Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Low-voltage DEP microsystem for submicron particle manipulation in artificial cerebrospinal fluid

In this paper, we present a new low voltage biochip for micro and nanoparticle separation. The proposed system is designed to detect the concentration of particles after being separated through reconfigurable DEP-based electrode architecture. The described system in this work is focusing on the particle frequency dependent separation. Experimental results in artificial cerebrospinal fluid (ACSF) show that each particle has its own crossover frequency. Thus based on the crossover frequency, particles are attracted to the electrode's surface, while others are pushed away. Five different particles are tested with different diameters in the range of 500 nm to 4 μm. All separation process is controlled by a CMOS chip fabricated using 0.18 μm technology from TSMC and powered with 3.3 V. Efficient particle separation is observed with low voltage, below 3.3V unlike other techniques in the range of kV. The proposed platform includes an advanced PDMS based assembly technique for fast testing and prototyping in addition to reconfigurable electrode architecture.
A Comparison of the Ability of Levels of Urinary Biomarker Proteins and Exosomal mRNA to Predict Outcomes after Renal Transplantation

Background mRNA for biomarkers of kidney injury extracted from urinary exosomes may reflect or predict levels of the corresponding protein after transplantation and clinical outcomes. Methods Urinary exosomes were isolated from patients following renal transplantation, from healthy controls, and patients with CKD. Expression of exosomal mRNA for the injury biomarkers neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), interleukin-18 (IL-18), kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1), and cystatin C was compared with the concentrations of corresponding urinary proteins, 18S RNA and serum creatinine. Results All biomarker protein concentrations increased after transplantation, and urinary NGAL and IL-18 at 24 and 168 h correlated with the day 7 creatinine reduction ratio (CRR). Exosomal18S RNA increased after transplantation, but exosomal mRNA for NGAL, IL-18 and cystatin C did not correlate with the day 7 CRR, or urinary biomarker concentrations at any time after transplantation. Exosomal NGAL mRNA was lower 4 h after transplantation than in control exosomes. In contrast, exosomal mRNA for cystatin C was unchanged after transplantation and in CKD, although urinary cystatin C temporarily increased following transplantation. Urinary KIM-1 increased after transplantation, but exosomal mRNA for KIM-1 remained undetectable. In CKD 18S RNA was raised, and exosomal mRNA for NGAL, IL-18 and cystatin C was detected in all patients. While urinary NGAL was greater in CKD than control subjects, exosomal NGAL mRNA was unchanged. Exosomal IL-18 mRNA was increased in CKD, but not IL-18 protein. Conclusions After renal transplantation, urinary NGAL and IL-18 levels reflect the day 7 CRR. However, while mRNA for these biomarkers is present in exosomes, their levels do not reflect or predict urinary biomarker levels or the CRR. This likely reflects the fact that packaging of mRNA in exosomes is selective, and is not necessarily representative of mRNA in the parent cells responsible for biomarker production.
Prosthesis Oversizing in Balloon-Expandable Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation Is Associated With Contained Rupture of the Aortic Root

Background— To retrospectively investigate the potential cause of contained rupture of the aortic root in balloon-expandable transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) by means of pre- and postinterventional multislice computed tomography. Methods and Results— Seventy-two patients (mean age 82±7 years, mean aortic valve area 0.69±0.19 cm2) underwent balloon-expandable TAVI using the EdwardsSAPIEN Transcatheter Heart Valve (23 mm, n=19; 26 mm, n=50; 29 mm, n=3). Aortic annulus dimensions were quantified by multislice computed tomography–based cross-sectional area assessment and average diameter calculation (CAAD) before and after TAVI. Post-TAVI multislice computed tomography data sets were available in 65 patients; contained aortic root rupture was diagnosed in 3 patients. Pre-TAVI CAAD was 23.1±1.8 mm; post-TAVI CAAD was 22.9±1.3 mm. Median relative change in CAAD pre- and post-TAVI was −0.5% (interquartile range, 3.6%). Relative increase of 5% to 10% was observed in 4 patients (1 with contained rupture), relative increase >10% in 2 patients, both with contained rupture. Mean relative oversizing, calculated as the relative difference in diameter between pre-TAVI CAAD and nominal diameter of the selected prosthesis, was 9.8%±7.8%. Relative oversizing was significantly higher in patients with contained rupture compared with patients without contained rupture (24.6%±5.4% versus 9.1%±6.6%; P<0.001). Relative oversizing ≥20% occurred in 6 patients (3 with contained rupture). Conclusions— Contained rupture of the aortic root in balloon-expandable TAVI is associated with severe prosthesis oversizing. Multislice computed tomography–based assessment of aortic annulus dimension in conjunction with adapted sizing guidelines may reduce the incidence of severe oversizing.
The impact of customer‐to‐customer interactions in a high personal contact service setting

Purpose – To empirically examine the development and influence that customer‐to‐customer interactions (CCI) have in a high personal contact setting.Design/methodology/approach – Using responses from patrons of different hair salons, the role that salon atmospherics had on the formation of CCI was assessed. Then, the relative influence of CCI on satisfaction with the firm, loyalty to the firm and firm word‐of‐mouth, in a model of service outcomes, was examined.Findings – Results indicate that atmospherics do influence CCI, which in turn is a strong predictor of loyalty to the firm and positive word‐of‐mouth.Research limitations/implications – Care should be taken when generalizing these findings to other service settings. It should be noted that all female respondents were generally more educated and had higher incomes than the general population.Practical implications – This study suggests that positive perceptions of atmospherics will lead to positive CCI effects. If managers determine that they would li.
Capturing the world of physical education through the eyes of children with autism spectrum disorders

The potential benefits of physical education (PE) are universal for all pupils. However, facilitating such benefits in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) requires careful planning. This paper reports on a small-scale case study at one school in eastern England, exploring physical education through the eyes of children (n = 5), aged 12–16, with autistic spectrum disorders. Photo-elicitation was adopted as the research tool to accord authority to the voices of the pupils, empowering them to share their feelings towards the subject by capturing significant aspects of physical education. The photographs provided prompts for greater exploration during unstructured interviews. Using the concepts of Bourdieu's reflexive sociology, the paper draws attention to how pupil's embodied dispositions interacted with what may be illustrated as the delimited spaces of the physical education field—physical education changing rooms, physical education corridors, the physical education teacher's office and physical education activities in the development of positive and negative positions and practices. The teacher's office was regarded positively as were activities that provided opportunities for engagement with peers. Opportunities to be heroic, such as scoring a goal for their team or being given an official role were important factors as was the opportunity to engage in some team sports. However, pupils' interaction with the changing rooms and physical education corridors were viewed with trepidation, worry and fear. The paper concludes by highlighting that both positive and negative interactions with the spaces of physical education develop forms of social and symbolic capital shaping the physical education experiences for pupils with ASD. Anticipating barriers presented within these integral fields of physical education space can help in preparing a rich and inclusive experience for pupils with ASD. Teachers may be better informed in providing strategies to facilitate communication and social interaction whilst allowing all pupils to engage positively with physical education.
Assessments of the emotional states of others: conscious judgments versus emotional contagion

Clinicians have identified two techniques for gaining information about clients' emotional states: (1) they can consciously try to assess clients'emotional states and/or (2) they can monitor their own emotional reactions during the therapeutic hour, hoping to «feel themselves into» their clients' emotions. Usually, clients'emotional self-reports are in synchrony with their facial, vocal, and postural expressions of emotion. But, what happens when they are not?
Understanding large text corpora via sparse machine learning

Sparse machine learning has recently emerged as powerful tool to obtain models of high‐dimensional data with high degree of interpretability, at low computational cost. The approach has been successfully used in many areas, such as signal and image processing. This article posits that these methods can be extremely useful in the analysis of large collections of text documents, without requiring user expertise in machine learning. Our approach relies on three main ingredients: (i) multidocument text summarization; (ii) comparative summarization of two corpora, both using sparse regression or classification; (iii) sparse principal components and sparse graphical models for unsupervised analysis and visualization of large text corpora. We validate our methods using a corpus of Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) reports and demonstrate that the methods can reveal causal and contributing factors in runway incursions. Furthermore, we show that the methods automatically discover four main tasks that pilots perform during flight, which can aid in further understanding the causal and contributing factors to runway incursions and other drivers for aviation safety incidents. We also provide a comparative study involving other commonly used datasets, and report on the competitiveness of sparse machine learning compared to state‐of‐the‐art methods such as latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA). © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Statistical Analysis and Data Mining 6: 221–242, 2013
Right-Wing Authoritarianism

ontological and political questions. In pursuit of this goal he presents Buber's thought as a tensionfilled dialogue between shifting pairs of opposing paradoxes: on the one hand, existentialism, with its emphasis on contingency and angst; on the other utopianism, "the spirit of the unconditional" (p. 4). Susser traces Buber's evolution from his early mystical utopianism, never completely abandoned, through his encounters with Nietzsche, Tonnies, Dilthey, Landauer, Gandhi, and others. He also places Buber's intellectual development in the context of the rising Zionist movement, World War I, and the failed German revolution of 1919.
Policy and advocacy content in early childhood teacher education: Results of a national survey

Abstract One important strategy for strengthening policy and advocacy in early childhood education is through the incorporation of specific course content in teacher education programs [New Perspectives in Early Childhood Teacher Education: Bringing Practitioners Into the Debate, Teachers College Press, NY, New York, 1994]. Yet, to date, little is known about the extent to which content relating to these two important issues are incorporated into teacher education programs. In response to this gap, an exploratory study of early childhood teacher education programs was conducted to determine the nature of policy and advocacy content included in undergraduate and graduate programs in the United States. Public and private institutions, ranging in size from small four‐year colleges to large public universities, participated in this national survey. Results indicated that advocacy and policy content is incorporated in most teacher education programs in a varied, yet unsystematic, manner. Respondents also identified a range of current and needed resources to support advocacy and policy education as well as a number of barriers that impede incorporation of such content in their programs.
Quantifying self-reports of auditory verbal hallucinations in persons with psychosis.

Le Hamilton Program for Schizophrenia Voices Questionnaire (HPSVQ) a ete cree pour repondre a la necessite de posseder un instrument bref et auto rapporte qui puisse quantifier une variete de caracteristiques d'hallucinations auditivo-verbales. Les neuf items du questionnaire sont cotes selon une echelle en 5 points, afin de mesurer la presence d'hallucinations auditivo-verbales. Le questionnaire a ete bien tolere par un groupe de 20 patients lors de la premiere application ainsi que lors des applications subsequentes, une et onze semaines plus tard. Le questionnaire demontre une bonne fidelite test / retest lors de ces intervalles, ainsi qu'une bonne consistance interne. Le questionnaire demontre egalement une validite concomitante adequate avec le Psychotic Symptoms Rating Scale Auditory Hallucination tel qu'evalue par l'interviewer. Les resultats de cette etude-pilote indiquent que le HPSVQ constitue un instrument potentiellement valide et approprie pour evaluer quantitativement la presence d'hallucinations auditivo-verbales chez les patients atteints de psychoses.
Co‐player and co‐artist: New roles for the adult in children's visual arts experiences

An important implication of the body of recent theory and research into children's play and children's artistic and aesthetic development, is that the role of the teacher as supportive facilitator with a hands‐off, non‐interventionist approach, should change. Development is fostered and learning opportunities maximised when the teacher plays a more active role within the context of the child‐centred, process‐oriented curriculum. This paper proposes that new understandings of children's artistic and aesthetic development be integrated with changing attitudes towards the role of the adult in children's play, particularly imaginative (fantasy) play. Suggestions are made for ways in which teachers may intervene creatively in children's artmaking, as well as extend these activities into further areas of aesthetic experience. The ideas on which this paper is based were developed during an Outside Studies Program granted by Macquarie University. I would like to thank: Macquarie University; the British Council an.
The microvasculature in the equine distal phalanx: Implications for fracture healing

Summary Objectives To describe the intra-osseous microvasculature of the distal phalanx of the equine forelimb with regard to its potential clinical relevance. Methods Eleven clinically normal equine forelimbs were used from six adult horses (range: 4 to 18 years old) euthanatized for reasons unrelated to lameness. In each limb the median artery was catheterized at the level of the carpus and India ink was injected under constant manual pressure. The limbs were frozen and 5 mm thick sections of the foot were cut in the sagittal, coronal, or transverse planes on a band saw. The sections were fixed in 10% formalin and cleared using a modified Spalteholz technique. Once cleared, the sections were photographed and the microvascular anatomy identified. Results The vascular injections revealed a rich intra-osseous microvascular supply of the distal phalanx originating from the medial and lateral palmar digital arteries. In addition, numerous smaller vessels from the terminal arch, formed by anastomosis of the medial and lateral palmar digital arteries, could be seen branching into the distal aspects of the distal phalanx. This distal portion of the distal phalanx appeared more densely vascularized than the proximal part in all specimens examined. Clinical significance The increased vascularity demonstrated in the distal portion of the distal phalanx appears to correlate with improved fracture healing reported in this area. This may also explain why healing fractures which involve both the distal and proximal portions of the distal phalanx have been described as progressing from distal-to-proximal.
A Mathematical Model of Historical Semantics and the Grouping of Word Meanings into Concepts

A statistical analysis of polysemy in sixteen English and French dictionaries has revealed that, in each dictionary, the number of senses per word has a near-exponential distribution. A probabilistic model of historical semantics is presented which explains this distribution. This mathematical model also provides a means of estimating the average number of distinct concepts per word, which was found to be considerably less than the average number of senses listed per word. The grouping of word senses into concepts is based on whether they could inspire the same new senses (by metaphor, metonymy, etc.), that is, their potential future rather than their history.
25-hydroxyvitamin D3 and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 exert distinct effects on human skeletal muscle function and gene expression

Age-associated decline in muscle function represents a significant public health burden. Vitamin D-deficiency is also prevalent in aging subjects, and has been linked to loss of muscle mass and strength (sarcopenia), but the precise role of specific vitamin D metabolites in determining muscle phenotype and function is still unclear. To address this we quantified serum concentrations of multiple vitamin D metabolites, and assessed the impact of these metabolites on body composition/muscle function parameters, and muscle biopsy gene expression in a retrospective study of a cohort of healthy volunteers. Active serum 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1α,25(OH)2D3), but not inactive 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (25OHD3), correlated positively with measures of lower limb strength including power (rho = 0.42, p = 0.02), velocity (Vmax, rho = 0.40, p = 0.02) and jump height (rho = 0.36, p = 0.04). Lean mass correlated positively with 1α,25(OH)2D3 (rho = 0.47, p = 0.02), in women. Serum 25OHD3 and inactive 24,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (24,25(OH)2D3) had an inverse relationship with body fat (rho = -0.30, p = 0.02 and rho = -0.33, p = 0.01, respectively). Serum 25OHD3 and 24,25(OH)2D3 were also correlated with urinary steroid metabolites, suggesting a link with glucocorticoid metabolism. PCR array analysis of 92 muscle genes identified vitamin D receptor (VDR) mRNA in all muscle biopsies, with this expression being negatively correlated with serum 25OHD3, and Vmax, and positively correlated with fat mass. Of the other 91 muscle genes analysed by PCR array, 24 were positively correlated with 25OHD3, but only 4 were correlated with active 1α,25(OH)2D3. These data show that although 25OHD3 has potent actions on muscle gene expression, the circulating concentrations of this metabolite are more closely linked to body fat mass, suggesting that 25OHD3 can influence muscle function via indirect effects on adipose tissue. By contrast, serum 1α,25(OH)2D3 has limited effects on muscle gene expression, but is associated with increased muscle strength and lean mass in women. These pleiotropic effects of the vitamin D ‘metabolome’ on muscle function indicate that future supplementation studies should not be restricted to conventional analysis of the major circulating form of vitamin D, 25OHD3.
Metastereotypes: Blacks' Perceptions of Whites' Stereotypes of Blacks

Les AA. se demandent comment les afro-americains percoivent les stereotypes qui temoignent des prejuges dont ils sont victimes de la part des blancs. Ils soulignent que ces stereotypes concernent la moralite, la violence, l'intelligence, le patriotisme, la toxicomanie, l'alcoolisme, la piete, le dynamisme, l'autodiscipline et les capacites sportives. Ils presentent un certain nombre de donnees collectees aux Etats-Unis en 1991 et mettent en evidence un certain nombre de meta-stereotypes qui permettent de saisir ce type de perception des stereotypes raciaux
Multifocal Electroretinography, Color Discrimination and Ocular Toxicity in Tamoxifen Use

Purpose: To study prospectively retinal function, color discrimination, and ocular toxicity in women treated with standard-dosage tamoxifen for breast cancer. Methods: Thirty visually asymptomatic patients with at least 2 years of continuous tamoxifen therapy underwent multifocal electroretinography (ERG), color discrimination testing, and ophthalmic examination. The results were compared with 17 patients who were not taking tamoxifen after breast cancer surgery and to an additional age-matched group of 21 healthy women. Results: Multifocal electroretinogram amplitudes and latencies were comparable among the three studied groups, and individual recordings were within age norms from our own lab. In the treated group, mild diffuse color vision loss was found in two patients with normal fundi. Three other patients had ocular toxic effects, with two cases of refractile retinal crystals and one case of keratopathy. Conclusions: The aspects of central retinal function that are assessed by multifocal ERG were not affected even after at least 2 years of tamoxifen use, suggesting that the multifocal ERG is not sufficiently sensitive to detect tamoxifen-associated change that might occur. Some degree of color vision loss and ocular toxic effects were found in a few cases of this cohort suggesting that women using tamoxifen should receive an eye exam at least as often as recommended for middle-aged people.
Instabilities of a baroclinic, double diffusive frontal zone

Abstract The linear theory of double diffusive interleaving is extended to take account of baroclinic effects. This study goes beyond previous studies by including the possibility of modes with nonzero tilt in the alongfront direction, which allows for advection by the baroclinic frontal flow. This requires that the stability equations be solved numerically. The main example is based on observations of interleaving on the lower flank of Meddy Sharon, but a range of parameter values is covered, leading to conclusions that are relevant in a variety of oceanic regimes. The frontal zone is treated as infinitely wide with uniform gradients of temperature, salinity, and alongfront velocity. The stationary, vertically symmetric interleaving mode is shown to have maximum growth rate when its alongfront wavenumber is zero, providing validation for previous studies in which this property was assumed. Besides this, there exist two additional modes of instability: the ageostrophic Eady mode of baroclinic instability .