Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
African American and Anglo-American Gender Identities: An Empirical Study

Although research has shown that the gender identities ofAfricanAmericans are more androgynous than the gender identities ofAnglo-Americans, little effort has been made to determine how representative of the African American population these gender patterns are. A study was designed to determine whether the gender identities of African American male and female middle-class subjects are the same as the gender identities of theirAnglo-American male andfemale counterparts. Usinga modifiedversionoftheBemSex-RoleInventory, AfricanAmerican men and women were found to be more androgynous than Anglo-American men and women. African American males and females have an equal propensity to regard masculine traits as more self-descriptive, whereasAnglo-American males regard masculine traits as more self-descriptive than do Anglo-American females. Females of both races regardfeminine traits as more self-descriptive than do males, but this tendency is slightly stronger for Anglo-Americans than for African Americans. Anglo-Americans have a greater tendency than African Americans tofind "gender-appropriate" traits to be self-descriptive in subscales of masculinity andfemininity.
Revalidating the Usefulness of a "Sector-Wise Regression" Approach to Predict Glaucomatous Visual Function Progression.

PURPOSE We previously developed a method to measure visual function progression using "Progression sectors," which were derived from a clustering analysis of pointwise rates of glaucomatous visual field (VF) progression; however, only short series of VFs, where pointwise linear regression (PLR) is typically not reliable, were analyzed. The purpose of the current study is to further investigate the usefulness of a sector-wise approach in longer series of VFs where the accuracy of PLR is inherently greater. METHODS We analyzed 16 VFs from each of 71 eyes in 45 patients. Sectorial averages of total deviation (TD) values were calculated at each "Progression sector," consisting of 23 sectors as well as at "Nouri-Mahdavi" (NM) sectors, consisting of 10 sectors. Linear regression then was applied to predict sectorial averages in the 11th to 16th VFs and absolute prediction errors were compared to PLR. RESULTS Absolute prediction errors associated with linear regression of the "Progression sectors" were significantly smaller than those from PLR (P < 0.05) when predicting values in the 14th to 16th VFs. Conversely, prediction errors with NM sectors were significantly larger than those from PLR and "Progression sectors" (P < 0.01) when predicting values in the 11th to 16th VFs. CONCLUSIONS It is useful to use "Progression sectors" to predict future VF progression in short (1-10 VFs) and long (>10 VFs) VF series, compared to PLR and NM sectors.
Mesospheric turbulent velocity estimation using the Buckland Park MF radar

This paper investigates turbulent velocity esti- mation using the full correlation analysis (FCA) of spaced antenna (SA) data, and its application to the routine FCA observations of the Buckland Park MF (BPMF) radar. The effects of transmitter beamwidths are investigated, confirm- ing the suggestions of previous authors that wide transmit beam widths lead to an overestimation of the turbulent veloc- ity. The annual variation of the turbulent velocity is investi- gated, revealing an increase in turbulent velocity with height, and equinoctal minima and solstice maxima observed below 80 km. Investigations of the turbulent velocities about the March diurnal tide maximum reveals a diurnal variation in phase with the zonal velocity. Harmonic analysis reveals this relationship exists between February and September. De- scending power layers are also observed during this period. A number of mechanisms are proposed to describe these ob- servations.
Policies for patient access to clinical data via PHRs: current state and recommendations

OBJECTIVE Healthcare delivery organizations are increasingly using online personal health records (PHRs) to provide patients with direct access to their clinical information; however, there may be a lack of consistency in the data made available. We aimed to understand the general use and functionality of PHRs and the organizational policies and decision-making structures for making data available to patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS A cross-sectional survey was administered by telephone structured interview to 21 organizations to determine the types of data made available to patients through PHRs and the presence of explicit governance for PHR data release. Organizations were identified based on a review of the literature, PHR experts, and snowball sampling. Organizations that did not provide patients with electronic access to their data via a PHR were excluded. RESULTS Interviews were conducted with 17 organizations for a response rate of 81%. Half of the organizations had explicit governance in the form of a written policy that outlined the data types made available to patients. Overall, 88% of the organizations used a committee structure for the decision-making process and included senior management and information services. All organizations sought input from clinicians. Discussion There was considerable variability in the types of clinical data and the time frame for releasing these data to patients. Variability in data release policies may have implications for PHR use and adoption. CONCLUSIONS Future policy activities, such as requirement specification for the latter stages of Meaningful Use, should be leveraged as an opportunity to encourage standardization of functionality and broad deployment of PHRs.
Poisoning Network Visibility in Software-Defined Networks: New Attacks and Countermeasures

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is a new networking paradigm that grants a controller and its applications an omnipotent power to have holistic network visibility and flexible network programmability, thus enabling new innovations in network protocols and applications. One of the core advantages of SDN is its logically centralized control plane to provide the entire network visibility, on which many SDN applications rely. For the first time in the literature, we propose new attack vectors unique to SDN that seriously challenge this foundation. Our new attacks are somewhat similar in spirit to spoofing attacks in legacy networks (e.g., ARP poisoning attack), however with significant differences in exploiting unique vulnerabilities how current SDN operates differently from legacy networks. The successful attacks can effectively poison the network topology information, a fundamental building block for core SDN components and topology-aware SDN applications. With the poisoned network visibility, the upper-layer OpenFlow controller services/apps may be totally misled, leading to serious hijacking, denial of service or man-in-the-middle attacks. According to our study, all current major SDN controllers we find in the market (e.g., Floodlight, OpenDaylight, Beacon, and POX) are affected, i.e., they are subject to the Network Topology Poisoning Attacks. We then investigate the mitigation methods against the Network Topology Poisoning Attacks and present TopoGuard, a new security extension to SDN controllers, which provides automatic and real-time detection of Network Topology Poisoning Attacks. Our evaluation on a prototype implementation of TopoGuard in the Floodlight controller shows that the defense solution can effectively secure network topology while introducing only a minor impact on normal operations of OpenFlow controllers.
Colonialism and Welfare

Abstract The field of post-colonial studies has emphasized the way contemporary attitudes and institutions in both the industrial and developing nations have been shaped by centuries of European global domination. As the colonial era draws to an end, this article employs a post-colonial perspective to examine the origins, nature and functions of social welfare in previously colonized societies. It shows how contemporary social policies in these societies have been extensively influenced by the colonial experience and contends that post-colonial analysis can foster policy reformulation and more effectively address the pressing social needs of the world's poorest people.
Transaction and Action Coding in the Map Task Corpus

Task-oriented dialogues can normally be divided into subdialogues, each of which reflects collaboration on a particular substep of the task, and which we call ’transactions’. We have devised a way of identifying transactions and their associated actions for HCRC Map Task dialogues, and we have tested the replicability of our coding scheme using naive subjects.
Comparison of PanBio Dengue Duo Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) and MRL Dengue Fever Virus Immunoglobulin M Capture ELISA for Diagnosis of Dengue Virus Infections in Southeast Asia

ABSTRACT The performances of the MRL dengue fever virus immunoglobulin M (IgM) capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and the PanBio Dengue Duo IgM capture and IgG capture ELISA were compared. Eighty sera from patients with dengue virus infections, 24 sera from patients with Japanese encephalitis (JE), and 78 sera from patients with nonflavivirus infections, such as malaria, typhoid, leptospirosis, and scrub typhus, were used. The MRL test showed superior sensitivity for dengue virus infections (94 versus 89%), while the PanBio test showed superior specificity for JE (79 versus 25%) and other infections (100 versus 91%). The PanBio ELISA showed better overall performance, as assessed by the sum of sensitivity and specificity (F value). When dengue virus and nonflavivirus infections were compared, F values of 189 and 185 were obtained for the PanBio and MRL tests, respectively, while when dengue virus infections and JE were compared, F values of 168 and 119 were obtained. The results obtained with individual sera in the PanBio and MRL IgM ELISAs showed good correlation, but this analysis revealed that the cutoff value of the MRL test was set well below that of the PanBio test. Comparing the sensitivity and specificity of the tests at different cutoff values (receiver-operator analysis) revealed that the MRL and PanBio IgM ELISAs performed similarly in distinguishing dengue virus from nonflavivirus infections, although the PanBio IgM ELISA showed significantly better distinction between dengue virus infections and JE. The implications of these findings for the laboratory diagnosis of dengue are discussed.
Ureaplasma urealyticum Modulates Endotoxin-Induced Cytokine Release by Human Monocytes Derived from Preterm and Term Newborns and Adults

ABSTRACT We previously observed that Ureaplasma urealyticumrespiratory tract colonization in infants with a birth weight of ≤1,250 g was associated with increases in the tracheal aspirate proinflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) relative to the counterregulatory cytokine IL-6 during the first week of life (A. M. Patterson, V. Taciak, J. Lovchik, R. E. Fox, A. B. Campbell, and R. M. Viscardi, Pediatr. Infect. Dis. J. 17:321–328, 1998). We hypothesized thatU. urealyticum alters the host immune response in the presence of a coinflammatory stimulus (e.g., bacterial infection or hyperoxia) by shifting the balance of cytokine expression towards the proinflammatory cytokines. To test this hypothesis, we compared the release of TNF-α, IL-8, IL-6, and IL-10 in vitro by unstimulated andU. urealyticum (with or without lipopolysaccharide [LPS])-stimulated human monocytes from adult peripheral blood and from term and preterm cord blood. U. urealyticum alone and in combination with LPS induced concentration- and development-dependent changes in cytokine release. In vitro inoculation with low-inoculum U. urealyticum (103color-changing units [CCU]) (i) partially blocked the LPS-stimulated IL-6 release by all cells and reduced LPS-stimulated IL-10 release by preterm cells, (ii) stimulated TNF-α and IL-8 release by preterm cells, and (iii) augmented LPS-stimulated TNF-α release in all cells. In preterm cells, high-inoculum U. urealyticum(106 CCU) (i) stimulated TNF-α and IL-8, but not IL-6 or IL-10, release and (ii) augmented LPS-stimulated TNF-α and IL-8 release. High-inoculum U. urealyticum (i) stimulated release of all four cytokines in term cells and IL-8 release in adult cells and (ii) augmented LPS-induced TNF-α, IL-10, and IL-8 release in term cells but did not significantly affect LPS-induced cytokine release in adult cells. We speculate that U. urealyticum enhances the proinflammatory response to a second infection by blocking expression of counterregulatory cytokines (IL-6 and IL-10), predisposing the preterm infant to prolonged and dysregulated inflammation, lung injury, and impaired clearance of secondary infections.
Morphological filtering of speech spectrograms in the context of additive noise

A recent approach to signal segmentation in additive noise [1, 2] uses features of small spectrogram sub-units accrued over the full spectrogram. The original work considered chirp signals in additive white Gaussian noise. This paper extends this work ﬁrst by considering similar signals at different signal-to-noise ratios and then in the context of speech recognition. For the chirp case, a cost function based on spectrogram area is introduced and this indicates that the segmentation process is robust down to and below 0 dB SNR. For the speech experiments the objectives are again to assess the segmentation capabilities of the process. White Gaussian noise is added to clean speech and the segmentation process applied. The cost function now is automatic speech recognition (ASR) accuracy. After segmentation speech areas are set to one constant level and non-speech areas are set to a lower constant level, thereby assessing the segmentation process and the importance of spectral shape in ASR. For the ASR experiments the TIDigits database is used in a standard AURORA 2 conﬁguration, under mis-matched test and training conditions. With 5 dB SNR for the test set only (clean training) a word accuracy of 56% is achieved. This compares with 16% when the same noisy test data is applied directly to the ASR system without segmentation. Thus the segmentation approach shows that spectral shapes alone (without normal spectral amplitude variations) leads to perhaps surprisingly good ASR results in noisy conditions. The next
A Critical Analysis of the Interplay between Cytochrome P450 3A and P-Glycoprotein: Recent Insights from Knockout and Transgenic Mice

CYP3A is one of the most important drug-metabolizing enzymes, determining the first-pass metabolism, oral bioavailability, and elimination of many drugs. It is also an important determinant of variable drug exposure and is involved in many drug-drug interactions. Recent studies with CYP3A knockout and transgenic mice have yielded a number of key insights that are important to consider during drug discovery and development. For instance, studies with tissue-specific CYP3A-transgenic mice have highlighted the importance of intestinal CYP3A-dependent metabolism. They also revealed that intestinal CYP3A plays an important role in the regulation of various drug-handling systems in the liver. Intestinal CYP3A activity can thus have far-reaching pharmacological effects. Besides CYP3A, the active drug efflux transporter P-glycoprotein also has a strong effect on the pharmacokinetics of numerous drugs. CYP3A and P-glycoprotein have an extensive overlap in their substrate spectrum. It has been hypothesized that for many drugs, the combined activity of CYP3A and P-glycoprotein makes for efficient intestinal first-pass metabolism of orally administered drugs as a result of a potentially synergistic collaboration. However, there is only limited in vitro and in vivo evidence for this hypothesis. There has also been some confusion in the field about what synergy actually means in this case. Our recent studies with Cyp3a/P-glycoprotein combination knockout mice have provided further insights into the CYP3A-P-glycoprotein interplay. We here present our view of the status of the synergy hypothesis and an attempt to clarify the existing confusion about synergy. We hope that this will facilitate further critical testing of the hypothesis and improve communication among researchers. Above all, the recent findings and insights into the interplay between CYP3A and P-glycoprotein may have implications for improving oral drug bioavailability and reducing adverse side effects.
Attachment and play in child care centres: Reliability and validity of the attachment Q-sort for mothers and professional caregivers in Italy

The purpose of this article was to adapt and validate the Attachment Q-Sort (AQS; Vaughn & Waters, 1990) in the Italian context of child rearing at home and in centre care, and to analyse the associations of attachment to the mother and to the professional caregiver with play behaviour of the child. The article reports on three studies. The first study describes the procedure used to create the Italian version of the Attachment Q-Sort. Fifteen Italian experts provided the AQS descriptions of the prototypical “most secure child”; moreover, 18 Italian caregivers used the AQS to describe the hypothetical “ideal child” in the context of the child care centre. The profiles of the Italian experts were very similar to those of American experts. Italian experts and Italian caregivers also strongly agreed in their descriptions, respectively, of the “most secure” and the “ideal” child. The second study reports on the reliability of the AQS data. Eighty-six children (43% male; 59%first-borns) and their mothers and caregivers participated in the research. Children’s ages ranged from 14 to 36 months (M = 26.6; SD = 6.78). All children spent at least 30 hours per week in the child care centres. Test-retest reliability and inter-observer agreement appeared to be satisfactory. Agreement between mother/caregiver- and observer-reported security scores was less convincing. In the third study, the associations between the network of attachment and level of play were examined. Fifty children (58% male; 60% first-borns) participated. Children’s ages ranged from 14 to 36 months (M = 25.8; SD = 6.56). Play behaviour was observed at the child care centre during free play sessions of 30 minutes and social and cognitive play categories were coded. Secure attachment led to higher cognitive levels of play. Attachment to the caregiver was generally more influential than attachment to the mother.
The Potential Roles of 18F-FDG-PET in Management of Acute Stroke Patients

Extensive efforts have recently been devoted to developing noninvasive imaging tools capable of delineating brain tissue viability (penumbra) during acute ischemic stroke. These efforts could have profound clinical implications for identifying patients who may benefit from tPA beyond the currently approved therapeutic time window and/or patients undergoing neuroendovascular treatments. To date, the DWI/PWI MRI and perfusion CT have received the most attention for identifying ischemic penumbra. However, their routine use in clinical settings remains limited. Preclinical and clinical PET studies with [18F]-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (18F-FDG) have consistently revealed a decreased 18F-FDG uptake in regions of presumed ischemic core. More importantly, an elevated 18F-FDG uptake in the peri-ischemic regions has been reported, potentially reflecting viable tissues. To this end, this paper provides a comprehensive review of the literature on the utilization of 14C-2-DG and 18F-FDG-PET in experimental as well as human stroke studies. Possible cellular mechanisms and physiological underpinnings attributed to the reported temporal and spatial uptake patterns of 18F-FDG are addressed. Given the wide availability of 18F-FDG in routine clinical settings, 18F-FDG PET may serve as an alternative, non-invasive tool to MRI and CT for the management of acute stroke patients.
Advances in membrane receptor screening and analysis

During the last decade there has been significant progress in the development of analytical techniques for the screening of ligand binding to membranes and membrane receptors. This review focuses on developments using label‐free assays that facilitate ligand–membrane–receptor screening without the need for chemical‐, biological‐ or radiological‐labelled reagents. These assays include acoustic, optical surface plasmon resonance biosensing, sedimentation (analytical ultracentrifugation), chromatographic assays, isothermal titration calorimetry and differential scanning calorimetry. The merits and applications of cell‐based screening systems and of different model membrane systems, including planar supported lipid layers, bead‐supported membranes and lipid micro‐arrays, are discussed. Recent advances involving more established techniques including intrinsic fluorescence, FRET spectroscopy, scintillation proximity assays and automated patch clamping are presented along with applications to peripheral membrane proteins, ion channels and G protein‐coupled receptors. Novel high‐throughput assays for determination of drug‐ and protein‐partitioning in membranes are also highlighted. To aid the experimenter, a brief synopsis of the techniques commonly employed to purify and reconstitute membranes and membrane receptors is included. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
Explicit-Duration Hidden Markov Model Inference of UP-DOWN States from Continuous Signals

Neocortical neurons show UP-DOWN state (UDS) oscillations under a variety of conditions. These UDS have been extensively studied because of the insight they can yield into the functioning of cortical networks, and their proposed role in putative memory formation. A key element in these studies is determining the precise duration and timing of the UDS. These states are typically determined from the membrane potential of one or a small number of cells, which is often not sufficient to reliably estimate the state of an ensemble of neocortical neurons. The local field potential (LFP) provides an attractive method for determining the state of a patch of cortex with high spatio-temporal resolution; however current methods for inferring UDS from LFP signals lack the robustness and flexibility to be applicable when UDS properties may vary substantially within and across experiments. Here we present an explicit-duration hidden Markov model (EDHMM) framework that is sufficiently general to allow statistically principled inference of UDS from different types of signals (membrane potential, LFP, EEG), combinations of signals (e.g., multichannel LFP recordings) and signal features over long recordings where substantial non-stationarities are present. Using cortical LFPs recorded from urethane-anesthetized mice, we demonstrate that the proposed method allows robust inference of UDS. To illustrate the flexibility of the algorithm we show that it performs well on EEG recordings as well. We then validate these results using simultaneous recordings of the LFP and membrane potential (MP) of nearby cortical neurons, showing that our method offers significant improvements over standard methods. These results could be useful for determining functional connectivity of different brain regions, as well as understanding network dynamics.
Macroeconomic Volatilities and Long-Run Risks of Asset Prices

In this paper, motivated by existing and growing evidence on multiple macroeconomic volatilities, we extend the long-run risks model by allowing both a long-and a short-run volatility components in the evolution of economic fundamentals. With this extension, the new model not only is consistent with the volatility literature that the stock market is driven by two, rather than one, volatility factors, but also provides significant improvements in fitting various patterns, such as the size of market risk premium, the level of interest rate, degree of dividend yield predictability, and the term structure of variance risk premiums, of both the equity and option data. Data, as supplemental material, are available at http://dx.doi. org/10.1287/mnsc.2014. 1962. This paper was accepted by Jerome Detemple, finance.