Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Caloric and Rotatory Chair Test Results in Patients with Ménière's Disease

Objectives: To determine whether an association exists between the parameters of the caloric and rotatory chair tests in patients with unilateral Ménière's disease. Methods: Patients with unilateral Ménière's disease (n = 100) were subjected to the caloric and the rotatory chair test (sinusoidal harmonic acceleration and impulsive tests) on the same day. Canal paresis and directional preponderance were assessed in the caloric test, and different variables were measured in the rotatory chair test based on the existence of abnormal parameters in the vestibulo-ocular reflex at two or three consecutive frequencies of those tested and on the time constant of the vestibulo-ocular reflex. Study Design and Setting: A prospective study was conducted at a University hospital. Results: An abnormal result in the caloric test was obtained from 73% of the patients. In the rotatory chair test, the most frequent abnormal findings involved increases in the normal phase lead at 2 consecutive frequencies tested (23%). There was a stronger association between an abnormal result in phase, gain, and/or symmetry at three adjacent frequencies and a pathological result in the caloric test. Conclusion: Very few of the criteria used to define the caloric and rotatory chair tests seem to be associated. This confirms previous knowledge that both tests examine vestibulo-ocular reflex by different ways. Only when vestibular dysfunction issevere enough (manifested by the finding of an abnormal result in at least three consecutive frequencies in the rotatory chair test), the caloric test is also found to be abnormal.
Status of Empirical Research in Component Based Software Engineering - A Systematic Literature Review of empirical studies

the non-exclusive right to publish the Work electronically and in a non-commercial purpose make it accessible on the Internet. The Author warrants that he/she is the author to the Work, and warrants that the Work does not contain text, pictures or other material that violates copyright law. The Author shall, when transferring the rights of the Work to a third party (for example a publisher or a company), acknowledge the third party about this agreement. If the Author has signed a copyright agreement with a third party regarding the Work, the Author warrants hereby that he/she has obtained any necessary permission from this third party to let Chalmers University of Technology and University of Gothenburg store the Work electronically and make it accessible on the Internet. 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Sven-Arne Andréasson for his continuous support and guidance throughout my work. Finally I'm grateful to my family and friends who were always there to attend my needs and I'm happy for their care, best wishes and blessings. Abstract Objective: In this paper we present a systematic literature review of the empirical research in Component Based Software Engineering (CBSE). CBSE has evolved as a popular software development methodology since the introduction of Microsoft's Component Object Model (COM) in the early 90s. The purpose of CBSE is to develop systems by incorporating various independent yet well-defined software pieces in the name of components. The objective of this study is to identify the amount of empirical research done, the types of empirical studies and the research topics that are being discussed in the literature. Method: We performed a systematic literature review of the papers that were published between January 1995 and August 2011. CBSE attained much of the industry's attention only after the introduction of Microsoft's COM, Sun Microsystems's JavaBeans and OMG's CORBA in the early 90s which showed up after 1993, thus we chose 1995 as the starting point for research on CBSE. We followed the guidelines of Kitchenham in performing the review. Results: We found 47 papers which is the amount of empirical research that has been done during this period. Case study research and Experimentation were the most prevalent and preferred research methodologies which constituted 40.5% and 42.5% respectively. The research topics that were the most discussed among these papers are Conclusion: From this study we found certain areas …
Sexual Risk Behaviors, Circumcision Status, and Preexisting Immunity to Adenovirus Type 5 Among Men Who Have Sex With Men Participating in a Randomized HIV-1 Vaccine Efficacy Trial: Step Study

Background The Step Study found that men who had sex with men (MSM) who received an adenovirus type 5 (Ad5) vector–based vaccine and were uncircumcised or had prior Ad5 immunity, had a higher HIV incidence than MSM who received placebo. We investigated whether differences in HIV exposure, measured by reported sexual risk behaviors, may explain the increased risk. Methods Among 1764 MSM in the trial, 726 were uncircumcised, 994 had prior Ad5 immunity, and 563 were both uncircumcised and had prior Ad5 immunity. Analyses compared sexual risk behaviors and perceived treatment assignment among vaccine and placebo recipients, determined risk factors for HIV acquisition, and examined the role of insertive anal intercourse in HIV risk among uncircumcised men. Results Few sexual risk behaviors were significantly higher in vaccine versus placebo recipients at baseline or during follow-up. Among uncircumcised men, vaccine recipients at baseline were more likely to report unprotected insertive anal intercourse with HIV-negative partners (24.9% vs. 18.1%; P = 0.03). Among uncircumcised men who had prior Ad5 immunity, vaccine recipients were more likely to report unprotected insertive anal intercourse with partners of unknown HIV status (46.0% vs. 37.8%; P = 0.05). Vaccine recipients remained at higher risk of HIV infection compared with placebo recipients (hazard ratio = 2.8; 95% confidence interval, 1.2–6.8) controlling for potential confounders. Conclusions These analyses do not support a behavioral explanation for the increased HIV infection rates observed among uncircumcised men in the Step Study. Identifying biologic mechanisms to explain the increased risk is a priority .
Detection Model of Creativity Development to Improve the Council Members’ Performance by Using the Big Five Personality Detection

This study aims to analyze the influence of the Big Five Personality factors which consists of Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness, the Creativity and its implications to the performance of Regional People's Representative Council of Central Java Province 2009-2014 and 2014-2019 period. A total of 58 Council members of parliament who were still active Semarang taken as research subjects. This study uses a quantitative research, with making all members of the institution to be the subject of research or population study. Linear Regression Analysis of the two stages were used to analyze the data in this study with SPSS 21. The results showed that three factors of the Big Five Personality had signifcantly positive effect on creativity namely Neuroticism with t count of 2,377 with sig . 0.021, Openness to Experience with t count of 2.243 sig. 0,029 and Conscientiousness with t count of 2,088 with sig. 0,042. In the regression test stage II, the result of the t value was -18,379 with a sig. 0,352. In short, the Big Five Personality affect positively and significantly on creativity and t hay have implications on the performance of the legislators of Semarang City. The implication of this study is that it should be the selection of the members of the board need to be an emphasis on a personality that is Neuriticism, Openness to experience and Conscientiousness to detect the success of the creativity that support the performance of board members.
Intensive HST, RXTE, and ASCA Monitoring of NGC 3516: Evidence against Thermal Reprocessing

During 1998 April 13-16, the bright, strongly variable Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 3516 was monitored almost continuously with HST for 10.3 hr at ultraviolet wavelengths and 2.8 days at optical wavelengths, and simultaneous RXTE and ASCA monitoring covered the same period. The X-ray fluxes were strongly variable with the soft (0.5-2 keV) X-rays showing stronger variations (~65% peak to peak) than the hard (2-10 keV) X-rays (~50% peak to peak). The optical continuum showed much smaller but still highly significant variations: a slow ~2.5% rise followed by a faster ~3.5% decline. The short ultraviolet observation did not show significant variability. The soft and hard X-ray light curves were strongly correlated, with no evidence for a significant interband lag. Likewise, the optical continuum bands (3590 and 5510 Å) were also strongly correlated, with no measurable lag, to 3 σ limits of ≲0.15 day. However, the optical and X-ray light curves showed very different behavior, and no significant correlation or simple relationship could be found. These results appear difficult to reconcile with previous reports of correlations between X-ray and optical variations and of measurable lags within the optical band for some other Seyfert 1 galaxies. These results also present serious problems for "reprocessing" models in which the X-ray source heats a stratified accretion disk, which then reemits in the optical/ultraviolet: the synchronous variations within the optical would suggest that the emitting region is ≲0.3 lt-day across, while the lack of correlation between X-ray and optical variations would indicate, in the context of this model, that any reprocessing region must be ≳1 lt-day in size. It may be possible to resolve this conflict by invoking anisotropic emission or special geometry, but the most natural explanation appears to be that the bulk of the optical luminosity is generated by some mechanism other than reprocessing.
Generalized Additive Models Used to Predict Species Abundance in the Gulf of Mexico: An Ecosystem Modeling Tool

Spatially explicit ecosystem models of all types require an initial allocation of biomass, often in areas where fisheries independent abundance estimates do not exist. A generalized additive modelling (GAM) approach is used to describe the abundance of 40 species groups (i.e. functional groups) across the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) using a large fisheries independent data set (SEAMAP) and climate scale oceanographic conditions. Predictor variables included in the model are chlorophyll a, sediment type, dissolved oxygen, temperature, and depth. Despite the presence of a large number of zeros in the data, a single GAM using a negative binomial distribution was suitable to make predictions of abundance for multiple functional groups. We present an example case study using pink shrimp (Farfantepenaeus duroarum) and compare the results to known distributions. The model successfully predicts the known areas of high abundance in the GoM, including those areas where no data was inputted into the model fitting. Overall, the model reliably captures areas of high and low abundance for the large majority of functional groups observed in SEAMAP. The result of this method allows for the objective setting of spatial distributions for numerous functional groups across a modeling domain, even where abundance data may not exist.
Corticosterone inhibits uncoupling protein gene expression in brown adipose tissue.

Uncoupling protein (UCP) mRNA levels were studied in the interscapular brown adipose tissue (BAT) of rats undergoing different manipulations of the adrenal function and BAT adrenergic stimulation. Adrenalectomy did not affect UCP mRNA levels for up to 8 days post-surgery. However, adrenalectomized rats underwent a greater increase in UCP mRNA levels (26%) than intact rats after 4 h of cold exposure. Administration of corticosterone (500 micrograms.100 g body wt-1.day-1 sc) to intact or adrenalectomized rats, kept at 28 degrees C, produced a marked decrease of UCP mitochondrial content and cellular mRNA levels in a time-dependent manner (30% by 12 h and 50% by 24 h). Pretreatment of intact rats with corticosterone virtually abolished the UCP mRNA response to cold and norepinephrine (NE). In contrast, when rats had been preexposed to cold for 96 h, the injection of corticosterone did not affect UCP mRNA. These results show that corticosterone is a powerful inhibitor of UCP gene expression in vivo. Corticosterone inhibits both basal gene expression at thermoneutrality and the response to adrenergic stimulation either by cold or exogenous NE, suggesting a direct action on BAT. The data further suggest that corticosterone inhibits the initial accumulation of UCP mRNA mediated by UCP gene transcription, rather than accelerating the degradation of UCP mRNA.
Contextual processing in psychosis and cannabis use

Neuropsychological assessment requires the use of tools that sometimes have very high upfront costs, and which may appear expensive. At the same time, due to initiatives such as Payment by Results and the Health and Social Care Act, there is increasing pressure for individual services to be fully costed. Prior to this audit, there were no figures either for usage or costs of psychological measures in South London and Maudsley’s (SLAM) National and Specialist (N&S) child units. The aim of the current audit was thus to assess the real world usage and costs associated with such tools within SLAM N&S child services.
Clinical validation of automated audiometry with continuous noise-monitoring in a clinically heterogeneous population outside a sound-treated environment

Abstract Objective: Examine the accuracy of automated audiometry in a clinically heterogeneous population of adults using the KUDUwave automated audiometer. Design: Prospective accuracy study. Manual audiometry was performed in a sound-treated room and automated audiometry was not conducted in a sound-treated environment. Study sample: 42 consecutively recruited participants from a tertiary otolaryngology department in Western Australia. Results: Absolute mean differences ranged between 5.12–9.68 dB (air-conduction) and 8.26–15 dB (bone-conduction). A total of 86.5% of manual and automated 4FAs were within 10 dB (i.e. ±5 dB); 94.8% were within 15 dB. However, there were significant (p < 0.05) differences between automated and manual audiometry at 250, 500, 1000, and 2000 Hz (air-conduction) and 500 and 1000 Hz (bone-conduction). The effect of age (≥55 years) on accuracy (p = 0.014) was not significant on linear regression (p > 0.05; R2 = 0.11). The presence of a hearing loss (better ear ≥26 dB) did not significantly affect accuracy (p = 0.604; air-conduction), (p = 0.218; bone-conduction). Conclusions: This study provides clinical validation of automated audiometry using the KUDUwave in a clinically heterogeneous population, without the use of a sound-treated environment. Whilst threshold variations were statistically significant, future research is needed to ascertain the clinical significance of such variation.
Sex/Gender: Biology in a Social World

Chapter 1: A Genderless Future? Chapter 2: Of Spirals and Layers. Chapter 3: Of Molecules and Sex. Chapter 4: Of Hormones and Brains. Chapter Five: Am I a Boy or a Girl? -- The Emergence of Gender Identity. Chapter 6: Thinking about Homosexuality. Chapter 7: Thinking about Groups Thinking about Individuals. Chapter 8: Pink and Blue Forever. Chapter 9: The Developmental Dynamics of Pink and Blue. Chapter 10: Epilogue:The Future of Gender (and Sex).
Influences of copper speciation on toxicity to microorganisms in soils.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the relationship between copper speciation and microbial features (microbial communities and copper tolerance level) in order to determine the adverse effect of different forms of Cu on microorganisms. METHODS Tessier's sequential extraction procedure was used to qualify the different Cu forms (exchangeable, carbonate bound, Fe/Mn oxide bound, residue and organic matter bound), and the copper tolerance level (expressed as IC50, influence concentration) was measured by the plate-count method. RESULTS By simple correlation analysis, the IC50 was positively correlated with the concentration of exchangeable Cu (R2 = 0.8204), while weakly correlated with other forms of Cu. CONCLUSION The bacterial community tolerance increases in the copper-contaminated soil while sensitive bacteria decrease in the copper-contaminated soils. The exchangeable Cu exerts high toxicity to microbial communities.
Antihypertensive monotherapy or combined therapy: which is more effective on functional status?

ABSTRACT Background: This study aims to analyze the effects of anti-hypertensive monotherapy and combined therapy on functional status, and cardiovascular risk outcomes in older adults. Methods: This longitudinal non-randomized cohort study, involved hypertensive older adults (n = 440) aged 60 or more years with comorbidities. Participants underwent a community exercise training program and one of the following 2 conditions: i) use of daily mono-dose angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi; n= 232); ii) combined therapy including ACEi plus other class agent (Combined; n= 208). Baseline and 2-year follow-up evaluations included the functional fitness, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), health history questionnaires, anthropometric and hemodynamic profile. Results: Both experimental groups have significantly improved physical functional status, and have significantly decreased blood pressure and waist circumference. ACEi group has significantly reduced body mass and body mass index, the Combined group significantly reduced the waist-to-hip ratio. Additionally, both groups perceived better physical HRQoL. Conclusions: Functional status has improved with ACEi medication and exercise training, regardless the ACEi medication therapy. Exercise training plus ACEi antihypertensive therapy should be recommended into the standard prescription practice to reduce the rate of physical disability among hypertensive older adults.
A Streamlined Approach by a Combination of Bioindication and Geostatistical Methods for Assessing Air Contaminants and Their Effects on Human Health in Industrialized Areas: A Case Study in Southern Brazil

Industrialization in developing countries associated with urban growth results in a number of economic benefits, especially in small or medium-sized cities, but leads to a number of environmental and public health consequences. This problem is further aggravated when adequate infrastructure is lacking to monitor the environmental impacts left by industries and refineries. In this study, a new protocol was designed combining biomonitoring and geostatistics to evaluate the possible effects of shale industry emissions on human health and wellbeing. Futhermore, the traditional and expensive air quality method based on PM2.5 measuring was also used to validate the low-cost geostatistical approach. Chemical analysis was performed using Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometer (EDXRF) to measure inorganic elements in tree bark and shale retorted samples in São Mateus do Sul city, Southern Brazil. Fe, S, and Si were considered potential pollutants in the study area. Distribution maps of element concentrations were generated from the dataset and used to estimate the spatial behavior of Fe, S, and Si and the range from their hot spot(s), highlighting the regions sorrounding the shale refinery. This evidence was also demonstrated in the measurements of PM2.5 concentrations, which are in agreement with the information obtained from the biomonitoring and geostatistical model. Factor and descriptive analyses performed on the concentrations of tree bark contaminants suggest that Fe, S, and Si might be used as indicators of industrial emissions. The number of cases of respiratory diseases obtained from local basic health unit were used to assess a possible correlation between shale refinery emissions and cases of repiratory disease. These data are public and may be accessed on the website of the the Brazilian Ministry of Health. Significant associations were found between the health data and refinery activities. The combination of the spatial characterization of air pollution and clinical health data revealed that adverse effects were significant for individuals over 38 years of age. These results also suggest that a protocol designed to monitor urban air quality may be an effective and low-cost strategy in environmentally contaminated cities, especially in low- and middle-income countries.
Do Manufacturers Pollute Less Under the Regulation-Through-Information Regime? What Plant-Level Data Tell Us

Because past studies on the effects of right-to-know laws have relied on highly aggregated data, it is still unknown whether being located in a state with a funded right-to-know program has a significant effect on the environmental performance of individual manufacturing plants. Nor has it been shown that such effects exist net of other plant characteristics that are known to increase pollution. To remedy this situation, we have used plant-level data from the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory to test the effects of states' right-to-know programs on the toxic emissions of chemical plants in 1990 and 2000. Consistent with several organizational theories (neoinstitutionalism, organizational ecology, and the resource dependence framework) that stress how regulatory policies are just one of several institutional forces that bear on organizations, our findings reveal that states' right-to-know programs have had no significant net effect on plants' toxic emissions. In addition to raising questions about the efficacy of information disclosure laws, our results underscore the importance of approaching pollution as an organizational phenomenon and studying organizations where they most directly impact the environment-at the site of production.
Tracking control of a planar five-link bipedal walking system with point contact, considering self-impact joint constraint by adaptive neural network method

In order to achieve the practical characteristics of natural bipedal walking, a key feature is to realize "the straight knee state of walking" during stance and swing motions. Considering a straight knee necessitates that the shank link of each leg not to undergo the rotation angles which are greater than that of the thigh link. For this purpose, various methods have been proposed; the joint self-impact constraint has been suggested for energy-efficient (natural) bipedal walking while realizing the straight knee constraint.The prominent objective of this research is to present a model based control method for trajectory tracking of a normal human-like bipedal walking, by considering the joint self-impact constraint. To achieve this objective, the dynamical equations of motion of an unconstrained biped are taken, developed and then modified to consider the joint self-impact constraint at the knee joint.To control this complicated dynamical system, the available anthropometric normal gait cycle data are taken to generate the desired trajectories of the thigh and knee joints of the self-impact biped. Due to the existence of complex nonlinear terms in the dynamical governing equations of self-impact biped, the authors propose to design a nonlinear intelligent controller by taking advantage of the adaptive neural network control method, which neither requires the evaluation of inverse dynamical model nor the time consuming training process. According to the simulation results, the tracking control of the biped robot is accomplished well and the biped walking seems naturally, despite of involving complex nonlinear terms in the dynamical governing equations of the self-impact biped.