Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mirror-touch synaesthesia: the role of sharedrepresentations in social cognition

Synaesthesia is a condition in which one property of a stimulus results in conscious experiences of an additional attribute. In mirror-touch synaesthesia, the synaesthete experiences a tactile sensation on their own body simply when observing touch to another person. This thesis investigates the prevalence, neurocognitive mechanisms, and consequences of mirror-touch synaesthesia. Firstly, the prevalence and neurocognitive mechanisms of synaesthesia were assessed. This revealed that mirrortouch synaesthesia has a prevalence rate of 1.6%, a finding which places mirror-touch synaesthesia as one of the most common variants of synaesthesia. It also indicated a number of characteristics of the condition, which led to the generation of a neurocognitive model of mirror-touch synaesthesia. An investigation into the perceptual consequences of synaesthesia revealed that the presence of synaesthesia is linked with heightened sensory perception - mirror-touch synaesthetes showed heightened tactile perception and grapheme-colour synaesthetes showed heightened colour perception. Given that mirror-touch synaesthesia has been shown to be linked to heightened sensorimotor simulation mechanisms, the impact of facilitated sensorimotor activity on social cognition was then examined. This revealed that mirror-touch synaesthetes show heightened emotional sensitivity compared with control participants. To compliment this, two transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) studies were then conducted to assess the impact of suppressing sensorimotor activity on the expression recognition abilities of healthy adults. Consistent with the findings of superior emotion sensitivity in mirror-touch synaesthesia (where there is facilitated sensorimotor activity), suppressing sensorimotor resources resulted in impaired expression recognition across modalities. The findings of the thesis are discussed in relation to neurocognitive models of synaesthesia and of social cognition.
Establishment of long-term monocyte suspension cultures from normal human peripheral blood

The long-term suspension growth of normal, immature myeloid cells from fresh human cord blood was recently reported and required cells separated on supplemented discontinuous Percoll gradients, growth in media containing hydrocortisone and vitamins D3, and gentle, continuous agitation (13). When normal adult bone marrow (six donors) or blood from Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-seropositive donors (nine donors) was used as a source of fresh human leukocytes, only short-term proliferation of myeloid cells was achieved with the same techniques. However, when leukocytes prepared from EBV seronegative normal adult peripheral blood were used, pure populations of monocytes and macrophages that replicate slowly in liquid suspension culture for greater than 5 mo were repeatedly obtained from three independent donors. These cultures consists of several morphologically distinguishable monocytic cell types, including an approximately 20% adherent macrophage population. The monocytic nature of these cultures was confirmed by cytochemical, immunological, and functional criteria. These monocytes retain a normal chromosome pattern and can be induced to differentiate to phagocytic cells by treatment with tetradecanylphorbal acetate. Eventually, the cultures terminate as nonreplicating mature macrophages. These liquid suspension cultures should be a valuable resource for morphological, biochemical, and functional studies of developing monocyte-macrophages and their interaction with other cell types in normal and various pathological situations.
Two-year radiographic and clinical outcomes from the Canadian Methotrexate and Etanercept Outcome study in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Objective. To evaluate radiographic and clinical outcomes up to 24 months in patients with RA enrolled in the Canadian Methotrexate and Etanercept Outcome study. Methods. In this open-label non-inferiority trial, patients with inadequate response to MTX received etanercept plus MTX for 6 months and then were randomized to either etanercept monotherapy or continued etanercept plus MTX until 24 months. Radiographic data were analysed using the modified total Sharp score (mTSS), joint space narrowing and erosion scores. Secondary outcomes included the 28-joint DAS with ESR (DAS28-ESR), Simplified Disease Activity Index, Clinical Disease Activity Index, HAQ Disability Index (HAQ-DI) and safety. Results. Two hundred five of 258 patients enrolled were randomized (98 etanercept, 107 etanercept plus MTX). At month 24, the mean increase from baseline to month 24 for the etanercept and etanercept plus MTX arms, respectively, for the mTSS were 0.4 (s.d. 1.9) and 0.0 (s.d. 1.4); for joint space narrowing, 0.1 (s.d. 0.6) and 0.0 (s.d. 0.7) and for erosion, 0.3 (s.d. 1.5) and 0.0 (s.d. 1.0). At month 24, the mean increase from month 6 mean scores/count increases for DAS28-ESR were 0.56 (s.d. 1.26) and 0.08 (s.d. 1.50); for Simplified Disease Activity Index, 4.7 (s.d. 13.1) and 0.9 (s.d. 12.5); for Clinical Disease Activity Index, 4.1 (s.d. 12.3) and 1.0 (s.d. 12.3) and for HAQ-DI, 0.20 (s.d. 0.45) and 0.02 (s.d. 0.54). Patients with DAS28-ESR low disease activity (LDA)/remission at month 6 had numerically better outcomes at month 24 than patients with moderate to high disease activity at month 6. In patients with LDA/remission at month 6, outcomes were similar at month 24 between etanercept monotherapy and etanercept plus MTX, whereas patients with moderate to high disease activity at month 6 had numerically better outcomes with etanercept plus MTX than etanercept at month 24. There were no new safety signals and serious adverse events were not different between groups. Conclusion. These results support the possibility of discontinuing MTX in patients who have tolerability issues with MTX if they achieve LDA/remission. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov (https://clinicaltrials.gov/; NCT00654368).
The Road to Hell: An Experimental Study of Intentions

Do people care about intentions? Good intentions often do not produce good results when a person tries to do something nice for someone else. In this paper, we ask under what circumstances do people pay attention to outcomes and under what circumstances do they focus on intentions. While the aphorism in the paperâ€™s title suggests that outcomes play a larger role than intentions, our study questions this assumption. Some previous studies in economics suggest that the process determining an outcome affects responses to that outcome. Our experimental design improves upon previous methodology by introducing an element of chance in the wage-determination process in an experimental labor market. Using this device, we find that both intentions and outcomes matter; rates of punishment and reward are sensitive to both the wage a firm decides to pay and the (higher or lower) wage actually received after chance intervenes. We feature a specific comparison, in which workers receive identical wages either (1) after a high wage assignment and bad luck, or (2) after a low wage assignment and good luck. Despite identical wages and identical relative payoffs, workersâ€™ responses differ greatly across these contingencies. Our data strongly support the role of intentions, with negative reciprocity overwhelming distributional considerations given low wages.
Early and Non-Invasive Detection of Chronic Wasting Disease Prions in Elk Feces by Real-Time Quaking Induced Conversion

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal prion disease of wild and captive cervids in North America. Prions are infectious agents composed of a misfolded version of a host-encoded protein, termed PrPSc. Infected cervids excrete and secrete prions, contributing to lateral transmission. Geographical distribution is expanding and case numbers in wild cervids are increasing. Recently, the first European cases of CWD have been reported in a wild reindeer and two moose from Norway. Therefore, methods to detect the infection early in the incubation time using easily available samples are desirable to facilitate effective disease management. We have adapted the real-time quaking induced conversion (RT-QuIC) assay, a sensitive in vitro prion amplification method, for pre-clinical detection of prion seeding activity in elk feces. Testing fecal samples from orally inoculated elk taken at various time points post infection revealed early shedding and detectable prion seeding activity throughout the disease course. Early shedding was also found in two elk encoding a PrP genotype associated with reduced susceptibility for CWD. In summary, we suggest that detection of CWD prions in feces by RT-QuIC may become a useful tool to support CWD surveillance in wild and captive cervids. The finding of early shedding independent of the elk’s prion protein genotype raises the question whether prolonged survival is beneficial, considering accumulation of environmental prions and its contribution to CWD transmission upon extended duration of shedding.
Overcoming the "Ideology of Openness": Probing the Affordances of Social Media for Organizational Knowledge Sharing

This study explores the ways in which the affordances of social media not only increase open communication and knowledge sharing, but also promote covert behavior, creating dialectical tensions for distributed workers that must be communicatively managed. Drawing on a case study of the engineering division of a distributed high tech start-up, we find our participants navigate tensions in visibility-invisibility, engagement-disengagement, and sharing-control and strategically manage these tensions to preserve both openness and ambiguity. These findings highlight ways in which organizational members limit as well as share knowledge through social media, and the productive role of tensions in enabling them to attend to multiple goals.
Changes in public order after the opening of a medically supervised safer injecting facility for illicit injection drug users

Background: North America's first medically supervised safer injecting facility for illicit injection drug users was opened in Vancouver on Sept. 22, 2003. Although similar facilities exist in a number of European cities and in Sydney, Australia, no standardized evaluations of their impact have been presented in the scientific literature. Methods: Using a standardized prospective data collection protocol, we measured injection-related public order problems during the 6 weeks before and the 12 weeks after the opening of the safer injecting facility in Vancouver. We measured changes in the number of drug users injecting in public, publicly discarded syringes and injection-related litter. We used Poisson log-linear regression models to evaluate changes in these public order indicators while considering potential confounding variables such as police presence and rainfall. Results: In stratified linear regression models, the 12-week period after the facility's opening was independently associated with reductions in the number of drug users injecting in public (p < 0.001), publicly discarded syringes (p < 0.001) and injection-related litter (p < 0.001). The predicted mean daily number of drug users injecting in public was 4.3 (95% confidence interval [CI] 3.5–5.4) during the period before the facility's opening and 2.4 (95% CI 1.9–3.0) after the opening; the corresponding predicted mean daily numbers of publicly discarded syringes were 11.5 (95% CI 10.0–13.2) and 5.4 (95% CI 4.7–6.2). Externally compiled statistics from the city of Vancouver on the number of syringes discarded in outdoor safe disposal boxes were consistent with our findings. Interpretation: The opening of the safer injecting facility was independently associated with improvements in several measures of public order, including reduced public injection drug use and public syringe disposal.
U2SOD-DB: a database system to manage large-scale <u>u</u>biquitous <u>u</u>rban <u>s</u>ensing <u>o</u>rigin-<u>d</u>estination data

Volumes of urban sensing data captured by consumer electronic devices are growing exponentially and current disk-resident database systems are becoming increasingly incapable of handling such large-scale data efficiently. In this paper, we report our design and implementation of U2SOD-DB, a column-oriented, Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)-accelerated, in-memory data management system targeted at large-scale ubiquitous urban sensing origin-destination data. Experiment results show that U2SOD-DB is capable of handling hundreds of millions of taxi-trip records with GPS recorded pickup and drop-off locations and times efficiently. Spatial and temporal aggregations on 150 million pickup locations and times in middle-town and downtown Manhattan areas in the New York City (NYC) can be completed in a fraction of a second. This is 10-30X faster than a serial CPU implementation due to GPU accelerations. Spatially joining the 150 million taxi pickup locations with 43 thousand polygons in identifying trip purposes has reduced the runtime from 30.5 hours to around 1,000 seconds and achieved a two orders (100X) speedup using a hybrid CPU-GPU approach.
Differential behavioral responses to cocaine are associated with dynamics of mesolimbic dopamine proteins in Lewis and Fischer 344 rats

Differential behavioral and biochemical responses to drugs of abuse may reflect genetic makeup as suggested by studies of inbred Lewis (LEW) and Fischer 344 (F344) rats. We investigated locomotor activity, stereotypy signs, and levels of specific proteins in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and ventral tegmental area (VTA) in these strains at baseline and following chronic administration of cocaine (30 mg/kg/day for 14 days). Using Western blot analysis, we replicated our previous findings of baseline strain differences and found lower levels of ΔFosB immunoreactivity in NAc of F344 vs. LEW rats. F344 rats showed greater baseline locomotor activity, sniffing, and grooming compared to LEW rats. Chronic cocaine increased ΔFosB levels in NAc in both strains, whereas adaptations in other proteins were induced in F344 rats only. These included reduced levels of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) in NAc and increased TH and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) immunoreactivity in VTA. Chronic cocaine led to greater increases in overall stereotypy in F344 vs. LEW rats and decreased exploratory behaviors in LEW rats. Opposing effects by strain were seen in locomotor activity. Whereas F344 rats showed higher initial activity levels that decreased with cocaine exposure (tolerance), LEW rats showed increased activity over days (sensitization) with no strain differences seen at 14 days. Further, conditioned locomotor activation to vehicle injections was greater in F344 vs. LEW rats. These results suggest that behavioral responsiveness to chronic cocaine exposure may reflect dynamics of mesolimbic dopamine protein levels and demonstrate the role of genetic background in responsiveness to cocaine. Synapse 41:179–190, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Testing the universality of star formation – I. Multiplicity in nearby star-forming regions

We have collated multiplicity data for five clusters (Taurus, Chamaeleon I, Ophiuchus, IC 348 and the Orion Nebula Cluster). We have applied the same mass ratio (flux ratios of ΔK≤ 2.5) and primary mass cuts (∼0.1–3.0 M⊙) to each cluster and therefore have directly comparable binary statistics for all five clusters in the separation range 62–620 au, and for Taurus, Chamaeleon I and Ophiuchus in the range 18–830 au. We find that the trend of decreasing binary fraction with cluster density is solely due to the high binary fraction of Taurus; the other clusters show no obvious trend over a factor of nearly 20 in density. With N-body simulations, we attempt to find a set of initial conditions that are able to reproduce the density, morphology and binary fractions of all five clusters. Only an initially clumpy (fractal) distribution with an initial total binary fraction of 73 per cent (17 per cent in the range 62–620 au) is able to reproduce all of the observations (albeit not very satisfactorily). Therefore, if star formation is universal, then the initial conditions must be clumpy and with a high (but not 100 per cent) binary fraction. This could suggest that most stars, including M dwarfs, form in binaries.
Feature Selection for Automatic Burst Detection in Neonatal Electroencephalogram

Monitoring neonatal electroencephalogram (EEG) signal is useful in identifying neonatal convulsions which might be clinically invisible. Presence of burst suppression pattern in neonate EEG is a clear indication of epilepsy. Visual identification of burst patterns from recorded continuous raw EEG data is time consuming. On the other hand, automatic burst detection techniques mentioned in the standard literature mostly rely on comparison with respect to predefined static voltage or energy thresholds, thus becoming too specific. Burst detection using ratio information of quantitative feature values between burst segment and neighborhood background EEG segment is proposed in this paper. Features like ratio of mean nonlinear energy, power spectral density, variance and absolute voltage, when applied as an input to a support vector machine (SVM) classifier, provides high degree of separability between burst and normal (nonburst) EEG segments. Exhaustive simulation using various literature specified features and proposed feature combinations shows that the proposed feature set provides best classification accuracy compared to other reported burst detection methods. The results documented in this paper can be used as a reference of optimum quantitative EEG feature sets for distinguishing between burst and normal (nonburst) EEG segments.
Explaining Employee Engagement with Strategic Change Implementation: a Meaning-making Approach Explaining Employee Engagement with Strategic Change Implementation: a Meaning-making Approach Meaning-making Dimensions of Strategic Change Implementation Review of Meaning-making Literature ***insert Fig

* We thank Senior Editor Kyle Lewis and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions throughout the review process. We are also grateful to Grant and Vikas Mittal for feedback on an earlier draft of this paper, as well as to Tina Borja for her editorial assistance. ABSTRACT Using a framework of meaning-making derived from social psychological research on how individuals manage adverse life events and research on sensemaking, we develop and test theory about how frontline employees overcome the challenges of implementing strategic change. We find certain types of meaning-making (strategy worldview and benefits finding) can create the requisite psychological resources that facilitates employees engaging in change implementation behaviors. The " Meaning-Making Change Adaptation Model " (MCAM) we develop helps explain when and how employees adapt to change, thereby opening the " black box " of how to facilitate more effective strategic change implementation. We develop and empirically test the MCAM using qualitative and quantitative data from a Fortune 500 retailer. 3 Organizations of all stripes routinely attempt strategic change, but many implementation efforts fail. Change implementation is considered a game of high stakes, where success can reinvigorate a business, but failure often delivers catastrophic consequences, including the firm's demise (Hofer and Schendel 1978). While scholars have amassed an impressive base of knowledge regarding how firms, through the actions of top managers (Ginsberg 1988; Hinings and Greenwood 1988), attempt strategic change, they know surprisingly little about the ways in which employees contribute to the achievement of a new strategic direction. Several factors may help explain this blind spot. First, strategic change research traditionally privileges formulation of change strategy over its implementation (Hambrick 2004). In doing so, it emphasizes the actions of top managers that influence strategy formulation while overlooking the crucial role played by other managers (Balogun and Johnson 2004) and employees in implementing new employees' roles in strategic change, it is often assumed the dominant response to change from employees is resistance (Dent and Goldberg, 1999; Ford, Ford, and D'Amelio 2008). In the words of Armenakis and Fredenberger (1997, p. 151): " Change creates uncertainty and the general reaction of people is to react cautiously, translated as resistance. So expect it! " While the preponderance of research emphasizes this " resistance lens, " a growing chorus of scholars has called for broader research regarding how employees respond to change. For example, scholars have examined how organizational members can …
Struggle for Meaning : Reflections on Philosophy, Culture, and Democracy in Africa

The Struggle for Meaning is a landmark publication by one of African philosophy's leading figures, Paulin J. Hountondji, best known for his critique of ethnophilosophy in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In this volume, he responds with autobiographical and philosophical reflection to the dialogue and controversy he has provoked. He discusses the ideas, rooted in the work of such thinkers as Husserl and Hountondji's former teachers Derrida, Althusser, and Ricoeur, that helped shape his critique. Applying his philosophical ideas to the critical issues of democracy, culture, and development in Africa today, he addresses three crucial topics: the nexus between scientific extraversion and economic dependence; the nature of endogenous traditions of thought and their relationship with modern science; and the implications - for political pluralism and democracy - of the emergence of "philosophies of subject" in Africa. While the book's immediate concern is with Africa, the densely theoretical nature of its analyses, and its bearing on current postmodern theories of the "other," will make this timely and elegant translation of great interest to many disciplines, especially ethnic, gender, and multicultural studies.
Vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy is not associated with obstructed labor, A study among Pakistani women in Karachi

BACKGROUND Vitamin D deficiency is widespread among pregnant Pakistanis in Norway. It may cause osteomalacia with destruction of maternal pelvis, and thus be a risk factor for cephalopelvic disproportion. This study was performed to determine whether vitamin D deficiency is common among pregnant Pakistanis in Pakistan, and to test the hypothesis that vitamin D deficiency in nulliparous pregnant women is associated with mechanical dystocia. METHODS The study was carried out at the Civil Hospital, in a poor area of Karachi, and had a case-referent design. Thirty-seven nulliparous parturients with Cesarean section due to mechanical dystocia served as cases, and 80 nulliparous parturients with uncomplicated vaginal delivery were their referents. All blood samples were drawn before parturition. RESULTS The mothers with obstructed labor were shorter (on average 150 vs. 155 cm, p= 0.0001) and lighter (on average 58 vs. 60.5 kg, p=0.005) than their referents. Seventy-one percent (83/117) of all the participants had marginal or low vitamin D status defined as serum level of calcidiol (25-OH vitamin D3) below 30 nmol/l. Vitamin D deficiency was, however, not more widespread among the mothers with obstructed labor (20/37 vs. 63/80). Furthermore, there were no significant differences in the serum levels of the carboxyterminal telopeptide of type I collagen, a sensitive biochemical marker of bone resorption, (7.2 vs. 6.6 microg/l), and bone specific alkaline phosphate (18.1 vs. 22.0 U/l) a sensitive marker of bone formation. CONCLUSIONS Vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy is common in Karachi, but is not associated with mechanical dystocia.