Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
INTRA AND INTEROBSERVER RELIABILITY OF THE ANGULAR KINEMATIC ANALYSIS OF THE HIP DURING THE SIT-AND-REACH TEST FOR MEASURING THE LENGTH OF HAMSTRING MUSCLES IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Background: The sit-and-reach test (SRT) is used to measure the flexibility of the lumbar spine and hamstring muscles and is better when the hip joint angle (HJA) is measured concomitantly. Objective: To assess the intra and interobserver reliability of the SRT for measuring hamstring muscle length through angular kinematic analysis. Method: Fifty university students (X= 21.5 years; SD= 1.5) without musculoskeletal abnormalities took part. A standard SRT bench with a door (to assess the action of the gastrocnemius muscles) and a digital photographic camera positioned on a tripod were used. Skin markers were placed on the anterosuperior iliac spine and greater trochanter. Two images were recorded: one with the door closed (CD) and another with the door open (OD). To test the intra and interobserver reliability, the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) (random effect with one factor) and the Bland and Altman concordance test (÷ = mean difference between measurements) were used, with the respective 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Results: The intraobserver reliability of the HJA test was: ICCdc= 0.97 (95% CI [0.95;0.99]) and Bland and Altman ÷ = -0.02 (95% CI [-0.11;0.07]); ICCdo = 0.98 (95% CI [0.96;0.99]), ÷ = -0.01 (95% CI [-0.11;0.08]). For the interobserver reliability: ICCdc= 0.96 (95% CI [0.94;0.98]) and ÷ = -0.07 (95% CI [-0.19;0.03]); ICCdo= 0.96 (95% CI [0.93;0.98] and ÷ = -0.06 (95% CI [-0.19;0.52]. Conclusion: The intra and interobserver reliability tests (CD and OD) for HJA assessment using kinematic analysis showed high reliability. The technique is easy to apply (only requiring a standard SRT bench and a photographic camera) and provides a reliable method for measuring hamstring muscles using kinematic analysis in clinical practice.
Business network orchestration in digital ecosystems

The ongoing evolution of interorganizational information systems (IOS) into industry-wide systems (IIOS) or digital ecosystem platforms raises new questions for researchers and practitioners alike, in particular the question of how organizations can gain advantage of these new ecosystems by orchestrating their business network. In an empirical study of the Dutch insurance industry, we use network theory and interorganizational systems theory to show that participation in a digital ecosystem leads to organizations orchestrating their network position into a larger portfolio of suppliers as well as a more differentiated portfolio of suppliers. A more differentiated supplier portfolio in turn leads to superior organizational performance.
Chromatin decondensation is accompanied by a transient increase in transcriptional output

The levels of chromatin condensation usually correlate inversely with the levels of transcription. The mechanistic links between chromatin condensation and RNA polymerase II activity remain to be elucidated. In the present work, we sought to experimentally determine whether manipulation of chromatin condensation levels can have a direct effect on transcriptional activity.
Observer-based adaptive containment control for multi-agent systems with nonlinear dynamics under directed graphs

This paper investigates the containment control problem for multi-agent systems with nonlinear dynamics under directed graph. Leaders' control inputs are unknown to any of the follower. A distributed adaptive protocol with a finite time unknown input observer is proposed to ensure that the states of the followers asymptotically converge to a convex hull spanned by the dynamic leaders. Compared with some existing results in the literature, the observer and protocol only depend on relative output information, and hence is fully distributed. A simulation example is provided to illustrate the theoretical results.
Automated Dynamic Analysis of Ransomware: Benefits, Limitations and use for Detection

Recent statistics show that in 2015 more than 140 millions new malware samples have been found. Among these, a large portion is due to ransomware, the class of malware whose specific goal is to render the victim's system unusable, in particular by encrypting important files, and then ask the user to pay a ransom to revert the damage. Several ransomware include sophisticated packing techniques, and are hence difficult to statically analyse. We present EldeRan, a machine learning approach for dynamically analysing and classifying ransomware. EldeRan monitors a set of actions performed by applications in their first phases of installation checking for characteristics signs of ransomware. Our tests over a dataset of 582 ransomware belonging to 11 families, and with 942 goodware applications, show that EldeRan achieves an area under the ROC curve of 0.995. Furthermore, EldeRan works without requiring that an entire ransomware family is available beforehand. These results suggest that dynamic analysis can support ransomware detection, since ransomware samples exhibit a set of characteristic features at run-time that are common across families, and that helps the early detection of new variants. We also outline some limitations of dynamic analysis for ransomware and propose possible solutions.
Loss of a unique tumor antigen by cytotoxic T lymphocyte immunoselection from a 3-methylcholanthrene-induced mouse sarcoma reveals secondary unique and shared antigens

Most chemically induced tumors of mice express unique antigens that can be recognized by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) and thereby mediate tumor rejection. The number of different antigens expressed by a single tumor and their interplay during immunization and rejection are largely unexplored. We used CTL clones specific to individual tumor antigens to examine the number and distribution of CTL antigens expressed by cell lines derived from 3-methylcholanthrene-induced sarcomas of (C57BL/6J X SPRET/Ei)F1 mice. Each tumor cell line expressed one or more antigens that were unique, that is, not detected on cell lines from independent sarcomas. Immunoselection against an immunodominant antigen produced both major histocompatibility complex class I antigen and unique tumor antigen loss variants. Immunization of mice with antigen-negative immunoselected variants resulted in CTL that recognized additional antigens that were also expressed by the progenitor tumor. Some CTL recognized additional unique tumor antigen(s); other CTL recognized a shared antigen expressed not only by the immunizing cell line, but also by independent sarcoma cell lines and untransformed myoblastoid cell lines. CTL that recognized the shared antigen were also recovered from mice immunized in vivo with an untransformed myoblastoid cell line. These findings support a model of immunodominance among chemically induced tumor antigens in which shared antigens are masked by unique immunodominant antigens.
Transformation of Streptococcus sanguis Challis with Streptococcus lactis plasmid DNA

Streptococcus lactis plasmid DNA, which is required for the fermentation of lactose (plasmid pLM2001), and a potential streptococcal cloning vector plasmid (pDB101) which confers resistance to erythromycin were evaluated by transformation into Streptococcus sanguis Challis. Plasmid pLM2001 transformed lactose-negative (Lac-) mutants of S. sanguis with high efficiency and was capable of conferring lactose-metabolizing ability to a mutant deficient in Enzyme IIlac, Factor IIIlac, and phospho-beta-galactosidase of the lactose phosphoenolpyruvate-phosphotransferase system. Plasmid pDB101 was capable of high-efficiency transformation of S. sanguis to antibiotic resistance, and the plasmid could be readily isolated from transformed strains. However, when 20 pLM2001 Lac+ transformants were analyzed by a variety of techniques for the presence of plasmids, none could be detected. In addition, attempts to cure the Lac+ transformants by treatment with acriflavin were unsuccessful. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was used to demonstrate that the transformants had acquired a phospho-beta-galactosidase characteristic of that normally produced by S. lactis and not S. sanguis. It is proposed that the genes required for lactose fermentation may have become stabilized in the transformants due to their integration into the host chromosome. The efficient transformation into and expression of pLM2001 and pDB101 genes in S. sanguis provides a model system which could allow the development of a system for cloning genes from dairy starter cultures into S. sanguis to examine factors affecting their expression and regulation.
REPORT RAPPORT

This note is concerned with the numerical technique of operator splitting for initial value problems. Using a sti(cid:11) linear ODE system as model problem, error bounds are derived for standard 1st-and 2nd-order splitting methods. The analysis focuses on deriving bounds independent of sti(cid:11)ness. The aim is to study the inﬂuence of sti(cid:11)ness on accuracy. Attention is paid to the inﬂuence of the splitting sequence on the splitting error and to the order reduction phenomenon.
Efficient virtual memory for big memory servers

Our analysis shows that many "big-memory" server workloads, such as databases, in-memory caches, and graph analytics, pay a high cost for page-based virtual memory. They consume as much as 10% of execution cycles on TLB misses, even using large pages. On the other hand, we find that these workloads use read-write permission on most pages, are provisioned not to swap, and rarely benefit from the full flexibility of page-based virtual memory. To remove the TLB miss overhead for big-memory workloads, we propose mapping part of a process's linear virtual address space with a direct segment, while page mapping the rest of the virtual address space. Direct segments use minimal hardware---base, limit and offset registers per core---to map contiguous virtual memory regions directly to contiguous physical memory. They eliminate the possibility of TLB misses for key data structures such as database buffer pools and in-memory key-value stores. Memory mapped by a direct segment may be converted back to paging when needed. We prototype direct-segment software support for x86-64 in Linux and emulate direct-segment hardware. For our workloads, direct segments eliminate almost all TLB misses and reduce the execution time wasted on TLB misses to less than 0.5%.
Visual attribute transfer through deep image analogy

We propose a new technique for visual attribute transfer across images that may have very different appearance but have perceptually similar semantic structure. By visual attribute transfer, we mean transfer of visual information (such as color, tone, texture, and style) from one image to another. For example, one image could be that of a painting or a sketch while the other is a photo of a real scene, and both depict the same type of scene. Our technique finds semantically-meaningful dense correspondences between two input images. To accomplish this, it adapts the notion of "image analogy" [Hertzmann et al. 2001] with features extracted from a Deep Convolutional Neutral Network for matching; we call our technique deep image analogy. A coarse-to-fine strategy is used to compute the nearest-neighbor field for generating the results. We validate the effectiveness of our proposed method in a variety of cases, including style/texture transfer, color/style swap, sketch/painting to photo, and time lapse.
Androgen-Independent Prostate Cancer Is a Heterogeneous Group of Diseases

Understanding the biology of prostate cancer metastasis has been limited by the lack of tissue for study. We studied the clinical data, distribution of prostate cancer involvement, morphology, immunophenotypes, and gene expression from 30 rapid autopsies of men who died of hormone-refractory prostate cancer. A tissue microarray was constructed and quantitatively evaluated for expression of prostate-specific antigen, androgen receptor, chromogranin, synaptophysin, MIB-1, and α-methylacylCoA-racemase markers. Hierarchical clustering of 16 rapid autopsy tumor samples was performed to evaluate the cDNA expression pattern associated with the morphology. Comparisons were made between patients as well as within the same patient. Metastatic hormone-refractory prostate cancer has a heterogeneous morphology, immunophenotype, and genotype, demonstrating that “metastatic disease” is a group of diseases even within the same patient. An appreciation of this heterogeneity is critical to evaluating diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers as well as to designing therapeutic targets for advanced disease.
Soil Nematode Responses to Increases in Nitrogen Deposition and Precipitation in a Temperate Forest

The environmental changes arising from nitrogen (N) deposition and precipitation influence soil ecological processes in forest ecosystems. However, the corresponding effects of environmental changes on soil biota are poorly known. Soil nematodes are the important bioindicator of soil environmental change, and their responses play a key role in the feedbacks of terrestrial ecosystems to climate change. Therefore, to explore the responsive mechanisms of soil biota to N deposition and precipitation, soil nematode communities were studied after 3 years of environmental changes by water and/or N addition in a temperate forest of Changbai Mountain, Northeast China. The results showed that water combined with N addition treatment decreased the total nematode abundance in the organic horizon (O), while the opposite trend was found in the mineral horizon (A). Significant reductions in the abundances of fungivores, plant-parasites and omnivores-predators were also found in the water combined with N addition treatment. The significant effect of water interacted with N on the total nematode abundance and trophic groups indicated that the impacts of N on soil nematode communities were mediated by water availability. The synergistic effect of precipitation and N deposition on soil nematode communities was stronger than each effect alone. Structural equation modeling suggested water and N additions had direct effects on soil nematode communities. The feedback of soil nematodes to water and nitrogen addition was highly sensitive and our results indicate that minimal variations in soil properties such as those caused by climate changes can lead to severe changes in soil nematode communities.
Community College Developmental Education Services: Perspectives of Spanish-Speaking Latino Early Childhood Educators

The purpose of this single-case study was to understand the perceptions of Latino Spanish-speaking English learners on the efficacy of developmental education services at a Western U.S. community college. The primary data collection method was in-depth individual interviews of a purposeful sample of nine successful students. Findings indicated that participants relied on Spanish instruction for comprehensible context, but needed consistent education support services from a culturally responsive institution in a language they understood.
Stress factors and behavioral characteristics in enuretic children.

Enuresis is defined as repeated, involuntary voiding of urine by day or night, at least two such events per month for children between age of 5-6 years and at least one event per month for older children. Excluded from this definition is repeated involuntary voiding of urine due to physical disorders(l). The exact etiology of this disorder has been a subject of debate. Psychological factors have often been implicated(2-4). The present study explores the relationship between nocturnal enuresis and various stress and behavioral factors from a relatively deprived population.
Metabolic Surgery in the Treatment Algorithm for Type 2 Diabetes: A Joint Statement by International Diabetes Organizations.

of the Clinical Problems Type 2 diabetes affects 12% to 14% of persons in the United States, with prevalence rates exceeding 20% in non-Hispanic black, Asian, and Hispanic populations.1 Pharmaceutical and behavioral approaches to restore glucose homeostasis and to avoid longterm complications of diabetes may be effective, but sustaining adherence is often difficult.2 Gastrointestinal operations (Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, vertical sleeve gastrectomy, laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding, and biliopancreatic diversion) provide substantial weight loss and often improve function and reduce obesity-related complications.3 Some consider bariatric interventions as metabolic surgeries when the goal is to improve metabolic health rather than weight alone, and these procedures can lead to changes in the gut microbiome and hormones, bile acid metabolism, and other factors that affect glucose homeostasis independent of weight loss.4 Recent studies and an emerging consensus suggest metabolic surgery to treat T2D in some patients. However, a firm link between controlling diabetes through metabolic surgery and preventing diabetes complications has yet to be established.
Adrenal function in different subgroups of septic shock patients

Background: Relative adrenal insufficiency (RAI) is a common complication during septic shock and may be more frequent in specific subgroups. The main objectives of this study were to determine the adrenal function and the RAI incidence in different subgroups of septic shock patients considering: main admission categories (medical, elective or emergency surgery); source of infection; nosocomial or community‐acquired infections; gender, age <65 years or >65 years; and the presence or absence of neurological diseases, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and bacteremia.
Sekularyzacja a nowe formy religijności

In the present article we point to the multi-paradigmatic character of sociology of religion against the background of criticism of the secularization thesis and to new forms of religiousness and spirituality that require new interpretation models with respect to modern transformations of religiousness and spirituality (the de-secularization thesis). Even if secularization is still an uncompleted process, this does not mean that religion is constantly dying; on the contrary, its vicissitudes are ever more complex and multifaceted. We witness formation of new forms of religiousness and spirituality. Paraphrasing Ulrich Beck’s statement about the family we could say that ever more contemporaries facing the alternative “church religiousness or lack of religiousness” decide on the third way, namely, extra-church religiousness that is “a pluralist and non-continuous trajectory of the biography”. Outside the Church a variety of forms of spirituality develop (“I am not religious, but I’m looking for spirituality”).
An audit comparing the discrepancies between a verbal enquiry, a written history and an electronic medical history questionnaire: a suggested medical history/social history form for clinical practice.

In everyday practice, dentists are confronted with an increasing number of patients with complex medical problems. There is divergence of opinion among dentists regarding how to obtain a thorough medical/social history. Purpose: The objective of this audit is to produce a standardised medical history in order to identify the medically compromised patient attending the general dental practitioner. At present in the Dublin Dental School and Hospital, there are three different methods: a verbal enquiry, and a written or an electronic questionnaire. This study was undertaken to identify any differences or discrepancies between each of the three methods in eliciting the medical history, and to determine whether one method was superior to the others. The results are used to recommend the most accurate method for obtaining a thorough health history for practitioners, both in a hospital and a general practice setting. Method: One hundred and fifty charts within the Dublin Dental School and Hospital of all new patients at a randomly chosen clinic were selected and then audited: 50 charts from the oral and maxillofacial surgery assessment clinics (written pro forma questionnaire), 50 from the oral medicine clinic (consultant verbal enquiry), and 50 from A&E (electronic questionnaire) were compared to determine if an adequate medical history was taken, and to detect differences and discrepancies in patients’ medical histories. The records pertained to 91 females and 59 males. The age distribution was 5-87 years for females and 3-85 years for males. The mean age was 45 years for females and 42 years for males. Results: The written patient-administered pro forma questionnaire, combined with verbal verification by the clinician/consultant, proved to be the most useful and consistent method for detecting medical problems in dental patients. The consultant verbal enquiry alone showed more inconsistency than the other two methods. Based on these results, a modified questionnaire for use within all departments in the Dental Hospital has been proposed. This may also be suitable for use by general dental practitioners in their practice setting. Conclusion: It is incumbent on the clinician/dentist to evaluate each patient’s general health prior to delivering treatment in order to avoid unnecessary and preventable complications. The use of written patient-administered pro forma questionnaires is beneficial but must be verified by the examining clinician/dentist and assessed at each new visit (6-12 monthly) to be contemporaneous. Journal of the Irish Dental Association 2011; 57 (1): 54-59. February/March 2011 54 : VOLUME 57 (1) Peer-reviewed JOURNAL OF THE IRISH DENTAL ASSOCIATION JIDA_FebruaryMarch2011_AW_JIDA 07/02/2011 10:30 Page 54
The Intrauterine and Nursing Period Is a Window of Susceptibility for Development of Obesity and Intestinal Tumorigenesis by a High Fat Diet in Min/+ Mice as Adults

We studied how obesogenic conditions during various life periods affected obesity and intestinal tumorigenesis in adult C57BL/6J-Min (multiple intestinal neoplasia)/+ mice. The mice were given a 10% fat diet throughout life (negative control) or a 45% fat diet in utero, during nursing, during both in utero and nursing, during adult life, or during their whole life-span, and terminated at 11 weeks for tumorigenesis (Min/+) or 23 weeks for obesogenic effect (wild-type). Body weight at 11 weeks was increased after a 45% fat diet during nursing, during both in utero and nursing, and throughout life, but had normalized at 23 weeks. In the glucose tolerance test, the early exposure to a 45% fat diet in utero, during nursing, or during both in utero and nursing, did not affect blood glucose, whereas a 45% fat diet given to adults or throughout life did. However, a 45% fat diet during nursing or during in utero and nursing increased the number of small intestinal tumors. So did exposures to a 45% fat diet in adult life or throughout life, but without increasing the tumor numbers further. The intrauterine and nursing period is a window of susceptibility for dietary fat-induced obesity and intestinal tumor development.
Critical Conversations in Philosophy of Education.

Critical Conversations in Philosophy of Education presents a series of conversations expressing many of the multiple voices that currently constitute the field of philosophy of education. Philosophy of education as a discipline has undergone several turns--the once marginal perspectives of the various feminisms, critical Marxism, and poststructuralist, postmodernist and cultural theory have gained ground alongside those of Anglo-analytic and pragmatic thought. Just as Western philosophers in general are coming to terms with the "end of philosophy" pronouncement implicit in postmodernism, so too are philosophers of education faced with similar challenges--challenges to long-held moral, political, aesthetic and epistemological commitments. The contributors take up these challenges through a dialogical structure, expressing differing positions without engaging in destructive critique.