Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of a teacher training program to enhance executive functions in preschool children

Background Executive functions (EFs) play a critical role in cognitive and social development. During preschool years, children show not only rapid improvement in their EFs, but also appear sensitive to developmentally appropriate interventions. Aim EMIL is a training program for German preschool teachers that was developed and implemented to improve the EFs of preschoolers. The aim of the present study was to evaluate its effects on the EFs of children between three and six years old. Method The teacher training (eight sessions, 28.5 hours) was implemented in four preschools. The EFs of children of the intervention group (n = 72, 32 girls, Mage = 48 months) and the control group of four other matched preschools (n = 61, 27 girls, Mage = 48 months) were tested before, during, and after the intervention using different measures assessing working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility. Results The intervention group showed significant gains on three out of seven EF tests (behavioral inhibition, visual-spatial working memory, and combined EFs) compared to the control group. Post hoc analyses for children with low initial EFs scores revealed that participation in the intervention led to significant gains in inhibitory control, visual-spatial working memory, and phonological working memory as well as a marginally significant difference for combined EFs. However, effect sizes were rather small. Conclusion The results suggest that teacher training can lead to significant improvements in preschooler’s EFs. Although preliminary, the results could contribute to the discussion on how teacher training can facilitate the improvement of EFs in preschool children.
The Lung in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is an increasingly recognized complication of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. In addition, approximately one‐third of patients have subclinical disease with varying degrees of functional impairment. Although risk factors for RA‐related ILD are well established (e.g., older age, male sex, ever smoking, and seropositivity for rheumatoid factor and anti–cyclic citrullinated peptide), little is known about optimal disease assessment, treatment, and monitoring, particularly in patients with progressive disease. Patients with RA‐related ILD are also at high risk of infection and drug toxicity, which, along with comorbidities, complicates further treatment decision‐making. There are distinct histopathologic patterns of RA‐related ILD with different clinical phenotypes, natural histories, and prognoses. Of these, the usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) subtype of RA‐related ILD shares a number of clinical and histopathologic features with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, the most common and severe of the idiopathic interstitial pneumonias, suggesting the existence of common mechanistic pathways and possibly therapeutic targets. There remain substantial gaps in our knowledge of RA‐related ILD. Concerted multinational efforts by expert centers has the potential to elucidate the basic mechanisms underlying RA‐related UIP and other subtypes of RA‐related ILD and facilitate the development of more efficacious and safer drugs.
Fire and Vegetation Dynamics in High-elevation Neotropical Montane Forests of the Dominican Republic

Abstract In March and April 2005, severe fires burned over 1000 km2 of tropical montane forests in the Cordillera Central, Dominican Republic. The fire burned through our network of permanent vegetation plots, which were established in 1999 to examine interactions among environment, vegetation, and disturbance. We used QuickBird satellite imagery combined with field surveys to map the extent and severity of the fire across the landscape. The fire burned through 96% of the pine forest but quickly extinguished at the pine–cloud forest boundary along most of the ecotone. Topographic factors and fire severity had no influence on fire behavior at the ecotone. These observations support our original hypothesis that fire maintains the abrupt boundary between the pine and cloud forest vegetation in these mountains. Vegetation structure and composition played a direct role in regulating fire spread and behavior in this landscape.
The interrelationship of various traits with seed yield in mungbean (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek)

The experimental material consisted of 58 diverse genotypes and 12 traits. Analysis of variance showed that these traits differ to each other. The seed yield per plant had highly significant and positive correlations both at genotypic and phenotypic levels with number of pods per plant, number of pods per cluster, number of cluster per plant and number of seeds per pod. Days to maturity showed negative and highly significant correlation with seed yield per plant at phenotypic and genotypic levels and days to 50% flowering at only genotypic level. The seed yield per plant did not show any significant association with protein content and other traits including number of branches per plant, number of pods per cluster and 100-seed weight that showed positive and significant correlation to protein content. So it can be concluded that selection for these traits enhance the seed yield and protein content in Mungbean.
The Importance of Coaches’ Autonomy Support in the Leisure Experience and Well-Being of Young Footballers

Drawing on the self-determination framework, the study examined the effect of coaches’ autonomy support on the leisure experience of young male football players. Specifically, a model was tested analyzing the long-term predictive power of the players’ perceptions of the coaches’ autonomy support at the beginning of the season on the subjective vitality of young football players at the end of the season, through needs satisfaction and intrinsic motivation (IM). Moreover, we tested whether the effects of coaches’ autonomy support on the aforementioned variables (needs satisfaction, IM, and subjective vitality) at the end of the season remained at the beginning of the following season. Because the coach in the second season was not the same one as in the first season, the perception of coaches’ autonomy support at the beginning of the second season was used as a control variable. Three hundred and sixty football players (M age = 12.60 years; SD = 0.52) completed a questionnaire on the variables of interest at the beginning of the first season (T1), at the end of the first season (T2), and at the beginning of the second season (T3). The results of the path analyses showed that players’ perceptions of coaches’ autonomy support at the beginning of the season (T1) positively predicted needs satisfaction at the end of the first season (T2), which in turn predicted IM at the end of the first season (T2). Additionally, IM significantly and positively predicted subjective vitality at the end of the first season (T2). Finally, needs satisfaction, IM, and subjective vitality at the end of the second season (T2) positively predicted these same variables at the beginning of the second season (T3). Results emphasized the importance of the autonomy support offered by the coach in promoting the quality of young people’s leisure experience playing football and its benefits for their well-being.
Prognostic Value of FBXO39 and ETS-1 but not BMI-1 in Iranian Colorectal Cancer Patients

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most prevalent cancers worldwide. Despite recent progress in diagnosis and treatment, it remains a major health problem and further studies are needed. We here investigated expression profiles of the FBXO39, ETS-1 and BMI-1 genes in CRCs to validate any possible diagnostic/prognostic significance. Material and Methods: Thirty six patients with locally advanced CRC admitted to Hazrate-Rasoul Hospital-Tehran were enrolled. Initially the expression pattern of FBXO39, ETS-1 and BMI-1 genes were determined using RT-PCR in CRC tumor and adjacent normal tissues then real-time RT-PCR was employed to quantify BMI-1 gene expression. Results: FBXO39 expression was restricted to tumor tissues. Interestingly, expression of this gene was detected in all stage-0 tumor samples. There was a significant relation between FBXO39 gene expression and lymph node involvement. The ETS-1 gene was expressed in 66% of all tumor tissues with p-value=0.03 for increase as compared to the adjacent normal samples. In addition, there was a significant relation between ETS-1 gene expression and tumor size and lymph node involvement. RT-PCR demonstrated BMI-1 gene expression in both tumor and normal tissues and quantification by real-time RT-PCR showed no association between BMI-1 levels and CRC clinicopathological features. Conclusion: Expression of FBXO39 and ETS-1 with lymph node involvement may be considered as an alarm for the occurrence of CRC metastasis, and therfore have prognostic value while BMI-1 appears without importance.
Recursive Neural Network Based Preordering for English-to-Japanese Machine Translation

The word order between source and target languages significantly influences the translation quality. Preordering can effectively address this problem. Previous preordering methods require a manual feature design, making language dependent design difficult. In this paper, we propose a preordering method with recursive neural networks that learn features from raw inputs. Experiments show the proposed method is comparable to the state-of-the-art method but without a manual feature design.
Variations in developmental patterns across pragmatic features 1

Drawing on the findings of longitudinal studies in uninstructed contexts over the last two decades, this synthesis explores variations in developmental patterns across second language (L2) pragmatic features. Two synthesis questions were addressed: (a) What are the variations in developmental patterns across pragmatic features? , and (b) What are the potential explanations for the variations? In response to the first question, previous studies showed that L2 pragmatic development is a non-linear, dynamic process, with developmental paces varying across pragmatic features (Ortactepe, 2013; Taguchi, 2010, 2011, 2012; Warga & Scholmberger, 2007). These studies revealed that some aspects of pragmatic features (e.g., semantic strategies of speech acts) develop faster than others (e.g., lexical features such as mitigators). In response to the second question, three potential explanations were identified to account for the developmental variations: (a) language-related, (b) situation-dependent, and (c) learner-related explanations, with three subcategories for the language-related explanation: (a) the functions of pragmatic features, (b) the frequency of availability of target features, and (c) the similarity and difference between languages with respect to the target feature.
Automation in visual inspection tasks: X-ray luggage screening supported by a system of direct, indirect or adaptable cueing with low and high system reliability

Abstract The present study evaluated three automation modes for improving performance in an X-ray luggage screening task. One hundred and forty participants were asked to detect the presence of prohibited items in X-ray images of cabin luggage. Twenty participants conducted this task without automatic support (control group), whereas the others worked with either indirect cues (system indicated the target presence without specifying its location), or direct cues (system pointed out the exact target location) or adaptable automation (participants could freely choose between no cue, direct and indirect cues). Furthermore, automatic support reliability was manipulated (low versus high). The results showed a clear advantage for direct cues regarding detection performance and response time. No benefits were observed for adaptable automation. Finally, high automation reliability led to better performance and higher operator trust. The findings overall confirmed that automatic support systems for luggage screening should be designed such that they provide direct, highly reliable cues.Practitioner summary: The present study confirmed previous findings showing better detection performance in X-ray images of luggage when supported by automation providing direct, highly reliable cues. Furthermore, participants used adaptable automation only to select their preferred level of automation. This behaviour did not provide the benefits expected under adaptable automation.
𝓁1-regression with Heavy-tailed Distributions

In this paper, we consider the problem of linear regression with heavy-tailed distributions. Different from previous studies that use the squared loss to measure the performance, we choose the absolute loss, which is capable of estimating the conditional median. To address the challenge that both the input and output could be heavy-tailed, we propose a truncated minimization problem, and demonstrate that it enjoys an Õ( √ d/n) excess risk, where d is the dimensionality and n is the number of samples. Compared with traditional work on `1-regression, the main advantage of our result is that we achieve a high-probability risk bound without exponential moment conditions on the input and output. Furthermore, if the input is bounded, we show that the classical empirical risk minimization is competent for `1-regression even when the output is heavy-tailed.
Heart Protective Effects of Electroacupuncture in an Animal Experimental Study with Delayed Fluid Resuscitation after Hemorrhagic Shock

Fluid resuscitation could hardly be performed immediately after fatal hemorrhagic shock in outpatients. We investigated whether electroacupuncture (EA) at Zusanli (ST36) could prevent fatal hemorrhagic shock induced heart failure with delayed fluid resuscitation and whether the protective role of EA is related to the autonomic nervous system. Sixty Sprague Dawley rats were randomly divided into five groups (n = 12 each): group of sham hemorrhagic shock (SHAM), group of EA, group of sham EA (SEA), group of delayed fluid resuscitation with EA (EA + DR), and group of delayed fluid resuscitation with SEA (SEA + DR). After blood loss for 6 hours, caspase-3 activity and positive rate of TUNEL in EA + DR group were significantly lower than in other hemorrhagic shock groups (e.g., versus SEA + DR: 0.156 ± 0.039 versus 0.301 ± 0.042; P < 0.05). Immediately EA treatment after the blood loss enhanced the protective effect of delayed resuscitation on the cardiac tissue of hemorrhagic shock rats. Considering the significant changes of epinephrine (137.8 ± 6.9 ng/L versus 98.6 ± 7.4 ng/L; P < 0.05) and acetylcholine (405 ± 8.6 pmol/L versus 341 ± 10.1 pmol/L; P < 0.05) after EA treatment (SEA + DR versus EA + DR), this cardiac protective effect may be related to regulation of the autonomic nervous system.
Oxidative Stress Biomarkers Response to Exercise in Brazilian Junior Soccer Players

The purpose was to analyze biomarkers of oxidative stress and muscle damage in junior soccer players undergoing intermittent exercise to verify the biochemical changes. Ten trained, healthy male soccer players (age 18.3 ± 0.7 years, body mass 74.3 ± 7.4 kg, height 175.5 ± 6.7 cm, body mass index 24.14 ± 1.15 kg/m 2 ; mean ± SD) from the junior category of an elite Brazilian football association participated in this study. They accomplished a running test (Loughborough Intermittent Shuttle Test) which simulates common soccer activity patterns. Blood samples were collected before, during and immediately after the exercise for glucose, lactate, creatinine, urea, ascorbic acid, total plasma antioxidant potential, lipid hydroperoxides, malondialdehyde and creatine kinase concentrations. During the exercise no changes were observed in biomarkers, but, immediately after there was a significant decrease in total plasma antioxidant potential (ranging from 650.37 ± 66.53 µmol·L –1 to 559.95 ± 91.38 µmol·L –1 , p < 0.05) while malondialdehyde and creatine kinase had increased (ranging, respectively, from 6.69 ± 0.81 µmol·L –1 to 8.35 ± 0.83 µmol·L –1 and from 272.01 ± 49.67 U.I.·L –1 to 304.65 ± 39.13 U.I.·L –1 , p < 0.05). Findings suggest that the exercise protocol induced significant changes in oxidative stress selected biomarkers in the early stage of recovery. Thus, taking into account that soccer players’ competitive careers initiate very precociously being under constant physical exhaustion, further research on junior soccer players’ physiology and health are important for more effective physical and nutritional programming.
Performance of ICU Nurses in Providing Respiratory Care

Background: Failure to provide proper respiratory care leads to incidence of certain complications such as ventilator-associated pneumonia. Nurses have a crucial role in providing this care. The aim of this study is to assess the performance of ICU (Intensive Care Unit) nurses in providing respiratory care. Materials and Methods: The present descriptive cross-sectional study recruited 120 nurses working in selected hospitals affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences from March to August 2016. The questionnaire used included demographic and employment details and performance observation checklist (containing 39 items in four care domains) based on recommendations in clinical guidelines. The performance of each nurse during a working shift was observed. Data were analyzed by SPSS 18, using tables of frequency, mean, and standard deviation. Results: According to the results obtained, mean (SD) total performance score of nurses in providing respiratory care was 15.46 (2.16). The highest score was obtained in preventing contamination of respiratory equipment 5 (0), and the lowest score was in oral care 0.68 (0.73). Conclusions: Considering that respiratory care is one of the main pillars of patient care in ICU and that nurses scored poorly in this area, it is imperative to pay greater attention to this area. It is essential to provide necessary training to nurses and adequate facilities for improving the quality of clinical care.
Effects of Simultaneous Downregulation of PHD1 and Keap1 on Prevention and Reversal of Liver Fibrosis in Mice

Background and Aim: To investigate whether double-knockdown of PHD1 and Keap1 in mice could enhance the resolution of carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced liver fibrosis. Methods: The liver fibrosis model of mice was established by intraperitoneal injection of 25% CCl4 in olive oil (4 ul/g) twice a week for 8 weeks. PHD1shRNA and Keap1shRNA eukaryotic expression plasmids were simultaneously administered from the beginning of the first to fourth week (preventive group) or from the fifth to eighth week of CCl4 injection (therapeutic group) via hydrodynamic-based tail vein injection. Successful transfection was confirmed with the expression of red fluorescent protein and green fluorescent protein in hepatocytes. Western blot was used for determining the expression of PHD1 and Keap1, HE, Sirius red, and Masson staining for evaluating the histopathological stages of fibrosis. Immunohistochemical techniques were applied to evaluate the expression of a-SMA. Results: The fluorescence of red and green were observed mainly in hepatocytes, and downregulation of PHD1 and Keap1 expression in liver was detected by western blot. Meanwhile, double-knockdown of PHD1 and Keap1 in mice alleviated liver fibrosis, and the effect was further enhanced especially in the preventive group. Immunocytochemical staining showed decreased expression of a-SMA when both PHD1 and Keap1 were knockdown. Conclusion: Downregulation of PHD1 and Keap1 expression in the liver could be achieved via hydrodynamic injection of PHD1shRNA and Keap1shRNA, thereby, preventing liver fibrosis.
Scaling provable adversarial defenses

Recent work has developed methods for learning deep network classifiers that are provably robust to norm-bounded adversarial perturbation; however, these methods are currently only possible for relatively small feedforward networks. In this paper, in an effort to scale these approaches to substantially larger models, we extend previous work in three main directions. First, we present a technique for extending these training procedures to much more general networks, with skip connections (such as ResNets) and general nonlinearities; the approach is fully modular, and can be implemented automatically (analogous to automatic differentiation). Second, in the specific case of $\ell_\infty$ adversarial perturbations and networks with ReLU nonlinearities, we adopt a nonlinear random projection for training, which scales linearly in the number of hidden units (previous approaches scaled quadratically). Third, we show how to further improve robust error through cascade models. On both MNIST and CIFAR data sets, we train classifiers that improve substantially on the state of the art in provable robust adversarial error bounds: from 5.8% to 3.1% on MNIST (with $\ell_\infty$ perturbations of $\epsilon=0.1$), and from 80% to 36.4% on CIFAR (with $\ell_\infty$ perturbations of $\epsilon=2/255$). Code for all experiments in the paper is available at this https URL.
Bcl6/p53 expression, macrophages/mast cells infiltration and microvascular density in invasive breast carcinoma

To better understand the breast cancer progression and therapeutic resistance is crucial deepen the molecular mechanisms related to regulation of cells behavior in the tumor microenvironment. Inappropriate expression or activation of transcription factors in tumor breast microenvironment can lead to the malignant behavior of breast cancer cells. Bcl6 is a transcriptional factor that may play a role in the pathogenesis of breast cancer. Moreover, cells surrounding tumor cells, including macrophages and mast cells play an important role during tumor progression enhancing angiogenesis. We have demonstrated: 1) An increase of the BCL6 translocation and Bcl6 positive cells in G3 degree of disease; 2) A reduction of the expression of p53 in G3 breast cancer samples as compared to G1/G2 specimens; 3) Macrophages CD68+ and CD163+ in interstitial and periglandular position, increase in G3 specimens as compared to G1/G2 and control samples; 4) Tryptase-positive mast cells in periglandular position are more numerous in G3 tumor specimens as compared to G1/G2 and control samples. Overall, these data confirm the important role played by epigenetic events, including BCL6 translocation, p53 expression, and microenvironment components, including macrophage and mast cell infiltration and microvascular density involved in the regulation of breast cancer progression.
A high‐resolution anorectal manometry parameter based on integrated pressurized volume: A study based on 204 male patients with constipation and 26 controls

Conventional anorectal manometric parameters based on linear waves cannot properly predict balloon expulsion (BE) time. We aimed to determine the correlation between integrated pressurized volume (IPV) parameters during simulated evacuation (SE) and BE time in healthy individuals and constipated patients and to assess the correlation between each parameter and symptoms.