Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Is levetiracetam a treatment option for dyskinetic cerebral palsy?

optimal score for the CATCH total score and the three different dimension scores. It is remarkable that the scores are almost similar to the findings in a study performed by King et al. 20 years ago in Canada, indicating that children’s attitudes, on average, have not changed and are generally more negative towards peers with disabilities than towards nondisabled peers. This finding is in line with a recent review on the effectiveness of inclusive education that demonstrated a lack of evidence from appropriate studies, and where evidence does exist, the balance was only marginally positive for both social and educational outcomes. A study with 1135 students made it possible to explore associations between the attitude (CATCH) scores and personal characteristics of the students, disability knowledge, and contextual factors (e.g. school characteristics). This study was able to confirm the independent contribution of several factors associated with positive attitudes towards peers with disabilities such as sex (being female), good health-related quality of life, knowledge about disabilities, and being a friend with a peer with a disability. Previous studies showed similar patterns but the literature has not been as clear as these studies had smaller sample sizes and looked at less factors. The statistically significant differences in mean attitude scores, however, should not be overestimated as these were very small (approximately 1–2 points on the CATCH scale). Moreover, the clinical meaning of this magnitude of difference in CATCH scores is not clear yet. The authors could not demonstrate an association between age and attitudes in their study with a cross-sectional design. As negative attitudes to peers with psychological problems can be found even in young primary school children (from as young as 7 or 8y) there is a need to study the way in which children develop attitudes in a longitudinal study. School is a place where children learn about each other and about the world around them. True participation in school therefore should be an ultimate goal of health, education, and social services for children disabilities. The work by Vignes and colleagues makes clear that environment (school) and environmental attitudes regarding disability can be determining factors in the lives of children with disabilities. It is time to expand our horizon and to think about ways to modify the natural environment in which children participate. It is the ‘how’ of education that should be emphasized rather than the question where education takes place. Research is needed to find ways to support optimal education for children with disabilities. Much can be learned from qualitative studies on relations between students with disabilities and their non-disabled peers. The area of school participation is complex in its nature and therefore is an ideal theme for interdisciplinary childhood disability research that should bring together researchers from the field of special education, sociology, and medicine.
Testing the Hypothesis That RHO = 0 in Selected Samples (Case 1

Gullickson and Hopkins (1976) have shown that trying to take the degree of restriction of range into account in testing the hypothesis that p = 0, entails unacceptable risks of incorrect inferences. It is argued that a better alternative is to disregard the restriction of range and to make use of the common t-statistics proposed by regression theory.
Comparison of the Pedicle Screws Placement Between Electronic Conductivity Device and Normal Pedicle Finder in Posterior Surgery of Scoliosis

Study Design: Prospective randomized clinical trial. Objective: To compare the accuracy and time using of pedicle screw placement between electronic conductivity device (ECD) and normal pedicle finder (NPF) in posterior surgery of scoliosis, through a randomized clinical trial. Summary of Background Data: Pedicle screw insertion for scoliosis correction can be associated with increased pedicle perforations. The malposition rates using various techniques in different region of the spine have been reported to occur with a frequency of 3.3%–43%. An ECD has been reported in spine surgeries, but its accuracy and surgical time comparing with NPF in the presence of scoliosis has not been reported. Methods: The 42 patients of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis with average major Cobb angle of 55.3±7 degrees (range, 45–78 degrees), who received posterior correction surgeries using pedicle screws system only were divided into 2 groups by random: group NPF (22 patients); and group ECD (20 patients). NPF group had 332 screws and ECD group had 362 screws. The 2 groups were compared for accuracy of screw placement, time for screw insertion, and the number of times the C-arm had to be brought into the field. Results: There were 47 (14.2%) pedicle perforation in the NPF group as compared with only 15 (4.1%) in the ECD group (P<0.001). Although in different region of the spine, screw accuracy showed discrepant statistical result, with upper (T1–T3), middle (T4–T7), and lower thoracic (T8–T10) comparison showing significant statistical difference (P=0.010, 0.001, and 0.041, respectively) and thoracolumbar (T11–L2) and lower lumbar (L3–L5) comparison showing no significant statistical difference (P=0.278 and 0.292, respectively). Average screw insertion time in the NPF group was 241±61 seconds compared with 204±33 seconds in the ECD group (P=0.009). The C-arm had to be moved into the operation field on an average of 1.59±0.67 times in the NPF group compared with 1.20±0.52 in the ECD group (P=0.040). Conclusions: ECD increases pedicle screw accuracy, especially in T1–T10, and reduces insertion time and radiation in posterior adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.
Assisting young people's access to social capital in contemporary families: a qualitative study

This study uses the accounts of parents supplemented by those of their children (aged 13–17) to develop understanding of the role of families in the production and garnering of social capital. In doing so, it draws on J. S. Coleman's hypotheses about the impact of single‐parent households, parental work, siblings, and links between parents in different families on the social capital available to young people. The data suggest that non‐traditional family forms do not necessarily represent deficits in social capital, but rather may actively utilize alternative supportive factors and structures via family processes and network associations not identified by Coleman. Material circumstances may be a greater constraint on access to social capital than family form. In addition, rather than representing a passive drain, young people can be identified as a resource in the development of community level social capital. Neighbourhood and community, together with links (networks) and understandings between families, are important in the task of parenting. These results suggest that Coleman's formulation of social capital reflects neither the reality of contemporary family life nor the agency of young people. However, his identification of the importance of between‐family links may benefit future studies of social capital, parenting and the transition to adulthood.
Efficacy of sertraline in severe generalized social anxiety disorder: results of a double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

BACKGROUND Generalized social anxiety disorder is an early onset, highly chronic, frequently disabling disorder with a lifetime prevalence of approximately 13%. The goal of the current study was to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of sertraline for the treatment of severe generalized social anxiety disorder in adults. METHOD After a 1-week single-blind placebo lead-in period, patients with DSM-IV generalized social phobia were randomly assigned to 12 weeks of double-blind treatment with flexible doses of sertraline (50-200 mg/day) or placebo. Primary efficacy outcomes were the mean change in the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) total score and the responder rate for the Clinical Global Impressions-Improvement scale (CGI-I), defined as a CGI-I score </= 2. Data were collected in 2000 and 2001. RESULTS 211 patients were randomly assigned to sertraline (intent-to-treat [ITT] sample, 205), and 204 patients, to placebo (ITT sample, 196). At week 12, sertraline produced a significantly greater reduction in LSAS total score compared with placebo (mean last-observation-carried-forward [LOCF] change from baseline: -31.0 vs. -21.7; p =.001) and a greater proportion of responders (CGI-I score </= 2: 55.6% vs. 29% among week 12 completers and 46.8% vs. 25.5% in the ITT-LOCF sample; p <.001 for both comparisons). Sertraline was well tolerated, with 7.6% of patients discontinuing due to adverse events versus 2.9% of placebo-treated patients. CONCLUSION The results of the current study confirm the efficacy of sertraline in the treatment of severe social anxiety disorder.
The invisibility of the underachieving girl

The recent high profile of the underachievement debate in the media, through research initiatives, and in resulting remediation programmes within the classroom, has focused almost exclusively upon boys, such that the identity and needs of the underachieving girl have been rendered invisible. Underachievement has become so closely associated with the gender identity of boys that the idea of girls underachieving has become virtually inconceivable. This paper is concerned with teachers’ perceptions of the underachieving girl in the light of the overwhelming attention on the underachieving boy. It is argued that the focus of attention should be underachievement as a complex phenomenon rather than focusing exclusively on the underachievement of boys.
The Effect of New Technologies on Sign Language Research

This paper first reviews the fairly established ways of collecting sign language data. It then discusses the new technologies available and their impact on sign language research, both in terms of how data is collected and what new kinds of data are emerging as a result of technology. New data collection methods and new kinds of data are illustrated with three specific case studies.
Tryptophan Depletion Effects on EEG and MEG Responses Suggest Serotonergic Modulation of Auditory Involuntary Attention in Humans

Involuntary attention shifting, i.e., detecting and orienting to unexpected stimulus changes, may be altered at low brain serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) levels. This was studied in 13 healthy subjects (21-30 years old; 6 females) by using a dietary challenge, acute tryptophan depletion (ATD), which decreases 5-HT synthesis in the brain. Five hours after ingestion of either ATD or control mixture (randomized, double-blinded, crossover design), brain responses indexing involuntary attention were measured with simultaneous 64-channel electroencephalography (EEG) and 122-channel magnetoencephalography (MEG). During the measurement, the subjects were instructed to discriminate equiprobable 200- and 400-ms tones by pressing one of two buttons rapidly. Occasionally, the frequency of the tones changed (10% increase/decrease), causing involuntary attention shifting. ATD significantly lowered plasma tryptophan concentrations (total tryptophan decreased by 75%, free tryptophan decreased by 35%). As compared to the control condition, ATD reduced the amplitude of the deviant-tone N2 wave, including the overlapping mismatch negativity (MMN) and N2b subcomponents, which are suggested to reflect change detection in the brain. The EEG results were accompanied by a significant increase in the peak latency of the magnetic counterpart of MMN. However, no ATD effects were observed in P3 to task-irrelevant frequency change. Reaction time (RT) to deviants per se was not significantly affected, but RT in trials succeeding the deviant-frequency tones was increased by ATD, which suggested impaired reorienting to the task-relevant activity. In conclusion, the results suggest that decreased level of central 5-HT function after ATD may decrease involuntary attention shifting to task-irrelevant sound changes and thus modulate resource allocation to the task-relevant activity.
Non-invasive brain stimulation in neurorehabilitation: local and distant effects for motor recovery

Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) may enhance motor recovery after neurological injury through the causal induction of plasticity processes. Neurological injury, such as stroke, often results in serious long-term physical disabilities, and despite intensive therapy, a large majority of brain injury survivors fail to regain full motor function. Emerging research suggests that NIBS techniques, such as transcranial magnetic (TMS) and direct current (tDCS) stimulation, in association with customarily used neurorehabilitative treatments, may enhance motor recovery. This paper provides a general review on TMS and tDCS paradigms, the mechanisms by which they operate and the stimulation techniques used in neurorehabilitation, specifically stroke. TMS and tDCS influence regional neural activity underlying the stimulation location and also distant interconnected network activity throughout the brain. We discuss recent studies that document NIBS effects on global brain activity measured with various neuroimaging techniques, which help to characterize better strategies for more accurate NIBS stimulation. These rapidly growing areas of inquiry may hold potential for improving the effectiveness of NIBS-based interventions for clinical rehabilitation.
Achieving Expert-Level Annotation Quality with CrowdTruth: The Case of Medical Relation Extraction

The lack of annotated datasets for training and benchmarking is one of the main challenges of Clinical Natural Language Processing. In addition, current methods for collecting annotation attempt to minimize disagreement between annotators, and therefore fail to model the ambiguity inherent in language. We propose the CrowdTruth method for collecting medical ground truth through crowdsourcing, based on the observation that disagreement between annotators can be used to capture ambiguity in text. In this work, we report on using this method to build a ground truth for medical relation extraction, and how it performed in training a classification model. Our results show that, with appropriate processing, the crowd performs just as well as medical experts in terms of the quality and efficacy of annotations. Furthermore, we show that the general practice of employing a small number of annotators for collecting ground truth is faulty, and that more annotators per sentence are needed to get the highest quality annotations.
Effects of Curcumin on Serum Vitamin E Concentrations in Individuals with Metabolic Syndrome

Vitamin E is an important lipid‐soluble antioxidant. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of curcumin on serum vitamin E levels in subjects with metabolic syndrome (MetS). A total of 120 subjects aged 18–65 years old with MetS were recruited in this study according to the International Diabetic Federation Criteria. Included subjects were randomized into three groups: subjects receiving lecithinized curcumin (1 g/day equivalent to 200‐mg pure curcumin per day) for a period of 6 weeks )n = 40), patients receiving unformulated curcumin (1 g/day) for a period of 6 weeks )n = 40) and a control group receiving placebo for the same period (n = 40). Vitamin E was determined in all patients before and after the intervention using high‐performance liquid chromatography method. Results showed that curcumin has no improving effect on serum levels of vitamin E (p > 0.05). There were significant differences between pre‐trial and post‐trial levels of vitamin E/low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (p < 0.05), vitamin E/high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (p < 0.05), vitamin E/total cholesterol ratio (p < 0.01) and vitamin E/triglyceride ratio (p < 0.05) between the three groups of the study. Results of the present study did not suggest any improving effect of curcumin supplementation on serum vitamin E concentrations in subjects with MetS. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Islamophobia as Reactive Co-Radicalization

Since 9/11, 2001, a new form of religious extremism has arguably emerged, one which paradoxically portrays itself as a counter to another perceived extremism regarded as a real and imminent threat. Within North America and Western Europe, as elsewhere, there is an upsurge of various forms of reactionary rhetoric and opposition expressed towards Islam and Muslims. An increase in extremist behaviour, even violence, is appearing from quarters opposed to, or varyingly fearful of, Islamic extremism if not Islam or Muslims. Islamophobia, as a manifestation of fear of an exclusionary Islam, manifests as exclusionary or negatively reactive behaviours with Muslims and Islam as the target. This article explores the idea that Islamophobia can be regarded as a manifestation of religious extremism and, further, that such extremism is construable as “reactive co-radicalization. ” It focuses on two European cases – the 2009 Swiss ban on the building of minarets and the 2011 Norwegian massacre carried out by Anders Breivik – as examples of this “reactive co-radicalization. ” This term, I suggest, is an apt denominator for the exclusionary reaction to the rising presence of Islam within otherwise secular, albeit nominally Christian, Western European and North American societies, among others.
Created versus natural wetlands: Avian communities in Virginia salt marshes

Abstract Permits to destroy wetlands often require the creation of the same type of wetland elsewhere. An assumption underlying this practice is that such created wetlands will replace the ecological functions lost when the developed wetland was destroyed. Part of this ecological function is providing habitat for wildlife, including, in coastal areas, a suite of bird species tied to salt marshes for some portion of their life cycle. We tested the hypothesis that created wetlands provide habitat for the avian communities lost when wetlands are destroyed by comparing the breeding and wintering birds on 11 small created salt marshes with those on 11 natural reference salt marshes that were carefully matched for size and surrounding land cover. We found that, during the breeding season, created salt marshes had lower avian abundance and richness than reference salt marshes. In particular, wetland-dependent species were poorly represented on created wetlands. On the other hand, bird use outside of the breeding season and use by an important salt marsh obligate species, the clapper rail (Rallus longirostris), did not differ. Created wetlands that we surveyed failed to completely replicate the bird and plant communities that we observed on nearby natural reference salt marshes, raising the question of whether current mitigation policies that encourage wetland creation should continue without further investigation into the success of such wetlands at recreating wildlife habitat.
Achieving a narrow size distribution of Au particles at a precise depth in SiO2 by segregation of Au precipitates

We propose a new method of confining Au nanoparticles of a narrow size distribution at a precise depth in an SiO2 matrix. The process involves the formation of nanocavities in silicon by hydrogen implantation and annealing (at 850 °C), followed by Au gettering to and precipitation in such cavities and a wet oxidation at 900 °C. Starting with a silicon-on-insulator wafer, Au precipitates can be segregated behind a growing Si/SiO2 interface during wet oxidation and ultimately trapped in SiO2 at the front interface of a buried oxide layer. The shape of the precipitates has been examined by transmission electron microscopy and found to be spherical. The average diameters of these precipitates before and after oxidation have been determined as around 15 nm and 30 nm, respectively.
Production of English Vowels by Korean Learners

The purpose of this study was to investigate how Korean speakers produce English vowels. Twenty one Korean learners produced the vowels [i, ɪ, eɪ, ɛ, ae, ɑ, ʌ, ɔ, oʊ, ʊ, u] in bVt or pVt forms of real words. Acoustic measurements were conducted for the vowel formant frequencies (F1, F2) and duration. Results showed that Korean learners tended to produce the vowel duration longer than native English speakers. Also, the front vowels produced by Korean participants tended to be produced at the more frontal part of the tongue. In addition, Korean participants distinguished the tense and lax pairs not through quality(F1, F2) but through vowel duration. This is different from the native English speakers in that they differentiate tense and lax pairs by quality(F1, F2) as well as vowel duration. Based on these results, pedagogical implications are discussed.
Analysis of the shelf life of chitosan stored in different types of packaging, using colorimetry and dentin microhardness

Objectives Chitosan has been widely investigated and used. However, the literature does not refer to the shelf life of this solution. This study evaluated, through the colorimetric titration technique and an analysis of dentin micro-hardness, the shelf life of 0.2% chitosan solution. Materials and Methods Thirty human canines were sectioned, and specimens were obtained from the second and third slices, from cemento-enamel junction to the apex. A 0.2% chitosan solution was prepared and distributed in 3 identical glass bottles (v1, v2, and v3) and 3 plastic bottles (p1, p2, and p3). At 0, 7, 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, 150, and 180 days, the specimens were immersed in each solution for 5 minutes (n = 3 each). The chelating effect of the solution was assessed by micro-hardness and colorimetric analysis of the dentin specimens. 17% EDTA and distilled water were used as controls. Data were analyzed statistically by two-way and Tukey-Kramer multiple comparison (α = 0.05). Results There was no statistically significant difference among the solutions with respect to the study time (p = 0.113) and micro-hardness/time interaction (p = 0.329). Chitosan solutions and EDTA reduced the micro-hardness in a similar manner and differed significantly from the control group (p < 0.001). Chitosan solutions chelated calcium ions throughout the entire experiment. Conclusions Regardless of the storage form, chitosan demonstrates a chelating property for a minimum period of 6 months.
Modification of data transmission filter with Generalized Bessel transformation

This paper present modification of data transmission filter by the application of Generalized Bessel transformations with rational filter. The technique gives the denominator of filter transfer function in analytic closed form, while its numerator is determined by solving a set of transmission zeros and even polynomial of order. The results to filter is straightforward and will be given in a later more detailed contribution together with comparison with the other existing design methods, such a comparison reveals the superiority of the present technique.