Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Urine Dipstick in the Screening of Urinary Infection in Relation to the Reference Method: The Cytobacteriological Examination of Urine

The cytobacteriological examination of urine is a biological test most commonly asked in the hospital. The results of a large part of urinary sample analyzed are negative, representing a heavy workload for bacteriology laboratories, burden that we would like to limit. In this context the aim of our study was to evaluate a screening test for urinary tract infection by urine dipstick compared to the reference method; the cytobacteriological examination of urine finally promotes the realization of the urine dipstick before any urine culture. We selected 600 patients whom the physician asked the cytobacteriological examination of urine, and on every patient, we proceeded to urine collection and finally realized the urine dipstick before urine culture; two parameters on urine dipstick have helped us to confirm the negativity and positivity of the dipstick, its leukocytes and nitrites. The results of urine dipstick are positive if one or less of the two tests, leukocyte and nitrite is positive; the result is negative if both tests are negative. The urine culture was done on cled agar and bacterial identification was made on cultural characteristics, biochemical (API 2OE gallery of biomerieux). The results of urine culture were collected 72 hours after culture. For the analysis of results, the sensitivity, specificity, predictive values (positive predictive value and negative predictive value), the youden index, the proportion of correctly-classified subjects and the likelihood ratio (positive likelihood ratio and negative likelihood ratio) were calculated. The urine dipstick has the sensitivity of 96%, specificity of 90%, the positive predictive value of 74%, the negative predictive value of 98.8%, youden index of 0.86, the proportion of subjects correctly classified of 91.6%, a positive likelihood ratio of 9.6 and a negative likelihood ratio of 0.04. In the light of these results, the urine dipstick is an elimination test, by its very high sensitivity (96%), its high negative predictive value (98.8%) and negative likelihood ratio close to 0 or 0.04, and if the dipstick does not detect nitrite and leukocyte, the diagnosis of urinary tract infection is highly unlikely (<2% probability).
Expressive Timing in a Debussy Prelude: A Comparison of Student and Expert Pianists

The expressive timing of 10 famous pianists' performances of Debussy's prelude, La fille aux cheveux de lin, was measured from acoustic recordings and compared to the expressive timing of performances by 10 graduate student pianists, recorded after only a brief rehearsal on a Yamaha Disklavier in MIDI format. Despite the-large differences between the two groups in preparation, experience, age, date of birth, and national origin, their average expressive timing profiles were extremely similar. Although individual differences tended to be more pronounced among the experts than among the students, the similarity of the average timing profiles suggests a common standard of expressive timing. Since this standard evidently can be approximated by graduate student pianists after only minimal rehearsal, it may be considered the default result of an encounter between a trained musician and a particular musical structure—the timing implied by the score.
Science and Child Custody Evaluations: What Qualifies as “Scientific”?

ABSTRACT In response to statements that child custody evaluations violate the accepted definition of science in psychology and are therefore unethical in their current form, the evolving definition of science in psychology and the position of the American Psychological Association on evidence-based practice are reviewed. This literature supports those in the child custody evaluation literature who advocate the use of disciplined clinical judgment to integrate case observation, empirical research, and clinical experience in order to provide the courts with responsible answers to the questions they pose.
Structuring the Unstructured Middle with Chunk Computing

Modern computing substrates like cloud computing clusters, massively multi-core processors, and general-purpose GPUs offer a wealth of computing power with the caveat that programmers must carefully structure their programs to fit within various hardware and communication limits in order to get high performance. Unfortunately, modern abstractions expressly hide machine structure from the program and program structure from the machine, hindering automatic optimization. We introduce an alternative computing abstraction--a linked graph of finite-sized memory chunks--that explicitly exposes the size and structure of programs to the operating system. The chunk graph enables the operating system to use size and structure to optimize how programs are mapped onto complex machine structure.
Commentary: Sleep in German Infants—The “Cult” of Independence

Objectives. Significant cultural variations exist in sleep practices for young children, including bedtime rituals and routines, soothing techniques, and cosleeping. This study examined parenting styles at bedtime and sleep behavior in a group of German infants. The results are compared with sleep practices of other western European countries. Participants. German parents of 50 boys and 50 girls 6 to 30 months old. Method. Parents were asked to fill out a questionnaire about the sleep behavior of their child. Personal interviews with the parents were conducted to augment the survey results; in selected cases, bedtime routines were filmed. Results. The infants in this sample largely slept in their own bed in a separate room. Bedtime rituals were common and in general characterized by parents maintaining behavioral distance from the infants during the bedtime routine. However, parenting style was likely to become more “proximal” (close) in response to bedtime refusal and nocturnal infant crying. A majority of parents (79%) used lullabies as part of the bedtime ritual, and the use of a sleep aid was very common (80%). Conclusion. As is the case with most cultures, German bedtime parenting practices tend to reflect parenting values and beliefs associated with their specific culture. The parenting style at bedtime in this group of infants in general seemed less rigid and less distancing than bedtime rituals typically described in other northern European countries and may represent more of a synthesis of parenting styles across various Western cultures.
Biopsychosocial Risks to Development in Preterm Children with Low Birth Weight

Prematurity (PT) and low birth weight (LBW) are risk factors for development, as well as psychosocial variables. These relationships were studied in 40 children PTLBW between 12-36 months old, assessed by the Bayley-III Screening Test (BSID-III), and their parents who answered the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL 1½-5 years old) and the interview for identifi cation of biopsychosocial risks. In addition, medical records were consulted. Higher risk frequencies were found for developmental problems in cognitive and expressive language areas. Correlations are highlighted between perinatal conditions and developmental problems; severe psychosocial risk and receptive language and behavioral problems, and between these risks and expressive language and cognition. The results confi rmed the need to monitor the development of these children, through assessment activities, early simulation and family care.
Examining Pre-Service Teachers' Use And Acceptance of Information and Communication Technologies in Terms of Certain Variables / Öğretmen Adaylarının Bilgi ve İletişim Teknolojilerini Kabul ve Kullanımlarının Çeşitli Değişkenler Açısından İncelenmesi

Bu calismanin amaci, ogretmen adaylarinin Bilgi Iletisim Teknolojileri (BIT) kabul ve kullanimlarini yordayan degiskenlerin incelenmesidir. Arastirma, Venkatesh vd. (2003) tarafindan gelistirilen Teknoloji Kabul ve Kullanim Birlestirilmis Modeli temel alinarak desenlenmistir. Bununla birlikte, Teknoloji Kabul ve Kullanim Birlestirilmis Modelinde yer almayan ancak alanyazinda teknoloji kabulunu etkileyen onemli degiskenler olarak ifade edilen ozyeterlik ve kullanima karsi tutum degiskenleri de modele dahil edilmistir. Arastirma iliskisel tarama modeli ile gerceklestirilmistir. 2011-2012 ogretim yilinda devlet universitelerinin egitim fakultelerinde ogrenim gormekte olan 2654 son sinif ogrencisi arastirmanin evrenini olusturmaktadir. Arastirmada veri toplama araci olarak arastirmacilar tarafindan gelistirilen, ic tutarlilik katsayisi I±= . 95 olarak hesaplanan ve yedi faktorden olusan Ogretmen Adaylarinin Teknoloji Kabul ve Kullanim Olcegi uygulanmistir. 2654 ogretmen adayina ulasilmistir. Arastirma kapsaminda toplanan verilerin analizinde dogrusal ve coklu regresyon analizinden yararlanilmistir. Arastirmadan elde edilen verilen analizi sonucunda; performans beklentisi, caba beklentisi, sosyal etki, kolaylastirici durumlar, ozyeterlik ve kullanima karsi tutum degiskenlerinden; performans beklentisi, sosyal etki, ozyeterlik ve kullanima karsi tutum degiskenlerinin ogretmen adaylarinin teknoloji kullanimina yonelik davranissal niyetinin anlamli birer yordayicisi oldugu ve varyansin yaklasik %67'sini acikladigi sonucuna varilmistir. Arastirmadan elde edilen sonuclara dayali olarak uygulamaya ve gelecekte yapilabilecek arastirmalara yonelik oneriler sunulmustur.
Communication is key: A study of the development of communication key skills in China

Abstract Different countries offer alternative curricula around what might be designated language, literacy and/or communication. This article focuses on the latter, which has typically been associated with vocational education and often labelled a ‘key’ or ‘core’ skill that forms part of a wider set of life and employability skills. In recent years, as China has emerged as a global economy, education has been significant in its policy and development. This research explores staff and student responses to the introduction of a key skills communication course in three Chinese further education vocational colleges. The initiative was prompted by research in China which had suggested that communication is important not just for education (Ye and Li 2007) but also for employability, and that the ability to communicate effectively could be instrumental in individuals’ success and development (Tong and Zhong 2008). It explores what communication key skills might mean in a Chinese context and questions notions of transferability and of competence and performance in communication. It analyses how motivation could affect learner success and the relationship of pedagogy to curriculum, and, finally, it considers how communication might be an element in the longer‐term social and political development of critical literacies.
A Case Study of Drama Education Curriculum for Young Children in Early Childhood Programs

Abstract This is a case study of drama education curriculum for young children taught by a drama specialist. Specifically, to understand unique drama teaching practices employed by a drama specialist, 9-week-long drama programs for one kindergarten and two 1st-grade classes were observed and the drama specialist was interviewed. Regular classroom activities taught by the classroom teachers were also observed to understand drama taught by the non-specialists. The findings indicate that the drama specialist's curriculum highlights specialized drama knowledge and techniques that the classroom teachers do not address in their drama activities. Within a well-defined structure of a lesson composed of warm-up, main activity, and ending segments, children's kinesthetic exploration and representation, as well as expressivity, are emphasized. How the drama specialist's teaching content and methods contribute to children's learning and what is needed for staff development to improve drama education are discussed.
Differential expression of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway in the genital tubercle (GT) of fetal male rat following maternal exposure to di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP)

Di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP) is one of the most abundantly produced endocrine disruptors that leaches out from polyvinyl chloride plastics and can cause hypospadias in male rats during maternal exposure. The objective of this study was to first explore the roles of Wnt/β-catenin pathway in the fetal rat genital tubercle (GT) following in-utero exposure to DBP. Timed-pregnant rats were given DBP by gastric intubation at a dose of 750 mg/kg body weight (bw)/day from gestation day (GD) 14 to GD18 to establish a rat model of hypospadias. On GD19, genital tubercle down-regulation of β-catenin, Phospho-GSK-3β, and up-regulation of GSK-3β (glycogen synthase kinase-3β), NFκB in fetal male rats was observed by western blot analysis. β-catenin was located in the urethral plate epithelium (UPE). Immunochemistry showed that the relative expression of β-catenin decreased in the DBP-treated fetal rat GT compared to the normal control. These findings, for the first time, indicate that DBP may affect the development of GT by down-regulating the Wnt/β-catenin pathway in fetal male rats.
InP-HEMT X-band Low-Noise Amplifier With Ultralow 0.6-mW Power Consumption

We report a single-stage InP-high-electron-mobility-transistor (HEMT) X-band low-noise amplifier (LNA) featuring an ultralow dc power consumption at room temperature. The LNA was fabricated with the ETH Zürich 100-nm InP-HEMT MMIC coplanar waveguide process. When operated with a dc power consumption of only 0.6 mW, our LNA delivers a gain of 9.0 ± 0.9 dB from 7 to 11 GHz with a minimum noise figure of 1.4 dB at 9.8 GHz. The excellent LNA performance is enabled by the favorable characteristics of our InP HEMTs under low-power-dissipation biases. For example, at a bias of <i>V</i><sub>DS</sub> = 0.5 V and <i>I</i><sub>DS</sub> = 66.2 mA/mm, our (0.1 × 2 × 50 μm<sup>2</sup>) InP HEMTs feature cutoff frequencies of <i>fT</i> = 183 GHz and <i>f</i><sub>MAX</sub> = 230 GHz . The present results demonstrate the excellent capabilities of InP-HEMT technology for high-speed, low-voltage, and room-temperature low-power-consumption applications.
Optimal Data-Dependent Hashing for Approximate Near Neighbors

We show an optimal data-dependent hashing scheme for the approximate near neighbor problem. For an n-point dataset in a d-dimensional space our data structure achieves query time O(d ⋅ nρ+o(1)) and space O(n1+ρ+o(1) + d ⋅ n), where ρ=1/(2c2-1) for the Euclidean space and approximation c>1. For the Hamming space, we obtain an exponent of ρ=1/(2c-1). Our result completes the direction set forth in (Andoni, Indyk, Nguyen, Razenshteyn 2014) who gave a proof-of-concept that data-dependent hashing can outperform classic Locality Sensitive Hashing (LSH). In contrast to (Andoni, Indyk, Nguyen, Razenshteyn 2014), the new bound is not only optimal, but in fact improves over the best (optimal) LSH data structures (Indyk, Motwani 1998) (Andoni, Indyk 2006) for all approximation factors c>1. From the technical perspective, we proceed by decomposing an arbitrary dataset into several subsets that are, in a certain sense, pseudo-random.
Assessment of “corticophobia” as an indicator of non-adherence to topical corticosteroids: A pilot study

Abstract Background: Concerns regarding topical corticosteroid (TCS) use, broadly known as “corticophobia”, are highly prevalent among dermatology patients and often result in non-adherence to TCS. This non-adherence contributes to poor disease control and increased health care costs. However, it is unknown if assessment of these concerns might help to identify patients at risk of TCS-non-adherence. Clinical tools indicating non-adherence could be helpful to improve management of this patient group. Objective: To assess whether the available tools for measuring concerns regarding corticosteroids, the TOPICOP scale and the 0-10 Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), could help to detect non-adherence to TCS. Methods: In 75 patients with concerns regarding TCS use both the TOPICOP scale and VAS were anonymously assessed. A comparison was made between TCS-adherent and non-adherent patients regarding the intensity and characteristics of their concerns. Results: The intensity and quality of the concerns varied broadly among the patients. When using the VAS, a score of ≥5 detected 87% of non-adherent patients. The answers to the TOPICOP scale did not discriminate non-adherent from adherent patients. Conclusion: Using the VAS to assess concerns to use TCS could help identify patients at risk of TCS-non-adherence and facilitate discussion with the patient about potential non-adherence in a more substantiated, non-judgemental way.
Genome-Wide Association between Branch Point Properties and Alternative Splicing

The branch point (BP) is one of the three obligatory signals required for pre-mRNA splicing. In mammals, the degeneracy of the motif combined with the lack of a large set of experimentally verified BPs complicates the task of modeling it in silico, and therefore of predicting the location of natural BPs. Consequently, BPs have been disregarded in a considerable fraction of the genome-wide studies on the regulation of splicing in mammals. We present a new computational approach for mammalian BP prediction. Using sequence conservation and positional bias we obtained a set of motifs with good agreement with U2 snRNA binding stability. Using a Support Vector Machine algorithm, we created a model complemented with polypyrimidine tract features, which considerably improves the prediction accuracy over previously published methods. Applying our algorithm to human introns, we show that BP position is highly dependent on the presence of AG dinucleotides in the 3′ end of introns, with distance to the 3′ splice site and BP strength strongly correlating with alternative splicing. Furthermore, experimental BP mapping for five exons preceded by long AG-dinucleotide exclusion zones revealed that, for a given intron, more than one BP can be chosen throughout the course of splicing. Finally, the comparison between exons of different evolutionary ages and pseudo exons suggests a key role of the BP in the pathway of exon creation in human. Our computational and experimental analyses suggest that BP recognition is more flexible than previously assumed, and it appears highly dependent on the presence of downstream polypyrimidine tracts. The reported association between BP features and the splicing outcome suggests that this, so far disregarded but yet crucial, element buries information that can complement current acceptor site models.
Restitution of Action Potential Duration During Sequential Changes in Diastolic Intervals Shows Multimodal Behavior

Abstract— Restitution of action potential duration (APD) is thought to be critical in activation instability. Although restitution is used to predict APD during sequential changes in diastolic interval (DI), currently used protocols to determine restitution do not use sequential changes in DI. We explored restitution using a new pacing protocol to change DI sequentially and independently of APD. Transmembrane potentials were recorded from right ventricular endocardial tissue isolated from six dogs. We used three patterns of DIs: oscillatory, to demonstrate differences in APDs depending on previous activation history; random, to minimize effects of previous activation history, each DI preceding an APD had an equal probability of being short or long; and linear, to compare restitution relationship obtained during sequential changes in DI with those obtained using currently used protocols; DIs mimicked those that resulted using currently used protocols, except that they changed in sequence. During oscillatory DIs, restitution showed bimodal trajectory similar to hysteresis. Decrease in APD during decreasing DIs was faster than increase in APD during increasing DIs. When effects of previous activation history were minimized, we observed that for a given DI there were multiple values of APD. Restitution relationship obtained during sequential changes in DI was shallower than those obtained using currently used protocols. Our results show that the new pacing protocol may permit direct evaluation of effects of memory on APD. Sequential and explicit control of DI suggests that use of a unimodal relationship to predict APD when DIs change in sequence may not be appropriate.
Assessing the risk of decompensation by ascites and spontaneous bacterial peritonitis in cirrhosis.

AIM The current trend is to analyze predictive factors of transition from compensated to decompensated stage by the onset of ascites and later of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP), which would make possible an early diagnosis of liver cirrhosis at the compensated stage. The aim of the study is to evaluate patients with liver cirrhosis, assessing the rate and the risk factors of decompensation by ascites and SBP. MATERIAL AND METHODS The prospective study included patients with cirrhosis of different etiologies admitted to a ward of the Institute of Gastroenterology and Hepatology of Iaşi in the period 1st January 2010-31st December 2010, which were reassessed clinically and in laboratory for 2 years. The essential criteria for the diagnosis of SBP were the presence of > 250 PMN/mm3. Compensated cirrhosis was defined as the absence of ascites. The presence of ascites and/or upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage (UGH) marks the state of decompensated cirrhosis. To assess the severity of liver cirrhosis there were used Child-Pugh score and MELD score. Diagnostic paracentesis and ascitic fluid sampling were performed at admission to hospital and during hospitalization, in the event of signs and symptoms of SBP, after antibiotic treatment. Macroscopic, biochemical (albumin, protein), cytological (cellularity) and bacteriological (smear and culture) investigations of the ascetic fluid were performed. Lack of response to empirical treatment was considered in cases of general condition deterioration and decreased PMN < 25% of baseline. RESULTS By comparing the mean values of patients with and without SBP, it is noted that bilirubin and creatinine were significantly higher in patients with SBP, and total protein, albumin and prothrombin time were significantly lower in patients with SBP, these biochemical parameters correlate with the degree of hepatic impairment and may be considered risk factors for SBP. In relation to the mentioned elements, the most important predictors of PBS risk are low protein concentration in ascitic fluid under 1g/dl, increased levels of serum bilirubin and low platelet count. Impaired liver function, infectious complications, and previous episodes of SBP, UGH are risk factors for an episode of SBP. Empirical therapy of nosocomial SBP with third-generation cephalosporins is often inefficient due to the high prevalence of multiresistant (MR) bacteria. CONCLUSIONS Assessment of clinically significant portal hypertension (PHT) and the degree of hepatic impairment may stratify patients with cirrhosis according to the risk of decompensation, making possible the identification of high risk patients. The knowledge of the risk factors in SBP is important not only to identify patients who could benefit from preventive therapy, but also in understanding the pathogenesis of the disease.