools should be addressed as 1 of the critical factors that influence academic outcomes. The School Health Policies and Programs Study (SHPPS) 2006 provides, for the first time, a comprehensive look at the extent to which schools have health-promoting physical school environment policies and programs. METHODS The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducts the SHPPS every 6 years. In 2006, computer-assisted telephone interviews or self-administered mail questionnaires were completed by state education agency personnel in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and among a nationally representative sample of school districts (n=424). Computer-assisted personal interviews were conducted with personnel in a nationally representative sample of elementary, middle, and high schools (n=992). RESULTS One third (35.4%) of districts and 51.4% of schools had an indoor air quality management program; 35.3% of districts had a school bus engine-idling reduction program; most districts and schools had a policy or plan for how to use, label, store, dispose of, and reduce the use of hazardous materials; 24.5% of states required districts or schools to follow an integrated pest management program; and 13.4% of districts had a policy to include green design when building new school buildings or renovating existing buildings. CONCLUSIONS SHPPS 2006 results can guide education and health agency actions in developing and implementing evidence-based tools, policies, programs, and interventions to ensure a safe and healthy physical school environment.
Achieving Better Learning Performance through the Discussion Activity in Facebook.

This study was conducted to see the effectiveness of using Facebook for expressing opinions on given topics to improve students’ oral proficiency and critical thinking skills in an English class at a private university. The participants were 80 students enrolled in a course which emphasized the use of English for expressing ideas. Three research questions were formulated to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching and learning. Data were collected by two small group discussion tests, a questionnaire and postings in Facebook. The results indicated that students achieved better performance in the second small group discussion test. There were positive correlations between students’ final score and their participation while satisfaction was not found to be correlated to both final score and number of postings. Also, they had a high level of satisfaction with the discussion activity they did in Facebook. The findings suggest that different learning activities be included in future courses to allow students to practice more on discussion, making them improve not only their critical thinking, but language skills as well, and in evaluating those activities, we need to take students’ participation into consideration.
Internalized Heterosexism, Religious Coping, and Psychache in Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Young Adults

Psychache, or unbearable psychological pain (Shneidman, 1993, 1999), has been found to be the most proximal predictor of suicidality. There is evidence that heterosexism (Crain-Gully, 2011), including internalized heterosexism (IH; Bourn & Miles, 2015), is related to psychache among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals. The current study sought to further examine the relationship between IH and psychache, by identifying potential factors that moderate and mediate the relationship between IH and psychache. It was hypothesized that, in a sample of religiously-identified LGB young adults, (a) IH would be significantly, negatively correlated with positive religious coping (PRC) and significantly, positively correlated with negative religious coping (NRC) and psychache, (b) PRC would moderate the relationship between IH and psychache, and (c) NRC would mediate the relationship between IH and psychache. A sample of 617 participants completed an online, self-report survey examining IH, the use of religious coping mechanisms, and psychache. As predicted, IH was significantly, positively correlated with NRC and psychache, but it was also significantly, positively correlated with PRC. While main effects were found for both PRC and IH in the moderation analysis, the interaction was not significant. Finally, NRC mediated the relationship between IH and psychache. Study implications, limitations, and future directions are considered.
Acute Neonatal Infections ‘Lock-In’ a Suboptimal CD8+ T Cell Repertoire with Impaired Recall Responses

Microbial infection during various stages of human development produces widely different clinical outcomes, yet the links between age-related changes in the immune compartment and functional immunity remain unclear. The ability of the immune system to respond to specific antigens and mediate protection in early life is closely correlated with the level of diversification of lymphocyte antigen receptors. We have previously shown that the neonatal primary CD8+ T cell response to replication competent virus is significantly constricted compared to the adult response. In the present study, we have analyzed the subsequent formation of neonatal memory CD8+ T cells and their response to secondary infectious challenge. In particular, we asked whether the less diverse CD8+ T cell clonotypes that are elicited by neonatal vaccination with replication competent virus are ‘locked-in’ to the adult memory T cell, and thus may compromise the strength of adult immunity. Here we report that neonatal memory CD8+ T cells mediate poor recall responses compared to adults and are comprised of a repertoire of lower avidity T cells. During a later infectious challenge the neonatal memory CD8+ T cells compete poorly with the fully diverse repertoire of naïve adult CD8+ T cells and are outgrown by the adult primary response. This has important implications for the timing of vaccination in early life.