Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intermittent Practice Facilitates Stable Motor Memories

Humans adaptively control reaching movements to maintain good performance in the presence of novel forces acting on the arm. A recent study suggested that motor memories of different force conditions are not transformed from fragile to stable states, but rather are always vulnerable to interference from newly learned conditions (Caithness et al., 2004). This is contrary to the results of previous studies (Brashers-Krug et al., 1996; Shadmehr and Brashers-Krug, 1997), although all of these studies followed similar methods. Here, we show that a seemingly insignificant and inconsistently applied methodological detail may reconcile this discrepancy. Catch trials, in which the novel forces are removed, may be randomly interspersed among the more frequent force trials to assess how a subject is learning to predict the pattern of forces. In the absence of an interfering condition, subjects retained their learning until retest a day later regardless of whether they experienced catch trials. But in the presence of an interfering condition, only the subjects who had experienced forces intermittently retained their learning and thereby showed resistance to the interference. Thus, intermittent rather than constant practice conditions appear to be critical for dynamic motor memory stabilization.
Atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance

In this issue of Cancer Cytopathology, the category of atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS), which has been a source of controversy since its inclusion in the Bethesda Classification system for cervical cytology in 1989, is revisited by Pitman et al. The problem surrounding this frequently employed cytologic classification is related to the fact that the interpretation is equivocal by its nature. It does not have a histologic counterpart and conveys only that the patient has cytologic findings that may or may not be associated with a significant epithelial lesion of the cervix. The criteria for rendering the interpretation, although somewhat defined, are difficult to use consistently. This is reflected by the poor reproducibility of the diagnosis, even among expert cytopathologists. Nevertheless, an average of 4 –5% of Papanicolaou (Pap) smears obtained in the U.S. currently are interpreted as ASCUS. With an estimated 50 million Pap smears performed annually in the U.S., approximately 2,500,000 women will have an ASCUS smear each year. One of the sources of continuing concern is how these patients should be followed and/or treated. This not only represents a significant problem for the women involved but also presents a significant cost to our health care system. Because follow-up requirements are based on the significance of the finding, many studies have been undertaken in this regard. The percentage of ASCUS cases that are associated with the presence of squamous intraepithelial lesions (SIL) or worse (low-grade SIL [LSIL] ) has been reported to range from 20% to as high as 60% in various studies. The average is approximately 35%. In the data from the recently reported results of the ASCUS/LSIL triage study (ALTS) trial, 26% of ASCUS cases (which were evaluated in the immediate colposcopy arm of the study) were found to be associated with the presence of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN). However, the majority of ASCUS cases (14.5%) were low-grade lesions, which generally are destined to have a benign clinical course and often resolve spontaneously. The remaining ASCUS cases were associated with high-grade SILs (HSIL). Approximately 6.3% were CIN-2 and 5.1% were CIN-3 . Because to my knowledge the ALTS represents the largest randomized and adjudicated study published to date, these data most likely are most representative of the relation between the ASCUS diagnosis and the presence of SIL. Extrapolating these data would suggest that each year approximately 300,000 women with an ASCUS interpretation are harboring a HSIL. This would appear to support the importance of the ASCUS 125 CANCER CYTOPATHOLOGY
Performance of genotypic tropism testing in clinical practice using the enhanced sensitivity version of Trofile as reference assay: results from the OSCAR Study Group.

OBJECTIVE The goal of the OSCAR programme is to evaluate the performances of genotypic HIV-1 tropism testing in clinical practice using the enhanced sensitivity version of Trofile (ESTA) as reference-assay. METHODS HIV-1 coreceptor-usage was assessed using plasma samples from 406 HIV-1 infected patients by ESTA and by gp120 V3 population-sequencing followed by Geno2pheno (set at a False Positive Rate [FPR] of 10% and 5%). RESULTS ESTA was successful in 365 (89.9%) samples indicating R5 in 254 (69.6%), and DM/X4 in 111 (30.4% of samples (104 [28.5%] DM and 7 [1.9%] X4). Genotypic-testing successfully assessed viral tropism for all 406 samples, including the 41 with undetermined result by ESTA. Genotypic-tropism testing at a FPR of 5% and 10% was 81.1% and 78.4% concordant with ESTA, respectively. Despite a sensitivity of 48.7% and 55.9% at a FPR of 5% and 10%, respectively, a high concordance (specificity: 95.3% for FPR of 5% and 88.2% for FPR of 10%) between genotypic-tropism testing and ESTA was reached in the detection of R5-tropic viruses. CONCLUSION Our results are in line with other European studies, and support the routine use of genotypic tropism testing in clinical-settings for monitoring of HIV-1 infected patients candidate to or failing CCR5-antagonists.
Tariffs and Growth in the Late 19th Century

The paper estimates the correlation between tariffs and economic growth in the late 19th century, in the context of three types of growth equation: unconditional convergence equations; conditional convergence equations; and factor accumulation models. It does so for a panel of ten countries between 1875 and 1914. Tariffs were positively correlated with growth in these countries during this period.
Harvesting low-frequency acoustic energy using multiple PVDF beam arrays in quarter-wavelength acoustic resonator

An acoustic energy harvester is introduced that uses a quarter-wavelength straight-tube acoustic resonator with polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) piezoelectric cantilever beams placed inside the resonator. When the tube is excited by an incident wave at its first acoustic eigenfrequency, an amplified acoustic resonant standing wave is developed inside the tube. The acoustic pressure gradient of the amplified standing wave then drives the vibration motion of the PVDF piezoelectric beams, generating electricity due to the direct piezoelectric effect. In order to maximize the amount of the harvested energy, each PVDF piezoelectric beam has been designed to have the same structural eigenfrequency as the acoustic eigenfrequency of the tube. With a single PVDF beam placed inside the tube, the harvested voltage and power become the maximum near the tube open inlet where the largest acoustic pressure gradient vibrates the PVDF beam. As the beam is moved to the tube closed end, the voltage and power gradually decrease due to the decreased acoustic pressure gradient. Multiple piezoelectric beams have been placed inside the tube with two different configurations: the aligned and zigzag configurations. With the zigzag configuration which has the more open path for acoustic air particle motions, the significant increases in the harvested voltage and power have been observed. Due to the interruption of acoustic air particle motion caused by the beams, it is found that placing PVDF beams near the closed tube end is not beneficial. The total output voltage of the piezoelectric beams increases linearly as the incident sound pressure increases.
The molecular phylogeny and systematics of the actinomycetes.

Sequences of 16S ribosomal RNA have provided actinomycetologists with a phylogenetic tree that allows the investigation of the evolution of actinomycetes and also provides a basis for classification. The origin of actinomycetes and, except for bifidobacteria, the order by which the main sublines evolved, cannot yet be determined with certainty. However, calibration of rRNA sequence divergence with palaeochemical data, and previously published substitution rates of endosymbiotic bacteria, suggest that the main radiation occurred less than 1 billion years ago. Within this radiation, several phylogenetically homogeneous, but sometimes phenotypically heterogeneous, clades appear to have diverged over a short evolutionary period. The resolution of the 16S rRNA molecule appears to be insufficient to clearly determine the branching patterns between clades in this area of the phylogenetic tree. The distribution of some morphological and chemotaxonomic traits such as types of peptidoglycan, menaquinone, phospholipids, cell wall sugars, and fatty acids facilitate the phenotypic delineation of genera within each clade. At higher taxonomic levels, e.g. at the family level, phenotypic similarities are unpredictable and tend to be less conserved. With the exception of mycolic acids, most traits are polyphyletic--hence they are unreliable indicators per se of phylogenetic relationships. Nevertheless, combinations of phenotypic properties are invaluable for predicting whether a new organism is likely to be a member of an established or a novel taxon. Current knowledge about the phylogenetic structure of the actinomycetes provides not only a sound basis for future taxonomic work but also a framework for the rational exploration of their ecology and biotechnological potential.
Reference values for clinical chemistry tests during normal pregnancy

Sir, I read with interest the article written by Larsson et al.1 on reference values for clinical chemistry tests during normal pregnancy. Their effort is to be applauded, first, in highlighting the importance of the effect of normal pregnancy on commonly measured biological markers and hence the need for caution not to interpret physiological changes in normal pregnancy as pathological; second, in being able to consolidate and define reference intervals for as many parameters as they have in their article. I, however, have some concerns with their article; they stated that ‘Previous studies of normal variations during pregnancy are incomplete and often limited to the third trimester and focused on a single or a few analytes’; this, however, is not entirely accurate and furthermore the concept they are talking about cannot be claimed by them because it has been out there for years.2 Davison et al.3 in work spanning well over a decade, has demonstrated unambiguously, changes in osmoregulation function in the three trimesters of normal pregnancy, which we now know are physiological, but would have been interpreted as pathological in the context of nonpregnant reference values. They demonstrated that, plasma osmolality falls by 8–10 mOsm/kg in the first few weeks of pregnancy, a relative hypotonicity that is maintained until parturition. This decrease in osmolality is accompanied by parallel decreases in the main extracellular fluid electrolytes, mainly sodium and its attendant ion chloride, as well as urea.3 Furthermore, this group demonstrated robustly that the explanation for the observed decreases was not due simply to haemodilution, a commonly held and accepted explanation for most of the observed physiological changes in normal pregnancy, but was due instead to the lowering of the osmotic thresholds for both vasopressin release and thirst to the observed lower osmolality values.4 This explanation, they argued, was why normally pregnant women were able to continue to concentrate and dilute their urine normally, about their new lower osmolality levels instead of being in a state of continuous diuresis as one would have expected if it was simply due to haemodilution. Finally, I would suggest that the authors now do a thorough search of the literature in order to make their list of reference complete because in its current state, they have failed to acknowledge previous similar and important work that have been undertaken by other groups.2,3 j
Racial variation in fasting and random homocysteine levels

Homocysteine (Hcy) levels have been shown to be a predeterminant of thrombotic diseases. We measured the Hcy levels of 50 blacks and 50 whites equally divided by gender to determine if there is a significant racial difference in either fasting or random Hcy levels. Dietary, medication, smoking, alcohol, past medical, educational, and occupational histories were obtained, and the body mass index calculated. Total serum fasting and random Hcy levels, B12, folate, BUN, creatinine, and lipid profiles were drawn from each participant. Analysis of the results showed that white males have the highest fasting Hcy levels, 10.5 μM/l, whereas random Hcy levels were not significantly different. Correlation between fasting and random Hcy levels was poor (R = 0.61). B12 levels in black subjects were significantly higher, 490.8 pg/ml, compared to whites, 382.8 pg/ml, P = 0.001, but contributed little to total Hcy levels (R2 = 0.08). Folic acid levels, all within normal range, were not significantly different between the two racial groups and also did not appear to greatly affect Hcy levels (R2 = 0.06). Our study demonstrates that, despite the genetic diversity of these two racial groups in the U.S., white males in this age group have higher fasting Hcy levels than black males, and white males, but not black males, have higher fasting homocysteine levels than females. This discrepancy in Hcy levels may reflect methylene‐tetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) enzyme polymorphisms, known to be higher in whites, rather than socioeconomic influences. Am. J. Hematol. 66:252–256, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
From EPIC to EPTIC — Exploring simplification in interpreting and translation from an intermodal perspective

This article introduces EPTIC (the European Parliament Translation and Interpreting Corpus), a new bidirectional (English Italian) corpus of interpreted and translated EU Parliament proceedings. Built as an extension of the English Italian subsection of EPIC (the European Parliament Interpreting Corpus), EPTIC is an intermodal corpus featuring the pseudo-parallel outputs of interpreting and translation processes, aligned to each other and to the corresponding source texts (speeches by MEPs and their written up versions). As a first attempt at unearthing the potential of EPTIC, we investigate lexical simplification replicating the methodology proposed by Laviosa ( 1998a ; 1998b ), but extending it to encompass both a monolingual comparable and an intermodal perspective. Our results indicate that the mediation process reduces complexity in both modes of language production and both language directions, with interpreters simplifying the input more than translators, and evidence of simplification being more lexical in English and more lexico-syntactic in Italian.
Energy expenditure of cycle rickshaw pullers in different places in India

The cycle rickshaw is a popular transportation device. The aim of the study was to assess workload of cycle rickshaw pullers–physiological and subjective at four different places in India. Subjects were instructed to pull a cycle rickshaw with two passengers, for 20 min. Working and recovery heart rates were recorded. The mean values of energy expenditure of pulling a cycle rickshaw varied from 23.5 ± 2.66 to 25.35 ± 1.51 kJ/min. Relative cardiac strain and cardiac cost indicated that the job is ‘heavy’ to ‘very heavy’. Subjective assessment of workload was ‘heavy’ to ‘very heavy’. The combined workload assessed from physiological parameters and subjective assessment indicated that the job could be categorised as ‘heavy’ to ‘very heavy’ at all the places studied and needs to be reduced by redesigning the structural and functional components of the cycle rickshaw. The rickshaw pullers carry out the jobs many times per day, sometimes without proper rest pauses between trips. The outcome of the research project is beneficial for cycle rickshaw pullers, health administrators as well as manufacturers of cycle rickshaws. Primarily, the manufacturers would be able to use the data for producing a newer model of cycle rickshaw, which would require less energy to drive. The health administrators would be able to take policy decisions for administering better health care for the unorganised and underprivileged workers. The pullers could be guided into taking care of their health by improving their work practice, i.e. taking a sufficient rest pause between trips.
Social preference among affluent middle school students: Implications for short-term and long-term adjustment

Social preference among affluent middle school students: Implications for short-term and long-term adjustment David Alexander Rowe The primary aims of this study were to: 1) Examine prominent trajectories of social preference over the course of middle school among affluent adolescents; and 2) Identify which social preference trajectories are significantly linked to clinical status (i.e., levels of anxiety and depression) and academic performance among affluent adolescents in short-term (end of 8 grade) and long-term (end of 12 grade) adjustment. Social preference was operationalized as the difference between the number of an individual’s “liked most” peer nominations and “liked least” peer nominations, thus distinguishing middle schoolers who were genuinely prosocial, from those who may have been simultaneously well-regarded by some for their dominance or aggression, while also disliked by others in their peer group. Participants were 286, mostly Caucasian students (136 girls and 150 boys) from three middle schools in one town, where the mean annual family income was $124,000. Questionnaires were used to collect data on clinical symptoms and other outcome variables. Data on academic performance was provided by the school. Using each student’s level of social preference in 6, 7, and 8 grades as grouping variables, five trajectories of social preference were identified across 6, 7, and 8 grade: consistently high, increasing over time, decreasing over time and two fluctuating trajectories that were both low in social preference. Fluctuating trajectories were labeled Low Cluster “A” and Low Cluster “V” (capturing their curvilinear patterns across three years) and subjected to further analyses. Multivariate analysis of variance was employed to examine the links between these five prominent social preference trajectories and five outcome variables. The trajectory of social preference across 6, 7, and 8 grades was not related to long-term adjustment in either clinical status or academic performance, but there were significant effects on short-term adjustment. Adolescents who were consistently high in social preference reported significantly higher 8 grade GPAs and significantly lower levels of anxiety and depression than those in other trajectories. Low Cluster “A”, which was characterized by an increase in social preference from 6 to 7 grade, and a subsequent decrease from 7 to 8 grade, exhibited the lowest GPA. Low Cluster “V”, which was characterized by a decrease in social preference from 6 to 7 grade, and a subsequent increase from 7 to 8 grade, presented significantly more anxiety and depression. This study shows that, overall, middle school students at the low end of social preference suffer clinically and academically, but only in the short term (at the end of middle school) with differences dissipated by grade 12. Moreover, there are distinct changes in social status during middle school that are associated with academic and clinical status.
Effects of Omitting Conclusions in Advertisements to Involved and Uninvolved Audiences

In two experiments, the authors manipulated the audience's level of involvement in processing an advertisement and whether the advertisement was open-ended (i.e., did not include an explicit conclusion) or closed-ended. Results of both experiments show the open-ended advertisement to be superior to the closed-ended one for an involved audience in terms of brand attitude, purchase intention, and choice, whereas only a small and statistically insignificant difference between the two types of advertisements is found for the uninvolved audience. Moreover, the second experiment shows that the choice advantage of the open-ended ad for the involved audience persisted when measured one week later.
The Heritability of All-or-None Traits: Viability of Poultry.

N E of the fundamental steps in any analysis of the inheritance of quan0 titative characters is the partitioning of the total phenotypic variance of the trait under study into it; genetic and environmental portions. The various techniques for this purpose for characters showing continuous or graded types of variation are well known (see WHATLEY 1942). They are based on methods of variance and correlation analysis derived in the main from the studies of WRIGHT (1921), although many phases of the general problem were attacked earlier by WRIGHT (1917) and several other investigators (among them WEINBERG 1909; FISHER 1918 et d.). In the case of characters whose phenotype is expressed in an all-or-none manner these methods do not directly apply. However, special techniques based on the inverse probability transformation have been used in this connection by WRIGHT (1934a, 1934b, 1943), while more recently LUSH, LAMOREUX and HAZEL (1948) considered the problem in a more direct relationship to applied animal breeding practice. Reference to the methodology and results of this investigation will be made in the course of discussion. It may also be noted that a t least one other attempt a t what may be interpreted as the estimation of heritability of an allor-none trait (multiple births in cattle) is on record, an attempt which, however, did not consider fully the difficulties of application of the analysis of variance to binomial data ( KORKMAN 1948). I t is actually possible to derive a simple technique for dealing with all-ornone data by considering certain properties of the “degree of heritability,” which for quantitative characters may be defined as the proportion of the phenotypic variance due to additively genetic differences between individuals. The purpose of this communication is to describe a method of approximate determination of the degree of heritability of traits expressed in an all-or-none manner, and to discuss briefly the significance of the results obtained. The derivation presented is applied to raw percentage data as contrasted with similar formulas developed by WRIGHT (Zoc. cit.) and applied to transformed data. The problem was suggested by the junior author who also supplied the material, the general solution and actual analysis having been carried out by the senior author, while the responsibility for the presentation and discussion is shared by both.
Pain in the ear—with special reference to referred pain

This study was carried out to determine the true pathology in a group of patients (100) who presented to the outpatient clinic with pain in the ear, as their main or only complaint. An analysis of the results is presented and the literature is reviewed. From this study, it appears that referred pain is commoner than pain due to lesions in the ear itself, as seen in an Out-Patient Clinic.