Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Environmental variables and intertidal beach annelids of São Sebastião Channel (State of São Paulo, Brazil).

Benthic annelid communities were studied during a one-year period (August/95 to July/96) in two sectors of the beaches Engenho d'Agua and São Francisco, São Sebastião Channel (São Paulo, Brazil), where the substrate is composed by a mixture of sand and rock fragments. Abiotic parameters such as salinity of interstitial water and sediment properties were used to characterize the environment. The polychaetes were well represented in the two sectors and their distribution was related with sediment type. The density of individuals and the number of taxa was higher at São Francisco, while the diversity and the evenness were higher at Engenho d'Agua. This difference can be a consequence of organic enrichment caused by domestic input, and of the lower and more variable salinity at São Francisco. Due to these factors, the high density of opportunistic species, like Capitella capitata ssp. , Scolelepis squamata, Laeonereis acuta and several oligochaetes, represented 75.5% of total abundance at this sector.
Differences in plaque composition and distribution in stable coronary artery disease versus acute coronary syndromes; non‐invasive evaluation with multi‐slice computed tomography

Background: Plaque composition rather than degree of luminal narrowing may be predictive of acute coronary syndromes (ACS). The purpose of the study was to compare plaque composition and distribution with multi‐slice computed tomography (MSCT) between patients presenting with either stable coronary artery disease (CAD) or ACS. Methods: MSCT was performed in 22 and 24 patients presenting with ACS or stable CAD, respectively. Coronary lesions were classified as calcified, non‐calcified or mixed while signal intensity (SI) was measured. Results: In patients with stable CAD, the majority of lesions were calcified (89%). In patients with ACS, less calcifications were observed with a greater proportion of non‐calcified (18%) or mixed (36%) lesions (P<0.001). Accordingly, mean SI of plaques was significantly less in ACS (320±201 HU versus 620±256 HU in stable CAD, P<0.001). Dividing lesions in the ACS group according to culprit versus non‐culprit vessel location resulted in no significant difference in average SI between these two groups while still lower as compared to stable CAD (P<0.001). Conclusions: In patients with ACS, significantly less calcifications were present as compared to stable CAD. Moreover, even in non‐culprit vessels, multiple non‐calcified plaques were detected, indicating diffuse rather than focal atherosclerosis in ACS.
Personality Development : Theoretical, Empirical, and Clinical Investigations of Loevinger's Conception of Ego Development

Contents: P.M. Westenberg, A. Blasi, L.D. Cohn, Introduction: Contributions and Controversies. Part I:The Nature of Ego Development. A. Blasi, Loevinger's Theory of Ego Development and Its Relationship to the Cognitive-Developmental Approach. D.P. McAdams, Ego, Trait, Identity. R. Kegan, L. Lahey, E. Souvaine, From Taxonomy to Ontogeny: Thoughts on Loevinger's Theory in Relation to Subject-Object Psychology. D. Westen, Loevinger's Theory of Ego Development in the Context of Contemporary Psychoanalytic Theory. R.R. Holt, Loevinger's Conception of Ego Development and General Systems Theory. Part II:Construct Validity. P.M. Westenberg, J. Jonckheer, P.D. A. Treffers, M.J. Drewes, Ego Development in Children and Adolescents: Another Side of the Impulsive, Self-Protective, and Conformist Ego Levels. J.L. Pals, O.P. John, How Are Dimensions of Adult Personality Related to Ego Development? An Application of the Typological Approach. L.D. Cohn, Age Trends in Personality Development: A Quantitative Review. A.G. Rogers, Understanding Changes in Girls' Relationships and in Ego Development: Three Studies of Adolescent Girls. Part III:Related Developmental Models. J. Snarey, Ego Development and the Ethical Voices of Justice and Care: An Eriksonian Interpretation. L.H. Schultz, R.L. Selman, Ego Development and Interpersonal Development in Young Adulthood: A Between-Model Comparison. S.T. Hauser, E.B. Gerber, J.P. Allen, Ego Development and Attachment: Converging Platforms for Understanding Close Relationships. G. Labouvie-Vief, M. Diehl, The Role of Ego Development in the Adult Self. R. Josselson, On Becoming the Same Age as One's Mother: Ego Development and the Growth of Subject-Subject Relationship. Part IV:Clinical Implications. J. Rierdan, Ego Development, Pubertal Development, and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescent Girls. G. Noam, Solving the Ego Development--Mental Health Riddle. M. Horowitz, Organizational Levels of Self and Other Schematization. P. Young-Eisendrath, C. Foltz, Interpretive Communities of Self and Psychotherapy. L.D. Borders, Ego Development and Counselor Development. Postscript: J. Loevinger, Completing a Life Sentence.
Prevalence and severity of gingivitis in American adults.

PURPOSE To investigate prevalence and severity of gingivitis in representative American adults. METHODS Subjects (1,000) in Loma Linda, California; Seattle, Washington; and Boston, Massachusetts were examined for Löe-Silness Gingivitis Index (GI). Mann-Whitney rank sum test was used to determine significances in the GI between genders. The data among study sites and races were compared using the Kruskal-Wallis one-way ANOVA on ranks. The correlation of the GI and age was examined by the Spearman rank order correlation. Age differences among three sites were analyzed using the one-way ANOVA. RESULTS The race composition of the subjects (mean age 37.9) approximated to the 2004 U.S. Census data. The overall average GI was 1.055. Only 6.1% of subjects showed mean GI<0.50; most (93.9%) were > or = 0.50, with 55.7% > or = 1.00. There was a significant correlation (P<0.001) between the age and GI. The males' GI was significantly higher (P<0.001) than the females'; African-Americans showed a significantly higher GI (P<0.05) than other races except for the Native-Americans.
Incorporating Angular Ratio Images into Two-Frame Stereo Algorithms

Light Transport Constancy (LTC) asserts that the reflectance ratio obtained from two different illumination variations remains constant for any given view of the observed scene. LTC was proposed in (21) as a rank constraint for solving the correspondence problem in multiple view stereo. In two-frame stereo, the simplest setting for LTC requires only two illumination variations and a single light source. Under this scenario, the rank constraint can be formulated through ratio images, and standard stereo algorithms can be applied in order to obtain a disparity map. Unfortunately, a ratio image may be subject to saturated pixel values, and this may diminish the quality of disparity maps. To solve this problem, as a first contribution in this work, we propose a post-processing operation based on slope angles related to the ratio values. Experiments show that new angular ratio images are more robust and deliver improved disparity maps. A second contribution of this paper consists in performing an experimental evaluation of angular ratio images under the standard test bed for two-view stereo algorithms, i.e., using different aggregation and optimization approaches. The results of our research are consistent with previously reported conclusions for two-view stereo surveys. It means that LTC may benefit from a vast variety of existent methods to solve the two- view stereo problem.
A Clustering Algorithm based on Virtual Area Partition for Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks

Most existing clustering algorithms can be only applied to homogeneous wireless sensor networks with uniform maximal transmission power. And cluster heads elected by some algorithms can not distribute uniformly under heterogeneous networks environment where the maximal transmission power of each node may be different. So an energy-efficient clustering algorithm which based on virtual area partition (VAP-E) for heterogeneous wireless sensor networks is proposed in this paper. The simulation results show that VAP-E can balance the load between clusters, reduce energy consumption of sensor nodes, prolong the stability period and lifetime of networks, and improve the efficiency of communications obviously in wireless sensor networks compared with current clustering algorithms.
Selecting performance assessment methods for experienced physicians

Background While much is now known about how to assess the competence of medical practitioners in a controlled environment, less is known about how to measure the performance in practice of experienced doctors working in their own environments. The performance of doctors depends increasingly on how well they function in teams and how well the health care system around them functions.
Asuu Industrial Actions: Between Asuu and Government Is It an Issue of Rightness?

This study examines the history of prolonged industrial conflicts between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN). This study provides a historical and sociological account of the origins, development, primary causes and effects of industrial conflict in Nigerian universities. Data was sourced from both primary and secondary (documentary) sources. The study concludes that the ongoing ASUU strike is as a result of FGN’s indecision on the issues at stake. There are several domestic issues at stake – low wages and conditions of services, poor funding, poor and dilapidating facilities. These issues should not be glossed at. The study further revealed that macroeconomic policies further contributed to the intensity of these disputes. The findings reveal that poor emoluments of academic staff coupled with deterioration in teaching and learning facilities contributed to the brain drain from Nigerian universities. The paper reveals that disputes between ASUU and FGN has been propelled by several factors – historical, economic and political as such may continue to be difficult to resolve. Keywords : Industrial action, strike, collective bargaining, brain drain, dispute.
Usenix Association 10th Usenix Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation (nsdi '13) 529 Embassies: Radically Refactoring the Web

Web browsers ostensibly provide strong isolation for the client-side components of web applications. Unfortunately , this isolation is weak in practice; as browsers add increasingly rich APIs to please developers, these complex interfaces bloat the trusted computing base and erode cross-app isolation boundaries. We reenvision the web interface based on the notion of a pico-datacenter, the client-side version of a shared server datacenter. Mutually untrusting vendors run their code on the user's computer in low-level native code containers that communicate with the outside world only via IP. Just as in the cloud datacenter, the simple semantics makes isolation tractable, yet native code gives vendors the freedom to run any software stack. Since the datacen-ter model is designed to be robust to malicious tenants, it is never dangerous for the user to click a link and invite a possibly-hostile party onto the client.
Motor reserve and novel area recruitment: amplitude and spatial characteristics of compensation in Parkinson’s disease

Motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD) do not appear until the majority of dopaminergic cells in the substantia nigra pars compacta are lost, suggesting significant redundancy or compensation in the motor systems affected by PD. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined whether compensation in PD is manifested by changes in amplitude and/or spatial extent of activity within normal networks (active motor reserve) and/or newly recruited regions [novel area recruitment (NAR)]. Ten PD subjects off and on medication and 10 age‐matched controls performed a visually guided sinusoidal force task at 0.25, 0.5 and 0.75 Hz. Regression was used to determine the combination of regions where activation amplitude scaled linearly with movement speed in controls. We then determined the activation of PD subjects in this network, as well as the corresponding PD network. To measure the spatial variance of activation, we used an invariant spatial feature approach. Control subjects monotonically increased activity within striato‐thalamo‐cortical and cerebello‐thalamo‐cortical regions with increasing movement speed. In PD subjects, the activity of this network at low speeds was similar to that in controls at higher speeds. Additionally, PD subjects off medication demonstrated NARs of the bilateral cerebellum and primary motor cortex, which were incompletely normalized by levodopa. Our results suggest that PD subjects tap into motor reserve, increase the spatial extent of activation and demonstrate NAR to maintain near‐normal motor output.
Personal Computing Acceptance Factors in Small Firms: A Structural Equation Model

This study draws upon the technology acceptance model as the theoretical basis and empirical findings for a pragmatic explanation of key factors affecting personal computing acceptance in small firms. The study uses results from a survey of 358 users in small firms in New Zealand to test a structural model examining the hypothesized relationships among the following constructs: intraorganizational factors, extraorganizational factors, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and personal computing acceptance (i.e., system usage). The findings indicate that perceived ease of use is a dominant factor in explaining perceived usefulness and system usage, and that perceived usefulness has a strong effect on system usage. The results also indicate that exogenous variables influence both perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, particularly management support and external support. Inconsistent with prior research in large firms, relatively little support was found for the influence of both internal support and internal training. Implications for the acceptance of personal computing and future research on personal computing acceptance in small firms are discussed.
Plasticity in the Neonatal Brain following Hypoxic-Ischaemic Injury

Hypoxic-ischaemic damage to the developing brain is a leading cause of child death, with high mortality and morbidity, including cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and cognitive disabilities. The developmental stage of the brain and the severity of the insult influence the selective regional vulnerability and the subsequent clinical manifestations. The increased susceptibility to hypoxia-ischaemia (HI) of periventricular white matter in preterm infants predisposes the immature brain to motor, cognitive, and sensory deficits, with cognitive impairment associated with earlier gestational age. In term infants HI causes selective damage to sensorimotor cortex, basal ganglia, thalamus, and brain stem. Even though the immature brain is more malleable to external stimuli compared to the adult one, a hypoxic-ischaemic event to the neonate interrupts the shaping of central motor pathways and can affect normal developmental plasticity through altering neurotransmission, changes in cellular signalling, neural connectivity and function, wrong targeted innervation, and interruption of developmental apoptosis. Models of neonatal HI demonstrate three morphologically different types of cell death, that is, apoptosis, necrosis, and autophagy, which crosstalk and can exist as a continuum in the same cell. In the present review we discuss the mechanisms of HI injury to the immature brain and the way they affect plasticity.
[Diagnosis of urethritis in men. A 3-year review].

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study is to know the prevalence and tendency of microorganisms producing urethritis, in men, in the City Centre of Madrid. METHODS Cross-sectional study. The urethral samples of 1.248 men were analyzed, for 3 years. The samples were studied for: GRAM stain, when secretion exists; culture in habitual plates; detection of C. trachomatis, U. urealyticum and M. hominis, when there was suspicious, study of T. vaginalis and when suspicious injuries exist, study of virus Herpes simplex. RESULTS The percentage of positive samples was 22.60%. The isolated microorganisms were: U. urealyticum 7.61%, N. gonorrhoeae 6.33%, C. trachomatis 4.81%, M. hominis 0.24%, H. parainfluenzae 1.76%, H. influenzae 1.12%, Candida spp 0.48%, S. pyogenes 0.16% and Herpes virus simplex (2) 0.08%. Two or more microorganisms were isolated in 1.68%. The percentage of positive samples in 2003 was 17.41% and N. gonorrhoeae the most frequent microorganism (6.22%). In 2004 was 25.57% and the most frequent U. urealyticum (10.18%). In 2005 the 24.50% of the samples were positive and U. urealyticum the most frequent (7.92%). The 79.41% of N. gonorrhoeae were susceptible to all antibiotics tested. It is not found resistance to ceftriaxone, claritromicine and amoxicilline/clavulanic acid. The 11.76% were betalactamase- producing. The 26.47% of Haemophilus spp. were betalactamase- producing and all strains were susceptible to cefotaxime. CONCLUSIONS The isolated microorganisms most frequently were: U. urealyticum, N. gonorrhoeae and C. trachomatis. There is an increase of 7% of prevalence between the years 2003 and 2005. Ceftriaxone, claritromicine and amoxicilline/clavulanic acid were susceptible to all the strains studied and cefotaxime to all Haemophilus spp.
Sex-specific association of PTPN22 1858T with type 1 diabetes but not with Hashimoto's thyroiditis or Addison's disease in the German population.

BACKGROUND Endocrine autoimmune disorders share genetic susceptibility loci, causing a disordered T-cell activation and homeostasis (HLA class II genes, CTLA-4). Recent studies showed a genetic variation within the PTPN22 gene to be an additional risk factor. MATERIALS AND METHODS Patients with type 1 diabetes (n = 220), Hashimoto's thyroiditis (n = 94), Addison's disease (n = 121) and healthy controls (n = 239) were genotyped for the gene polymorphism PTPN22 1858 C/T. RESULTS Our study confirms a significant association between allelic variation of the PTPN22 1858 C/T polymorphism and type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D). 1858T was observed more frequently in T1D patients (19.3% vs 11.3%, P = 0.0009; odds ratio for allele T = 1.88, 95% confidence interval [1.3-2.7]). Furthermore, we found a strong association in female patients with T1D (P = 0.0003), whereas there was no significant difference between male patients with type 1 diabetes and male controls. No significant difference was observed between the distribution of PTPN22 C/T in patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis or Addison's disease and healthy controls. CONCLUSION The PTPN22 polymorphism 1858 C/T may be involved in the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes mellitus by a sex-specific mechanism that contributes to susceptibility in females.
Fleeting memories : cognition of brief visual stimuli

The investigation of what people understand and remember from rapidly presented sequences of visual stimuli began in the late 1960s. In this book prominent researchers approach the topic from psychological, neuropsychological, and electrophysiological perspectives. Specific issues include RSVP (rapid serial visual presentation), attentional blink, repetition blindness, and scene perception. The contributors review recent research on our ability to comprehend and remember pictures of objects and scenes, written words, and sentences when the visual stimuli are presented sequentially at rates of up to ten items per second. In short, the book is about our remarkably developed abilities to understand and remember the contents of very briefly presented material.Contributors : Daphne Bavelier, Veronika Coltheart, Helene Intraub, Nancy Kanwisher, Steven J. Luck, Nadine Martin, Mary C. Potter, Eleanor M. Saffran, Kimron L. Shapiro, Ewa Wojciulik, Jeremy M. Wolfe, Carol Yin.
Hypertension and Increased Left Ventricular End-diastolic Pressure Influence Arterial Stiffness

Objective: There have been few studies regarding the relationship between arterial stiffness and left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP). In the current study, we evaluated the relationship between the LVEDP and arterial stiffness in patients with hypertension (HTN). Methods: Group I (n=34) included patients with a normal E/E’ (≤8) without HTN, group II (n=31) included patients with an elevated E/E’ (>8) without HTN, group III (n=20) included patients with a normal E/E’ (≤8) with HTN, and group IV (n=49) included patients with an elevated E/E’ (>8) with HTN. Aortic distensibility (AD) and the right brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) were measured. Results: The mean age was 46.0±11.3 years. The mean value of AD was significantly lower in the group III compared to the group I. The group IV showed significantly lower AD compared to the group II. The group III demonstrated higher baPWV compared to the group I (1422±182 cm/sec vs. 1186±178 cm/sec, p<0.01), and the group IV showed higher baPWV compared to the group II (1456±228 vs. 1259±238 cm/sec, p<0.01). However, AD and baPWV were not significantly different between the group I and II, and between the group III and IV. The E/E’ ratio showed a weak negative correlation with AD and a weak positive correlation with baPWV. Conclusion: Patients with hypertension showed a lower AD and a higher baPWV compared to those with normal blood pressure independent of the LVEDP. But the correlation between E/E’ ratio and arterial stiffness suggests that a high LVEDP might not significantly influence arterial stiffness.
Active Disks for Large-Scale Data Processing

As processor performance increases and memory cost decreases, system intelligence continues to move away from the CPU and into peripherals. Storage system designers use this trend toward excess computing power to perform more complex processing and optimizations inside storage devices. To date, such optimizations take place at relatively low levels of the storage protocol. Trends in storage density, mechanics, and electronics eliminate the hardware bottleneck and put pressure on interconnects and hosts to move data more efficiently. We propose using an active disk storage device that combines on-drive processing and memory with software downloadability to allow disks to execute application-level functions directly at the device. Moving portions of an application's processing to a storage device significantly reduces data traffic and leverages the parallelism already present in large systems, dramatically reducing the execution time for many basic data mining tasks.
Analysis of Chlamydia caviae entry sites and involvement of Cdc42 and Rac activity

In epithelial cells, endocytic activity is mostly dedicated to nutrient and macromolecule uptake. To invade these cells, Chlamydiaceae, like other pathogens, have evolved strategies that utilise the existing endocytic machineries and signalling pathways, but little is known about the host cell molecules involved. In this report, we show that within five minutes of infection of HeLa cells by Chlamydia caviae GPIC strain several events take place in the immediate vicinity of invasive bacteria: GM1-containing microdomains cluster, tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins accumulate, and intense actin polymerization occurs. We show that actin polymerization is controlled by the small GTPases Cdc42 and Rac, which become activated upon infection. Expression of dominant negative forms of these GTPases inhibits C. caviae entry and leads to abnormal actin polymerization. In contrast, the small GTPase Rho does not seem essential for bacterial entry. Finally, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase activity is also required for internalization of C. caviae, probably downstream of the other molecular events reported here. We present the first scheme of the events occurring at the sites of invasion of epithelial cells by a member of the Chlamydiaceae family.