Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reading Comprehension of Flemish Deaf Children in Belgium: Sources of Variability in Reading Comprehension after Cochlear Implantation

Abstract This paper reports the results of two studies of reading comprehension of Flemish children in Belgium. In the northern part of Belgium (Flanders), Dutch is the official language. The Dutch-speaking inhabitants of Flanders are called Flemish. Dutch is also the national language of the Netherlands. Despite both groups using Dutch, cultural differences between the groups are reflected in healthcare and education. Study 1 investigated the effect of these differences on the reading comprehension of deaf children. Reading levels of Flemish deaf children with cochlear implants (CI) (n = 30) or hearing aids (HA) (n = 44) were compared with reference data of Dutch deaf children with CI (n = 50) and HA (n = 500), and with a hearing norm group. Study 2 investigated sources of variability by examining the underlying processes of reading comprehension of good and poor Flemish deaf readers from the CI group in Study 1. Results of Study 1 showed significantly better reading levels for the two Flemish groups. These differences may reflect Belgian policy aiming at early implantation and the use of spoken language communication. The second study contrasted good and poor readers' working memory capacity scores, including verbal and non-verbal working memory scores, morphosyntactic ability, and phonological encoding in order to explore which underlying processes contributed to reading performance in the Flemish CI users. Results showed a tendency toward better morphosyntactic abilities and better working memory skills in the good readers. Three factors appear to explain the better reading of Flemish children with CIs: amount of spoken language input in communication, access to spoken language through a cochlear implant, and age at implantation.
Arterial-venous network formation during brain vascularization involves hemodynamic regulation of chemokine signaling

During angiogenic sprouting, newly forming blood vessels need to connect to the existing vasculature in order to establish a functional circulatory loop. Previous studies have implicated genetic pathways, such as VEGF and Notch signaling, in controlling angiogenesis. We show here that both pathways similarly act during vascularization of the zebrafish central nervous system. In addition, we find that chemokine signaling specifically controls arterial-venous network formation in the brain. Zebrafish mutants for the chemokine receptor cxcr4a or its ligand cxcl12b establish a decreased number of arterial-venous connections, leading to the formation of an unperfused and interconnected blood vessel network. We further find that expression of cxcr4a in newly forming brain capillaries is negatively regulated by blood flow. Accordingly, unperfused vessels continue to express cxcr4a, whereas connection of these vessels to the arterial circulation leads to rapid downregulation of cxcr4a expression and loss of angiogenic characteristics in endothelial cells, such as filopodia formation. Together, our findings indicate that hemodynamics, in addition to genetic pathways, influence vascular morphogenesis by regulating the expression of a proangiogenic factor that is necessary for the correct pathfinding of sprouting brain capillaries.
Obesity and inflammatory arthritis: impact on occurrence, disease characteristics and therapeutic response

Overweight and obesity are increasing worldwide and now reach about one-third of the world's population. Obesity also involves patients with inflammatory arthritis. Knowing the impact of obesity on rheumatic diseases (rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis) is thus an important issue. This article first reviews the epidemiological and clinical data available on obesity in inflammatory rheumatic diseases, that is, its impact on incident disease, disease characteristics and the therapeutic response. The second part of this review gives an overview of the factors potentially involved in the specifics of inflammatory arthritis in patients with obesity, such as limitations in the clinical assessment, diet, microbiota and adipokines.
Fully Concurrent Dual-Band LNA Operating in 900 MHz/2.4 GHz Bands for Multi-standard Wireless Receiver with Sub-2dB Noise Figure

This article presents the design of a fully concurrent dual-band Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) operating in the GSM 0.9GHz & BLUETOOTH 2.4GHz communication standards. The fully concurrent LNA is designed and simulated in CADENCE using 130nm UMC technology. The dual-band LNA has been designed from the system viewpoint to provide a higher gain at the high band in order to compensate the high-band signal’s extra loss over the air transmission. The current design is especially suitable for use in multi-standard wireless receiver front ends as it saves die area and reduces power consumption by replacing parallel LNAs for each channel frequency. Simulation results indicate a Noise Figure below 2dB and S21 above 14 dB in all frequency bands while drawing 10mA current from a 1.2V power supply.
Sentence Reception Abilities of Hearing Impaired Students Across Five Communication Modes

The author measured hearing impaired students' reception of language presented via five modes: oral, aural, manual, oral-aural and simultaneous manual and oral. The study utilized a within-subjects design stimulus sentences controlled for length, phrase structure, syntax, vocabulary level and visemic content. Participants were 53 females and 53 males between 90 and 225 months of age ([inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="01i"/] = 175) with HTLs between 67 and 113 dB (ANSI) ([inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="02i"/] = 97.7). Each received 12 sentences via each mode. With a maximum score of 57, the simultaneous manual and oral ([inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="03i"/] = 33.2) and manual ([inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="04i"/] = 31.5) modes received the highest ratings. Results are discussed in the context of several theories of cognitive processing and selective attention.
Is it time to revise linezolid doses in peritoneal dialysis patients? A case series.

12.8% in Greece and 7% in Israel; 27% acquired colonization during ICU stay occurred in the hospital in Israel. A low prevalence of CPE enteric carriage upon ICU admission was observed in this study, but important individual hospital variations in the incidence of ICU-acquired CPE were observed. Four hospitals (36%) had an incidence rate higher than 3%; in three of them nosocomial dissemination of CPE had been reported. – 11 In a recent study including 379 CPE from 45 Spanish hospitals, OXA-48 (71.5%) and VIM-1 (25.3%) were the most frequent carbapenemases and K. pneumoniae (74.4%), E. cloacae (10.3%) and E. coli (8.4%) were the species most affected. In that study, a wide inter-regional spread of CPE in Spain was observed, mainly due to a few successful clones of K. pneumoniae of ST11 and ST405, which mainly carried OXA-48, and ST15, which more often carried VIM. All of the 11 patients colonized by CPE were assigned to contact precautions, and the standard cross-transmission control measures were reinforced. In this regard, it is strongly advisable to implement the guidelines for the management of the infection control measures to reduce transmission of MDR Gram-negative bacteria recommended by ESCMID. Active targeted surveillance in combination with early implementation of infection control measures is needed in hospitals to prevent dissemination of CPE.
A path integral approach to option pricing with stochastic volatility : Some exact results

The Black-Scholes formula for pricing options on stocks and other securities has been generalized by Merton and Garman to the case when stock volatility is stochastic. The derivation of the price of a security derivative with stochastic volatility is reviewed starting from the first principles of finance. The equation of Merton and Garman is then recast using the path integration technique of theoretical physics. The price of the stock option is shown to be the analogue of the Schrodinger wavefunction of quantum mechanics and the exact Hamiltonian and Lagrangian of the system is obtained. The results of Hull and White are generalized to the case when stock price and volatility have non-zero correlation. Some exact results for pricing stock options for the general correlated case are derived.
School principals’ agency as reflected by extracurricular activities in the Israeli education system

This study examines the nature and extent of extracurricular activities in the Palestinian Arab, Jewish Religious and Jewish Secular educational sectors (Israeli education system also includes the Ultra-Orthodox sector with its own management, monitoring and governance apparatus.) in Israel, in order to characterise the contextual variables that may affect school principals’ agency. We explored 2009 Program for International Student Assessment results regarding the nature and intensity of extracurricular activities implemented in schools. We used school’s questionnaires to conceptualise the relations between schools’ contextual variables and extracurricular activities. Descriptive statistics and Poisson regression analyses were applied for data analysis.
Biphasic MLL takes helm at cell cycle control: Implications in human mixed lineage leukemia

Discovered in 1992 from cloning the gene involved in human leukemias carrying chromosome band 11q23 translocations, the MLL/HRX/ALL-1 gene has since attracted scientists from various disciplines by its diverse functions in normal physiological and pathological processes. MLL is the human orthologue of Drosophila trithorax (trx) – the founding member of trithorax group proteins, Trx-G. Leukemogenic11q23 translocations fuse the common MLL N-terminal 1400aa in-frame with a wide variety of fusion partners that share no structural or functional homology. The 500kD precursor MLL undergoes evolutionarily conserved site-specific cleavage mediated by Taspase1, generating the mature MLLN320/C180 heterodimer which methylates histone H3 at lysine 4 with its carboxy-terminal SET domain. Extensive biochemical and genetic studies on MLL/trx have established its critical role in maintaining the expression of Hox/homeotic genes. By contrast, the involvement of MLL in many other essential cellular processes remains unclear. Recent reports including ours began to elucidate the intricate interplay between MLL and the cell cycle machinery, which ensures proper cell cycle phase transitions. Thus, this review will focus on this novel activity of MLL and discuss the implications of its deregulation in MLL leukemias.
Improved median survival for glioblastoma multiforme following introduction of adjuvant temozolomide chemotherapy.

INTRODUCTION The use of adjuvant temozolomide (TMZ) in patients managed with surgery and adjuvant radiation therapy (RT) for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) has been demonstrated to improve median and 2-year survival in a recent large international multicentre study. To confirm this result in routine clinical practice, an audit of the management and outcome of patients with GBM at The Cancer Institute Radiation Oncology was performed. MATERIALS AND METHODS All patients with GBM managed radically at The Cancer Institute Radiation Oncology from May 2002 to 2006 were entered into a prospective database. Patient, tumour and treatment factors were analysed for association with the outcome of median survival (MS). Survival was calculated using the Kaplan-Meier technique and correlation was assessed using Cox proportional hazards regression. RESULTS Forty-one patients with GBM were managed with radical intent over the 4- year period. The median age was 54 years and 66% were Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) 0-1 performance status. Macroscopic, subtotal and biopsy alone procedures were performed in 61%, 29% and 10% of patients, respectively. The median time from surgery to RT was 26 days. Adjuvant TMZ was used in 44% of patients (n = 18). The MS of the total group was 13.6 months, with a 24% 2-year overall survival. The use of TMZ was associated with improved MS (19.6 versus 12.8 months; P = 0.035) and improved 2-year survival (43% versus 0%). A requirement of dexamethasone dose greater than 4 mg at the end of RT (P = 0.012) was associated with worse survival, but there was no association of MS with age, ECOG, tumour size or extent of surgery. CONCLUSION The median and 2-year survival outcomes are comparable to the results of the European Multicentre Study and justify the continued use of TMZ in routine clinical practice.
Organizational learning as a determining factor in business performance

Purpose – With the decline of some well‐established firms, the diminishing competitive power of many companies in an increasingly globalized market and the need for organizational renewal and transformation, interest in organizational learning has grown. Senior managers in many organizations are convinced of the importance of improving learning in their organizations. Therefore, it is necessary not only to clarify the concept of organizational learning, but also to establish the relationship between it and business performance. This paper aims to explore this relationship.Design/methodology/approach – The degree to which organizational learning influences business performance is investigated for 195 Spanish firms with more than 200 employees using the statistical technique of structural equation modeling.Findings – The results provide support for the view that organizational learning contributes positively both to innovation and competitiveness and to economic/financial results. Furthermore, the results s.
POLLINATOR‐MEDIATED COMPETITION, REPRODUCTIVE CHARACTER DISPLACEMENT, AND THE EVOLUTION OF SELFING IN ARENARIA UNIFLORA (CARYOPHYLLACEAE)

Ecological factors that reduce the effectiveness of cross‐pollination are likely to play a role in the frequent evolution of routine self‐fertilization in flowering plants. However, we lack empirical evidence linking the reproductive assurance value of selfing in poor pollination environments to evolutionary shifts in mating system. Here, we investigated the adaptive significance of prior selfing in the polymorphic annual plant Arenaria uniflora (Caryophyllaceae), in which selfer populations occur only in areas of range overlap with congener A. glabra. To examine the hypothesis that secondary contact between the two species contributed to the evolution and maintenance of selfing, we used field competition experiments and controlled hand‐pollinations to measure the female fitness consequences of pollinator‐mediated interspecific interactions. Uniformly high fruit set by selfers in the naturally pollinated field arrays confirmed the reproductive assurance value of selfing, whereas substantial reductions in outcrosser fruit set (15%) and total seed production (20–35%) in the presence of A. glabra demonstrated that pollinator‐mediated interactions can provide strong selection for self‐pollination. Heterospecific pollen transfer, rather than competition for pollinator service, appears to be the primary mechanism of pollinator‐mediated competition in Arenaria. Premating barriers to hybridization between outcrossers and A. glabra are extremely weak. The production of a few inviable hybrid seeds after heterospecific pollination and intermediate seed set after mixed pollinations indicates that A. glabra pollen can usurp A. uniflora ovules. Thus, any visit to A. uniflora by shared pollinators carries a potential female fitness cost. Moreover, patterns of fruit set and seed set in the competition arrays relative to controls were consistent with the receipt of mixed pollen loads, rather than a lack of pollinator visits. Competition through pollen transfer favors preemptive self‐pollination and may be responsible for the evolution of a highly reduced floral morphology in A. uniflora selfers as well as their current geographical distribution.
You're Only as Pretty as You Feel: Facial Expression as a Determinant of Physical Attractiveness

Photos of IS target persons posing happy, neutral, and sad facial expressions were rated for facial attractiveness using paired comparisons and Likert scales. Half the raters were instructed to compensate for the effects of facial expression. Paired comparisons and Likert ratings were highly correlated. Target persons were less attractive when posing sad expressions than when posing neutral or happy expressions, which did not differ. No effect of compensation instructions was found. In addition, independent ratings of four dimensions of the target persons' facial expression were obtained: pleasantness, surprise, intensity, and naturalness. Changes in these dimensions from the neutral to the happy and sad expressions and the corresponding changes in attractiveness were consistently related only to pleasantness supporting the reinforcement-affect theory of attraction. A second study related overall attractiveness to facial and bodily attractiveness. Both facial and bodily attractiveness were predictive of overall attractiveness, but the face was a slightly more powerful predictor. Results are discussed with respect to the stability of physical attractiveness, and alternative explanations of the mental-illness/physicalunattractiveness relation were proposed.
Phoneme discrimination of an unrelated language: Evidence for a narrow transfer but not a broad-based bilingual advantage

This study examines monolingual and multilingual individuals’ discrimination of stop consonants in a language to which they had never been exposed: Korean. If bilingualism leads to increased flexibility in phonological categorization, we may see a broad-based bilingual advantage for phoneme discrimination. Using a Korean phoneme discrimination task, we compared 56 adults in four groups: monolingual English, bilingual Spanish, bilingual Armenian, and trilingual. Findings indicate that Spanish–English bilingual individuals scored no better than English monolinguals, and lower than Armenian–English bilingual individuals. In this case, the advantage from early childhood non-English exposure or current bilingualism was found to be specific only to languages with similar phonemic categories. This supports a narrow first/second language to third language transfer view of phoneme discrimination skills.
The Police Complaints Procedure A Consumer View

: Satisfying the complainant has increasingly been stressed as an important aim of the police complaints procedure and this is implicit in the provisions contained in Part IX of the Police and Criminal Evidence (PACE) Act 1984. This aim can only effectively be achieved if complainants have some appreciation of the new procedures and if these match the complainant's priorities. On the basis of a survey of complainants carried out prior to the introduction of the PACE provisions, this article suggests that the average complainant can be expected to have only a limited understanding of the new system. It also argues that, while some complainants will obtain more satisfaction than before (principally through the informal resolution of complaints), others will continue to be discontented for several reasons. They may object to the continued role of the police in investigating complaints, fail to achieve their objectives in complaining, or be critical of the time the procedure takes. The article concludes that there are a number of steps which may be taken to reduce dissatisfaction: these include better publicity and advice about the procedure, making more use of complaints to identify patterns of malpractice with a view to prevention, and providing better feedback to complainants.
Average Channel Capacity Evaluation for Selection Combining Diversity Schemes over Nakagami-0.5 fading Channels

This paper provides Closed-form expressions for the average channel capacity and probability of outage of dual-branch Selection Combining (SC) over uncorrelated Nakagami-0.5 fading channels. This channel capacity and probability of outage are evaluated under Optimum Power with Rate Adaptation (OPRA) and Truncated channel Inversion with Fixed Rate transmission (TIFR) schemes. Since, the channel capacity and probability of outage expressions contain an infinite series, the series are truncated and bounds on the truncated errors are presented. The corresponding expressions for Nakagami-0.5 fading are called expressions under worst fading condition with severe fading. Finally, numerical results are presented, which are then compared to the channel capacity and probability of outage results for no diversity case, which has been previously published under OPRA and TIFR schemes. It has been observed that OPRA provides improved average channel capacity and probability of outage, as compared to TIFR under worst case of fading.
FK-506, a novel immunosuppressant isolated from a Streptomyces. I. Fermentation, isolation, and physico-chemical and biological characteristics.

FK-506, a novel immunosuppressant, has been isolated from the fermentation broth of Streptomyces tsukubaenis No. 9993 as colorless prism and the molecular formula was determined as C44H69NO12.H2O. The compound suppressed immune responses in vitro and in vivo with mice. This immunosuppressive effect was more potent than that of ciclosporin.
The Neural Basis of Loss Aversion in Decision-Making Under Risk

People typically exhibit greater sensitivity to losses than to equivalent gains when making decisions. We investigated neural correlates of loss aversion while individuals decided whether to accept or reject gambles that offered a 50/50 chance of gaining or losing money. A broad set of areas (including midbrain dopaminergic regions and their targets) showed increasing activity as potential gains increased. Potential losses were represented by decreasing activity in several of these same gain-sensitive areas. Finally, individual differences in behavioral loss aversion were predicted by a measure of neural loss aversion in several regions, including the ventral striatum and prefrontal cortex.
Reactive oxygen species induced by therapeutic CD20 antibodies inhibit natural killer cell-mediated antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity against primary CLL cells

The antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) of natural killer (NK) cells is assumed to contribute to the clinical efficacy of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and other hematopoietic malignancies of B cell origin. We sought to determine whether reactive oxygen species (ROS)-producing monocytes regulate the ADCC of NK cells against primary CLL cells using anti-CD20 as the linking antibody. The monoclonal CD20 antibodies rituximab and ofatumumab were found to trigger substantial release of ROS from monocytes. Antibody-exposed monocytes induced NK cell apoptosis and restricted NK cell-mediated ADCC against autologous CLL cells. The presence of inhibitors of ROS formation and scavengers of ROS preserved NK cell viability and restored NK cell-mediated ADCC against primary CLL cells. We propose that limiting the antibody-induced induction of immunosuppressive ROS may improve the anti-leukemic efficacy of anti-CD20 therapy in CLL.