Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Threshold Uncertainty on Common-Pool Resources

Many natural resources and common-pool resources have inherent thresholds regarding the onset of deleterious environmental impacts or consequences. Group and individual behavior were examined in an experimental setting using three distinct games designed to model common-pools in which there existed such a threshold: one with complete information of the threshold, one with incomplete information of the threshold and one with sporadically enforced targets. By design the true threshold was unknown to the players in the role of policymaker, and the guesses of the threshold value were allowed to change during every round. Sporadically enforced targets had a significant negative effect on the lifespan of a common-pool resource and individual gains. Allowing the participants to develop and act on their own beliefs for the location of the threshold improved both individual benefit and conservation of the common-pool. Conservation of common-pool resources will be best achieved by policies which allow users of the resource access to reliable information regarding the status of the common-pool and which enable the development of their own beliefs regarding the location of threshold.
Quality of life in patients related to gender differences before and after coronary artery bypass surgery.

OBJECTIVES The different aspects of quality of life (QOL) in patients of different sex structure have been examined as well as the presumption that sex structure could be a predictor of QOL changes after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). METHODS The study included 243 consecutive patients who underwent an elective CABG. The QOL analysis was performed by using structured interviews with the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) questionnaire part 1. RESULTS Compared to men, women had worse preoperative QOL (in all sections except the section of sleep) and worse postoperative QOL (in all sections). Six months after CABG the QOL statistically improved in men and in women. Multivariate analysis showed that being female was an independent predictor of QOL worsening in section of pain [P=0.001, odds ratio (OR)=3.93, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.74-8.88]. CONCLUSIONS Compared to men, women have worse preoperative and postoperative QOL. Female sex was an independent predictor of QOL worsening six months after CABG.
Exploring the Role of Literacy Coaches: A Case Study of Three Schools in Ontario.

This paper explores the role of literacy coaches in Ontario schools. This case study uses qualitative research methods to provide a picture of what literacy coaching looks like in practice in three schools. The literacy coaches had three main roles: to act as school literacy organizers, literacy leaders, and to provide support to teachers and principals. Unlike the role of literacy coaches presented in the literature, the coaches in this study did not generally participate in observation and demonstration lessons and spent the majority of their coaching time performing organizational tasks. This study makes recommendations for future research and provides suggestions for school boards implementing literacy coaching. Cet article explore le role des formateurs en alphabetisation dans les ecoles de l’Ontario. Cette etude de cas repose sur des methodes de recherche qualitatives et offre un apercu pratique de la formation en alphabetisation dans trois ecoles. Les formateurs en alphabetisation jouent trois roles principaux : agir comme organisateurs de l’alphabetisation dans l’ecole, etre chefs de file en alphabetisation et appuyer les enseignants et les directeurs. Contrairement aux formateurs presentes dans la documentation, ceux dans cette etude n’avaient pas tendance a participer aux observations et aux lecons pratiques. La plupart de leur temps etait passe a accomplir des tâches organisationnelles. Cette etude offre des recommandations quant aux etudes a l’avenir et des suggestions pour les conseils scolaires en matiere de la mise en œuvre de la formation en alphabetisation.
Genetic variations in the mTOR gene contribute toward gastric adenocarcinoma susceptibility in an Eastern Chinese population

Background and aim Genetic variants in the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) gene have become an interesting topic for the study of genetic susceptibility to cancer, but their associations with the risk of gastric cancer have not been fully investigated. Materials and methods In a hospital-based case–control study of 1002 gastric cancer patients and 1003 cancer-free controls, we genotyped four potentially functional single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (rs1034528G>C, rs17036508T>C, rs3806317A>G, and rs2295080T>G) of mTOR and assessed their associations with the risk of gastric cancer using univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. We also used the multifactorial dimension reduction analysis to explore possible interactions and the false-positive report probabilities to assess significant findings. Results We found that rs1034528 CG/CC and rs3806317 GA/GG variant genotypes were associated with an increased risk of gastric cancer under a dominant model (adjusted odds ratio=1.27 and 1.22, respectively). In the combined analysis of all four SNPs under investigation, patients with 3–4 risk genotypes of mTOR had a significantly increased risk of gastric cancer (adjusted odds ratio=1.46, 95% confidence interval=1.19–1.79) compared with those with 0–2 risk genotypes. Stratified analysis indicated that this risk was more pronounced in subgroups of men, never-smokers, never-drinkers, and clinical stages III+IV. The multifactorial dimension reduction analysis suggested some evidence of interactions between the combined genotypes and other risk factors for gastric cancer. Conclusion These findings suggest that potentially functional SNPs of mTOR may individually or collectively contribute to the risk of gastric cancer. Larger studies with diverse ethnic populations are warranted to validate our findings.
Voltage-activated currents in guinea pig pancreatic alpha 2 cells. Evidence for Ca2+-dependent action potentials

Glucagon-secreting alpha 2 cells were isolated from guinea pig pancreatic islets and used for electrophysiological studies of voltage- activated ionic conductances using the patch-clamp technique. The alpha 2 cells differed from beta cells in producing action potentials in the absence of glucose. The frequency of these potentials increased after addition of 10 mM arginine but remained unaffected in the presence of 5- 20 mM glucose. When studying the conductances underlying the action potentials, we identified a delayed rectifying K+ current, an Na+ current, and a Ca2+ current. The K+ current activated above -20 mV and then increased with the applied voltage. The Na+ current developed at potentials above -50 mV and reached a maximal peak amplitude of 550 pA during depolarizing pulses to -15 mV. The Na+ current inactivated rapidly (tau h approximately 0.7 ms at 0 mV). Half-maximal steady state inactivation was attained at -58 mV, and currents could no longer be elicited after conditioning pulses to potentials above -40 mV. The Ca2+ current first became detectable at -50 mV and reached a maximal amplitude of 90 pA (in extracellular [Ca2+] = 2.6 mM) at about -10 mV. Unlike the Na+ current, it inactivated little or not at all. Membrane potential measurements demonstrated that both the Ca2+ and Na+ currents contribute to the generation of the action potential. Whereas there was an absolute requirement of extracellular Ca2+ for action potentials to be elicited at all, suppression of the much larger Na+ current only reduced the upstroke velocity of the spikes. It is suggested that this behavior reflects the participation of a low-threshold Ca2+ conductance in the pacemaking of alpha 2 cells.
The influence of prior knowledge on children's eyewitness memory, identifications, and suggestibility.

THE INFLUENCE OF PRIOR KNOWLEDGE ON CHILDREN'S EYEWITNESS . MEMORY, IDENTIFICATIONS, AND SUGGESTIBILITY FEBRUARY 1996 CHRISTINE M. RICCI, B.A., COLLEGE OF THE HOLY CROSS M.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by : Professor Carole R. Beal To examine the influence of script structure on children's eyewitness memory, 40 5-year old children participated in either a birthday party event or a novel parallel play session. In both events, a male intruder entered the room and stole a box. One half of the children received an immediate memory interview and identiflcation task, and a second interview and identification task two weeks later. The other children were only interviewed and given the identification task two weeks after their participation in the event. It was predicted that children's memory would be accurate even after a delay for the aspects of the event that corresponded to their prior knowledge. However, they would be more Hkely to make errors in the direction of what their script knowledge would have expected to have occurred at the event. Thus, children with a script structure would be more suggestible to misleading questions that encourage them to report script-consistent information. Results indicated that children at both the immediate and delayed interviews were better able to answer questions about the event than questions about the intruder. At the delay interview, children in the birthday party event recalled more about the event than children in the play session. Although no differences were found between the birthday party and play groups for recognition memory, having a script structure aided recall memory. Further, children with a script structure
When stressors make you work: Mechanisms linking challenge stressors to performance

ABSTRACT Based on previous empirical findings, “challenge stressors” (Cavanaugh, Boswell, Roehling, & Bouderau, 2000; Lepine, Podsakoff, & Lepine, 2005), such as the amount and scope of responsibility, can be loosely considered as “good stressors” that are consistently and positively related to job satisfaction and performance. We introduce the role of appraisal to further examine how challenge stressors are connected to performance. Structural equation modelling analyses using an applied sample of 284 employee–supervisor dyads showed that affective commitment to the organization mediated the relationship between both opportunity and threat appraisal and performance (in-role and extra-role). The mediating role of increased psychosomatic distress was supported only for the relationship between threat appraisal and in-role performance. The findings indicate the importance of taking into account the actual appraisal of “challenge stressors”, as it carries implications for performance, and reveals the key role of affective commitment and induced distress mechanisms in this relationship. In conclusion, “challenge stressors” are not always positively related to performance, but only when they are perceived as opportunities.
Long-term Treatment Outcomes for Autoimmune Hepatitis in Korea

Immunosuppressive therapy can improve clinical, biochemical and histological features and considerably prolong survival in patients with autoimmune hepatitis. Although ethnicity may affect disease severity and presentation, the long-term outcome of immunosuppression in Korean populations is unknown. This study was aimed to assess the efficacy of immunosuppressive therapy and determine the prognosis of autoimmune hepatitis in Korean populations. We reviewed the medical records of 86 patients diagnosed as having autoimmune hepatitis at the Samsung Medical Center between 1994 and 2008. Seventy-two (83.7%) patients reached remission after a median treatment duration of 3.5 months (range 1 to 44 months). Attempts to withdraw medications were made in 24 cases after the median treatment duration of 36 months (median 6 to 125 months). Thirteen of 24 (54.1%) patients relapsed after treatment withdrawal. Of the 86 patients, 6 (7.2%) experienced disease progression and the overall 5-and 10-yr progression-free survival rates were 91.2% and 85.5%, respectively. In conclusion, immunosuppressive therapy for autoimmune hepatitis results in a favorable rate of remission and excellent progression-free survival, but the relapse rate after treatment withdrawal is high. This suggests that long-term immunosuppressive therapy may be particularly important for treatment of Korean patients.
An international, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 3 trial of intramuscular alefacept in patients with chronic plaque psoriasis.

BACKGROUND Alefacept, human lymphocyte function-associated antigen 3/immunoglobulin 1 fusion protein, binds to CD2 molecules on the surface of activated T cells, selectively targeting memory-effector (CD45RO+) T cells, which comprise more than 75% of T cells in psoriatic plaques. OBJECTIVE To examine the efficacy and tolerability of intramuscular alefacept. DESIGN International, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group trial. PATIENTS A total of 507 patients with chronic plaque psoriasis. INTERVENTION Placebo, 10 mg of alefacept, or 15 mg of alefacept administered once weekly for 12 weeks followed by 12 weeks of observation. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI). RESULTS Alefacept treatment was associated with dose-related significant improvements in PASI from baseline. Throughout the study, a greater percentage of patients in the 15-mg group than in the placebo group achieved a significant reduction in PASI. Of patients in the 15-mg group who achieved at least 75% PASI reduction 2 weeks after the last dose, 71% maintained at least 50% improvement in PASI throughout the 12-week follow-up. There were no opportunistic infections and no cases of disease rebound. CONCLUSION Intramuscular administration of alefacept was a well-tolerated and effective therapy for chronic plaque psoriasis and thus represents a convenient alternative to intravenous dosing.
Learning To Make Music Enhances Spatial Reasoning.

Does active instruction in music enhance preschool and elementary students' performance on spatial tasks? Researchers have been interested in this question not only because of the importance of spatial abilities, which underlie professions such as engineering, archaeology, and surgery, but also because spatial abilities are thought to be important in the discipline of mathematics. ' This meta-analytic review synthesizes the results of 15 independent studies that address this controversial and highly publicized question. While the studies summarized here address a question distinct from the "Mozart effect" studies,2 scholars and the public have often failed to distinguish these two bodies of research (one on the spatial effects of passive music listening, the other on the spatial effects of active participation in music instruction). Yet whether college students' performance on spatial tasks is temporarily improved following brief exposure to classical music tells us almost nothing about whether preschool and elementary children perform better on spatial tests following a program of active music instruction. These instruction studies deserve separate summary so that we can understand their meaning and determine their implications for future research and classroom practice. Several previous reviews have assessed music's impact on nonmusical abilities, but none has directly addressed the question posed by this review. Five of these reviews are loosely related to the present summary in focus and/or method. A narrative review by Wolff assessed nonmusical outcomes of music education and critiqued study methods, including several studies with spatial outcomes.3 Tunks's chapter in The Handbook of Research on Music Teaching and Learning defined and summarized the concept of transfer in relation to the field of music education.4 The only meta-analysis on extramusical effects of music education was published in 1996 by Standley, but it does not include spatial outcomes. Instead, it examines the effects of music used as a reinforcement for various educational and thera-
Restless legs syndrome and risk of incident cardiovascular disease in women and men: prospective cohort study

Objectives To evaluate the association between restless legs syndrome (RLS) and incident cardiovascular disease (CVD). Design Prospective cohort study. Setting Women's Health Study (WHS) and Physicians' Health Study (PHS), USA. Participants 29 756 female health professionals aged ≥45 years and 19 182 male physicians aged ≥40 years at baseline. Main outcome measures Main outcome was incidence of major CVD; secondary outcomes were first incidence of myocardial infarction, stroke, death due to CVD or coronary revascularisation. Results 3487 (11.7%) women and 1373 (7.2%) men met International Restless Legs Study Group criteria for RLS. In the WHS 450 major CVD events occurred and 1064 major CVD events were confirmed in the PHS. In both cohorts, RLS was not associated with increased risk of major CVD, stroke, myocardial infarction, CVD death or coronary revascularisation. After adjustment for major vascular risk factors, the HRs (95% CI) for major CVD were 1.15 (0.88 to 1.50) in women and 1.01 (0.81 to 1.25) in men. Highest multivariable-adjusted HRs were 1.29 (0.91 to 1.82) for total stroke in women and 1.22 (0.87 to 1.70) for CVD death in men. Excluding participants with comorbidities potentially leading to RLS did not substantially change the effect estimates. Conclusions In these large prospective studies of female and male health professionals, RLS was not associated with an increased risk of any incident CVD event. The data do not support the hypothesis that RLS is a marker of increased risk of vascular disease.
Energy-adaptive scheduling of imprecise computation tasks for QoS optimization in real-Time MPSoC systems

The key issue of renewable generations such as solar and wind in energy harvesting system is the uncertainty of energy availability. The characteristic of imprecise computation that accepts an approximate result when energy is limited and executes more computations yielding better results if more energy is available, can be exploited to intelligently handle the uncertainty. In this paper, we first propose a task allocation scheme that adaptively assigns real-time imprecise computation tasks to individual processors considering uncertainties in renewable energy sources. The proposed task allocation scheme enhances energy efficiency by minimizing system energy consumption followed by adapting the execution of imprecise computation tasks to the energy availability. We then present a QoS-aware task scheduling scheme that determines the optional execution cycles of tasks allocated to processors. The proposed task scheduling scheme maximizes system QoS under the energy budget constraint.
Antigen Targeting to CD11b Allows Efficient Presentation of CD4+ and CD8+ T Cell Epitopes and In Vivo Th1-Polarized T Cell Priming1

Bordetella pertussis adenylate cyclase (CyaA) is an invasive bacterial toxin that delivers its N-terminal catalytic domain into the cytosol of eukaryotic cells bearing the αMβ2 integrin (CD11b/CD18), such as myeloid dendritic cells. This allows use of engineered CyaA for targeted delivery of CD8+ T cell epitopes into the MHC class I pathway of APC and induction of robust and protective cytotoxic responses. In this study, we demonstrate that CyaA can efficiently codeliver both a CD8+ T cell epitope (OVA257–264) and a CD4+ T cell epitope (MalE100–114) into, respectively, the conventional cytosolic or endocytic routes of processing of murine bone marrow-derived dendritic cells. Upon CyaA delivery, a strong potentiation of the MalE100–114 CD4+ T cell epitope presentation is observed as compared with the MalE protein, which depends on CyaA interaction with its CD11b receptor and its subsequent clathrin-mediated endocytosis. In vivo, CyaA induces strong and specific Th1 CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses against, respectively, the MalE100–114 and OVA257–264 epitopes. These results underscore the potency of CyaA for design of new vaccines.
Fabrication of multi-electrode array devices for electrophysiological monitoring of in-vitro cell/tissue cultures

These Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne EPFL, n° 2370 (2001)Faculte des sciences et techniques de l'ingenieurLaboratoire de microsystemes 4Jury: Daniel Bertrand, Hannes Bleuler, Ulrich Egert, Philippe Flueckiger, Milena Koudelka-Hep, Horst Vogel Public defense: 2001-4-20 Reference doi:10.5075/epfl-thesis-2370Print copy in library catalog Record created on 2005-03-16, modified on 2017-05-10
Do television food commercials target children in Germany?

Abstract Objective To examine whether the German food industry directs commercials for unhealthy products to children and whether self-administered voluntary restrictions on the promotion of less healthy foods (the EU Pledge) are effective to mitigate this exposure. Design By analysing German data from television (TV) channels, advertised products were categorized and food products classified as core foods (healthy) and non-core foods (less healthy). Marketing techniques were documented. Food commercials were furthermore compared with commercials for toy products, and comparisons were made between advertising patterns before and after the EU Pledge. Setting Data for ten German TV channels were recorded for two weekdays and two weekend days from 06.00 to 22.00 hours in 2007 and 2008. A second sample containing one weekday and one weekend day of three German TV channels was recorded again in 2010 for comparison in the same time period. Subjects In total 16 062 advertisements from 2007–2008 and 2657 from 2010 were analysed. Results In 2007–2008 19·9 % of TV commercials were for food products, of which 73 % were for non-core foods, 21 % for core foods and 6 % not classified. In three specified channels widely viewed by children and youth, 14·5 % of commercials were for food products, of which 88·2 % were for non-core foods. Commercials for unhealthy foods were broadcast significantly more often during children's peak viewing and in children's programmes, with a higher use of promotional characters and premiums than found in commercials for non-food products. In 2010, analysis of the three specified channels found that 18·5 % of commercials were for food products, of which 98·2 % were for non-core foods. While the use of premiums decreased compared with other commercials, the use of promotional characters in non-core food commercials increased, especially during children's programmes. Conclusions Children in Germany are exposed to large numbers of food commercials. The exposure to commercials for non-core foods and the use of techniques attractive to children are widespread and appear to have remained unaffected by the announcement of the EU Pledge in December 2007. We conclude that the industry's voluntary agreement has failed to fulfil its declared purpose.
On the Uniqueness of Nonnegative Sparse Solutions to Underdetermined Systems of Equations

An underdetermined linear system of equations Ax = b with nonnegativity constraint x ges 0 is considered. It is shown that for matrices A with a row-span intersecting the positive orthant, if this problem admits a sufficiently sparse solution, it is necessarily unique. The bound on the required sparsity depends on a coherence property of the matrix A. This coherence measure can be improved by applying a conditioning stage on A, thereby strengthening the claimed result. The obtained uniqueness theorem relies on an extended theoretical analysis of the lscr0 - lscr1 equivalence developed here as well, considering a matrix A with arbitrary column norms, and an arbitrary monotone element-wise concave penalty replacing the lscr1-norm objective function. Finally, from a numerical point of view, a greedy algorithm-a variant of the matching pursuit-is presented, such that it is guaranteed to find this sparse solution. It is further shown how this algorithm can benefit from well-designed conditioning of A .