Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neuropathology and cognitive dysfunction after early hypoglycaemia

Hypoglycaemia is the most common metabolic problem in neonatal medicine, occurring during the first days of life and usually resolving within the same time frame. However, some neonates and infants experience severe and recurrent episodes of hypoglycaemia, the most common aetiologies being congenital hyperinsulinism (CHI) and ketotic hypoglycaemia (KH). Children with CHI are at risk of lasting brain injury, while children with KH are considered to be protected from adverse sequelae owing to the presence of ketone bodies during hypoglycaemia. This thesis investigated the neuropsychological and neuroimaging profiles of these two patient groups in neurologically normal school-aged children. Thirty-one patients with CHI and twenty-one patients with KH participated in the study alongside a cohort of healthy controls. A comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests revealed specific impairments in attention and motor skills in both patient groups, with additional impairments observed in children with CHI. Automated and manual measurements of subcortical volumes, as well as whole brain analyses (voxel based morphometry and tract based spatial statistics) were conducted. Compared to controls, patients with CHI have reduced volume of subcortical structures, as well as extensive white matter volume loss (accompanied by decreased intracranial volume) and reduced white matter integrity across the entire brain. Patients with KH did not significantly differ from controls on any brain measures, but the only significant difference between patient groups was in thalamic and intracranial volumes. Integrity of subcortical structures and white matter was found to be predictive of scores in memory, motor skills and attention. This study is the first to show the extent of brain abnormality as a result of CHI in neurologically normal children. Furthermore, the finding that both patient groups share a similar cognitive profile refutes the notion that children with KH are protected from adverse sequelae. The implications of these findings are discussed.
Teaching students critical appraisal of scientific literature using checklists

Background: Teaching students to critically appraise scientific literature is an important goal for a postgraduate research methods course. Objective: To investigate the application of checklists for assessing the scientific rigor of empirical studies support students in reviewing case study research and experiments. Methods: We employed an experimental design where 76 students (in pairs) used two checklists to evaluate two papers (reporting a case study and an experiment) each. We compared the students' assessments against ratings from more senior researchers. We also collected data on students' perception of using the checklists. Results: The consistency of students' ratings and the accuracy when compared to ratings from seniors varied. A factor seemed to be that the clearer the reporting, the easier it is for students to judge the quality of studies. Students perceived checklist items related to data analysis as difficult to assess. Conclusion: As expected, this study reinforces the needs for clear reporting, as it is important that authors write to enable synthesis and quality assessment. With clearer reporting, the novices performed well in assessing the quality of the empirical work, which supports its continued use in the course as means for introducing scientific reviews.
Amplify-and-forward cooperative OFDM with multiple-relays: performance analysis and relay selection methods

In this paper, we investigate a cooperative system with multiple relays and amplify-and-forward relaying over frequency-selective channels. To extract the available multipath diversity, we employ orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) with precoding. Through the derivation of pairwise error probability (PEP), we demonstrate that PEP is not a simple exponential function of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), but it includes a term that involves some power of logarithm of the SNR. If that term is ignored, the diversity order is given by the summation of the channel length in the direct link and the minimum of channel lengths in each relaying link confirmed by simulation results. Based on the PEP expression, we also propose two relay selection strategies; one is on a per-subcarrier basis and the other is on an all-subcarrier basis. Our simulation results indicate that both strategies result in performance improvements although the per-subcarrier method performs better.
Stiff well-posedness for hyperbolic systems with large relaxation terms (linear constant-coefficient problems)

The paper deals with the Cauchy problem for the linear constant-coefficient strongly hyperbolic system $u_t+Au_x=({1}/{delta})B$. The critical case where $B$ has a nontrivial nullspace is investigated. Under suitable assumptions on the matrices $A$ and $B$ the convergence in $L_2$ as $delta o 0$ of the solution $u(·,t,delta)$ of the Cauchy problem is proved. Then the evolution of the limit function ${check u}(·,t)$ as a solution of the Cauchy problem for the strongly hyperbolic system without zero-order term is described. This system is called an equilibrium system and a method for obtaining it is given. A concept of stiff well-posedness is introduced that ensures solution estimates independent of $0<deltale 1$. It is shown that for $2 imes 2$ systems the requirement of stiff well-posedness is equivalent to the well-known subcharacteristic condition. The theory is illustrated by examples. One of them shows that the assumption of strong hyperbolicity is essential. Lastly, some numerical experiments for a $3 imes 3$ system are carried out. (Less)
Identifying Programmer Ability Using Peer Evaluation: An Exploratory Study

Programmer ability is important to assess in both research and professional settings, but it is very difficult to measure directly. The objective of this study was to measure the ability of programmers to accurately rate the programming ability of their peers. The participants were computer science students in a senior-level undergraduate programming languages course. The peer rating of ability on a 5-point scale was compared with the average programming assignment grade. The Spearman correlation rho value was between . 432 and . 684 depending on which measure of central tendency was used (mode, median, mean, weighted mean), compared with . 48 when using individual assignment data as a predictor. Initial results indicate that peerratings are a promising mechanism for identifying the programming ability of a set of developers. This study leaves many open questions that will be the subject of future studies.
Multiscale recurrent pattern matching approach for depth map coding

In this article we propose to compress depth maps using a coding scheme based on multiscale recurrent pattern matching and evaluate its impact on depth image based rendering (DIBR). Depth maps are usually converted into gray scale images and compressed like a conventional luminance signal. However, using traditional transform-based encoders to compress depth maps may result in undesired artifacts at sharp edges due to the quantization of high frequency coefficients. The Multidimensional Multiscale Parser (MMP) is a pattern matching-based encoder, that is able to preserve and efficiently encode high frequency patterns, such as edge information. This ability is critical for encoding depth map images. Experimental results for encoding depth maps show that MMP is much more efficient in a rate-distortion sense than standard image compression techniques such as JPEG2000 or H.264/AVC. In addition, the depth maps compressed with MMP generate reconstructed views with a higher quality than all other tested compression algorithms.
Relationship of selected student characteristics to student ratings of importance and levels of satisfaction

Relationship of Student Ratings of Importance and Levels of Satisfaction to Selected Student Demographics by Michael L. Sauer Dr. Carl R. SteinhofF, Examination Committee Chair Professor o f Educational Leadership University o f Nevada, Las Vegas Low graduation and retention rates are problems that many universities and colleges across the country face. Students often leave an institution prematurely, not because o f academic difficulties but because o f other obstacles that they believe impede their progress. Studying student satisfaction can help to understand what some of these difficulties might be. In order to address this issue, this study examined the relationship between student ratings o f importance and student satisfaction with elements o f the university environment and student characteristics. There were 1,208 subjects in this study. All subjects were given the Noel-Levitz Student Satisfaction Inventory during the Spring 2002 at the University o f Nevada, Las Vegas (Noel Levitz USA Group, 2001). The data were analyzed with a set of multinomial logistic regression equations with the measurements o f importance and satisfaction being the dependent variables and the student characteristics being the independent variables.
On the Complexity of Non-Overlapping Multivariate Marginal Bounds for Probabilistic Combinatorial Optimization Problems

Given a combinatorial optimization problem with an arbitrary partition of the set of random objective coefficients, we evaluate the tightest possible bound on the expected optimal value for joint distributions consistent with the given multivariate marginals of the subsets in the partition. For univariate marginals, this bound was first proposed by Meilijson and Nadas (Journal of Applied Probability, 1979). We generalize the bound to non-overlapping multivariate marginals using multiple choice integer programming. For discrete distributions, new instances of polynomial time computable multivariate marginal bounds are identified. For the problem of selecting up to M items out a set of N items of maximum total weight, the bound is shown to be computable in polynomial time, when the size of each subset in the partition is O(log N). For an activity-on-arc PERT network, the partition is naturally defined by subsets of incoming arcs into nodes. The worst-case expected project duration is shown to be computable in time polynomial in the maximum number of scenarios for any subset and the size of the network. An instance of a polynomial time solvable two stage stochastic program arising from project crashing is identified. An important feature of the bound is that it is exactly achievable by a joint distribution, unlike many of the existing bounds. ∗Department of Combinatorics and Optimization, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada, vanxuan@uwaterloo.ca. The research was partly done when the author was in the Operations Research Center at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. †Department of Management Sciences, College of Business, City University of Hong Kong. Email: knataraj@cityu.edu. hk.
Availability analysis and Connection provisioning in overlapping shared segment protection for optical networks

In this paper, we propose an availability analysis method for overlapping shared segment protection. We validate the proposed analysis method for different traffic demand matrices and different failure rate values. We show that the proposed analysis method achieves estimating the availability of a connection with a negligible error ratio. We then present two connection provisioning schemes, namely availability constrained generalized segment protection (AC-GSP), and share ability driven availability constrained generalized segment protection (SDAC-GSP) that are availability-aware adaptation of a conventional segment selection algorithm, namely the generalized segment protection (GSP). We evaluate the performance of these proposed schemes, and we show that as an enhancement to GSP, SDAC-GSP enhances the performance of AC-GSP in terms of the availability per connection, blocking probability and availability satisfaction ratio. However, it utilizes more wavelengths in comparison to AC-GSP since the more segments protects the links of the working path, the higher availability.
Non-Price Competitiveness Gains of Central, Eastern and Southeastern European Countries in the EU Market

We propose an export price indicator adjusted for non-price factors as a more meaningful measure of a country’s competitiveness than traditional indicators. Our starting point is the approach developed by Broda and Weinstein (2006), who adjust price developments for changes in varieties of imported products. We relax their assumption of unchanged quality over time and use the proposed index to analyze the momentum of export prices of the ten CESEE EU members which acceded in 2004 and 2007. The index is calculated using data from Eurostat Comext at the highly disaggregated eight-digit CN product level. Our analysis spans the time period 1999 to 2011, thus including the recent global recession period in 2009. The results show that all CESEE-10 countries experienced a loss in price competitiveness, but that the loss was much smaller than is usually suggested by traditional CPI- or ULC-based real effective exchange rate measures. Although relative export prices (unit values) increased more strongly in the CESEE-10 countries as compared to their competitors, the average quality of their goods increased even more strongly, thus fully compensating for the rise in prices. These improvements in non-price competitiveness were pronounced in all CESEE-10 countries.
N-Gram based Text Categorization

V mojej praci som sa povodne pokusal zlepsit system na automaticku kategorizaciu textov, zalozeny na baze porovnavani sekvencii znakov(N-gramo). Nakolko som vsak neziskal pristup k potrebnym datam, navrhol som system na clusterizaciu, cize roztriedenie dokumentov na zaklade ich podobnosti. Zakladom systemu je tiez pouzitie N-gramov.
Consequences of obesity and weight loss: a devil's advocate position

Obesity is associated with multiple negative health consequences and current weight management guidelines recommend all obese persons to lose weight. However, recent evidence suggests that not all obese persons are negatively affected by their weight and that weight loss does not necessarily always improve health. The purpose of this review is not to trivialize the significant health risks associated with obesity, but to discuss subpopulations of obese people who are not adversely affected, or may even benefit from higher adiposity, and in who weight loss per se may not always be the most appropriate recommendation. More specifically, this review will take a devil's advocate position when discussing the consequences of obesity and weight loss for adults with established cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, weight cyclers, metabolically healthy obese adults, youth, older adults and obese individuals who are highly fit.
The Self-Contaminating Nature of Repeated Reports of Negative Emotions

Abstract Three experiments examined effects of measuring self-reported emotional intensity on subsequent self-reported emotional intensity. Across 3 experiments, we induced sadness, envy, and happiness and manipulated the number of emotional intensity measurements. In all experiments, repeated measurement led to weaker intensity of negative emotions than did a single measurement. Although the intensity of happiness was unaffected by repeated measurement, data suggest that measurements interfered with ongoing emotional experience. We suggest that our findings have methodological, conceptual, and practical implications, but perhaps foremost is the warning that social scientists may have greater cause for caution regarding repeated self-report measures than previously thought.
Understanding Interpersonal Dysfunction in Borderline Personality Disorder

The core interpersonal dysfunction in borderline personality disorder (BPD) has not yet been conclusively explained. We used a naturalistic dyadic paradigm to test for the presence of functional empathic inaccuracy in BPD, which is a reduced understanding of the partner’s feelings in relationship-threatening situations. A total of 64 heterosexual couples (N = 128) were videotaped while engaging in (a) neutral (favorite films), (b) personally threatening (personal fears), and (c) relationship-threatening (separation from partner) conversations. Females were either diagnosed with BPD or healthy controls. Empathic accuracy (EA) was measured from the recorded interactions. Healthy couples’ EA was lower during relationship-threatening compared with personally threatening situations. In contrast, women with BPD showed increased EA, relative to the controls, for relationship- versus personally threatening situations. Reduced EA in response to relationship-threatening situations is likely to be relationship protective. This mechanism appears to be defective in women with BPD, which might explain the interpersonal difficulties experienced by BPD individuals.
Organization of the Zone of Transition between the Pretectum and the Thalamus, with Emphasis on the Pretectothalamic Lamina

The zone of transition between the pretectum, derived from prosomere 1, and the thalamus, derived from prosomere 2, is structurally complex and its understanding has been hampered by cytoarchitectural and terminological confusion. Herein, using a battery of complementary morphological approaches, including cytoarchitecture, myeloarchitecture and the expression of molecular markers, we pinpoint the features or combination of features that best characterize each nucleus of the pretectothalamic transitional zone of the rat. Our results reveal useful morphological criteria to identify and delineate, with unprecedented precision, several [mostly auditory] nuclei of the posterior group of the thalamus, namely the pretectothalamic lamina (PTL; formerly known as the posterior limitans nucleus), the medial division of the medial geniculate body (MGBm), the suprageniculate nucleus (SG), and the ethmoid, posterior triangular and posterior nuclei of the thalamus. The PTL is a sparsely-celled and fiber rich flattened nucleus apposed to the lateral surface of the anterior pretectal nucleus (APT) that marks the border between the pretectum and the thalamus; this structure stains selectively with the Wisteria floribunda agglutinin (WFA), and is essentially immunonegative for the calcium binding protein parvalbumin (PV). The MGBm, located medial to the ventral division of the MGB (MGBv), can be unequivocally identified by the large size of many of its neurons, its dark immunostaining for PV, and its rather selective staining for WFA. The SG, which extends for a considerable caudorostral distance and deviates progressively from the MGB, is characterized by its peculiar cytoarchitecture, the paucity of myelinated fibers, and the conspicuous absence of staining for calretinin (CR); indeed, in many CR-stained sections, the SG stands out as a blank spot. Because most of these nuclei are small and show unique anatomical relationships, the information provided in this article will facilitate the interpretation of the results of experimental manipulations aimed at the auditory thalamus and improve the design of future investigations. Moreover, the previously neglected proximity between the MGBm and the caudal region of the scarcely known PTL raises the possibility that certain features or roles traditionally attributed to the MGBm may actually belong to the PTL.
The Use of Test-Taking Strategies and Students' Performances in Answering TOEIC Reading Comprehension Questions.

This article examines the test-taking strategies of highand low-scoring Chinese-speaking participants when they answer English multiple-choice reading comprehension questions. Thirty-two participants took a TOEIC reading test, provided think-aloud protocols, and joined a post-task interview. The data come primarily from qualitative analysis and were compared with those from quantitative analysis. Strategies of four kinds emerged in the results: word/lexical-based, sentence-based, reading comprehension strategies, and overall technical approaches. The discussion provides insights into the employment of test-taking strategies and the relationship between strategy use and reading performance.
Financial Shocks and Labor Market Fluctuations

This paper investigates the eect of …nancial shocks using an estimated gen- eral equilibrium model that links the …rm's ‡ows of …nancing with labor market variables. The results show that …nancial shocks have sizeable eects on …nancial variables, vacancy posting, unemployment and wages. Shocks to the job destruction rate are important in describing ‡uctuations in output and unemployment. The analysis also investigates the underlying driving forces of some key comovements in the data.
Pengaruh Motivasi dan Disiplin Kerja terhadap Kinerja Perawat pada Rumah Sakit Swasta Lancang Kuning Pekanbaru

This study aims to determine how the influence of organizational culture and work discipline on nurse performance in Hospital Private Lancang Kuning PekanbaruThis research method is descriptive and quantitative by using program of SPSS 21, where sample used is nurse performance in Hospital Private Lancang Kuning Pekanbaru with respondents as many 86 people. For sampling technique used census method. The Data collection techniques through questionnaires and interviews.The results of ananlisis use validity test, reability test, determination test, simple linear regression test, multiple linear regression test, t test and F test so that it can be seen that motivation variables significantly influence nurse performance, that work discipline has a significant effect on nurse performance, and A significant influence between motivation and work discipline on nurse performance.
An Information Theoretic Approach to Quantifying Text Interestingness

We study the problem of automatic prediction of text interestingness and present an information theoretic approach for quantifying it in terms of topic diversity. Our hypothesis is, in many text domains, often an interesting concept is generated by mixing a diverse set of topics. Given a word distributional model, we present an approach that leverages Jensen-Shannon divergence for measuring text diversity and demonstrate how such a measure correlates with text interestingness. We describe several different base-line algorithms and present results over two different data sets: a collection of e-commerce products from eBay, and a corpus of NSF proposals.
Be Your Own Superhero: A Case of a Young Boy With Selective Mutism and Complex Comorbidities

This case study outlines the treatment of a 5-year-old Caucasian male who presented with symptoms of selective mutism (SM) along with significant impairment related to comorbid anxiety and speech difficulties. To address these symptoms, Integrated Behavior Therapy for Selective Mutism (IBTSM) was utilized for the treatment of this young boy’s SM and comorbid anxiety. An attachment focus was incorporated as a framework for conceptualizing his SM symptoms. As the treatment of this young boy’s symptoms proceeded, it became clear that his underlying speech difficulties needed to be addressed as well, as these difficulties were preventing expected progress to occur. Thus, this young boy’s treatment was individualized to fit his unique difficulties. In shifting the treatment focus to “being brave like a superhero,” significant decreases were achieved in this young boy’s overall internalizing and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)-related anxiety symptoms, facilitating a successful transition to speech and language therapy. This case study is distinctive in its description of the complexities that may come along with treating symptoms that appear consistent with SM along with other comorbid conditions and nuanced circumstances.