Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Domain-Specific Language for Multitask Systems, Applying Discrete Controller Synthesis

We propose a simple programming language, called Nemo, specific to the domain of multitask real-time control systems, such as in robotic, automotive, or avionics systems. It can be used to specify a set of resources with usage constraints, a set of tasks that consume them according to various modes, and applications sequencing the tasks. We automatically obtain an application-specific task handler that correctly manages the constraints (if there exists one), through a compilation-like process including a phase of discrete controller synthesis. This way, this formal technique contributes to the safety of the designed systems, while being encapsulated in a tool that makes it usable by application experts. Our approach is based on the synchronous modelling techniques, languages, and tools.
Evidence-based risk factors for seroma formation in breast surgery.

BACKGROUND Seroma is a common problem in breast surgery. The aim of this systematic review was to identify risk factors for seroma formation. METHODS Articles published in English were obtained from searches of Medline and additional references were found in the bibliographies of these articles. Risk factors were graded according to the quality and strength of evidence and to the direction of association. RESULTS One meta-analysis, 51 randomized controlled trials, 7 prospective studies and 7 retrospective studies were identified. There was no risk factor supported by strong evidence, but there was moderate evidence to support a risk for seroma formation in individuals with heavier body weight, extended radical mastectomy as compared with simple mastectomy, and greater drainage volume in the initial 3 days. On the other hand, the following factors did not have a significant influence on seroma formation: duration of drainage; hormone receptor status; immobilization of the shoulder; intensity of negative suction pressure; lymph node status or lymph node positivity; number of drains; number of removed lymph nodes; previous biopsy; removal of drains on the fifth postoperative day versus when daily drainage volume fell to minimal; stage; type of drainage (closed suction versus static drainage); and use of fibrinolysis inhibitor. In contrast, sentinel lymph node biopsy reduced seroma formation. Evidence was weak, or unproven, for other factors that were commonly cited in the literature. CONCLUSIONS Although a number of factors have been correlated with seroma formation, strong evidence is still scarce. However, there is evidence showing that sentinel lymph node biopsy reduces seroma formation.
Auditory Short-term Memory Capacity Correlates with Gray Matter Density in the Left Posterior STS in Cognitively Normal and Dyslexic Adults

A central feature of auditory STM is its item-limited processing capacity. We investigated whether auditory STM capacity correlated with regional gray and white matter in the structural MRI images from 74 healthy adults, 40 of whom had a prior diagnosis of developmental dyslexia whereas 34 had no history of any cognitive impairment. Using whole-brain statistics, we identified a region in the left posterior STS where gray matter density was positively correlated with forward digit span, backward digit span, and performance on a “spoonerisms” task that required both auditory STM and phoneme manipulation. Across tasks and participant groups, the correlation was highly significant even when variance related to reading and auditory nonword repetition was factored out. Although the dyslexics had poorer phonological skills, the effect of auditory STM capacity in the left STS was the same as in the cognitively normal group. We also illustrate that the anatomical location of this effect is in proximity to a lesion site recently associated with reduced auditory STM capacity in patients with stroke damage. This result, therefore, indicates that gray matter density in the posterior STS predicts auditory STM capacity in the healthy and damaged brain. In conclusion, we suggest that our present findings are consistent with the view that there is an overlap between the mechanisms that support language processing and auditory STM.
Immunohistochemical Analysis of IL-6, IL-8/CXCR2 Axis,  Tyrp-STAT-3, and SOCS-3 in Lymph Nodes from Patients with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia: Correlation between Microvascular Characteristics and Prognostic Significance

A number of studies have looked into the pathophysiological role of angiogenesis in CLL, but the results have often been inconsistent. We aimed to gain direct insight into the angiogenic process in lymph nodes involved by CLL, focusing on proangiogenic cytokines and microvessel morphometry. The tissue levels of VEGF, Th-2 cytokines IL-6 and IL-8, IL-8 receptor CXCR2, and tyrosine p-STAT-3/SOCS-3 axis modulating cytokine expression were evaluated immunohistochemically in 62 CLL/SLL cases. Microvascular characteristics were evaluated by image analysis. Results were analyzed with regard to clinicopathological characteristics. Proliferation centers (PCs) were less well vascularised compared to non-PC areas. IL-8 and CXCR2 expression was distinctly uncommon as opposed to IL-6, VEGF and SOCS-3, which were detected in the vast majority of cases. The latter two molecule expressions were more pronounced in the PCs in ∼40% of the cases. p-STAT-3 immunoreactivity was recorded in 66.67% of the cases with a predilection for PCs. Microvessel morphometry was unrelated to proangiogenic cytokines, p-STAT-3, SOCS-3, or survival. Microvascular caliber and VEGF expression were higher in Binet stage A, whereasIL-6 expression was higher in stage C. VEGF and p-STAT-3 exerted a favorable effect on progression, which remained significant in multivariate analysis, thereby constituting potential outcome predictors in CLL patients.
Activation of serum/glucocorticoid-induced kinase 1 (SGK1) underlies increased glycogen levels, mTOR activation, and autophagy defects in Lafora disease

Loss of laforin, a protein phosphatase involved in Lafora disease (LD), results in the activation of serum/glucocorticoid-induced kinase 1 (SGK1), increased cellular glycogen accumulation, and autophagy defects. Inhibition of SGK1 restores normal glycogen content and autophagy defects in a cellular model of LD.
The NESPOLE! System for multilingual speech communication over the Internet

The NESPOLE! System is a speech communication system designed to support multilingual interaction between common users and providers of e-commerce services over the Internet. The core of the system is a distributed interlingua-based speech-to-speech translation system, which is supported by multimodal capabilities that allow the two parties participating in the communication to share Web pages and graphical content which can be annotated using gestures. We describe the unique features and considerations behind the design and implementation of this system, and evaluate these within the context of a constructed full prototype of the system that was developed for the domain of travel planning
A Comparison of Three Types of Autobiographical Memories in Old-Old Age: First Memories, Pivotal Memories and Traumatic Memories

Background: Autobiographical memory enables us to construct a personal narrative through which we identify ourselves. Especially important are memories of formative events. Objective: This study describes autobiographical memories of people who have reached old-old age (85 years and above), studying 3 types of memories of particular impact on identity and adaptation: first memories, pivotal memories and traumatic memories. In this paper, we examine the content, characteristic themes and environments, and structural characteristics of each of the 3 types of memory. Methods: The participants were 26 persons from a larger longitudinal study with an average age of 91 years; half were men and the other half women. The study integrated qualitative and quantitative tools. An open-ended questionnaire included questions about the participants’ life story as well as questions about the 3 types of memories. The responses were rated by 3 independent judges on dimensions of central themes and structural characteristics. Results: First memories had a more positive emotional tone, more references to characters from the participant’s social circle, a stronger sense of group belonging, and a more narrative style than the other types of memories. Pivotal and traumatic memories were described as more personal than first memories. Conclusion: The 3 types of memories reflect different stages in life development, which together form a sense of identity. They present experiences from the past on select themes, which may assist in the complex task of coping with the difficulties and limitations that advanced old age presents. Future research should examine the functional role of those memories and whether they enable the old-old to support selfhood in the challenging period of last changes and losses.
Pacific students undertaking the first year of health sciences at the University of Otago, and factors associated with academic performance.

AIM To describe Pacific students in the first year of health sciences at tertiary level, their academic performance, and factors associated with academic outcomes. METHOD Routinely collected data for students who enrolled in the Health Sciences First Year (HSFY) programme at the University of Otago between 2007 and 2011, including their school National Certificate in Educational Achievement (NCEA) results were obtained in anonymous form. Descriptive statistics were calculated and regression analyses were undertaken using SAS v9.2 software. RESULTS A small but increasing number of Pacific students are enrolling in health sciences at tertiary level. Pacific students had poorer performance compared to non-Pacific students in both NCEA and the HSFY programme. Factors associated with academic performance were gender, NCEA results, school decile, accommodation type, ethnicity, international status and disability. CONCLUSION Pacific students are under-represented in health sciences and would benefit from better preparation from school. Pacific solutions are required to improve academic outcomes over and above mainstream policy solutions. Tertiary institutions need to engage prospective students earlier to ensure they are well informed of requirements, and are appropriately prepared for study at the tertiary level.
Invited Discussion: Surgical Treatment of Treacher Collins Syndrome

The authors present their retrospective review of 50 patients operated on at the Hospital of Plastic Surgery in Polanica Zdroj between 1976 and 2005. They performed 258 total operations, for an average of 5.2 procedures per patient. Previously described techniques were used in the surgical management of these patients. These included mandibular distraction, palatoplasty, musculocutaneous eyelid flaps, dermal grafts, iliac crest bone grafts, chin osteotomies, auricular reconstruction, and nasal osteotomies. From their review, they conclude that a multidisciplinary approach is required, with emphasis on hearing impairment and occlusal disturbances. Methods other than nonvascularized bone grafts are also recommended to correct the orbitomalar tissue deficiency due to significant resorption. Typical craniofacial features of Treacher Collins syndrome (TCS) include a reduced cranial base angle (basilar kyphosis), mandibular hypoplasia with obtuse gonial angle and antegonial notching producing an angle class II malocclusion with anterior open bite, hypoplasia of the maxillary and zygomatic bones, and abnormalities of the middle-ear ossicles. Other features include lower-eyelid colobomas and eyelash deficiency, palpebral fissure anomaly with antimongoloid slant, external ear malformation, cleft palate, dorsal nasal hump, and variable soft tissue deficit of the midface. These combined features produce the typical facial features. Although expression of TCS is variable and each patient’s deformity unique, general guidelines for treatment are useful.
Assessing and Comparing Global Health Competencies in Rehabilitation Students

Purpose. Globalization is contributing to changes in health outcomes and healthcare use in many ways, including health professionals' practices. The objective of this study was to assess and compare global health competencies in rehabilitation students. Method. Online cross-sectional survey of physiotherapy and occupational therapy students from five universities within Ontario. We used descriptive statistics to analyze students' perceived knowledge, skills, and learning needs in global health. We used Chi-square tests, with significance set at P < 0.05, to compare results across professions. Results. One hundred and sixty-six students completed the survey. In general, both physiotherapy and occupational therapy students scored higher on the “relationship between work and health,” “relationship between income and health,” and “socioeconomic position (SEP) and impact on health” and lower on “Access to healthcare for low income nations,” “mechanisms for why racial and ethnic disparities exist,” and “racial stereotyping and medical decision making. ” Occupational therapy students placed greater importance on learning concerning social determinants of health (P = 0.03). Conclusion. This paper highlights several opportunities for improvement in global health education for rehabilitation students. Educators and professionals should consider developing strategies to address these needs and provide more global health opportunities in rehabilitation training programs.
Comparing isometric and elastic surfboard interfaces for leaning-based travel in 3D virtual environments

Inspired by the Silver Surfer comics we developed a leaning-based surfboard interface which allows the user to fly in 3D virtual environments by shifting his/her center of mass on the board. The interface works in either an elastic tilt mode or an isometric balance mode offering different equilibrioceptive feedback to the user. Interested in how different levels of equilibrioceptive feedback influence the usability of this interface, a formal user study was conducted comparing the two modes in both separated and combined pitch and yaw travel tasks. Six of 30 subjects dropped out of the experiment because of cyber-sickness and were interviewed by the experimenter. Statistical analysis of data from the remaining subjects showed that although objectively there was no significant difference between the two modes regarding training effects and task performance, subjectively most subjects preferred the elastic tilt mode because of its intuitiveness, realism, fun, and sense of presence despite the greater fatigue and after effects (e.g., loss of balance) of using it. Based on the results we suggest a general preference of elastic devices and several design guidelines to future 3D VE travel interface designers.
The clinical profile and predictors of mortality in patients with melioidosis in South India

Melioidosis is an underdiagnosed and underreported disease in India with protean clinical manifestations. Mortality in this study population was 17%. The predominant risk factor for melioidosis was diabetes mellitus. Multifocal disease was present in 66% and pulmonary involvement in 61% of patients. In a country like India where the conditions are conducive for endemic melioidosis and due to the clinical similarity of melioidosis to diseases like tuberculosis, it is essential for clinicians to have a high degree of suspicion and pursue suitable diagnostic strategies for melioidosis in the appropriate clinical setting.
Veterinary Drug Residues in Food-animal Products: Its Risk Factors and Potential Effects on Public Health

The use of veterinary drugs in food-producing animals has the potential to generate residues in animal derived products (meat, milk, eggs and honey) and poses a health hazard to the consumer. There are many factors influencing the occurrence of residues in animal products such as drug’s properties and their pharmacokinetic characteristics, physicochemical or biological processes of animals and their products. The most likely reason for drug residues might be due to improper drug usage and failure to keep the withdrawal period. The major public health significances of drug residue are development of antimicrobial drug resistance, hypersensitivity reaction, carcinogenicity, mutagenicity, teratogenicity, and disruption of intestinal normal flora. The residual amount ingested is in small amounts and not necessarily toxic. However, there is limited information on the magnitude of veterinary drug residue worldwide. Hence, an extensive work has to be carried out to determine the magnitude of the problem, to prevent the occurrence of veterinary drug residues, and to familiarize all animal health professionals with the knowledge of pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and toxicological effects of veterinary drugs to minimize the potential public health hazards due to drug residues in food of animal origin.
Spreadsheets in Education-The First 25 Years

Spreadsheets made their first appearance for personal computers in 1979 in the form of VisiCalc [45], an application designed to help with accounting tasks. Since that time, the diversity of applications of the spreadsheet program is evidenced by its continual reappearance in scholarly journals. Nowhere is its application becoming more marked than in the field of education. From primary to tertiary levels, the spreadsheet is gradually increasing in its importance as a tool for teaching and learning. By way of an introduction to the new electronic journal Spreadsheets in Education, the editors have compiled this overview of the use of spreadsheets in education. The aim is to provide a comprehensive bibliography and springboard from which others may develop their own applications and reports on educational applications of spreadsheets. For despite its rising popularity, the spreadsheet has still a long way to go before becoming a universal tool for teaching and learning, and many opportunities for its application have yet to be explored. The basic paradigm of an array of rows-and-columns with automatic update and display of results has been extended with libraries of mathematical and statistical functions, versatile graphing and charting facilities, powerful add-ins such as Microsoft Excel’s Solver, attractive and highlyfunctional graphical user interfaces, and the ability to write custom code in languages such as Microsoft’s Visual Basic for Applications. It is difficult to believe that Bricklin, the original creator of VisiCalc could have imagined the modern form of the now ubiquitous spreadsheet program. But the basic idea of the electronic spreadsheet has stood the test of time; indeed it is nowadays an indispensable item of software, not only in business and in the home, but also in academe. This paper briefly examines the history of the spreadsheet, then goes on to give a survey of major books, papers and conference presentations over the past 25 years, all in the area of educational applications of spreadsheets.
Intraspecific Scaling of the Resting and Maximum Metabolic Rates of the Crucian Carp (Carassius auratus)

The question of how the scaling of metabolic rate with body mass (M) is achieved in animals is unresolved. Here, we tested the cell metabolism hypothesis and the organ size hypothesis by assessing the mass scaling of the resting metabolic rate (RMR), maximum metabolic rate (MMR), erythrocyte size, and the masses of metabolically active organs in the crucian carp (Carassius auratus). The M of the crucian carp ranged from 4.5 to 323.9 g, representing an approximately 72-fold difference. The RMR and MMR increased with M according to the allometric equations RMR = 0.212M 0.776 and MMR = 0.753M 0.785. The scaling exponents for RMR (b r) and MMR (b m) obtained in crucian carp were close to each other. Thus, the factorial aerobic scope remained almost constant with increasing M. Although erythrocyte size was negatively correlated with both mass-specific RMR and absolute RMR adjusted to M, it and all other hematological parameters showed no significant relationship with M. These data demonstrate that the cell metabolism hypothesis does not describe metabolic scaling in the crucian carp, suggesting that erythrocyte size may not represent the general size of other cell types in this fish and the metabolic activity of cells may decrease as fish grows. The mass scaling exponents of active organs was lower than 1 while that of inactive organs was greater than 1, which suggests that the mass scaling of the RMR can be partly due to variance in the proportion of active/inactive organs in crucian carp. Furthermore, our results provide additional evidence supporting the correlation between locomotor capacity and metabolic scaling.
Pre- and Post Exercise Changes of Salivary Cortisol as a Response to Heavily Training among Students of Physical Education College in Karbala University

994 2014 September 17 Accepted 2014 April 21 Received Abstract Background: Cortisol, the principal glucocorticoid in humans, plays a major role in metabolism and immune function. A cute exercise induces a change in plasma cortisol concentrations, which is dependent on the type of exercise. Several studies have investigated the effect of both acute and chronic resistance exercise on adrenocortical function. Objective: This study was designed to determine the level of salivary cortisol as a stress related hormone during preand postexercise in college studentathletes. Materials and Methods: 10 males subjects (college studentathletes) were measured for height, weight, the general features of the participants are: Mean ±SD Age (year) 22 ± 2.79 Weight (Kg) 70.5±8.46, Height (Cm) 175.34±7.12, Three milliliters of un-stimulated total saliva was collected via passive drooling, at the beginning of each testing session (without stimulation, by spitting directly into a plastic tube), 5 min before, 5 min after the end of the match. Results: The results showed a significant increase the salivary cortisol level between post and preexercise and there was a strong association between increase salivary cortisol concentration and heavier exercise. Conclusions: During the course of a competitive season collegiate soccer players are exposed to a number of physical and psychological stressors from practice, conditioning, and competition. The ability of players to recover following such activities can ultimately affect the ability of the performance for ensuring physical activity.