Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gestational age at delivery and neonatal outcome in uncomplicated twin pregnancies: what is the optimal gestational age for delivery according to chorionicity?

Objective To investigate the neonatal outcome according to the gestational age at delivery and to determine the optimal timing for delivery in uncomplicated monochorionic and dichorionic twin pregnancies. Methods This is a retrospective cohort study of women with uncomplicated twin pregnancies delivered at or beyond 35 weeks of gestation from 1995 to 2013. The primary outcome was neonatal composite morbidity, which was defined as when either one or both twins have one or more of the followings: fetal death after 35 weeks gestation, admission to neonatal intensive care unit, mechanical ventilator requirement, respiratory distress syndrome and neonatal death. To determine the optimal gestational age for delivery according to chorionicity, we compared the neonatal composite morbidity rate between women who delivered and women who remained undelivered at each gestational week in both monochorionic and dichorionic twin pregnancies. Results A total of 697 twin pregnancies were included (171 monochorionic and 526 dichorionic twins). The neonatal composite morbidity rate significantly decreased with advancing gestational age at delivery and its nadir was observed at 38 and ≥39 weeks of gestation in monochorionic and dichorionic twins, respectively. However, the composite morbidity rate did not differ between women who delivered and women who remained undelivered ≥36 and ≥37 weeks in monochorionic and dichorionic twins, respectively. Conclusion Our data suggest that the optimal gestational age for delivery was at ≥36 and ≥37 weeks in uncomplicated monochorionic and dichorionic twin pregnancies, respectively.
Patterns of sensory nerve conduction abnormalities in demyelinating and axonal peripheral nerve disorders

The pattern of an abnormal median‐normal sural (AMNS) sensory response is associated with acute and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (AIDP and CIDP) and considered unusual in other types of neuropathy, although specificity and sensitivity of this pattern have not been evaluated. We compared sensory responses (patterns and absolute values) in patients with AIDP, CIDP, diabetic polyneuropathy (DP), and motor neuron disease (MND). Using strict criteria, the AMNS pattern occurred more frequently in recent onset AIDP (39%) compared with CIDP (28%), DP (14%–23%), or MND (22%) patients. This pattern was found in 3% of control subjects. The extreme pattern of an absent median‐present sural response occurred only in AIDP and CIDP patients and in no other groups. Abnormalities of both nerves were more common in long‐standing polyneuropathies such as CIDP and DP compared with AIDP or MND. Median nerve amplitudes were reduced significantly in AIDP, CIDP, and DP patients compared with MND patients, whereas sural nerve amplitudes were significantly reduced only in DP and CIDP patients. These findings may reflect early distal nerve involvement particularly in AIDP patients which is highlighted by differences in median and sural nerve recording electrode placement. We conclude that, in the appropriate clinical setting, the AMNS pattern, an absent median‐present sural response pattern, or a reduced median amplitude compared with the sural amplitude supports a diagnosis of a primary demyelinating polyneuropathy. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Induction of Adipocyte Complement-Related Protein of 30 Kilodaltons by PPARγ Agonists: A Potential Mechanism of Insulin Sensitization.

Adipocyte complement-related protein of 30 kDa (Acrp30, adiponectin, or AdipoQ) is a fat-derived secreted protein that circulates in plasma. Adipose tissue expression of Acrp30 is lower in insulin-resistant states and it is implicated in the regulation of in vivo insulin sensitivity. Here we have characterized the ability of PPARγ agonists to modulate Acrp30 expression. After chronic treatment of obese-diabetic (db/db) mice with PPARγ agonists (11 d), mean plasma Acrp30 protein levels increased (>3×). Similar effects were noted in a nongenetic type 2 diabetes model (fat-fed and low-dose streptozotocin-treated mice). In contrast, treatment of mice (db/db or fat-fed) with metformin or a PPARα agonist did not affect plasma Acrp30 protein levels. In a cohort of normal human subjects, 14-d treatment with rosiglitazone also produced a 130% increase in circulating Acrp30 levels vs. placebo. In addition, circulating Acrp30 levels were suppressed 5-fold in patients with severe insulin resistance in association wit.
Behavioural Change: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Social and Public Health

1. Introduction 2. Models of behaviour change and health promotion 3. Achieving effectiveness in health promotion programs: evidence, infrastructure and action 4. Eating and nutrition 5. Sexual health and behaviour change 6. Alcohol and drug use: Theoretical integration of interventions to prevent harm. 7. Changing physical activity and exercise patterns 8. Tobacco dependence, smoking prevention and cessation 9. Management of depression 10. Interventions for insomnia 11. Problematic gambling behaviour 12. Crash and injury prevention 13. Self-management and chronic illness 14. Pushing the boundaries of evidence-based research: enhancing the application and sustainability of health promotion programs in diverse populations 15. The way forward in the design and development of effective behaviour change programs
The Effects of Expensing Employee Stock Options and A New Approach to the Valuation Problem

Although the Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) No. 123 requires firms to report stock-based compensation expense based on the fair value of options granted, it allows firms to disclose this information in footnotes, allowing them to avoid expensing in the body of their financial statements. After the wave of recent corporate scandals, the controversy over employee stock options has intensified, and arguments are being made in favor of expensing in the actual income statement. The objective of this paper is to find whether the announcement to expense employee stock options under SFAS 123 affects the stock return of the expensing firm. The findings show that for all but the handful of early announcers, companies experience neither negative nor positive returns from the announcement. This invalidates some arguments against expensing, however the issue of a working valuation method for employee stock options continues to be a problem. I will propose new valuation methods and make recommendations for other incentive instruments. Acknowledgements : I would like to thank my advisor Professor John Shoven for his invaluable insight, guidance, and support. I would also like to acknowledge Dr. Geoffrey Rothwell, whose dedication and advice made this thesis possible.
Teacher Salary Bonuses in North Carolina

Since the 1996/97 school year, the state of North Carolina has awarded bonuses of up to $1,500 to teachers in schools that exhibit test score gains above certain thresholds. This article reviews the details of the bonus program, describes patterns of differences between schools that qualify for bonuses of differing amounts, and presents basic data to address the question of whether the bonus program has improved student achievement, or has led to a narrowing of racial or socioeconomic achievement gaps. There is some evidence to suggest an improvement in overall test scores, particularly in math, but less evidence to suggest that achievement gaps have narrowed. The bonus program has been associated with higher rates of turnover in lowperforming schools; differential pay programs may be one way to avoid this unintended consequence. * Box 90312, Durham NC 27708. Email: jacob.vigdor@duke.edu. I am grateful to Mia Bonarski for exceptional research assistance, and to participants in the Education Policy Initiative lecture series at the University of Michigan, who commented on some early results.
World Congress of Genetics Applied to Livestock Production Statistical Problems in Livestock Population Genomics

Identifying signatures of recent or ongoing selection is of high relevance in livestock population genomics. From a statistical perspective, determining a proper testing procedure and combining various test statistics is challenging. Based on an extensive simulation study we discuss the statistical properties of eight different selection signature statistics. It is demonstrated, that a reasonable power to detect selection signatures requires high density marker information as obtained from sequencing, while small sample sizes are acceptable. We suggest a novel principal component based combination of different statistics, which yields a statistic with similar power as the best single statistic but with an improved positional resolution. An accurate and comprehensive set of selection signatures will be the basis for a better understanding of the forces driving artificial selection and will help to design more efficient livestock breeding programs.
Postdiagnostic Statin Use and the Risk of Lethal Prostate Cancer in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study

Background: Observational studies suggest potential chemopreventive benefits of statins on prostate cancer outcomes, but data on the impact of postdiagnostic use are sparse. Methods: We examined the association of postdiagnostic statin use and risk of lethal prostate cancer (metastases or prostate cancer death, N = 242) among 3,949 men diagnosed with localized prostate cancer from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study between 1992 and 2008 and followed through 2010 (33,302 person years). We used Cox proportional hazards regression models to estimate relative risks and 95% confidence intervals (CI), adjusting for age, time period, time from diagnosis to questionnaire, body mass index, vigorous physical activity, smoking, aspirin use, clinical stage, PSA at diagnosis, Gleason score, primary treatment, and comorbidities. Results: We found no statistically significant association between postdiagnostic current use of statins or duration of statin usage and the outcome of lethal prostate cancer [N = 242 cases; multivariate HR = 0.97 (95% CI, 0.72–1.31) for current use yes/no; HR = 0.85 (95% CI, 0.59–1.22) for 1 to 5 years of use, 0.96 (95% CI, 0.66–1.38) for 6+ years of use vs. never use]. Conclusions: We observed little evidence that statin usage after diagnosis of localized prostate cancer reduces risk of progression to metastatic disease or prostate cancer–specific death. Impact: These results do not support statins as a chemopreventive agent for prostate cancer progression. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 24(10); 1638–40. ©2015 AACR.
On periodically pendulum-diven systems for underactuated locomotion: A viscoelastic jointed model

This paper investigates the locomotion principles and nonlinear dynamics of the periodically pendulum-driven (PD) systems using the case of a 2-DOF viscoelastic jointed model. As a mechanical system with underactuation degree one, the proposed system has strongly coupled nonlinearities and can be utilized as a potential benchmark for studying complicated PD systems. By mathematical modeling and non-dimensionalization of the physical system, an insight is obtained to the global system dynamics. The proposed 2-DOF viscoelastic jointed model establishes a commendable interconnection between the system dynamics and the periodically actuated force. Subsequently, the periodic locomotion principles of the actuated subsystem are elaborately studied and synthesized with the characteristic of viscoelastic element. Then the analysis of qualitative changes is conducted respectively under the varying excitation amplitude and frequency. Simulation results validate the efficiency and performance of the proposed system comparing with the conventional system.
From Phisohex to Hibiscrub

In a field trial of three disinfectant-detergent preparations for the surgical scrub Hibiscrub (a 4% chlorhexidine detergent solution) maintained a significantly greater residual antibacterial action on the skin of the gloved hands of an operating team than was obtained with Disadine (povidone-iodine detergent preparation) (P<0·001). In comparison with Phisohex (3% hexachlorophane in detergent cream), the established surgical scrub of the operating team for many years, Hibiscrub maintained marginally more significant residual disinfection (P 0·05). Of the three preparations the members of the team found Hibiscrub to be more acceptable for use than either Disadine or Phisohex.
Multi-finger chords for hand-held tablets: recognizable and memorable

Despite the demonstrated benefits of multi-finger input, todays gesture vocabularies offer a limited number of postures and gestures. Previous research designed several posture sets, but does not address the limited human capacity of retaining them. We present a multi-finger chord vocabulary, introduce a novel hand-centric approach to detect the identity of fingers on off-the-shelf hand-held tablets, and report on the detection accuracy. A between-subjects experiment comparing "random" to a "categorized" chord-command mapping found that users retained categorized mappings more accurately over one week than random ones. In response to the logical posture-language structure, people adapted to logical memorization strategies, such as 'exclusion', 'order', and 'category', to minimize the amount of information to retain. We conclude that structured chord-command mappings support learning, short-, and long-term retention of chord- command mappings.
Mindfulness Training in Primary Schools Decreases Negative Affect and Increases Meta-Cognition in Children

Studies investigating the feasibility and impact of mindfulness programs on emotional well-being when delivered by school teachers in pre-adolescence are scarce. This study reports the findings of a controlled feasibility pilot which assessed acceptability and emotional well-being outcomes of an 8-week mindfulness program (Paws b) for children aged 7–9 years. The program was delivered by school teachers within a regular school curriculum. Emotional well-being was measured using self-report questionnaires at baseline, post-training and 3 months follow-up, and informant reports were collected at baseline and follow-up. Seventy one participants aged 7–9 years were recruited from three primary schools in the UK (training group n = 33; control group n = 38). Acceptability of the program was high with 76% of children in the training group reporting ‘liking’ practicing mindfulness at school, with a strong link to wanting to continue practicing mindfulness at school (p < 0.001). Self-report comparisons revealed that relative to controls, the training group showed significant decreases in negative affect at follow-up, with a large effect size (p = 0.010, d = 0.84). Teacher reports (but not parental ratings) of meta-cognition also showed significant improvements at follow-up with a large effect size (p = 0.002, d = 1.08). Additionally, significant negative correlations were found between changes in mindfulness and emotion regulation scores from baseline to post-training (p = 0.038) and baseline to follow-up (p = 0.033). Findings from this study provide initial evidence that the Paws b program in children aged 7–9 years (a) can be feasibly delivered by primary school teachers as part of the regular curriculum, (b) is acceptable to the majority of children, and (c) may significantly decrease negative affect and improve meta-cognition.
Review: apoptotic mechanisms in bacterial infections of the central nervous system

In this article we review the apoptotic mechanisms most frequently encountered in bacterial infections of the central nervous system (CNS). We focus specifically on apoptosis of neural cells (neurons and glia), and provide first an overview of the phenomenon of apoptosis itself and its extrinsic and intrinsic pathways. We then describe apoptosis in the context of infectious diseases and inflammation caused by bacteria, and review its role in the pathogenesis of the most relevant bacterial infections of the CNS.
Bilingualism and Age

Three issues arise from any consideration of the topic of bilingualism and age. The first has to do with the relationship between age and the characterization of bilingualism; the second relates to the question of whether maturational constraints may impede progress in late bilinguals toward very high degrees of proficiency in both languages; and the third concerns the methodology of investigating maturational constraints and the possible desirability of using the proficiency of early bilinguals rather than that of native speakers as the yardstick in the evaluation of the ultimate attainment of later L2 beginners. Keywords: bilingualism; psycholinguistics; research methods in applied linguistics; second language acquisition; child language; multilingualism
Genetic Polymorphism of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Risk: An Updated Meta-Analysis

The relationship between polymorphism of the angiotensin I converting enzyme (ACE) gene and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has been examined in many previous studies. However, their results were controversial. Therefore, we performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the relationship between the ACE gene and the risk of COPD. Fourteen case-control studies were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled p value, odds ratio (OR), and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were used to investigate the strength of the association. The meta-analysis was performed using comprehensive meta-analysis software. Our meta-analysis results revealed that ACE polymorphisms were not related to the risk of COPD (p > 0.05 in each model). In further analyses based on ethnicity, we observed an association between insertion/deletion polymorphism of the ACE gene and risk of COPD in the Asian population (codominant 2, OR = 3.126, 95% CI = 1.919–5.093, p < 0.001; recessive, OR = 3.326, 95% CI = 2.190–5.050, p < 0.001) but not in the Caucasian population (p > 0.05 in each model). In conclusion, the present meta-analysis indicated that the insertion/deletion polymorphism of the ACE gene may be associated with susceptibility to COPD in the Asian population but not in the Caucasian population. However, the results of the present meta-analysis need to be confirmed in a larger sample.
Eyeblink-based Anti-Spoofing in Face Recognition from a Generic Webcamera

We present a real-time liveness detection approach against photograph spoofing in face recognition, by recognizing spontaneous eyeblinks, which is a non-intrusive manner. The approach requires no extra hardware except for a generic webcamera. Eyeblink sequences often have a complex underlying structure. We formulate blink detection as inference in an undirected conditional graphical framework, and are able to learn a compact and efficient observation and transition potentials from data. For purpose of quick and accurate recognition of the blink behavior, eye closity, an easily-computed discriminative measure derived from the adaptive boosting algorithm, is developed, and then smoothly embedded into the conditional model. An extensive set of experiments are presented to show effectiveness of our approach and how it outperforms the cascaded Adaboost and HMM in task of eyeblink detection.
Immune response to racotumomab in a child with relapsed neuroblastoma

Immunotherapy targeting ganglioside antigens is a powerful tool for the treatment of high risk neuroblastoma. However, only treatment with anti-GD2 antibodies has been used in clinical practice and other options may be pursued. We report the use of racotumomab, an anti-idiotype vaccine against N-glycolyl neuraminic acid (NeuGc)- containing gangliosides, eliciting an immune response in a child with relapsed neuroblastoma expressing the NeuGcGM3 ganglioside.
Changes in locomotive rates during senior elite rugby league matches

Abstract The aim of this study was to quantify the changes in locomotive rates across the duration of senior elite rugby league matches. A semi-automated image recognition system (ProZone 3, ProZone®, Leeds, England) was used to track the movements of 59 players from six teams during three competitive matches. The players were classified into one of four positional groups: props (n = 9), back row (n = 9), pivots (n = 14) or outside backs (n = 27). Players' movements were classified as low, high or very high intensity running and reported as locomotive rates (distance covered per minute played) for successive quarters of each match. Analysis of variance revealed that only the outside backs showed a significantly lower overall locomotive rate during the final quarter compared to the first (P < 0.05). However, locomotive rates for high and very high intensity running during the final quarter were significantly lower (P < 0.05) than the first quarter among outside backs, pivots and props despite no change in the rate of involvements in contact. On the basis of these findings, it is suggested that high and very high intensity running locomotive rates may be more affective methods of detecting fatigue during competitive matches than overall locomotive rate.
Incidence, clinical features, laboratory findings and outcome of patients with multiple myeloma presenting with extramedullary relapse

Abstract Extramedullary plasmacytomas constitute a rare and not well studied subset of multiple myeloma (MM) relapses. We report the incidence, clinical–laboratory features and outcome of patients with MM and extramedullary relapse (ExMeR). A total of 303 patients with symptomatic MM were recorded in a 13-year period in two institutions. Twenty-eight cases of ExMeR (9%) were recorded. There was an increased frequency of elevated lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) (p = 0.026), bone plasmacytomas (p = 0.001) and fractures (p = 0.002) at diagnosis, in patients with ExMeR compared to the others. ExMeR was associated with an ominous outcome, high LDH, constitutional symptoms and a statistically significant decrease of monoclonal paraprotein compared to levels at diagnosis (p = 0.009). Prior treatment with bortezomib was associated with a decreased hazard of ExMeR (p = 0.041). Overall survival (OS) was decreased in patients with ExMeR compared to the others (38 vs. 59 months, p = 0.006). Patients with MM with ExMeR have a lower OS and their clinical and laboratory features differ from those without.
Advanced Visualization and Interactive Applications in the Immersive Cabin

We present a visualization and interaction framework for the Immersive Cabin (IC), which is a 5-wall CAVE-like immersive 3D environment. The back-end rendering is provided by a cluster of 5 workstations with 2 NVIDIA Quadro GPUs each. We utilize a pair of projectors for each wall and an external LCD shutter system that is synchronized with active stereo glasses. Each workstation produces a synchronized pair of stereoscopic images for a single wall in the IC. If only one GPU is dedicated to rendering, the second one is utilized as a computational device using C/C++ and the NVIDIA CUDA extensions. In addition to the depth cues and surround immersion from the visualization system, we use wireless optical head and hand tracking to further enhance the data exploration capabilities. Combined with a range of interaction and navigation tools, our system can support a variety of interactive applications, including architectural and automotive pre-visualization, urban planning, medical imaging, and simulation and rendering of