Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
El portafolio digital como herramienta didáctica: una evaluación crítica de fortalezas y debilidades

Resumen: Se presenta un estudio exploratorio sobre el uso del portafolio digital como herramienta educativa. La experiencia se centro en valorar las debilidades, amenazas, fortalezas y oportunidades de esta herramienta a partir de las apreciaciones de los participantes. De igual modo, se pretende conocer hasta que punto su utilizacion potencia habilidades y competencias relevantes en el Espacio Europeo de Educacion Superior, tanto a nivel individual como grupal. Para ello, se llevo a cabo un estudio de naturaleza descriptiva a traves de la tecnica de la encuesta (cuestionario). Los resultados muestran que se trata de una herramienta de aprendizaje valorada positivamente que favorece cuestiones como la accesibilidad al aprendizaje cooperativo o el ahorro economico y medioambiental. A partir de estas valoraciones concluimos que el portafolio digital contribuye al proceso de ensenanza-aprendizaje, favoreciendo que el alumnado sea consciente de este, y acercandole progresivamente a un aprendizaje mas autonomo y responsable. Abstract: An exploratory study on the use of the digital portfolio as an educational tool is presented. The experience focused on assessing the weaknesses, threats, strengths and opportunities of this tool based on the participants' assessments. Likewise, it seeks to know to what extent its use enhances skills and competences relevant in the European Higher Education Area, both individually and as a group. To do this, we conducted a study of descriptive nature through technical survey (questionnaire). The results show that this is a positively valued learning tool that favors issues such as accessibility to cooperative learning or economic and environmental cost savings without printing paper. We conclude therefore that the digital portfolio contributes to the process of teaching and learning, encouraging the students to be aware of this, and progressively bringing you to a more autonomous and responsible learning.
Oxidative stress and antioxidants in disease and cancer: a review.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS), highly reactive molecules, are produced by living organisms as a result of normal cellular metabolism and environmental factors, and can damage nucleic acids and proteins, thereby altering their functions. The human body has several mechanisms to counteract oxidative stress by producing antioxidants. A shift in the balance between oxidants and antioxidants in favor of oxidants is termed as "oxidative stress". Paradoxically, there is a large body of research demonstrating the general effect of oxidative stress on signaling pathways, less is known about the initial and direct regulation of signaling molecules by ROS, or what we term the "oxidative interface. " This review focuses on the molecular mechanisms through which ROS directly interact with critical signaling molecules to initiate signaling in a broad variety of cellular processes, such as proliferation and survival (MAP kinases and PI3 kinase), ROS homeostasis, and antioxidant gene regulation (Ref-1 and Nrf-2). This review also deals with classification as well as mechanisms of formation of free radicals, examining their beneficial and deleterious effects on cellular activities and focusing on the potential role of antioxidants in preventing and repairing damage caused by oxidative stress. A discussion of the role of phytochemical antioxidants in oxidative stress, disease and the epigenome is included.
Objective and Subjective Assessment of Sleep in Adolescents With Chronic Pain Compared to Healthy Adolescents

ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to compare sleep of adolescents with chronic pain and healthy adolescents using both subjective and objective sleep assessments, and to identify correlates of poor sleep. MethodsForty adolescents (n=20 with chronic pain and n=20 healthy adolescents), aged 12 to 17 years (72.5% female) participated. Adolescents completed self-report measures of pain, sleep quality and hygiene, presleep arousal/worry, and depressive symptoms. Sleep patterns were assessed over 7 consecutive days using an actigraph, a motion-monitoring device detecting sleep-wake patterns by measuring activity levels. Total sleep time, sleep efficiency, wake time, and wake bouts were derived from the actigraph and aggregated for analysis. ResultsCompared with healthy peers, adolescents with chronic pain demonstrated similar total sleep time as healthy adolescents, but significantly poorer sleep. In particular, adolescents with chronic pain subjectively reported poorer sleep quality and increased insomnia symptoms, and demonstrated lower actigraphic sleep efficiency and more wake bouts compared with their healthy peers. Depressive symptoms and worry at bedtime were significant predictors of subjectively reported sleep quality but not of actigraphic sleep. DiscussionAdolescents with chronic pain evidenced poorer sleep quality, increased insomnia symptoms, and less efficient sleep with more wake bouts in comparison with healthy adolescents, findings that require replication in a larger sample. Assessment and management of sleep disturbances is an important aspect of care for children and adolescents with chronic pain.
Replication Stress Induces Micronuclei Comprising of Aggregated DNA Double-Strand Breaks

Background Micronuclei (MN) in mammalian cells serve as a reliable biomarker of genomic instability and genotoxic exposure. Elevation of MN is commonly observed in cells bearing intrinsic genomic instability and in normal cells exposed to genotoxic agents. DNA double-strand breaks are marked by phosphorylation of H2AX at serine 139 (γ-H2AX). One subclass of MN contains massive and uniform γ-H2AX signals. This study tested whether this subclass of MN can be induced by replication stress. Principal Findings We observed that a large proportion of MN, from 20% to nearly 50%, showed uniform staining by antibodies against γ-H2AX, a marker of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). Such micronuclei were designated as MN-γ–H2AX (+). We showed that such MN can be induced by chemicals that are known to cause DNA replication stress and S phase arrest. Hydroxyurea, aphidicolin and thymidine could all significantly induce MN-γ–H2AX (+), which were formed during S phase and appeared to be derived from aggregation of DSBs. MN-γ–H2AX (−), MN that were devoid of uniform γ-H2AX signals, were induced to a lesser extent in terms of fold change. Paclitaxel, which inhibits the disassembly of microtubules, only induced MN-γ–H2AX (−). The frequency of MN-γ–H2AX (+), but not that of MN-γ–H2AX (−), was also significantly increased in cells that experience S phase prolongation due to depletion of cell cycle regulator CUL4B. Depletion of replication protein A1 (RPA1) by RNA interference resulted in an elevation of both MN-γ–H2AX (+) and MN-γ–H2AX (−). Conclusions/Significance A subclass of MN, MN-γ–H2AX (+), can be preferentially induced by replication stress. Classification of MN according to their γ-H2AX status may provide a more refined evaluation of intrinsic genomic instabilities and the various environmental genotoxicants.
A phase I and pharmacokinetic study of ecteinascidin-743 (Yondelis) in children with refractory solid tumors. A Children's Oncology Group study.

PURPOSE To determine the dose-limiting toxicity (DLT) and the maximum tolerated dose of ecteinascidin-743 (ET-743, Yondelis) in children with refractory solid tumors, to establish the recommended dose for pediatric phase II trials, and to characterize the pharmacokinetics of ET-743 in children. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN ET-743 was administered as a 3-hour i.v. infusion every 21 days. The starting dose was 1,100 microg/m(2) with planned dose escalation of 200 microg/m(2) increments. Pharmacokinetic sampling was done during the first treatment course. RESULTS Twelve evaluable patients received a total of 29 courses. One grade 4 DLT (prolonged grade 4 neutropenia) was noted at the first dose level. At the second dose level (1,300 microg/m(2)), there were two DLTs (reversible grade 4 elevations of hepatic transaminase); hence the maximum tolerated dose was defined as 1,100 microg/m(2). Overall, reversible hepatic toxicity, manifested as grade 3 or 4 elevations in hepatic transaminase, occurred in more than 50% of the patients. No grade 3 or 4 thrombocytopenia was reported at either dose level and only one episode of isolated creatine phosphokinase grade 4 elevation was observed. One complete response was documented after six courses in a patient with metastatic Ewing sarcoma. The pharmacokinetics of ET-743 in 8 children was characterized by a terminal disposition phase with a mean half-life of 43.8 +/- 18.4 hours, a total body clearance of 28.2 +/- 10.5 L/h/m(2), and a 959 +/- 807 L/m(2) steady-state apparent volume of distribution. CONCLUSION ET-743 is safe. The phase II recommended dose of ET-743 administered as a 3-hour i.v. infusion following premedication with dexamethasone is 1,100 microg/m(2).
Horde: a scalable real-time architecture for learning knowledge from unsupervised sensorimotor interaction

Maintaining accurate world knowledge in a complex and changing environment is a perennial problem for robots and other artificial intelligence systems. Our architecture for addressing this problem, called Horde, consists of a large number of independent reinforcement learning sub-agents, or demons. Each demon is responsible for answering a single predictive or goal-oriented question about the world, thereby contributing in a factored, modular way to the system's overall knowledge. The questions are in the form of a value function, but each demon has its own policy, reward function, termination function, and terminal-reward function unrelated to those of the base problem. Learning proceeds in parallel by all demons simultaneously so as to extract the maximal training information from whatever actions are taken by the system as a whole. Gradient-based temporal-difference learning methods are used to learn efficiently and reliably with function approximation in this off-policy setting. Horde runs in constant time and memory per time step, and is thus suitable for learning online in real-time applications such as robotics. We present results using Horde on a multi-sensored mobile robot to successfully learn goal-oriented behaviors and long-term predictions from off-policy experience. Horde is a significant incremental step towards a real-time architecture for efficient learning of general knowledge from unsupervised sensorimotor interaction.
Hepatitis C virus infection : Spread and impact in the Netherlands Urbanus

Background: Although published results are inconsistent, it has been suggested that tattooing and piercing are risk factors for HBV and HCV infections. To examine whether tattooing and piercing do indeed increase the risk of infection, we conducted a study among people with multiple tattoos and/or piercings in the Netherlands who acquired their tattoos and piercings in the Netherlands and/or abroad. Methods: Tattoo artists, piercers, and people with multiple tattoos and/or piercings were recruited at tattoo conventions, shops (N= 182), and a biannual survey at our STI-outpatient clinic (N= 252) in Amsterdam. Participants were interviewed and tested for anti-HBc and anti-HCV. Determinants of HBV and HCV infections were analysed using logistic regression analysis. Results: The median number of tattoos and piercings was 5 (IQR 2–10) and 2 (IQR 2–4), respectively. Almost 40% acquired their tattoo of piercing abroad. In total, 18/434 (4.2%, 95%CI: 2.64%–6.46%) participants were anti-HBc positive and 1 was anti-HCV positive (0.2%, 95%CI: 0.01%–1.29%). Being anti-HBc positive was independently associated with older age (OR 1.68, 95%CI: 1.03–2.75 per 10 years older) and being born in an HBV-endemic country (OR 7.39, 95%CI: 2.77–19.7). Tattooand/or piercing-related variables, like having a tattoo or piercing in an HBV endemic country, surface percentage tattooed, number of tattoos and piercings etc., were not associated with either HBV or HCV. Conclusions: We found no evidence for an increased HBV/HCV seroprevalence among persons with multiple tattoos and/or piercings, which might be due to the introduction of hygiene guidelines for tattoo and piercing shops in combination with the low observed prevalence of HBV/HCV in the general population. Tattoos and/or piercings, therefore, should not be considered risk factors for HBV/HCV in the Dutch population. These findings imply the importance of implementation of hygiene guidelines in other countries. Citation: Urbanus AT, van den Hoek A, Boonstra A, van Houdt R, de Bruijn LJ, et al. (2011) People with Multiple Tattoos and/or Piercings Are Not at Increased Risk for HBV or HCV in The Netherlands. PLoS ONE 6(9): e24736. doi:10.1371/journal.pone. 0024736 Editor: Rick Edward Paul, Institut Pasteur, France Received July 13, 2011; Accepted August 16, 2011; Published September 14, 2011 Copyright: 2011 Urbanus et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: This study is funded by grant 7115 0001 from The Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. * E-mail: aurbanus@ggd.amsterdam. nl
Addiction and Criminal Behavior: A Continuing Examination of Criminal Addicts

The study proposed to examine the relationship between opiate addiction and criminal behavior. The study group was composed of general arrestee population subjects who were identified as regular opiate users. The subjects were interviewed to determine demographic, drug use, and self-report criminal history data; arrest data were collected from official records. The study addressed three research questions: (1) the general effect of addiction upon criminal activity; (2) the effect of addiction upon specific offense categories; and (3) the variations of the effects of addiction upon criminal activity relative to the age of onset of addiction, race, and gender. Study results showed dramatic increases in criminal activity associated with the onset of addiction. The criminal activity increase was displayed in violent crime categories, as well as property acquisitive and drug offense categories. Some differences were apparent according to age of onset of addiction, race, and gender, but the study design did not warrant the drawing of definitive conclusions regarding the differences.
Sibling adaptation to childhood cancer collaborative study : parental views of pre- and postdiagnosis adjustment of siblings of children with cancer

In open-ended interviews, parents of 254 siblings of children with cancer evaluated the pre- and postdiagnosis adjustment of their children. One-fourth of the siblings were asymptomatic both before and after the diagnosis. Behavior and emotional problems were the most frequently reported problems arising after the diagnosis. Before the diagnosis, less than 12 percent of the siblings had either behavioral or affective symptoms, whereas 26 percent had such symptoms after the diagnosis. Type of maladjustment was unrelated to sex, birth order, or severity of the patient's illness. On the positive side, parents also reported favorable changes because of the illness in siblings' maturity, supportiveness, and independence. These positive effects were more likely to occur among adolescent and first-born siblings and when the patient's prognosis was poorer.
The Rationale for Lowering the Size Threshold in Elective Endovascular Repair of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm

The current size threshold for elective abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair is 5.5 cm. Over this diameter limit, the AAA rupture rate exceeds the perioperative mortality of open surgical repair. Endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) is associated with lower perioperative mortality rates, so it seems logical to hypothesize that the size threshold for endovascular AAA repair should be lowered. The arguments supporting this proposal are: (1) the EVAR-associated mortality rises several fold with increasing age, (2) larger AAAs have more complex anatomy that may not be suitable for EVAR, and (3) smaller AAAs treated with EVAR have lower perioperative and long-term mortality and fewer secondary interventions. Future guidelines may need to consider lowering the size threshold for elective AAA repair in the endovascular era in certain patient subgroups. The reduction of the size threshold should be counterbalanced against the cost of the procedures, as well as the age, life expectancy, and general condition of the patient.
Role of Far Infra-Red Therapy in Dialysis Arterio-Venous Fistula Maturation and Survival: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Introduction A well-functioning arteriovenous fistula (AVF) is the best modality for vascular access in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) requiring haemodialysis (HD). However, AVFs’ main disadvantage is the high rate of maturation failure, with approximately one third (20%–50%) not maturing into useful access. This review examine the use of Far-Infra Red therapy in an attempt to enhance both primary (unassisted) and secondary (assisted) patency rates for AVF in dialysis and pre-dialysis patients. Method We performed an online search for observational studies and randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that evaluated FIR in patients with AVF. Eligible studies compared FIR with control treatment and reported at least one outcome measure relating to access survival. Primary patency and secondary patency rates were the main outcomes of interest. Results Four RCTs (666 patients) were included. Unassisted patency assessed in 610 patients, and was significantly better among those who received FIR (228/311) compared to (185/299) controls (pooled risk ratio of 1.23 [1.12–1.35], p = 0.00001). In addition, the two studies which reported secondary patency rates showed significant difference in favour of FIR therapy- 160/168 patients - compared to 140/163 controls (pooled risk ratio of 1.11 [1.04–1.19], p = 0.003). Conclusion FIR therapy may positively influence the complex process of AVF maturation improving both primary and secondary patency rates. However blinded RCTs performed by investigators with no commercial ties to FIR therapy technologies are needed.
FaceNet2ExpNet: Regularizing a Deep Face Recognition Net for Expression Recognition

Relatively small data sets available for expression recognition research make the training of deep networks very challenging. Although fine-tuning can partially alleviate the issue, the performance is still below acceptable levels as the deep features probably contain redundant information from the pretrained domain. In this paper, we present FaceNet2ExpNet, a novel idea to train an expression recognition network based on static images. We first propose a new distribution function to model the high-level neurons of the expression network. Based on this, a two-stage training algorithm is carefully designed. In the pre-training stage, we train the convolutional layers of the expression net, regularized by the face net; In the refining stage, we append fully-connected layers to the pre-trained convolutional layers and train the whole network jointly. Visualization results show that the model trained with our method captures improved high-level expression semantics. Evaluations on four public expression databases, CK+, Oulu- CASIA, TFD, and SFEW demonstrate that our method achieves better results than state-of-the-art.
The effect of resisted sprint training on maximum sprint kinetics and kinematics in youth

Abstract Resisted sled towing is a popular and efficient training method to improve sprint performance in adults, however, has not been utilised in youth populations. The purpose therefore was to investigate the effect of resisted sled towing training on the kinematics and kinetics of maximal sprint velocity in youth of different maturation status. Pre- and post-intervention 30 metre sprint performance of 32 children, 18 pre-peak height velocity (PHV) and 14 mid-/post-PHV, were tested on a non-motorised treadmill. The 6-week intervention consisted of ∼12 sessions for pre-PHV and 14 for mid-/post-PHV of resisted sled towing training with each sessions comprised of 8–10 sprints covering 15–30 metres with a load of 2.5, 5, 7.5 or 10% body mass. Pre-PHV participants did not improve sprint performance, while the mid-/post-PHV participants had significant (P < 0.05) reductions (percent change, effect size) in sprint time (−5.76, −0.74), relative leg stiffness (−45.0, −2.16) and relative vertical stiffness (−17.4, −0.76) and a significant increase in average velocity (5.99, 0.76), average step rate (5.65, 0.53), average power (6.36, 0.31), peak horizontal force (9.70, 0.72), average relative vertical forces (3.45, 1.70) and vertical displacement (14.6, 1.46). It seems that sled towing may be a more suitable training method in mid-/post-PHV athletes to improve 30 metre sprint performance.
Perceiving an Object and Its Context in Different Cultures

In two studies, a newly devised test (framed-line test) was used to examine the hypothesis that individuals engaging in Asian cultures are more capable of incorporating contextual information and those engaging in North American cultures are more capable of ignoring contextual information. On each trial, participants were presented with a square frame, within which was printed a vertical line. Participants were then shown another square frame of the same or different size and asked to draw a line that was identical to the first line in either absolute length (absolute task) or proportion to the height of the surrounding frame (relative task). The results supported the hypothesis: Whereas Japanese were more accurate in the relative task, Americans were more accurate in the absolute task. Moreover, when engaging in another culture, individuals tended to show the cognitive characteristic common in the host culture.
Energy efficient adaptive cellular network configuration with QoS guarantee

Cellular network energy optimization is driven by different factors, namely transmission power and activity of the base stations. Quality of Service (QoS) of users is determined by received power, interference and bandwidth allocation and cannot be neglected. In existing studies, such drivers are treated separately, i.e., bandwidth allocation is fixed while power consumption is a variable to be optimized. This paper proposes a novel optimization framework which is aimed at minimizing the power consumption in cellular networks while affording a minimum bit rate for each mobile terminal by jointly considering energy consumption and QoS drivers. Mixed Integer Quadratic Programming (MIQP) based optimization framework solves the problems of the determination of the user association, the bandwidth allocation, the identification of the active base stations and their transmission power, guaranteeing also a requested service rate for each user. The proposed solution is shown to allow power savings of up to 60%, very close to the optimum lower bound, when the traffic is below the 35% of the maximum load.
Learning in revolution: perspectives on democracy from Egypt's UK-based diaspora activists

ABSTRACTThis article explores the impact of the 25 January protests in Egypt on a specific group of people who continue to struggle for social and political change: the UK-based Egyptian diaspora. Through an exploration of diaspora politics, the article sheds light on how UK activists challenge dominant approaches to democracy and democratization. The author argues that this case of diaspora politics calls for a continued inquiry into what democracy is and how it is imagined, particularly in transnational contexts.