Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Experimental determination of the periodicity of incremental features in enamel

Vital labelling of hard tissues was used to examine the periodicity of features of dental enamel microstructure. Fluorescent labels were administered pre‐ and postnatally to developing macaques (Macaca nemestrina), which were identified histologically in dentine and related to accentuated lines in enamel, allowing for counts of features within known‐period intervals. This study demonstrates that cross‐striations represent a daily rhythm in enamel secretion, and suggests that intradian lines are the result of a similar 12‐h rhythm. Retzius lines were found to have a regular periodicity within individual dentitions, and laminations appear to represent a daily rhythm that also shows 12‐h subdivisions. The inclusion of intradian lines and laminations represents the first empirical evidence for their periodicities in primates; these features frequently complicate precise measurements of secretion rate and Retzius line periodicity, which are necessary for determination of crown formation time. The biological basis of incremental feature formation is not completely understood; long‐period features may result from interactions between short‐period rhythms, although this does not explain the known range of Retzius line periodicities within humans or among primates. Studies of the genetic, neurological and hormonal basis of incremental feature formation are needed to provide more insight into their physiological and structural basis.
Relationship of age to symptom severity, psychiatric comorbidity and health care utilization in persons with borderline personality disorder

Background The objective of the study was to test the association of age with symptom severity, frequency and pattern of psychiatric comorbidity, health care utilization and quality of life in subjects with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Methods The analysis is based on a sample of subjects with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disroders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) BPD (n = 163) recruited for participation in a clinical trial at an academic medical center. The subjects were assessed using structured and semi-structured instruments of known reliability. Results Tests of trend with age showed relationships with important variables assessing symptom severity, comorbidity, quality of life and health care utilization. As expected, younger subjects were less likely to be married, to be employed or to receive disability payments. The frequency of most lifetime comorbid Axis I disorders was not related to age, although posttraumatic stress disorder was more frequent in the 35- to 44-year age group, and younger patients were more likely to have comorbid histrionic and narcissistic personality disorders. Baseline severity variables were mostly unrelated to age, with the exception of impulsivity, which was more common in younger patients, as were acts of deliberate self-harm. As expected, older patients reported poorer quality of life in categories indicating worse health perception and greater pain levels, and tended to use more health care resources than younger patients. Conclusion Most characteristics of patients with BPD are unrelated to age, yet impulsivity and acts of deliberate self-harm were less frequent in older patients. Expected age-related changes, such as reports of worse physical health, greater pain levels and greater health care utilization, were observed in older subjects. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Are they lonely at the top? Social relationships and social support among Australian managers

This research tested the possibility that managers may be lonely at the top. A total of 572 Australian managers responded to a questionnaire-based survey. Results showed that social support was more frequently available from non-work relationships than from work relationships. The support available from work and non-work sources was also qualitatively different. Workplace relationships offered mainly distraction, whereas non-work sources also offered care, acceptance, and consolation. Within the workplace, co-workers were the primary source of support. Moreover, support for work stressors was received from within the workplace, or from a spouse or partner. However, support was seldom received from within the workplace for non-work stressors. Concerns about social relationships also contributed to most of the nominated stressful situations.
Political Transition in Cambodia 1991-99: Power, Elitism and Democracy

Preface Acknowledgements Acronyms Tables Maps South East Asia Cambodia I Peace Seeking II Assumptions of Peace III A Critical Overview of the Operation IV Early Challenges to Transition V Elite Challenges to Transition - the Khmer Rouge VI Elite Challenges to Transition - the CPP VII From 'Coalition' to Confrontation, 1993 to 1997 VIII Peripheral Challenges to Transition, 1993 to 1997 IX Recreating Elite Stability, July 1997 to July 1998 X Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index
Effects of upper limb robot-assisted therapy on motor recovery of subacute stroke patients: A kinematic approach

The goal of this study is to evaluate the effects of upper limb robot-assisted treatment in a group of 25 subacute post-stroke patients using clinical outcome measures and kinematic parameters. Fugl-Meyer (FM) Assessment scale and Motricity Index (MI) were used for clinical assessment, and a set of kinematic parameters was computed. A significant decrease in motor impairment after the robot-assisted treatment (FM p<;0.05 and MI p<;0.05) was found. Significant improvements of upper limb motor performance was found after 2 weeks (p<;0.001); subsequently, no further significant improvements were observed. Our results confirm that robotic treatment is effective to reduce upper limb motor impairment in subacute stroke patients. Kinematic parameters can provide important information on mechanisms underlying motor recovery and the frequent assessment of their values can contribute to identify an appropriate number of robotic therapy sessions as to reach soon substantial improvements.
Gastrointestinal symptoms and subjects cluster into distinct upper and lower groupings in the community: a four nations study

OBJECTIVE:It is unknown whether distinct functional GI (GI) symptom groupings occur in the general population and whether these are similar across different cultures. Although symptom-based diagnostic criteria have been developed for upper and lower GI syndromes (the Rome criteria), the classification is controversial. We aimed to identify whether independent symptom-based subgroups exist in four countries consistent with the Rome criteria.METHODS:Random samples of the community were mailed a validated questionnaire based on the Bowel Disease Questionnaire in Rochester, MN (n = 2220), in Sydney, Australia (n = 1135), and in Essen, Germany (n = 500). A different validated questionnaire was mailed to a random sample in Östhammar, Sweden (n = 1517). Only the common questions (n = 22) were used in the current analysis, and these were essentially identical in wording. The underlying structure of the item responses was examined using factor analysis. Initial factors were extracted using principal components analysis and then rotated using Varimax. Clustering of symptoms among individuals was examined though cluster analysis, using the factors as the basis for clustering.RESULTS:Response rates varied from 64% to 80%; responders and nonresponders were similar sociodemographically. All four studies yielded similar factor structures. All countries reported symptom groupings consistent with the irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), dyspepsia and/or gastroesophageal reflux, and constipation; all except Sweden also had a diarrhea group. The cluster analysis yielded slightly more disparate results but a healthy group was present in all populations. All four populations had an IBS and/or bowel dysfunction cluster identified; a gastroesophageal reflux cluster was also present in all countries.CONCLUSIONS:The similarity of factor and cluster structures found in these four nations suggest that patterns of GI symptoms and groupings of individuals are similar across these Western cultures. These results are consistent with the current international Rome classification for separate upper and lower functional GI disorders.
Revolution in one classroom

This chapter probes the relationship between instructional policy and teaching practice. In the mid-1980s, California State officials launched an ambitious effort to revise mathematics teaching and learning. The aim was to replace mechanical memorization with mathematical understanding. This chapter considers one teacher's response to the new policy. She sees herself as a success for the policy: she believes that she has revolutionized her mathematics teaching. But observation of her classroom reveals that the innovations in her teaching have been filtered through a very traditional approach to instruction. The result is a remarkable melange of novel and traditional material. Policy has affected practice in this case, but practice has had an even greater effect on policy.
Pricing Options in an Extended Black Scholes Economy with Illiquidity: Theory and Empirical Evidence

This article studies the pricing of options in an extended Black Scholes economy in which the underlying asset is not perfectly liquid. The resulting liquidity risk is modeled as a stochastic supply curve, with the transaction price being a function of the trade size. Consistent with the market microstructure literature, the supply curve is upward sloping with purchases executed at higher prices and sales at lower prices. Optimal discrete time hedging strategies are then derived. Empirical evidence reveals a significant liquidity cost intrinsic to every option.
CONSTRUCTIVISM: A PARADIGM FOR OLDER LEARNERS

The collective profile of older learners differs from that of younger learners. Older learners tend to be highly motivated and favorably predisposed toward the learning process. Older learners comprehend and retain information more effectively when it is presented using instructional methods and classroom environments that recognize inherent differences between this population and the various groups of younger students. Instructional/teaching methods and techniques found to be especially effective with older learners were identified and discussed in context with the well-established Cognitive and Constructivist Learning Theories.
The Relationship Between Social Competence and Achievement in Elementary School Children

A significant correlation between academic achievement and peer popularity has long been established in the educational literature. Nonetheless, comparisons between high- and low-status children have often ,failed to take achievement into account. In this study, low-achieving third- and fourth-grade boys of low sociometric status were compared to higher achieving boys of high sociometric status. Results indicated that a revision of a previously used social knowledge interview method elicited high levels of prosocial responding by all groups and no significant differences between groups. Results of two teacher-rating scales indicated that differences between high- and low-status children of comparable achievement levels approached but did not reach significance. However, children who were low in both achievement und sociometric status were rated as significantly loss competent by their teachers. The teacher-rating scale data suggest that achievement is a factor to be considered when examining social status.
Safety and efficacy of percutaneous transluminal angioplasty for intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PCTA) is increasingly used to treat extracerebral arterial stenosis. The present study evaluates the safety and efficacy of PCTA treatment of symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis. METHODS A series of 22 vessels in 17 patients were treated with PCTA. All patients had recurrent neurological symptoms referable to the stenotic vessel despite optimal medical therapy. Critical (> 70%) arterial stenosis was confirmed by angiogram, and angioplasty was performed with a 3.0- to 3.5-mm Stealth balloon. RESULTS The average preangioplasty stenosis (North American Symptomatic Carotid Endarterectomy Trial criteria) was 72 +/- 8% (mean +/- SD), with a significant improvement seen after angioplasty; the best angiographic stenosis (after healing of intimal injury, if any) was 43 +/- 24% (P < .001). Overall PCTA was successful in 82% of the vessels. There were two strokes during angioplasty for a 30-day morbidity rate of 9.1% per treated vessel and 11.7% per case. The other 15 patients were clinically evaluated at 3 and 6 months; all cases were without further events. Restenosis was evaluated in 8 patients (12 vessels) with an angiogram at 6 months showing further improvement compared with the initial post-PCTA stenosis (51 +/- 10% versus 37 +/- 21% [P = .05]). CONCLUSIONS PCTA may be a beneficial therapy in selected cases of symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis. Further study using a randomized trial is needed.
Language switching and language competition

This study examined the asymmetrical language switching cost in a word reading task (Experiment 1) and in a categorization task (Experiment 2 and 3). In Experiment 1, Spanish–English bilinguals named words in first language (L1) and second language (L2) in a switching paradigm. They were slower to switch from their weaker L2 to their more dominant L1 than from L1 to L2. In Experiment 2 and 3, high vs. low English proficiency bilinguals decided whether a word visually presented in their L1 or L2 referred to an animate or to an inanimate entity. In this case, bilinguals did not show asymmetrical cost when they switched between languages. These results suggest that inhibitory processes in bilingual processing as indexed by the asymmetrical language switching cost are only observed when L1 and L2 lexical representations compete for selection (e.g. word naming task). In addition, L2 proficiency did not influence the absence of asymmetrical switching cost.
The emperor's new clothes: Re-fashioning ritual in the Huế Festival

Abstract This essay focuses on the political dimensions of the Festival Huế, which is claimed to be significant as a celebration of the nation. Although socialist state rituals have lost their relevance in the Đổi Mới era, the revival and re-invention of ritualised tradition create fertile ground for new ritualised events that legitimate and lend significance to the current regime. I argue that despite the unfamiliarity of many spectators with the symbolic contents of these new forms, they are effective because of their aesthetic resemblance to, and association with, familiar rituals.
Neural mechanisms of motor imagery

The aim of this study was to investigate the neural topography of movement representations independently from actual movements. For this, we used an implicit motor imagery task (mental rotation of hands), and paired this task with a matched visual imagery control task (mental rotation of letters). We measured neurovascular activity with rapid event-related fMRI, distinguishing responses parametrically related to motor imagery from responses evoked by visual imagery and other task-related phenomena. By quantifying behavioral and neurovascular correlates of imagery on a trial-by-trial basis, we could discriminate between stimulus-related, mental rotation-related, and response-related neural activity. We found that specific portions of posterior parietal and precentral cortex increased their activity as a function of mental rotation only during the motor imagery task. Within these regions, parietal cortex was visually responsive, whereas dorsal precentral cortex was not. Responsebut not rotation-related activity was found around the left central sulcus (putative primary motor cortex) during both imagery tasks. Our study provides novel evidence on the topography and content of movement representations in the human brain. During intended action, posterior parietal cortex combines somatosensory and visuomotor information, while dorsal premotor cortex generates the actual motor plan, and primary motor cortex deals with movement execution. This chapter is a modified version of: de Lange FP, Hagoort P, Toni I. (2005). Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 17, 97-112.
Evolving legged robots using biologically inspired optimization strategies

When designing a legged robot a small change in one variable can have a significant effect on a number of the robot's characteristics, meaning that making tradeoffs can be difficult. The algorithm presented in this paper uses biologically inspired optimization techniques to identify the effects of changing various robot design variables and determine if there are any general rules which can be applied to the design of a legged robot. Designs produced by this simulation are also compared to existing robot designs and biological systems, showing that the algorithm produces results which require less power and torque than similar robots, and which share a number of characteristics with biological systems.
Directional interpolation of images based on visual properties and rank order filtering

The goal of this research is to develop interpolation techniques which preserve or enhance the local structure critical to image quality. Preliminary results are presented which exploit either the properties of vision or the properties of the image in order to achieve the goals. Directional image interpolation is considered which is based on a local analysis of the spatial image structure. The extension of techniques for the design of linear filters based on properties of human perception reported previously to enhance the perceived quality of interpolated images is considered. <<ETX>>
Finding bugs in java native interface programs

In this paper, we describe static analysis techniques for finding bugs in programs using the Java Native Interface (JNI). The JNI is both tedious and error-prone because there are many JNI-specific mistakes that are not caught by a native compiler. This paper is focused on four kinds of common mistakes. First, explicit statements to handle a possible exception need to be inserted after a statement calling a Java method. However, such statements tend to be forgotten. We present a typestate analysis to detect this exception-handling mistake. Second, while the native code can allocate resources in a Java VM, those resources must be manually released, unlike Java. Mistakes in resource management cause leaks and other errors. To detect Java resource errors, we used the typestate analysis also used for detecting general memory errors. Third, if a reference to a Java resource lives across multiple native method invocations, it should be converted into a global reference. However, programmers sometimes forget this rule and, for example, store a local reference in a global variable for later uses. We provide a syntax checker that detects this bad coding practice. Fourth, no JNI function should be called in a critical region. If called there, the current thread might block and cause a deadlock. Misinterpreting the end of the critical region, programmers occasionally break this rule. We present a simple typestate analysis to detect an improper JNI function call in a critical region. We have implemented our analysis techniques in a bug-finding tool called BEAM, and executed it on opensource software including JNI code. In the experiment, our analysis techniques found 86 JNI-specific bugs without any overhead and increased the total number of bug reports by 76%.
Calcium Current Measurements in Acutely Isolated Neonatal Cardiac Myocytes

ABSTRACT: Action potentials and voltage clamp-induced ionic currents were recorded in acutely isolated neonatal rabbit cardiac myocytes using the whole-cell voltage clamp technique. Time- and voltage-dependent Ca2+ currents in neonatal myocytes were elicited by depolarizations from a holding potential of —80 mV to various clamp potentials. The maximal measured inward Ca2+ current was 206 ± 10 pA (mean ± SEM, n = 51). The peak current occurred at a mean membrane potential of 7.8 ± 1.3 mV (n = 51). The Ca2+ current voltage relation was shifted 26 mV in the positive direction when the external Ca2+ concentration was increased 10-fold. Ca2+ current rundown was observed with a half-time of approximately 20 min. Cells dialyzed with solution containing the Ca2+ chelating agent, EGTA (0.04 mM), had action potential durations similar to those previously reported in papillary muscle. In contrast, a higher concentration of EGTA (14 mM) prolonged the action potential duration. Control of the cell internal ionic composition was achieved by dialysis of the cell with a time constant for Na+ ions of 1.2 to 2.6 min. Tetrodotoxin (10 μM), included in some experiments to block Ca2+ entry via Na+ channels, was shown to be more than 98% effective. These results characterize the whole-cell voltage clamp technique as applied to immature heart cells.
Third trimester binge ethanol exposure results in fetal hypercapnea and acidemia but not hypoxemia in pregnant sheep.

BACKGROUND The mechanisms by which maternal ethanol abuse during pregnancy causes neurodevelopmental injury in the fetus are not well understood. The purpose of this study was to use a chronically instrumented fetal sheep model system to determine if a binge pattern of ethanol exposure administered throughout the third trimester reduced fetal arterial partial pressure of oxygen (PaO2); a positive finding would support the hypothesis that fetal hypoxemia may play a role in mediating ethanol-related birth defects. METHODS Pregnant ewes received saline or 0.75, 1.25, 1.5, or 1.75 g/kg of ethanol intravenously over 1 hr beginning on day 109 of gestation (term = 145 days) for 3 consecutive days per week followed by 4 days without exposure. The fetuses were surgically instrumented on day 113, and experiments were performed on days 118 or 132, the 6th and the 12th ethanol exposure, respectively. RESULTS Ethanol infusions resulted in peak blood ethanol concentrations of 80.8 +/- 6.5, 182.5 +/- 13.5, 224.4 +/- 13.9, and 260.6 +/- 20.0 mg/dl +/- SEM (maternal) and 70.0 +/- 5.9, 149.7 +/- 9.0, 216.9 +/- 14.0, and 233.3 +/- 19.8 mg/dl +/- SEM (fetal) in response to the 0.75, 1.25, 1.5, and 1.75 g/kg doses, respectively. Maternal and fetal heart rate and maternal blood pressure increased whereas fetal blood pressure decreased in a dose-dependent manner in response to ethanol infusions. Maternal and fetal arterial pH decreased and arterial partial pressures of carbon dioxide increased in response to ethanol infusions. Maternal PaO2 decreased whereas fetal PaO2 did not change in response to ethanol infusions. CONCLUSIONS A binge ethanol exposure paradigm, three consecutive days per week throughout the third trimester at ethanol doses that created blood ethanol concentrations commonly achieved by human ethanol abusers, resulted in changes in maternal and fetal heart rate, changes in blood pressure, hypercapnea, acidemia, and maternal, but not fetal, hypoxemia. We conclude that in an ovine model system, ethanol doses that create blood ethanol concentrations as high as 260 mg/dl do not result in fetal hypoxemia. Remaining issues to address with this model system are whether neurodevelopmental injuries that are associated with maternal ethanol abuse are mediated by a reduction in fetal cerebral blood flow, fetal hypercapnea, or acidemia.