Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Telepractice in the Assessment and Treatment of Individuals with Aphasia: A Systematic Review

Telepractice involves the application of technology to deliver services over a geographical distance. Studies in which telepractice procedures were used in the assessment or treatment of individuals with aphasia were reviewed. Systematic searches identified 10 studies meeting inclusion criteria. These studies were evaluated in terms of the: (a) characteristics of the participants, (b) technology utilized (c), services delivered via telepractice, (d) research methodology, and (e) results and conclusions of the study. Telepractice was used by speech-language pathologists and allied health professionals to assist with the delivery of services to participants with aphasia by their caretakers or clinicians. The services delivered included appraisal, diagnostic assessments, interventions, and consultation. This review suggests that telepractice is a viable method of service delivery for individuals with aphasia, however further research is warranted. Guidelines for practitioners and potential directions for future research are discussed.
Energy Management and Control Strategy of Hybrid Energy Storage System for Fuel Cell Power Sources

This paper deals with the design of energy management strategy (EMS) for a fuel cell hybrid vehicle (FCHV) with hybrid energy storage system (HESS) using energetic macroscopic representation (EMR). It discusses the design options including power, energy, and operating strategy as they relate to the energy storage system. The studied HESS is composed of battery/ultracapacitor (BAT/UC) system allowing increasing both the power capability and the energy capacity of FCHV. In order to describe the system and organize his control structure, the EMR concept is used, which is well adapted for multiphysics complex systems. EMS has been designed to control the power flow between sources and traction load, and to ensure local protections. It is based on power splitting technique in the frequency domain allowing a natural dynamics control without slop limitation to provide any load demand and to satisfy the sources inherent characteristics: FC, BAT and UC voltage and current limits are considered, as well as slow FC dynamics and HESS state of charge (SOC). Simulation results are presented to check the theoretical analysis, ensure that the system well operates under difference load conditions and demonstrate the robustness and stability of the control strategy with good tracking response.
Design of Liveness-Enforcing Supervisors for S3PR Based on Complementary Places

In this article, an algorithm is proposed to design liveness-enforcing supervisors for systems of simple sequential processes with resources (S3PR) based on complementary places. Firstly, a mixed integer programming (MIP) based deadlock detection method is used to find unmarked strict minimal siphons from an infinite-capacity net. Next, the finite-capacity net, in which liveness can be enforced, is obtained by adding capacity function to the infinite-capacity net. Finally, complementary-place transformation is used to transform the finite-capacity net into an infinite-capacity net. This article focuses on adding a complementary place to each operation place that is related to unmarked siphons, deals with the deadlock problem from a new view point, and hence advances the deadlock control theory. Compared with the existing methods, the new policy is easier to implement for real industrial systems. More importantly, design of a complementary-place supervisor is very easy. Finally, in some cases, the new policy can obtain a structurally simpler supervisor with more permissive behavior than the existing methods do. A flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) example is used to compare the proposed policy with some other methods.
The influence of the holoparasitic plant Cuscuta campestris on the growth and photosynthesis of its host Mikania micrantha.

The influence of the holoparasite Cuscuta campestris Yuncker on the growth and photosynthesis of Mikania micrantha H.B. K. was studied. The results indicate that C. campestris infection significantly reduced the light use efficiency and light saturation point of the host. It significantly reduced the net photosynthetic rate (P(n)) of the 1st and 8th mature leaves of M. micrantha at light saturation point, the apparent quantum yield of the 1st mature leaves, the carboxylation efficiency and CO(2) saturated P(n) of the 8th mature leaves, but increased the light compensation point of the 1st mature leaves. Diurnally, it significantly reduced P(n) between 08.00 h and 16.00 h and stomatal conductance and transpiration from 10.00 h to 16.00 h for the 8th mature leaves. Moreover, the significantly adverse effects of C. campestris infection on P(n) were observed 18 d after parasitization (DAP) for the 4th, 8th and 12th, and 25 DAP for the 1st mature leaves of M. micrantha, and they became greater with infection time. The infection also significantly reduced the number of leaves, leaf area, stem length, and biomass, and prevented flowering of M. micrantha in the growing season, and caused almost complete death of the aerial parts of the host about 70 DAP, but the uninfected plants grew and developed normally. Furthermore, the total biomass of the infected host and the parasite was significantly less than that of the uninfected plants. Therefore, besides resource capture by C. campestris, the reduced growth of the infected plants must also be due to the negative effects of the parasite on host photosynthesis.
Human Social Behavior and Demography Drive Patterns of Fine-Scale Dengue Transmission in Endemic Areas of Colombia

Dengue is known to transmit between humans and A. aegypti mosquitoes living in neighboring houses. Although transmission is thought to be highly heterogeneous in both space and time, little is known about the patterns and drivers of transmission in groups of houses in endemic settings. We carried out surveys of PCR positivity in children residing in 2-block patches of highly endemic cities of Colombia. We found high levels of heterogeneity in PCR positivity, varying from less than 30% in 8 of the 10 patches to 56 and 96%, with the latter patch containing 22 children simultaneously PCR positive (PCR22) for DEN2. We then used an agent-based model to assess the likely eco-epidemiological context of this observation. Our model, simulating daily dengue dynamics over a 20 year period in a single two block patch, suggests that the observed heterogeneity most likely derived from variation in the density of susceptible people. Two aspects of human adaptive behavior were critical to determining this density: external social relationships favoring viral introduction (by susceptible residents or infectious visitors) and immigration of households from non-endemic areas. External social relationships generating frequent viral introduction constituted a particularly strong constraint on susceptible densities, thereby limiting the potential for explosive outbreaks and dampening the impact of heightened vectorial capacity. Dengue transmission can be highly explosive locally, even in neighborhoods with significant immunity in the human population. Variation among neighborhoods in the density of local social networks and rural-to-urban migration is likely to produce significant fine-scale heterogeneity in dengue dynamics, constraining or amplifying the impacts of changes in mosquito populations and cross immunity between serotypes.
Compensatory Recovery after Multisensory Stimulation in Hemianopic Patients: Behavioral and Neurophysiological Components

Lateralized post-chiasmatic lesions of the primary visual pathway result in loss of visual perception in the field retinotopically corresponding to the damaged cortical area. However, patients with visual field defects have shown enhanced detection and localization of multisensory audio-visual pairs presented in the blind field. This preserved multisensory integrative ability (i.e., crossmodal blindsight) seems to be subserved by the spared retino-colliculo-dorsal pathway. According to this view, audio-visual integrative mechanisms could be used to increase the functionality of the spared circuit and, as a consequence, might represent an important tool for the rehabilitation of visual field defects. The present study tested this hypothesis, investigating whether exposure to systematic multisensory audio-visual stimulation could induce long-lasting improvements in the visual performance of patients with visual field defects. A group of 10 patients with chronic visual field defects were exposed to audio-visual training for 4 h daily, over a period of 2 weeks. Behavioral, oculomotor and electroencephalography (EEG) measures were recorded during several visual tasks before and after audio-visual training. After audio-visual training, improvements in visual search abilities, visual detection, self-perceived disability in daily life activities and oculomotor parameters were found, suggesting the implementation of more effective visual exploration strategies. At the electrophysiological level, after training, patients showed a significant reduction of the P3 amplitude in response to stimuli presented in the intact field, reflecting a reduction in attentional resources allocated to the intact field, which might co-occur with a shift of spatial attention towards the blind field. More interestingly, both the behavioral improvements and the electrophysiological changes observed after training were found to be stable at a follow-up session (on average, 8 months after training), suggesting long-term effects of multisensory audio-visual training. These long-lasting effects seem to be subserved by the activation of the spared retino-colliculo-dorsal pathway, which promotes orienting responses towards the blind field, able to both compensate for the visual field loss and concurrently attenuate visual attention towards the intact field. These results add to previous findings the knowledge that audio-visual multisensory stimulation promote long-term plastic changes in hemianopics, resulting in stable and long-lasting ameliorations in behavioral and electrophysiological measures.
CAPON Modulates Neuronal Calcium Handling and Cardiac Sympathetic Neurotransmission During Dysautonomia in Hypertension

Genome-wide association studies implicate a variant in the neuronal nitric oxide synthase adaptor protein (CAPON) in electrocardiographic QT variation and sudden cardiac death. Interestingly, nitric oxide generated by neuronal NO synthase-1 reduces norepinephrine release; however, this pathway is downregulated in animal models of cardiovascular disease. Because sympathetic hyperactivity can trigger arrhythmia, is this neural phenotype linked to CAPON dysregulation? We hypothesized that CAPON resides in cardiac sympathetic neurons and is a part of the prediseased neuronal phenotype that modulates calcium handling and neurotransmission in dysautonomia. CAPON expression was significantly reduced in the stellate ganglia of spontaneously hypertensive rats before the development of hypertension compared with age-matched Wistar–Kyoto rats. The neuronal calcium current (ICa; n=8) and intracellular calcium transient ([Ca2+]i; n=16) were significantly larger in the spontaneously hypertensive rat than in Wistar–Kyoto rat (P<0.05). A novel noradrenergic specific vector (Ad.PRSx8-mCherry/CAPON) significantly upregulated CAPON expression, NO synthase-1 activity, and cGMP in spontaneously hypertensive rat neurons without altering NO synthase-1 levels. Neuronal ICa and [Ca2+]i were significantly reduced after CAPON transduction compared with the empty vector. In addition, Ad.PRSx8-mCherry/CAPON also reduced 3H-norepinephrine release from spontaneously hypertensive rat atria (n=7). NO synthase-1 inhibition (AAAN, 10 &mgr;mol/L; n=6) reversed these effects compared with the empty virus alone. In conclusion, targeted upregulation of CAPON decreases cardiac sympathetic hyperactivity. Moreover, dysregulation of this adaptor protein in sympathetic neurons might further amplify the negative cardiac electrophysiological properties seen with CAPON mutations.
Tourism and Economic Development: Evidence from Mexico&Apos;S Coastline

Tourism is a fast-growing services sector in developing countries. This paper combines a rich collection of Mexican microdata with a quantitative spatial equilibrium model and a new empirical strategy to study the long-term economic consequences of tourism both locally and in the aggregate. We find that tourism causes large and significant local economic gains relative to less touristic regions that are in part driven by significant positive spillovers on manufacturing. In the aggregate, however, these local spillovers are largely offset by reductions in agglomeration economies among less touristic regions, so that the national gains from trade in tourism are mainly driven by a classical market integration effect.
Slow Drag in a Granular Medium

We have studied the drag force acting on an object moving with low velocity through a granular medium. Although the drag force is a dynamic quantity, its behavior in this regime is dominated by the inhomogeneous distribution of stress in static granular media. We find experimentally that the drag force on a vertical cylinder is linearly dependent on the cylinder diameter, quadratically dependent on the depth of insertion, and independent of velocity. An accompanying analytical calculation based on the static distribution of forces arrives at the same result, demonstrating that the local theory of stress propagation in static granular media can be used to predict this bulk dynamic property. [S0031-9007(98)08142-3]
On the shape of the mass-function of dense clumps in the Hi-GAL fields - I. Spectral energy distribution determination and global properties of the mass-functions

Context. Stars form in dense, dusty clumps of molecular clouds, but little is known about their origin and evolution. In particular, the relationship between the mass distribution of these clumps (also known as the clump mass function or CMF) and the stellar initial mass function (IMF), is still poorly understood. Aims. To discern the “true” shape of the CMF and to better understand how the CMF may evolve toward the IMF, large samples of bona-fide pre- and proto-stellar clumps are required. The sensitive observations of the Herschel Space Observatory (HSO) are now allowing us to look at large clump populations in various clouds with different physical conditions. Methods. We analyze two fields in the Galactic plane mapped by HSO during its science demonstration phase (SDP), as part of the more complete and unbiased Herschel infrared GALactic Plane Survey (Hi-GAL). These fields underwent a source-extraction and flux-estimation pipeline, which allowed us to obtain a sample with thousands of clumps. Starless and proto-stellar clumps were separated using both color and positional criteria to find those coincident with MIPS 24 mu m sources. We describe the probability density functions of the power-law and lognormal models that were used to fit the CMFs. For the lognormal model we applied several statistical techniques to the data and compared their results. Results. The CMFs of the two SDP fields show very similar shapes, but very different mass scales. This similarity is confirmed by the values of the best-fit parameters of either the power-law or lognormal model. The power-law model leads to almost identical CMF slopes, whereas the lognormal model shows that the CMFs have similar widths. Conclusions. The similar CMF shape but different mass scale represents an evidence that the overall process of star formation in the two regions is very different. When comparing with the IMF, we find that the width of the IMF is narrower than the measured widths of the CMF in the two SDP fields. This may suggest that an additional mass selection occurs in later stages of gravitational collapse.
Contaminated Pond Water Favors Cholera Outbreak at Haibatpur Village, Purba Medinipur District, West Bengal, India

Health workers reported an increased number of diarrhea cases at Haibatpur village on June 17, 2012. This outbreak was investigated with the following objectives: to confirm the existence of diarrhea outbreak, to find out the risk factors, and propose control measures. Cases were listed; spot map and epidemic curve were drawn. Attack rate was calculated by age and sex and risk factors were found out by calculating odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI). Rectal swabs were taken and water specimens were collected for laboratory test. Forty-one cases of patients were identified with overall attack rate (AR) was 5% (41/780). AR among men was higher 6% (25/404) than women. There was no death. V. cholerae 01 Eltor Ogawa was isolated from one (1/4) stool specimen. Spot map showed cases clustered around two ponds which were contaminated with coliform organisms. The underground water was a bit saline in nature. Using pond water for preparation of fermented rice (Panta Bhat) (OR 4.73, 95% CI 1.69–13.51), washing utensil in pond water (OR 7.31, 95% CI 1.77–42.29) were associated with cholera outbreak. Health education was done to villagers. Disinfection of two ponds with bleaching powder was done. We proposed supplying of safe drinking water and repairing defective deep tube well to village.
Loop Transformations for the Optimized Generation of Reconfigurable Hardware

Current high-level design environments offer little support to implement data-intensive applications on heterogeneous-memory systems; they rather focus on parallelism. This thesis addresses the memory hierarchy problem to high-level transformations of loop structures. The composition of long transformation sequences by combining shorter subsequences is studied together with the influence of the order of applying transformation steps. Several methods are presented to estimate bounds on Ehrhart quasi-polynomials, which can be used to statically evaluate program properties, such as memory usage. Since loop transformations not only influence the data access pattern but also the control complexity we present a hardware loop controller architecture which supports hardware generation from the polyhedral representation used for loop transformations. The techniques are demonstrated by the semi-automatic generation of an FPGA implementation of an inverse discrete wavelet transform.
Approximation algorithms for data placement in arbitrary networks

We study approximation algorithms for placing replicated data in arbitrary networks. Consider a network of nodes with individual storage capacities and a metric communication cost function, in which each node periodically issues a request for an object drawn from a collection of uniform-length objects. We consider the problem of placing copies of the objects among the nodes such that the average access cost is minimized. Our main result is a polynomial-time constant-factor approximation algorithm for this placement problem. Our algorithm is based on a careful rounding of a linear programming relaxation of the problem. We also show that the data placement problem is MAXSNP-hard. We extend our approximation result to a generalization of the data placement problem that models additional costs such as the cost of realizing the placement. We also show that when object lengths are non-uniform, a constant-factor approximation is achievable if the capacity at each node in the approximate solution is allowed to exceed that in the optimal solution by the length of the largest object.
The impact of social acceptance and close friendships on peer and self perceptions of overt and relational aggression among adolescents

Using longitudinal peer and self-report data (n = 1490; 10th to 12th grade), changes in relational and overt aggression were each regressed onto social acceptance, close friendships, and their interaction. Links between social acceptance, close friendships and overt or relational aggression were dependent upon whether adolescents or their peers assessed their friendships and aggression. For both genders, peers were more likely to see adolescents with many friends and close friendships as being more overtly and relationally aggressive. In contrast, self-reports of close friendship and social acceptance were either unrelated or negatively related to peerreported overt and relational aggression. When predicting peer-reported overt aggression, selfreported close friendships and self-reported social acceptance interacted such that males who believed they had close friendships and were socially accepted were more likely to be rated by peers as overtly aggressive. No connections between friendship and aggression were found when adolescents rated their own overt aggression and friendship.
The Mistakes That Are Made by Students with Regard to Functions: Evidence from Erzincan (A Province in Turkey)

The aim of this study is to identify the mistakes made by ninth grade students in the subject of functions and reveal the reasons for these mistakes. In line with this purpose, the case study method, which is among the qualitative research methods, was used in the study. The study group of the research was composed of 52 Anatolian ninth grade students and four mathematics teachers. Eight open-ended questions were used as the data collection tool. Non-structured interviews were conducted in order to reveal the reasons for the mistakes. The content analysis technique was utilized in analyzing the data. When the obtained findings were examined, it was observed that the majority of the students experienced problems in meaningfully perceiving and expressing the functions. When the data obtained from the interviews was examined, it was observed that the mistakes made by the students resulted from such reasons as lack of conceptual knowledge, memorization-based learning and the fact that they were not ready for the subject.
Dynamics in intention to stay and changes in language proficiency of recent migrants in the Netherlands

ABSTRACT This study focuses on consequences of changes in intention to stay for Dutch language proficiency of recent migrants. It is anticipated that migrants who decide at a later instance to stay longer in the Netherlands have made less language investments and therefore have a lower proficiency than migrants who decided to stay longer or permanently at an earlier stage. Hypotheses are tested using Dutch panel data from the data set ‘Causes and Consequences of Social and Cultural Integration Processes among recent migrants. ’ In this survey, migrants have been interviewed twice in the first years after migration to the Netherlands. Results provide that migrants who maintain a temporary intention and migrants who intend to circulate between country of origin and The Netherlands experience the smallest improvement and have the worst command of Dutch at the second wave. Changing a temporary intention to stay into a circular one improves the command of the Dutch language the most, whilst changing a temporary intention into a permanent one also strongly increases second language proficiency. Migrants changing a temporary intention into a permanent one do not differ in their language proficiency at wave 2 and experienced change herein from migrants maintaining a longer or permanent perspective.