Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Electroacupuncture at Head Points on the Function of Cerebral Motor Areas in Stroke Patients: A PET Study

Positron emission tomography (PET) is used to observe the cerebral function widely and is a good method to explore the mechanism of acupuncture treatment on the central nervous system. By using this method, we observed the cerebral function of 6 patients suffering from ischemic stroke after receiving EA treatment at Baihui(GV20) and right Qubin(GB7). The results were: (1) the glucose metabolism changed significantly on primary motor area (M1), premotor cortex (PMC), and superior parietal louble (LPs) bilaterally, as well as the Supplementary Motor Area (SMA) on the unaffected hemisphere right after the first EA treatment. (2) The glucose metabolism on bilateral M1 and LPs changed significantly after three weeks of daily EA treatments. (3) The glucose metabolism on other areas such as insula, putamen, and cerebellum changed significantly. It demonstrated that EA at Qubin and Baihui couldactivate the cerebral structures related to motor function on the bilateral hemispheres.We concluded that EA was very helpful for the cerebral motor plasticity after the ischemic stroke. Also based on this study we assumed that the brain plasticity should be a network and that acupuncture participated in some sections of this course.
Child feeding practices in a rural Western Kenya community

ABSTRACT Background Breastfeeding is nearly universal in Kenya. However, supplementation of breast milk starts too early, thereby exposing the infants to diarrhoea and other infections. Despite the recom-mendation of the World Health Organization (WHO) of exclusive breastfeeding (EB) from birth to six months, EB is rare and poorly timed and complementary feeding (CF) practices are still common. The study describes feeding practices of children aged 0 to 24 months in the Mumias Division of the Kakamega district in Kenya. Method Using a cross-sectional study, 180 mothers of infants/children were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Data on socio-demographic characteristics, feeding practices and sources of information on the same were obtained from the mothers. Results Whereas 92.1% of the children were breastfed, only 12.2% of the mothers practiced EB up to 4 to 6 months. Mothers introduced liquids and complementary foods at a mean age of 2.7 months and by the fourth month, more than one-third (34.5%) of the mothers had initiated CF. Apart from water, fresh milk, tea, commercial juices, maize-meal/millet porridge, mashed potatoes, bananas and fruits were also introduced. The perceived reasons for introducing these foods included the child being old enough (33.8%), another pregnancy (25%), insufficient milk (20.3%), sickness of the mother or child (10.5%) and in order for the child to eat other foods (11.4%). Over half (53.3%) of the mothers obtained information on BF and CF from friends, neighbours, media advertisements and health workers. Conclusion Breastfeeding is common; however, mothers do not seem to practice the WHO recom-mendations. Mothers in this study area and other rural communities need to be empowered with information on the correct BF and CF practices through existing government health services, non-governmental organisations and other community-based networks, especially in the light of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
A Description of the Affective Quality Attributed to Environments

The meaning that persons attribute to environments is divided into perceptualcognitive meaning and affective meaning. Affective meaning is then conceptualized as a two-dimensional bipolar space that can be denned by eight variables falling in the following circular order around the perimeter: pleasant (arbitrarily set at 0°), exciting (45°), arousing (90°), distressing (135°), unpleasant (180°), gloomy (225°), sleepy (270°), and relaxing (315°, which is thus 45° from pleasant). Alternatively, the same space can be denned by two orthogonal bipolar dimensions of pleasant-unpl easant and arousing-sleepy—or equally well by exciting-gloomy and distressing-relaxing. Reliable verbal scales for these eight variables are developed and shown to approximate the proposed theoretical structure. Most of us would acknowledge the pervasive if subtle influence of affective responses on person-environment interactions. The English language provides hundreds of words, such as lively, boring, disgusting, and relaxing, that persons use to describe the affective quality of places. In spite of, or perhaps because of, this large array of affective descriptors, environmental psychologists have focused their attention on only a few and then only one at a time (such as degree of comfort, annoyance, pleasantness, or psychological stress), implicitly expressing pessimism about the possibility of including in their research or theorizing anything approaching a complete description and assessment of the affective quality attributed to places. Our thesis is that a very simple conceptualization can encompass the diverse affective concepts applied to molar physical environments. Theorists from widely differing vantage
Molecular Epidemiology and Genotyping of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Isolated in Baghdad

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major health problem in Iraq but the strains responsible for the epidemic have been poorly characterized. Our aim was to characterize the TB strains circulating in Bagdad (Iraq). A total of 270 Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) strains isolated between 2010 and 2011 from TB patients attending the Center of Chest and Respiratory diseases in Baghdad were analyzed by Spoligotyping. The analysis indicated that 94.1% of the isolates belong to known genotype clades: CAS 39.6%, ill-defined T clade 29.6%, Manu 7.4%, Haarlem 7%, Ural 4.1%, LAM 3.3%, X 0.7%, LAM7-TUR 0.7%, EAI 0.7%, S 0.7%, and unknown 5.9%. Comparison with the international multimarker database SITVIT2 showed that SIT 309 (CAS1-Delhi) and SIT1144 (T1) were the most common types. In addition, 44 strains were included in SITVIT2 database under 16 new Spoligotype International Types (SITs); of these, 6 SITs (SIT3346, SIT3497, SIT3708, SIT3790, SIT3791, and SIT3800) (n = 32 strains) were created within the present study and 10 were created after a match with an orphan in the database. By using 24-loci MIRU-VNTR-typing on a subset of 110 samples we found a high recent transmission index (RTI) of 33.6%. In conclusion, we present the first unifying framework for both epidemiology and evolutionary analysis of M. tuberculosis in Iraq.
Poster abstract: A mobile-cloud service for physiological anomaly detection on smartphones

There is a growing number of examples that use the microphones in phone for various acoustic processing tasks as mobile phones become increasingly computationally powerful. However, there is no general physiological acoustic anomaly detection service on smartphones. To this end, we propose a physiological acoustic anomaly detection service which contains classifiers that can be used to detect irregularity and anomalies in lung sounds and notifies the user. We also present and discuss on some preliminary results.
DISTANCE MAPS FOR COLLISION DETECTION OF DEFORMABLE MODELS

This paper presents a method for detecting collisions between a deformable and a rigid model. The proposed approach builds on the remarkable results achieved by distance fields and SQ-maps by introducing distance maps with multiple entries. The computational cost of the presented extension is of the same level as the previous methods but the memory requirements are much lower because distance maps with multiple entries can be used directly with general non-convex 3D models. The proposed method can be used in various applications at interactive performance rates.
Pain in IBD Patients: Very Frequent and Frequently Insufficiently Taken into Account

Background Pain is a common symptom related to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In addition to abdominal pain, pain can also be an extraintestinal manifestation of IBD. Pain treatment is challenging and a substantial part of IBD patients are treated with opioids. Therefore, a better knowledge on pain symptoms is crucial for a better therapeutic approach to this clinical problem. Methods Patients of the Swiss IBD Cohort Study (SIBDCS) (n = 2152) received a questionnaire regarding pain intensity, pain localization and impact of pain on daily life and social activities. Furthermore, the questionnaire investigated the use of pain-specific medication. Results A vast majority of patients (71%) experienced pain during the disease course. For a substantial part of patients (49% in UC and 55% in CD) pain is a longstanding problem (>5 years). Pain in UC was of shorter duration compared to CD (p < 0.01). Abdominal pain (59.5%) and back pain (38.3%) were the main pain localizations. 67% of patients took pain medication; 24% received no pain treatment. The general quality of life was significantly lower in patients suffering of pain compared to those without pain (38 vs. 77; (-100 very bad; 100 very good) p<0.0001). Conclusions Prevalence of pain is high in patients of the SIBDCS. It is a longstanding problem for the majority of the patients affected. Pain was found to be undertreated in the SIBDCS and was significantly associated with health-related quality of life. Thus, an increased awareness is mandatory to address this frequent complication in the course of IBD.
Influence of S-Boxes to the resistance of GOST algorithm against linear cryptanalysis

This work is devoted to finding the influence of S-Boxes to resistance of GOST 28147-89 algorithm (GOST) against linear cryptanalysis. The universal algorithm for searching particular layouts of S-Boxes, which are vulnerable to linear cryptanalysis is presented. The possibility of building of efficient linear statistical expressions for simplified GOST with weak S-Boxes has been shown. This research is aimed to ensuring that certain arbitrary S-Box layouts are not weak when they are not fixed. Applicability of the presented method was tested by analyzing S-Boxes used in GOST. Application of the designed method made it possible to discover a number of weak S-Boxes, which make the overall cryptographic strength of GOST much lower.
Prevalence and Risk Factors of Low Bone Mineral Density in Korean HIV-Infected Patients: Impact of Abacavir and Zidovudine

Low bone mineral density (BMD) is common in HIV-infected patients. We aimed to describe the prevalence of low BMD and risk factors in Korean HIV-infected patients and to assess the effects of antiretroviral therapy (ART) on BMD. We retrospectively evaluated 224 HIV infected-patients. The prevalence of osteopenia and osteoporosis were 41.5% and 12.9%. These were much higher in 53 patients aged 50 yr and older (52.8% and 34.0%). Older age, lower body mass index, and ART > 3 months were independent risk factors for low BMD. Osteoporosis was more prevalent in patients on the abacavir-based regimen for < 1 yr than ≥ 1 yr; however, it was more prevalent in patients on the zidovudine-based regimen for ≥ 1 yr than < 1 yr (P = 0.017). Osteoporosis in patients on the abacavir-based regimen was more common in the spine than in the femur (P = 0.01). Given such a high prevalence of low BMD, close monitoring of BMD for HIV-infected patients on ART is required. The different prevalence of osteoporosis over time and affected areas between two regimens suggest they may play roles in different mechanisms in bone loss.
STOCHASTIC ESTIMATION OF HUMAN ANKLE MECHANICAL IMPEDANCE IN LATERAL/MEDIAL ROTATION

This article compares stochastic estimates of human ankle mechanical impedance when ankle muscles were fully relaxed and co-contracting antagonistically. We employed Anklebot, a rehabilitation robot for the ankle to provide torque perturbations. Surface electromyography (EMG) was used to monitor muscle activation levels and these EMG signals were displayed to subjects who attempted to maintain them constant. Time histories of ankle torques and angles in the lateral/medial (LM) directions were recorded. The results also compared with the ankle impedance in inversion-eversion (IE) and dorsiflexion-plantarflexion (DP). Linear time-invariant transfer functions between the measured torques and angles were estimated for the Anklebot alone and when a human subject wore it; the difference between these functions provided an estimate of ankle mechanical impedance. High coherence was observed over a frequency range up to 30 Hz. The main effect of muscle activation was to increase the magnitude of ankle mechanical impedance in all degrees of freedom of ankle. © 2014 ASME
Factors influencing self-employment intention among Nigerian post-graduate students of Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM)

Report shows that more than 60% of young individuals below 30 years of age are interested in owning their own business. However, only a small number of students start a business immediately after graduation due to the fact that being an entrepreneur is not considered as a career option. This study seeks to examine the relationship between entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial experience and societal entrepreneurship attitude as factors influencing self-employment intention. The study was theoretically based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) and Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT). Self-administered survey method was used to distribute questionnaire for collecting primary data through a simple random sampling technique from 113 Nigerian postgraduate students of Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) who are active in status. The collected data were then analyzed. The findings of this study found that entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial experience and societal entrepreneurship attitude are positively related to UUM’s Nigerian postgraduate student’s intention towards self-employment. The study provides an enriched contribution to knowledge and significant implication to the theory and practices of entrepreneurship. It also signaled to policy makers such as education authority as well as government to look into the effect of entrepreneurship education, prior entrepreneurship experience as well as societal entrepreneurship attitude as influencing factors on students’ intention of becoming self-employed.
Exchange Rate Pass-Through and Real Exchange Rate in EU Candidate Countries

Dieses Papier untersucht einen besonderen Aspekt bei der Wahl eines Wechselkursregimes von EU Beitrittskandidaten auf dem Weg zu einer Mitgliedschaft in der Europaischen Wirtschafts- und Wahrungsunion. Die Tatsache, dass diese Lander verschiedene Wechselkursregime gewahlt haben, deutet auf divergierende Ansichten daruber hin, wie die Wirtschaftspolitik gefuhrt werden soll und insbesondere, wie die Inflation gesenkt werden soll. In diesem Aufsatz werden die Beziehungen zwischen Anderungen in den Wechselkursen und den Preisen in verschiedenen Wechselkursregimen untersucht. Dabei soll herausgefunden werden, welche Rolle Wechselkurse spielen, wenn es darum geht, niedrige Preissteigerungsraten zu realisieren und diese dann auch beizubehalten. Preis- und Wechselkursanderungen werden simultan modelliert unter gleichzeitiger Berucksichtigung der Anpassung an einen Gleichgewichtwechselkurs. Raum-Zustands-Modelle und Kalmanfilter werden verwendet, um auf unbeobachtete Variablen und zeitvariable Parameter schliesen zu konnen.
Land Use Consequences of Crop Insurance Subsidies

There have long been concerns that federal crop insurance subsidies may significantly impact land use decisions. It is well known that classical insurance market information asymmetry problems can lead to a social excess of risky land entering crop production. Our conceptual model shows that the problem will arise absent any information failures. This is because the subsidy is i) proportional to acres planted, and ii) greatest for the most production risky land. Using farm-level data, we follow this observation through to establish the implications of subsidies for the extent of crop production, with particular emphasis on U.S. regions where the cropland growth is likely to have marked adverse environmental impacts. Simulation results show that when subsidy rate decreases by 5 percentage points, then about 0.60 percent of insured cropped land will be converted to non-cropped land. When crop price decreases by 5 percent, then about 1.01 percent of insured cropped land will be converted to non-cropped land.
Iteratively Re-weighted Least Squares minimization: Proof of faster than linear rate for sparse recovery

Given an mtimesN matrix Phi, with m<N, the system of equations Phix=y is typically underdetermined and has infinitely many solutions. Various forms of optimization can extract a "best" solution. One of the oldest is to select the one with minimal lscr2 norm. It has been shown that in many applications a better choice is the minimal lscr1 norm solution. This is the case in compressive sensing, when sparse solutions are sought. The minimal lscr1 norm solution can be found by using linear programming; an alternative method is iterative re-weighted least squares (IRLS), which in some cases is numerically faster. The main step of IRLS finds, for a given weight w, the solution with smallest lscr2(w) norm; this weight is updated at every iteration step: if x(n) is the solution at step n, then w(n) is defined by wi (n):=1/|xi (n)|, i=1,. ,N. We give a specific recipe for updating weights that avoids technical shortcomings in other approaches, and for which we can prove convergence under certain conditions on the matrix Phi known as the restricted isometry property. We also show that if there is a sparse solution, then the limit of the proposed algorithm is that sparse solution. It is also shown that whenever the solution at a given iteration is sufficiently close to the limit, then the remaining steps of the algorithm converge exponentially fast. In the standard version of the algorithm, designed to emulate lscr1-minimization, the exponential rate is linear; in adapted versions aimed at lscrtau-minimization with tau<1, we prove faster than linear rate.
The vacuolar H+ ATPase is a novel therapeutic target for glioblastoma

The vacuolar H+ ATPase (V-ATPase) is a proton pump responsible for acidification of cellular microenvironments, an activity exploited by tumors to survive, proliferate and resist to therapy. Despite few observations, the role of V-ATPase in human tumorigenesis remains unclear. We investigated the expression of ATP6V0C, ATP6V0A2, encoding two subunits belonging to the V-ATPase V0 sector and ATP6V1C, ATP6V1G1, ATPT6V1G2, ATP6V1G3, which are part of the V1 sector, in series of adult gliomas and in cancer stem cell-enriched neurospheres isolated from glioblastoma (GBM) patients. ATP6V1G1 expression resulted significantly upregulated in tissues of patients with GBM and correlated with shorter patients' overall survival independent of clinical variables. ATP6V1G1 knockdown in GBM neurospheres hampered sphere-forming ability, induced cell death, and decreased matrix invasion, a phenotype not observed in GBM monolayer cultures. Treating GBM organotypic cultures or neurospheres with the selective V-ATPase inhibitor bafilomycin A1 reproduced the effects of ATP6V1G1 siRNA and strongly suppressed expression of the stem cell markers Nestin, CD133 and transcription factors SALL2 and POU3F2 in neurospheres. These data point to ATP6V1G1 as a novel marker of poor prognosis in GBM patients and identify V-ATPase inhibition as an innovative therapeutic strategy for GBM.
Parkinson Disease Psychosis: Update

Psychotic symptoms are common in drug treated patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Visual hallucinations occur in about 30% and delusions, typically paranoid in nature, occur in about 5%. These problems, particularly the delusions, cause great distress for patient and caregivers, and are among the most important precipitants for nursing home placement. Psychotic symptoms carry a poor prognosis. They often herald dementia, and are associated with increased mortality. These symptoms often abate with medication reductions, but this may not be tolerated due to worsened motor function. Only clozapine has level A evidence to support its use in PD patients with psychosis (PDP), whether demented or not. While quetiapine has been recommended by the American Academy of Neurology for “consideration,” double blind placebo controlled trials have demonstrated safety but not efficacy. Other antipsychotic drugs have been reported to worsen motor function and data on the effectiveness of cholinesterase inhibitors is limited. PDP remains a serious problem with limited treatment options.
Hidden Markov Models for Induction of Morphological Structure of Natural Language

This paper presents initial results from an on-going project on automatic induction of morphological structure of natural language, from plain, un-annotated textual corpora. In previous work, this area has been shown to have interesting potential applications. One of our main goals is to reduce reliance on heuristics as far as possible, and rather to investigate to what extent the morphological structure is inherent in the language or text per se. We present a Hidden Markov Model trained with respect to a two-part code cost function. We discuss performance on corpora in highly-inflecting languages, problems relating to evaluation, and compare to results obtained with the Morfessor algorithm.
Rent-Seeking and Grandfathering: The Case of GHG Trade in the Eu

The EU Commission has recently proposed a new directive establishing a framework for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions trading within the European Union. The idea is to devalue part of the emission quotas in circulation by the year 2012 at latest, so that the EU will meet its Kyoto target level of an 8% GHG reduction. Our main question is whether the final choice of allocation rule can be explained by the role of industrial groups in the policy making process. We answer this question by using rent-seeking theory and by analysing the Green Paper hearing replies from the main industrial groups. In other words, we want to explain and observe how rent-seeking (or lobbyism) affects the design of environmental regulation and energy policy in favour of well-organized industrial interest groups. We argue that some firms are likely to reap a net gain from being regulated by a grandfathered emission trading system. This is so because total costs of emission reduction and lobbyism are likely to be smaller than the total rents from having this type of regulation.
Short Sales Constraints and Momentum in Stock Returns

We show that stock characteristics identified by D'Avolio (2002) provide a reliable index of the mostly unobservable short sales constraints. Specifically, we find that this index is positively related to the level of short interest and to short selling costs implied by the disparity in prices in the options and stock markets, and is negatively related to future returns. Using this index, we show that the magnitude of momentum returns for the period 1984 to 2001 is positively related to short sales constraints, and loser stocks rather than winner stocks drive this result. We conclude that short sales constraints are important in preventing arbitrage of momentum in stock returns.