Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Factors influencing absorption and retention of oral 109Cd in mice: age, pretreatment and subsequent treatment with non-radioactive cadmium.

The influence of age, pretreatment with CdCl2 and long-term oral treatment with CdSO4 on whole-body retention, organ distribution and the biological half-time of 109CdCl2 (given as a single oral dose) was studied in mice in three separate experiments: I) Male CBA-mice, 1, 3 and 6 months of age, were given a single oral dose of CdCl2 labelled with 109Cd. The whole-body retention of the radiolabelled cadmium was inversely related to age. This was explained by a significantly higher intestinal absorption of 109Cd in the younger mice, compared to the older. No influence of age on the biological half-time of 109Cd was observed. II) Three groups of adult of male CBA-mice were pretreated with 75 mgCd/l (as CdCl2) in the drinking water for 130, 13 or 0 days, respectively, before receiving a single oral dose of CdCl2 labelled with 109Cd. The two pretreated groups showed higher intestinal absorption of radio-labelled cadmium and a statistically significant longer biological half-time of 109Cd compared to mice not pretreated with cadmium. The organ retention of radiolabelled cadmium was markedly higher in mice given cadmium in the drinking water compared with those given deionized water. III) Male and female adult CBA-mice were exposed to a single oral dose of CdCl2 labelled with 109Cd, via stomachtube. and were thereafter given either deionized water (control group) or 50 mgCd/l (as CdCO4) in the drinking water continuously for 18 months. The organ retention of the radiolabelled cadmium was higher in mice exposed to cadmium in the drinking water compared to those given deionized water. Mice exposed to cadmium via the drinking water had a markedly longer biological half-time of 109Cd compared to non-Cd-exposed mice. In all experiments the animals retaining a larger proportion of the cadmium dose showed higher liver: kidney ratios of the radiolabelled cadmium compared to mice retaining less cadmium. The conclusions of the present studies were: Age is of significant importance to the metabolism of cadmium due to the marked raise in intestinal absorption in the youngest age. pretreatment with cadmium caused a higher intestinal absorption of radiolabelled cadmium. A longer biological hall-time of 109Cd was seen both after pretreatment and subsequent treatment with cadmium.
Retrospectives on factors influencing inclusive opportunities for college students with extensive support needs

ABSTRACT Current U.S. legislation calls for students with disabilities to be involved and make progress in general education curriculum. Despite the legislation, students with extensive support needs continue to be segregated from their peers and post-school outcomes remain dismal for this population of students. The purpose of this retrospective study was to explore the perceptions of two students with extensive support needs and their caregivers regarding factors that contributed to their involvement and progress in the general education curriculum and eventual enrolment in four-year, post-secondary institutions in the United States. Findings related to the role of participants’ perceptions of self, participants’ engagement in advocacy roles and activities, and specific human and material supports that both facilitated and acted as barriers to education in the general curriculum emerged as recurrent themes. Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research and practice are presented.
A Scan Statistics Based Suspicious Transactions Detection Model for Anti-money Laundering (AML) in Financial Institutions

Developing effective suspicious activity detection models has drawn more and more interests for supervision agencies and financial institutions in their efforts to combat money laundering. Most previous AML systems were mainly rule-based which suffered from low efficiency and also could be easily learned and evaded by money launders. While most machine learning models for AML were focused on individual level. Our paper proposes a suspicious activity recognition method basing on scan statistics, it aims to identify suspicious sequences on transaction level for financial institutions. In the end, we evaluate our algorithm using real financial data from commercial banks. And the initial experiment results demonstrate the efficiency of our approach.
Speaker recognition in a multi-speaker environment

We discuss the multi-speaker tasks of detection, tracking, and segmentation of speakers as included in recent NIST Speaker Recognition Evaluations. We consider how performance for the two-speaker detection task is related to that for the corresponding one-speaker task. We examine the effects of target speaker speech duration and the gender mix within test segments on results for these tasks. We also relate performance results for the tracking and segmentation tasks, and look at factors affecting segmentation performance.
Organizational Identification: A Mixed Methods Study Exploring Students’ Relationship with Their University

Organizational identification (OID) is the outcome of social construction processes in which individuals define themselves in terms of their organizational membership. Students’ identification with their university reflects value congruence with the institution and is reflected in communication. Drawing on social identity theory (SIT) and utilizing quantitative and qualitative data from students (n = 555), we found relationships between OID and construed external image of the university, trust in the university, satisfaction with the university, perceived interorganizational competition, and outcomes, including intended future involvement. Students were re-surveyed nine months later (n = 397, with 83 respondents matching Time 1 and Time 2) to assess their OID stability. Open-ended responses describe situations and events that strengthen/lessen OID. We offer implications for OID, SIT, and for organizational communication research and practice.
NO FREE LUNCH WITH THE SANDWICH

In nonlinear regression theory, the sandwich estimator of the covariance matrix of the model parameters is known as a consistent estimator, even when the parameterized model does not contain the regression. However, in the latter case, we emphasize the fact that the consistency of the sandwich holds only if the inputs of the training set are the values of independent identically distributed random variables. Thus, in the frequent practical modeling situation involving a training set whose inputs are deliberately chosen and imposed by the designer, we question the opportunity to use the sandwich estimator rather than the simple estimator based on the inverse squared Jacobian. Index Terms – confidence intervals, experimental design, fixed inputs, heteroscedasticiy, i.i.d. random inputs, i.n. i.d. random inputs, least squares estimation, linear Taylor expansion, model misspecification, neural networks, parameter covariance matrix, nonlinear regression, sandwich estimator. 1. Motivation In some statistical tests for the comparison between candidate neural models, for the estimation of a confidence interval for the conditional mean of the process output, or for the detection of outliers, an estimate of the covariance matrix of the network parameters is needed. Various estimators have been established, among them: a) the estimator based on the inverse squared Jacobian (ISJ), which is consistent if the parameterized model contains the regression and if the noise is homoscedastic; this consistency holds, be the input values of the training set fixed, or realizations of independent identically distributed (i.i.d.) random variables, or even realizations of independent not identically distributed (i.n.i.d.) random
A C K ( 0 , 0 , N , M ) : - M M I S N + 1 . a C a C K ( N N > 0 N 1 Organizing Committee Program Committee

This paper describes an on-line course on constraint programming. This course is dedicated to students of the “e-miage” formation, which is a french remote formation to “Information Systems for Companies Management”. This course is available (in french) at http://www710.univ-lyon1.fr/∼csolnon/Site-PPC/e-miage-ppc-som.htm
The Diabetes Empowerment Scale-Short Form (DES-SF).

In 2000 we developed the Diabetes Empowerment Scale (DES) to measure the psychosocial self-efficacy of people with diabetes. The original questionnaire contained 37 items representing eight conceptual dimensions (i.e., assessing the need for change, developing a plan, overcoming barriers, asking for support, supporting oneself, coping with emotion, motivating oneself, and making diabetes care choices appropriate for one’s priorities and circumstances). Using factor analyses the questionnaire was reduced to the current 28-item DES (α = …
Discovering Multiple Truths with a Hybrid Model

Many data management applications require integrating information from multiple sources. The sources may not be accurate and provide erroneous values. We thus have to identify the true values from conflicting observations made by the sources. The problem is further complicated when there may exist multiple truths (e.g., a book written by several authors). In this paper we propose a model called Hybrid that jointly makes two decisions: how many truths there are, and what they are. It considers the conflicts between values as important evidence for ruling out wrong values, while keeps the flexibility of allowing multiple truths. In this way, Hybrid is able to achieve both high precision and high recall.
Role of early surgical decompression of the intradural space after cervical spinal cord injury in an animal model.

BACKGROUND The role of decompressing the intradural space through a durotomy as a treatment option for acute traumatic cervical spinal cord injury has not been explored in an animal model, to our knowledge. We sought to determine the role of durotomy and duraplasty in the treatment of acute cervical spinal cord injury and its effects on inflammation, scar formation, and functional recovery. METHODS Seventy-two adult female Sprague-Dawley rats were assigned to three groups: contusion injury alone, contusion injury with a decompressive durotomy, and contusion injury with a decompressive durotomy followed by placement of a dural allograft. A mild (200-kdyn [2-N]) contusive injury was delivered to the exposed spinal cord at C5. The injured segment was reexposed four hours after injury, and a durotomy with decompression was performed. When a dural allograft was used it was affixed to the surrounding intact dura with use of a fibrin sealant. The Grip Strength Meter was used to assess forelimb function. Animals were killed at two and four weeks, and immunohistochemical analysis was performed to assess scar formation, inflammatory cell infiltration, and lesional volume. RESULTS Immunohistochemical analysis revealed increased scar formation, cavitation, and inflammatory response in the animals treated only with a decompressive durotomy. Relative to the group with a contusion injury alone, the animals treated with a durotomy followed by a dural allograft had decreased cavitation and scar formation. Lesional volume measurements showed a significantly increased cavitation size at four weeks in both the contusion-only (mean and standard deviation, 12.6 +/- 0.5 mm(3)) and durotomy-only (15.1 +/- 1 mm(3)) groups relative to the animals that had received a dural allograft following durotomy (6.8 +/- 1.4 mm(3)). CONCLUSIONS Functional recovery after acute cervical spinal cord injury was better in animals treated with decompression of the intradural space and placement of a dural allograft than it was in animals treated with decompression alone. These functional data correlated directly with histological evidence of a decrease in spinal cord cavitation, inflammation, and scar formation.
A comparative DC-EEG study about learned helplessness

Erlernte Hilflosigkeit tritt auf wenn ein Individuum keine Erwartung mehr hat Kontrolle ausuben zu konnen und dadurch passiv wird. Der Frage wie Hilflosigkeit mit neuronalen Prozessen zusammen hangt sind bisher nur wenige Studien nachgegangen. EEG-Studien (Bauer et al., 2002; Fretska et al., 1999) zeigten dass hilflose Personen signifikant positive Veranderungen der langsamen kortikalen Potentiale wahrend der Hilflosigkeitsinduktion aufwiesen im Vergleich zur Kontrollbedingung. Daruber hinaus gab es Hinweise darauf dass Frauen eher zu Hilflosigkeit neigen und auch auf neuronaler Ebene signifikante Veranderungen zeigen im Vergleich zu den Mannern die eher weniger emotional reagierten. Die Analyse der neuronalen Quellenlokalisation mit LORETA wies auf eine erniedrigte Aktivitat des anterioren cingularen cortex (ACC) wahrend der Hilflosigkeitsinduktion hin. Die vorliegende Studie untersuchte angelehnt an Bauer et al. (2003) langsame kortikale Potentiale bei Personen die hilflos wurden und Personen die nicht hilflos wurden. Hilflosigkeit wurde mit Hilfe von unlosbaren Zahlenreihenaufgaben induziert und die Hilflosigkeitsklassifikation wurde anhand eines Scores aus dem Hilflosigkeitsfragebogen (Bauer et al., 2003) ermittelt. Insgesamt wurden 57,1 % der Teilnehmer hilflos. Obwohl etwas mehr Frauen (63,2 %) als Manner (52,2%) hilflos wurden, war dieser Effekt nicht signifikant. Hilflose zeigten Veranderungen ihrer langsamen kortikalen Potentiale in Richtung Positivitat wahrend der Phase der Hilflosigkeitsinduktion im Vergleich zu nicht hilflosen Personen. Dieser Trend stellte sich als statistisch nicht signifikant heraus. Jedoch ergaben sich Geschlechtsunterschiede in der Hinsicht, dass Frauen signifikant positivere langsame kortikale Potenziale wahrend der Bearbeitung unlosbarer Aufgaben zeigten. Diese Ergebnisse stimmen mit den Studien von Fretska et al. (1999) und Bauer et al. (2003) uberein. Fur die gesamte Stichprobe hat sich gezeigt dass langsame kortikale Potenziale am positivsten in den Elektroden frontal-rechts waren. Die Analyse der neuronalen Quellenlokalisation mit sLORETA brachte keine signifikanten Unterschiede zwischen den einzelnen Gruppen (hilflos und nicht hilflos, Manner und Frauen) und konnte somit das Ergebnis von Bauer et al. (2003) nicht bestatigen.
Quality versus quantity: acquisition of coping skills following computerized cognitive-behavioral therapy for substance use disorders.

AIMS To evaluate the changes over time in quality and quantity of coping skills acquired following cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and examine potential mediating effects on substance use outcomes. DESIGN A randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluating the effectiveness of a computerized version of CBT (CBT4CBT) as an adjunct to standard out-patient treatment over an 8-week period. SETTING Data were collected from individuals seeking treatment for substance dependence in an out-patient community setting. PARTICIPANTS Fifty-two substance abusing individuals (50% African American), with an average age of 42 years, and a majority reporting cocaine as their primary drug of choice. MEASUREMENTS Participants' responses to behavioral role-plays of situations associated with high risk for drug and alcohol use were audio-taped and rated independently to assess their coping responses. FINDINGS There were statistically significant increases in mean ratings of the quality of participants' coping responses for those assigned to CBT4CBT compared to treatment as usual, and these differences remained significant 3 months after treatment completion. Moreover, quality of coping responses mediated the effect of treatment on participants' duration of abstinence during the follow-up period. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that assignment to the computerized CBT program improved participants' coping skills, as measured by independent ratings of a role-playing task. It is also the first study to test and support quality of coping skills acquired as a mediator of the effect of CBT for substance use.
The O/H distribution in the transition Magellanic galaxy NGC 1313

Multi-fibre emission-line spectrophotometry of 33 H II regions and 3 diffuse interstellar medium positions are presented for the barred Magellanic galaxy NGC 1313. The H II regions show a fairly narrow range of thermal conditions characteristic of high excitation nebular gas. Electron temperature was directly determined in four of the H II regions. The global O/H abundance distribution appears very flat across the disk at 12 + log O/H = 8.4 +/- 0.1, with possibly the bar regions having abundances higher by 0.2 dex than the outer disc. NGC 1313 is the highest mass barred galaxy known not to have any radial abundance gradient. The key role of the bar on the abundance distribution in disc galaxies is revisited.
Análise estatística espacial de experimentos via modelos mistos individuais com erros modelados por processos arima em duas dimensões

Conventional analyses of field trials consider neighbouring observations as uncorrelated. Hence, the residual covariance matrix is modelled as a diagonal one, with errors assumed as independents. However, the spatial dependence exist and contributes to the increasing of the residual variance, in a way that is relevant to consider it in the analysis of trials through individual mixed models, approaching the correlated error structure by an ARIMA process in two dimensions. The following conclusions were obtained: the technique of spatial analysis with autoregressive structure for the errors can lead to higher experimental precision; the time series model named separable first order autoregressive in two dimensions (AR1 X AR1) presented better fit than the traditional randomised complete block design; in terms of the random effects prediction, the AR1 X AR1 model provided higher heritabilities and selection efficiencies than the traditional mixed model analysis with uncorrelated errors; the spatial analysis removed all the environmental plot variation within blocks, but not the between block variation, showing a need to preserve the design information in the analysis; the models with the independent error besides the trend effects proved to be adequate; the spatial analysis is much as efficient as the higher is the coefficient of determination of the plot effects.
Mind perception in two different cultural contexts : religious targets and food animals as examples

This doctoral dissertation focuses on mind perception in the field of religion and diet in two different cultural contexts: Chinese and French. In two independent chapters, it investigates the effect of religious belief on mind perception concerning religious targets and the effect of meat-eating behavior on mind perception concerning food animals. Following a brief introduction of mind perception in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 explores cross-cultural differences in religiosity and mind perception and how religious belief affects people’s mind perception of gods and Christians using a religious priming paradigm. The main results reveal that on religiosity, Chinese agnostic participants were more similar to Chinese religious participants, but French agnostic participants were more similar to French atheist participants; on mind perception of gods, Chinese agnostic participants were more similar to Chinese religious participants, but French atheist, agnostic and religious participants were different from each other. When God-related concepts are primed, gods are attributed more mind on the agency-dimension in the Chinese sample, but not in the French sample. The Chinese religious participants attributed more mind to gods on the agency-dimension than the Chinese atheist ones. The French religious and agnostic participants attributed more mind to gods on both the agency-dimension and the experience-dimension than French atheist ones. However, the Christian target is attributed less mind by the Chinese atheist participants, and more mind by the Chinese religious participants on the experience dimension, when God-related concepts are primed. In the French sample, religious priming has no effect on mind attribution to the Christian target, but religious participants attribute more mind to the Christian target than to the Control target, and agnostic participants attribute more mind to the Christian target than to the atheist target. Chapter 3 addresses the question of whether reminders of the meat paradox will influence reduction of willingness to eat meat and/or mind attribution to food animals. The results suggest that when the link between meat and its animal origin is relatively clear and strong, both French and Chinese participants report high willingness to eat meat in a condition that emphasizes meat itself, and low willingness in a condition that emphasizes the slaughter required to produce meat. French participants attribute less mind to a food animal when they realize the link between meat and its animal origin, but Chinese participants do not. When the link is relatively vague and weak, the meat paradox does not have significant effects on the reduction of mind attribution to food animals among Chinese and French participants, but makes Chinese participants report lower willingness to eat meat in a condition that emphasizes the animal origin of meat. Finally, Chapter 4 discusses the theoretical and practical implications of our empirical findings.
Intravitreal bevacizumab with or without triamcinolone acetonide for diabetic macular edema: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

BACKGROUND Intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) drugs and corticosteroids are being widely used to treat diabetic macular edema (DME). The purpose of this study was to evaluate further the efficacy and safety of intravitreal bevacizumab (IVB) alone in comparison with intravitreal bevacizumab combined with triamcinolone acetonide (IVB/IVT) in the treatment of DME. METHODS Pertinent publications were identified through CNKI, PubMed, Medline, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register up to November 30, 2013. Two investigators independently assessed the quality of the trials, and changes in central macular thickness (CMT) and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) were extracted at 6 weeks and 3, 6, 12, and 24 months after the initial treatment. A meta-analysis was carried out to compare the results between the groups receiving IVB and IVB/IVT using the software RevMan 5.0. RESULTS A total of six randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were identified and included. The meta-analysis revealed that a significant reduction of the CMT was observed at 3 months after the initial treatment in the IVB/IVT group compared to the IVB group (P = 0.001). Also, changes in CMT at 6 weeks and 6, 12, and 24 months did not vary significantly between the IVB and IVB/IVT groups (P = 0.53, 0.76, 0.34, and 0.09, respectively). Similarly, changes in BCVA at 6 weeks and 3, 6, 12, and 24 months also did not vary significantly between the two groups (P = 0.66, 0.98, 0.81, 0.07, and 0.80, respectively). The results were robust to sensitivity analyses. However, the rate of intraocular pressure (IOP) rise after intravitreal injections varied significantly between the IVB and IVB/IVT groups (P < 0.01). A publication bias was not detected by funnel plots, the Egger method, or the Begg method. CONCLUSIONS RESULTS of this meta-analysis showed that the treatments with IVB alone and combined IVB/IVT were similarly effective in improving the visual acuity, and, to some degree; combined IVB/IVT appeared to offer a marginal advantage over IVB in decreasing CMT in patients with DME. However, the addition of IVT resulted in intraocular pressure rise in some treated patients.