Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Is Theory of Mind in Schizophrenia More Strongly Associated with Clinical and Social Functioning than with Neurocognitive Deficits?

This paper examines the correlations between ‘Theory of Mind’ (ToM) and neurocognitive performance, together with clinical and social functioning, in out-patients with schizophrenic disorders. It was hypothesised that, since the ability to make inferences about the environment and about other peoples’ mental states is a key ingredient of social competence, the assessment of ToM would correlate more strongly with current social functioning than with more traditional neurocognitive measures. ‘Independent raters’ assessed Theory of Mind, neurocognitive and clinical variables as well as community functioning in 44 subjects with schizophrenia. The neuropsychological measures were more closely associated with community functioning than with psychiatric symptoms. These associations remained evident when the effects of intelligence were controlled. Patients with a higher level of competence in making social inferences had better overall community functioning than those who showed less ability in this aspect of social cognition. In a regression model, the capacity to comprehend other people’s mental states (ToM-2) was among the best predictors of global social functioning, together with recent onset of illness, good verbal fluency and low levels of negative and positive symptoms. These results are consistent with other recent findings. ToM measures of social cognition may be a useful addition to neuropsychological assessment when developing programmes for reducing clinical impairments and improving the community functioning of subjects with schizophrenic disorders. Further studies are needed to verify the value of these measures as predictors of the successful application of specific psychosocial rehabilitation strategies.
'It's Computerization, Stupid!' The Spread of Computers and the Changing Roles of Theoretical and Applied Economics

This paper challenges the widely held notion that the developments in computing are sufficient to explain the recent turn to applied economics. Developments in computer hardware were undoubtedly important. Yet, economists' appropriation of the new techniques allowed by computerization were highly selective, and influenced by the development of software and ties with other scientific communities, by the availability of business and governmental data, by salesmanship to policy-makers, and by how epistemologically acceptable these approaches were made to other economists. In particular, theoretical work was not be transformed by computers the way it was in physics or biology. We conjecture that the most profound effect of the increased availability of computers may have been to challenge the demarcation between theory and applied work.
Protective effects of royal jelly against testicular damage in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.

BACKGROUND/AIM TO examine the effects of royal jelly (RJ) on testicular damage in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. MATERIALS AND METHODS Eighteen adult Wistar albino rats were used, 6 in each of the 3 treatment groups: Group A: control, Group B: STZ-induced diabetes (untreated), Group C: STZ-induced diabetes plus RJ (400 mg/kg daily for 4 weeks). Diabetes was induced by a single intraperitoneal injection of STZ (60 mg/kg). Four weeks after the onset of diabetes, testicular apoptotic cell death was examined using immunohistochemical staining for caspase-3 and Ki67 staining for localization of proliferative cells. RESULTS Compared with the control, the body and testicular weights of the RJ-treated and untreated diabetic rats were decreased (P < 0.05). The histopathological examination showed a significant increase in degenerative changes in the seminiferous tubules and in spermatogenesis of the STZ-treated rats. In contrast, the RJ treatment group showed near-normal morphology, in addition to an increased intensity of immunohistochemical staining for Ki67-positive cells. CONCLUSION Diabetes induced a significant increase in testicular apoptotic cell death (caspase-3-positive cells). Caspase-3-positive cells were significantly decreased in the STZ plus RJ-treated group compared with the untreated STZ-induced diabetic group (P < 0.05).
Experimental evaluation of an open-loop all-optical chaotic communication system

An experimental investigation of the performance of an open-loop optical chaotic communication system has been carried out under different optical injection conditions. The most popular message encoding techniques have been considered, tested and compared at gigabit rates and for different levels of optical injection to the receiver, by bit-error-rate (BER) measurements. Different low-pass electrical filters have been implemented for the various message bit-rates tested, in order to employ the most appropriate one for message decoding. The best performance of all the examined encryption methods for messages of 1.5 Gb/s bit-rate emerged for the chaos modulation encryption method and was characterized by Q-factor values up to 5.1, after synchronizing in the strong injection regime, while the corresponding BER of the decoded message was as low as 7/spl middot/10/sup -5/. In order to confirm the secure encryption of the message, BER measurements are also performed for the chaotic carrier into which the message is encrypted.
Autologous Bone Marrow-Derived Cell Therapy Combined with Physical Therapy Induces Functional Improvement in Chronic Spinal Cord Injury Patients

Spinal cord injuries (SCI) cause sensory loss and motor paralysis. They are normally treated with physical therapy, but most patients fail to recover due to limited neural regeneration. Here we describe a strategy in which treatment with autologous adherent bone marrow cells is combined with physical therapy to improve motor and sensory functions in early stage chronic SCI patients. In a phase I/II controlled single-blind clinical trial (clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT00816803), 70 chronic cervical and thoracic SCI patients with injury durations of at least 12 months were treated with either intrathecal injection(s) of autologous adherent bone marrow cells combined with physical therapy or with physical therapy alone. Patients were evaluated with clinical and neurological examinations using the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) Impairment Scale (AIS), electrophysiological somatosensory-evoked potential, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and functional independence measurements. Chronic cervical and thoracic SCI patients (15 AIS A and 35 AIS B) treated with autologous adherent bone marrow cells combined with physical therapy showed functional improvements over patients in the control group (10 AIS A and 10 AIS B) treated with physical therapy alone, and there were no long-term cell therapy-related side effects. At 18 months posttreatment, 23 of the 50 cell therapy-treated cases (46%) showed sustained functional improvement. Compared to those patients with cervical injuries, a higher rate of functional improvement was achieved in thoracic SCI patients with shorter durations of injury and smaller cord lesions. Therefore, when combined with physical therapy, autologous adherent bone marrow cell therapy appears to be a safe and promising therapy for patients with chronic SCI of traumatic origin. Randomized controlled multicenter trials are warranted.
An electrical analysis of slow wave propagation in the guinea‐pig gastric antrum

This paper provides an electrical description of the propagation of slow waves and pacemaker potentials in the guinea‐pig gastric antrum in anal and circumferential directions. As electrical conduction between laterally adjacent circular muscle bundles is regularly interrupted, anal conduction of pacemaker potentials was assumed to occur via an electrically interconnected chain of myenteric interstitial cells of Cajal (ICCMY). ICCMY were also connected resistively to serially connected compartments of longitudinal muscle. Circumferential conduction occurred in a circular smooth muscle bundle that was represented as a chain of electrically connected isopotential compartments: each compartment contained a proportion of intramuscular interstitial cells of Cajal (ICCIM) that are responsible for the regenerative component of the slow wave. The circular muscle layer, which contains ICCIM, and the ICCMY network incorporated a mechanism, modelled as a two‐stage chemical reaction, which produces an intracellular messenger. The first stage of the reaction is proposed to be activated in a voltage‐dependent manner as described by Hodgkin and Huxley; the messenger altered the mean rate of discharge of depolarizing unitary potentials as a function of the concentration of messenger according to a conventional dose–effect relationship. A separate membrane conductance, scaled by the product of an independent voltage‐sensitive reaction, was included in the ICCMY compartments; this was used to describe the primary component of pacemaker potentials and simulated a delay before the activation of this membrane current. The model generates pacemaker potentials and slow waves with propagation velocities similar to those determined in the physiological experiments described in the accompanying paper.
Influence of hip and knee osteoarthritis on dynamic postural control parameters among older fallers.

OBJECTIVE To compare the relationship between postural control and knee and hip osteoarthritis in older adults with and without a history of falls. METHODS Fallers were those with ≥ 2 falls or 1 injurious fall over 12 months. Non-fallers were volunteers with no falls in the past year. Radiological evidence of osteoarthritis with no reported symptoms was considered "asymptomatic osteoarthritis", while "symptomatic osteoarthritis" was defined as radiographic osteoarthritis with pain or stiffness. Dynamic postural control was quantified with the limits of stability test measured on a balance platform (Neurocom® Balancemaster, California, USA). Parameters assessed were end-point excursion, maximal excursion, and directional control. RESULTS A total of 102 older individuals, mean age 73 years (standard deviation 5.7) years were included. The association between falls and poor performance in maximal excursion and directional control was confounded by age and comorbidities. In the same linear equation model with falls, symptomatic osteoarthritis remained independently associated with poor end-point excursion (β-coefficient (95% confidence interval) -6.80 (-12.14 to -1.42)). CONCLUSION Poor performance in dynamic postural control (maximal excursion and directional control) among fallers was not accounted for by hip/knee osteoarthritis, but was confounded by old age and comorbidities. Loss of postural control due to hip/knee osteoarthritis is not a risk factor for falls among community-dwelling older adults.
Online Resource Allocation with Limited Flexibility

We consider a class of online resource allocation problems in which there are n types of resources with limited initial inventory and n demand classes. The resources are flexible in that each type of resources can serve more than one demand class. In this paper, we focus on a special class of structures with limited flexibility, the long chain design, which was proposed by Jordan and Graves (1995) and has been an important concept in the design of sparse flexible processes. We study the long chain design in an online stochastic environment where the requests are drawn repeatedly and independently from a known probability distribution over the different demand classes. Also, the decision on how to address each request must be made immediately upon its arrival. We show the effectiveness of the long chain design in mitigating supply-demand mismatch under a simple myopic online allocation policy. In particular, we provide an upper bound on the expected total number of lost sales that is irrespective of how large the market size is.
The c‐Cbl/CD2AP complex regulates VEGF‐induced endocytosis and degradation of Flt‐1 (VEGFR‐1)

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its receptors are key regulators of angiogenesis and are potential targets in cancer therapy. Here we report the down‐regulation of activated VEGF receptor (VEGFR)‐1/Flt‐1 by endocytosis and proteolytic degradation. VEGF stimulation induced a ternary complex of Flt‐1, c‐Cbl, and CD2AP. Substitution of tyrosine 1333 in Flt‐1 with phenylalanine (Y1333F) impaired its binding to c‐Cbl. In a transient expression system, VEGF stimulated colocalization of Flt‐1, CD2AP, and c‐Cbl in endocytic vesicles. This colocalization was significantly impaired by an inhibitor of VEGFR kinase SU5416, the Y1333F mutation in Flt‐1, or by a dominant negative form of CD2AP. In Flt‐1‐overexpressing NIH3T3 cells, expression of the wild‐type CD2AP enhanced VEGF‐stimulated internalization as well as ubiquitination of Flt‐1 whereas that of a mutated form of either CD2AP or c‐Cbl failed to do so. These results suggest that the c‐Cbl/CD2AP complex binds to activated Flt‐1 and plays a crucial role in its endocytosis and subsequent degradation.
A New Lattice Reduction Algorithm for LR-Aided MIMO Linear Detection

Lattice reduction (LR) has recently emerged as a promising technique for improving the performance of suboptimal multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) detectors. For LR-aided MIMO detection, the Lenstra-Lenstra-Lovász (LLL) and Seysen's algorithm (SA) have been considered almost exclusively to date. In this paper, we introduced a new LR algorithm for LR-aided linear detection (LD). In contrast to the LLL and SA, which are targeted to search for bases with relatively short basis vectors, the proposed algorithm has been designed to improve the minimum Euclidean distance of the LR-aided linear detector, thus exhibiting improved error rate at high SNR. The error-rate performance of the proposed algorithm as well as the required complexity has been demonstrated through extensive computer simulations.
A Novel Genetic Mutation in a Patient With Recurrent Biparental Complete Hydatidiform Mole: A Brief Report

Abstract Recurrent hydatidiform moles are defined by the occurrence of two or more molar pregnancies in the same patient. Familial recurrent hydatidiform moles (FRHM) is a rare autosomal recessive condition where women have an inherited predisposition to have molar pregnancies. Genotyping demonstrated that they are diploid and biparental. We report a case of FRHM from Egypt with a history of 6 recurrent complete moles. Sequencing of the NLPR7 gene revealed a deleterious homozygous base change in exon 2, c.197G>A, which would result in a truncated protein p.W66*. To the best of our knowledge, this mutation has not been described before.
Differential Correlation Between Rates of Antimicrobial Drug Consumption and Prevalence of Antimicrobial Resistance in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Greece

Objective. To investigate whether there is a correlation between the rates of antimicrobial drug consumption in hospital departments and the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance among clinically important bacteria recovered in the hospital. Design. Retrospective study. Setting. Tertiary care hospital in Greece. Methods. Data on antimicrobial consumption (from January 2001 through December 2004) were expressed as defined daily doses per 100 bed-days. The prevalence of antimicrobial resistance among isolates of Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumannii, and Enterococcusfaecium recovered during the same time period were calculated by the microbiology department. We then performed the following analyses: (1) a comparison of the consumption rates for different antimicrobial groups in individual hospital departments, (2) a comparison of the prevalence of resistance to different antimicrobials, and (3) a correlation analysis of antimicrobial consumption rates and the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance. Results. The rates of antimicrobial consumption and the prevalence of resistance varied substantially among the hospital's departments. The annual rate of consumption for carbapenems correlated with the rate of consumption for glycopeptides and third-generation cephalosporins (P < .05). Among P. aeruginosa isolates, the prevalence of imipenem resistance correlated with the prevalence of resistance to amikacin, ciprofloxacin, and ceftazidime (P < .05). The rate of carbapenem consumption correlated with the prevalence of imipenem resistance among P. aeruginosa and A. baumannii isolates (P < .05). The rate of aminoglycoside consumption correlated with the prevalence of amikacin resistance among P. aeruginosa, K. pneumoniae, and E. coli isolates (P < .05). However, the rate of consumption for fluoroquinolones and glycopeptides had no correlation with the prevalence of ciprofloxacin resistance among gram-negative bacteria or vancomycin resistance among E. faecium isolates. Conclusions. These data are suggestive of a differential relationship between antimicrobial consumption and the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance among various species and for various antimicrobial agents. These findings may help to optimize antimicrobial prescription policies in the hospital, especially in departments that have both high rates of antimicrobial consumption and a high prevalence of antimicrobial resistance.
Exercise-induced bronchospasm in nonasthmatic obese and nonobese boys.

BACKGROUND In this study it was aimed to compare the degree and frequency of exercise-induced bronchospasm (EIB) in nonasthmatic obese boys with those in nonasthmatic nonobese boys. METHODS PARTICIPANTS Fifty boys (24 obese and 26 control), aged 11 to 15 years, with no history of asthma or other atopic diseases, took part in the study. MEASURES Anthropometric measurements and spirometry were performed at rest and spirometry was repeated at 5 and 15 minutes after an eight-minute submaximal exercise on cycle ergometer. RESULTS The falls in ratio of forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) to forced vital capacity (FVC) and expiratory rates at 5 and 15 minutes after the exercise were significant in obese boys. Only significant change was the fall in FEV1/FVC at 5th minutes in controls. There was no significant difference between obese group and controls in the number of EIB-positive cases. Pulmonary function changes after the exercise had significant negative correlation with body mass index, subscapular and biceps skinfolds. CONCLUSIONS Since the fall in pulmonary function was severe in obese boys and these falls were correlated with body mass index and skinfolds, it is concluded that diagnosis and management of EIB may improve aerobic exercise performance and participation in obese children.
Picture perception in Chinese dyslexic children: an eye‐movement study

Background Currently, whether or not there is visuospatial impairments in Chinese dyslexic children is still a matter of discussion. The relatively recent application of an eye‐tracking paradigm may offer an opportunity to address this issue. In China, in comparison with reading studies, there have not been nearly as many eye movement studies dealing with nonreading tasks such as picture identification and whether Chinese children with dyslexia have a picture processing deficit is not clear. The purposes of the present study were to determine whether or not there is visuospatial impairments in Chinese dyslexic children. Moreover, we attempted to discuss whether or not the abnormal eye movement pattern that dyslexic subjects show during reading of text appropriate for their age is a consequence of their linguistic difficulties. Methods An eye‐link II High‐Speed Eye Tracker was used to track the series of eye‐movement of 19 Chinese dyslexic children and 19 Chinese normal children. All of the subjects were presented with three pictures for this eye‐tracking task and 6 relative eye‐movement parameters, first fixation duration, average fixation duration, average saccade amplitude, mean saccade distance, fixation frequency and saccade frequency were recorded for analysis. Results Analyzing the relative parameter among three pictures, except for the fixation frequency and the saccade frequency, other eye‐movement parameters were significantly different among the three pictures (P <0.05). Among the three pictures, the first fixation duration was longer, and the average fixation duration, the average saccade amplitude and the mean saccade distance were shorter from picture 2 to picture 3. Comparing all eye‐movement parameter between the two groups, the scores of average saccade amplitude (P=0.017) and the mean saccade distance (P=0.02) were less in the dyslexia group than in the normal group (P <0.05), other parameters were the same in the two different groups (P>0.05). Conclusions The characteristics of the pictures can significantly influence the visuospatial cognitive processing capability of the Chinese children. There is a detectable disability for the Chinese dyslexic children in the visuospatial cognitive processing: their saccade amplitude and mean saccade distance are shorter, which may be interpreted as specific for their reading disability.
Entrepreneurship education and the role of universities in entrepreneurship

Despite the considerable political and academic interest in concepts such as the triple helix of government, business and higher education as well as entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial universities, relatively little has been written about the role of the university in developing entrepreneurship. More specifically, the questions of how the university can contribute through education, entrepreneurial support and network functions and be entrepreneurial in its endeavours have lacked academic focus and rigour, particularly in relation to fostering entrepreneurial mindsets. This introductory article therefore provides a thorough discussion of the role of the university in entrepreneurship and then summarizes the contribution to that debate of the articles in this special issue of Industry and Higher Education.
Effects of extracellular DNA from Candida albicans and pneumonia‐related pathogens on Candida biofilm formation and hyphal transformation

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of genomic DNA purified from Candida albicans and pneumonia‐related pathogens, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus, on in vitro biofilm formation and morphological change of 3 Candida species (C. albicans, C. glabrata, and C. tropicalis).
On the inverse problem of Galois theory of differential fields

1. All fields considered here are of characteristic 0. Let F be a field, let C be an algebraically closed subfield of F. Let G be a connected algebraic group defined over C. F(G) denotes the field of all rational functions on G defined over F. If gCG then F(g) denotes the field generated by g over F. We shall say that a derivation of F(G) commutes with G*(C) if it commutes with g*, for every gEG(C), where g* denotes the automorphism of F(G) induced by the left translation by g, i.e., (g*f)(x) =f(gx), for any xCG. F denotes the Lie algebra of all derivations of F(G) that are zero on F and which commute with G*(F). If G1 is a normal subgroup of G defined over F then F(G/G1) is canonically isomorphic to a subfield of F(G); we shall identify F(G/G1) and this subfield. If R is an integral domain then (R) denotes the field of fractions of R. Every derivation d of R can be uniquely extended to a derivation of R (the extended derivation will be also denoted by d). If F1, F2 are two fields containing F as a subfield and if d1, d2 are derivations of F1, F2, respectively, such that d1i F= d2 I F and d1(F) C F then d1i d2 denotes the derivation of F1,0F F2 determined by (d1 d2)(a 0 b) -d1(a)Gb+a0d2(b), for every aGF1 and bCF2. do denotes the zero derivation of a field (it will be always clear what field we have in mind). The underlying field of an ordinary differential field 53 will be denoted by F.