Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficacy of 3 commonly used hearing aid circuits: A crossover trial. NIDCD/VA Hearing Aid Clinical Trial Group.

CONTEXT Numerous studies have demonstrated that hearing aids provide significant benefit for a wide range of sensorineural hearing loss, but no carefully controlled, multicenter clinical trials comparing hearing aid efficacy have been conducted. OBJECTIVE To compare the benefits provided to patients with sensorineural hearing loss by 3 commonly used hearing aid circuits. DESIGN Double-blind, 3-period, 3-treatment crossover trial conducted from May 1996 to February 1998. SETTING Eight audiology laboratories at Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers across the United States. PATIENTS A sample of 360 patients with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss (mean age, 67.2 years; 57% male; 78.6% white). INTERVENTION Patients were randomly assigned to 1 of 6 sequences of linear peak clipper (PC), compression limiter (CL), and wide dynamic range compressor (WDRC) hearing aid circuits. All patients wore each of the 3 hearing aids, which were installed in identical casements, for 3 months. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Results of tests of speech recognition, sound quality, and subjective hearing aid benefit, administered at baseline and after each 3-month intervention with and without a hearing aid. At the end of the experiment, patients ranked the 3 hearing aid circuits. RESULTS Each circuit markedly improved speech recognition, with greater improvement observed for soft and conversationally loud speech (all 52-dB and 62-dB conditions, P</=.001). All 3 circuits significantly reduced the frequency of problems encountered in verbal communication. Some test results suggested that CL and WDRC circuits provided a significantly better listening experience than PC circuits in word recognition (P =.002), loudness (P =.003), overall liking (P =.001), aversiveness of environmental sounds (P =.02), and distortion (P =.02). In the rank-order ratings, patients preferred the CL hearing aid circuits more frequently (41.6%) than the WDRC (29.8%) and the PC (28.6%) (P =.001 for CL vs both WDRC and PC). CONCLUSIONS Each circuit provided significant benefit in quiet and noisy listening situations. The CL and WDRC circuits appeared to provide superior benefits compared with the PC, although the differences between them were much less than the differences between the aided vs unaided conditions. JAMA. 2000;284:1806-1813.
Work Hours of Residents in Seven Anesthesiology Training Programs

Medical educators and credentialing organizations recently have called attention to the long hours that some house staff are required to spend in the hospital during training. To determine the average duration of in-hospital work hours of anesthesiology residents, 148 residents at seven, university-affiliated training programs kept daily logs of their activities for one week. Residents in clinical anesthesia years 1, 2, and 3 spent an average of 66, 65, and 64 hours per week, respectively, in the hospital with a range of 43 to 104 hours per week. Although there was not a difference in in-hospital work time among years of training, there was a statistical difference between two of the seven programs studied. The largest portion of the in-hospital time was devoted to patient care activities in the operating room. Residents had time for educational activities, conferences, and reading while in the hospital. The overall work hours of the residents in the anesthesiology training programs included in this survey appeared to be within current guidelines.
‘What's the Use of It?’: Danish Strategic Culture and the Utility of Armed Force

The article uses theories of strategic culture to show why Denmark has come to regard the use of armed force in new ways following the end of the Cold War. It is argued that Danish strategic culture is constituted by a debate between ‘cosmopolitans’ and ‘defencists’ about the utility of armed force. The debate shows that a minor power possesses a certain ability to choose how to act on the world stage, and what means to use in doing so, and illustrates that the prevalent structural explanations of why Danish foreign policy has been ‘militarized’ since the end of the Cold War are insufficient. In Denmark, a new focus on European integration and globalization has meant that military power is being understood in a new way. A practice of ‘activism’ has transcended the cosmopolitan–defencist debate that paralysed Danish security discourse in the late 1970s and 1980s.
FK506 binding protein 12 differentially accelerates fibril formation of wild type alpha‐synuclein and its clinical mutants A30P or A53T

Aggregation of alpha‐synuclein (α‐SYN) plays a key role in Parkinson’s disease. We have previously shown that aggregation of α‐SYN in vitro is accelerated by addition of FK506 binding proteins (FKBP) and that this effect can be counteracted by FK506, a specific inhibitor of these enzymes. In this paper, we investigated in detail the effect of FKBP12 on early aggregation and on fibril formation of wild‐type, A53T and A30P α‐SYN. FKBP12 has a much smaller effect on the fibril formation of these two clinical mutants α‐SYN. Using an inactive enzyme, we were able to discriminate between catalytic and non‐catalytic effects that differentially influence the two processes. A model explaining non‐linear concentration dependencies is proposed.
SAS: A speaker verification spoofing database containing diverse attacks

This paper presents the first version of a speaker verification spoofing and anti-spoofing database, named SAS corpus. The corpus includes nine spoofing techniques, two of which are speech synthesis, and seven are voice conversion. We design two protocols, one for standard speaker verification evaluation, and the other for producing spoofing materials. Hence, they allow the speech synthesis community to produce spoofing materials incrementally without knowledge of speaker verification spoofing and anti-spoofing. To provide a set of preliminary results, we conducted speaker verification experiments using two state-of-the-art systems. Without any anti-spoofing techniques, the two systems are extremely vulnerable to the spoofing attacks implemented in our SAS corpus.
A Unifying Framework for Finite Wordlength Realizations

A general framework for the analysis of the finite wordlength (FWL) effects of linear time-invariant digital filter implementations is proposed. By means of a special implicit system description, all realization forms can be described. An algebraic characterization of the equivalent classes is provided, which enables a search for realizations that minimize the FWL effects to be made. Two suitable FWL coefficient sensitivity measures are proposed for use within the framework, these being a transfer function sensitivity measure and a pole sensitivity measure. An illustrative example is presented.
On adaptive bandwidth sharing with rate guarantees

The objective of research in fair queueing schemes has been to efficiently emulate a fluid-flow generalized (weighted) processor sharing (GPS) system as closely as possible. A primary motivation for the use of fair queueing has been its use as a means of providing bandwidth guarantees and as a consequence end-to-end delay bounds for traffic with bounded burstiness. The rate guarantees translate to scheduling weights which are set when admission control is done. A consequence of fair queueing systems closely emulating GPS is that when one or more connections are not back-logged, any "excess" bandwidth is distributed to back-logged connections in proportion to their weights. However weights are set based on the long-term requirements of traffic flows and not in any state-dependent manner that reflects instantaneous needs. We question the notion that the queueing system should closely emulate a GPS system. Instead of emulating GPS, we propose three modified scheduling schemes which preserve the rate guarantees of fair queueing (and hence preserve deterministic delay bounds) but adaptively redistribute the excess bandwidth such that either losses are reduced or delays equalized. We compare the performance of the proposed schemes to that of fair queueing using different traffic sources such as voice and video, as well as sources which have aggregate long-range dependent behavior. We find that the proposed schemes, in comparison to packet GPS (PGPS), reduce packet losses and curtail the tails of delay distributions for real-time traffic and hence permit the use of significantly smaller playout buffers for the same network load.
Critical factors in successful project implementation

This paper describes a process used to determine critical success factors that are felt to be predictive of successful project management. Full time managers who have had experience with projects were used to generate critical success factors that they felt to be crucial to successful project implementation. Ten factors were discovered that relate well to previous theoretical formulations in the literature. In addition, these ten factors have been linked together in an interdependent quasi-sequential framework. This research has provided the basis for developing a behavioral instrument to be used as a diagnostic for assessing the status of any project as determined by the ten factor model.
Intervening in Children’s Involvement in Gangs: Views of Cape Town’s Young People

Gangs have a long history in Cape Town and children tend to begin involvement around age 12. Children’s views on causes of children’s involvement in gangs and appropriate interventions, were sought for inclusion in policy recommendations. Thirty focus group discussions were held with in- and out-of-school youth in different communities. Participants identified failing social structures as the causes of gangsterism. They recommended interventions to enable social structures to provide a wide range of opportunities for positive youth development, rather than programmes narrowly focused on gangs.
Kidney immune cell infiltration and oxidative stress contribute to prenatally programmed hypertension.

BACKGROUND Prenatal environment has been shown to modify adult blood pressure profile, but the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. The role of renal immune cell infiltration, oxidative stress, and nitric oxide bioavailability in the pathogenesis was investigated. METHODS Adult hypertension in rat offspring was induced by maternal low protein diet. Oxidative stress was determined by quantitative immunoblotting for nitrotyrosine, and T-cell and macrophage content by immunostaining, in offspring kidneys before and after the onset of hypertension. Nitric oxide metabolites (NOx) were measured in 24-hour urines. A group of offspring was treated with the immunosuppressive drug mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) to reduce inflammation, or with the superoxide dismutase mimetic Tempol to reduce oxidative stress, for a 3-week period before the onset of hypertension. RESULTS During the prehypertensive stage, at 4 weeks of age, the low protein diet pups exhibited an increase in kidney nitrotyrosine content and in number of immune cells, both of which persisted in untreated animals after hypertension was established, at 8 weeks of age. Urine NOx was increased at 4 weeks and unchanged at 8 weeks of age. Both MMF and Tempol treatment prevented the immune cell infiltration, the increase in kidney nitrotyrosine abundance, and the development of hypertension. The effect on blood pressure persisted throughout the 4- to 10-week observation period after discontinuation of the treatments. CONCLUSION Renal oxidative stress and infiltrating immune cells may play a pathogenetic role in prenatally programmed hypertension. Nitric oxide bioavailability does not appear impaired.
Adolescent firesetting: why do they say they do it?

Previous research has focused upon classifying motives for firesetting into discrete categories such as revenge and excitement. This process of classification has been criticized for its failure to reflect the heterogeneity of firesetting. For the present study, 17 young firesetters were interviewed about their firesetting. In keeping with previous studies, six distinct groups of firesetters emerged from the information gathered. The implications for future understanding, including classification systems, of firesetting are discussed.
Evidence for Altruism: Toward a Pluralism of Prosocial Motives

Psychologists have long assumed that the motivation for all intentional action, including all action intended to benefit others, is egoistic. People benefit others because, ultimately, to do so benefits themselves. The empathy-altruism hypothesis challenges this assumption. It claims that empathic emotion evokes truly altruistic motivation, motivation with an ultimate goal of benefiting not the self but the person for whom empathy is felt. Logical and psychological distinctions between egoism and altruism are reviewed, providing a conceptualframeworkfor empirical tests for the existence of altruism. Results of empirical tests to date are summarized; these results provide impressive support for the empathy-altruism hypothesis. We conclude that the popular and parsimonious explanation of prosocial motivation in terms of universal egoism must give way to a pluralistic explanation that includes altruism as well as egoism. Implications of such a pluralism are briefly noted, not only for our understanding of prosocial motivation but also for our understanding of human nature and of the emotion-motivation link. We humans devote much time and energy to helping others. We send money to rescue famine victims halfway around the world. We work to save whales. We stay up all night to comfort a friend who has just suffered a broken relationship. We stop on a busy highway to help a stranded motorist change a flat.
Language Wars: The Ideological Dimensions of the Debates on Bilingual Education.

Abstract The debates over the future of bilingual education call for conceptual frameworks that can illuminate the variety of issues that are implicated in those debates. Building from the fields of sociology of language, language policy, and language ideology, a conceptual framework is presented and employed in the analysis of the ideological debates, ocurring in Colorado and California. The analysis is concerned with the identification of different ideological positions regarding the value of bilingualism and bilingual education, the Spanish language, and the linguistic capital of working-class Latinoimmigrant families. The debates are seen as competition for value between different constituencies that take place through the manipulation of symbolic assets such as language(s), and in which Latino parents are displaced from their position as legitimate participants in their children’s education through the devaluing of their linguistic capital.The debates over the future of bilingual education call for c.
Effects of acupuncture on foveation characteristics in congenital nystagmus

AIMS/BACKGROUND To examine the effects of acupuncture at the sternocleidomastoid muscles on foveation characteristics in congenital nystagmus. METHODS Six patients with congenital nystagmus (CN) received a series of treatments consisting of two needles inserted into each sternocleidomastoid, stimulated by tapping gently every 5 minutes, for 20 minutes per session. Their eye movements were recorded using scleral search coils and changes in their CN waveforms analysed at each point in the treatment. Changes in the stability and duration of foveation periods were examined. RESULTS Four of the six patients showed improved foveation at the commencement of treatment; three maintained this response throughout the treatment period and after the needles were removed. In two, the CN waveform itself was modified. CONCLUSION This study and others involving afferent stimulation to the neck and face suggest that projections from these areas to the reticular formation and vestibular nucleus may alter the behaviour of the pathophysiological mechanism underlying congenital nystagmus.
SQ109, a New Drug Lead for Chagas Disease

ABSTRACT We tested the antituberculosis drug SQ109, which is currently in advanced clinical trials for the treatment of drug-susceptible and drug-resistant tuberculosis, for its in vitro activity against the trypanosomatid parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease. SQ109 was found to be a potent inhibitor of the trypomastigote form of the parasite, with a 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) for cell killing of 50 ± 8 nM, but it had little effect (50% effective concentration [EC50], ∼80 μM) in a red blood cell hemolysis assay. It also inhibited extracellular epimastigotes (IC50, 4.6 ± 1 μM) and the clinically relevant intracellular amastigotes (IC50, ∼0.5 to 1 μM), with a selectivity index of ∼10 to 20. SQ109 caused major ultrastructural changes in all three life cycle forms, as observed by light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). It rapidly collapsed the inner mitochondrial membrane potential (Δψm) in succinate-energized mitochondria, acting in the same manner as the uncoupler FCCP [carbonyl cyanide 4-(trifluoromethoxy)phenylhydrazone], and it caused the alkalinization of internal acidic compartments, effects that are likely to make major contributions to its mechanism of action. The compound also had activity against squalene synthase, binding to its active site; it inhibited sterol side-chain reduction and, in the amastigote assay, acted synergistically with the antifungal drug posaconazole, with a fractional inhibitory concentration index (FICI) of 0.48, but these effects are unlikely to account for the rapid effects seen on cell morphology and cell killing. SQ109 thus most likely acts, at least in part, by collapsing Δψ/ΔpH, one of the major mechanisms demonstrated previously for its action against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Overall, the results suggest that SQ109, which is currently in advanced clinical trials for the treatment of drug-susceptible and drug-resistant tuberculosis, may also have potential as a drug lead against Chagas disease.
Relations of emotional intelligence, practical intelligence, general intelligence, and trait affectivity with interview outcomes: it's not all just ‘G’

Emotional intelligence was conceptualized as competencies that may enable people to use emotions advantageously to achieve desired outcomes. Measures of three components of emotional intelligence (empathy, self-regulation of mood, and self-presentation) as well as affective traits (positive and negative affectivity) and general and practical intelligence were related to a major facet of work success, job interview performance. A sample of 116 undergraduates participated in a simulated job selection experience, consisting of paper and pencil tests and a videotaped structured interview. Results partially supported the proposed model. Some but not all of the affect and ability measures were related to interview outcomes, both directly and mediated by the interviewer's affective response (perceived similarity and liking). In addition to measures of emotional intelligence, measures of general and practical intelligence were associated with interview outcomes, but the orthogonality of IQ and the major emotion variables argue for the unique contributions of emotional intelligence and trait affect to interview success. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A Cooperative Internet Backup Scheme

We present a novel peer-to-peer backup technique that allows computers connected to the Internet to back up their data cooperatively: Each computer has a set of partner computers, which collectively hold its backup data. In return, it holds a part of each partner's backup data. By adding redundancy and distributing the backup data across many partners, a highly-reliable backup can be obtained in spite of the low reliability of the average Internet machine. Because our scheme requires cooperation, it is potentially vulnerable to several novel attacks involving free riding (e.g., holding a partner's data is costly, which tempts cheating) or disruption. We defend against these attacks using a number of new methods, including the use of periodic random challenges to ensure partners continue to hold data and the use of disk-space wasting to make cheating unprofitable. Results from an initial prototype show that our technique is feasible and very inexpensive: it appears to be one to two orders of magnitude cheaper than existing Internet backup services.
The cooling function of HD molecule revisited

We report new calculations of the cooling rate of primordial gas by the HD molecule, taking into account its ro-vibrational structure. The HD cooling function is calculated including radiative and collisional transitions for J 8 rotational levels, and for the vibrational levels v = 0, 1, 2 and 3. The ro-vibrational level population is calculated from the balance equation assuming steady state. The cooling function is evaluated in the ranges of the kinetic temperatures, T k, from 10 2 to 2 × 10 4 K and the number densities, nH, from 1 to 10 8 cm −3 . W efind that the inclusion of collisional ro-vibrational transitions increases significantly the HD cooling efficiency, in particular for high densities and temperatures. For n H 10 5 and T k ∼ 10 4 K the cooling function becomes more than an order of magnitude higher than previously reported. We give also the HD cooling rate in the presence of the cosmic microwave radiation field for radiation temperatures of 30, 85 and 276 K (redshifts of 10, 30 and 100). The tabulated cooling functions are available at http://www.cifus. uson.mx/Personal Pages/anton/DATA/HD cooling/HD cool. html. We discuss the relevance to explore the effects of including our results into models and simulations of galaxy formation, especially in the regime when gas cools down from temperatures above ∼3000 K.
Clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa from superficial skin infections have different physiological patterns.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa are known to have a wide physiological potential allowing them to constantly populate diverse environments leading to severe infections of humans such as septicemia, leg ulcers, and burn wounds. We set out to probe physiological characteristics of P. aeruginosa isolates from diabetic leg ulcers collected from Helsinki metropolitan area. A total of 61 clinical isolates were obtained. Detailed phenotypic (physiological) characteristics [outer membrane (OM) permeability, membrane voltage, and activity of multidrug resistance pumps] were determined in several growth phases leading to the division of the analyzed set of P. aeruginosa strains into five distinct clusters including cells with similar physiological properties. In addition, their antibiotic resistance patterns and genetic heterogeneity were determined. Multiple isolates from the same patient were genetically very closely related and belonged to the same phenotypic cluster. However, genetically close isolates from different patients expressed very different phenotypic properties. The characteristics of infected patients seem to determine the growth environments for microorganisms that adapt by changing their physiological and/or genetic properties.
A new less‐invasive and more informative low‐dose ACTH test: salivary steroids in response to intramuscular corticotrophin

objective The intravenous low‐dose ACTH test has been proposed as a sensitive tool to assess adrenal function through circulating steroids. The aims of this study were to: (a) find the minimal intramuscular ACTH dose that induced serum and salivary cortisol and aldosterone responses equivalent to those obtained after a pharmacological dose of ACTH; and (b) define the minimum normal salivary cortisol and aldosterone responses in healthy subjects to that dose of ACTH. We also compared the performances of the standard‐ and low‐dose ACTH intramuscular tests to screen patients with known hypothalamo–pituitary–adrenal impairments.