Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Impact of Esophageal Reflux-Induced Symptoms on Quality of Life after Gastrectomy in Patients with Gastric Cancer

Purpose To evaluate the prevalence of esophageal reflux-induced symptoms after gastrectomy owing to gastric cancer and assess the relationship between esophageal reflux-induced symptoms and quality of life. Materials and Methods From January 2012 to May 2012, 332 patients were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. The patients had a history of curative resection for gastric cancer at least 6 months previously without recurrence, other malignancy, or ongoing chemotherapy. Esophageal reflux-induced symptoms were evaluated with the GerdQ questionnaire. The quality of life was evaluated with the European Organization for Research and Treatment QLQ-C30 and STO22 questionnaires. Results Of the 332 patients, 275 had undergone subtotal gastrectomy and 57 had undergone total gastrectomy. The number of GerdQ(+) patients was 58 (21.1%) after subtotal gastrectomy, and 7 (12.3%) after total gastrectomy (P=0.127). GerdQ(+) patients showed significantly worse scores compared to those for GerdQ(-) patients in nearly all functional and symptom QLQ-C30 scales, with the difference in the mean score of global health status/quality of life and diarrhea symptoms being higher than in the minimal important difference. Additionally, in the QLQ STO22, GerdQ(+) patients had significantly worse scores in every symptom scale. The GerdQ score was negatively correlated with the global quality of life score (r=-0.170, P=0.002). Conclusions Esophageal reflux-induced symptoms may develop at a similar rate or more frequently after subtotal gastrectomy compared to that after total gastrectomy, and decrease quality of life in gastric cancer patients. To improve quality of life after gastrectomy, new strategies are required to prevent or reduce esophageal reflux.
Love: Recognising relationships in work with vulnerable youth

The article focuses on the role love can play in professional child welfare services (CWS). It is based on participant observation and interviews with 14 young people in contact with the CWS in Norway. The youths are followed from a time when they were rebelling and in conflict with the environment through their experiences of entering into a partnership with social workers supporting them in their school, work, family and leisure. The youths’ perspectives on what love is in professional relationships is discussed in light of Axel Honneth's theory of recognition, where love can be seen as a foundation for the development of identity and self-esteem. The article finally discusses what love can bring to social work practices and, specifically, to work with vulnerable youth.
Phenotypes optimized for early‐life reproduction exhibit faster somatic deterioration with age, revealing a latent cost of high condition

High condition enables individuals to express a phenotype with greater reproductive potential. However, life‐history theory predicts that reproduction will trade off with somatic maintenance and viability, and several studies have reported faster age‐related decline in performance in high‐condition individuals, suggesting that high condition in early life is associated with accelerated somatic deterioration. This trade‐off may be especially pronounced in males, which often express condition‐dependent secondary sexual traits that can impose viability costs during development and through damage‐inflicting adult sexual behaviours. To test this prediction, we reared larvae of the neriid fly Telostylinus angusticollis on diets of varying nutrient content and quantified somatic deterioration in solitary males, males housed in all‐male or mixed‐sex groups and immobilized males subjected to mechanical stress. We found that males reared on a nutrient‐rich larval diet (high‐condition males) suffered a higher rate of somatic deterioration with age, particularly when housed in groups. Perhaps as a result of accelerated somatic deterioration, high‐condition males did not outlive low‐condition males. In addition, high‐condition males housed in all‐male groups experienced a greater reduction in escape response with age than males housed in mixed‐sex groups, suggesting that male–male combat promotes somatic deterioration. However, even when immobilized, high‐condition males were still found to be more susceptible to somatic damage than low‐condition males. Our findings suggest that a high‐condition male phenotype is more prone to somatic damage, both as a result of associated behaviours such as combat, and because of the inherent fragility of the high‐condition body.
Causal Inference for Cross-Modal Action Selection: A Computational Study in a Decision Making Framework

Animals try to make sense of sensory information from multiple modalities by categorizing them into perceptions of individual or multiple external objects or internal concepts. For example, the brain constructs sensory, spatial representations of the locations of visual and auditory stimuli in the visual and auditory cortices based on retinal and cochlear stimulations. Currently, it is not known how the brain compares the temporal and spatial features of these sensory representations to decide whether they originate from the same or separate sources in space. Here, we propose a computational model of how the brain might solve such a task. We reduce the visual and auditory information to time-varying, finite-dimensional signals. We introduce controlled, leaky integrators as working memory that retains the sensory information for the limited time-course of task implementation. We propose our model within an evidence-based, decision-making framework, where the alternative plan units are saliency maps of space. A spatiotemporal similarity measure, computed directly from the unimodal signals, is suggested as the criterion to infer common or separate causes. We provide simulations that (1) validate our model against behavioral, experimental results in tasks where the participants were asked to report common or separate causes for cross-modal stimuli presented with arbitrary spatial and temporal disparities. (2) Predict the behavior in novel experiments where stimuli have different combinations of spatial, temporal, and reliability features. (3) Illustrate the dynamics of the proposed internal system. These results confirm our spatiotemporal similarity measure as a viable criterion for causal inference, and our decision-making framework as a viable mechanism for target selection, which may be used by the brain in cross-modal situations. Further, we suggest that a similar approach can be extended to other cognitive problems where working memory is a limiting factor, such as target selection among higher numbers of stimuli and selections among other modality combinations.
A sensory feedback system for an upper-limb amputation prosthesis.

A project to provide sensation from an upper-limb amputation prosthesis has been underway at Duke University since early 1971 . This was initially made possible through the generosity of Mrs . Carlton Hooks of Thomasville, North Carolina, who provided funds for a pilot study. Since December 1, 1972, the project has been aided by contract from the Veterans Administration with an expected termination date of November 30, 1975. Providing sensation for the amputee from his prosthesis has been a challenge for many years, but until recently there has been no practical solution. Function of the normal hand is dependent on sensory feedback. In addition to information regarding imminent injury, calibration of force of grasp and pinch, recognition of the shape of an object, and knowledge of the position of the hand in space contribute largely to the dexterity that we take for granted. The traditional prosthesis that we have supplied for the upper-limb amputee does not have this capability . The amputee must receive much of this information by visual contact and the remainder through pressure changes between his stump and the socket and between his skin and the harness . There is no intrinsic sensory feedback from his terminal device which he must use as an anesthetic tool. Biceps cineplasty used with voluntary closing hook did provide some additional information, as pressure between the fingers could be calibrated by interpretation of pressure changes between the surface of the tunnel and the peg . Cineplasties have not been acceptable widely in the
Automatically Tolerating Arbitrary Faults in Non-malicious Settings

Arbitrary faults such as bit flips have been often observed in commodity-hardware data centers and have disrupted large services. Benign faults, such as crashes and message omissions, are nevertheless the standard assumption in practical fault-tolerant distributed systems. Algorithms tolerant to arbitrary faults are harder to understand and more expensive to deploy (requiring more machines). In this work, we introduce a non-malicious arbitrary fault model including transient and permanent arbitrary faults, such as bit flips and hardware-design errors, but no malicious faults, typically caused by security breaches. We then present a compiler-based framework that allows benign fault-tolerant algorithms to automatically tolerate arbitrary faults in non-malicious settings. Finally, we experimentally evaluate two fundamental algorithms: Paxos and leader election. At expense of CPU cycles, transformed algorithms use the same number of processes as their benign fault-tolerant counterparts, and have virtually no network overhead, while reducing the probability of failing arbitrarily by two orders of magnitude.
Policing Fish at Boston's Museum of Science: Studying Audiovisual Interaction in the Wild

Boston's Museum of Science supports researchers whose projects advance science and provide educational opportunities to the Museum's visitors. For our project, 60 visitors to the Museum played “Fish Police! ,” a video game that examines audiovisual integration, including the ability to ignore irrelevant sensory information. Players, who ranged in age from 6 to 82 years, made speeded responses to computer-generated fish that swam rapidly across a tablet display. Responses were to be based solely on the rate (6 or 8 Hz) at which a fish's size modulated, sinusoidally growing and shrinking. Accompanying each fish was a task-irrelevant broadband sound, amplitude modulated at either 6 or 8 Hz. The rates of visual and auditory modulation were either Congruent (both 6 Hz or 8 Hz) or Incongruent (6 and 8 or 8 and 6 Hz). Despite being instructed to ignore the sound, players of all ages responded more accurately and faster when a fish's auditory and visual signatures were Congruent. In a controlled laboratory setting, a related task produced comparable results, demonstrating the robustness of the audiovisual interaction reported here. Some suggestions are made for conducting research in public settings.
A Multiscale Numerical Study of Hurricane Andrew (1992). Part I: Explicit Simulation and Verification

Abstract In this study, the inner-core structures of Hurricane Andrew (1992) are explicitly simulated using an improved version of the Penn State–NCAR nonhydrostatic, two-way interactive, movable, triply nested grid mesoscale model (MM5). A modified Betts–Miller cumulus parameterization scheme and an explicit microphysics scheme were used simultaneously to simulate the evolution of the larger-scale flows over the coarser-mesh domains. The intense storm itself is explicitly resolved over the finest-mesh domain using a grid size of 6 km and an explicit microphysics package containing prognostic equations for cloud water, ice, rainwater, snow, and graupel. The model is initialized with the National Centers for Environmental Prediction analysis enhanced by a modified moisture field. A model-generated tropical-storm-like vortex was also incorporated. A 72-h integration was made, which covers the stages from the storm’s initial deepening to a near–category 5 hurricane intensity and the landfall over Florida. As.
Muscarinic Regulation of Dendritic and Axonal Outputs of Rat Thalamic Interneurons: A New Cellular Mechanism for Uncoupling Distal Dendrites

Inhibition is crucial for sharpening the sensory information relayed through the thalamus. To understand how the interneuron-mediated inhibition in the thalamus is regulated, we studied the muscarinic effects on interneurons in the lateral posterior nucleus and lateral geniculate nucleus of the thalamus. Here, we report that activation of muscarinic receptors switched the firing pattern in thalamic interneurons from bursting to tonic. Although neuromodulators switch the firing mode in several other types of neurons by altering their membrane potential, we found that activation of muscarinic subtype 2 receptors switched the fire mode in thalamic interneurons by selectively decreasing their input resistance. This is attributable to the muscarinic enhancement of a hyperpolarizing potassium conductance and two depolarizing cation conductances. The decrease in input resistance appeared to electrotonically uncouple the distal dendrites of thalamic interneurons, which effectively changed the inhibition pattern in thalamocortical cells. These results suggest a novel cellular mechanism for the cholinergic transformation of long-range, slow dendrite- and axon-originated inhibition into short-range, fast dendrite-originated inhibition in the thalamus observed in vivo. It is concluded that the electrotonic properties of the dendritic compartments of thalamic interneurons can be dynamically regulated by muscarinic activity.
Identification of Novel Genes and Pathways Regulating SREBP Transcriptional Activity

Background Lipid metabolism in mammals is orchestrated by a family of transcription factors called sterol regulatory element-binding proteins (SREBPs) that control the expression of genes required for the uptake and synthesis of cholesterol, fatty acids, and triglycerides. SREBPs are thus essential for insulin-induced lipogenesis and for cellular membrane homeostasis and biogenesis. Although multiple players have been identified that control the expression and activation of SREBPs, gaps remain in our understanding of how SREBPs are coordinated with other physiological pathways. Methodology To identify novel regulators of SREBPs, we performed a genome-wide cDNA over-expression screen to identify proteins that might modulate the transcription of a luciferase gene driven from an SREBP–specific promoter. The results were verified through secondary biological assays and expression data were analyzed by a novel application of the Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) method. Conclusions/Significance We screened 10,000 different cDNAs and identified a number of genes and pathways that have previously not been implicated in SREBP control and cellular cholesterol homeostasis. These findings further our understanding of lipid biology and should lead to new insights into lipid associated disorders.
Implicit attitudes in language learning

The field of language motivation is almost 60 years old. Throughout these decades, one idea has been persistent: Motivation is assumed to be a conscious process on which the learner can exert direct control. That this conscious conceptualization might not give the full picture has not been seriously entertained. An important consequence ensuing from this approach is the overreliance on self-report measures, such as questionnaires and interviews. Thus, in effect, the individual’s conscious reflection on their own attitudes and motivation has been the primary source of empirical data for our field. This thesis challenges this hegemony of conscious motivation. It provides an extensive review of the various paradigms of unconscious attitudes and motivation. It traces back their origins, highlights some of their major findings, and reviews the instruments used within each paradigm to circumvent direct self-report (as well as the controversies surrounding these instruments). The review also demonstrates that the adoption of an unconscious perspective is not inconsistent with major theoretical frameworks in the field. It then selects one of these paradigms, namely implicit attitudes, to apply in the context of language learning. Two studies were conducted on two independent samples (with almost 700 participants in total), in two different contexts (the UK and Saudi Arabia), and with different instruments of implicit attitudes (the Implicit Association Test and the Single-Target Implicit Association Test). Study 1 found that openness to language speakers at the implicit level is associated with more openness at the explicit level. Study 2 successfully replicated this finding, and extended it to language achievement—showing that learners with more favorable attitudes toward language speakers at the implicit level achieved higher grades in their English class. This finding could not be explained away by either social desirability or cognitive confounds. The results from these two studies were also meta-analyzed using Bayes factors in order to give an overall picture of the findings. The Discussion chapter wraps up this thesis by highlighting the relevance of this unconscious approach to the field more broadly. This chapter reviews a number of recent studies that have yielded similar findings to those from the current thesis. Some of these findings are then critically reanalyzed and reinterpreted in the context of unconscious motivation, thus demonstrating how adopting an unconscious approach helps view existing findings in a new light. In some cases, the analysis casts doubt on established ideas that have been taken for granted for decades. The overall message of this thesis is not that conscious motivation should be disregarded. Instead, conscious motivation should be complemented with a consideration of the role of unconscious motivation. A conscious-only approach would offer a limited window into human attitudes and motivation.
Tailoring pain neuroscience education and exercise programme for people with fibromyalgia who also have cognitive deficits: a case series

Abstract Purpose: The purpose of this case series was to describe the outcomes of a tailored pain neuroscience education (PNE) and individualised exercise programme for people with fibromyalgia (FM) who also have cognitive deficits. Materials and methods: Nine FM patients with memory and concentration problems underwent a six-week programme consisting of six PNE sessions followed by six sessions of individualised exercise. Participants were assessed at the baseline, 3 and 6 weeks, and at 3 and 6 months follow-ups. Outcomes measures included the Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia (TSK), the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS), the Numerical Pain Rating Scale (NPRS), the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire-Revised (FIQ-R) and the Patient Global Improvement of Change Scale (PGIC). Results: At six weeks, all patients decreased their scores on the TSK, PCS, NPRS and FIQ-R and reported a moderate to considerable improvement in their perception of overall change. At the six-month follow-up, improvements in pain intensity, pain catastrophizing, kinesiophobia and perception of overall change, appeared clinically meaningful for the majority of the participants. Conclusions: This study’s findings demonstrate an example of how cognitive characteristics can be considered in the intervention of FM patients in order to optimise their results and encourage the need for a further randomised control trial.
Endogenous Insurance and Informal Relationships

A rich literature seeks to explain the distinctive features of equilibrium institutions arising in risky environments which lack formal insurance and credit markets. I develop a theory of endogenous matching between heterogeneously risk-averse individuals who, once matched, choose both the riskiness of the income stream they face (ex ante risk management) as well as how to share that risk (ex post risk management). I find a clean condition on the fundamentals of the model for unique positive-assortative and negative-assortative matching in risk attitudes. From this, I derive an intuitive falsifiability condition, discuss support for the theory in existing empirical work, and propose an experimental design to test the theory. Finally, I demonstrate the policy importance of understanding informal insurance as the risk-sharing achieved within the equilibrium network of partnerships, rather than within a single, isolated partnership. A hypothetical policy which reduces aggregate risk is a strict Pareto improvement if the matching is unchanged, but can be seen to harm the most risk-averse individuals and to exacerbate inequality when the endogenous network response is taken into account: the least risk-averse individuals abandon their roles as informal insurers in favor of entrepreneurial partnerships. This results in an increase in the risk borne by the most risk-averse agents, who must now match with each other on low-return investments.
Detection of ampicillin, its sodium salt and alkaline hydrolysis products by MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry

Antibiotic resistance of bacteria is very big problem in clinical and veterinary medicine in recent year. This problem is increasing by the exposure of bacteria against antibiotics. The most spread of resistance is resistance against penicillins antibiotics. Ampicillin is common use antibiotic in the both medicine. Therefore, detection of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance are very important for prevention of spread of antibiotics in the environment and resistant bacteria too. Therefore the aim of this study was detection of ampicillin, its sodium salts and alkaline hydrolysis products by MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry. For detection of pure ampicillin, its sodium salts and alkaline hydrolysed products MALDI-TOF MS (Matrix Assisted Light Desorption Ionization – Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry) Microflex LT in positive ion mode was used. Determined mass spectra were observed by FlexAnalysis software. The mass spectra and molecular weight of ampicillin, its sodium salts and hydrolysed products were compared with theoretical molecular weight of these compounds. The results showed that its possible to detect ampicillin, its sodium salts and hydrolyzed products by MALDI-TOF MS in positive ion mode with some correction in analytical software. This knowledge is resulting that MALDI-TOF MS detection method can be useful for detection of ampicillin from different kind of environment samples and its possible to detect ampicillin resistance mechanism (enzymatic destruction) indirectly, because resistance against penicillins is enzymatic hydrolysis of beta-lactam core. Also the most important issue is that method is very quickly and cheap.