Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Poor readers decoding skills: Effects of training with limited exposure duration

L'echec dans le decodage rapide des mots peut etre au coeur des difficultes de lecture. Pour ameliorer la vitesse de decodage des mauvais lecteurs, on recommande souvent un entrainement comportant une pression temporelle. Cette etude experimentale s'interesse au presuppose qu'un tel entrainement est superieur a un entrainement de type conventionnel. Les AA. decrivent les experiences menee aupres de jeunes mauvais lecteurs et presente les consequences pour les modeles de decodage et les pratiques de reeducation
Sequential Sparse Matching Pursuit

We propose a new algorithm, called Sequential Sparse Matching Pursuit (SSMP), for solving sparse recovery problems. The algorithm provably recovers a k-sparse approximation to an arbitrary n-dimensional signal vector x from only O(k log(n/k)) linear measurements of x. The recovery process takes time that is only near-linear in n. Preliminary experiments indicate that the algorithm works well on synthetic and image data, with the recovery quality often outperforming that of more complex algorithms, such as l1 minimization.
No Pain , No Gain : The Effects of Exports on Sickness , Injury , and Effort

Health is an important contributor to our well-being, but we do not fully understand how to quantify this contribution, or how demand shocks affect health. We combine Danish data on individuals’ health with Danish matched worker-firm data. We find that when firm exports rise for exogenous reasons: 1. Women have higher sickness rates. For example, a 10% exogenous increase in exports increases women’s rates of depression by 2.5%, and hospitalizations due to heart attacks or strokes by 15%. 2. Both men and women have higher injury rates, both overall and correcting for hours worked; and 3. Both men and women work longer hours and take fewer sick-leave days. We then develop a novel framework to calculate the marginal disutility of any non-fatal disease, and to aggregate across multiple types of sickness and injury to compute the total utility loss. The ex-ante utility loss due to higher sickness rates is one fifth of the wage gain from rising exports for the average man, and over one half for the average woman. Our marginal disutility estimates suggest that ex post, those who actually get injured or sick suffer large utility losses; e.g. exceeding 3 million Danish Kroner for a woman who is hospitalized due to a heart attack or stroke. JEL: I1, F1, J2 and F6. Acknowledgements: We thank the The Danish Council for Independent Research | Social Sciences for funding. For helpful comments we thank Osea Giuntella, Nils Gottfries and seminar participants at NHH Bergen, University of Oslo, University of Oxford, ESWC Montreal, University of Lund, Singapore Management University, University College Dublin, Copenhagen Business School, Aarhus University, IFN Stockholm, University of Chicago, Uppsala University and University of Oxford Trade and Health Workshop.
Genetic alterations associated with hepatocellular carcinomas define distinct pathways of hepatocarcinogenesis.

BACKGROUND & AIMS To evaluate how characterization of genetic alterations can help in the elucidation of liver carcinogenesis pathways, 137 tumors were analyzed. METHODS High-density allelotype, p53, Axin1, and beta-catenin gene mutations were determined. Alterations were analyzed according to clinical parameters. RESULTS Tumors could be divided into 2 groups according to chromosome stability status. In the first group, demonstrating a chromosome stability, beta-catenin mutation associated with chromosome 8p losses were frequently found as the single genetic alterations. beta-catenin mutations were associated with large tumor size and with negative hepatitis B virus status. In the second group, demonstrating a chromosome instability, the most frequent allelic losses were on chromosome 1p, 4q, 6q, 9p, 13q, 16p, 16q, and 17p; Axin1 and p53 were frequently mutated. All of these alterations, except losses on 6q and 9p, were associated with hepatitis B virus infection. P53 mutations, 17p, 13q losses, and a high value of the fractional allelic loss index were associated with poor differentiated tumors, independently of risk factors. Finally, in the whole series, chromosome 9p and 6q losses were associated with poor prognosis. CONCLUSIONS Two main pathways defined by genetic alterations show different risk factors and clinical characteristics. Furthermore, loss of chromosome 9p or 6q is an independent prognostic indicator.
Analysis of mass spectral serum profiles for biomarker selection

MOTIVATION Mass spectrometric profiles of peptides and proteins obtained by current technologies are characterized by complex spectra, high dimensionality and substantial noise. These characteristics generate challenges in the discovery of proteins and protein-profiles that distinguish disease states, e.g. cancer patients from healthy individuals. We present low-level methods for the processing of mass spectral data and a machine learning method that combines support vector machines, with particle swarm optimization for biomarker selection. RESULTS The proposed method identified mass points that achieved high prediction accuracy in distinguishing liver cancer patients from healthy individuals in SELDI-QqTOF profiles of serum. AVAILABILITY MATLAB scripts to implement the methods described in this paper are available from the HWR's lab website http://lombardi.georgetown. edu/labpage
Evaluation of GIST descriptors for web-scale image search

The GIST descriptor has recently received increasing attention in the context of scene recognition. In this paper we evaluate the search accuracy and complexity of the global GIST descriptor for two applications, for which a local description is usually preferred: same location/object recognition and copy detection. We identify the cases in which a global description can reasonably be used. The comparison is performed against a state-of-the-art bag-of-features representation. To evaluate the impact of GIST's spatial grid, we compare GIST with a bag-of-features restricted to the same spatial grid as in GIST. Finally, we propose an indexing strategy for global descriptors that optimizes the trade-off between memory usage and precision. Our scheme provides a reasonable accuracy in some widespread application cases together with very high efficiency: In our experiments, querying an image database of 110 million images takes 0.18 second per image on a single machine. For common copyright attacks, this efficiency is obtained without noticeably sacrificing the search accuracy compared with state-of-the-art approaches.
Chronic kidney disease and socio-economic status: a cross sectional study

ABSTRACT Objective: This cross-sectional study investigated the relationship between individual-level markers of disadvantage, renal function and cardio-metabolic risk within an Indigenous population characterised by a heavy burden of chronic kidney disease and disadvantage. Design: Using data from 20 Indigenous communities across Australia, an aggregate socio-economic status (SES) score was created from individual-level socio-economic variables reported by participants. Logistic regression was used to assess the association of individual-level socio-economic variables and the SES score with kidney function (an estimated glomerular function rate (eGFR) cut-point of <60 ml/min/1.73 m2) as well as clinical indicators of cardio-metabolic risk. Results: The combination of lower education and unemployment was associated with poorer kidney function and higher cardio-metabolic risk factors. Regression models adjusted for age and gender showed that an eGFR < 60 ml/min/1.73 m2 was associated with a low socio-economic score (lowest vs. highest 3.24 [95% CI 1.43–6.97]), remote living (remote vs. highly to moderately accessible 3.24 [95% CI 1.28–8.23]), renting (renting vs. owning/being purchased 5.76[95% CI 1.91–17.33]), unemployment (unemployed vs employed 2.85 [95% CI 1.31–6.19]) and receiving welfare (welfare vs. salary 2.49 [95% CI 1.42–4.37]). A higher aggregate socio-economic score was inversely associated with an eGFR < 60 ml/min/1.73 m2 (0.75 [95% CI 063–0.89]). Conclusion: This study extends upon our understanding of associations between area-level markers of disadvantage and burden of end stage kidney disease amongst Indigenous populations to a detailed analysis of a range of well-characterised individual-level factors such as overall low socio-economic status, remote living, renting, unemployment and welfare. With the increasing burden of end-stage kidney disease amongst Indigenous people, the underlying socio-economic conditions and social and cultural determinants of health need to be understood at an individual as well as community-level, to develop, implement, target and sustain interventions.
Soil Biota

This chapter describes specific features of the soil biodiversity. Characteristics of main groups of organisms, inhabiting soil, are presented: plants, soil animals and microorganisms. Features of soil as a habitat and different ways of adaptation of animals for life in a soil are discussed. Main processes of transformation of substances in soils and processes of the soil formation resulting from vital functions of the soil organisms are presented.
The Role of Speculation in Oil Markets: What Have We Learned So Far?

Abstract A popular view is that the surge in the real price of oil during 2003-08 cannot be explained by economic fundamentals, but was caused by the increased financialization of oil futures markets, which in turn allowed speculation to become a major determinant of the spot price of oil. This interpretation has been driving policy efforts to tighten the regulation of oil derivatives markets. This survey reviews the evidence supporting this view. We identify six strands in the literature and discuss to what extent each sheds light on the role of speculation. We find that the existing evidence is not supportive of an important role of speculation in driving the spot price of oil after 2003. Instead, there is strong evidence that the co-movement between spot and futures prices reflects common economic fundamentals rather than the financialization of oil futures markets.
Enhanced Analysis Methods to Derive the Spatial Distribution of 131I Deposition on the Ground by Airborne Surveys at an Early Stage after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident

Abstract This paper applies both new and well tested analysis methods to aerial radiological surveys to extract the 131I ground concentrations present after the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (NPP) accident. The analysis provides a complete map of 131I deposition, an important quantity incalculable at the time of the accident due to the short half-life of 131I and the complexity of the analysis. A map of 131I deposition is the first step in conducting internal exposure assessments, population dose reconstruction, and follow-up epidemiological studies. The short half-life of 131I necessitates the use of aerial radiological surveys to cover the large area quickly, thoroughly, and safely. Teams from the U.S. Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) performed aerial radiological surveys to provide initial maps of the dispersal of radioactive material in Japan. This work reports on analyses performed on a subset of the initial survey data by a joint Japan-U.S. collaboration to determine 131I ground concentrations. The analytical results show a high concentration of 131I northwest of the NPP, consistent with the previously reported radioactive cesium deposition, but also shows a significant 131I concentration south of the plant, which was not observed in the original cesium analysis. The difference in the radioactive iodine and cesium patterns is possibly the result of differences in the ways these materials settle out of the air.
Photo-orientation regulates seasonal habitat selection in the two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae

SUMMARY Non-diapausing spider mites (Tetranychus urticae) live on the undersurface of host leaves during summer, but diapausing mites overwinter in dark hibernacula. The light environments of these habitats differ: visible radiation (VIS) but not ultraviolet radiation (UV) reaches the undersurface of leaves, but neither enters dark hibernacula. Thus, mites of either seasonal form could locate their preferred habitat by photo-orientation responses to UV and VIS. To investigate this possibility, we analysed the mites' locomotion behaviour on a virtual field with a programmed chequered pattern of light and dark patches in a micro-locomotion compensator. Both non-diapausing and diapausing mites moved away from UV-illuminated patches into dark patches. Non-diapausing mites moved towards VIS-illuminated patches, whereas diapausing mites did not show a preference. Our results show that non-diapausing mites avoid UV and are attracted to VIS, suggesting that this can guide them beneath a leaf. Diapausing mites simply avoid UV. The lack of a preference for VIS during diapause could be due to changes in carotenoid metabolism, which also involve orange pigmentation of diapausing mites. We consider that a diapause-mediated switch of the response to VIS, together with regular avoidance of UV, plays a key role in the seasonal change of habitat selection in this species. This seasonal polyphenism involves alterations in not only reproductive state and pigmentation, but also in photo-spectral responses.
Enhanced Maximum Urgency First Algorithm with Intelligent Laxity for Real Time Systems

In this paper Enhanced Maximum Urgency First (EMUF) scheduling algorithm with intelligent laxity has been proposed. This algorithm is a further improvement in MMUF algorithm [1] and is a mixed priority scheduling algorithm which combines the advantages of both fixed and dynamic scheduling for better CPU utilization and throughput. The prime objective of this paper is to improve modified maximum urgency first scheduling (MMUF) using intelligent laxity as the dynamic priority. EMUF algorithm is mainly suited for real time systems where meeting of deadlines is an important criterion for scheduling. This proposed algorithm improves the Modified Maximum Urgency First scheduling algorithm for real time tasks proposed by V.Salmani et.al [1] and the experimental analysis shows that the proposed algorithm(EMUF algorithm) performs better than MMUF [1] and MUF[6] scheduling algorithm by minimizing average turnaround time, average waiting time and maximizing the throughput. General Terms Earliest Deadline First scheduling(EDF), Enhanced Maximum Urgency First scheduling (EMUF), Least Laxity First scheduling(LLF), Modified Least Laxity First scheduling(MLLF), Maximum Urgency First scheduling (MUF), Modified Maximum Urgency First scheduling (MMUF), Scheduling
Simulated impact of global climatic change on the geographic distribution of plant diversity

Elevated concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide (pCO2) are likely to lead to substantial warming in the coming century with altered hydrological regimes, thereby affecting the distribution of plant species. Here I use an individual-based modeling approach to plant diversity to estimate the impact of global climatic change on the geographic distribution of plant diversity. Differences in temperature, precipitation, and light use efficiency (to represent stimulation of photosynthesis due to higher pCO2) are used in isolation and in combination in order to investigate the role of these drivers. I find that the general warming associated with elevated pCO2 leads to profoundly different responses of simulated diversity in temperature-limited and tropical environments. While the growing season is lengthened in northern latitudes and therefore enables more plant growth strategies to be successful, elevated autotrophic respiration rates lead to higher mortality during plant establishment in the tropics, therefore reducing the range of successful plant growth strategies. The overall impact of elevated pCO2 on plant diversity will clearly be a combination of various factors. What these model results nevertheless point out is that global climatic change may alter plant diversity patterns disproportionally by reducing the overall success of plant establishment. Kleidon “Plant Diversity and Climatic Change” page 2 of 13 _____________________________________________________________________________________________
Emergence from Anesthesia in the Prone versus Supine Position in Patients Undergoing Lumbar Surgery

BackgroundConventional supine emergence in patients undergoing prone lumbar surgery frequently results in tachycardia, hypertension, coughing, and loss of monitoring as the patient is rolled supine. The prone position might facilitate a smoother emergence because the patient is not disturbed. No data describe this technique. MethodsFifty patients were anesthetized with fentanyl, nitrous oxide, isoflurane, and rocuronium. By the conclusion of surgery, all patients achieved spontaneous ventilation and full reversal of neuromuscular blockade in the prone position, as the volatile anesthetic level was reduced. Baseline heart rate and mean arterial pressure were recorded. Patients were then randomized at time 0 to the supine (n = 24) or prone (n = 21) position as 100% oxygen was administered. Patients in the supine position were then rolled over, while those in the prone position remained undisturbed. Heart rate, mean arterial pressure, and coughs were recorded until extubation. Tracheas were extubated on eye opening or purposeful behavior. ResultsWhen compared with the supine group, prone patients had significantly less increase in heart rate (P = 0.0003, maximum increase 9.3 vs. 25 beats/min), less increase in mean arterial pressure (P = 0.0063, maximum increase 4.8 vs. 19 mmHg), less coughing (P = 0.0004, 7.0 vs. 23 coughs), and fewer monitor disconnections (P < 0.0001). Time to extubation from time 0 was similar (4.0 vs. 3.7 min, prone vs. supine). No one required airway rescue. There was no significant difference in need for restraint (three prone, four supine). ConclusionsProne emergence and extubation is associated with less hemodynamic stimulation, less coughing, and less disruption of monitors, without specifically observed adverse effects, when compared with conventional supine techniques.
Inhibitory Deficits, Delay Aversion and Preschool AD/HD: Implications for the Dual Pathway Model

The dual pathway model proposes the existence of separate and neurobiologically distinct cognitive (inhibitory and more general executive dysfunction) and motivational (delay aversion) developmental routes to AD/HD. The study reported in this paper explores the relation between inhibitory deficits and delay aversion and their association with AD/HD in a group of three-year-old children. Children identified as having a pre-school equivalent of AD/HD (N=19) and controls (N=19), matched for gender and IQ, completed a battery of inhibition and delay tasks. Correlational and factor analysis supported a dissociation between inhibitory deficits (go-no-go, set shifting) and delay aversion (choice delay) with delay of gratification cross-loading. Children with AD/HD displayed more inhibitory deficits and were more delay averse than controls. The data support the value of the distinction between motivational and cognitive pathways to AD/HD. Furthermore, the data suggest that such a distinction is apparent relatively early on during development.
Pituitary concentrations of gonadotropins and receptors for GnRH in suckled beef cows at various intervals after calving.

Mature beef cows were slaughtered at 5 (n = 6), 10 (n = 6), 20 (n = 6) or 30 (n = 5) d after calving to identify endocrine events that may affect the duration of postpartum anestrus. Additional cows (n = 6) were slaughtered 12 to 14 d after their first postpartum estrus (luteal phase cows). Anterior pituitary concentrations of luteinizing hormone (LH) were low at d 5 (383 +/- 69 micrograms/g), averaged 445 +/- 103 and 682 +/- 207 micrograms/g at d 10 and 20, respectively, and were elevated (P less than .05) by d 30 (1,097 +/- 174 micrograms) to a concentration similar to luteal phase cows (1,208 +/- 148 micrograms/g). Concentrations of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) averaged 12.4 +/- 1.1, 9.6 +/- 2, 8.6 +/- 1.8 and 7.4 +/- 3.3 mg/g at d 5, 10, 20 and 30, respectively. Affinity (1.6 +/- .2 X 10(9) M-1) of anterior pituitary receptors for the GnRH (gonadotropin-releasing hormone) analog (DAla6; des-Gly10, [D-Ala6]-LH-RH ethylamide) and weights (2.1 +/- .1 g) of the anterior pituitaries did not differ among groups (P greater than .05). Number of receptors for GnRH averaged 37 +/- 7, 39 +/- 9, 25 +/- 5 and 23 +/- 5 X 10(-14) M/mg protein at d 5, 10, 20 and 30, respectively. Anterior pituitaries from luteal phase cows contained 22 +/- 2 X 10(-14) M/mg protein of receptors for GnRH. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Short-term Versus Long-term Outcomes After Open or Percutaneous Release for Trigger Thumb.

Good outcomes have been reported after both open and percutaneous surgery to release trigger thumb. This study evaluated short-term and long-term outcomes after treatment of trigger thumb with open or percutaneous release. A total of 126 trigger thumbs in 107 patients were reviewed from 2009 to 2012. Short-term (3 months) and long-term results (2 years) and complications of open release (58 digits) and percutaneous release (68 digits) were recorded and compared. Short-term complications included pain occurring in 9 digits (15.5%) in the open release group and in 2 digits (2.9%) in the percutaneous release group and scarring in 4 digits (6.9%) only in the open release group. Long-term complications included pain in 13 digits (19.1%) in the percutaneous release group and in 4 digits (6.9%) in the open release group; in addition, recurrent triggering occurred in 6 digits (8.8%) in the percutaneous release group and in 2 digits (3.4%) in the open release group. Pain and patient satisfaction were significantly better in the percutaneous release group in the short term, but they were better in the open release group in the long term. Although percutaneous release for trigger thumb is a safe and quick procedure, with good short-term outcomes, open release may provide better long-term outcomes. [Orthopedics. 2017; 40(1):e131-e135. ].
School Personnel Training for the Prevention of Tobacco, Alcohol, and other Drug Use: Issues and Outcomes

The training of inservice school personnel in the prevention of tobacco, alcohol, and other drug use among youth is the focus of this article. The training emphasizes an interdisciplinary, youth development, school team training model, entitled “Enhancing Student Well-Being. ” The model includes both content and process components. The manuscript describes the model, evaluation procedures, and training issues. Particular attention is given to follow-up assessment and outcome of school-based prevention projects developed during the training and implemented during the school year. Results support the training model as having a positive impact on prevention initiatives in schools.