Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Small Rounded B-cell Lymphoma of Bone Presented by Limp, With a Positive Multifocal 99 mTc MDP Bone Scintigraphy Pattern and a Negative 99 mTc HMPAO-labeled Leukocytes Study

In this article, we present a rare case of B-cell bone lymphoma in a child with multifocal asymptomatic lesions detected by bone scintigraphy and a chronic clinical history characterized by limping and fever episodes for over a year. Initially, multifocal osteomyelitis was suspected and antibiotic therapy was administered with no clinical improvement. The biopsy of the main lesion in the left distal femur along with bone marrow cytology established the final diagnosis. This rare case illustrates the utility of routinely low cost-effective nuclear medicine studies like whole body bone scan and 99 mTc hexamethylpropyleneamine oxime-labeled leukocytes to orientate similar cases to a correct diagnosis.
Building ESP Content-Based Materials to Promote Strategic Reading (Diseño de materiales basados en contenidos para fomentar estrategias de lectura en un curso de inglés con propósitos específicos).

This article reports on an action research project that proposes to improve the reading comprehension and vocabulary of undergraduate students of English for Specific Purposes–explosives majors, at a police training institute in Colombia. I used the qualitative research method to explore and reflect upon the teaching-learning processes during implementation. Being the teacher of an English for specific purposes course without the appropriate didactic resources, I designed six reading comprehension workshops based on the cognitive language learning approach not only to improve students’ reading skills but also their autonomy through the use of learning strategies. The data were collected from field notes, artifacts, progress reviews, surveys, and photographs. Este articulo informa sobre un proyecto de investigacion cualitativa que propone mejorar la comprension de lectura y el vocabulario de estudiantes universitarios de ingles que se especializan en temas relativos a explosivos en una escuela de policia, en Colombia. Por tratarse de un curso de ingles especifico que carece de los recursos didacticos apropiados, disene seis talleres de comprension de lectura basados en el enfoque del aprendizaje cognitivo de la lengua, para mejorar tanto su comprension de lectura como su autonomia para usar estrategias de aprendizaje. Para la recoleccion de datos se emplearon notas de campo, artefactos, pruebas de progreso, encuestas y fotografias.
Effectiveness of Assertiveness Training in Improving Self Esteem and Adjustment among Victims of Bullying Students

The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of assertiveness training in improving self esteem and adjustment among victims of bullying students. The sample of the study consisted of (24) participants of the sixth, seventh and eighth grades, in Ail Reda Rekabi school from Amman Second Educational District, in the year 2010/2011, who agreed to participate in the study, and whom showed the highest scores on Bullying Victimization Scale. Participants were randomly distributed into two groups: experimental and control group. The experimental group included (12 student), they received an assertiveness training program. The program consisted of (12) sessions, and lasted for seven weeks. Whereas, the participants in the control group included (12 student) did not receive any training. The participants in the two groups responded to Adjustment Scale and Self Esteem Scale before and after training program. The results of this study indicated the effect of assertiveness training program in improving self esteem and adjustment among victims of bullying students. The results revealed significant differences in favor of experimental group on self esteem and the level of adjustment.
Economic costs of extratropical storms under climate change: an application of FUND

Extratropical cyclones have attracted some attention in climate policy circles as a possible significant damage factor of climate change. This study conducts an assessment of economic impacts of increased storm activities under climate change with the integrated assessment model FUND 3.5. In the base case, the direct economic damage of enhanced storms due to climate change amounts to US$2.8 billion globally (approximately 38% of the total economic loss of storms at present) at the year 2100, while its ratio to the world GDP is 0.0009%. The paper also shows various sensitivity runs exhibiting up to 3 times the level of damage relative to the base run.
Longitudinal Study of Fecal Shedding of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in Feedlot Cattle: Predominance and Persistence of Specific Clonal Types despite Massive Cattle Population Turnover

ABSTRACT Identification of the sources and methods of transmission of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in feedlot cattle may facilitate the development of on-farm control measures for this important food-borne pathogen. The prevalence of E. coli O157:H7 in fecal samples of commercial feedlot cattle in 20 feedlot pens between April and September 2000 was determined throughout the finishing feeding period prior to slaughter. Using immunomagnetic separation, E. coli O157:H7 was isolated from 636 of 4,790 (13%) fecal samples in this study, with highest prevalence earliest in the feeding period. No differences were observed in the fecal or water trough sediment prevalence values of E. coli O157:H7 in 10 pens supplied with chlorinated drinking water supplies compared with nonchlorinated water pens. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis of XbaI-digested bacterial DNA of the 230 isolates obtained from eight of the pens revealed 56 unique restriction endonuclease digestion patterns (REDPs), although nearly 60% of the isolates belonged to a group of four closely related genetic subtypes that were present in each of the pens and throughout the sampling period. The other REDPs were typically transiently detected, often in single pens and on single sample dates, and in many cases were also closely related to the four predominant REDPs. The persistence and predominance of a few REDPs observed over the entire feeding period on this livestock operation highlight the importance of the farm environment, and not necessarily the incoming cattle, as a potential source or reservoir of E. coli O157:H7 on farms.
Social Mobilization and the Networked Public Sphere: Mapping the SOPA-PIPA Debate

This article investigates the public debate over proposed U.S. legislation designed to give prosecutors and copyright holders new tools to pursue suspected online copyright violations. We compiled, mapped, and analyzed a set of 9,757 stories published over 16 months relevant to the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA), Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). This study applies a mixed-methods approach that combines text and link analysis with human coding and informal interviews to map the evolution of the controversy over time and to analyze the mobilization, roles, and interactions of various actors. We find a vibrant, diverse, and decentralized networked public sphere that exhibited broad participation, leveraged topical expertise, and successfully reframed a debate and focused public sentiment to shape national public policy. A network of small-scale commercial tech media, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and individuals fulfilled the fourth estate function; traditional media then amplified the work of these actors. The campaign involved substantial experimentation and rapid development of mobilization strategies. We observe an increased public awareness of an agenda originating in the networked public sphere, which emerged successfully despite substantial expenditures attempting to produce a mass media narrative that favored the legislation. Moreover, we witness what we call an attention backbone, in which more trafficked sites amplify less-visible individual voices on specific subjects. The data suggest that, at least in this case, the networked public sphere enabled a dynamic public discourse that involved both individual and organizational participants and offered substantive discussion of complex issues contributing to affirmative political action.
Efficient model-based 3D tracking of hand articulations using Kinect

We present a novel solution to the problem of recovering and tracking the 3D position, orientation and full articulation of a human hand from markerless visual observations obtained by a Kinect sensor. We treat this as an optimization problem, seeking for the hand model parameters that minimize the discrepancy between the appearance and 3D structure of hypothesized instances of a hand model and actual hand observations. This optimization problem is effectively solved using a variant of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). The proposed method does not require special markers and/or a complex image acquisition setup. Being model based, it provides continuous solutions to the problem of tracking hand articulations. Extensive experiments with a prototype GPU-based implementation of the proposed method demonstrate that accurate and robust 3D tracking of hand articulations can be achieved in near real-time (15Hz).
An Information-Extraction Approach to Speech Processing: Analysis, Detection, Verification, and Recognition

The field of automatic speech recognition (ASR) has enjoyed more than 30 years of technology advances due to the extensive utilization of the hidden Markov model (HMM) framework and a concentrated effort by the speech community to make available a vast amount of speech and language resources, known today as the Big Data Paradigm. State-of-the-art ASR systems achieve a high recognition accuracy for well-formed utterances of a variety of languages by decoding speech into the most likely sequence of words among all possible sentences represented by a finite-state network (FSN) approximation of all the knowledge sources required by the ASR task. However, the ASR problem is still far from being solved because not all information available in the speech knowledge hierarchy can be directly integrated into the FSN to improve the ASR performance and enhance system robustness. It is believed that some of the current issues of integrating various knowledge sources in top-down integrated search can be partially addressed by processing techniques that take advantage of the full set of acoustic and language information in speech. It has long been postulated that human speech recognition (HSR) determines the linguistic identity of a sound based on detected evidence that exists at various levels of the speech knowledge hierarchy, ranging from acoustic phonetics to syntax and semantics. This calls for a bottom-up attribute detection and knowledge integration framework that links speech processing with information extraction, by spotting speech cues with a bank of attribute detectors, weighting and combining acoustic evidence to form cognitive hypotheses, and verifying these theories until a consistent recognition decision can be reached. The recently proposed automatic speech attribute transcription (ASAT) framework is an attempt to mimic some HSR capabilities with asynchronous speech event detection followed by bottom-up knowledge integration and verification. In the last few years, ASAT has demonstrated good potential and has been applied to a variety of existing applications in speech processing and information extraction.
The Use of Read versus Conversational Lombard Speech in Spectral Tilt Modeling for Intelligibility Enhancement in Near-End Noise Conditions

Intelligibility of speech in adverse near-end noise conditions can be enhanced with post-processing. Recently, a postprocessing method based on statistical mapping of the spectral tilt of normal speech to that of Lombard speech was proposed. However, previous intelligibility improvement studies utilizing Lombard speech have mainly gathered data from read sentences which might result in a less pronounced Lombard effect. Having a mild Lombard effect in the training data weakens the statistical normal-to-Lombard mapping of the spectral tilt which in turn deteriorates performance of intelligibility enhancement. Therefore, a database containing both conversational and read Lombard speech was recorded in several background noise conditions in this study. Statistical models for normal-to-Lombard mapping of the spectral tilt were then trained using the obtained conversational and read speech data and evaluated using an objective intelligibility metric. The results suggest that the conversational data contains a more pronounced Lombard effect and could be used to obtain better statistical models for intelligibility enhancement.
On the information rate of MIMO systems with finite rate channel state feedback and power on/off strategy

This paper quantifies the information rate of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems with finite rate channel state feedback and power on/off strategy. In power on/off strategy, a beamforming vector (beam) is either turned on (denoted by on-beam) with a constant power or turned off. We prove that the ratio of the optimal number of on-beams and the number of antennas converges to a constant for a given signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) when the number of transmit and receive antennas approaches infinity simultaneously and when beamforming is perfect. Based on this result, a near optimal strategy, i.e., power on/off strategy with a constant number of on-beams, is discussed. For such a strategy, we propose the power efficiency factor to quantify the effect of imperfect beamforming. A formula is proposed to compute the maximum power efficiency factor achievable given a feedback rate. The information rate of the overall MIMO system can be approximated by combining the asymptotic results and the formula for power efficiency factor. Simulations show that this approximation is accurate for all SNR regimes
Culture on Display: The Production of Contemporary Visitability

* Why is culture so widely on display? * What are the major characteristics of contemporary cultural display? * What is the relationship between cultural display and key features of contemporary society: the rise of consumerism; tourism; `identity-speak'; globalization? * What can cultural display tell us about current relations of self and other, here and there, now and then? Culture on Display invites the reader to visit culture. Reflecting on the contemporary proliferation of sites displaying culture in visitable form, it offers fresh ways of thinking about tourism, leisure and heritage. Bella Dicks locates diverse exhibitionary locations within wider social, economic and cultural transformations, including contemporary practices of tourism and travel, strategies of economic development, the staging of identities, globalization, interactivity and relations of consumerism. In particular, she critically examines how culture becomes transformed when it is put on display within these contexts. In each chapter, key theoretical issues of debate, such as authenticity, commodification and representation, are discussed in a lively and accessible manner. This is an important book for undergraduate and postgraduate students of cultural policy, cultural and media studies and sociology, as well as academic researchers in this field. It will also be of considerable value to students of sociology of culture, cultural politics, arts administration and cultural management.
Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA): An Interim Report of Carriage and Conversion Rates in Nursing Students

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate and characterize MRSA and staphylococci carriage and conversion rates in nursing students across clinical semester rotations and to describe risk factors. DESIGN: A prospective, longitudinal cohort design (interim report) with three times of measurement. Data collected between August 2010 and May 2011 (ongoing longitudinal study to May 2012). Institutional Review Board approval (2010F5693). SETTING: Texas State University, San Marcos, TX. PARTICIPANTS: Eighty-seven nursing students. INTERVENTIONS: A positive MRSA swab represented an end-point for a participant. Intervention offered was bactroban (mupirocin) for nasal decolonization and an oral antibiotic, doxycycline; post-treatment collection to verify decolonization prior to next clinical rotation. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Screening for Staphylococcus aureus and MRSA identification; confirmation and antibiotic susceptibility by Vitek 2. Self-administered questionnaires collected demographics and risk factors. Generalized estimating equations calculated population-averaged panel logistic regression models allowing for an AR(1) error by Stata version 12. RESULTS: MRSA colonization did not increase. S. aureus prevalence (20-26%). Species prevalence other than S. aureus increased (9.2% to 80%). The following associations were found to be statistically significant: boil or skin infection odds with S. aureus (OR= 2.43, p< .05), working or volunteering in healthcare facility odds with S. other (OR= 2.72, p < .05) and gym and sports activities odds with S. other (OR= 4.98, p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: MRSA colonization did not increase. Knowledge and understanding of MRSA (risks) may play a role in compliance and barrier precautions. S. aureus colonization remained stable (25-30%). Species colonization other than S. aureus (e.g. S. epidermis, S. haemolyticus) increased to significant levels. ABBREVIATIONS: MRSA= Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus; CA-MRSA=Community-associated methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus; HA-MRSA=Healthcare-associated methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus; CLS = Clinical Laboratory Science; OR = Odds Ration; CI = Confidence Interval; HCWs = Healthcare Workers; Healthcare associated infections = HAIs.
Understanding Behaviorism: Science, Behavior, and Culture

I.PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE. 1.Behaviourism, Definition, and History. 2.Behaviourism as a Philosophy of Science. 3.Public, Private, Natural, and Fictional. II.A SCIENTIFIC MODEL OF BEHAVIOUR. 4.Evolutionary Theory and Reinforcement. 5.Purpose and Reinforcement. 6.Stimulus Control and Knowledge. 7.Verbal Behavior and Language. 8.Rule-Governed Behavior and Language. 8.Rule-Governed Behavior and Thinking. III.SOCIAL ISSUES. 9.Freedom. 10.Responsibility, Credit, and Blame. 11.Relationships, Management, and Government. 12.Values, Religion, and Science. 13.The Evolution of Culture. 14.Design of Culture: Experimenting for Survival.
Boundaries of Middle-Class Identities in Turkey

The aim of this paper is to provide an analytical account of the diversity within middle-class identities in Turkey by drawing on an inductive and interview-based investigation of boundary-making processes. Inspired by Lamont's framework, it explores the nature and content of drawn symbolic boundaries and relates the causes of the observed variations to the rapid changes in Turkey's socio-economic structure. The research challenges the homogeneous and strictly hierarchical reading of class/cultural distinctions as it demonstrates the existence of horizontal tensions and culturally inclusive middle-class repertoires. The analysis unpacks the material basis of differentiation and highlights the most significant factors in strengthening or weakening cultural boundaries in the Turkish case: mobility profiles into middle-class positions, composition of overall capital and the sector of employment. The paper contributes both to the growing interest in divergent manifestations of class distinction in non-Euro-American national contexts and to our understanding of middle-class cultures in Turkey.
Performing Accurate Joint Kinematics From 3-D In Vivo Image Sequences Through Consensus-Driven Simultaneous Registration

This paper addresses the problem of the robust registration of multiple observations of the same object. Such a problem typically arises whenever it becomes necessary to recover the trajectory of an evolving object observed through standard 3-D medical imaging techniques. The instances of the tracked object are assumed to be variously truncated, locally subject to morphological evolutions throughout the sequence, and imprinted with significant segmentation errors as well as significant noise perturbations. The algorithm operates through the robust and simultaneous registration of all surface instances of a given object through median consensus. This operation consists of two interwoven processes set up to work in close collaboration. The first one progressively generates a median and implicit shape computed with respect to current estimations of the registration transformations, while the other refines these transformations with respect to the current estimation of their median shape. When compared with standard robust techniques, tests reveal significant improvements, both in robustness and precision. The algorithm is based on widely-used techniques, and proves highly effective while offering great flexibility of utilization.
Evaluation of Atrial Electromechanical Delay and Diastolic Functions in Patients with Hyperthyroidism

Hyperthyroidism is a well‐known cause of atrial fibrillation (AF) which is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Atrial electromechanical delay (EMD) is a significant predictor of AF. The aim of this study was to assess the atrial EMD and diastolic functions in subclinical and overt hyperthyroidism by using tissue Doppler imaging (TDI).
Relationship between gender and university students’ academic performance in arts-related subjects

The research was based on the impact of gender on academic performance ON Arts-related subjects, a case study of Nasarawa State University, Keffi, using a sample of 160 participants derived from Art-based faculties. A questionnaire was used as the prime instrument to correlate the participant’s responses to their academic scores. The study investigated the differences and similarities between males and females in not only genderbased academic performance but also considered gender via other factors such as age. The research used independent t-Test statistics. The result suggested that females performed better than males in arts-related subjects; but recorded that age did not significantly influence academic performance. It is therefore concluded that institutions, lecturers, and parents should encourage males to study harder in arts-related subjects; while equal emphasis should be put in encouraging both younger and older students to perform well in arts-related subjects.
Optimized Design of a Highly Efficient Three-Stage Doherty PA Using Gate Adaptation

We demonstrate an optimized design of a highly efficient three-stage Doherty power amplifier (PA) for the 802.16e mobile world interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) application at 2.655 GHz. The “three-stage” Doherty PA is the most efficient architecture among the various Doherty PAs for achieving a high peak to average power ratio (PAPR) signal. However, it has a problem in that the carrier PA has to maintain a saturated state with constant output power when the other peaking PAs are turned on. We solved the problem using a gate envelope tracking (ET) technique. For the proper load modulation, the gate biases of the peaking PAs were adaptively controlled, and the peak power and maximum efficiency characteristics along the backed-off output power region were successfully achieved. Using Agilent's Advanced Design System and Matlab simulations, the overall behavior of the three-stage Doherty PA with the ET technique employed was fully analyzed, and the optimum design procedure is suggested. For the WiMAX signal with a 7.8-dB PAPR, the measured drain efficiency of the proposed three-stage Doherty PA is 55.4% at an average output power of 42.54 dBm, which is an 8-dB backed-off output power. Digital predistortion was used to linearize the proposed PA. After linearization, a -33.15 dB relative constellation error performance was achieved, satisfying the system specifications. This is the best performance of any 2.655-GHz WiMAX application ever reported, and it clearly shows that the proposed three-stage Doherty PA is suitable as a highly efficient and linear transmitter.