Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Self-imagining enhances recognition memory in memory-impaired individuals with neurological damage.

OBJECTIVE The ability to imagine an elaborative event from a personal perspective relies on several cognitive processes that may potentially enhance subsequent memory for the event, including visual imagery, semantic elaboration, emotional processing, and self-referential processing. In an effort to find a novel strategy for enhancing memory in memory-impaired individuals with neurological damage, we investigated the mnemonic benefit of a method we refer to as self-imagining-the imagining of an event from a realistic, personal perspective. METHOD Fourteen individuals with neurologically based memory deficits and 14 healthy control participants intentionally encoded neutral and emotional sentences under three instructions: structural-baseline processing, semantic processing, and self-imagining. RESULTS Findings revealed a robust "self-imagination effect (SIE)," as self-imagination enhanced recognition memory relative to deep semantic elaboration in both memory-impaired individuals, F(1, 13) = 32.11, p < . 001, η2 = . 71; and healthy controls, F(1, 13) = 5.57, p < . 05, η2 = . 30. In addition, results indicated that mnemonic benefits of self-imagination were not limited by severity of the memory disorder nor were they related to self-reported vividness of visual imagery, semantic processing, or emotional content of the materials. CONCLUSIONS The findings suggest that the SIE may depend on unique mnemonic mechanisms possibly related to self-referential processing and that imagining an event from a personal perspective makes that event particularly memorable even for those individuals with severe memory deficits. Self-imagining may thus provide an effective rehabilitation strategy for individuals with memory impairment.
Should Core Labor Standards Be Imposed Through International Trade Policy?

Numerous proposals have surfaced recently to incorporate a clause about labor standards in the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Such a clause would require each WTO member to recognize and enforce certain core labor standards: forbidding forced labor, discrimination, and the exploitation of child workers, and guaranteeing the rights of workers to associate freely and engage in collective bargaining with employers. Failure to provide core labor standards would subject a country to international trade sanctions. The author analyzes links between core labor standards and international trade policy. He develops a series of simple models to see whether limiting core labor standards in export sectors of developing countries can improve the countries' price competitiveness in export markets. He concludes that deficient provision of core labor standards generally diminishes export competitiveness rather than improving it, because of the distortionary effects of those deficiencies. In other words, concerns about the negative impact on industrial countries of limited wage, employment, and labor standards in developing countries are largely misplaced -with one exception: exploiting child labor could expand exports in highly labor-intensive sectors. But wage spillovers into industrial economy labor markets must be trivial, and there is no empirical evidence that the use of child labor provides measurable competitive advantages. Do international trade sanctions serve a legitimate, effective role in penalizing countries that fail to observe core labor standards? The author points out that trade restrictions are blunt, indirect instruments and may be counterproductive, harming the people they are designed to help and ineffective in achieving stated goals. Thus, including in WTO rules a social clause guaranteeing core labor standards would reduce global efficiency for a small gain. Some approaches -including compensation programs from wealthy countries, focused on poverty reduction and better access to education- would be more effective and less costly than trade restrictions. At the same time, the International Labor Organization could improve its monitoring and publicity efforts, to raise international consciousness about labor standards.
Can mobile cloudlets support mobile applications?

A mobile cloudlet is a set of resource-rich mobile devices - referred to as cloudlet nodes - that an initiator mobile device can connect to for services. In this paper, we examine the fundamental mobile cloudlet properties that unfold whether and when a mobile cloudlet can provide mobile application service. Specifically, we investigate the cloudlet size, cloudlet node's lifetime and reachable time. Traces and mathematical analysis demonstrate that 1) the more frequently mobile devices meet, the larger the pool of computing resources an initiator can access; 2) intermittent connection between devices has little adverse effect on the optimal computing performance of mobile cloudlet in the long run; 3) the ratio E(TC)/[E(TI)+E(TC)] indicates the connection likelihood of an initiator and a cloudlet node (i.e., reachability of the cloudlet node), where TC and TI are their contact and inter-contact time. We further derive upper and lower bounds on computing capacity and computing speed of a mobile cloudlet. An initiator can use both bounds to decide whether to offload its task to remote clouds or local mobile cloudlets for better mobile application services.
Will People Keep the Secret of a Humanoid Robot?— Psychological Intimacy in HRI

Will people keep the secret of a socially compelling robot who shares, in confidence, a “personal” (robot) failing? Toward answering this question, 81 adults participated in a 20-minute interaction with (a) a humanoid robot (Robovie) interacting in a highly social way as a lab tour guide, and (b) with a human being interacting in the same highly social way. As a baseline comparison, participants also interacted with (c) a humanoid robot (Robovie) interacting in a more rudimentary social way. In each condition, the tour guide asks for the secret keeping behavior. Results showed that the majority of the participants (59%) kept the secret of the highly social robot, and did not tell the experimenter when asked directly, with the robot present. This percentage did not differ statistically from the percentage who kept the human's secret (67%). It did differ statistically when the robot engaged in the more rudimentary social interaction (11%). These results suggest that as humanoid robots become increasingly social in their interaction, that people will form increasingly intimate and trusting psychological relationships with them. Discussion focuses on design principles (how to engender psychological intimacy in human-robot interaction) and norms (whether it is even desirable to do so, and if so in what contexts). Categories and Subject Descriptors J.4 [Social and Behavioral Sciences]: psychology; H.1. 2 [Models and Principles]: User/Machine Systems-hunanfactors General Terms Experimentation, Human Factors
Fibrinopeptide A: a marker of acute coronary thrombosis.

To determine whether coronary thrombosis in vivo is reflected by elevations in levels of fibrinopeptide A (FPA) in plasma, we sequentially characterized plasma FPA levels associated with evolving infarction in patients admitted to the cardiac care unit early after the onset of symptoms, in patients with transmural infarction admitted later, and in patients with nontransmural infarction. Studies were also performed in patients in whom the diagnosis of infarction was suspected but subsequently excluded. FPA values were significantly higher in patients with transmural infarction (42.3 +/- 11.2 ng/ml [mean +/- SEM], n = 53) compared with those in patients with nontransmural infarction (4.8 +/- 1.6 ng/ml, n = 17) or with those in patients in whom infarction was subsequently excluded as a diagnosis (3.5 +/- 0.6 ng/ml, n = 17, p less than .01 for both). Elevations in FPA level were greatest in patients with transmural infarction from whom samples were obtained soon after the onset of symptoms. Thus, in 39 patients from samples were obtained within 10 hr after the onset of symptoms, FPA levels were significantly higher than in 14 patients from whom samples were obtained initially more than 10 hr after the onset of symptoms (55.5 +/- 14.7 vs 4.9 +/- 1.4 ng/ml, p less than .01). In 30 of the 39 patients with evolving transmural infarction from whom samples were obtained within the first 10 hr after the onset of symptoms, the level of FPA was greater than 8 ng/ml. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Genetic and Molecular Characterization of Flagellar Assembly in Shewanella oneidensis

Shewanella oneidensis is a highly motile organism by virtue of a polar flagellum. Unlike most flagellated bacteria, it contains only one major chromosome segment encoding the components of the flagellum with the exception of the motor proteins. In this region, three genes encode flagellinsaccording to the original genome annotation. However, we find that only flaA and flaB encode functional filament subunits. Although these two genesare under the control of different promoters, they are actively transcribed and subsequently translated, producing a considerable number of flagellin proteins. Additionally, both flagellins are able to interact with their chaperon FliS and are subjected to feedback regulation. Furthermore, FlaA and FlaB are glycosylated by a pathwayinvolving a major glycosylating enzyme,PseB, in spite of the lack of the majority of theconsensus glycosylation sites. In conclusion, flagellar assembly in S. oneidensis has novel features despite the conservation of homologous genes across taxa.
Pretopologies and completeness proofs

Pretopologies were introduced in [S], and there shown to give a complete semantics for a propositional sequent calculus BL, here called basic linear logic, as well as for its extensions by structural rules, ex falso quodlibet or double negation. Immediately after Logic Colloquium '88, a conversation with Per Martin-Löf helped me to see how the pretopology semantics should be extended to predicate logic; the result now is a simple and fully constructive completeness proof for first order BL and virtually all its extensions, including the usual, or structured, intuitionistic and classical logic. Such a proof clearly illustrates the fact that stronger set-theoretic principles and classical metalogic are necessary only when completeness is sought with respect to a special class of models, such as the usual two-valued models. To make the paper self-contained, I briefly review in §1 the definition of pretopologies; §2 deals with syntax and §3 with semantics. The completeness proof in §4, though similar in structure, is sensibly simpler than that in [S], and this is why it is given in detail. In §5 it is shown how little is needed to obtain completeness for extensions of BL in the same language. Finally, in §6 connections with proofs with respect to more traditional semantics are briefly investigated, and some open problems are put forward.
Text to Avatar in Multi-modal Human Computer Interface

In this paper, we present a new text-driven avatar system, which consists of three major components, a text-to-speech (TTS) unit, a speech driven facial animation (SDFA) unit and a text-to-sign language (TTSL) unit. A new visual prosody time control model and an integrated learning framework are proposed to realize synchronization among speech synthesis, face animation and gesture animation, which is crucial for this multi-modal synthesis system. Given meaningful sentences, the text-to-sign language system combined with text-to-speech system produces visual prosody information including gesture animation parameters and timing information for text-to-speech unit. The text-to-speech system produces speech according to that timing information and some prosody rules. At last, speech will be used to drive Mpeg-4 based face animation directly with some rules for face expressions. This paper highlights synergies among audio, visual and gesture technology components. The performance of our system shows that the proposed algorithm is suitable, which greatly improves the realism of multi-model speech synthesis.
Stress, Coping, and Appraisal in an HIV-seropositive Rural Sample: A Test of the Goodness-of-Fit Hypothesis

3 Acknowledgements.4 List of Tables . 7 List of Figures . 8 Overview of Current Study.9 Review of the Literature . 12 HIV/AIDS in Rural America . 12 Transactional Model of Stress, Appraisal, and Coping . 17 Empirical Findings on the Goodness-of-Fit Hypothesis.20 Critiques of Prior Goodness-of-Fit Research.26 The Development of Alternative Coping Measures . 28 Considerations when Testing the Transactional Model.31 Association of Coping to Physical & Psychological Health Outcomes . 35 Psychological Distress Associated with HIV Infection.38 Living with HIV in Urban vs. Rural Communities.39 Associations of Coping & Health in HIV-seropositive Samples.41 Testing the Goodness-of-Fit in HIV-seropositive Samples . 44 The Present Study . 44 Objectives, Hypotheses, and Rationales . 46 Method . 47 Project Connect.47 6 Assessment Instruments.51 Statistical Analyses . 59 Results . 60 Data Screening and Preparation.60 Descriptive Statistics and Frequencies.64 Depressive Symptomology in Rural Persons Living with HIV/AIDS . 65 Differential Stressors among the Sample.68 Scoring of the Ways of Coping Questionnaire . 70 Hierarchical Regression Modeling . 71 The Matching Hypothesis . 72 Goodness-of-Fit Hypothesis . 73 Analyses using Mean Item Scores . 74 Analyses using Relative Percentage Scores.77 Analyses using Ratio Scores . 81 Analyses using Standardized Factor Scores . 85 Analysis with Selected Sample.89 Analyses using Varying Outcome Measures . 93 Altering the Order of the Hierarchical Regression Model . 94 Discussion.96 Summary of Findings.97 Limitations of the Study.101 Future Directions . 107 References.111
Inflation Persistence in the European Union, the Euro Area, and the United States

In this paper we report results on inflation persistence using 79 inflation series covering the EU countries, the euro area and the US for five different inflation variables. The picture that emerges is one of moderate inflation persistence across the board. In particular we find euro area inflation persistence to be broadly in line with US inflation persistence. The issue of allowing for intercept dummies in the underlying inflation models is found to be of paramount importance to avoid overestimation of the level of persistence. The use of alternative measures of persistence is found to be commendable on the grounds that they complement each other in practice. JEL Classification: E31, E52, C22, C12
Delineating the Association between Heavy Postpartum Haemorrhage and Postpartum Depression

Objectives To explore the association between postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) and postpartum depression (PPD), taking into account the role of postpartum anaemia, delivery experience and psychiatric history. Methods A nested cohort study (n = 446), based on two population-based cohorts in Uppsala, Sweden. Exposed individuals were defined as having a bleeding of ≥1000ml (n = 196) at delivery, and non-exposed individuals as having bleeding of <650ml (n = 250). Logistic regression models with PPD symptoms (Edinburgh Postnatal Depression scale (EPDS) score ≥ 12) as the outcome variable and PPH, anaemia, experience of delivery, mood during pregnancy and other confounders as exposure variables were undertaken. Path analysis using Structural Equation Modeling was also conducted. Results There was no association between PPH and PPD symptoms. A positive association was shown between anaemia at discharge from the maternity ward and the development of PPD symptoms, even after controlling for plausible confounders (OR = 2.29, 95%CI = 1.15–4.58). Path analysis revealed significant roles for anaemia at discharge, negative self-reported delivery experience, depressed mood during pregnancy and postpartum stressors in increasing the risk for PPD. Conclusion This study proposes important roles for postpartum anaemia, negative experience of delivery and mood during pregnancy in explaining the development of depressive symptoms after PPH.
Changes in Motor-Related Cortical Activity Following Deep Brain Stimulation for Parkinson’s Disease Detected by Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy: A Pilot Study

It remains unclear how deep brain stimulation (DBS) modulates the global neuronal network involving cortical activity. We aimed to evaluate changes in cortical activity in six (two men; four women) patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) who underwent unilateral globus pallidus interna (GPI) DBS surgery using a multi-channel near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) system. As five of the patients were right-handed, DBS was performed on the left in these five cases. The mean age was 66.8 ± 4.0 years. The unified Parkinson’s disease rating scale (UPDRS) motor scores were evaluated at baseline and 1- and 6-month follow-up. Task-related NIRS experiments applying the block design were performed at baseline and 1-month follow-up. The mean of the total UPDRS motor score was 48.5 ± 11.1 in the off-medication state preoperatively. Postoperatively, total UPDRS motor scores improved to 26.8 ± 16.6 (p < 0.05) and 22.2 ± 8.6 (p < 0.05) at 1- and 6-month follow-up, respectively. A task-related NIRS experiment showed a postoperative increase in the cortical activity of the prefrontal cortex comparable to the preoperative state. To our knowledge, this is the first study to use a multi-channel NIRS system for PD patients treated with DBS. In this pilot study, we showed changes in motor-associated cortical activities following DBS surgery. Therapeutic DBS was concluded to have promoted the underlying neuronal network remodeling.
Disease and Development Revisited

In a recent paper, Acemoglu and Johnson (2007) argue that the large increases in population health witnessed in the 20th century may have lowered income levels. We argue that this result depends crucially on their assumption that initial health and income do not affect subsequent economic growth. Using their data we reject this assumption in favor of a model of conditional convergence, with income adjusting to its steady state over time. We show that, allowing for conditional convergence, exogenous improvements in health due to technical advances associated with the epidemiological transition appear to have increased income levels.
Systemic lupus erythematosusmyositis overlap syndrome: report of 6 cases

The incidence of myositis in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is low among different series. Here we attempt to describe the main features of SLE/myositis overlap syndrome. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 174 patients with SLE seen over 15-year period. All the patients fulfilled the revised American Rheumatology Association criteria for SLE. Patients who met The Bohan and Peter criteria for definite myositis were included in this study. Among those patients, six patients had an associated myositis (3.4% overall). They were 6 women with a mean age of 29 years (20–41 years). At the initial evaluation, 3 patients (50%) were complained from myalgia, and all patients had symmetrical muscle weakness (proximal muscle weakness in 6 cases with distal muscle weakness in 2 cases). The muscle disease was severe in 1 case. Involvements of muscles of the pharynx and upper esophagus were noted in 4 patients (66.6%). The creatine kinase (CK) levels were elevated in 4 cases with a mean rate of 2153.5 UI/L. The electromyogram (EMG) revealed signs of myositis in 5 cases. Muscle biopsy, performed in 5 patients, revealed an inflammatory myopathy changes in 4 cases. Antinuclear antibodies (ANA) were positive in all cases. All our patients were treated with high doses of corticosteroids with favorable outcome. Relapse of SLE disease had occurred in 2 patients. The association SLE-myositis is rare with heterogeneous presentation. Through our observations and literature data we will specify the characteristics of this association.
Fibroblast growth factor 21 protects the heart from oxidative stress.

AIMS Oxidative stress mediated by reactive oxygen species (ROS) plays a striking role in the pathogenesis of heart failure, and antioxidants have been shown to attenuate cardiac remodelling in experimental models of cardiac damage. We recently showed that fibroblast growth factor 21 (Fgf21) is produced by the heart and exerts protective effects, preventing cardiac hypertrophy development. The aim of the study was to determine the effects of Fgf21 during oxidative stress signalling in the heart. METHODS AND RESULTS Fgf21 treatment in cardiomyocytes in culture induced the expression of genes encoding proteins involved in antioxidative pathways, including mitochondrial uncoupling proteins (Ucp2 and Ucp3) and superoxide dismutase-2 (Sod2) and reduced ROS production. In keeping with this, expression of antioxidant genes in response to lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced stimulation of pro-inflammatory pathways or isoproterenol-induced cardiac hypertrophy in the heart was reduced in Fgf21-null mice. Moreover, we found that Fgf21 is expressed in and released by cardiomyocytes in response to LPS, and its expression is under the control of the Sirt1 (sirtuin-1) pathway. This Fgf21 released by cardiomyocytes acts in an autocrine manner to protect cells against oxidative stress. Finally, failing human hearts showed up-regulation of Fgf21, Ucp3, and Sod2, confirming the association between Fgf21 induction and the control of cardiac oxidative stress pathways. CONCLUSION Our data indicate that Fgf21 regulates genes involved in antioxidant pathways in an autocrine manner, thus preventing ROS production in cardiac cells. Therefore, Fgf21 acts as an antioxidant factor in the heart, preventing induction of pro-oxidative pathways by inflammatory or hypertrophic conditions.
Comment to ''On Anisotropic Dark Energy Stars''

The authors of the paper ''On Anisotropic Dark Energy Stars'', arXiv:0803.2508 [gr-qc], consider the equations of state $p_r=\omega \rho$ and $p_t=\omega \rho$, ignoring the fact that this implies an isotropic pressure, which places strict restrictions on the values of $\omega$. The authors then argue for an anisotropic pressure fluid throughout their work, and apply these equations of state to the energy conditions, consequently obtaining incorrect intervals for the parameter $\omega$. This procedure invalidates their criticisms on the following paper: Class.Quant. Grav. 23, 1525 (2006).
A Two-Tube Multiplex Reverse Transcription PCR Assay for Simultaneous Detection of Viral and Bacterial Pathogens of Infectious Diarrhea

Diarrhea caused by viral and bacterial infections is a major health problem in developing countries. The purpose of this study is to develop a two-tube multiplex PCR assay using automatic electrophoresis for simultaneous detection of 13 diarrhea-causative viruses or bacteria, with an intended application in provincial Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention, China. The assay was designed to detect rotavirus A, norovirus genogroups GI and GII, human astrovirus, enteric adenoviruses, and human bocavirus (tube 1), and Salmonella, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, diarrheagenic Escherichia coli, Campylobacter jejuni, Shigella, Yersinia, and Vibrio cholera (tube 2). The analytical specificity was examined with positive controls for each pathogen. The analytical sensitivity was evaluated by performing the assay on serial tenfold dilutions of in vitro transcribed RNA, recombinant plasmids, or bacterial culture. A total of 122 stool samples were tested by this two-tube assay and the results were compared with those obtained from reference methods. The two-tube assay achieved a sensitivity of 20–200 copies for a single virus and 102-103 CFU/mL for bacteria. The clinical performance demonstrated that the two-tube assay had comparable sensitivity and specificity to those of reference methods. In conclusion, the two-tube assay is a rapid, cost-effective, sensitive, specific, and high throughput method for the simultaneous detection of enteric bacteria and virus.