Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Explaining Variability: Numerical Representations in 4- to 8-Year-Old Children

The present study aims to examine relations between number representations and various sources of individual differences within early stages of development of number representations. The mental number line has been found to develop from a logarithmic to a more linear representation. Sources under investigation are counting skills and executive functions and are set out against mental number lines from 0 to 10 and 0 to 100 in a sample of 4- to 8-year-old children (N = 80). Findings indicate that counting skills, inhibition, and updating are the most important predictors of the shape of the mental number line over and above age-related developmental differences, with number lines from 0 to 10 being linear to a large extent and number lines from 0 to 100 developing from a random pattern toward logarithmic representations. The shape of the mental number line was found to predict scores on the number comparison task only on the smaller-scale comparison task.
Exploring Issues in Culture and Competence

A key element of Organizational Culture is members understanding of the nature of competence and the ways in which different constructions of competence are created by members and are negotiated. Within organizations and as a component of culture, understandings of competence have political, moral, and ethical dimensions. In this paper, there is an exploration of the complex relationships between competence and culture and the way they impact on managing organizations. The author has taken two idealizations of organizational culture that is corporate culture (in which there is an emphasis on management control and the "management of meaning") and the ensemble culture (in which management is seen as a concern for the preservation of members autonomy and in which meaning is emergent) and shows how in both cases psychodynamic issues generate turbulence such that idealization and recipes describing competence are called into question.
Robust Detection of Premature Ventricular Contractions Using a Wave-Based Bayesian Framework

Detection and classification of ventricular complexes from the ECG is of considerable importance in Holter and critical care patient monitoring, being essential for the timely diagnosis of dangerous heart conditions. Accurate detection of premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) is particularly important in relation to life-threatening arrhythmias. In this paper, we introduce a model-based dynamic algorithm for tracking the ECG characteristic waveforms using an extended Kalman filter. The algorithm can work on single or multiple leads. A "polargram''-a polar representation of the signal-is introduced, which is constructed using the Bayesian estimations of the state variables. The polargram allows the specification of a polar envelope for normal rhythms. Moreover, we propose a novel measure of signal fidelity by monitoring the covariance matrix of the innovation signals throughout the filtering procedure. PVCs are detected by simultaneous tracking the signal fidelity and the polar envelope. Five databases, including 40 records from MIT-BIH arrhythmia database, are used for differentiating normal, PVC, and other beats. Performance evaluation results show that the proposed method has an average detection accuracy of 99.10%, aggregate sensitivity of 98.77%, and aggregate positive predictivity of 97.47%. Furthermore, the method is capable of 100% accuracy for records that contain only PVCs and normal sinus beats. The results illustrate that the method can contribute to, and enhance the performance of clinical PVC detection.
New racism, meritocracy and individualism: constraining affirmative action in education

This article presents a discursive analysis of student talk on disadvantage and affirmative action from two focus group discussions on ‘race’ relations in Australia. Our analysis builds upon previous research in the discursive tradition on affirmative action and demonstrates how participants draw on resources, which construct affirmative action as largely problematic. Liberal principles such as individualism, merit, and egalitarianism were recurrently drawn upon to justify, argue and legitimate opposition to affirmative action. Speakers managed their opposition to affirmative action while presenting as fair, principled and lacking in prejudice. One argument, which was commonly deployed, constructed affirmative action as undermining meritocratic principles and ideals. This meritocratic discourse has a self-sufficient, taken-for-granted quality which participants assumed to be a moral and normative standard that needed to be protected and upheld. This argument was also associated with a closely related one that ‘everyone should be treated equally or the same’, regardless of social background. Although our analysis emphasizes the deployment of discursive resources that function primarily to uphold the ideals of meritocracy, individualism and equality, participants did produce talk that on occasion challenged the ideology of individual achievement and acknowledged the existence of Aboriginal disadvantage. We discuss how these contradictions are reflective of the competing values of egalitarianism and individualism in western liberal democracies like Australia and how the language of the ‘new racism’ is framed by such ideological dilemmas and ambivalence.
Slow clearance of Plasmodium vivax with chloroquine amongst children younger than six months of age in the Brazilian Amazon

Plasmodium vivax is the most widespread parasite causing malaria, being especially prevalent in the Americas and Southeast Asia. Children are one of the most affected populations, especially in highly endemic areas. However, there are few studies evaluating the therapeutic response of infants with vivax malaria. This study retrospectively evaluated the parasitaemia clearance in children diagnosed with vivax malaria during the first five days of exclusive treatment with chloroquine (CQ). Infants aged less than six months old had a significantly slower parasitaemia clearance time compared to the group of infants and children between six months and 12 years old (Kaplan-Meier survival analysis; Wilcoxon test; p = 0.004). The impaired clearance of parasitaemia in younger children with vivax malaria is shown for the first time in Latin America. It is speculated that CQ pharmacokinetics in young children with vivax malaria is distinct, but this specific population may also allow the detection of CQ-resistant parasites during follow-up, due to the lack of previous immunity.
Changes in children's food group intake from age 3 to 7 years: comparison of a FFQ with an online food record

Few studies have investigated the relative validity of FFQ in young children and no study has investigated the relative validity of changes in children's food intake in a longitudinal context. The aim of the present study was to compare the FFQ of the longitudinal Family Influences on Food Intake study, assessing children's food intake in the previous 3 months, with a 3 d online food record when children were 3 and 7 years old, as well as to investigate the relative validity of changes in food group intake over a 4-year period. Parents (n 89) completed the FFQ and an online food record over three non-consecutive days on two separate occasions (January–April 2008 and 2012). Wilcoxon signed-rank tests and Spearman's correlations were used to compare food group intake and changes in intake assessed using both methods. In 2008, the intake of eleven of the twenty-two food groups was overestimated and that of four food groups underestimated in the FFQ in comparison with the online tool; in 2012, the intake of four food groups was overestimated and that of seven food groups underestimated. Nevertheless, changes in intake did not differ significantly between the two methods for eighteen food groups. Correlations in 2008 and 2012 were, on average, 0·47; correlations between the changes in dietary intake were, on average, 0·26. The results suggest that despite the significant differences between the two methods for a number of food groups at both baseline and/or follow-up, the FFQ can be used to monitor changes in dietary intake for groups of young children.
The social causation of depression: a critique of the work of Brown and his colleagues

Synopsis Brown and his colleagues have presented evidence for the social origins of depression from results of 2 community surveys in Camberwell. This paper examines critically their methodology, conceptualization of variables, mode of argument and statistical techniques. Log-linear analysis of their published data fails to substantiate their differentiation of risk variables into vulnerability factors and provoking agents.
Home detection of freezing of gait using support vector machines through a single waist-worn triaxial accelerometer

Among Parkinson’s disease (PD) symptoms, freezing of gait (FoG) is one of the most debilitating. To assess FoG, current clinical practice mostly employs repeated evaluations over weeks and months based on questionnaires, which may not accurately map the severity of this symptom. The use of a non-invasive system to monitor the activities of daily living (ADL) and the PD symptoms experienced by patients throughout the day could provide a more accurate and objective evaluation of FoG in order to better understand the evolution of the disease and allow for a more informed decision-making process in making adjustments to the patient’s treatment plan. This paper presents a new algorithm to detect FoG with a machine learning approach based on Support Vector Machines (SVM) and a single tri-axial accelerometer worn at the waist. The method is evaluated through the acceleration signals in an outpatient setting gathered from 21 PD patients at their home and evaluated under two different conditions: first, a generic model is tested by using a leave-one-out approach and, second, a personalised model that also uses part of the dataset from each patient. Results show a significant improvement in the accuracy of the personalised model compared to the generic model, showing enhancement in the specificity and sensitivity geometric mean (GM) of 7.2%. Furthermore, the SVM approach adopted has been compared to the most comprehensive FoG detection method currently in use (referred to as MBFA in this paper). Results of our novel generic method provide an enhancement of 11.2% in the GM compared to the MBFA generic model and, in the case of the personalised model, a 10% of improvement with respect to the MBFA personalised model. Thus, our results show that a machine learning approach can be used to monitor FoG during the daily life of PD patients and, furthermore, personalised models for FoG detection can be used to improve monitoring accuracy.
Aid and Dutch Disease in the South Pacific and in Other Small Island States

Abstract The impact of aid on the macro-economy is ambiguous. Aid that increases expenditure may cause real exchange rate appreciation. However, if the capital stock in the traded goods sector rises then output might not contract, and if investment in the non-traded goods sector is relatively productive then real exchange rate appreciation could be avoided. We examine aid inflows in 10 Pacific island states, and find them to produce a variety of outcomes. Applying our model to other small island states around the world, we analyse the country-specific characteristics that determine the macroeconomic impact of aid, and draw policy conclusions.
Microsoft Research at TREC 2010 Web Track

This paper describes our entry into the TREC 2010 Web track. We extracted and ranked results for both last year’s and this year’s topics from the ClueWeb09 corpus using a parallel processing pipeline that avoids the generation of an inverted file. We describe the components of the parallel architecture and the pipeline and how we ran the TREC experiments, and we present effectiveness results.
Keeping Your Head On Target

The mechanisms by which the human brain controls eye movements are reasonably well understood, but those for the head less so. Here, we show that the mechanisms for keeping the head aimed at a stationary target follow strategies similar to those for holding the eyes steady on stationary targets. Specifically, we applied the neural integrator hypothesis that originally was developed for holding the eyes still in eccentric gaze positions to describe how the head is held still when turned toward an eccentric target. We found that normal humans make head movements consistent with the neural integrator hypothesis, except that additional sensory feedback is needed, from proprioceptors in the neck, to keep the head on target. We also show that the complicated patterns of head movements in patients with cervical dystonia can be predicted by deficits in a neural integrator for head motor control. These results support ideas originally developed from animal studies that suggest fundamental similarities between oculomotor and cephalomotor control, as well as a conceptual framework for cervical dystonia that departs considerably from current clinical views.
Outcome of Exchange Blood Transfusions Done for Neonatal Jaundice in Abakaliki, South Eastern Nigeria

Background: Neonatal jaundice (NNJ) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality among neonates in Nigeria and exchange blood transfusion (EBT) is a common modality of its treatment in Ebonyi State University Teaching Hospital (EBSUTH), Abakaliki. This communication aims to audit this service. Materials and Methods: A 3-year retrospective review of the case files of all neonates that had EBT for NNJ at the new born special care unit of EBSUTH. Result: Two hundred and thirty seven (17.25%) out of 1374 neonatal admissions had NNJ. EBT was performed for 40 (16.9%) of them. The commonest indications for EBT were low birth weight/prematurity, ABO blood group incompatibility, sepsis and glucose 6 phosphate deficiencies. The mean serum bilirubin at which EBT was done was 28.3 mg/dl. The EBT was uneventful in 36 cases while in four (10%) cases there were reported adverse events. Seven neonates (17.5%) died after the procedure and documented causes of death include bilirubin encephalopathy, respiratory failure, and septic shock and disseminated intravascular coagulopathy. Conclusion: There is high rate of EBT use in the management of severe neonatal hyperbilirubinemia with significant morbidity and mortality in this study site. There is need to review the contribution of factors such as late presentation in the hospital to this and proffer solutions to it.
Arabidopsis Cytochrome P450 Monooxygenase 71A13 Catalyzes the Conversion of Indole-3-Acetaldoxime in Camalexin Synthesis[W]

Camalexin (3-thiazol-2-yl-indole) is an indole alkaloid phytoalexin produced by Arabidopsis thaliana that is thought to be important for resistance to necrotrophic fungal pathogens, such as Alternaria brassicicola and Botrytis cinerea. It is produced from Trp, which is converted to indole acetaldoxime (IAOx) by the action of cytochrome P450 monooxygenases CYP79B2 and CYP79B3. The remaining biosynthetic steps are unknown except for the last step, which is conversion of dihydrocamalexic acid to camalexin by CYP71B15 (PAD3). This article reports characterization of CYP71A13. Plants carrying cyp71A13 mutations produce greatly reduced amounts of camalexin after infection by Pseudomonas syringae or A. brassicicola and are susceptible to A. brassicicola, as are pad3 and cyp79B2 cyp79B3 mutants. Expression levels of CYP71A13 and PAD3 are coregulated. CYP71A13 expressed in Escherichia coli converted IAOx to indole-3-acetonitrile (IAN). Expression of CYP79B2 and CYP71A13 in Nicotiana benthamiana resulted in conversion of Trp to IAN. Exogenously supplied IAN restored camalexin production in cyp71A13 mutant plants. Together, these results lead to the conclusion that CYP71A13 catalyzes the conversion of IAOx to IAN in camalexin synthesis and provide further support for the role of camalexin in resistance to A. brassicicola.
Epidemiology of neonatal group B streptococcal disease in the Netherlands before and after introduction of guidelines for prevention

Objectives: (1) To describe the epidemiology of neonatal group B streptococcal (GBS) disease over five years (1997–2001) in the Netherlands, stratified for proven and probable sepsis and for very early (<12 h), late early (12 h – <7 days) and late (7–90 days) onset sepsis. (2) To evaluate the effect of the introduction in January 1999 of guidelines for prevention of early onset GBS disease based on risk factors. Methods: Data on cases were collected in collaboration with the Dutch Paediatric Surveillance Unit and corrected for under-reporting by the capture-recapture technique. Results: Total incidence of proven very early onset, late early onset and late onset GBS sepsis was 0.32, 0.11 and 0.14 per 1000 live births, respectively, and of probable very early onset, late early onset and late onset GBS sepsis was 1.10, 0.18 and 0.02 per 1000 live births, respectively. Maternal risk factors were absent in 46% of the proven early onset cases. Considerably more infants with proven GBS sepsis were boys. 64% of the infants with proven very early onset GBS sepsis were first borns compared with 47% in the general population. After the introduction of guidelines the incidence of proven early onset sepsis decreased considerably from 0.54 per 1000 live births in 1997–8 to 0.36 per 1000 live births in 1999–2001. However, there was no decrease in the incidence of meningitis and the case fatality rate in the first week of life. The incidence of late onset sepsis also remained unchanged. Conclusion: After the introduction prevention guidelines based on risk factors there has been a limited decrease in the incidence of proven early onset GBS sepsis in the Netherlands. This study therefore recommends changing the Dutch GBS prevention guidelines.
Corticotrophin therapy in myasthenia gravis

SINCE THE FIRST DESCRIPTION IN 1948,1 the therapeutic effect of corticotropin in patients with myasthenia gravis has been investigated extensively.2-5z Although improvement in muscle strength occurred in some patients following termination of the therapy, corticotropin had not been widely accepted for treatment of myasthenia gravis following studies in the 1940s and 1950~2--25 because in many patients muscle strength decreased during this therapy, leading to death in at least two patient~. ~*%15 Recently, improvement in the management of patients with respiratory impairment has permitted more intensive therapeutic trials of corticotropin, generally as “short intensive courses” in doses of 100 to 200 units daily intravenously or intramuscularly for ten to twenty days, and encouraging results have been obtained.37-51 This report evaluates the value of corticotropin in the management of myasthenia gravis by summarizing the authors’ experience in 64 courses in 22 inyasthenic patients and the experiences recorded by others in 251 courses in 166 patients.l-10,21-30,3”-41.43-4~,~;1
Meta-Immunological Profiling of Children With Type 1 Diabetes Identifies New Biomarkers to Monitor Disease Progression

Type 1 diabetes is characterized by autoimmune destruction of pancreatic β-cells in genetically susceptible individuals. Triggers of islet autoimmunity, time course, and the precise mechanisms responsible for the progressive β-cell failure are not completely understood. The recent escalation of obesity in affluent countries has been suggested to contribute to the increased incidence of type 1 diabetes. Understanding the link between metabolism and immune tolerance could lead to the identification of new markers for the monitoring of disease onset and progression. We studied several immune cell subsets and factors with high metabolic impact as markers associated with disease progression in high-risk subjects and type 1 diabetic patients at onset and at 12 and 24 months after diagnosis. A multiple correlation matrix among different parameters was evaluated statistically and assessed visually on two-dimensional graphs. Markers to predict residual β-cell function up to 1 year after diagnosis were identified in multivariate logistic regression models. The meta-immunological profile changed significantly over time in patients, and a specific signature that was associated with worsening disease was identified. A multivariate logistic regression model measuring age, BMI, fasting C-peptide, number of circulating CD3+CD16+CD56+ cells, and the percentage of CD1c+CD19−CD14−CD303− type 1 myeloid dendritic cells at disease onset had a significant predictive value. The identification of a specific meta-immunological profile associated with disease status may contribute to our understanding of the basis of diabetes progression.
Evaluation of Kyphosis in Mazandaran University of Science and Technology students and its relation to psychological factors

Nowadays a large and growing field of health psychology, researchers do point out, any logical reason for the establishment of a psychosomatic patient. This study examined the Evaluation of Kyphosis in Mazandaran University of Science and Technology students and its relation to psychological factors. The method used in this research is descriptive correlation method is implemented. Population study of boys and girls were 56 (31 boys and 25 girls) and who had kyphosis has voluntarily participated in this study. The spinal mouse was used to measure the kyphosis angle and for its assessment of the patient's spine-concept, depression and anxiety are better examples of MMPI-2RF questionnaire (Reconstruction form of Minnesota Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire) (α=0.84), test Beck Depression Inventory (α=0.85), and test anxiety or Spielberger's (α=0.87), were used. The results showed that using the Pearson correlation coefficient between self-concept (r=0.52; P=0.13), depression (r=0.54; P=0.41), and anxiety (r=0.34; P=0.28), and no significant correlation with kyphosis (p<0.05). The results showed that the student alone kyphosis indicative of anxiety, depression and self-concept is not sick but creates kyphosis is related to other social and environmental factor. The results showed that in patients with kyphosis alone is not an indication of mental disorders but should be considered in the treatment of patients with these abnormalities to psychological factors.
Learning to learn implicit queries from gaze patterns

In the absence of explicit queries, an alternative is to try to infer users' interests from implicit feedback signals, such as clickstreams or eye tracking. The interests, formulated as an implicit query, can then be used in further searches. We formulate this task as a probabilistic model, which can be interpreted as a kind of transfer or meta-learning. The probabilistic model is demonstrated to outperform an earlier kernel-based method in a small-scale information retrieval task.
The Mexican-Us Border: The Making of an Anthropology of Borderlands

This review traces the development of an anthropology of borderlands. The ideas of early ethnography and applied anthropology about border regions are considered along with contemporary perspectives on reterritorialized communities and practices illustrated specifically by Mexican migration and transborder processes. The argument is made that the conceptual parameters of borderlands, borders, and their crossings, stemming from work done on the Mexican-US border, in particular, illustrate the contradiction, paradox, difference, and conflict of power and domination in contemporary global capitalism and the nation-state, especially as manifested in local-level practices. Furthermore, the borderlands genre is a basis upon which to redraw our conceptual frameworks of community and culture area.