Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hepatitis B surface antigen levels during natural history of chronic hepatitis B: a Chinese perspective study.

AIM To determine the baseline hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) levels during the different phases of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients in China. METHODS Six hundred and twenty-three hepatitis B virus or un-infected patients not receiving antiviral therapy were analyzed in a cross-sectional study. The CHB patients were classified into five phases: immune-tolerant (IT, n = 108), immune-clearance (IC, n = 161), hepatitis B e antigen negative hepatitis (ENH, n = 149), low-replicative (LR, n = 135), and liver cirrhosis (LC, n = 70). HBsAg was quantified (Abbott ARCHITECT assay) and correlated with hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA, and serum alanine aminotransferase/aspartate aminotransferase (ALT/AST) in each phase of CHB was also determined. RESULTS Median HBsAg titers were different in each phase of CHB (P < 0.001): IT (4.85 log10 IU/mL), IC (4.36 log10 IU/mL), ENH (2.95 log10 IU/mL), LR (3.18 log10 IU/mL) and LC (2.69 log10 IU/mL). HBsAg titers were highest in the IT phase and lowest in the LC phase. Serum HBsAg titers showed a strong correlation with HBV viral load in the IC phase (r = 0.683, P < 0.001). No correlation between serum HBsAg level and ALT/AST was observed. CONCLUSION The mean baseline HBsAg levels differ significantly during the five phases of CHB, providing evidence on the natural history of HBV infection. HBsAg quantification may predict the effects of immune-modulator or oral nucleos(t)ide analogue therapy.
Dose-dependent antagonism and potentiation of nitrous oxide antinociception by naloxone in mice.

Administration of the anesthetic gas nitrous oxide (N2O) evoked a concentration-dependent antinociceptive effect in mice as assessed by the abdominal constriction test. Depending on the dose and route of pretreatment with the opioid receptor blocker naloxone, the N2O drug effect was either antagonized or potentiated. After s.c. pretreatment with milligram per kilogram doses of naloxone, dose-related antagonism occurred; picogram per kilogram doses potentiated N2O-induced antinociception. The i.c. v. pretreatment with microgram quantities of naloxone also antagonized N2O antinociception in a dose-related fashion; i.c. v. pretreatment with femtogram doses was without effect. On the other hand, intrathecal (i.t.) pretreatment with femtogram quantities of naloxone potentiated N2O antinociception; i.t. pretreatment with microgram quantities continued to antagonize the antinociceptive effect. The same pattern of interaction was observed in mice challenged with the kappa opioid analgesic drug trans (+- 3,4-dichlow-N-methyl-N-[2-(1-pyrrolidinyl)cyclohexyl] benzeneacetamide methane sulfonate (U-50, 488H) after s.c. , i.c. v. or i.t. pretreatments with high and low doses of naloxone. These results 1) demonstrate further similarities in the opioid receptor mediation of N2O and U-50, 488H antinociceptive effects and also 2) support the concept of high-affinity spinal opioid receptors, whose blockade by s.c. - or i.t. - but not i.c. v. -administered low-dose naloxone can potentiate the antinociceptive effects of both N2O and U-50,488H. These findings suggest that the antinociceptive effect of N2O might be modulated by a descending opioid system that inhibits analgesia.
Developing One's Self: Adoption and Identity Formation Through the Eyes of Transracially Adopted Native American Adults

An abstract of the dissertation of Jody Becker-Green for the Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work and Social Research presented April 30, 2009. Title: Developing One's Self: Adoption and Identity Formation through the Eyes of Transracially Adopted Native American Adults Life story methods were used to explore the contextual factors that influenced the experiences and identity formation of seven Native American adults who were transracially adopted prior to the passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978. These methods provided a deeper understanding of how these individuals have integrated their adoption experiences into their evolving sense of self. The life story methodology offered a way to acknowledge and validate participants' life experiences and allowed for the collection of rich information from the perspectives of the adoptees. The life story interviews were structured to gather information on the influence of one's adoptive family and cultural, social, and educational experiences on particpants' developing sense of self. Even though an interview guide was developed for use in the study, each story uniquely unfolded in a manner the participant was comfortable sharing. The study examined the life stories for patterns or emerging themes related to identity development at different points in the narrators' life cycles in order to develop an aggregate account of the contextual factors influencing identity formation as well as a collective understanding of sense of self. The study identified 12 contextual factors that have both positively and negatively influenced identity development among the participants throughout their lifespan. These factors are: 1) adoptive family; 2) community; 3) educational experiences; 4) religion/spirituality; 5) travel; 6) exposure to cultural experiences; 7) employment; 8) friendships; 9) peer groups; 10) military; 11) societal messages, and 12) reconnection to tribal heritage. Overall, findings from this study suggest that the majority of participants have developed strong Native American, multi-cultural, and/or bi-cultural identities that incorporate their various experiences as transracial adoptees. Practice considerations for transracial adoptees as well as adoptive parents are suggested. Policy implications relating to granting access to original birth and/or adoption related records are presented. Finally, future research recommendations are offered specific to Native American transracial adoptees, their biological families, and tribal communities from which they adopted. While the practice, policy, and research recommendations are specific to Native American transracial adoptees, the recommendations may have broader implications to a wider population of adoptees in
Rupture complexity of the Mw 8.3 sea of okhotsk earthquake: Rapid triggering of complementary earthquakes?

We derive a finite slip model for the 2013 Mw 8.3 Sea of Okhotsk Earthquake (Z = 610 km) by inverting calibrated teleseismic P waveforms. The inversion shows that the earthquake ruptured on a 10° dipping rectangular fault zone (140 km × 50 km) and evolved into a sequence of four large sub‐events (E1–E4) with an average rupture speed of 4.0 km/s. The rupture process can be divided into two main stages. The first propagated south, rupturing sub‐events E1, E2, and E4. The second stage (E3) originated near E2 with a delay of 12 s and ruptured northward, filling the slip gap between E1 and E2. This kinematic process produces an overall slip pattern similar to that observed in shallow swarms, except it occurs over a compressed time span of about 30 s and without many aftershocks, suggesting that sub‐event triggering for deep events is significantly more efficient than for shallow events.
Calibrating Car-Following Models by Using Trajectory Data

The car-following behavior of individual drivers in real city traffic is studied on the basis of (publicly available) trajectory data sets recorded by a vehicle equipped with a radar sensor. By means of a nonlinear optimization procedure based on a genetic algorithm, the intelligent driver model and the velocity difference model are calibrated by minimizing the deviations between the observed driving dynamics and the simulated trajectory in following the same leading vehicle. The reliability and robustness of the nonlinear fits are assessed by applying different optimization criteria, that is, different measures for the deviations between two trajectories. The obtained errors are between 11% and 29%, which is consistent with typical error ranges obtained in previous studies. It is also found that the calibrated parameter values of the velocity difference model depend strongly on the optimization criterion, whereas the intelligent driver model is more robust. The influence of a reaction time is investigated by applying an explicit delay to the model input. A negligible influence of the reaction time is found and indicates that drivers compensate for their reaction time by anticipation. Furthermore, the parameter sets calibrated to a certain trajectory are applied to the other trajectories; this step allows for model validation. The results indicate that intradriver variability rather than interdriver variability accounts for a large part of the calibration errors. The results are used to suggest some criteria toward a benchmarking of car-following models.
Libet-style experiments, neuroscience, and libertarian free will

Abstract People have disagreed on the significance of Libet-style experiments for discussions about free will. In what specifically concerns free will in a libertarian sense, some argue that Libet-style experiments pose a threat to its existence by providing support to the claim that decisions are determined by unconscious brain events. Others disagree by claiming that determinism, in a sense that conflicts with libertarian free will, cannot be established by sciences other than fundamental physics. This paper rejects both positions. First, it is argued that neuroscience and psychology could in principle provide support for milder deterministic claims that would also conflict with libertarian free will. Second, it is argued that Libet-style experiments—due to some of their peculiar features, ones that need not be shared by neuroscience as a whole—currently do not (but possibly could) support such less demanding deterministic claims. The general result is that neuroscience and psychology could in principle undermine libertarian free will, but that Libet-style experiments have not done that so far.
Students academic motivational level in clinical and non-clinical setting

Objective: To compare the motivational level of clinical and non clinical physical therapy students. Methodology: A sample of 400 students (70% female & 30% male) was recruited through purposive sampling from different institutes of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Half of the students belonged to clinical and half to non clinical category. The study was conducted from January 1, to January 31, 2015. A standardized academic motivational (AMS) questionnaire was used to assess the motivational level of student along with demographic data. Result: Students’ level of extrinsic motivation (p=0.00) and intrinsic motivation (p=0.008), but not Amotivation was significantly related to their academic behavior and perceptions. Conclusion: The clinical environment enhanced the motivational level of students. Both extrinsic and intrinsic factors were associated with motivation. Students going through clinical rotation were driven through extrinsic motivation while students having just university based education had intrinsic motivation.
Effects of Random Yield in Remanufacturing with Price‐Sensitive Supply and Demand

In this study, we investigate the effects of recovery yield rate on pricing decisions in reverse supply chains. Motivated by the automotive parts remanufacturing industry, we consider an end‐of‐life product from which a particular part can be recovered and remanufactured for reuse, and the remainder of the product can be recycled for material recovery. Both the supply of end‐of‐life products and demand for remanufactured parts are price‐sensitive. Yield of the recovery process is random and depends on the acquisition price offered for the end‐of‐life products. In this setting, we develop models to determine the optimal acquisition price for the end‐of‐life products and the selling price for remanufactured parts. We also analyze the effects of yield variation to the profitability of remanufacturing, benefits of delaying pricing decisions until after yield realization, and value of perfect yield rate information.
Are guilt and shame distinguishable? --Exploring persuasive effects of guilt and shame on information processing from two novel dimensions

ARE GUILT AND SHAME DISTINGUISHABLE? –EXPLORING PERSUASIVE EFFECTS OF GUILT AND SHAME ON INFORMATION PROCESSING FROM TWO NOVEL DIMENSIONS By Jie Zhuang This dissertation aims at distinguishing guilt from shame and examining their persuasive effects on information processing and attitude change. Two studies are conducted to investigate the extent to which controllability separates guilt from shame and whether guilt and shame vary in their effects on information processing and attitude change. The first study is grounded in the Attributional Theory of Achievement Motivation and Emotion (Weiner, 1985). In study 1, 173 participants recalled a failure or transgression experience and content analysis was performed to determine the controllability of the experience and participants’ feelings of guilt and shame. In study 2 which is framed under the Cognitive Functional Model (CFM, Nabi, 1999), the level of controllability, causal agency, and argument strength were manipulate and tested with 403 participants. The effects of guilt and shame on information processing and attitude change were assessed. Both studies indicate that controllability had only limited power in distinguishing guilt from shame. Guilt overlapped with shame when self was the causal agency for a transgression whereas the conceptual overlap decreased when the other person was the causal agency. Guilt and shame differed from one another in their effects on information processing, and motivation tendencies were found to mediate the relationship between emotion and information processing. Guilt and shame also varied in their impacts on attitude change. This study provides support for the proposed emotionmotivation tendency information processing causal chain and the proposed distinctive functions of guilt and shame in changing attitudes. Theoretical implications of this study for conceptualizing the effects of emotion on information processing and attitude change are discussed, and practical implications for campaign designs are provided. Copyright by JIE ZHUANG 2014
La spécialisation du commerce entre l'Union européenne et les pays d'Europe centrale et orientale : quelle évolution ?

La structure et la specialisation des flux commerciaux de produits manufactures entre l'Union europeenne et les pays d'Europe centrale et orientale prennent de . l'importance dans la perspective d'integration de ces derniers a l'UE, etant donne la croissance, depuis le debut de la transition, de la part des echanges des pays d'Europe de l'Est dans le commerce extra-communautaire. En se placant du point de vue de la Communaute europeenne, cet article montre que les echanges commerciaux de produits manufactures avec les PECO restent largement beneficiaires a cette derniere. La balance commerciale lui est favorable. Les produits fortement exportes par l'UE ou a avantages comparatifs pour elle sont des produits a moyenne ou forte technologie et a forte valeur ajoutee. A l'inverse, les produits fortements importes par l'UE ou a desavantages comparatifs pour elle appartiennent aux secteurs traditionnels des PECO, intensifs en travail ou en matieres premieres. L'analyse permet de demontrer qu'il n'y a pas eu, du moins jusqu'en 1995, de modifications statistiquement significatives des echanges entre l'UE et les PECO, ni en termes de structure par produits ni en termes de commerce intra-branche.
The Impact of Surface Roughness and PTFE/TiF3/FeF3 Additives in Plain ZDDP Oil on the Friction and Wear Behavior Using Thermal and Tribological Analysis under Extreme Pressure Condition

Authors : Gabi N. Nehme, Saeed Ghalambor Abstract : The use of titanium fluoride and iron fluoride (TiF3/FeF3) catalysts in combination with polutetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) in plain zinc dialkyldithiophosphate (ZDDP) oil is important for the study of engine tribocomponents and is increasingly a strategy to improve the formation of tribofilm and to provide low friction and excellent wear protection in reduced phosphorus plain ZDDP oil. The influence of surface roughness and the concentration of TiF3/FeF3/PTFE were investigated using bearing steel samples dipped in lubricant solution @100°C for two different heating time durations. This paper addresses the effects of water drop contact angle using different surface finishes after treating them with different lubricant combination. The calculated water drop contact angles were analyzed using Design of Experiment software (DOE) and it was determined that a 0.05 μm Ra surface roughness would provide an excellent TiF3/FeF3/PTFE coating for antiwear resistance as reflected in the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images and the tribological testing under extreme pressure conditions. Both friction and wear performance depend greatly on the PTFE/and catalysts in plain ZDDP oil with 0.05% phosphorous and on the surface finish of bearing steel. The friction and wear reducing effects, which was observed in the tribological tests, indicated a better micro lubrication effect of the 0.05 μm Ra surface roughness treated at 100°C for 24 hours when compared to the 0.1 μm Ra surface roughness with the same treatment.
Blind Source Separation Based on a Beamformer Array and Time Frequency Binary Masking

This paper deals with a new technique for blind source separation (BSS) from convolutive mixtures. We present a three-stage separation system employing time-frequency binary masking, beamforming and a non-linear post processing technique. The experiments show that this system outperforms conventional time-frequency binary masking (TFBM) in both (over-)determined and underdetermined cases. Moreover it removes the musical noise and reduces interference in time-frequency slots extracted by TFBM.
USFD at KBP 2011: Entity Linking, Slot Filling and Temporal Bounding

This paper describes the University of Sheffield’s entry in the 2011 TAC KBP entity linking and slot filling tasks (Ji et al., 2011). We chose to participate in the monolingual entity linking task, the monolingual slot filling task and the temporal slot filling tasks. Our team consisted of five MSc students, two PhD students and one more senior academic. For the MSc students, their participation in the track formed the core of their MSc dissertation project, which they began in February 2011 and finished at the end of August 2011. None of them had any prior experience in human language technologies or machine learning before their programme started in October 2010. For the two PhD students participation was relevant to their ongoing PhD research. This team organization allowed us to muster considerable manpower without dedicated external funding and within a limited period time; but of course there were inevitable issues with co-ordination of effort and of getting up to speed. The students found participation to be an excellent and very enjoyable learning experience. Insofar as any common theme emerges from our approaches to the three tasks it is an effort to learn from and exploit data wherever possible: in entity linking we learn thresholds for nil prediction and acquire lists of name variants from data; in slot filling we learn entity recognizers and relation extractors; in temporal slot filling we use time and event annotators that are learned from data. The rest of this paper describes our approach and related investigations in more detail. Sections 2 and 3 describe in detail our approaches to the EL and SF tasks respectively, and Section 4 summarises our temporal slot filling approach.
Design , Implementation and Evaluation of IPv 4 + 4 �

In this paper we present and evaluate the 4+4 architecture. 4+4 extends the IPv4 address space without requiring changes to existing routers. It builds on the existence of NATs and multiple address realms, but it does not use address translation and provides end-to-end address transparency. Existing address translation is used only as a transition tool. The paper also presents an implementation of 4+4 and related experimental results. We conclude that 4+4 is simple to introduce and may represent a mediumterm solution if IPv6 transition does not take off quickly enough. The source code of our implementation can be downloaded from http://ipv44.comet. columbia.edu.
Conceptualizing Social Determinants of Maternal and Infant Health Disparities

Research demonstrates that women and children within marginalized ethnic and racial groups and those living in poverty experience disparate health outcomes. These disparities have immediate and long-term consequences. Exploring two theories used to examine social determinants of health—life course perspective and historical trauma response, this article will explain the major premises of each, provide application examples, compare and examine utility for practice, and highlight areas for future research. A theoretical critique will be included, as well as insight into how these theories together might address gaps as an approach to maternal and infant health research and practice.
Analysis of the Role of OpuC, an Osmolyte Transport System, in Salt Tolerance and Virulence Potential of Listeria monocytogenes

ABSTRACT The success of Listeria monocytogenes as a food-borne pathogen owes much to its ability to survive a variety of stresses, both in the external environment prior to ingestion and subsequently within the animal host. Growth at high salt concentrations and low temperatures is attributed mainly to the accumulation of organic solutes such as glycine betaine and carnitine. We utilized a novel system for generating chromosomal mutations (based on a lactococcal pWVO1-derived Ori+ RepA− vector, pORI19) to identify a listerial OpuC homologue. Mutating the operon in two strains of L. monocytogenes revealed significant strain variation in the observed activity of OpuC. Radiolabeled osmolyte uptake studies, together with growth experiments in defined media, linked OpuC to carnitine and glycine betaine uptake inListeria. We also investigated the role of OpuC in contributing to the growth and survival of Listeria in an animal (murine) model of infection. Altering OpuC resulted in a significant reduction in the ability of Listeria to colonize the upper small intestine and cause subsequent systemic infection following peroral inoculation.
Universal and Language-Specific Patterns in the Acquisition of Verb Argument Structures in German

ABSTRACT The study investigated the influence of universal and language-specific morpho-syntactic properties (i.e., flexible word order, case) on the acquisition of verb argument structures in German compared with English. To this end, 65 three- to nine-year-old German learning children and adults were asked to act out grammatical (The sheep goes.) and ungrammatical (*The sheep goes the horse.) sentences. Similar to English, German speakers changed the verb meaning depending on the number of sentence NPs which was more evident in younger than older participants. However, the effect was generally smaller in German than in English. This result indicates that learners of case marked languages as German rely less on the number of sentence NPs when learning and interpreting verb argument structures. Much more relevant seems to be the case marking cue for learners of these languages.