Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Usability Testing of a Smartphone for Accessing a Web-based e-Diary for Self-monitoring of Pain and Symptoms in Sickle Cell Disease

We examined the usability of smartphones for accessing a web-based e-Diary for self-monitoring symptoms in children and adolescents with sickle cell disease (SCD). One group of participants (n=10; mean age, 13.1±2.4 y; 5 M; 5 F) responded to questions using precompleted paper-based measures. A second group (n=21; mean age, 13.4±2.4 y; 10 M; 11 F) responded based on pain and symptoms they experienced over the previous 12 hours. The e-Diary was completed with at least 80% accuracy when compared to paper-based measures. Symptoms experienced over the previous 12 hours included feeling tired (33.3%), headache (28.6%), coughing (23.8%), lack of energy/fatigue (19.0%), yellowing of the eyes (19.0%), pallor (19.0%), irritability (19.0%), stiffness in joints (19.0%), general weakness (14.3%), and pain (14.3%), rating on average as 2.0±1.7 (on 0 to 10 scale). Overall, sleep was good (8.1±1.4 on the 0 to 10 scale). In conclusion, children with SCD were able to use smartphones to access a web-based e-Diary for reporting pain and symptoms. Smartphones may improve self-reporting of symptoms and communication between patients and their health care providers, who may consequently be able to improve pain and symptom management in children and adolescents with SCD in a timely manner.
Reading outside the box: exploring critical literacy with Korean preschool children

ABSTRACT Despite the increasing attention paid to the importance of critical literacy in North American early childhood classrooms, critical literacy has been rarely discussed in East Asian classrooms, particularly in South Korea. The present study delineates ways in which a Korean preschool teacher interacts with her young learners during literacy activities to foster multiple perspectives on children's literature and challenge dominant ideologies inherent in text. Using qualitative data from participant observations, video and audio recordings, teacher interviews, and children's artifacts, the study provides the detailed examples of how young Korean children negotiated and constructed their voices through critical literacy activities. The teacher used problem-posing and multimodal approaches as ways to open up critical literacy spaces to facilitate the children's critical engagement with books. This study suggests examining how young children interpret text from varied perspectives has great potential for researchers and educators alike as teachers can better support young children in their development of questioning, challenging, and evaluating the meanings and purposes of texts from an early age.
Problem Solving and Memory

In this chapter we will review marine mammal cognition, defined loosely as information processing, or the intervening neural stages between perception and action. We will contrast cognition with simpler models of behaviour (stimulus‐response or reflex models), in asserting that the external environment of the marine mammal is coded through peripheral (sensory) and central mechanisms into imaginal representations. We will not speculate further on the topography of these representations, since that is beyond the scope of most of the existing work on the behaviour of marine mammals. We will emphasize an approach that unites experimental psychology and behavioural ecology: that is, based on both laboratory and field studies of behaviour. By synthesizing data and theory from these two approaches, we can begin to determine the cognitive mechanisms involved in natural behaviour. Most of the data in this area are limited to two species, the California sea lion (Zalophus californianus) and the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), and this is particularly true for the laboratory approach. It is for that reason that our discussion will focus with few exceptions on these animals.
Diet of moreporks (Ninox novaeseelandiae) in Pureora Forest determined from prey remains in regurgitated pellets

The diet of radio-tagged moreporks (Ninox novaeseelandiae) was studied at Pureora Forest from May to December 1997. An examination of 187 pellets yielded 1226 prey items. Approximately 99% of the diet was invertebrates; the commonest items being beetles (48.6%), stick insects (25.6%) and weta (11.8%). Vertebrate prey included silvereye (Zosterops lateralis) and rodents in small numbers. The diet varied significantly from month to month.
Effects of repeated freeze-thaw cycles on concentrations of cholesterol, micronutrients, and hormones in human plasma and serum.

The effects of repeated freeze-thaw cycles on concentrations of various analytes in plasma or serum were of little interest until the growth of plasma and serum banks during the latter part of the 20th century. By 1996, the number of such banks used primarily for cancer research had grown to 115 (1). Many also exist for other purposes, such as the WHO Serum Reference Banks (2) and banks associated with cardiovascular studies such as the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial (MRFIT) and the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study (3)(4). Although the need for repeated freezing and thawing of samples can be minimized by storing banked specimens in several small containers (5), it often is necessary to use plasma or serum that has already undergone one or more freeze-thaw cycles. When this occurs, reviewers of research protocols or manuscripts may question the validity of data obtained from these specimens. The scientific literature provides few answers to such questions. Medline contains no appropriate key word or phrase for searching; comments on the effects of freeze-thaw cycles often are limited to a few sentences in publications that focus on stability during long-term storage or on assay methodology. The present study was designed to add information to this sparse literature. In 1991, 10 healthy adult volunteers, 5 men and 5 women, each donated 120 mL of blood. The purpose of the study was explained to each person along with the risks and lack of individual benefit. Approval of the study was granted by the Committee on Human Volunteers of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health before study initiation. Blood was collected into three 20-mL Vacutainer Tubes containing 286 USP units of sodium heparin (cat. no. 6406; Becton Dickinson) to obtain plasma, and into four 15-mL plain Vacutainer Tubes …
The Mediating Role of Cultural Intelligence in the Relationship Between the Openness to Experience Personality Trait and Job Satisfaction Among Expatriates

This study has explored the role of cultural intelligence as a mediator in the relationship between the openness to experience personality trait and job satisfaction among expatriates. Expatriates were required to fill up online questionnaires to measure all the three variables. This study used a regression and bootstrapping analysis to test the hypothesis in a sample of 265 expatriates. The result indicates that the variance in job satisfaction accountable to the openness to experience personality trait is fully mediated through cultural intelligence. This findingprovides evidence that possessing cultural intelligence acts as a mechanism in which an open expatriate could feel satisfied with his or her job. Moreover, this study discusses the practical implications especially for multinational companies and suggests some future research directions.
Antiphytoviral Activity of the Plectranthus tenuiflorus on Some Important Viruses

Crude extract of Plectranthus tenuiflorus crude extract was tested as an antiphytoviral agent against different plant viruses like Tobacco Necrosis Virus (TNV), Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV), and Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus (TSWV). When it was applied onto Phaseolus vulgaris, Datura stramonium, and Chenopodium amaranticolor as pre-inoculation spray (in vivo), it reduced the infectivity of above viruses by 90.6, 85.8 and 77.7%, respectively. However, when the extract was mixed with the virus inoculum (in vitro), it inhibited the local lesion development by 100% after one hour of mixing for TNV, and three hours for both TMV and TSWV. Effect of P. tenuiflorus on the systemic TMV infection was also studied. It delayed the onset of the disease development from 4 to 5 days, although it had less apparent effect on the virus accumulation. Studying the effect of temperature and rate of dilution on the antiphytoviral activity revealed that the thermostable property of this extract as well as remaining of its antiphytoviral activity up to 10 dilution rate. In order to investigate the bioactive constituent of the P. tenuiflorus. Crude extract, its proteins, carbohydrates, and storage oil were separated and tested as an antiphytoviral agent. The results indicated that the antiviral activity was not mainly attributed to these constituents.
The two faces of envy : Studying benign and malicious envy in the workplace

As this book shows, we are starting to understand more about the nature of envy, the content of its emotional experience, and its effects in an organization. Envy is the result of an upward social comparison, one that signals to someone that he or she lacks desired abilities, traits or rewards enjoyed by another. Organizational scholars recognize that social comparison and envy should be prevalent in organizations as employees are often subject to hierarchical stratification and often compete for scarce organizational rewards, managerial attention, and social status (Vecchio, 1997). Equity theorists and organizational justice theorists have long recognized the importance of comparisons in the workplace, as employees weigh social information obtained from observing and communicating with their peers to make sense of their workplace (Adams, 1965; Greenberg, 1982; Ambrose, Harland, & Kulik, 1991; Folger & Cropanzano, 2001). However, the acknowledgment of social comparison processes is often treated more implicitly in organizational research and a direct examination of the results of social comparison processes has largely been missing in the organizational literature (Duffy, 2008). This is changing, however, as organizational scholars are realizing the important role that emotions play in motivating organizational behavior (e.g., Gino, Chapter 3, this book). A few of the more negative social emotions those resulting from unfavorable comparisons, such as shame, jealousy and envy are related to a wide variety of disruptive and destructive workplace behaviors (Poulson, 2000; Vecchio, 2005). As a result of this association, coupled with a growing interest in workplace deviance, social comparison and social emotions are receiving an increasing amount of attention in organizational scholarship.
Error detection and self-assessment as mechanisms to promote self-regulation of learning among secondary education students

ABSTRACT The authors’ objective was to study the role of error detection and retroactive self-regulation as determinants of performance in secondary education students. A total of 198 students participated in the quasiexperimental study, which involved a control group and two experimental groups. This enabled the authors to analyze the effects of both error detection and the subsequent self-regulation by means of several analyses of variance. In addition, the authors analyzed the effect of an assessment script on student's self-assessment. Nevertheless, the divergence in both their self-assessment and error detection was most pronounced when not using the assessment instrument. Furthermore, the correlation analysis revealed that error detection was significantly and positively correlated with students’ performance. Students who conducted error detection and subsequently formulated and completed self-regulation activities achieved better performance. The study results suggest that the use of error detection as a tool has considerable potential in the teaching and learning process.
Risk Spillovers in International Equity Portfolios

We define risk spillover as the dependence of a given asset variance on the past covariances and variances of other assets. Building on this idea, we propose the use of a highly flexible and tractable model to forecast the volatility of an international equity portfolio. According to the risk management strategy proposed, portfolio risk is seen as a specific combination of daily realized variances and covariances extracted from a high frequency dataset, which includes equities and currencies. In this framework, we focus on the risk spillovers across equities within the same sector (sector spillover), and from currencies to international equities (currency spillover). We compare these specific risk spillovers to a more general framework (full spillover) whereby we allow for lagged dependence across all variances and covariances. The forecasting analysis shows that considering only sector- and currency-risk spillovers, rather than full spillovers, improves performance, both in economic and statistical terms.
Noctilucent clouds and the mesospheric water vapour: the past decade

Abstract. The topic of this paper is the sensitivity of the brightness of noctilucent clouds (NLC) on the ambient water vapour mixing ratio f(H 2 O). Firstly, we use state-of-the-art models of NLC layer formation to predict NLC brightness changes in response to changes in the 80km mixing ratio f(H 2 O) for the two cases of ground-based 532nm lidar observations at 69° N and for hemispheric satellite SBUV observations at 252nm wavelength. In this study, we include a re-evaluation of the sensitivity of NLC brightness to changes in solar Lyman α flux. Secondly, we review observations of episodic changes in f(H 2 O) and those in NLC brightness, the former being available since 1992, the latter since 1979. To this review, we add a new series of observations of f(H 2 O), performed in the Arctic summer at the ALOMAR observatory. The episodic change exhibited by the Arctic summer means of f(H 2 O) turns out to be quite different from all those derived from annual means of f(H 2 O). The latter indicate that since 1996 a significant reduction of annually averaged upper mesospheric water vapour has occurred at low, mid, and high latitudes. These decreases of f(H 2 O) have been observed over the same time period in which a slow increase of SBUV NLC albedo has occurred. From this scenario and additional arguments we conclude that the cause for the observed long-term increase in NLC albedo remains to be identified. We close with comments on the very different character of decadal variations in NLC brightness and occurrence rate.
Dysregulation of Gene Expression in the 1-Methyl-4-Phenyl-1,2,3,6-Tetrahydropyridine-Lesioned Mouse Substantia Nigra

Parkinson's disease pathogenesis proceeds through several phases, culminating in the loss of dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra (SN). Although the 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) model of oxidative SN injury is frequently used to study degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in mice and non-human primates, an understanding of the temporal sequence of molecular events from inhibition of mitochondrial complex 1 to neuronal cell death is limited. Here, microarray analysis and integrative data mining were used to uncover pathways implicated in the progression of changes in dopaminergic neurons after MPTP administration. This approach enabled the identification of small, yet consistently significant, changes in gene expression within the SN of MPTP-treated animals. Such an analysis disclosed dysregulation of genes in three main areas related to neuronal function: cytoskeletal stability and maintenance, synaptic integrity, and cell cycle and apoptosis. The discovery and validation of these alterations provide molecular evidence for an evolving cascade of injury, dysfunction, and cell death.
Applications of linking PBPK and PD models to predict the impact of genotypic variability, formulation differences, differences in target binding capacity and target site drug concentrations on drug responses and variability

This study aimed to demonstrate the added value of integrating prior in vitro data and knowledge-rich physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models with pharmacodynamics (PDs) models. Four distinct applications that were developed and tested are presented here. PBPK models were developed for metoprolol using different CYP2D6 genotypes based on in vitro data. Application of the models for prediction of phenotypic differences in the pharmacokinetics (PKs) and PD compared favorably with clinical data, demonstrating that these differences can be predicted prior to the availability of such data from clinical trials. In the second case, PK and PD data for an immediate release formulation of nifedipine together with in vitro dissolution data for a controlled release (CR) formulation were used to predict the PK and PD of the CR. This approach can be useful to pharmaceutical scientists during formulation development. The operational model of agonism was used in the third application to describe the hypnotic effects of triazolam, and this was successfully extrapolated to zolpidem by changing only the drug related parameters from in vitro experiments. This PBPK modeling approach can be useful to developmental scientists who which to compare several drug candidates in the same therapeutic class. Finally, differences in QTc prolongation due to quinidine in Caucasian and Korean females were successfully predicted by the model using free heart concentrations as an input to the PD models. This PBPK linked PD model was used to demonstrate a higher sensitivity to free heart concentrations of quinidine in Caucasian females, thereby providing a mechanistic understanding of a clinical observation. In general, permutations of certain conditions which potentially change PK and hence PD may not be amenable to the conduct of clinical studies but linking PBPK with PD provides an alternative method of investigating the potential impact of PK changes on PD.
Impacto del sistema de alertas "semaforo" del contenido de azúcar, sal y grasa en etiquetas de alimentos procesados: enfoque cualitativo

El Ministerio de Salud Publica de Ecuador (LATAM), por decreto ministerial implementado en noviembre de 2013 una medida innovadora en un esfuerzo por mejorar los habitos alimenticios de la poblacion ecuatoriana y asi reducir la incidencia de enfermedades causadas por una nutricion deficiente. Los productores de alimentos procesados se vieron obligados a poner en sus etiquetas de producto un sistema grafico que indica a los consumidores la cantidad de grasa, azucar y sal en sus productos mediante el uso de colores rojo, amarillo y verde como advertencia. Esta investigacion busca analizar el impacto de la implementacion de este sistema de alerta en el consumo de alimentos procesados para considerar si la medida realmente ha tenido el impacto deseado y ha reducido el consumo de productos con altos niveles de azucar, sal y grasa. A traves de entrevistas en profundidad con los jefes de familia de clase media y alta de la ciudad de Guayaquil, se encontro que en general los ciudadanos estan de acuerdo con la medida y consideran negativamente los productos con alerta roja (alto contenido de azucar, sal y grasa). Incluso pensando que han reducido la cantidad de consumo de este tipo de productos, son pesimistas acerca de la posibilidad de dejar de comprarlos.
How to Organize Crime

In criminal organizations, diffusing information widely throughout the organization might lead to greater internal efficiency (in particular, since these organizations are self-sustaining, through facilitating cooperation). However, this may come at a cost of leaving the organization more vulnerable to external threats such as law enforcement. We consider the implications of this trade-off and we characterize the optimal information structure, rationalizing both hierarchical and cell-based forms. Then, we focus on the role of the external authority, characterize optimal detection strategies and discuss the implications of different forms of enforcement on the internal structure of the organization. Finally, we discuss a number of applications and extensions.
The use of date waste for lactic acid production by a fed-batch culture using Lactobacillus casei subsp. rhamnosus

The production of lactic acid from date juice by Lactobacillus caseisubsp. rhamnosus in batch and fed-batch cultures has been investigated. The fed-batch culture system gave better results for lactic acid production and volumetric productivity. The aim of this work is to determine the effects of the feeding rate and the concentration of the feeding medium containing date juice glucose on the cell growth, the consumption of glucose and the lactic acid production by Lactobacillus casei subsp. rhamnosus in fed-batch cultures. For this study, two concentrations of the feeding medium (62 and 100 g/L of date juice glucose) were tested at different feeding rates (18, 22, 33, 75 and 150 mL/h). The highest volumetric productivity (1.3 g/L.h) and lactic acid yield (1.7 g/g) were obtained at a feeding rate of 33 mL/h and a date juice glucose concentration of 62 g/L in the feeding medium. As a result, most of the date juice glucose was completely utilised (residual glucose 1 g/L), and a maximum lactic acid production level (89.2 g/L) was obtained.
Articulatory movement prediction using deep bidirectional long short-term memory based recurrent neural networks and word/phone embeddings

Automatic prediction of articulatory movements from speech or text can be beneficial for many applications such as speech recognition and synthesis. A recent approach has reported stateof-the-art performance in speech-to-articulatory prediction using feed forward neural networks. In this paper, we investigate the feasibility of using bidirectional long short-term memory based recurrent neural networks (BLSTM-RNNs) in articulatory movement prediction because they have long-context trajectory modeling ability. We show on the MNGU0 dataset that BLSTM-RNN apparently outperforms feed forward networks and pushes the state-of-the-art RMSE from 0.885 mm to 0.565 mm. On the other hand, predicting articulatory information from text heavily relies on handcrafted linguistic and prosodic features, e.g., POS and TOBI labels. In this paper, we propose to use word and phone embeddings to substitute these manual features. Word/phone embedding features are automatically learned from unlabeled text data by a neural network language model. We show that word and phone embeddings can achieve comparable performance without using POS and TOBI features. More promisingly, combining the conventional full feature set with phone embedding, the lowest RMSE is achieved.
Text Mining for Opinion Target Detection

This article presents a text mining approach based on linguistic knowledge to automatically detect opinion targets in relation with topic elements, for competitive intelligence. The identification of opinions and sentiments expressed in texts is currently studied a lot, but few works are focused on the identification of opinions whose target is associated to a predefined topic. We present in a first time the information detection task with linguistic patterns, and a state of the art on opinion detection and opinion targets detection. Then we describe the French corpora: one contains transcription of telephone requests related to Energy, the other contains extracts of internet forum related to Video Games. Next we detail the linguistic knowledge used to annotate those texts. The knowledge is based on the identification of explicit relations between topic and opinion ("Transformers is great") and on the identification of implicit opinions ("they intervene quickly"). At last, an example of result is presented, as a first evaluation.