Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Concomitant Use of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation and Computer-Assisted Training for the Rehabilitation of Attention in Traumatic Brain Injured Patients: Behavioral and Neuroimaging Results

Divided attention (DA), the ability to distribute cognitive resources among two or more simultaneous tasks, may be severely compromised after traumatic brain injury (TBI), resulting in problems with numerous activities involved with daily living. So far, no research has investigated whether the use of non-invasive brain stimulation associated with neuropsychological rehabilitation might contribute to the recovery of such cognitive function. The main purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of 10 transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) sessions combined with computer-assisted training; it also intended to explore the neural modifications induced by the treatment. Thirty-two patients with severe TBI participated in the study: 16 were part of the experimental group, and 16 part of the control group. The treatment included 20’ of tDCS, administered twice a day for 5 days. The electrodes were placed on the dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex. Their location varied across patients and it depended on each participant’s specific area of damage. The control group received sham tDCS. After each tDCS session, the patient received computer-assisted cognitive training on DA for 40’. The results showed that the experimental group significantly improved in DA performance between pre- and post-treatment, showing faster reaction times (RTs), and fewer omissions. No improvement was detected between the baseline assessment (i.e., 1 month before treatment) and the pre-training assessment, or within the control group. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data, obtained on the experimental group during a DA task, showed post-treatment lower cerebral activations in the right superior temporal gyrus (BA 42), right and left middle frontal gyrus (BA 6), right postcentral gyrus (BA 3) and left inferior frontal gyrus (BA 9). We interpreted such neural changes as normalization of previously abnormal hyperactivations.
Association of Lower Fractional Flow Reserve Values With Higher Risk of Adverse Cardiac Events for Lesions Deferred Revascularization Among Patients With Acute Coronary Syndrome

Background The safety of deferring revascularization based on fractional flow reserve (FFR) during acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is unclear. We evaluated the association of FFR and adverse cardiac events among patients with coronary lesions deferred revascularization based on FFR in the setting of ACS versus non-ACS. Methods and Results The study population (674 patients; 816 lesions) was divided into ACS (n=334) and non-ACS (n=340) groups based on the diagnosis when revascularization was deferred based on FFR values >0.80 between October 2002 and July 2010. The association and interaction between FFR and clinical outcomes was evaluated using Cox proportional hazards models within each group (mean follow-up of 4.5±2.1 years). Subsequent revascularization of a deferred lesion was classified as a deferred lesion intervention (DLI), whereas the composite of DLI or myocardial infarction (MI) attributed to a deferred lesion was designated as deferred lesion failure (DLF). In the non-ACS group, lower FFR values were not associated with any increase in adverse cardiac events. In the ACS group, every 0.01 decrease in FFR was associated with a significantly higher rate of cardiovascular death, MI, or DLI (hazard ratio [HR], 1.08; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03 to 1.12), MI or DLI (HR, 1.09; 95% CI: 1.04 to 1.14), DLF (HR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.06 to 1.18), MI (HR, 1.07; 95% CI, 1.00 to 1.14), and DLI (HR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.06 to 1.18). Conclusion Lower FFR values among ACS patients with coronary lesions deferred revascularization based on FFR are associated with a significantly higher rate of adverse cardiac events. This association was not observed in non-ACS patients.
The Dynamical State and Blue Straggler Population of the Globular Cluster NGC 6266 (M62)

We have used a proper combination of multiband high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 and wide-field ground-based observations to image the Galactic globular cluster NGC 6266 (M62). The extensive photometric data set allows us to determine the center of gravity and to construct the most extended radial profile ever published for this cluster including, for the first time, detailed star counts in the very inner region. The star density profile is well reproduced by a standard King model with an extended core (∼19″) and a modest value of the concentration parameter (c = 1.5), indicating that the cluster has not yet experienced core collapse. The millisecond pulsar population (whose members are all in binary systems) and the X-ray-emitting population (more than 50 sources within the cluster half-mass radius) suggest that NGC 6266 is in a dynamical phase particularly active in generating binaries through dynamical encounters. UV observations of the central region have been used to probe the population of blue straggler stars, whose origin might be also affected by dynamical interactions. The comparison with other globular clusters observed with a similar strategy shows that the blue straggler content in NGC 6266 is relatively low, suggesting that the formation channel that produces binary systems hosting neutron stars or white dwarfs is not effective in significantly increasing the blue straggler population. Moreover, an anticorrelation between millisecond pulsar content and blue straggler specific frequency in globular clusters seems to be emerging with increasing evidence.
Democracy and the Left: Social Policy and Inequality in Latin America

odization of the racial project in the Obama era. Given the volume’s focus on the United States, it is striking that so little attention (with the exception of Singh’s essay) is given to the mass incarceration and policing of the last thirty years; here surely is one of those elusive social processes by which race is forged and institutionalized. Undergirding the most trenchant chapters, however, is a common grounding in the transnational racial project of a declining U.S. hegemon. Whether this remakes the liberal imperial project or marks the failure of the neo-liberal/neo-conservative project remains very much an open question here. These ambiguities are revealed in Omi and Winant’s concluding chapter, where readers remain curiously tethered to a consideration—and in many ways, a defense— of the gains of the 1960s and 1970s social movements. This is at times difficult to grasp given the fierce abandonment by the left and right, Democrats and Republicans alike, of the postwar liberal and social democratic racial project. Still, as the authors in this collection repeatedly emphasize, uncertainty and fluidity in racial conceptions, identities, and movements for justice mark the present and near future—and this is a remarkable advance from the scholarship of a generation ago. Confronting the inability of past structural formations and discourses to explicate racial meanings and hierarchies as they are being remade by today’s movements, migrations, and states is still a bracing tonic. Even more problematic, and yet to be unearthed here, is the ongoing impact of the replacement of the Third World/U.S. racial binaries of the mid-twentieth century by the rise of Asian/ Global South relations in the decades to come. These observations only serve to underline the importance and value of this anthology to students and scholars of race in the twentyfirst century. Written in accessible language for undergraduate as well as graduate classes on race, ethnicity, and stratification, it marks the summation of almost a generation of engaged work undertaken during the collapse of liberal hopes and dreams for racial reconciliation. Living as we do in an unstable interregnum as a new, global racial regime is being forged, this collection and the questions its authors grapple with are all the more pressing.
Healing of diabetic foot ulcers and pressure ulcers with human skin equivalent: a new paradigm in wound healing.

HYPOTHESIS In patients with diabetic foot and pressure ulcers, early intervention with biological therapy will either halt progression or result in rapid healing of these chronic wounds. DESIGN In a prospective nonrandomized case series, 23 consecutive patients were treated with human skin equivalent (HSE) after excisional debridement of their wounds. SETTING A single university teaching hospital and tertiary care center. PATIENTS AND METHODS Twenty-three consecutive patients with a total of 41 wounds (1.0-7.5 cm in diameter) were treated with placement of HSE after sharp excisional debridement. All patients with pressure ulcers received alternating air therapy with zero-pressure alternating air mattresses. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Time to 100% healing, as defined by full epithelialization of the wound and by no drainage from the site. RESULTS Seven of 10 patients with diabetic foot ulcers had complete healing of all wounds. In these patients 17 of 20 wounds healed in an average of 42 days. Seven of 13 patients with pressure ulcers had complete healing of all wounds. In patients with pressure ulcers, 13 of 21 wounds healed in an average of 29 days. All wounds that did not heal in this series occurred in patients who had an additional stage IV ulcer or a wound with exposed bone. Twenty-nine of 30 wounds that healed did so after a single application of the HSE. CONCLUSIONS In diabetic ulcers and pressure ulcers of various durations, the application of HSE with the surgical principles used in a traditional skin graft is successful in producing healing. The high success rate with complete closure in these various types of wounds suggests that HSE may function as a reservoir of growth factors that also stimulate wound contraction and epithelialization. If a wound has not fully healed after 6 weeks, a second application of HSE should be used. If the wound is not healing, an occult infection is the likely cause. All nonischemic diabetic foot and pressure ulcers that are identified and treated early with aggressive therapy (including antibiotics, off-loading of pressure, and biological therapy) will not progress.
The role of the interviewer in producing mode effects: results from a mixed modes experiment comparing face-to-face, telephone and web administration

The presence of an interviewer is hypothesised to motivate respondents to generate an accurate answer and reduce task difficulty, but also to reduce the privacy of the reporting situation. The prevalence of indicators of satisficing (e.g., non-differentiation, acquiescence, middle categories, primacy and recency, and item nonresponse) and socially desirable responding were studied experimentally across modes and also through cognitive interviewing. Results show differences between interviewer and self-completion modes: in levels of satisficing for non- differentiation, acquiescence, and middle categories and socially desirable responding. There were also unexpected findings of a CATI primacy/positivity bias and of different ways of satisficing.
Condensed Memory Networks for Clinical Diagnostic Inferencing

Diagnosis of a clinical condition is a challenging task, which often requires significant medical investigation. Previous work related to diagnostic inferencing problems mostly consider multivariate observational data (e.g. physiological signals, lab tests etc.). In contrast, we explore the problem using free-text medical notes recorded in an electronic health record (EHR). Complex tasks like these can benefit from structured knowledge bases, but those are not scalable. We instead exploit raw text from Wikipedia as a knowledge source. Memory networks have been demonstrated to be effective in tasks which require comprehension of free-form text. They use the final iteration of the learned representation to predict probable classes. We introduce condensed memory neural networks (C-MemNNs), a novel model with iterative condensation of memory representations that preserves the hierarchy of features in the memory. Experiments on the MIMIC-III dataset show that the proposed model outperforms other variants of memory networks to predict the most probable diagnoses given a complex clinical scenario.
Genetic deletion of paired immunoglobulin-like receptor B does not promote axonal plasticity or functional recovery after traumatic brain injury

The rewiring of neural networks is a fundamental step in recovering behavioral functions after brain injury. However, there is limited potential for axonal plasticity in the adult CNS. The myelin-associated proteins Nogo, myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG), and oligodendrocyte myelin glycoprotein (OMgp) are known to inhibit axonal plasticity, and thus targeting the inhibitory pathways they participate in is a potential means of promoting plasticity and functional recovery. Each of Nogo, MAG, and OMgp interacts with both the Nogo receptor (NgR) and paired immunoglobulin-like receptor B (PirB). Here, we determined whether blocking PirB activity enhances axonal reorganization and functional recovery after cortical injury. We found that axons of the contralesional corticospinal tract sprouted into the denervated side of the cervical spinal cord after unilateral injury of the motor cortex. The extent to which this axonal reorganization occurred was far greater in mice lesioned during early postnatal days than in mice lesioned at an age when myelin had begun to form. This suggests that myelin-associated proteins might limit axonal remodeling in vivo. However, the number of sprouting fibers within either the corticospinal or corticorubral tract was not enhanced in PirB−/− mice. Blocking PirB signaling also failed to enhance functional recovery with three motor tests. Our results suggest that blocking the function of PirB is not sufficient to promote axonal reorganization or functional recovery after cortical injury.
Relating Identity Processing Styles to Commitment and Self-esteem among College Students

The role that identity processing styles may play in commitment and self-esteem were investigated. Measures of identity processing styles, commitment and self-esteem were administered to 112 psychology students (mean age = 18.77 years, SD = 1.3 years, males = 33, females = 79). Results revealed a statistically significant difference between Informational and Diffuse-avoidant identity processing styles on commitment. There was also a significant difference between Normative and Diffuse-avoidant processing styles on commitment. Students with Informational and Normative identity styles may be better adjusted to higher education learning than those with a different profile.
Research on second language teacher education : a sociocultural perspective on professional development

1. A Sociocultural Perspective on Teacher Professional Development Karen E. Johnson, Pennsylvania State University, US and Paula Golombek, University of Florida, US Part I: Promoting Cultural Diversity and Legitimating Teacher Identities 2. Becoming a Culturally Responsive Teacher Elizabeth Smolcic, Pennsylvania State University, US 3. I'm Not Alone": Empowering Non-Native English Speaking Teachers Davi Schirmer Reis, Duquesne University, US 4. Working Toward Social Inclusion Through Concept Development in L2 Teacher Education William Dunn, University of Alberta, Canada Part II: Concept Development in L2 Teacher Education 5. `Seeing' L2 Teacher Learning: The Power of Context on Conceptualizing Teaching Sharon Childs, Pennsylvania State University, US 6. Embracing Literacy-based Teaching Heather Willis Allen, University of Miami, US 7. Synthesizing the Academic and the Everyday Gretchen Nauman, Yanshan University, China Part III: Strategic Mediation in L2 Teacher Education 8. Dynamic Assessment in Teacher Education Paula Golombek, University of Florida, US 9. Moodle as a Mediational Space Tatsuhiro Yoshida, Hyoga University, Japan 10. The Reverse Move: Enriching Informal Knowledge in the Pedagogical Grammar Class Deryn P. Verity, Osaka Jogakuin College, Japan 11. Strategic Mediation in Learning to Teach Karen E. Johnson and Ekaterina Arshavskaya, Pennsylvania State University, US Part IV: Teacher Learning in Inquiry-Based Professional Development 12. Teacher Learning through Critical Friends Groups Priya Poehner, Lockhaven University, US 13. Teacher Learning through Lesson Study Thomas Tasker, Department of State, Kiev Part V: Navigating Educational Policies and Curricular Mandates 14. Ten Years of CLT Curricular Reform Efforts in South Korea Eun-Ju Kim, Hanyang Women's University, Korea 15. Learning to Teach under Curricular Reform Kyungja Ahn, Seoul National University, Korea
Making learning ordinary: ways undergraduates display learning in a CMC task

Abstract We report findings from a discourse analysis study situated within a discursive psychology framework that examined how undergraduate nutrition science students took up a computer-mediated communication task in which they were asked to write about what they learned after attending a lecture. Students made learning displays by orienting to the lecture as a news receipt and making assessments of this new information in variable ways. Some did this by marking an extreme change of state through surprise tokens and realization patterns, functioning to position the new information as so extreme that anyone would have learned something new. Others displayed more neutral assessments of the information or claimed no change of state at all, functioning to distance themselves from having learned anything. Both strategies are ways of “doing being ordinary,” while completing a delicate task that presented them with a potential dilemma of displaying their learning for an invisible audience of their peers.
Active Nanofibrous Membrane Effects on Gingival Cell Inflammatory Response

Alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone (α-MSH) is involved in normal skin wound healing and also has anti-inflammatory properties. The association of α-MSH to polyelectrolyte layers with various supports has been shown to improve these anti-inflammatory properties. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of nanofibrous membrane functionalized with α-MSH linked to polyelectrolyte layers on gingival cell inflammatory response. Human oral epithelial cells (EC) and fibroblasts (FB) were cultured on plastic or electrospun Poly-ε-caprolactone (PCL) membranes with α-MSH covalently coupled to Poly-L-glutamic acid (PGA-α-MSH), for 6 to 24 h. Cells were incubated with or without Porphyromonas gingivalis lipopolysaccharide (Pg-LPS). Cell proliferation and migration were determined using AlamarBlue test and scratch assay. Expression of interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α), and transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) was evaluated using RT-qPCR method. Cell cultures on plastic showed that PGA-α-MSH reduced EC and FB migration and decreased IL-6 and TGF-β expression in Pg-LPS stimulated EC. PGA-α-MSH functionalized PCL membranes reduced proliferation of Pg-LPS stimulated EC and FB. A significant decrease of IL-6, TNF-α, and TGF-β expression was also observed in Pg-LPS stimulated EC and FB. This study showed that the functionalization of nanofibrous PCL membranes efficiently amplified the anti-inflammatory effect of PGA-α-MSH on gingival cells.
'You're less complete if you haven't got a can in your hand': alcohol consumption and related harmful effects in rural Australia: the role and influence of cultural capital.

AIMS This study aimed to explore rural Australians' perceptions of social and cultural factors influencing alcohol use in their communities. METHODS Semi-structured interviews exploring rural community key informants' (n = 46) perceptions of social and cultural factors influencing alcohol consumption in their community were conducted. A narrative analysis identified cultural capital as a salient concept for explaining how rural community life is created and sustained via drinking practices. RESULTS Themes relating to participants' accounts of learning to drink, normal drinking; exclusion because of not drinking and problematic drinkers are described. CONCLUSION In rural communities, beliefs and values about drinking as a positive social practice are transmitted, rewarded and reproduced across multiple groups and settings, reinforcing that drinking is an integral part of Australian rural culture. Drinking is so important that engaging in drinking practices creates and sustains cultural capital. As a result, alcohol-related harm is of little concern to rural dwellers.
Relation between stage of left ventricular diastolic dysfunction and QT dispersion

Objective — In 30-40% of patients with clinical heart failure diastolic dysfunction is present although systolic function is normal. Evaluation of diastolic functions are important for the patient’s early diagnosis, treatment and prognosis. QT dispersion is an important parameter that reflects heterogeneity of ventricular repolarization and predicts ventricular arrhythmia and sudden death.According to several studies, QT dispersion is significantly increased in patients with diastolic dysfunction due to ischemic heart disease and left ventricular hypertrophy compared to the patients without diastolic dysfunction. However, a study about the relation between the stage of left ventricular diastolic dysfunction and QT dispersion is not present. The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between the stage of left ventricular diastolic function determined by transthoracic echocardiography and QT dispersion. Methods and Results — In our study the left ventricular diastolic functions of 80 patients were evaluated by transthoracic echocardiography. Eighty patients were divided to four stages each containing 20 patients. Stage 0 was defined as normal, stage 1 as prolonged relaxation pattern, stage 2 as pseudonormal pattern and stage 3 as restrictive pattern.We measured QT dispersion (QT D) and corrected QT dispersion (QTc D) values according to Bazzet’s formula in their ECGs. QT D and QTc D were found 20±8 ms vs. 26±1 ms in normal patients, 25±8 ms vs. 37±9 ms in the patients with prolonged relaxation pattern, 28±10 ms vs. 38±11 ms in the patients with pseudonormal pattern and 38±13 ms vs. 41±14 ms in the patients with restrictive pattern. A significant direct relation was found between the stage of left ventricular diastolic function and QT, QTc dispersion (p < 0.01). Furthermore, when classified according to the aetiology of the left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (stage 1, 2, 3) QT D and QTc D were 24±6 ms vs. 32±9 ms in the patients with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), and 32±9 ms vs. 41±12 ms in the patients with ischaemic heart disease (IHD). The differences between the two groups were statistically significant (p<0.01). Conclusions — These findings show that QT D and QTc dispersion values increase in relation to increasing left ventricular diastolic functional stage that is determined by echocardiography and that the patients with ischaemic heart disease have much more increased QT values than the patients with left ventricular hypertrophy.