Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In-home Telerehabilitation for Older Persons with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Pilot Study

The purpose of this pilot study was to investigate the efficacy of in-home telerehabilitation for people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Three community-living elders with COPD were recruited in a rehabilitation outpatient group and by direct referrals from pneumologists with outpatients who have COPD. A pre/post-test design without a control group was used for this pilot study. Telerehabilitation sessions (15 sessions) were conducted by two trained physiotherapists from a service center to the patient’s home. Locomotor function (walking performance) and quality of life were measured in person prior to and at the end of the treatment by an independent assessor. Clinical outcomes improved for all subjects except for locomotor function in the first participant. In-home telerehabilitation for people with COPD is a realistic alternative to dispense rehabilitation services for patients requiring physical therapy follow-up.
Growing Up in a Lesbian Family: The Life Experiences of the Adult Daughters and Sons of Lesbian Mothers

This qualitative study aims to explore the experience of being raised in a lesbian home from the perspective of the daughters and sons of lesbian families. Adult offspring of lesbian families participated in an online questionnaire that examined five themes: (1) positive aspects of being raised in a lesbian home, (2) opinions about discrimination towards lesbians in society, (3) reactions of peers towards their mothers’ lesbianism, (4) experiences with stigma due to their mothers’ lesbianism, and (5) the subsequent coping mechanisms employed. Findings indicate that offspring of lesbian families value an environment of acceptance and love fostered within their immediate family, as well as a strong sense of community among other lesbian families. Many individuals in this study expressed their belief that heterosexism is ingrained into the politics and social constructs of society as a whole. However, participants also noted their opinion that homophobic discrimination happens in varying degrees based on regional, religious, and cultural differences. Although participants received largely positive reactions from peers in regards to their mothers’ lesbianism, they also experienced stigma at some point in their lives due to their mothers’ lesbianism. A range of coping mechanisms were employed, including confrontation, secrecy, and seeking outside support.
Endogenous Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase N-Terminal Tagging Affects Human Telomerase Function at Telomeres In Vivo

ABSTRACT Telomerase action at telomeres is essential for the immortal phenotype of stem cells and the aberrant proliferative potential of cancer cells. Insufficient telomere maintenance can cause stem cell and tissue failure syndromes, while increased telomerase levels are associated with tumorigenesis. Both pathologies can arise from only small perturbation of telomerase function. To analyze telomerase at its low endogenous expression level, we genetically engineered human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) to express various N-terminal fusion proteins of the telomerase reverse transcriptase from its endogenous locus. Using this approach, we found that these modifications can perturb telomerase function in hPSCs and cancer cells, resulting in telomere length defects. Biochemical analysis suggests that this defect is multileveled, including changes in expression and activity. These findings highlight the unknown complexity of telomerase structural requirements for expression and function in vivo.
Raising the next generation of public servants? Parental influence on volunteering behavior and public service career aspirations

Purpose - While there is a large body of literature examining the effect public service motivation (PSM) has on both an individual’s career and volunteering decisions, the effects of social learning and parental influences on both volunteerism and selection into public service are relatively unexplored. This study examines the relationship between parental volunteering and career choice, PSM, and the volunteering behaviors and career choices of their adult children. Design/methodology/approach - We examine data collected from first-year undergraduate students at a large, public university in the southeastern United States to examine, the impact of parents in the development of public service behaviors like volunteering and career choice. Findings - We find that parental influence matters in shaping voluntary behavior and career aspirations, but that this social learning is distinct by gender. Originality/value - We are unaware of work that directly focuses on parents’ volunteering and career choices, after controlling for PSM, on both the volunteering and public service career decisions of their children.
Career Guidance in Hong Kong: From Policy Ideal to School Practice

This article reviews the recent development of the career guidance paradigm in Hong Kong. In so doing, the article responds to several global and local factors, drawing evidence from 2 surveys to study perceptions of career guidance educators toward the policy initiatives and schools' initial response in terms of changes in resource and service deployment. The findings provide insights into opportunities for and challenges to betterment of life planning education and career guidance in Hong Kong in the future.
Psychologization of Injustice? On Axel Houueth's Theory of Kecoguitive Justice

The present paper critically reconstructs Honneth's recognition-theoretical conception of justice modelled on the formation of intact personal identity or self-realization. It looks into the status of using psychological evidence as a basis for a theory of justice, and whether or not such an approach of justice fails the publicity criterion. The claim is that although Honneth's thesis is potentially susceptible to the charge of psychologization of injustice as Fraser alleges, the idea that recognition impacts on the formation or malformation of personal identity should not be denied a critical role in a theory of justice. Doing so prevents a faceless or subject-less discourse of injustice. The paper also argues that recognitive justice founded on very specific moral-psychological assumptions passes the test of publicity. The challenge is how to establish the necessary conditions that enable victims of misrecognition to have a language and name their experience of suffering publicly.
Relation between corticosterone and fear‐related behavior in mice selectively bred for high or low alcohol preference

Blunted cortisol responses to stress or trauma have been linked with genetic (familial) risk for both alcoholism and post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Mouse lines selectively bred for high (HAP) or low (LAP) alcohol preference may be a relevant model of genetic risk for co‐morbid alcoholism and PTSD in humans. HAP mice show greater fear‐potentiated startle (FPS), a model used to study PTSD, than LAP mice. The relation between corticosterone (CORT) and FPS behavior was explored in four experiments. Naïve male and female HAP2 and LAP2 mice received fear‐conditioning or control treatments, and CORT levels were measured before and immediately after fear‐conditioning or FPS testing. In two other experiments, HAP2 mice received CORT (1.0, 5.0 or 10.0 mg/kg) or a glucocorticoid receptor antagonist (mifepristone; 25.0 and 50.0 mg/kg) 30 minutes before fear conditioning. HAP2 mice exposed to fear conditioning and to control foot shock exposures showed lower CORT after the fear‐conditioning and FPS testing sessions than LAP2 mice. A trend toward higher FPS was seen in HAP2 mice pretreated with 10.0 mg/kg CORT, and CORT levels were the lowest in this group, suggesting negative feedback inhibition of CORT release. Mifepristone did not alter FPS. Overall, these results are consistent with data in humans and rodents indicating that lower cortisol/CORT levels after stress are associated with PTSD/PTSD‐like behavior. These findings in HAP2 and LAP2 mice suggest that a blunted CORT response to stress may be a biological marker for greater susceptibility to develop PTSD in individuals with increased genetic risk for alcoholism.
Web analytics and the functional differentiation of journalism cultures: individual, organizational and platform-specific influences on newswork

ABSTRACT A key development in journalism over the past decade has been the rise of web analytics for real-time measurement of how audiences respond to news content. While this has led to concerns that analytics may contribute to a dumbing down of news, our understanding of the impact analytics have on journalism culture is still limited. This study explores individual, organizational and platform-specific influences on ways in which journalists and newsrooms access, use, interpret and apply analytics in their daily work. It argues that, increasingly, analytics are beginning to shape and reshape journalistic roles, values, norms and practices across different types of newsrooms. These developments are contributing to processes of functional differentiation in the journalistic field, which is found particularly in emerging practices of day- and platform-parting. The study argues that this differentiation has important consequences for scholars wanting to study news production, distribution and content in the digital age.
Neurocomputing methods for pattern recognition in nuclear physics-Elastic tracking

The recent progress on the development and application of novel neurocomputing techniques for pattern recognition problems of relevance to relativistic heavy ion collider experiments is reviewed. The elastic tracking (ET) algorithm is shown to achieve sub-pad two track resolution without preprocessing. ET can extend tracking capabilities to much higher densities than possible via conventional road finding or even previously proposed novel Hopfield network algorithms. ET is an adaptive template matching algorithm formulated in terms of dynamical systems. <<ETX>>
ST2L Transmembrane Receptor Expression: An Immunochemical Study on Endarterectomy Samples

Background ST2 (suppression of tumorigenity) has been described as a receptor for the interleukin-33, a member of the IL-1 family of cytokines. It is associated to coronary artery disease, all-causes mortality and cardiovascular mortality. Aims The present study was designed to assess the immunohistochemical expression of the ST2 receptor (ST2L/Il-1R) in atherosclerotic plaques of formalin fixed paraffin-embedded internal carotid arteries of patients with and without cerebro-vascular symptoms. Methods and Results The study involved 41 cases (23 asymptomatic and 18 symptomatic). All the clinical and morphological parameters examined were uniformly distributed between the two groups, with a mild predominance of degree of calcification in asymptomatic cases (p = 0.01). ST2L expression was found to be more evident as a membrane pattern in macrophages when observing carotid atherosclerotic plaques of symptomatic patients, rather than in asymptomatic patients’ plaques (77.7% vs 39.1%; p = 0.015), and its expression was particularly remarkable in VI type plaque (AHA). Significantly, ST2L was marked by the endothelium of neoangiogenetic vessels on the shoulder region of the plaque, but not (apart from a few cases) in the endothelium covering the residual lumen of the vessel. Conclusions The ST2L immunohistochemical expression was for the first time investigated in a large number of human carotid atherosclerotic plaques, as for its pattern of distribution in the different plaque cell populations. Furthermore, ST2L was particularly remarkable on macrophages, as a membrane pattern, of symptomatic patients’ plaque. Considering our data, we hypothesize that ST2L/IL33 axis could drive the mechanism of plaque development and eventually rupture.
Comparison of PCA, LDA and GDA for palmprint verification

In this paper, we have compared use of PCA (Principal components analysis) with two powerful feature extraction techniques LDA (Linear discriminant analysis) GDA (Generalized discriminant analysis) which have already been used in palmprint verification. For testing purpose 10 colorful whole-hand images of each hand of 43 persons are collected by a digital camera, namely, a small dataset of 860 images is built. The experimental results show that the best verification result is obtained with the GDA based method, whose average minimal total error rate is only 0.11% on the dataset.
A fully digital control of a field oriented induction motor drive using flux observer with and without speed sensor-600 Hz switching frequency case

A field-oriented control method based on a predictive observer with a 600 Hz switching frequency current regulation of the induction motor, with and without speed and voltage sensors, is proposed. Measuring only stator currents and estimating motor speed and rotor fluxes by a predictive state observer with variable pole selection, the stator currents are controlled to be exactly equal to the reference currents at every sampling instant. As a result, the current and torque ripples are reduced, and the speed and rotor fluxes are estimated with low sensitivity to parameter variation. As a result, only current sensors are used for the implementation of the system drive. Simulation and experimental results demonstrated the superiority of the proposed method over the conventional schemes. <<ETX>>
The effect of board gender diversity on firm performance: evidence from Turkey

Purpose This study aims to include two primary goals. First to determine the board characteristics of listed companies in Turkey and second to investigate the effect of board gender diversity on the performance of these companies. Design/methodology/approach This study uses an instrumental variables regression analysis to investigate the relationship between board gender diversity and firm performance using the data from 2008-2012 of the entities listed on the Borsa Istanbul. Findings The results indicate that the boards of these companies in Turkey are male-dominated. Moreover, this study shows that the inclusion of female directors is positively related to the financial performance of firms, as measured by the return on assets, the return on equity and the return on sales. Originality/value Limited empirical studies have been conducted on the relationship between board gender diversity and firm performance in emerging economies. Therefore, there is still no consensus regarding the link between board gender diversity and firm financial performance based upon the mixed and sometimes contradictory results in prior research. Therefore, this study extends the current literature in the context of Turkey, showing that a female member on the board can enhance the financial performance of a company.
Relative age effects on motor performance of seventh-grade pupils

Annual age grouping of children according to their birth year is a common practice of the educational systems of many countries. This variation in birth dates among children grouped in the same generation is known as relative age and its implications on different developmental outcomes are referred to as relative age effects (RAEs). The previous body of research of RAEs in youth populations has focused on sporting samples; however, studies examining RAEs in physical education are scarce. The current study investigates the influence of the RAEs on motor abilities in a sample of adolescent pupils. The results indicate significant differences in motor abilities between relatively older and relatively younger participants of both sexes. Since RAE is an under-researched area in physical education, the results may have substantial implications for PE assessment given the fact that many PE teachers still carry out typical norm-referenced assessments. Possible recommendations for future research are discussed.
Ethanol Withdrawal-Associated Drinking and Drinking in the Dark: Common and Discrete Genetic Contributions

Ethanol Withdrawal-Associated Drinking and Drinking in the Dark: Common and Discrete Genetic Contributions Individual mice differ in the dose of ethanol they will ingest voluntarily when it is offered during limited access periods in the circadian dark, a phenotype called drinking in the dark (DID). Substantial genetic variation in DID has been reported across a few standard inbred mouse strains, and a line of High Drinking in the Dark (HDID) mice has been established through selective breeding on the blood ethanol concentration (BEC) they attain at the end of a drinking session. Here, we report ethanol DID data for 23 inbred mouse strains, including 11 not previously reported, corroborating the genetic contributions to this trait. We also report data on a different ethanol drinking trait, the increased intake seen after multiple cycles of chronic intermittent exposure to ethanol vapor (CIE). Drinking escalated significantly during ethanol withdrawal. However, HDID mice and their HS controls showed equivalent escalation during withdrawal, demonstrating that withdrawal-associated drinking escalation is not a clear genetic correlate of selection on DID. Across inbred strains, DID is substantially genetically correlated with previously-published twobottle ethanol preference drinking data assessed under conditions of continuous ethanol access. Although inbred strain data for withdrawalassociated drinking are not available, the current pattern of results suggests that withdrawal-associated drinking is genetically distinct from DID, while genetic contributions to DID and two-bottle preference drinking are substantially similar.
The Importance of Business Owners in Assessing the Size of Precautionary Savings

Not properly accounting for differences between business owners and nonbusiness owners in studies of household wealth can lead to erroneous conclusions about the significance of different saving motives. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics from the 1980s and 1990s, we show that within samples of both business owners and nonbusiness owners, the amount of precautionary savings with respect to labor income risk is modest and accounts for less than 10 of total household wealth. Previous large estimates of the size of precautionary balances resulted from pooling these two groups together. Such pooling is inappropriate given that business owners face higher labor risk and accumulate more wealth than nonbusiness owners for reasons unrelated to precautionary motives.
Lean, six sigma and lean sigma: fads or real process improvement methods?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore if six sigma and lean are new methods, or if they are repackaged versions of previously popular methods – total quality management (TQM) and just‐in‐time (JIT). Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on a critical comparison of lean with JIT and six sigma with TQM, a study of the measure of the publication frequency – the number of academic articles published every year of the previous 30 years – for each topic, and a review of critical success factors (CSF) for change efforts.Findings – The more recent concepts of lean and six sigma have mainly replaced – but not necessarily added to – the concepts of JIT and TQM. lean and six sigma are essentially repackaged versions of the former, and the methods seem to follow the fad (product) life cycle. The literature offers fairly similar and rather general CSF for these methods, e.g. top management support and the importance of communication and information. What seems to be missing, however, is the need .
Optimized Communication Patterns on Workstation Clusters Optimized Communication Patterns on Workstation Clusters

The limited communication bandwidth and high startup latencies of clustered workstations restrict their use to problems with sparse communication patterns or good concurrency between calculation and communication. First we describe our modiications to the popular PVMM5] message passing library, and on performance improvements using the PVM package on an FDDI-ring. Applications developed with a parallel communications architecture in mind perform poorly when ported to a message passing library running on workstations with sequential communication. In the second part, we present a dynamic loop scheduling algorithm for the data parallel programming model which optimizes the network usage on such clusters. As a proof of concept we have implemented a basic matrix multiplication and nd a signiicant increase in parallel eeciency.
Space Microbiology Role of the Stratospheric Ozone Layer in Protecting Earth's Biosphere from Solar Uv Radiation .........132 (iii) Interaction of Space Vacuum and Solar Extraterrestrial Uv Radiation in Microorganisms..........142

Space Microbiology Gerda Horneck, David M. Klaus, and Rocco L. Mancinelli* German Aerospace Center, Institute of Aerospace Medicine, Radiation Biology Division, 51170 Cologne, Germany; BioServe Space Technologies, Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0429; and Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, SETI Institute, 515 N. Whisman Rd., Mountain View, California 94043
Optimizing Data Allocation and Memory Configuration for Non-Volatile Memory Based Hybrid SPM on Embedded CMPs

The recent emergence of various Non-Volatile Memories (NVMs), with many attractive characteristics such as low leakage power and high-density, provides us with a new way of addressing the memory power consumption problem. In this paper, we target embedded CMPs, and propose a novel Hybrid Scratch Pad Memory (HSPM) architecture which consists of SRAM and NVM to take advantage of the ultra-low leakage power, high density of NVM and fast read of SRAM. A novel data allocation algorithm as well as an algorithm to determine NVM/SRAM ratio for the novel HSPM architecture are proposed. The experimental results show that the data allocation algorithm can reduce the memory access time by 31.22% and the dynamic energy consumption by 15.35% on average for the HSPM architecture when compared with a greedy algorithm.
Cloning, Expression and Characteristics of a Novel Alkalistable and Thermostable Xylanase Encoding Gene (Mxyl) Retrieved from Compost-Soil Metagenome

Background The alkalistable and thermostable xylanases are in high demand for pulp bleaching in paper industry and generating xylooligosaccharides by hydrolyzing xylan component of agro-residues. The compost-soil samples, one of the hot environments, are expected to be a rich source of microbes with thermostable enzymes. Methodology/Principal Findings Metagenomic DNA from hot environmental samples could be a rich source of novel biocatalysts. While screening metagenomic library constructed from DNA extracted from the compost-soil in the p18GFP vector, a clone (TSDV-MX1) was detected that exhibited clear zone of xylan hydrolysis on RBB xylan plate. The sequencing of 6.321 kb DNA insert and its BLAST analysis detected the presence of xylanase gene that comprised 1077 bp. The deduced protein sequence (358 amino acids) displayed homology with glycosyl hydrolase (GH) family 11 xylanases. The gene was subcloned into pET28a vector and expressed in E. coli BL21 (DE3). The recombinant xylanase (rMxyl) exhibited activity over a broad range of pH and temperature with optima at pH 9.0 and 80°C. The recombinant xylanase is highly thermostable having T1/2 of 2 h at 80°C and 15 min at 90°C. Conclusion/Significance This is the first report on the retrieval of xylanase gene through metagenomic approach that encodes an enzyme with alkalistability and thermostability. The recombinant xylanase has a potential application in paper and pulp industry in pulp bleaching and generating xylooligosaccharides from the abundantly available agro-residues.