Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A "Landmark" from a "Time of Optimism" for the Modern World: A Review Symposium of "Becoming Modern" by Alex Inkeles and David H. Smith

The decade and a half following the end of World War II was, on the whole, a time of optimism. Admittedly, in some places, and in some moments, the more obtuse governments of the metropolitan, imperial powers fought ferociously against granting independence to their colonies. But more frequently they showed little if any reluctance to relinquish their hold. In any case, most enlightened politicians felt that independence was inevitable; that it was morally good; and that it was likely to be followed-after a certain amount of turmoil-by forms of Western political democracy and sensibly mixed economies; certainly if people realized what was good for them. India was
A fate map of the Arabidopsis embryonic shoot apical meristem

We have mapped the fate of cells in the Arabidopsis embryonic shoot apical meristem by irradiating seed and scoring the resulting clonally derived sectors. 176 white, yellow, pale green or variegated sectors were identified and scored for their position and extent in the resulting plants. Most sectors were confined to a fraction of a leaf, and only occasionally extended into the inflorescence. Sectors that extended into the inflorescence were larger, and usually encompassed about a third to a half of the inflorescence circumference. We also find that axillary buds in Arabidopsis are clonally related to the subtending leaf. Sections through the dry seed embryo indicate that the embryonic shoot apical meristem contains approximately 110 cells in the three meristematic layers prior to the formation of the first two leaf primordia. The histological analysis of cell number in the shoot apical meristem, in combination with the sector analysis have been used to construct a map of the probable fate of cells in the embryonic shoot apical meristem.
Assessing both safe haven and secure base support in parent–child relationships

Although the attachment construct refers to a child’s tendency to use an attachment figure both as a safe haven in times of distress as well as a secure base from which to explore, approaches to assessing attachment at older ages have focused on safe haven behavior. We tested modified versions of the Friends and Family Interview and the Security Scale Questionnaire to examine separately the correlates of safe haven and secure base support from parents. The main study (n = 107 children, 10–14-year-olds) included both interview and questionnaire assessments of safe haven and secure base support from mothers and fathers. The two methods converged in expected ways, and both showed associations with narrative coherence. Children reported greater safe haven support from mothers and greater secure base support from fathers, suggesting secure base support is a key aspect of father–child attachment. Both mother–child and father–child relationships were related to children’s school adjustment and coping.
Automatic Segmentation of Pulmonary Lobes Robust Against Incomplete Fissures

A method for automatic segmentation of pulmonary lobes from computed tomography (CT) scans is presented that is robust against incomplete fissures. The method is based on a multiatlas approach in which existing lobar segmentations are deformed to test scans in which the fissures, the lungs, and the bronchial tree have been automatically segmented. The key element of our method is a cost function that exploits information from fissures, lung borders, and bronchial tree in an effective way, such that less reliable information (lungs, airways) is only used when the most reliable information (fissures) is missing. To cope with the anatomical variation in lobe shape, an atlas selection mechanism is introduced. The method is evaluated on two test sets of 120 scans in total. The results show that the lobe segmentation closely follows the fissures when they are present. In a simulated experiment in which parts of complete fissures are removed, the robustness of the method against different levels of incomplete fissures is shown. When the fissures are incomplete, an observer study shows agreement of the automatically determined lobe borders with a radiologist for 81% of the lobe borders on average.
Contrasting metabolic effects of medium- versus long-chain fatty acids in skeletal muscle[S]

Dietary intake of long-chain fatty acids (LCFAs) plays a causative role in insulin resistance and risk of diabetes. Whereas LCFAs promote lipid accumulation and insulin resistance, diets rich in medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs) have been associated with increased oxidative metabolism and reduced adiposity, with few deleterious effects on insulin action. The molecular mechanisms underlying these differences between dietary fat subtypes are poorly understood. To investigate this further, we treated C2C12 myotubes with various LCFAs (16:0, 18:1n9, and 18:2n6) and MCFAs (10:0 and 12:0), as well as fed mice diets rich in LCFAs or MCFAs, and investigated fatty acid-induced changes in mitochondrial metabolism and oxidative stress. MCFA-treated cells displayed less lipid accumulation, increased mitochondrial oxidative capacity, and less oxidative stress than LCFA-treated cells. These changes were associated with improved insulin action in MCFA-treated myotubes. MCFA-fed mice exhibited increased energy expenditure, reduced adiposity, and better glucose tolerance compared with LCFA-fed mice. Dietary MCFAs increased respiration in isolated mitochondria, with a simultaneous reduction in reactive oxygen species generation, and subsequently low oxidative damage. Collectively our findings indicate that in contrast to LCFAs, MCFAs increase the intrinsic respiratory capacity of mitochondria without increasing oxidative stress. These effects potentially contribute to the beneficial metabolic actions of dietary MCFAs.
Student understanding of the direction of the magnetic force on a charged particle

We study student understanding of the direction of the magnetic force experienced by a charged particle moving through a homogeneous magnetic field in both the magnetic pole and field line representations of the magnetic field. In five studies, we administer a series of simple questions in either written or interview format. Our results indicate that although students begin at the same low level of performance in both representations, they answer correctly more often in the field line representation than in the pole representation after instruction. This difference is due in part to more students believing that charges are attracted to magnetic poles than believing that charges are pushed along magnetic field lines. Although traditional instruction is fairly effective in teaching students to answer correctly up to a few weeks following instruction, especially for the field line representation, some students revert to their initial misconceptions several months after instruction. The responses reveal persi.
An Empirical Analysis of Health and Safety in Employment Sentencing in New Zealand

Apparent inconsistency in criminal sentencing at District Court level in New Zealand (NZ) might also be expected for health and safety in employment (HSE) offences. We review relevant legislation and the guidelines established in the de Spa appeal case, and estimate a model of HSE sentencing variability distinguishing the de Spa criteria (and a subset similar to those used in the formal U.S. criminal sentencing guidelines) from a more comprehensive list of sentencing factors routinely used. When the de Spa case-mix variables are controlled for, a weak increase in inter-district sentencing variability is observed but with a reduction in intra-district variability, while both inter and intra-judge variability is mitigated. We show that a number of the de Spa (and other) criteria are significant determinants of sentencing variation, although some results (e.g., for the presence of remorse) are puzzling. The results seem quite robust to the choice between a dataset including the common s 6 offences only and a dataset of cases as a whole as well as to several other sensitivity checks. We also show that the model retrospectively predicts the sentence in the de Spa appeal case well, and suggest how the model might be used as a basis for more consistent future sentencing decisions.
Memory-Efficient Fast Shortest Path Estimation in Large Social Networks

As the sizes of contemporary social networks surpass billions of users, so grows the need for fast graph algorithms to analyze them. A particularly important basic operation is the computation of shortest paths between nodes. Classical exact algorithms for this problem are prohibitively slow on large graphs, which motivates the development of approximate methods. Of those, landmark-based methods have been actively studied in recent years. Landmark-based estimation methods start by picking a fixed set of landmark nodes, precomputing the distance from each node in the graph to each landmark, and storing the precomputed distances in a data structure. Prior work has shown that the number of landmarks required to achieve a given level of precision grows with the size of the graph. Simultaneously, the size of the data structure is proportional to the product of the size of the graph and the number of landmarks. In this work we propose an alternative landmark-based distance estimation approach that substantially reduces space requirements by means of pruning: computing distances from each node to only a small subset of the closest landmarks. We evaluate our method on the DBLP, Orkut, Twitter and Skype social networks and demonstrate that the resulting estimation algorithms are comparable in query time and potentially superior in approximation quality to equivalent non-pruned landmark-based methods, while requiring less memory or disk space.
Frailty and Pre-Frailty in a Contemporary Cohort of HIV-Infected Adults.

OBJECTIVES To determine the prevalence of pre-frailty among HIV-infected persons and associations with pre-frailty and frailty in this population. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS From a contemporary, prospective observational cohort of HIV-infected persons (SUN Study), we determined, using a cross-sectional analytic study design, the proportions of non-frail, pre-frail, and frail persons by the respective presence of 0, 1-2, and ≥ 3 of 5 established frailty criteria: unintentional weight loss, exhaustion, physical-inactivity, weak-grip and slow-walk. We evaluated associations with pre-frailty/frailty using multivariate analysis. RESULTS Of 322 participants assessed (79% men, 58% white non-Hispanic, median age 47 years, 95% on combination antiretroviral therapy [cART], median CD4 + cell count 641 cells/mm3 and 93% HIV RNA < 400 copies/mL), 57% were non-frail, 38% pre-frail, and 5% frail. Age increased from non-frailty through frailty. Notably, however, half of pre-frail and frail participants were < 50 years, and of those, 42% and 100%, respectively, were long-term unemployed (versus 16% of non-frail counterparts). In multivariate analysis, pre-frail/frail participants were more likely to have Hepatitis C seropositivity (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 3.24, 95% CI: 1.35-7.78), a history of AIDS-defining-illness (aOR 3.51, 95% CI: 1.82-6.76), greater depressive symptoms (aOR 1.16, 95% CI:1.09-1.23), higher D-dimer levels (aOR 2.94, 95% CI:1.10-7.87), and were less likely to be white non-Hispanic (aOR 0.35, 95% CI: 0.20-0.61). CONCLUSIONS Pre-frailty and frailty are prevalent in the cART era and are associated with unemployment even among persons < 50 years. Pre-frailty appears to be an intermediate state in the spectrum from non-frailty through frailty and our characterization of pre-frailty/frailty suggests complex multifactorial associations.
Adaptive Appearance Modeling With Point-to-Set Metric Learning for Visual Tracking

In visual tracking, developing an efficient appearance model is a challenging task due to the influence of various factors, such as illumination variation, occlusion, background clutter, and so on. Existing tracking algorithms use appearance samples from previous frames to form a template set upon which target appearance models are built. However, these appearance models are data-dependent, so they may be corrupted by significant appearance variation. It is difficult to update the templates in challenging environments. In this paper, we propose a robust visual tracking algorithm with an adaptive appearance model using a point-to-set metric learning technique. To do this, we first model a target representation using a set of target templates and a regularized affine hull (RAH) spanned by the target templates. Then, we learn a point-to-set distance metric, which is incorporated into the optimization process to obtain an adaptive target representation. The RAH model covers unseen target appearances by affine combinations of the target templates. Based on the proposed target appearance model, we design an effective template update scheme by adjusting the weights of the target templates. Experimental results on challenging video sequences with comparisons to several state-of-the-art tracking algorithms demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed tracking algorithm.
Use of Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis for Molecular Epidemiologic and Population Genetic Studies ofMycobacterium tuberculosis

ABSTRACT Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) is a powerful molecular biology technique which has provided important insights into the epidemiology and population biology of many pathogens. However, few studies have used PFGE for the molecular epidemiology ofMycobacterium tuberculosis. A laboratory protocol was developed to determine the typeability, stability, and reproducibility of PFGE typing of M. tuberculosis. Formal data-analytical techniques were used to assess the genetic diversity elucidated by PFGE analyses using four separate restriction enzymes and by IS6110 RFLP analyses, as well as to assess the concordance among these typing methods. One hundred epidemiologically characterized clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis were genotyped with four different PFGE enzymes (AseI, DraI,SpeI, and XbaI), as well as by RFLP analysis with IS6110. Identical patterns were found among 34 isolates known to be genetically related, suggesting that the PFGE protocol is robust and reproducible. Among 66 isolates representing population-sampled cases, heterozygosity and information content dependency estimates indicate that all five genotyping systems capture quantitatively similar levels of genetic diversity. Nevertheless, comparisons between PFGE analyses and IS6110 typing reveals that PFGE provided more discrimination among isolates with fewer than five copies of IS6110 and less clustering in isolates with five or more copies. The comparisons confirm the hypothesis that the resolution of IS6110 RFLP genotyping is dependent upon the number of IS6110 elements in the genome of isolates. The general concordance among the results obtained with four independent enzymes suggests that M. tuberculosis is a clonal organism. The availability of a robust genotyping technique largely independent of repetitive elements has implications for the molecular epidemiology of M. tuberculosis.
Social-Cognitive Predictors of Readiness to Use Evidence-Based Practice

Community-based rehabilitation organizations (CBRO) play an important role in providing rehabilitation and support services to individuals with disabilities. Increased utilization of CBROs by state vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies requires a better understanding of how evidence-based practices (EBPs) are used in CBROs. The aim of the study was to examine the readiness of CBRO practitioners to implement EBP, based on social-cognitive predictors of confidence in knowledge and use of EBP, expected benefits of EBP, and perceived barriers and supports to use EBP. A total of 187 CBRO practitioners were surveyed using the Evidence-Based Practice CBRO (EBP-CBRO) survey. Participants were in moderate agreement that they were ready to implement EBP. They were moderately confident in their knowledge about EBP, in high agreement about the expected improvements by using EBP, and perceived low barriers and moderate supports to implementing EBP. The social-cognitive predictors accounted for 55% of the variance in readiness to implement EBP, with knowledge about EBP as the most significant predictor of readiness to use EBP. Social-cognitive theory is a useful framework for exploring CBRO practitioners’ attitudes toward and knowledge of EBP. CBRO practitioners are in moderate agreement about readiness to use EBP. Improving practitioner confidence to use EBP might be the best means of increasing utilization.
The effect of the work environment on job satisfaction among nurses

Objective: The aim of this study to investigate comparison influencing the factors job satisfaction in nurses’, determine reduce the satisfaction factors and recommendations to increase satisfaction. Material and Methods: This descriptive study was conducted in the Mustafa Kemal University Faculty of Medicine and Research Hospital in working who agreed to participate with 174 nurses. Data were collected by personal information questionnaire, Minnesota Job Satisfaction Scale (MJSS) and Work Environment Scale (WES). Results: Nurses’ MJSS mean score is determined as 64.24±11.00 and WES total mean score is 88.52±11.66. WES total score (t=0.979; p=0.020), worker fears (t=0.196; p=0.042) and quality management (t=0.451; p=0.042) sub-scale scores of females were higher than males and significant. Conclusion: In this study participating nurses’, job satisfaction is medium level and they evaluate positive their work environment; being female gender, being satisfied with the working department, higher socioeconomic status and having experienced any problems with other health professionals were determined as positive factors influencing job satisfaction.
NOISE IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF URBAN TRAFFIC “ ROADS AND TRAMWAYS ”

To assess the noise impact of the vehicles and tram traffic in Rabat city, “AGDAL district”, we have studied the variation of the overall noise in the main streets during two periods (day and night), subsequently, we have used a free model to simulate the noise on the whole of the district. Finally we compared the real reference state in some measures points with the simulated results by the plugin, “noise map”.
Single nucleotide polymorphisms of the DNA repair gene XPD/ERCC2 alter mRNA expression

Objectives Epidemiological studies documented associations between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the nucleotide excision repair gene XPD/ERCC2 and cancer risk. Little is known, however, about the underlying mechanisms for these associations. We explored a novel mechanism that could further explain the reported risk-modifying effect of these SNPs on disease susceptibility. Methods Using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, we examined the relationship between three SNPs in the XPD gene (R156R in exon 6, D312N in exon 10 and K751Q in exon 23) and mRNA levels as a potential mechanism by which these SNPs could alter DNA repair capacity and affect disease risk. To further investigate the mechanism(s) by which these SNPs alter mRNA transcription levels, we performed a localized Mfold structure analysis on the mRNA sequence surrounding the studied SNPs. Results All three SNPs studied, alone and in combination, significantly decreased constitutive XPD mRNA levels (P<0.003) in lymphocytes of healthy subjects. The decrease in mRNA levels was significantly greater in smokers and was exacerbated by smoking duration and intensity. The decrease was more pronounced in older than in younger subjects. The R156R and the K751Q polymorphisms were predicted to alter mRNA secondary structure, indicating that these SNPs potentially affect local folding and mRNA stability. Conclusions Our results provide novel mechanistic explanations for epidemiological studies linking these SNPs to elevated cancer risk and emphasize the importance of comprehensively investigating the effect of both synonymous and nonsynonymous SNPs as risk modifiers by considering their potential effects on gene expression, protein translation and functions.
An LMI approach to robust vehicle steering controller design

Being parallel to frequency domain robust steering controller designs, time domain approaches attract considerable interest in the last decade. Based on previous research results, a synthesized time design framework is proposed in this paper. The design task is constructed as a multi-objective optimization problem which simultaneously considers system stabilization, disturbance rejection, actuator saturation and time delay. A mixed L/sub 1//H/sub /spl infin// robust controller is finally obtained by solving a set of linear matrix equalities (LMI) that guarantee driving performance requirements. Simulations show the effectiveness of the proposed design method.
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in AlzheimerÃ¢ÂÂs Disease: A Review ofInvestigational and Therapeutic Findings

Alzheimer’s disease pathophysiology still remains unclear and current pharmacological strategies have limited effectiveness, so that the search for alternative and/or complementary therapeutic strategies is a compelling need, as well as a detailed characterization of the disease progression and its neurophysiological correlates. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS),has been employed by a number of studies to physiologically characterize AD, investigating cortical reactivity, plasticity and functional connectivity. A few studies also investigated the therapeutic role of repetitive TMS to enhance cognitive functions in AD. Herein we review a total of thirty-two studies evaluating both investigational and therapeutic role of TMS. Although promising, therapeutic results are still very preliminary and need to be taken with caution, while insights have been provided by most investigational studies.
Innate NKTγδ and NKTαβ cells exert similar functions and compete for a thymic niche

The transcriptional regulator promyelocytic leukemia zinc finger (PLZF) is highly expressed during the differentiation of natural killer T (NKT) cells and is essential for the acquisition of their effector/memory innate‐like phenotype. Staining with anti‐PLZF and anti‐NK1.1 Abs allows the definition of two subsets of NKTαβ and NKTγδ thymocytes that differ phenotypically and functionally: a PLZF+NK1.1− subset composed of mostly quiescent cells that secrete more IL‐4 than IFN‐γ upon activation and a PLZF+/−NK1.1+ subset that expresses CD127, NK1.1, and other NK‐cell markers, secrete more IFN‐γ than IL‐4 upon activation and contains a sizable fraction of dividing cells. The size of the NK1.1+ population is very tightly regulated and NK1.1+ αβ and γδ thymocytes compete for a thymic niche. Furthermore, the relative representation of the PLZF+ and NK1.1+ subsets varies in a strain‐specific manner with C57BL/6 (B6) mice containing more NK1.1+ cells and (B6 × DBA/2)F1 (B6D2F1) mice more PLZF+ cells. Consequently, activation of NKT cells in vivo is expected to result in higher levels of IL‐4 secreted in B6D2F1 mice than in B6 mice. Consistent with this possibility, B6D2F1 mice, when compared with B6 mice, contain more “innate” CD8+ thymocytes, the generation of which depends on IL‐4 secreted by NKT cells.