Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Audiovisual speech perception in children and adolescents with developmental dyslexia: no deficit with McGurk stimuli

Developmental dyslexia could, at least partially, reflect an underlying problem in forming audiovisual associations, such as between graphemes and phonemes. Some of the few studies testing people with reading difficulties on McGurk stimuli report less sensitivity to visual information, and worse processing of visual-only speech. In this study, we tested Dutch children (M = 11.0 years) and adolescents (M = 13.7 years) with developmental dyslexia, and age-matched controls. Dyslexics and age-matched controls were similarly able to recognize the nonsense syllables "apa" and "aka" from hearing or seeing a speaker. Most critically, dyslexics and controls showed similar response patterns to McGurk stimuli, consisting of hearing "apa" combined with seeing a speaker say “aka”. Adolescents, however, perceived McGurk stimuli more often as /k/ and somewhat less often as /p/ than children, confirming earlier studies investigating age differences. Both groups did not differ in their number of fusion (/t/) responses. Concluding, audiovisual speech perception does not seem to be impaired in developmental dyslexia, if groups show similar unimodal speech perception.
A community-based exercise programme to improve functional ability in people with Alzheimer's disease: a randomized controlled trial.

RATIONALE Dementia is a common neurodegenerative condition in older age associated with functional decline across multiple domains. This decline impacts not only on the person with dementia, but also on their informal carers and health and aged care systems. With the number of people with dementia rapidly increasing and few effective treatments, there is now a critical need for interventions to improve functional ability in those with the condition. AIMS AND OBJECTIVE This study assesses the effectiveness of a community-based home exercise programme in improving cognitive and physical function and independence in activities of daily living (ADL) in people with Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia. METHODS In a 4-month randomized controlled trial, 40 community-dwelling patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and their informal carers were randomly allocated to either the treatment (exercise plus usual treatment) or control (usual treatment) group. The exercise programme consisted of daily exercises and walking under the supervision of their carer. Patients were assessed at baseline and 4-months follow-up by a blinded assessor on primary outcome measures of cognitive and physical function and ADL using standardized assessment scales. RESULTS Sixteen men and 24 women diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease participated in the study. They had a mean age of 74.1 years (range 51-89) and a mean Mini Mental State Examination score of 22.0 (range 10-28), indicating mild to moderate dementia. At 4-months follow-up, patients who exercised, compared with controls, had improved cognition (increased Mini Mental State Examination scores by 2.6 points, p < 0.001), better mobility (2.9 seconds faster on Timed Up and Go, p = 0.004) and increased Instrumental Activities of Daily Living scores by 1.6 (p = 0.007). CONCLUSION This study suggests that participation in a community-based exercise programme can improve cognitive and physical function and independence in ADL in people with Alzheimer's disease.
The International Law of Human Rights and States of Exception: with special reference to the travaux préparatoires and case-law of the international monitoring organs

Abbreviations. Terminology. General Introduction. Part I: Emergency Powers in a Historic Perspective. 1. Public Emergencies Yesterday and Today. Part II: A Basic Legal Framework for Considering Limitations on Human Rights. 2. The Principle of Legality. 3. The Principle of a Democratic Society. 4. The Notions of National Security and Public Order. Part III: The Notion of Public Emergency in the International Law of Human Rights. 5. The Notion of Public Emergency at the Universal Level. 6. The Notion of Public Emergency in the Americas. 7. The Notion of Public Emergency in Europe. 8. The International Labour Conventions and the Notion of Public Emergency. Part IV: The Non-Derogable Obligations in the International Law of Human Rights. 9. The Non-Derogable Obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 10. The Non-Derogable Obligations under the American Convention on Human Rights. 11. The Non-Derogable Obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights. Part V: Remaining Conditions for the Lawful Derogation from the International Law of Human Rights. 12. The Condition of Strict Necessity. 13. The Condition of Consistency with Other International Legal Obligations. 14. The Prohibition of Discrimination. 15. The Condition of International Notification. General Conclusions. Bibliography. Index.
Evolutionary HMMs: a Bayesian approach to multiple alignment

MOTIVATION We review proposed syntheses of probabilistic sequence alignment, profiling and phylogeny. We develop a multiple alignment algorithm for Bayesian inference in the links model proposed by Thorne et al. (1991, J. Mol. Evol., 33, 114-124). The algorithm, described in detail in Section 3, samples from and/or maximizes the posterior distribution over multiple alignments for any number of DNA or protein sequences, conditioned on a phylogenetic tree. The individual sampling and maximization steps of the algorithm require no more computational resources than pairwise alignment. METHODS We present a software implementation (Handel) of our algorithm and report test results on (i) simulated data sets and (ii) the structurally informed protein alignments of BAliBASE (Thompson et al., 1999, Nucleic Acids Res., 27, 2682-2690). RESULTS We find that the mean sum-of-pairs score (a measure of residue-pair correspondence) for the BAliBASE alignments is only 13% lower for Handelthan for CLUSTALW(Thompson et al., 1994, Nucleic Acids Res., 22, 4673-4680), despite the relative simplicity of the links model (CLUSTALW uses affine gap scores and increased penalties for indels in hydrophobic regions). With reference to these benchmarks, we discuss potential improvements to the links model and implications for Bayesian multiple alignment and phylogenetic profiling. AVAILABILITY The source code to Handelis freely distributed on the Internet at http://www.biowiki. org/Handel under the terms of the GNU Public License (GPL, 2000, http://www.fsf.org./copyleft/gpl.html).
Relationship of Dickkopf1 (DKK1) with Cardiovascular Disease and Bone Metabolism in Caucasian Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Objectives Dickkopf-1 (DKK1) is a potent inhibitor of Wnt signalling, which exerts anabolic effects on bone and also takes part in the regulation of vascular cells. Our aims were to evaluate serum DKK1 in type 2 diabetes (T2DM) patients and to analyze its relationships with cardiovascular disease (CVD). We also evaluated the relationship between DKK1 and bone metabolism. Design We conducted a cross-sectional study in which we measured serum DKK1 (ELISA, Biomedica) in 126 subjects: 72 patients with T2DM and 54 non-diabetic subjects. We analysed its relationship with clinical CVD, preclinical CVD expressed as carotid intima media thickness (IMT), and bone metabolism. Results T2DM patients with CVD (P = 0,026) and abnormal carotid IMT (P = 0,038) had higher DKK1 concentrations. DKK1 was related to the presence of CVD in T2DM, independently of the presence of risk factors for atherosclerosis. Therefore, for each increase of 28 pg/ml of serum DKK1 there was a 6,2% increase in the risk of CVD in T2DM patients. The ROC curve analysis to evaluate the usefulness of DKK1 as a marker for high risk of CVD showed an area under the curve of 0,667 (95% CI: 0,538–0,795; P = 0,016). In addition, there was a positive correlation between serum DKK1 and spine bone mineral density in the total sample (r = 0,183; P = 0,048). Conclusion In summary, circulating DKK1 levels are higher in T2DM with CVD and are associated with an abnormal carotid IMT in this cross-sectional study. DKK1 may be involved in vascular disease of T2DM patients.
Child Trauma Exposure and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Identification in Community Mental Health Clinics

ABSTRACT We examined the identification of trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in help-seeking urban children (N = 157) presenting for care in community mental health clinics. Children and their parents completed a standard intake assessment conducted by a community clinician followed by a structured, trauma-focused assessment conducted by a study clinician. Clinicians provided ratings of child functional impairment, parents reported on internalizing/externalizing problems, and children provided self-reports of PTSD symptom severity. Although community clinicians were mandated by clinic policy to ask about exposure to physical abuse, sexual abuse, and witnessed domestic violence, they identified exposure to these at significantly lower rates than study clinicians. Rates of PTSD based on community clinician diagnosis (1.9%) were also much lower than rates obtained by study clinicians (19.1%). A review of clinical charts 1 year after intake revealed no change in PTSD diagnosis rate following additional clinical contacts. Clinician-rated impairment, parent-rated emotional/behavioral problems, and child-rated PTSD symptom severity measures provided support for the validity of trauma exposure and PTSD as identified by study clinicians. Trauma exposure and PTSD diagnosis among help-seeking urban youth appear to be underidentified by community clinicians, which may compromise clinicians’ ability to respond to environmental risks and provide appropriate evidence-based treatments.
Local implications of almost global stability

We prove that for autonomous differential equations with the origin as a fixed point, and with at least one eigenvalue with negative real part, we have that the existence of a density function implies local asymptotical stability. We present examples of a system admitting a density function for which the origin is not locally asymptotically stable and an almost globally stable system for which no function is a density function.
Integrating Strategic Groups and the Resource Based Perspective: Understanding the Competitive Process

Although the strategic group and resource based perspectives are frequently presented as mutually exclusive, we argue otherwise. The resource based view informs strategic group analysis through a firm's product or service portfolio by offering a richer perspective on strategy and an additional lens for competitive group interpretation. Products act as the locus and bedrock for corporate decisions and form the backbone upon which market strategies are constructed. A ''corporate genome'' analogy is presented to illustrate how this process occurs within the U.K. pharmaceutical industry. Hunt's (1972) observation of asymmetric strategies pursued by strategic groups of firms in the U.S. white goods industry more than three decades ago sparked an explosion of industry and cross-industry studies. Departing somewhat from the prevailing industrial organization logic of that time, strategic groups—clusters of firms pursuing similar competitive strategies (Porter, 1980)—represent different strategic positions for different firms within a single industry. The different industry positions are separated by mobility barriers with the underlying assumption that industry success is primarily derived from intra-industry structure. , suggesting that firms can be viewed as a collection of resources, skills and routines, the application of which results in positions of sustainable competitive advantage. This perspective assumes that a firm's unique set of resources and skills protects it from imitation and provides the base for accumulation of superior profits through differentiation. Thus, success is assumed not to be a function of intra-industry structure, but rather one of an effective application of accumulated resources. Both strategic group theory and the resource based perspective attempt to explain diversity within industries. In one respect, the resource based theory adopts a pre-strategy position, providing an inventory of firm resources and the routines that convert them into effective strategies. In contrast, strategic group theory adopts a post-strategy position, offering a taxonomy of strategies employed by firms, where individual firms are classified into strategic 458
Independently Outgrowing Neurons and Geometry-Based Synapse Formation Produce Networks with Realistic Synaptic Connectivity

Neuronal signal integration and information processing in cortical networks critically depend on the organization of synaptic connectivity. During development, neurons can form synaptic connections when their axonal and dendritic arborizations come within close proximity of each other. Although many signaling cues are thought to be involved in guiding neuronal extensions, the extent to which accidental appositions between axons and dendrites can already account for synaptic connectivity remains unclear. To investigate this, we generated a local network of cortical L2/3 neurons that grew out independently of each other and that were not guided by any extracellular cues. Synapses were formed when axonal and dendritic branches came by chance within a threshold distance of each other. Despite the absence of guidance cues, we found that the emerging synaptic connectivity showed a good agreement with available experimental data on spatial locations of synapses on dendrites and axons, number of synapses by which neurons are connected, connection probability between neurons, distance between connected neurons, and pattern of synaptic connectivity. The connectivity pattern had a small-world topology but was not scale free. Together, our results suggest that baseline synaptic connectivity in local cortical circuits may largely result from accidentally overlapping axonal and dendritic branches of independently outgrowing neurons.
Plasma Fatty Acids in Zambian Adults with HIV/AIDS: Relation to Dietary Intake and Cardiovascular Risk Factors

Objective. To determine whether 24 hr dietary recalls (DR) are a good measure of polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) intake when compared to plasma levels, and whether plasma PUFA is associated with markers of HIV/AIDS progression and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Methods. In a cross-sectional study among 210 antiretroviral therapy-naïve HIV-infected adults from Lusaka, Zambia, we collected data on medical history and dietary intake using 24 hr DR. We measured fatty acids and markers of AIDS progression and CVD risk in fasting plasma collected at baseline. Results. PUFA intakes showed modest correlations with corresponding plasma levels; Spearman correlations were 0.36 (p < 0.01) for eicosapentaenoic acid and 0.21 (p = 0.005) for docosahexaenoic acid. While there were no significant associations (p > 0.05) between total plasma PUFA and C-reactive protein (CRP) or lipid levels, plasma arachidonic acid was inversely associated with CRP and triglycerides and positively associated with HDL-C, CD4+ T-cell count, and plasma albumin (p < 0.05). Plasma saturated fatty acids (SFA) were positively associated with CRP (β = 0.24; 95% CI: 0.08 to 0.40, p = 0.003) and triglycerides (β = 0.08; 95% CI: 0.03 to 0.12, p < 0.01). Conclusions. Our data suggest that a single DR is inadequate for assessing PUFA intake and that plasma arachidonic acid levels may modulate HIV/AIDS progression and CVD risk.
Variable small protein (Vsp)‐dependent and Vsp‐independent pathways for glycosaminoglycan recognition by relapsing fever spirochaetes

Tick‐borne relapsing fever, caused by pathogenic Borrelia such as B. hermsii and B. turicatae, features recurrent episodes of bacteraemia, each of which is caused by a population of spirochaetes that expresses a different variable major protein. Relapsing fever is also associated with the infection of a variety of tissues, such as the central nervous system. In this study, we show that glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) mediate the attachment of relapsing fever spirochaetes to mammalian cells. B. hermsii strain DAH bound to immobilized heparin, and heparin and dermatan sulphate blocked bacterial binding to host cells. Bacterial binding was diminished by inhibition of host cell GAG synthesis or sulphation, or by the enzymatic removal of GAGs. GAGs mediated the attachment of relapsing fever spirochaetes to potentially relevant target cells, such as endothelial and glial cells. B. hermsii was able to attach to GAGs independently of variable major proteins, because strains expressing the variable major proteins Vsp33, Vlp7 or no variable major protein at all each recognized GAGs. Nevertheless, we found that a variable major protein of B. turicatae directly promoted GAG binding by this relapsing fever spirochaete. B. turicatae strain Oz1 serotype B, which expresses the variable major protein VspB, bound to GAGs more efficiently than did B. turicatae Oz1 serotype A, which expresses VspA. Recombinant VspB, but not VspA, bound to heparin and dermatan sulphate. Previous studies have shown that strain Oz1 serotype B grows to higher concentrations in the blood than does Oz1 serotype A. Thus, relapsing fever spirochaetes have the potential to express Vsp‐dependent and Vsp‐independent GAG‐binding activities and, for one pair of highly related B. turicatae strains, differences in GAG binding correlate with differences in tissue tropism.
The clinical outcome of intracranial hemangioblastomas treated with linac-based stereotactic radiosurgery and radiotherapy

Recent publications have reported stereotactic radiosurgery as an effective and safe treatment for intracranial hemangioblastomas. However, because of the low incidence of these particular tumors, reports on large patient number studies have not yet been available. The objective of this study was to analyze the clinical results of 14 patients with 56 intracranial hemangioblastomas treated with linear accelerator (linac)-based stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and radiotherapy (SRT) in the same institute. The median age of patients was 41 years (range, 28–73 years). Nine of the patients (64%) had von Hippel-Lindau disease. A total of 39 lesions (70%) were treated with CyberKnife (CK), and 17 lesions (30%) were treated with X-Knife. The median pretreatment volume was 0.26 cm3 (range, 0.026–20.4 cm3). The median marginal dose was 20 Gy (range, 10–32 Gy) in 1 fraction (range, 1–10 fractions). The median follow-up time was 24 months (range, 11–89 months). At the last follow-up, 47 tumors (84%) were stable, 7 (13%) decreased and 2 (4%) increased. The 1-, 2- and 6-year local control rates were 98%, 88% and 73%, respectively. No radiation complications were observed in this study. There was a trend toward local failure only in cystic tumors, but this trend was not found to be statistically significant. SRS/SRT achieved a high local control rate in intracranial hemangioblastomas without radiation-induced complications.
How do teams learn ? Shared mental models and transactive memory systems as determinants of team learning and effectiveness

Shared mental models (SMM) and Transactive memory systems (TMS) have been advocated as the main team learning mechanisms. Despite multiple appeals for collaboration, research in both these fields has progressed in parallel and little effort has been made to integrate these theories. The purpose of this study was to test the relationship between SMM and TMS in a field setting and examine their influence on various team effectiveness outcomes such as team performance, team learning, team creativity, team members’ satisfaction and team viability. Contextual factors relevant to an organizational setting were tested and these included team size, tenure, country of origin, team reward and organizational support. Based on responses from 41 teams from 7 industries across two countries (US and India), results indicate that team size, country of origin and team tenure impact team performance and team learning. In addition, team reward and organizational support predicted team viability and satisfaction. Results indicated that TMS components (specialization, coordination and credibility) were better predictors of team outcomes than the omnibus TMS construct. In particular, TMS credibility predicted team performance and creativity while TMS coordination predicted team viability and satisfaction. SMM was measured in two different ways: an average deviation index and a 6-item scale. Both methods resulted in a conceptually similar interpretation although average deviation indices provided slightly better results in predicting effectiveness outcomes. TMS components moderated the relationship between SMM and team outcomes. Team performance was lowest when both SMM and TMS were low. However, contrary to expectations, high levels of SMM did not always result in effective team outcomes
Adaptive substrate for enhanced spatial augmented reality contrast and resolution

This poster presents the concept of combining two display technologies to enhance graphics effects in spatial augmented reality (SAR) environments. This is achieved by using an ePaper surface as an adaptive substrate instead of a white painted surface allowing the development of novel image techniques to improve image quality and object appearance in projector-based SAR environments.
Testing CPT Symmetry with CMB Measurements

In this paper we study the possibility of testing \emph{CPT} symmetry with Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) measurements. Working with an effective lagrangian of the photon with \emph{CPT} violation ${\cal L} \sim p_{\mu}A_{\nu}\tilde F^{\mu\nu}$ which causes the polarization vectors of the propagating CMB photons rotated, we determine the rotation angle $\Delta\alpha$ using the BOOMERanG 2003 and the WMAP3 angular power spectra. In this analysis we have included the newly released $TC$ and $GC$ ($l<450$) information of WMAP3 and found $\Delta\alpha=-6.2\pm3.8$ deg at $1\sigma$ confidence level. This result increases slightly the significance for the \emph{CPT} violation obtained in our previous paper (Feng \emph{et al.}, 2006) $\Delta\alpha=-6.0 \pm 4.0$ deg (1$\sigma$). Furthermore we examine the constraint on the rotation angle with the simulated Planck data. Our results show that the Planck will be sensitive to $\Delta \alpha$ at the level of 0.057 deg and able to test the \emph{CPT} symmetry with a higher precision.