Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The potential protective effect of youth assets on adolescent alcohol and drug use.

OBJECTIVES We examined the association between adolescent alcohol and drug use and 9 youth assets in a low-income, inner-city population. METHODS An in-person survey of 1350 adolescents and parents assessed youth assets and risk behaviors. We analyzed data with chi(2) tests and logistic regression analyses. RESULTS When we controlled for appropriate variables, there were significant positive relationships between several youth assets and nonuse of alcohol and drugs. Furthermore, youths who possessed all of the statistically significant youth assets were 4.44 times more likely to report nonuse of alcohol and 5.41 times more likely to report nonuse of drugs compared with youths who possessed fewer youth assets. CONCLUSIONS Our study supports the view that specific youth assets may protect youths from alcohol and drug use.
The wear of metal-on-metal total hip prostheses measured in a hip simulator

Abstract New generation metal-on-metal prostheses have been introduced to try and overcome the problem of osteolysis often attributed to the wear particles of the polyethylene component of conventional metal-on-ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) joints. The wear rates of four metal-on-metal joints (two different clearances) were assessed along with that of a conventional metal-on-UHMWPE joint. Friction measurements of the metal-on-metal joints were taken before and after the wear test and compared. Two distinct wear phases were discernible for all the metal-on-metal joints: an initial wear phase up to 0.5 × 106 cycles and then a lower steady state wear phase. The steady state wear rate of the 22 μUm radial clearance metal-on-metal joint was lower than that for the 40 μUm radial clearance joint, although this difference was not found to be significant (p > 0.15). The wear rates for all the joints tested were consistent with other simulator studies. The friction factors produced by each joint were found to decrease significantly after wear testing (p < 0.05).
Synonymous Substitution Rates Predict HIV Disease Progression as a Result of Underlying Replication Dynamics

Upon HIV transmission, some patients develop AIDS in only a few months, while others remain disease free for 20 or more years. This variation in the rate of disease progression is poorly understood and has been attributed to host genetics, host immune responses, co-infection, viral genetics, and adaptation. Here, we develop a new “relaxed-clock” phylogenetic method to estimate absolute rates of synonymous and nonsynonymous substitution through time. We identify an unexpected association between the synonymous substitution rate of HIV and disease progression parameters. Since immune activation is the major determinant of HIV disease progression, we propose that this process can also determine viral generation times, by creating favourable conditions for HIV replication. These conclusions may apply more generally to HIV evolution, since we also observed an overall low synonymous substitution rate for HIV-2, which is known to be less pathogenic than HIV-1 and capable of tempering the detrimental effects of immune activation. Humoral immune responses, on the other hand, are the major determinant of nonsynonymous rate changes through time in the envelope gene, and our relaxed-clock estimates support a decrease in selective pressure as a consequence of immune system collapse.
FARMER'S PERCEPTION TOWARDS INTEGRATED FARMING SYSTEMS IN MAHARASHTRA: A METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH

Farmer’s perception about any developmental activity is priceless resource to policy makers for designing policies in order to reduce vulnerabilities of farmers. A scale was developed to measure the farmer’s perception towards Integrated Farming Systems based on Likert’s technique of scale construction. A list of 50 positive and negative (60:40) statements indicating the perception of farmers was prepared according to suitability of study. The statements were edited in the light of fourteen informal criteria suggested by Edwards. The remaining 37 statements out of 50 were sent to the 60 judges who were the experts in the field of Integrated Farming Systems for rating on three point continuums. The total individual score of judges was calculated by summing up the weights given by judges to the individual statement. On the basis of total individual scores of judges, the top 25 per cent of judges with the highest total scores and the bottom 25 per cent of judges with lowest total scores were taken as assuming that these two groups provide criterion groups in terms of which to evaluate the individual statements. On the basis of calculated ‘t’ values for all statements, 15 statements (11 positive and 4 negative) were retained in the final scale. This scale can be used to measure farmer’s perception beyond the study area with suitable modifications
Developmental Care in North American Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Units: Survey of Current Practices

Background:Developmental care practices across pediatric cardiac intensive care units (CICUs) have not previously been described. Purpose:To characterize current developmental care practices in North American CICUs. Methods:A 47-item online survey of developmental care practices was developed and sent to 35 dedicated pediatric CICUs. Staff members who were knowledgeable about developmental care practices in the CICU completed the survey. Findings/Results:Completed surveys were received from 28 CICUs (80% response rate). Eighty-nine percent reported targeted efforts to promote developmental care, but only 50% and 43% reported having a developmental care committee and holding developmental rounds, respectively. Many CICUs provide darkness for sleep (86%) and indirect lighting for alertness (71%), but fewer provide low levels of sound (43%), television restrictions (43%), or designated quiet times (21%). Attempts to cluster care (82%) and support self-soothing during difficult procedures (86%) were commonly reported, but parental involvement in these activities is not consistently encouraged. All CICUs engage in infant holding, but practices vary on the basis of medical status and only 46% have formal holding policies. Implications for Practice:Implementation of developmental care in the CICU requires a well-planned process to ensure successful adoption of practice changes, beginning with a strong commitment from leadership and a focus on staff education, family support, value of parents as the primary caregivers, and policies to increase consistency of practice. Implications for Research:Future studies should examine the short- and long-term effects of developmental care practices on infants born with congenital heart disease and cared for in a pediatric CICU.
Many-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms for Multicast Routing with Quality of Service Problem

In order to guarantee a proper end-to-end communication in computer networks, many applications impose Quality of Service (QoS) requirements. In QoS routing, multiple conflicting objectives are optimized simultaneously. On the other hand, multicasting (i.e. sending data to multiple destinations) in its simplest form is a computationally difficult problem, which becomes more challenging when QoS requirements are considered. Previous works have investigated the use of multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) in the multicast routing with QoS problem under a Pareto-dominance approach. In particular, the so-called SPEA2 algorithm has provided good results in problem formulations involving up to four objectives. However, it has been recognized that for higher-dimension problems the convergence of MOEAs can decline substantially. In this work, we propose a model for routing based on the many-objectives algorithm MEAMT (multi-objective evolutionary algorithms with many tables), aiming at better dealing with the difficulty faced by state-of-the-art routing methods when solving for higherdimensional formulations. We present the new model for multicast routing based on MEAMT, as well as report experiments on a comparison with SPEA2-based routing in formulations involving 4, 5 and 6 objectives over several problem instances with different topologies and sizes. The results indicate that the new routing model overcomes SPEA2 in most cases, specially when solving for higher dimensional problems in routing.
Diagnosis and therapy of multiple myeloma

Many advances in the treatment of multiple myeloma have been made due to the use of transplantation and the introduction of novel agents including thalidomide, lenalidomide, and bortezomib. The first step is recognizing the symptoms and starting prompt treatment. Different strategies should be selected for young and elderly subjects. Young patients are commonly eligible for transplantation, which is now considered the standard approach for this setting, and various inductions therapies containing novel agents are available before transplantation. Elderly patients are usually not eligible for transplantation, and gentler approaches with new drugs combinations are used for their treatment.
Cytologic categorization of pancreatic neoplastic mucinous cysts with an assessment of the risk of malignancy: A retrospective study based on the Papanicolaou Society of Cytopathology guidelines

Cytology plays a pivotal role in the preoperative diagnosis of pancreatic cysts. Here the Papanicolaou Society of Cytopathology (Pap Society) guidelines were used to reclassify and assess the malignancy risk of cytology diagnoses of histologically proven pancreatic neoplastic mucinous cysts.
Evaluating Relative Effectiveness of Training School Programs to Probation on Recidivism of Japanese Juvenile Delinquents

In this article we study effectiveness of three training school programs, that is, the long-term, the general-short-term and the special short-term programs, relative to probation on recidivism for Japanese juvenile delinquents with differing criminal experiences. We employ logit/ individual lognormal split-population model to examine the relationship between the form of treatment and the time to as well as the probability of eventual reincarceration. We obtain and analyze the official crime data from the Ministry of Justice, Japan. We find that, in terms of the probability, those sent to training schools in the long-term and general short-term programs are less likely to be reincarcerated than delinquents placed on probation, but we do not find the same pattern in the special short-term program. However, none of the three programs are found to significantly affect the timing of reincarceration relative to probation. Implications of the result are discussed.
Co-Channel and Adjacent Channel Interference and Protection Issues for DVB-T2 and IEEE 802.22 WRAN Operation

This paper presents a study on the coexistence issue of digital terrestrial TV broadcasting and cognitive broadband access operation in the TV white spaces (TVWS). Extended measurements were performed to evaluate the protection of the existing Second generation of digital video broadcasting terrestrial standard (DVB-T2) services in the presence of IEEE 802.22 WRAN co-channel and adjacent channel interference. The absence of picture failure over 30 consecutive seconds on decoded DVB-T2 streams has been monitored to obtain the maximum tolerable level of IEEE 802.22 WRAN interference, which ensures the protection of the primary broadcast system. This paper considers practical DVB-T2 system configuration options by varying parameters of the standard, such as constellation and code rate, FFT size, pilot pattern and guard interval, and rotated constellations and compares them in terms of robustness with respect to the interference generated by IEEE 802.22 WRAN operation. The goal is to provide cognitive broadband operators in the TVWS with guidelines to optimize their network by choosing the parameters that best fit their needs in case of coexistence with DVB-T2 broadcasting services.
Rapid Cortical Plasticity Underlying Novel Word Learning

Humans are unique in developing large lexicons as their communication tool. To achieve this, they are able to learn new words rapidly. However, neural bases of this rapid learning, which may be an expression of a more general cognitive mechanism, are not yet understood. To address this, we exposed our subjects to familiar words and novel spoken stimuli in a short passive perceptual learning session and compared automatic brain responses to these items throughout the learning exposure. Initially, we found enhanced activity for known words, indexing the ignition of their underlying memory traces. However, just after 14 min of learning exposure, the novel items exhibited a significant increase in response magnitude matching in size with that to real words. This activation increase, as we would like to propose, reflects rapid mapping of new word forms onto neural representations. Similar to familiar words, the neural activity subserving rapid learning of new word forms was generated in the left-perisylvian language cortex, especially anterior superior-temporal areas. This first report of a neural correlate of rapid learning suggests that our brain may effectively form new neuronal circuits online as it gets exposed to novel patterns in the sensory input. Understanding such fast learning is key to the neurobiological explanation of the human language faculty and learning mechanisms in general.
A Linked Open Data Approach for Sentiment Lexicon Adaptation

Social media platforms have recently become a gold mine for organisations to monitor their reputation by extracting and analysing the sentiment of the posts generated about them, their markets, and competitors. Among the approaches to analyse sentiment from social media, approaches based on sentiment lexicons (sets of words with associated sentiment scores) have gained popularity since they do not rely on training data, as opposed to Machine Learning approaches. However, sentiment lexicons consider a static sentiment score for each word without taking into consideration the different contexts in which the word is used (e.g, great problem vs. great smile). Additionally, new words constantly emerge from dynamic and rapidly changing social media environments that may not be covered by the lexicons. In this paper we propose a lexicon adaptation approach that makes use of semantic relations extracted from DBpedia to better understand the various contextual scenarios in which words are used. We evaluate our approach on three different Twitter datasets and show that using semantic information to adapt the lexicon improves sentiment computation by 3.7% in average accuracy, and by 2.6% in average F1 measure.
Syntactic and semantic errors in radiology reports associated with speech recognition software

Speech recognition software can increase the frequency of errors in radiology reports, which may affect patient care. We retrieved 213,977 speech recognition software–generated reports from 147 different radiologists and proofread them for errors. Errors were classified as “material” if they were believed to alter interpretation of the report. “Immaterial” errors were subclassified as intrusion/omission or spelling errors. The proportion of errors and error type were compared among individual radiologists, imaging subspecialty, and time periods. In all, 20,759 reports (9.7%) contained errors, of which 3992 (1.9%) were material errors. Among immaterial errors, spelling errors were more common than intrusion/omission errors (p < .001). Proportion of errors and fraction of material errors varied significantly among radiologists and between imaging subspecialties (p < .001). Errors were more common in cross-sectional reports, reports reinterpreting results of outside examinations, and procedural studies (all p < .001). Error rate decreased over time (p < .001), which suggests that a quality control program with regular feedback may reduce errors.
Dynamic Voltage Scaling Aware Delay Fault Testing

The application of dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) to reduce energy consumption may have a detrimental impact on the quality of manufacturing tests employed to detect permanent faults. This paper analyses the influence of different voltage/frequency settings on fault detection within a DVS application. In particular, the effect of supply voltage on different types of delay faults is considered. This paper presents a study of these problems with simulation results. We have demonstrated that the test application time increases as we reduce the test voltage. We have also shown that for newer technologies we do not have to go to very low voltage levels for delay fault testing. We conclude that it is necessary to test at more than one operating voltage and that the lowest operating voltage does not necessarily give the best fault cover
Combined Flat Histogram Monte Carlo Method for Efficient Simulation of Communication Systems

A modified Monte Carlo (MC) method for efficient sampling of system outputs is derived by combining transition matrix Monte Carlo (TMMC) and Wang-Landau (WL) flat histogram methods. The proposed combination updates the estimation of the WL method using an intermediate estimate derived from the TMMC dynamics such that the variance of the resultant estimate is minimized. Combining the benefits of both methods, the new algorithm can estimate very low probabilities that are not normally reachable by the conventional MC using a realizable sample size.
Probing the mass loss history of carbon stars using CO line and dust continuum emission

We have modelled radio and far-infrared rotational lines of (CO)-C-12 and (CO)-C-13 Obtained from the circumstellar envelope of the infrared-bright carbon star IRAS 15194-5115. Eleven rotational lines between J=1-0 and 21-20 and nine rotational lines betw
Casimir surface force on a dilute dielectric ball

The Casimir surface force density F on a dielectric dilute spherical ball of radius a, surrounded by a vacuum, is calculated at zero temperature. We treat (n − 1) (n being the refractive index) as a small parameter. The dispersive properties of the material are taken into account by adopting a simple dispersion relation, involving a sharp high frequency cutoff at ! = ! 0. For a nondispersive medium there appears (after regularization) a finite, physical, force F nondisp which is repulsive. By means of a uniform asymptotic expansion of the RiccatiBessel functions we calculate F nondisp up to the fourth order in 1/�. For a dispersive medium the main part of the force F disp is also repulsive. The dominant term in F disp is proportional to (n −1) 2 ! 3 /a , and will under usual physical conditions outweigh F nondisp by several orders of magnitude.
Thermal conductivity of micromachined low-stress silicon-nitride beams from 77 to 325 K

We present thermal conductivity measurements of micromachined 500 nm thick silicon-nitride (Si–N) beams suspended between two Si–N islands, in the temperature range from 77 to 325 K. The measured thermal conductivity, k, of Si–N at high temperatures is in good agreement with previously measured values for Si–N grown by low-pressure chemical vapor deposition, but behaves much differently as temperature is lowered, showing a dependence more similar to polycrystalline materials. Preliminary structural characterization by x-ray diffraction suggests that the material is likely nano- or polycrystalline. The micromachined suspended platform structure is designed to allow highly accurate measurements of the thermal conductivity of deposited metallic, semiconducting, or insulating thin films. As a demonstration, we present measurements of a 200 nm thick sputtered molybdenum film. In the entire temperature range the measured thermal conductivity matches the prediction of the Wiedemann–Franz thermal conductivity det.
Rapid and Localized Mechanical Stimulation and Adhesion Assay: TRPM7 Involvement in Calcium Signaling and Cell Adhesion

A cell mechanical stimulation equipment, based on cell substrate deformation, and a more sensitive method for measuring adhesion of cells were developed. A probe, precisely positioned close to the cell, was capable of a vertical localized mechanical stimulation with a temporal frequency of 207 Hz, and strain magnitude of 50%. This setup was characterized and used to probe the response of Human Umbilical Endothelial Vein Cells (HUVECs) in terms of calcium signaling. The intracellular calcium ion concentration was measured by the genetically encoded Cameleon biosensor, with the Transient Receptor Potential cation channel, subfamily M, member 7 (TRPM7) expression inhibited. As TRPM7 expression also regulates adhesion, a relatively simple method for measuring adhesion of cells was also developed, tested and used to study the effect of adhesion alone. Three adhesion conditions of HUVECs on polyacrylamide gel dishes were compared. In the first condition, the substrate is fully treated with Sulfo-SANPAH crosslinking and fibronectin. The other two conditions had increasingly reduced adhesion: partially treated (only coated with fibronectin, with no use of Sulfo-SANPAH, at 5% of the normal amount) and non-treated polyacrylamide gels. The cells showed adhesion and calcium response to the mechanical stimulation correlated to the degree of gel treatment: highest for fully treated gels and lowest for non-treated ones. TRPM7 inhibition by siRNA on HUVECs caused an increase in adhesion relative to control (no siRNA treatment) and non-targeting siRNA, but a decrease to 80% of calcium response relative to non-targeting siRNA which confirms the important role of TRPM7 in mechanotransduction despite the increase in adhesion.
Synthetic Aperture Radar Image Synthesis by Using Generative Adversarial Nets

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image simulators based on computer-aided drawing models play an important role in SAR applications, such as automatic target recognition and image interpretation. However, the accuracy of such simulators is due to geometric error and simplification in the electromagnetic calculation. In this letter, an end-to-end model was developed that could directly synthesize the desired images from the known image database. The model was based on generative adversarial nets (GANs), and its feasibility was validated by comparisons with real images and ray-tracing results. As a further step, the samples were synthesized at angles outside of the data set. However, the training process of GAN models was difficult, especially for SAR images which are usually affected by noise interference. The major failure modes were analyzed in experiments, and a clutter normalization method was proposed to ameliorate them. The results showed that the method improved the speed of convergence up to 10 times. The quality of the synthesized images was also improved.
Simple ensemble methods are competitive with state-of-the-art data integration methods for gene function prediction

Several works showed that biomolecular data integration is a key issue to improve the prediction of gene functions. Quite surprisingly only little attention has been devoted to data integration for gene function prediction through ensemble methods. In this work we show that relatively simple ensemble methods are competitive and in some cases are also able to outperform state-of-the-art data integration techniques for gene function prediction.