Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Potential and limitations of echocontrast-enhanced ultrasonography in acute stroke patients: a pilot study.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Ultrasonography (US) is a well-established method used to assess the brain-supplying arteries in the acute stroke setting. However, several technical and anatomic limitations are known to reduce its diagnostic accuracy and confidence level. Echocontrast agents (ECA) are known to improve the signal-to-noise ratio by enhancing the intensity of the reflecting Doppler signal. We undertook this prospective study to evaluate the diagnostic value of ECA in a consecutive, nonselected cohort of acute stroke patients with insufficient native US investigations. METHODS During a 1-year period, 25 patients were examined within 48 hours of the onset of stroke. The need for ECA was due to an insufficient transtemporal (n=18), transforaminal (n=4), or extracranial (n=3) imaging of arteries potentially involved in the ischemic event. In 12 patients, a diagnostic suspicion could natively be raised, whereas in the other 13 patients, the strongly reduced image quality did not allow for any neurovascular conclusions. Four grams of Levovist was injected at a concentration of 200 mg/mL and 400 mg/mL for the extracranial and transcranial insonations, respectively. The effect of the echocontrast enhancement was assessed with respect to (1) signal enhancement, (2) image quality, (3) final diagnostic confidence, and (4) the need for additional neurovascular imaging methods. RESULTS In all but one patient (96%), a strong signal enhancement was noted, leading to a moderate (n=11) or strong improvement (n=10) of the transcranial image quality. Thus in a total of 18 patients (72%), the echoenhancement provided a neurovascular diagnosis of sufficient confidence. This led to the confirmation of the previously suspected findings and disclosed three further occlusions and four stenoses of the intracranial arteries. In contrast, for the three extracranial examinations the image quality was not sufficiently improved because of persistent color artifacts derived from adjacent neck vessels. Besides the seven patients with inconclusive examinations, five patients with conclusive echoenhanced US studies (48% in total) demanded additive neurovascular imaging studies, based on the clinical decision of the attending physicians. This led to confirmation of all high-confident sonographic diagnoses. CONCLUSIONS In summary, in approximately three fourths of our acute stroke patients with insufficient native US investigations, echocontrast enhancement enabled a reliable neurovascular diagnosis, allowing the cancellation of additive neurovascular imaging procedures in half of our cohort. Our preliminary results suggest that ECA can reasonably support the early cerebrovascular workup in the acute stroke setting.
Misperceiving Bullshit as Profound Is Associated with Favorable Views of Cruz, Rubio, Trump and Conservatism

The present research investigates the associations between holding favorable views of potential Democratic or Republican candidates for the US presidency 2016 and seeing profoundness in bullshit statements. In this contribution, bullshit is used as a technical term which is defined as communicative expression that lacks content, logic, or truth from the perspective of natural science. We used the Bullshit Receptivity scale (BSR) to measure seeing profoundness in bullshit statements. The BSR scale contains statements that have a correct syntactic structure and seem to be sound and meaningful on first reading but are actually vacuous. Participants (N = 196; obtained via Amazon Mechanical Turk) rated the profoundness of bullshit statements (using the BSR) and provided favorability ratings of three Democratic (Hillary Clinton, Martin O’Malley, and Bernie Sanders) and three Republican candidates for US president (Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Donald Trump). Participants also completed a measure of political liberalism/conservatism. Results revealed that favorable views of all three Republican candidates were positively related to judging bullshit statements as profound. The smallest correlation was found for Donald Trump. Although we observe a positive association between bullshit and support for the three Democrat candidates, this relationship is both substantively small and statistically insignificant. The general measure of political liberalism/conservatism was also related to judging bullshit statements as profound in that individuals who were more politically conservative had a higher tendency to see profoundness in bullshit statements. Of note, these results were not due to a general tendency among conservatives to see profoundness in everything: Favorable views of Republican candidates and conservatism were not significantly related to profoundness ratings of mundane statements. In contrast, this was the case for Hillary Clinton and Martin O’Malley. Overall, small-to-medium sized correlations were found, indicating that far from all conservatives see profoundness in bullshit statements.
A robust method for quantification of IKr-related T-wave morphology abnormalities

The QTc interval plays an important role in premarket testing of new drugs, but the intrinsic variability of the measurement is critical. Most arrhythmogenic drugs inhibit the IKr current and cause both QTc prolongation and changes in T-wave morphology. Quantification of T-wave morphology may be useful in drug testing, but no robust method exists for this purpose. We present a method for quantification of IKr-related T-wave morphology changes: T-wave asymmetry, flatness and the presence of notches on the T-wave combined to an overall morphology combination score (MCS). In a population of 30 LQT2-subjects (congenital IKr inhibition) and 1096 healthy subjects, both QTcF and MCS yield clear separation between the groups (p<0.001), sensitivity 90%, specificity 95%.
Cultivating the Under-Mined: Cross-Case Analysis as Knowledge Mobilization

Obwohl die Bedeutung von Fallstudien fur die Sozialwissenschaften vielfach unterstrichen wird, sind sie – so unsere Erfahrung – vergleichsweise selten genutzte Wissenszugange. Durch fallvergleichende Analyseverfahren kann das Wissen aus Einzelfallstudien produktiv genutzt werden, indem Forschende uber Einzelfalluntersuchungen zu relevanten Befunden kommen und hiervon ausgehend Falle so vergleichen und kontrastieren, dass sie zu zusatzlichen Erkenntnissen gelangen. In diesem Beitrag stellen wir zunachst Theorien daruber vor, wie Wissen aus Einzelfallstudien generiert werden kann. Zusatzlich diskutieren wir existierende Techniken des Fallvergleichs. Daran anschliesend folgen Vorschlage dazu, wie Forschende fallvergleichende Analyseverfahren einsetzen konnen. Am Ende stellen wir dann eine neues Online-Angebot vor: die Foresee (4C) database. Ziel der 4C database ist es, das Generieren von Wissen aus Einzelfallen zu befordern, indem Forschende bei fallvergleichenden Analysen unterstutzt werden, und zugleich eine Online-Community fur den wissenschaftlichen Austausch uber Fallstudien zu bilden. In das Design der 4C database sind Erfahrungen daruber eingegangen, wie ausgehend von Einzelfallen und mittels fallvergleichender Techniken Wissen generiert werden kann. Anhand von Beispielen zeigen wir, in welcher Weise die Nutzung der 4C database dazu beitragen kann, bis dahin schlummerndes Wissen aus Einzelfallstudien produktiv weiterzuverwenden. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0801348
Parentification and Separation-Individuation in Siblings of Individuals with a Chronic Illness or Disability

iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vi LIST OF TABLES xi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY 1 CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 3 Well Siblings 3 Gender and birth order 7 Family and Parental Factors 8 Emerging Adulthood 12 Mental Health 15 Separation-Individuation 16 Parentification 22 Outcomes and Sequelae 24 Parentification and Identity Development 28 Cultural and Ethnic Variables 29 Research Questions 31 Definition of Terms 32 CHAPTER 3: METHODS 33 Participants 33 Materials 33 The Separation-Individuation Test of Adolescence 33
Workaholics and Drop Outs in Optimal Organizations

This paper reports the results of experiments designed to test the theory of the optimal composition of prizes in contests. We find that while in the aggregate the behavior of our subjects is consistent with that predicted by the theory, such aggregate results mask an unexpected compositional effect on the individual level. While theory predicts that subject efforts are continuous and increasing functions of ability, the actual efforts of our laboratory subjects bifurcate. Low ability workers drop out and exert little or no effort while high ability subjects try too hard. This discontinuity, which is masked by aggregation, has significant consequences for behavior in organizations. (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
ACE Insertion/Deletion Polymorphism and Diabetic Nephropathy: Clinical Implications of Genetic Information

Approximately 20–40% of diabetic patients develop nephropathy which is the leading cause of ESRD in developed countries. The ACE I/D polymorphism is thought to be a marker for functional polymorphism which regulates circulating and tissue ACE activity. While the initial study found a protective effect of the II genotype on the development of nephropathy in IDDM patients, subsequent studies have addressed the role of ACE I/D polymorphism in the development and progression of diabetic nephropathy. RAAS blockers are the first line drugs for the treatment hypertension associated with diabetes and have been widely used in everyday clinical practice for the purpose of reducing proteinuria in patients with various renal diseases. However, the antiproteinuric effect of RAAS blockers is variable and the percentage of reducing proteinuria is in the range of 20–80%. The antiproteinuric effect of RAAS blockers may be related to a number of factors: the type or the dose of RAAS blockers, the duration of therapy, the level of sodium intake, and the type of patient's ACE I/D genotype. Besides the nongenetic factors, drug responses, can be influenced by ACE gene polymorphism. In this review, we discuss the relationship between ACE I/D polymorphism and diabetic nephropathy and therapeutic response of RAAS blockers.
Unemployment Fluctuations and Stabilization Policies: A New Keynesian Perspective

The past fifteen years have witnessed the rise of the New Keynesian model as a framework of reference for the analysis of fluctuations and stabilization policies. That framework, which combines the rigor and internal consistency of dynamic general equilibrium models with such typically Keynesian assumptions as monopolistic competition and nominal rigidities, makes possible a meaningful, welfare-based analysis of the effects of monetary policy rules. But the conspicuous absence of unemployment from the standard New Keynesian model has given rise to both criticism and attempts to rectify this anomaly. In this book, Jordi Gali, one of the major contributors to the New Keynesian literature, offers a new approach to introducing unemployment into that framework. Gali's approach involves a reinterpretation of the labor market in the standard New Keynesian model with staggered wage setting (rather than a modification or extension of the model, as has been proposed by others). The resulting framework preserves the convenience of the representative household paradigm and allows one to determine the equilibrium levels of employment, the labor force, and hence the unemployment rate conditional on the monetary policy in place. Gali develops the basic model, embedding it in a standard New Keynesian framework with staggered price and wage setting; revisits the relationship between economic fluctuations and efficiency through the lens of the new model, developing a measure of the output gap; and analyzes the relation between unemployment and the design of monetary policy.
Active Constraints/Virtual Fixtures: A Survey

Active constraints, also known as virtual fixtures, are high-level control algorithms which can be used to assist a human in man-machine collaborative manipulation tasks. The active constraint controller monitors the robotic manipulator with respect to the environment and task, and anisotropically regulates the motion to provide assistance. The type of assistance offered by active constraints can vary, but they are typically used to either guide the user along a task-specific pathway or limit the user to within a “safe” region. There are several diverse methods described within the literature for applying active constraints, and these are surveyed within this paper. The active constraint research is described and compared using a simple generalized framework, which consists of three primary processes: 1) constraint definition, 2) constraint evaluation, and 3) constraint enforcement. All relevant research approaches for each of these processes, found using search terms associated to “virtual fixture,” “active constraint” and “motion constraint,” are presented.
Trans-dimensional Markov chain Monte Carlo

Summary In the context of sample-based computation of Bayesian posterior distributions in complex stochastic systems, this chapter discusses some of the uses for a Markov chain with a prescribed invariant distribution whose support is a union of euclidean spaces of differing dimensions. This leads into a re-formulation of the reversible jump MCMC framework for constructing such ‘trans-dimensional’ Markov chains. This framework is compared to alternative approaches for the same task, including methods that involve separate sampling within different fixed-dimension models. We consider some of the difficulties researchers have encountered with obtaining adequate performance with some of these methods, attributing some of these to misunderstandings, and offer tentative recommendations about algorithm choice for various classes of problem. The chapter concludes with a look towards desirable future developments.
Population structure of Opisthorchis felineus (Trematoda) and its second intermediate hosts — cyprinid fishes in the Ob-Irtysh focus of opisthorchiasis, based on allozyme data

SummaryGenetic variability of West Siberian populations of Opisthorchis felineus and two species of cyprinid fish, its second intermediate hosts, was studied by isozyme analysis. Low levels of allozyme variation and genetic differentiation in O. felineus from the Ob-Irtysh focus of opisthorchiasis were detected. The proportion of polymorphic loci was 21.1 %, the average observed heterozygosity (Hobs) was 0.008, and expected heterozygosity (Hexp) was 0.052. For most loci in O. felineus deficit of heterozygotes (FIS = 0.7424) was observed. A comparison of population genetic structure of fish and parasites showed they were not congruent. Estimates of genetic differentiation of the parasite were smaller than for the fish — its intermediate host. Migration and population structure of the second intermediate hosts do not play an important role in formation of the population-genetic structure of O. felineus in the Ob-Irtysh focus of opisthorchiasis.
Reference-based compressed sensing: A sample complexity approach

We address the problem of reference-based compressed sensing: reconstruct a sparse signal from few linear measurements using as prior information a reference signal, a signal similar to the signal we want to reconstruct. Access to reference signals arises in applications such as medical imaging, e.g., through prior images of the same patient, and compressive video, where previously reconstructed frames can be used as reference. Our goal is to use the reference signal to reduce the number of required measurements for reconstruction. We achieve this via a reweighted ℓ1-ℓ1 minimization scheme that updates its weights based on a sample complexity bound. The scheme is simple, intuitive and, as our experiments show, outperforms prior algorithms, including reweighted ℓ1 minimization, ℓ1-ℓ1 minimization, and modified CS.
Strategy as simple rules.

The success of Yahoo! , eBay, Enron, and other companies that have become adept at morphing to meet the demands of changing markets can't be explained using traditional thinking about competitive strategy. These companies have succeeded by pursuing constantly evolving strategies in market spaces that were considered unattractive according to traditional measures. In this article--the third in an HBR series by Kathleen Eisenhardt and Donald Sull on strategy in the new economy--the authors ask, what are the sources of competitive advantage in high-velocity markets? The secret, they say, is strategy as simple rules. The companies know that the greatest opportunities for competitive advantage lie in market confusion, but they recognize the need for a few crucial strategic processes and a few simple rules. In traditional strategy, advantage comes from exploiting resources or stable market positions. In strategy as simple rules, advantage comes from successfully seizing fleeting opportunities. Key strategic processes, such as product innovation, partnering, or spinout creation, place the company where the flow of opportunities is greatest. Simple rules then provide the guidelines within which managers can pursue such opportunities. Simple rules, which grow out of experience, fall into five broad categories: how- to rules, boundary conditions, priority rules, timing rules, and exit rules. Companies with simple-rules strategies must follow the rules religiously and avoid the temptation to change them too frequently. A consistent strategy helps managers sort through opportunities and gain short-term advantage by exploiting the attractive ones. In stable markets, managers rely on complicated strategies built on detailed predictions of the future. But when business is complicated, strategy should be simple.
A qualitative feminist analysis of health and social care services to illegal drug users.

My research examines the work of two agencies delivering heath and social care services to illegal drug users and in so doing, aims to reveal how far these services operate in women's interest. The analysis draws on feminist principles of health and social care practice in order to construct an analytic framework for the collection and processing of data. It adopts a research methodology which is congruent with a feminist approach to social enquiry and which is committed to exposing the knowledge creation process to critical scrutiny. Data is collected using the techniques of participant observation and in-depth interview and the study integrates both sets of data in developing its discussion of findings.An early decision was taken to focus on the way in which the services are delivered to both men and women in order to examine the operation of gendered power relations and their impact on the ways in which clients are seen and responded to. The use of gender as a key variable has resulted in an analysis which points up a lack of attention to men's abuse of women in the social work encounter. Men's abusing rather than abusive behaviours are the main focus of attention. In contrast, a marked concern with women's potential abuse and neglect of their children was evident on one of the research sites. A propensity to respond to women primarily as mothers has been revealed and critically scrutinised. These, together with other key findings, suggest that services are not gender neutral, that they are designed to respond to a predominantly male drug user and that treatment strategies have been tailored accordingly.In drawing the analysis to a conclusion I have revisited the feminist principles of health and social care which provide the study's conceptual framework and have considered how far they can assist in developing services which meet women's needs and in furthering a feminist political agenda. I reflect critically on the methodological approach I have adopted and consider its impact on the validity of the research.
Do Individuals Have Preferences Used in Macro-Finance Models? An Experimental Investigation

Recent financial studies often assume that agents have Epstein--Zin preferences---preferences that require agents to care about when uncertainty is resolved. Under this “recursive-preference” framework, the preference for uncertainty resolution is entirely determined by an agent's preferences for risk and intertemporal substitution. To test the implications of this model, this paper presents an experiment designed to elicit subject preferences on risk, time, intertemporal substitution, and uncertainty resolution. Results reveal that most subjects prefer early resolution of uncertainty and have relative risk aversion greater than the reciprocal of the elasticity of intertemporal substitution, consistent with the predictions by recursive preferences. Subjects are classified in a finite mixture model by their risk, time, and intertemporal-substitution parameters. Regression results show that types predicted by the Epstein--Zin model to prefer early resolution choose early resolution with 20%--50% higher probability.Data, as supplemental material, are available at http://dx.doi. org/10.1287/mnsc.2013. 1794 This paper was accepted by Brad Barber, finance.
Sentidos de saúde, cuidado e risco para adolescentes residentes na favela da Maré, no Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

Trata-se de um estudo qualitativo acerca dos sentidos atribuidos aos termos saude, cuidado e risco por adolescentes brasileiros residentes no conjunto de favelas da Mare, no municipio do Rio de Janeiro. A analise referencia-se em reflexoes sobre a perspectiva epidemiologica de enquadramento dos individuos dessa faixa etaria na categoria grupo de risco e o processo de midiatizacao social, que potencializa a circulacao de informacoes a respeito da tematica. O principal instrumento de coleta de dados foram discussoes em grupo com adolescentes entre 14 e 16 anos. As dinâmicas permitiram observar a presenca de discursos concorrentes da cultura do risco, de tradicoes familiares e do contexto de violencia no cotidiano dos participantes. Destacam-se as mediacoes das maes, dos medicos que atuam na atencao basica e dos meios de comunicacao na construcao social desses sentidos.
Numerics for hyperbolic partial differential equations (PDE) via Cellular Neural Networks (CNN)

The paper proposes an Artificial Intelligence approach for computing an approximate solution for a hyperbolic partial differential equation (PDE) modeling the vibration of a drilling plant. The basic idea relies on using the repetitive structure induced by the Method of Lines for assigning a Cellular Neural Network (CNN) to perform the numerics. The method ensures from the beginning the convergence of the approximation and preserves the stability of the initial problem.