Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Epidermal growth factor receptor mutation in adenocarcinoma lung in a North Indian population: Prevalence and relation with different clinical variables

Abstract Introduction: Lung cancer is one of the most common causes of cancer deaths worldwide. Adenocarcinoma is taking over squamous cell lung cancer as the predominant histological subtype. Several cytotoxic drugs are available for the treatment of lung cancer, but side effects limit their use. Recently, targeted therapies for cancers have come into clinical practice. Aims and Objectives: To determine the prevalence of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation in adenocarcinoma lung in a North Indian population and its relation with different clinical variables. Materials and Methods: A total of 57 patients who met inclusion criteria were recruited into the study. Relevant history, clinical examination and investigations were done. EGFR mutation was done in all patients. Results: A total of twenty patients tested positive for EGFR mutation. EGFR was more frequently detected in female patients (53.8%), while as only 19.4% of the male patients expressed EGFR mutation, which was statistically very significant P = 0.007). EGFR mutation was more frequently detected in nonsmokers (52%) as compared to smokers (21.9%) which also was statistically significant P value of 0.018). EGFR mutation was more common in Stage III and IV adenocarcinomas (48%) as compared to Stage I and II (21.4%) which was statistically significant P value 0.034). Conclusion: EGFR mutation should be routinely done in all patients of adenocarcinoma lung particularly non-smoker females with Stage III and IV disease.
“Because uni is totally different than what you do at TAFE”: protective strategies and provisions for diploma students traversing their first professional experience placement at university

Students who enrol in a Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood Education) at the Institute of Early Childhood, Macquarie University, with a Diploma in Children’s Services attained from a Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institution or a Registered Training Organisation (RTO) often experience challenges in their first professional experience unit. Utilising a phenomenological approach to understand the students’ previous knowledge and experiences as they navigated through their first professional experience unit, this qualitative study identified factors including institutional structures and course content as challenging to the diploma student. To ensure diploma students can successfully transition to and participate in their first professional experience unit at university, all stakeholders including the university, the academics teaching the students, and the students themselves need to commit to a multilevel support programme. Key findings from this study support the previous research on this student cohort.
A Novel Dynamic Proportional Fair Scheduling Based on Block Diagonal Geometric Mean Decomposition

The combined Block Diagonalization and Geometric Mean Decomposition (BD-GMD) is a precoding scheme that is asymptotically optimal for downlink Multi-User Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output(MU-MIMO)systems. BD-GMD eliminate the interference between different user channels in MU-MIMO system under ideal condition, which leads to an improvement of the quality of users’ channel and brings a promotion of system throughput. In a downlink MU-MIMO system, there are a large number of users, the base station need to select a subset of users to serve for the reason that the number of simultaneously supportable users with BD-GMD is limited by the number of transmitting and receiving antennas. In the past, we paid our attention mostly on how to maximize the total throughput. However, the fairness is ignored may lead to “starvation”, which means that some subscribers are not able to get service in unacceptable long time. We introduce proportional fair scheduling schemes (PFS) into the system to guarantee the fairness, and also propose new schemes. The proposed algorithms update the adaptive parameters indicating past channel quality in each time slot. According to current and past channel information, we can make better multi-user scheduling and improve the system performance while maintaining the users’ fairness.
Fatigue Property of Open-Hole Steel Plates Influenced by Bolted Clamp-up and Hole Fabrication Methods

Steel plates with open holes are commonly used in structural assemblies. The fatigue properties of such details are influenced by bolted clamp-up and hole fabrication methods. The fracture surface, stiffness degradation and fatigue life of test specimens are investigated in detail and compared with the contemporary test data. The analysis results show that the presence of draglines greatly influences the fatigue crack initiation at the open-hole cut by laser. The bolted clamp-up condition greatly enhances the stiffness and the fatigue life of the open-hole details. A discussion is also made from a comparison with the referred fatigue life of hole fabrication details, such as the influence of plate thickness and plasma cutting, drilling and oxy-fuel gas cutting, with the details studied herein. This work could enhance the understanding of the fatigue property and design of such details.
Runway obstacle detection by controlled spatiotemporal image flow disparity

This paper proposes a method for detecting obstacles on a runway by controlling their expected disparities. By approximating the runway by a planar surface, the initial model flow field (MFF) corresponding to an obstacle-free runway is described by the data from on-board sensors (OBS). The error variance of the initial MFF is computed and used to estimate the MFF. Obstacles are detected by comparing the expected residual flow disparities with the residual flow field (RFF) estimated after warping (or stabilizing) an image using the MFF. Expected temporal and spatial disparities are obtained from the use of the OBS. This allows us to control the residual disparities by increasing the temporal baseline and/or by utilizing the spatial baseline if distant objects cannot be detected for a given temporal baseline. Experimental results for two real flight image sequences are presented.
Cross-generational Change of /o/ and /u/ in Seoul Korean II

This is a follow-up study on Han and Kang (2013) which argued that the Euclidean distances between /o/ and /u/ in Seoul Korean decreased in the first syllable position as speakers were among younger female speakers but not for male speakers, whereas in the second syllable position both gender groups showed a cross-generational decreasing effect of the Euclidean distance between /o/ and /u/. This study normalized the same data in Han and Kang (2013) which measured 12 speakers (six males and six females) for each Age group and investigated the spectral changes vowels /o/ and /u/ between age and gender, using the log-mean normalized statistical results. This study also examined overlap fraction values generated in SOAM 2D (F1 x F2) (cf. Wassink, 2006), which may also indicate the proximity of two vowels in question. The results showed that /o/ and /u/ vowels were making closer with /o/ raising for female speakers in V₁ and V₂ positions but only in the V₂ position for male speakers. That is, females led the upward movement of peripheral /o/ vowel, just like the raising of ‘e’ and ‘o’ in New York City (Labov, 1991). The results also showed that younger speakers used a rather narrow vowel space for the vowels. This also contributed to the proximity of the vowels /o/ and /u/, resulting in rather large overlap fraction values for younger speakers between these two vowels.
Folate Supplementation and Twin Pregnancies

Background: Women in many countries are advised to increase their folate intake to lower the risk of neural tube defects. For this purpose several countries add folate to the flour. Therefore, it is important to monitor possible adverse effects of this B vitamin. We have assessed the effect of folate on twin pregnancies. Methods: We conducted a retrospective, population-register based study of 176,042 women who gave birth from December 1998 through the end of 2001. Use of folate and multivitamin supplements was recorded on the mandatory birth notification form of the Medical Birth Registry of Norway. Pregnancies after in vitro fertilization (IVF) were reported separately. Results: With adjustment for maternal age and parity, we observed an increased risk of twin pregnancies associated with preconceptional use of folate (odds ratio = 1.59; 95% confidence interval = 1.41–1.78). This association was largely explained by confounding with IVF pregnancies, which were strongly associated both with twin pregnancies and folate use. After exclusion of known IVF pregnancies, and accounting for underreporting of both IVF pregnancies and folate use, the risk was no longer elevated (1.02; 0.85–1.24). Weak associations with twin pregnancies were observed for use of multivitamins and folate during pregnancy, but could be due to increased use of vitamins after a recognized twin pregnancy. Conclusions: The association between preconceptional folate use and twin pregnancies was strongly confounded by IVF. After accounting for IVF pregnancies and underreporting, we found no evidence for an association between preconceptional folate supplements and twinning.
Hand and brain : the neurophysiology and psychology of hand movements

The Hand in Action J.R. Flanagan, P. Haggard, and A.M. Wing, The Task at Hand. M.A. Goodale, L.S. Jakobson, and P. Servos, The Visual Pathways Mediating Perception and Prehension. The Motor Hand M. -C. Hepp-Reymond, E.J. Huesler, and M.A. Maier, Precision Grip in Humans: Temporal and Spatial Synergies. J. Fridin and R.L. Lieber, Muscle Architecture Basis for Neuromuscular Control of the Forearm and Hand. M.H. Schieber, Individuated Finger Movements: Rejecting the Labeled-Line Hypothesis. E.M. Rouiller, Multiple Hand Representations in the Motor Cortical Areas. J. Armand, E. Olivier, S.A. Edgley, and R.N. Lemon, The Structure and Function of the Developing Corticospinal Tract: Some Key Issues. Hand Positioning in Reaching J.F. Soechting, D.C. Tong, and M. Flanders, Frames of Reference in Sensorimotor Integration: Position Sense of the Arm and Hand. D.A. Rosenbaum, R.G. J. Meulenbroek, and J. Vaughan, Three Approaches to the Degrees of Freedom Problem in Reaching. C. Ghez, S. Cooper, and J. Martin, Kinematic and Dynamic Factors in the Coordination of Prehension Movements. F. Lacquaniti, Neural Control of Limb Mechanics for Visuomanual Coordination. Hand-Arm Coordination in Reach and Grasp T. Iberall and A.H. Fagg, Neural Network Models for Selecting Hand Shapes. Y. Paulignan and M. Jeannerod, Prehension Movements: The Visuomotor Channels Hypothesis Revisited. M. Wiesendanger, O. Kazennikov, S. Perrig, and P. Kaluzny, Two Hands--One Action: The Problem of Bimanual Coordination. A.M. Wing, Anticipatory Control of Grip Force in Rapid Arm Movement. The Sensorimotor Hand C.E. Chapman, F. Tremblay, and S.A. Ageranioti-Belanger, Role of Primary Somatosensory Cortex in Active and Passive Touch. L. Jones, Proprioception and Its Contribution to Manual Dexterity. A.B. Vallbo and J. Wessberg, Proprioceptive Mechanisms and the Control of Finger Movements. R.S. Johansson, Sensory Control of Dexterous Manipulation in Humans. J.R. Flanagan, ActionPerception Coupling in Judgments of Hand-Held Loads. S.J. Lederman and R.L. Klatzky, Action for Perception: Manual Exploratory Movements for Haptically Processing Objects and Their Features. References. Glossary. Subject Index.
The Challenge of 21st‐Century Literacies

In the second edition of their influential book on ‘New Literacies’, Lankshear & Knobel (2006) argued that engagement with these practices was ‘largely confined to learners’ lives in spaces outside of schools’ (p.30). That was nearly ten years ago, and in some respects very little has changed. Of course, in many classrooms there’s a lot more technology than there was, provision of smartboards desktops, laptops and portable devices is better, and there is a greater variety of software and hardware on offer. But even when equipment is available, up-to-date and in good working order, problems of curriculum integration still arise. Despite all the rhetoric about the importance of ‘new’ or ‘digital’ literacies in education, recent curriculum reforms and their associated assessment regimes have tended to privilege traditional literacy skills and print text. Although some innovative teachers are able to incorporate 21st Century Literacies in their classroom practice (see digitalfutures.org for example), for others the challenge is greater, particularly when it is coupled with competing curriculum priorities or the extensive blocking of websites associated with certain approaches to Internet safety (Hope, 2013). An expansive view of new literacies in practice somehow seems hard to realize.
OlpB, a new outer layer protein of Clostridium thermocellum, and binding of its S-layer-like domains to components of the cell envelope

Several proteins of Clostridium thermocellum possess a C-terminal triplicated sequence related to bacterial cell surface proteins. This sequence was named the SLH domain (for S-layer homology), and it was proposed that it might serve to anchor proteins to the cell surface (A. Lupas, H. Engelhardt, J. Peters, U. Santarius, S. Volker, and W. Baumeister, J. Bacteriol. 176:1224-1233, 1994). This hypothesis was investigated by using the SLH-containing protein ORF1p from C. thermocellum as a model. Subcellular fractionation, immunoblotting, and electron microscopy of immunocytochemically labeled cells indicated that ORF1p was located on the surface of C. thermocellum. To detect C. thermocellum components interacting with the SLH domains of ORF1p, a probe was constructed by grafting these domains on the C terminus of the MalE protein of Escherichia coli. The SLH domains conferred on the chimeric protein (MalE-ORF1p-C) the ability to bind noncovalently to the peptidoglycan of C. thermocellum. In addition, 125I-labeled MalE-ORF1p-C was shown to bind to SLH-bearing proteins transferred onto nitrocellulose, and to a 26- to 28-kDa component of the cell envelope. These results agree with the hypothesis that SLH domains contribute to the binding of exocellular proteins to the cell surface of bacteria. The gene carrying ORF1 and its product, ORF1p, are renamed olpB and OlpB (for outer layer protein B), respectively.
Effect of loading types on performance characteristics of a trickle-bed bioreactor and biofilter during styrene/acetone vapor biofiltration

ABSTRACT A 2:1 (w/w) mixture of styrene (STY) and acetone (AC) was subjected to lab-scale biofiltration under varied loading in both a trickle bed reactor (TBR) and biofilter (BF) to investigate substrate interactions and determine the limits of biofiltration efficiency of typical binary air pollutant mixtures containing both hydrophobic and polar components. A comparison of the STY/AC mixture degradation in the TBR and BF revealed higher pollutant removal efficiencies and degradation rates in the TBR, with the pollutant concentrations increasing up to the overloading limit. The maximum styrene degradation rates were 12 and 8 gc m−3 h−1 for the TBR and BF, respectively. However, the order of performance switched in favor of the BF when the loading was conducted by increasing air flow rate while keeping the inlet styrene concentration (Cin) constant in contrast to loading by increasing Cin. This switch may be due to a drastic difference in the effective surface area between these two reactors, so the biofilter becomes the reactor of choice when the rate-limiting step switches from biochemical processes to mass transfer by changing the loading mode. The presence of acetone in the mixture decreased the efficiency of styrene degradation and its degradation rate at high loadings. When the overloading was lifted by lowering the pollutant inlet concentrations, short-term back-stripping of both substrates in both reactors into the outlet air was observed, with a subsequent gradual recovery taking several hours and days in the BF and TBR, respectively. Removal of excess biomass from the TBR significantly improved the reactor performance. Identification of the cultivable strains, which was performed on Day 763 of continuous operation, showed the presence of 7 G− bacteria, 2 G+ bacteria and 4 fungi. Flies and larvae of Lycoriella nigripes survived half a year of the biofilter operation by feeding on the biofilm resulting in the maintenance of a nearly constant pressure drop.
The Interest Rate, Learning, and Inventory Investment

This paper presents a model that provides an explanation, based on regime switching in the real interest rate and learning, of why tests based on stock adjustment models, Euler equations, or decision rules—which emphasize short-run fluctuations in inventories and the interest rate—are unlikely to uncover a negative relationship between inventories and the real interest rate. The model, however, predicts that inventories will respond to long-run movements, that is, to regime shifts in the real interest rate. Tests emphasizing cointegration techniques confirm this prediction and show a significant long-run relationship between inventories and the real interest rate.
Holocene dynamics of the Florida Everglades with respect to climate, dustfall, and tropical storms

Significance Wind-blown dust is seldom considered an important source for nutrients in large peatlands, such as the Everglades. However, a sedimentary record suggests that high loadings of dust-borne nutrients once prevailed in the central Everglades during a period of moister climate with intense tropical storms that ended 2,800 y ago. Afterwards, a drier climatic regime with a steep decline in dustfall may have been the impetus for the striking surface patterning of the Everglades. This study provides additional support for the importance of aeolian dust in ecosystem development. Aeolian dust is rarely considered an important source for nutrients in large peatlands, which generally develop in moist regions far from the major centers of dust production. As a result, past studies assumed that the Everglades provides a classic example of an originally oligotrophic, P-limited wetland that was subsequently degraded by anthropogenic activities. However, a multiproxy sedimentary record indicates that changes in atmospheric circulation patterns produced an abrupt shift in the hydrology and dust deposition in the Everglades over the past 4,600 y. A wet climatic period with high loadings of aeolian dust prevailed before 2800 cal BP (calibrated years before present) when vegetation typical of a deep slough dominated the principal drainage outlet of the Everglades. This dust was apparently transported from distant source areas, such as the Sahara Desert, by tropical storms according to its elemental chemistry and mineralogy. A drier climatic regime with a steep decline in dustfall persisted after 2800 cal BP maintaining sawgrass vegetation at the coring site as tree islands developed nearby (and pine forests covered adjacent uplands). The marked decline in dustfall was related to corresponding declines in sedimentary phosphorus, organic nitrogen, and organic carbon, suggesting that a close relationship existed between dustfall, primary production, and possibly, vegetation patterning before the 20th century. The climatic change after 2800 cal BP was probably produced by a shift in the Bermuda High to the southeast, shunting tropical storms to the south of Florida into the Gulf of Mexico.
Family History and Functional Outcome in Korean Stroke Patients: A Preliminary Study

Objective To investigate the association of family history of stroke with functional outcomes in stroke patients in Korea. Methods A case-control study was conducted. A total of 170 patients who were admitted to a rehabilitation unit were included. Risk factors for stroke such as age, sex, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, atrial fibrillation, smoking, high blood cholesterol and homocysteine level, obesity, and family history of stroke were taken into account. Stroke subtypes were the following: large vessel infarct, small vessel infarct, embolic infarct, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and intracranial hemorrhage. Stroke severity as assessed with the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), functional outcomes using the Korean version of the Modified Barthel index (K-MBI), Functional Independence Measurement (FIM), and cognitive function using the Korean version of Mini-Mental State Examination (K-MMSE) were assessed at admission and discharge. Results Subjects with a family history of stroke were more likely to have an ischemic stroke (90.7%) than were those without a family history (70.9%). The K-MBI, FIM, NIHSS, and K-MMSE scores did not show significant differences between patients with or without family history. Conclusion Family history of stroke was significantly associated with ischemic stroke, but not with functional outcomes. Other prognostic factors of stroke were not distributed differently between patients included in this study with or without a family history of stroke.
Can integrated skills tasks change students’ learning strategies and materials?

The use of integrated skills tasks in language tests has been debated for many years and international English test developers such as Educational Testing Service (ETS) and Pearson Tests of English (PTE) already use such tests to assess English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ language proficiency. Empirical research has rarely investigated the influence of the integrated skills task on test takers’ preparation strategies. The study presented here set out to investigate the extent to which the introduction of integrated skills tasks may change students’ test preparation strategies and the resources that they choose to use. The research focused on two integrated test types developed by PTE Academic: ‘repeat-sentence’ and ‘re-tell lecture’, which assess both speaking and listening skills concurrently. Data on test-takers’ strategies and resources were collected by using Oxford's (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL). The findings indicated that the integrated skills test influenced participants in relation to both their choice of preparation strategies and the resources chosen. These choices seemed to vary in line with participants’ awareness of different aspects of the new test. Thus, there appeared to be an association between participants’ choices of learning strategies and resources and their awareness of which skills were being assessed and the nature of the audio input in the new formats. Finally, despite evidence that the new integrated skills test had some impact on participants’ approaches to their language learning, this did not necessarily mean that the participants completely abandoned existing learning strategies and resources, in particular those appropriate to the previous test formats.