Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Outcomes of Children Bridged to Heart Transplantation With Ventricular Assist Devices: A Multi-Institutional Study

Background— Current ventricular assist devices (VADs) in the United States are designed primarily for adult use. Data on VADs as a bridge to transplantation in children are limited. Methods and Results— A multi-institutional, prospectively maintained database of outcomes in children after listing for heart transplantation (n=2375) was used to analyze outcomes of VAD patients (n=99, 4%) listed between January 1993 and December 2003. Median age at VAD implantation was 13.3 years (range, 2 days to 17.9 years); diagnoses were cardiomyopathy (78%) and congenital heart disease (22%). Mean duration of support was 57 days (range, 1 to 465 days). Seventy-three percent were supported with a long-term device, with 39% requiring biventricular support. Seventy-seven patients (77%) survived to transplantation, 5 patients were successfully weaned from support and recovered, and 17 patients (17%) died on support. In the recent era (2000 to 2003), successful bridge to transplantation with VAD was achieved in 86% of patients. Peak hazard for death while waiting was the first 2 weeks after VAD placement. Risk factors for death while awaiting a transplant included earlier era of implantation (P=0.05), female gender (P=0.02), and congenital disease diagnosis (P=0.05). There was no difference in 5-year survival after transplantation for patients on VAD at time of transplantation as compared with those not requiring VAD. Conclusions— VAD support in children successfully bridged 77% of patients to transplantation, with posttransplantation outcomes comparable to those not requiring VAD. These encouraging results emphasize the need to further understand patient selection and to delineate the impact of VAD technology for children.
Virulence profiling of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli recovered from domestic farm animals in Northwestern Mexico

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is a zoonotic enteric pathogen that causes human gastrointestinal illnesses. The present study characterized the virulence profiles of O157 and non-O157 STEC strains, recovered from domestic animals in small rural farms within the agricultural Culiacan Valley in Mexico. Virulence genes coding for adhesins, cytotoxins, proteases, subtypes of Shiga toxin (Stx), and other effectors were identified in the STEC strains by PCR. The genotyping analysis revealed the presence of the effectors nleA, nleB, nleE, and nleH1-2, espK, and espN in the O157:H7 and O111:H8 STEC strains. Furthermore, the genes encoding the autoagglutinating adhesin (Saa) and subtilase (SubA) were exclusively identified in the O8:H19 eae-negative strains. The adhesin (iha) and the silent hemolysin (sheA) genes were detected in 79% of the O157 and non-O157 strains. To examine the relative toxicities of the STEC strains, a fluorescent Vero cell line, Vero-d2EGFPs, was employed to measure the inhibition of protein synthesis by Stx. Analysis of culture supernatants from serotype O8:H19 strains with the stx gene profile stx1a, stx2a, and stx2c and serotypes O75:H8 and O146:H8 strains with the stx gene profile stx1a, stx1c, and stx2b, resulted in a significant reduction in the Vero-d2EGFP fluorescent signal. These observations suggest that these non-O157 strains may have an enhanced ability to inhibit protein synthesis in Vero cells. Interestingly, analysis of the stx2c-positive O157:H7 strains resulted in a high fluorescent signal, indicating a reduced toxicity in the Vero-d2EGFP cells. These findings indicate that the O157 and non-O157 STEC strains, recovered in the Culiacan Valley, display distinct virulence profiles and relative toxicities in mammalian cells and have provided information for evaluating risks associated with zoonotic STEC in this agricultural region in Mexico.
Legal institutions and performance . Monitoring agreements in the early Danish dairy sector ∗

This paper examines the monitoring and enforcement of contracts in Danish cooperative creameries in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, using a unique sample based on the minutes of board and general meetings of over 140 creameries. The period coincides with the rapid expansion and eventual dominance fuelled by economic success of cooperative creameries in Denmark. These cooperatives are best seen as nexi of contracts raising the issue of how well these functioned. Two types of breach of contract are investigated, adulteration of milk supplied to the creamery (enabling a member to capture more than his share of the result) and exit before the stipulated period of membership (putting at risk the economy by increasing the costs per produced unit). The relentlessness with which the contracts were enforced is an new finding. The main exceptions to this are some cases of exit, where transport problems that were unique to the individual justified exit. This suggest that the cooperatives singled out the reasons for exit that would not cause a ’run’ on the cooperative. Another finding is that contrary to popular perception, Danish contract law as an institution made important contributions to the enforcement of cooperative contracts. Preliminary comments welcome
Predictors for Career Achievement in the Corporate Hierarchy

This study investigates the interrelationships between objective and perceived career achievement and career choices, success criteria, family variables, and demographics, as well as examining vocational congruence between career and the individual. The congruence model is tested by using both objective and subjective measures. A sample composed of more than 200 managers from a variety of organizations revealed that demographic and family variables relate to individual perceptions of career achievement as well as to objective indicators of career achievement within a corporate hierarchy. While the applicability of the general congruence model in career research seems limited based on this study's result, the functional congruence model is supported with the data obtained. Implications of these results for research on careers and career counselors are discussed.
Inhibition of Protease-Resistant Prion Protein Formation in a Transformed Deer Cell Line Infected with Chronic Wasting Disease

ABSTRACT Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is an emerging transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (prion disease) of North American cervids, i.e., mule deer, white-tailed deer, and elk (wapiti). To facilitate in vitro studies of CWD, we have developed a transformed deer cell line that is persistently infected with CWD. Primary cultures derived from uninfected mule deer brain tissue were transformed by transfection with a plasmid containing the simian virus 40 genome. A transformed cell line (MDB) was exposed to microsomes prepared from the brainstem of a CWD-affected mule deer. CWD-associated, protease-resistant prion protein (PrPCWD) was used as an indicator of CWD infection. Although no PrPCWD was detected in any of these cultures after two passes, dilution cloning of cells yielded one PrPCWD-positive clone out of 51. This clone, designated MDBCWD, has maintained stable PrPCWD production through 32 serial passes thus far. A second round of dilution cloning yielded 20 PrPCWD-positive subclones out of 30, one of which was designated MDBCWD2. The MDBCWD2 cell line was positive for fibronectin and negative for microtubule-associated protein 2 (a neuronal marker) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (an activated astrocyte marker), consistent with derivation from brain fibroblasts (e.g., meningeal fibroblasts). Two inhibitors of rodent scrapie protease-resistant PrP accumulation, pentosan polysulfate and a porphyrin compound, indium (III) meso-tetra(4-sulfonatophenyl)porphine chloride, potently blocked PrPCWD accumulation in MDBCWD cells. This demonstrates the utility of these cells in a rapid in vitro screening assay for PrPCWD inhibitors and suggests that these compounds have potential to be active against CWD in vivo.
Anatomy of the first septal perforating artery: a study with implications for ablation therapy for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

OBJECTIVE To determine the variability in the size and distribution of the first septal perforating artery (FSPA). MATERIAL AND METHODS In this pilot study, 10 fresh autopsy hearts from patients who did not have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) or clinical evidence of coronary artery disease were evaluated for the variability in the size of the FSPA. The size of the FSPA was also measured during coronary angiography in 8 patients with HCM who were undergoing alcohol septal ablation. RESULTS Of the 10 autopsy hearts, 2 had a large FSPA (> or = 1.0 mm in maximal diameter) with prominent septal myocardial distribution, 2 had a medium-sized FSPA (0.5-0.9 mm), 2 had a small FSPA (0.1-0.4 mm), 3 had a tiny FSPA (< 0.1 mm), and 1 had an indiscernible ostium. In 2 patients the FSPA supplied the right ventricular free wall. In 4 patients the basal ventricular septum was incompletely supplied by the FSPA. Of the 8 patients with HCM, the FSPA was larger than 2 mm in diameter in 2 patients, 1 to 2 mm in 4, and smaller than 1 mm in 2. The distance between the left anterior descending coronary artery ostium and the origin of the FSPA ranged between 13.1 and 37.4 mm, indicating a large variation in the size and distribution of the FSPA. CONCLUSIONS Variability in the size and distribution of the FSPA in patients without HCM was substantial. Areas of the heart other than the basal septum were supplied in some patients by the FSPA. In other patients the FSPA did not supply the entire basal septum. Similar findings were noted in patients with HCM. A detailed evaluation of the distribution of the FSPA may be necessary in all patients with HCM who are undergoing alcohol septal ablation.
The Relationship between Thinking Styles and Emotional Intelligence: An Exploratory Study

In this study we explore the association between thinking styles and emotional intelligence. Participants (N = 309) completed Sternberg's Thinking Styles Inventory (TSI) and the Schutte Self-Report Inventory (SSRI) for emotional intelligence. Statistical analysis of the scores of the participants on the two instruments indicates that there is an overlap between the TSI and the SSRI, and suggests that they measure similar constructs. The results show that thinking styles are significant predictors of emotional intelligence and that participants who have high emotional intelligence prefer more complex and creative thinking styles.
Visual crowding illustrates the inadequacy of local vs. global and feedforward vs. feedback distinctions in modeling visual perception

Experimentalists tend to classify models of visual perception as being either local or global, and involving either feedforward or feedback processing. We argue that these distinctions are not as helpful as they might appear, and we illustrate these issues by analyzing models of visual crowding as an example. Recent studies have argued that crowding cannot be explained by purely local processing, but that instead, global factors such as perceptual grouping are crucial. Theories of perceptual grouping, in turn, often invoke feedback connections as a way to account for their global properties. We examined three types of crowding models that are representative of global processing models, and two of which employ feedback processing: a model based on Fourier filtering, a feedback neural network, and a specific feedback neural architecture that explicitly models perceptual grouping. Simulations demonstrate that crucial empirical findings are not accounted for by any of the models. We conclude that empirical investigations that reject a local or feedforward architecture offer almost no constraints for model construction, as there are an uncountable number of global and feedback systems. We propose that the identification of a system as being local or global and feedforward or feedback is less important than the identification of a system's computational details. Only the latter information can provide constraints on model development and promote quantitative explanations of complex phenomena.
Systematic Instruction of Phonics Skills Using an iPad for Students With Developmental Disabilities Who Are AAC Users

A phonics-based reading curriculum in which students used an iPad to respond was created for students with developmental disabilities not able to verbally participate in traditional phonics instruction due to their use of augmentative and assistive communication. Time delay and a system of least prompts used in conjunction with text-to-speech software enabled students to participate in phonics instruction that included segmenting, decoding, sight words, and comprehension after reading a decodable short passage. Students were randomly assigned to a treatment group who received the phonics instruction or a control group who received sight word instruction on the iPad. A repeated-measures ANOVA found that students who received the iPad-based phonics curriculum outperformed the control students. Hierarchical linear model (HLM) analysis supports a two-level model with a time by group membership interaction effect, the inclusion of student-level variables was not statistically significant.
Radiation-Induced Malignancies Making Radiotherapy a “Two-Edged Sword”: A Review of Literature

Radiotherapy is one of the modalities of treatment of malignancies. Radiation-induced malignancies (RIMs) are late complications of radiotherapy, seen among the survivors of both adult and pediatric cancers. Mutagenesis of normal tissues is the basis for RIMs. The aim of this review of literature was to discuss epidemiology, factors affecting and different settings in which RIM occur.
Analysis of the Posterior Fossa in Children with the Chiari 0 Malformation

OBJECTIVE We previously reported the resolution of syringohydromyelia without cerebellar tonsillar ectopia in five patients after posterior fossa decompression of the so-called Chiari 0 malformation. A sixth patient is described. In this study, the anatomy of the posterior fossa is analyzed using radiological imaging, enabling features of the posterior fossa in this uncommon subgroup of children to be characterized. METHODS Multiple measurements were made on magnetic resonance imaging studies in six children with Chiari 0 malformation to determine the position of the brainstem relative to the foramen magnum. Fifty children with normal magnetic resonance imaging studies of the brain were used as controls. RESULTS All children with a Chiari 0 malformation were found to have the following positive results: obices that were located more than 2 standard deviations below normal, an increase in the anteroposterior midsagittal distance of the spinomedullary junction at the level of the foramen magnum, an increase in the angle between the floor of the fourth ventricle and clivus, and an increase in the anteroposterior midsagittal distance of the foramen magnum. CONCLUSION The findings of this study suggest that the contents of the posterior fossa are indeed compromised and/or distorted in patients with syringohydromyelia but no tonsillar ectopia. In this group, the brainstem was caudally displaced more than 3 standard deviations below normal.
Development of Tonality Induction: Plasticity, Exposure, and Training

Tonality induction is the natural outcome of acoustic redundancies in music and the predisposition of the brain to represent these redundancies. In the simplest case, tonality induction relies on frequency resolution and a memory accumulator. A review of the literature suggests that these and other more sophisticated building blocks (analysis of complex tones and sensitivity to sequential characteristics of musical patterns) are in place to contribute to tonality induction in the first year of life. As further revealed by life-span studies of preference and recognition for stylistically different popular music excerpts, two other constraints must also be considered: (1) brain plasticity and (2) degree of exposure to music of particular styles. The importance of a final factor, (3) formal music performance training, is shown in studies of (a) the benefits of the major triad frequency ratio relations (4:5:6) on memory (absolute judgment) for tones in an unfamiliar context (b) the applicability of a model based on a key-finding algorithm to pitch memory in a tonal context, and (c) the probe-tone task.
Planar N = 4 gauge theory and the Hubbard model

Recently it was established that a certain integrable long-range spin chain describes the dilatation operator of N = 4 gauge theory in the su(2) sector to at least three-loop order, while exhibiting BMN scaling to all orders in perturbation theory. Here we identify this spin chain as an approximation to an integrable short-ranged model of strongly correlated electrons: The Hubbard model.
Epistemological Development and Attachment in European College Students

Epistemological development and attachment theory have been independent frameworks for understanding psychological development. This study examined the association between epistemological development (using the Measure of Epistemological Reflection) and attachment (using the Adult Attachment Interview) in a sample of 60 pre- and postgraduated college students. Results showed that absolute knowing is rarely present in secure students and that it is most common among preoccupied students. Students with dismissing attachment have restricted ways of knowing, progressing from transitional knowing to independent knowing. For a more comprehensive analysis of these findings selected cases are presented. These results may be relevant for further interdomain research and intervention with college students.
THE INFLUENCE OF TYPES AND SELECTION OF MENTAL PREPARATION STATEMENTS ON COLLEGIATE CROSS-COUNTRY RUNNERS' ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE AND SATISFCATION LEVELS

THE INFLUENCE OF TYPES AND SELECTION OF MENTAL PREPARATION STATEMENTS ON COLLEGIATE CROSS-COUNTRY RUNNERS’ ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE AND SATISFCATION LEVELS By Abigail Jeannine Miller This pre-test/post-test matched-groups study examined the influences of type of self-talk and who selects the self-talk on one-mile run performance. Eighty-one collegiate cross-country runners were assigned to one of six intervention groups after completing baseline one-mile timetrials: motivational self-set, motivational assigned, instructional self-set, instructional assigned, combined self-set, or combined assigned. Results of six one-way ANOVA’s revealed that although all six intervention groups had meaningful improvements in run times from pre-test to post-test, only the combined self-set group, motivational self-set group, and instructional assigned group had improvements that were statistically significant. Also, a 3(type of statement) x 2 (self/assigned) x 2(trials) repeated measures ANOVA indicated no significant between-group main effects or interactions. No significant differences between the groups regarding participants’ satisfaction levels, effort, and perceived improvement were found with all participants reporting that they tried hard and were satisfied with the intervention. THE INFLUENCE OF TYPES AND SELECTION OF MENTAL PREPARATION STATEMENTS ON COLLEGIATE CROSS-COUNTRY RUNNERS’ ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE AND SATISFCATION LEVELS
Robot-mediated joint attention in children with autism : A case study in robot-human interaction

Interactive robots are used increasingly not only in entertainment and service robotics, but also in rehabilitation, therapy and education. The work presented in this paper is part of the Aurora project, rooted in assistive technology and robot-human interaction research. Our primary aim is to study if robots can potentially be used as therapeutically or educationally useful ‘toys’. In this paper we outline the aims of the project that this study belongs to, as well as the specific qualitative contextual perspective that is being used. We then provide an in-depth evaluation, in part using Conversation Analysis (CA), of segments of trials where three children with autism interacted with a robot as well as an adult. We focus our analysis primarily on joint attention which plays a fundamental role in human development and social understanding. Joint attention skills of children with autism have been studied extensively in autism research and therefore this behaviour provides a relevant focus for our study. In the setting used, joint attention emerges from natural and spontaneous interactions between a child and an adult. We present the data in the form of transcripts and photo stills. The examples were selected from extensive video footage for illustrative purposes, i.e. demonstrating how children with autism can respond to the changing behaviour of their co-participant, i.e. the experimenter. Furthermore, our data shows that the robot provides a salient object, or mediator for joint attention. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications of this work in the context of further studies with robots and children with autism within the Aurora project, as well as the potential contribution of robots to research into the nature of autism.
Who creates trends in online social media: The crowd or opinion leaders?

Internet slang words can very quickly become ubiquitous because of social memes and viral online content. Weibo, a Twitter-like service in China, demonstrates that the adoption of popular Internet slang undergoes 2 distinct peaks in its temporal evolution, in which the former is relatively much lower than the latter. An in-depth comparison of the diffusion of these different peaks suggests that popular attention in the early stage of propagation results in large-scale coverage, while the participation of opinion leaders at the early stage only leads to minor popularity. Our empirical results question the conventional influentials hypothesis and provide some insights for marketing practice and influence maximization in social networks.
Detection and mitigation of malicious JavaScript using information flow control

JavaScript is the main language used to provide the client-side functionality of the modern web. It is used in many applications that provide high interactivity with the end-user. These applications range from mapping applications to online games. In recent years, cyber-criminals started focusing on attacking the visitors of legitimate websites and social networks rather than attacking the websites themselves. The dynamic nature of the JavaScript language and its tangled usage with other web technologies in modern web applications makes it hard to reason about its code statically. This poses the need to develop effective mechanisms for detecting and mitigating malicious JavaScript code on the client-side of the web. In this paper, we address the above challenges by developing a framework that detects and mitigates the flow of sensitive information on the client-side to illegal channels. The proposed model uses information flow control dynamically at run-time to track sensitive information and prevents its leakage. In order to realize the model, we extend the operational semantics of JavaScript to enable the control of information flow inside web browsers.
The Development of Ethnic Attitudes

Empirical research reported in the literature over the past 18 years was integrated and critically evaluated to determine the age at which ethnic attitudes are formed, their course of development after this age of onset, and psychological factors influencing attitude development. Conclusions were drawn about the effects of age and ethnic status that differed in certain respects from those made a decade ago. The development of ethnic attitudes was found to parallel certain developments in affective, perceptual, and cognitive processes, such as the differentiation between groups and between individuals. Within this framework, differences between majority and minority children were discussed in terms of the effects of social factors on affect, perception, and cognition.