Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improving the Energy Efficiency of Broadband Copper Access Networks: Review and Performance Analysis

In this paper, we review the main techniques that can be applied to improve the energy efficiency of broadband copper access networks. Starting from a holistic view of the end-to-end copper access, we identify green opportunities in the different building blocks for different deployment practices. We shift the focus to the access telecommunication equipment and its supporting functions needed to operate the equipment in different environments depending on the access architecture. This system-level approach, guided by the power breakdown of the access nodes, reveals that some optimizations can result in more energy savings as opposed to others. In the second part, we narrow the scope and focus on the realistic energy saving in the telecommunication equipment when optimizing rate–power–stability tradeoffs at the physical layer through spectral optimization. For this purpose, we first review the main state of the art digital subscriber line (DSL) spectral optimization techniques. Then, we conduct (system level) power measurements of an operator-side DSL line board under various conditions of data rate, power spectral density, and stability. The experiments highlight practical opportunities and challenges for optimizing rate–power–stability tradeoffs in copper access systems with comparison to available simulation-based studies focusing on energy reduction through spectral optimization.
Spirituality-Based Recovery From Drug Addiction in the Twelve-Step Fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous

Background:Narcotics Anonymous is a worldwide fellowship that employs the Twelve-Step model for members dependent on drugs of abuse. The spiritual orientation of its program of abstinence has not been subjected to empirical study. Methods:Responses of 527 American Narcotics Anonymous meeting attendees to a structured questionnaire were evaluated for the roles of cognitive and psychosocial aspects of spirituality in their recovery. Results:Respondents had last used drugs or alcohol on average 6.1 years previously. They were found to be more oriented toward a spiritual than a formally religious orientation than probability samples of the general population. Aspects of membership such as affiliation toward other members and the experience of spiritual awakening were associated with lower rates of drug or alcohol craving, whereas scores on depression were associated with higher craving scores. Conclusions:Spiritual renewal combined with an abstinence-oriented regimen in Narcotics Anonymous social context can play a role in long-term recovery from drug addiction.
Stability of methylecgonidine and ecgonidine in sheep plasma in vitro.

BACKGROUND Crack smokers are exposed to a pyrolysis product, methylecgonidine (MEG), which can be used as an analytical marker for crack smoking. Ecgonidine (EC), a hydrolytic product of MEG, has been identified in urine of crack smokers. MEG undergoes conversion to EC, complicating analysis and perhaps explaining a lack of forensic blood specimens containing MEG. METHODS We developed gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) assays for MEG and EC. Plasma was collected from sheep blood containing 0, 0.06, or 0.24 mol/L (0%, 0.25%, or 1%) NaF. MEG was added to these plasmas, and they were incubated at -80, 1, 21, or 37 degrees C to determine whether there were temporal, temperature, or storage effects on MEG stability over 48 h. RESULTS Decreased temperature and increased NaF concentrations limited MEG degradation and EC formation. MEG stored in plasma at -80 degrees C was stable up to 1 month, even in the absence of NaF. CONCLUSIONS MEG is stable in sheep plasma collected in commercially available, evacuated blood-collection tubes containing NaF and stored at -80 degrees C. In vitro formation of EC can be minimized with appropriate sample handling, and its in vivo formation may provide a better marker of crack smoking than its parent pyrolysis product.
External Examinations and Accountability, Educational Expectations, and High School Graduation

Proponents argue that state-mandated assessments of student performance will encourage cooperation between teachers and students leading to greater academic success, while opponents argue they will increase inequality by structurally limiting disadvantaged students' opportunities. Using two national studies conducted in the early 1990s, we find that the relationship of students' likelihood of high school graduation with their background, aspirations, and teachers' expectations varies among states with differing assessment and accountability policies. Linking test performance to consequences for students weakens the relationship between teachers' low expectations and earning a diploma, and greater consequences for schools appears to strengthen the same relationship.
The Neural Correlates of Visual and Verbal Cognitive Styles

It has long been thought that propensities for visual or verbal learning styles influence how children acquire knowledge successfully and how adults reason in everyday life. There is no direct evidence to date, however, linking these cognitive styles to specific neural systems. In the present study, visual and verbal cognitive styles are measured by self-report survey, and cognitive abilities are measured by scored tests of visual and verbal skills. Specifically, we administered the Verbalizer–Visualizer Questionnaire (VVQ) and modality-specific subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) to 18 subjects who subsequently participated in a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment. During the imaging session, participants performed a novel psychological task involving both word-based and picture-based feature matching conditions that was designed to permit the use of either a visual or a verbal processing style during all conditions of the task. Results demonstrated a pattern of activity in modality-specific cortex that distinguished visual from verbal cognitive styles. During the word-based condition, activity in a functionally defined brain region that responded to viewing pictorial stimuli (fusiform gyrus) correlated with self-reported visualizer ratings on the VVQ. In contrast, activity in a phonologically related brain region (supramarginal gyrus) correlated with the verbalizer dimension of the VVQ during the picture-based condition. Scores from the WAIS subtests did not reliably correlate with brain activity in either of these regions. These findings suggest that modality-specific cortical activity underlies processing in visual and verbal cognitive styles.
Distinct Control of MyD88 Adapter-dependent and Akt Kinase-regulated Responses by the Interleukin (IL)-1RI Co-receptor, TILRR*

Background: The inflammatory regulator, IL-1RI (interleukin-1 type-1 receptor), is controlled through its co-receptor TILRR (Toll-like and IL-1 receptor regulator). Results: Amplification of inflammatory responses and cell survival through this receptor system depends on distinct residues within the TILRR core protein. Conclusion: TILRR has the capacity to selectively regulate inflammatory responses and cell survival. Significance: Information on signal specificity is central to understanding response control. Inflammatory responses are controlled through members of the interleukin-1 receptor (IL-1R)/Toll-like receptor superfamily. Our earlier work demonstrates that the IL-1 receptor type 1 (IL-1RI) co-receptor, Toll-like and IL-1 receptor regulator (TILRR), amplifies IL-1 activation of NF-κB and inflammatory genes. Here we show that TILRR similarly promotes IL-1-induced anti-apoptotic signals and reduces caspase-3 activity. Further, the TILRR-induced effects on cell survival and inflammatory responses are controlled through distinct parts of the IL-1RI regulatory Toll IL-1 receptor (TIR) domain. Alanine-scanning mutagenesis identified a functional TILRR mutant (R425A), which blocked increases in cell survival and upstream activation of Akt but had no effect on amplification of MyD88-dependent inflammatory responses. A second mutant (D448A) blocked TILRR potentiation of MyD88-dependent signals and inflammatory activation but had no impact on cell survival. Secondary structure predictions suggested that the mutations induce distinct alterations in the α-helical structure of the TILRR core protein. The results indicate a role for TILRR in selective amplification of NF-κB responses through IL-1RI and suggest that the specificity is determined by changes in receptor conformation and adapter protein recruitment.
The physical education profession and its professional responsibility … or … why ‘12 weeks paid holiday’ will never be enough

Background: This paper critically reviews the concept of ‘professional responsibility’ in physical education. The paper is rooted in the belief that the physical education profession has, by virtue of its expertise in young people and physical activity, the potential to deliver a broad range of desirable educational and health-related outcomes. Yet, if the physical education profession is just that – a profession – then its true potential lies in its ability to serve its ‘clients’; children and young people. In order to serve its clients effectively, therefore, each member of the profession has a responsibility to base its practices upon the best knowledge available at any given time. Key concepts: Physical education teachers as professionals are considered as learners – rather than as teachers. The development of this argument is traced through the work of John Dewey, Donald Schon, David Hargreaves and the recent national Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP) in England. On being a profession: The nature of professions is then analysed and an holistic view of the physical education profession is suggested which places teachers at the core of a community of practice. Career-long professional development (CPD) is identified as a defining characteristic of all professions, yet it is argued that much of the CPD traditionally offered to physical education teachers is limited in both scope and challenge. Health and positive youth development: The problems resulting from ineffective and inappropriate PE-CPD are considered. Expectations on the PE profession are increasing, nationally and internationally, in two areas of public concern – health and positive youth development. It is argued, however, that the fractured nature of the wider profession means that PE teachers are poorly prepared to deliver what is expected of it in these two areas. Implications for the PE profession: The implications of a fractured profession are explored and it is argued that urgent changes are required to the ways in which teachers learn, teacher educators (from ITT to CPD) support professional learning, and researchers undertake, disseminate and are held accountable for their research. Conclusion: The extended profession needs to find ways to work together more effectively to support teachers who exist to serve the clients of this profession: children and young people. It is suggested that one way to start this process is to refocus teachers on themselves as career-long learners, and then to consider the implications for the work of the wider PE profession; including researchers.
The gap between human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and advances in HIV treatment.

In 2006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released guidelines recommending that all patients 13–64 years of age be routinely screened for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) [1], which was followed in 2009 by similar recommendations from the American College of Physicians [2]. Although the overall impact of these statements on HIV testing and diagnosis remains unclear, the 2 statements warrant reflection in light of the findings by Althoff et al [3] published in this issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases. Although few medical conditions have seen such significant and rapid improvements in morbidity and mortality outcomes due to advances in HIV treatment, a large percentage of HIV-infected patients do not benefit if they remain undiagnosed or without HIV care. The poignant question that Althoff et al [3] consider is whether our ability to apply advances in HIV antiretroviral therapy (ART) to our HIV-infected patients has improved along with the effectiveness of therapy. Althoff et al [3] present an analysis of
Increased Infarct Wall Thickness by a Bio-Inert Material Is Insufficient to Prevent Negative Left Ventricular Remodeling after Myocardial Infarction

Background Several injectable materials have been shown to preserve or improve cardiac function as well as prevent or slow left ventricular (LV) remodeling post-myocardial infarction (MI). However, it is unclear as to whether it is the structural support or the bioactivity of these polymers that lead to beneficial effects. Herein, we examine how passive structural enhancement of the LV wall by an increase in wall thickness affects cardiac function post-MI using a bio-inert, non-degradable synthetic polymer in an effort to better understand the mechanisms by which injectable materials affect LV remodeling. Methods and Results Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) gels of storage modulus G′ = 0.5±0.1 kPa were injected and polymerized in situ one week after total occlusion of the left coronary artery in female Sprague Dawley rats. The animals were imaged using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 7±1 day(s) post-MI as a baseline and again post-injection 49±4 days after MI. Infarct wall thickness was statistically increased in PEG gel injected vs. control animals (p<0.01). However, animals in the polymer and control groups showed decreases in cardiac function in terms of end diastolic volume, end systolic volume and ejection fraction compared to baseline (p<0.01). The cellular response to injection was also similar in both groups. Conclusion The results of this study demonstrate that passive structural reinforcement alone was insufficient to prevent post-MI remodeling, suggesting that bioactivity and/or cell infiltration due to degradation of injectable materials are likely playing a key role in the preservation of cardiac function, thus providing a deeper understanding of the influencing properties of biomaterials necessary to prevent post-MI negative remodeling.
Erythema and Burning Pain in the Vulva: A Possible Phenotype of Erythromelalgia

We report a case of burning vulvar pain accompanied by erythema responding to an oral combination of a benzodiazepine and a beta blocker. The positive response to two medication classes used in the treatment of erythromelalgia supports the possibility of a localized manifestation of this disorder in the genital region.
Obesity and Cardiovascular Disease: Pathophysiology, Evaluation, and Effect of Weight Loss: An Update of the 1997 American Heart Association Scientific Statement on Obesity and Heart Disease From the Obesity Committee of the Council on Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Metabolism

Obesity is becoming a global epidemic in both children and adults. It is associated with numerous comorbidities such as cardiovascular diseases (CVD), type 2 diabetes, hypertension, certain cancers, and sleep apnea/sleep-disordered breathing. In fact, obesity is an independent risk factor for CVD, and CVD risks have also been documented in obese children. Obesity is associated with an increased risk of morbidity and mortality as well as reduced life expectancy. Health service use and medical costs associated with obesity and related diseases have risen dramatically and are expected to continue to rise. Besides an altered metabolic profile, a variety of adaptations/alterations in cardiac structure and function occur in the individual as adipose tissue accumulates in excess amounts, even in the absence of comorbidities. Hence, obesity may affect the heart through its influence on known risk factors such as dyslipidemia, hypertension, glucose intolerance, inflammatory markers, obstructive sleep apnea/hypoventilation, and the prothrombotic state, in addition to as-yet-unrecognized mechanisms. On the whole, overweight and obesity predispose to or are associated with numerous cardiac complications such as coronary heart disease, heart failure, and sudden death because of their impact on the cardiovascular system. The pathophysiology of these entities that are linked to obesity will be discussed. However, the cardiovascular clinical evaluation of obese patients may be limited because of the morphology of the individual. In this statement, we review the available evidence of the impact of obesity on CVD with emphasis on the evaluation of cardiac structure and function in obese patients and the effect of weight loss on the cardiovascular system.
Short Term Forgetting in the Absence of Proactive Interference

It has been claimed that the short-term forgetting shown by the Peterson technique is entirely due to proactive interference from prior experimental items. Two experiments investigated this by studying forgetting when prior items were avoided by testing subjects only once. Both experiments showed significant forgetting, although the degree of forgetting was less than with a multitrial procedure. On the basis of this and other results it is suggested that the Peterson technique comprises two components, a primary memory component which decays within 6 sec, and a more stable secondary memory component. Forgetting with the multitrial procedure is attributed principally to the need to use temporal retrieval cues to avoid confusion between successive items; longer retention intervals are associated with reduced temporal discriminability and hence poorer recall.
Some limiting embeddings in weighted function spaces and related entropy numbers

The paper deals with weighted function spaces of type B p,q(R , w(x)) and F s p,q(R , w(x)), where w(x) is a weight function of at most polynomial growth. Of special interest are weight functions of type w(x) = (1 + |x|2)α/2 (log(2 + |x|))μ with α ≥ 0 and μ ∈ R. Our main result deals with estimates for the entropy numbers of compact embeddings between spaces of this type; more precisely, we may extend and tighten some of our previous results in [12]. AMS Subject Classification: 46E 35
The Widom line of supercooled water

Water can be supercooled to temperatures as low as −92 °C, the experimental crystal homogeneous nucleation temperature TH at 2 kbar. Within the supercooled liquid phase its response functions show an anomalous increase consistent with the presence of a liquid–liquid critical point located in a region inaccessible to experiments on bulk water. Recent experiments on the dynamics of confined water show that a possible way to understand the properties of water is to investigate the supercooled phase diagram in the vicinity of the Widom line (locus of maximum correlation length) that emanates from the hypothesized liquid–liquid critical point. Here we explore the Widom line for a Hamiltonian model of water using an analytic approach, and discuss the plausibility of the hypothesized liquid–liquid critical point, as well as its possible consequences, on the basis of the assumptions of the model. The present analysis allows us (i) to find an analytic expression for the spinodal line of the high-density liquid phase, with respect to the low-density liquid phase, showing that this line becomes flat in the P–T phase diagram in the physical limit of a large number of available orientations for the hydrogen bonds, as recently seen in simulations and experiments (Xu et al 2005 Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. 102 16558); (ii) to find an estimate of the values for the hypothesized liquid–liquid critical point coordinates that compare very well with Monte Carlo results; and (iii) to show how the Widom line can be located by studying the derivative of the probability of forming hydrogen bonds with local tetrahedral orientation which can be calculated analytically within this approach.
Teacher–pupil dialogue with pupils with special educational needs in the National Literacy Strategy

This paper reports on an investigation into the interactive and discourse styles of a nationally representative sample of primary teachers ( n = 70) as they work with pupils who experience difficulties in literacy development during whole class and group‐based sections of the literacy hour. Using a computerized observation schedule and discourse analysis system, the paper explores the impact of the official endorsement of ‘interactive whole‐class teaching’ on the teaching of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) in the literacy hour to see whether the National Literacy Strategy (NLS) is promoting their active involvement. The findings suggest that while the NLS is encouraging teachers to involve pupils with SEN in the literacy hour, the discourse is dominated by teacher explanation and question/answer sequences that provide little opportunity for pupils of all abilities to initiate, explore and elaborate on their ideas. The implications of the findings are considered in the light of their impact on classroom pedagogy and the professional development of teachers who are charged with implementing the national policy‐led initiatives like the NLS.
The influence of infant irritability on maternal sensitivity in a sample of very premature infants

The relationship between maternal sensitivity and infant irritability was investigated in a short-term longitudinal study of 29 very preterm infants. Infant irritability was assessed at term with the Brazelton NBAS, the Mother and Baby Scales (MABS) and the Crying Pattern Questionnaire (CPQ). Maternal sensitivity was assessed by nurses' ratings in the neonatal care unit and at three months during mother–infant interaction observation. Cross-lagged panel analysis indicated that neonatal irritability did not influence sensitivity at 3 months nor did maternal sensitivity in the newborn period lead to reduced irritability at 3 months. Both irritability and maternal sensitivity showed moderate stability over time (r = 0.55 and r = 0.60, respectively). It is concluded that in early infancy maternal sensitivity shows little influence on infant irritability in very preterm infants. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Automatic Real-Time ECG Coding Methodology Guaranteeing Signal Interpretation Quality

This paper introduces a new methodology for compressing ECG signals in an automatic way guaranteeing signal interpretation quality. The approach is based on noise estimation in the ECG signal that is used as a compression threshold in the coding stage. The Set Partitioning in Hierarchical Trees algorithm is used to code the signal in the wavelet domain. Forty different ECG records from two different ECG databases commonly used in ECG compression have been considered to validate the approach. Three cardiologists have participated in the clinical trial using mean opinion score tests in order to rate the signals quality. Results showed that the approach not only achieves very good ECG reconstruction quality but also enhances the visual quality of the ECG signal.