Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Audit of Malignant Solid Tumors in Infants and Neonates

Background: To audit the demographics, outcome and factors affecting long-term survival in infants and neonates with solid tumors. Material and Methods: Retrospective case series was performed for 13 years. Demographics, surgical notes, treatment protocols and outcome details were reviewed. Results: Of total 372 tumors over 13 years, there were 59 infants (15.86%) of which 8 were neonates, with M:F 1.2:1, and mean age of presentation was 5.18months. Fifty three of the infants had tumors which were > 5 cm in size. Thirty two (54%) had a rapid progression of the lesion during investigations. Tumors markers and pre-operative biopsy were diagnostic in 61.5% and 30% respectively. Neuroblastoma was the commonest tumor (22%), followed by hepatoblastoma (20.3%), malignant germ cell tumor (20.3%), soft tissue sarcomas (11.9%), and others (8.5%). Staging distribution for 39 (66%) infants showed Stage 1-n=9, Stage 2-n=15, Stage 3-n=7, Stage 4-n= 5 and Stage IVs-n=3. Nineteen (32.2%) babies received chemotherapy. Almost half (50.8%) of the children underwent surgical removal of the tumor; with gross total resection in 76.6%. The overall mortality was 35.6%. About 30.5% are alive, well and tumor free on 2-12 years follow-up. Conclusion: A much higher incidence (15.8%) of infantile tumors in our region as compared to literature (2%) is alarming. Treatment failures from deaths or non-compliance amounted to be 69.5%. These are the two major issues which need to be addressed in the future management of infantile tumors. Reduction in deaths due to chemotherapy toxicity, rapid surgical intervention and R0 resection and risk stratification needs to be incorporated, to improve long-term tumor free survival in infants.
Making Science Homework Work: The Perspectives of Exemplary African American Science Teachers

Background/Context Despite the best intentions to close the achievement gap, the under-achievement of African American students in science is a persistent problem. It is surprising to note, however, that research on science education has often failed to consider students’ cultural diversity as it relates to science education. On the few occasions when efforts were made to link science disciplines and students’ cultural backgrounds, these studies were largely limited to classroom learning environments. Purpose/Research Question This study examines the perspectives of exemplary African American teachers toward science homework. Specifically, we address two research questions: What does science homework mean to exemplary African American science teachers? How do they approach science homework? Research Design A qualitative study was conducted, with data obtained from the following sources: (a) three open-ended, in-depth interviews with each exemplary teacher during the first year of the study, and (b) two focus group interviews with these teachers during the second year of the study. The participants were 8 exemplary African American science teachers in Grades 3–6 in the southeastern United States. Findings/Results Data revealed that these teachers shared a strong sense of urgency to use homework as an important vehicle in science learning. To help their students be successful with their homework, these teachers often provided additional provisions and used a variety of strategies to promote students’ interest in their homework. In addition, the teachers adapted an approach comparable to both Boykin's Afrocultural ethos (e.g., concerned with affect, expressive individualism, and verve) and “being a warm demander” (i.e., setting high expectations and insisting firmly yet respectfully that students meet those expectations). Conclusions These findings suggest that there is merit in integrating these two frameworks to better understand the perspectives of exemplary African American teachers toward science homework. These findings highlight the need to examine the perspectives of exemplary African American teachers toward secondary school science homework given that the poor achievement of African American students becomes more pronounced as they progress through school, and homework is found to be more strongly associated with secondary school students than elementary school students.
To craft or not to craft : The relationships between regulatory focus, job crafting and work outcomes

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine relationships between regulatory focus, job crafting, work engagement and perceived employability. Regulatory focus theory distinguishes between promotion-focused individuals, who strive for growth and development, and prevention-focussed individuals, who strive for security. Job crafting refers to changes that individuals make in their work to meet their own preferences and needs. It was expected that job crafting would mediate associations between promotion focus and work-related outcomes. Design/methodology/approach – Questionnaires were collected among 383 registered candidates from a consultancy organization for recruitment, assessment and coaching that operates within the branches pharmacy, medical devices, food, and healthcare. Results were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings – Crafting structural and social resources were positively related to work engagement and employability, whereas negative relationships were found for craftin.
On the Practical Significance of Hypertree vs. TreeWidth

The recently introduced notion of hypertree width has been shown to provide a broader characterization of tractable constraint and probabilistic networks than the tree width. This paper demonstrates empirically that in practice the bounding power of the tree width is still superior to the hypertree width for many benchmark instances of both probabilistic and deterministic networks.
The Primary Responses of Murine Neonatal Lymph Node CD4+ Cells are Th2-skewed and are Sufficient for the Development of Th2-biased Memory

Exposure of neonatal mice to antigen often results in Th2-biased responses in later life. Examples of this Th2 tendency are (a) secondary antibody responses dominated by the Th2-associated IgG1 isotype and (b) Th2-mediated tolerance to alloantigens. We previously reported that neonates develop primary Th1 and Th2 function in the lymph nodes but exclusive Th2 primary splenic responses. Here, we have tested whether the Th2 bias of adults initially immunized as neonates is due to the early, primary Th2 polarization in the spleen. Surprisingly, removal of the spleen at birth had no affect on either IgG1-dominant secondary responses or the development of tolerance to alloantigens. Thus, neonatal lymph nodes are sufficient to generate Th2-biased function following neonatal antigen exposure. To understand how this could arise, we examined the primary Th1/Th2 responses of CD4+ lymph node cells. Unlike the balanced Th1/Th2 responses seen with total lymph node cells, the primary responses of isolated CD4+ cells were skewed to IL-4 producing function. These results suggest that the early development of Th2-dominant responses by lymph node CD4+ cells contributes substantially to the subsequent development of Th2-dominant memory in neonates.
Hardware-accelerated attribute mapping for interactive visualization of complex 3D trajectories

The visualization of 3D trajectories of moving objects and related attributes in 3D virtual environments represents a fundamental functionality in various visualization domains. Interactive rendering and visual analytics of such attributed trajectories involves both conceptual questions as well as technical challenges. Specifically, the mapping of trajectory attributes to rendering primitives and appearance represents a challenging task in the case of large data sets of high geometric complexity. There are various visualization approaches and rendering techniques considering specific aspects of these mappings to facilitate visualization and analysis of this kind of data. To solve the underlying general mapping problem efficiently, we developed an approach that uses and combines diverse types of visualizations, rather than being tailored to a specific use case. This paper describes an interactive rendering system for the visualization of 3D trajectories that enables the combinations of different mappings as well as their dynamic configuration at runtime. A fully hardware-accelerated implementation enables the processing of large sets of attributed 3D trajectories in real-time.
Breastfeeding and Complementary Food: Randomized Trial of Community Doula Home Visiting

OBJECTIVES: Despite recent efforts to increase breastfeeding, young African American mothers continue to breastfeed at low rates, and commonly introduce complementary foods earlier than recommended. This study examines the effects of a community doula home visiting intervention on infant feeding practices among young mothers. METHODS: Low-income, African American mothers (n = 248) under age 22 years participated in a randomized trial of a community doula intervention. Intervention-group mothers received services from paraprofessional doulas: specialized home visitors trained as childbirth educators and lactation counselors. Doulas provided home visits from pregnancy through 3 months postpartum, and support during childbirth. Control-group mothers received usual prenatal care. Data were obtained from medical records and maternal interviews at birth and 4 months postpartum. RESULTS: Intent-to-treat analyses showed that doula-group mothers attempted breastfeeding at a higher rate than control-group mothers (64% vs 50%; P = .02) and were more likely to breastfeed longer than 6 weeks (29% vs 17%; P = .04), although few mothers still breastfed at 4 months. The intervention also impacted mothers’ cereal/solid food introduction (P = .008): fewer doula-group mothers introduced complementary foods before 6 weeks of age (6% vs 18%), while more waited until at least 4 months (21% vs 13%) compared with control-group mothers. CONCLUSIONS: Community doulas may be effective in helping young mothers meet breastfeeding and healthy feeding guidelines. The intervention’s success may lie in the relationship that develops between doula and mother based on shared cultural background and months of prenatal home visiting, and the doula’s presence at the birth, where she supports early breastfeeding experiences.
Subordinate expectations of leadership within a cleaned‐up bureaucracy: A grounded theory study

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to present a theory of the leadership process within the substantive setting of a cleaned‐up bureaucracy.Design/methodology/approach – Orthodox grounded theory is employed within the setting of a large public‐sector organization in an eastern state of Australia.Findings – A leadership process model is presented which depicts a core social process within which subordinates' view of leadership is formed. Subordinates in cleaned‐up bureaucracies view leaders as people who service them, thus facilitating the movement of subordinates towards the minimization of their “attainment differences”. This view is far from the New Leadership notions of the charismatic, visionary, transformational leader or the captain‐like instrumental and authoritative leader.Research limitations/implications – Findings are derived on the basis of a substantive case study of one cleaned‐up bureaucracy in a particular country. Further research needs to expand this base to encompass other organizati.
Adverse effects of excessive mobile phone use.

INTRODUCTION Research findings indicate that the use of mobile phones may lead to a number of symptoms such as headache, impaired concentration and memory, and also fatigue. MATERIALS AND METHODS The present study was designed to investigate whether the symptoms of ill health reported by young people may be associated with the use of mobile phone (MP) and to analyze its influence on health and development of medical students. The questionnaire was designed specifically for this study and contained items regarding health condition and health complaints as well as the frequency of MP use. The response rate was 86.6% (286 of 330 forms, completed by 73.77% males and 26.22% females). RESULTS Most of the subjects (83.57%) had some knowledge about the adverse effects of MP use. 76.92% of the students carried one mobile, and 23.08% more than one. 55.94%, of the subjects reported the average daily MP use of less than 30 min, 27.97%, of 30-60 min, 11.53%, of 60-90 min and 4.54% of more than 90 min. 16.08% of the subjects complained of headache and 24.48% of fatigue. Impaired concentration was reported by 34.27% of respondents, memory disturbances by 40.56%, sleeplessness by 38.8%, hearing problems by 23.07%, and facial dermatitis by 16.78%. The sensation of warmth within the auricle and behind/around the ear was reported by 28.32%. Out of 286 subjects who participated in this study, 44.4% related their symptoms to mobile phone use. CONCLUSIONS The findings of the present study indicate that mobile phones play a large part in the daily life of medical students. Therefore, its impact on psychology and health should be discussed among the students to prevent the harmful effects of mobile phone use.
Real Time Illumination Invariant Background Subtraction Using Local Kernel Histograms

Constant background hypothesis for background subtraction algorithms is often not applicable in real environments because of shadows, reflections, or small moving objects in the background: flickering screens in indoor scenes, or waving vegetation in outdoor ones. In both indoor and outdoor scenes, the use of color cues for background segmentation is limited by illumination variations when lights are switched or weather changes. This problem can be partially allievated using robust color coordinates or background update algorithms but an important part of the color information is lost by the former solution and the latter is often too specialized to cope with most of real environment constraints. This paper presents an approach using local kernel histograms and contour-based features. Local kernel histograms have the conventional histograms advantages avoiding their inherent drawbacks. Contour based features are more robust than color features regarding scene illumination variations. The proposed algorithm performances are emphasized in the experimental results using test scenes involving strong illumination variations and non static backgrounds.
DIFFERENTIATION OF PATHOGENIC AND SAPROPHYTIC LEPTOSPIRES WITH 8-AZAGUANINE

Johnson, Russell C. (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis), and Palmer Rogers. Differentiation of pathogenic and saprophytic leptospires with 8-azaguanine. J. Bacteriol. 88:1618–1623. 1964. —The use of the purine analogue, 8-azaguanine, as a differential agent for the separation of pathogenic and saprophytic leptospires was investigated. Growth of strains of the saprophyte Leptospira biflexa was almost insensitive to the bacteriostatic action of 8-azaguanine at concentrations varying from 25 to 600 μg/ml; these saprophytic leptospires were serially transferred five times in media containing 225 μg without any change in growth rate or cell yield. In contrast, decreased growth rate and cell yield of the pathogenic serotypes were observed with 25 to 50 μg/ml of 8-azaguanine. Complete inhibition of growth occurred at concentrations of 100 μg/ml and above. A medium containing 225 μg/ml of 8-azaguanine was successfully used to differentiate 20 serotypes of pathogenic leptospires and 10 saprophytic strains. L. andaman CH11, L. semarang Veldrat S1 73, and L. andaman Correa, were classified with the L. biflexa strains on the basis of their growth response to 8-azaguanine.
A high coding gain and low decoding complexity STBC for four transmit antennas

Space-time block codes (STBCs) have attracted considerable attention as they provide reliable communication in multi-antenna systems. STBCs work on the principle of multiple transmissions of a data stream from different transmit antennas in multiple time slots. This redundancy reduces the data rate of the STBCs. In this paper, we propose a mapping function for PAM and square QAM constellation. Based on this mapping function, we propose an STBC for four transmit antennas which achieves high coding gain. We derive an expression of coding gain of the proposed STBC. It is further shown that the proposed STBC achieves full diversity and has a low peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). A low-complexity decoder for the proposed STBC is also derived. We show that the proposed STBC outperforms the existing STBCs for four transmit antennas in terms of coding gain, PAPR, and decoding complexity.
Endogenous Sequential Cortical Activity Evoked by Visual Stimuli

Although the functional properties of individual neurons in primary visual cortex have been studied intensely, little is known about how neuronal groups could encode changing visual stimuli using temporal activity patterns. To explore this, we used in vivo two-photon calcium imaging to record the activity of neuronal populations in primary visual cortex of awake mice in the presence and absence of visual stimulation. Multidimensional analysis of the network activity allowed us to identify neuronal ensembles defined as groups of cells firing in synchrony. These synchronous groups of neurons were themselves activated in sequential temporal patterns, which repeated at much higher proportions than chance and were triggered by specific visual stimuli such as natural visual scenes. Interestingly, sequential patterns were also present in recordings of spontaneous activity without any sensory stimulation and were accompanied by precise firing sequences at the single-cell level. Moreover, intrinsic dynamics could be used to predict the occurrence of future neuronal ensembles. Our data demonstrate that visual stimuli recruit similar sequential patterns to the ones observed spontaneously, consistent with the hypothesis that already existing Hebbian cell assemblies firing in predefined temporal sequences could be the microcircuit substrate that encodes visual percepts changing in time.
Automated multicapillary electrophoresis for analysis of human serum proteins.

BACKGROUND We evaluated a new, automated multicapillary zone electrophoresis (CE) instrument (Capillarys), 4.51 software version; Sebia) for human serum protein analysis. METHODS With the Capillarys beta1-beta2+ reagent set, proteins were separated at 7 kV for 4 min in 15.5 cm x 25 micro m fused-silica capillaries (n = 8) at 35.5 degrees C in a pH 10 buffer with online detection at 200 nm. Serum samples with different electrophoretic patterns (n = 265) or potential interference (n = 69) were analyzed and compared with agarose gel electrophoresis (AGE; Hydrasys)-Hyrys, Hydragel protein(e) 15/30 reagent set; Sebia). RESULTS CVs were <3.5% for albumin, <11% for alpha(1)-globulin, <4.1% for alpha(2)-globulin, <7.4% for beta-globulin, and <5.8% for gamma-globulin (3 control levels); measured throughput was 60 samples/h. In patients without paraprotein (n = 116), the median differences between CE and AGE were -5.4 g/L for albumin, 4.0 g/L for alpha(1)-globulin, 0.7 g/L for alpha(2)-globulin, 0.6 g/L for beta-globulin (P <0.001 for all fractions), and -0.1 g/L for gamma-globulin (not significant). More samples had at least one gamma-migrating peak detected by CE (n = 135 vs 130; paraprotein detection limit, approximately 0.5-0.7 g/L), but fewer were quantified (n = 84 vs 91) because of gamma- to beta-migration shifts. There was a 1.2 g/L median difference between CE and AGE for gamma-migrating paraprotein quantification (n = 69; P <0.001). Several ultraviolet-absorbing substances (lipid emulsion, hemoglobin) or molecules (contrast agent, gelatin-based plasma substitute) induced CE artifacts. CONCLUSIONS The Capillarys instrument is a reliable CE system for serum protein analysis, combining advantages of full automation (ease of use, bar-code identification, computer-assisted correction of alpha(1)-globulins) with high analytical performances and throughput.
Efficient Optimization Approach for Accurate Parameter Extraction With Terahertz Time-Domain Spectroscopy

We propose a novel optimization algorithm for the extraction of material complex refractive index in the terahertz (THz) frequency range. The algorithm is applied for materials with arbitrary frequency dependence. We utilize dispersive dielectric models for accurate parameter extraction of a sample of unknown thickness. This approach allows for simultaneously estimating the parameters and fitting them to one of the dispersive models of the materials in the THz frequency range. Our approach has been successfully illustrated through a number of examples with different dispersive models. The examples include the characterization of doped semiconductors used in surface plasmon plaritons in the THz regime. They also include characterizing carbon nanotubes.
Coming to Terms: 'Race', Ethnicity, Identity and Aboriginality in Sport

Notions of genetic superiority have led to some of the world's greatest human calamities. Just as social scientists thought that racial anthropology and biology had ended with the cataclysm of the Second World War, so some influential researchers and sports commentators have rekindled the pre-war debate about the muscular merits of 'races' in a new discipline that Nyborg (1994) calls the 'science of physicology'. The more recent realm of racial 'athletic genes', especially within socially constructed black athletic communities, may intend no malice but this search for the keys to their success may well revive the old, discredited discourses. This critical commentary shows what can happen when some population geneticists and sports writers ignore history and when medical, biological and sporting doctrines deriving from 'race' are dislocated from any historical, geographic, cultural and social contexts.
Lifestyle of Young Australian Adults With Asthma

Asthma is a highly prevalent disease that may affect the lifestyle adopted by young adults. This study investigated whether asthma status influences fruit and vegetable consumption, physical activity level, tobacco smoking, and alcohol drinking behavior of young adults in Australia. Information of 2619 participants aged 18 to 29 years was extracted from the 2007-2008 Australian National Health Survey database. The level of physical activity and fruit consumption were found to be similar between young adults with and without asthma. Participants with asthma symptoms in the past 12 months were more likely to achieve the dietary recommendation for vegetable intake, but they tended to smoke tobacco and consume alcohol above safe levels. It may be necessary to develop prevention strategies targeting young adults with asthma that include screening for harmful use of substances.
Allergy to Carbamazepine: Parallel In Vivo and In Vitro Detection

Summary: Purpose: Five to 20% of patients discontinue antiepileptic drug (AED) therapy because of adverse reactions. Careful reintroduction, however, may be considered if true drug allergy can be ruled out. Definitive assessment of such immunologically mediated reactions requires demonstration of either specific antibodies or sensitized lymphocytes.