Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adolescent and Young Refugee Perspectives on Psychosocial Well-being January 2007

Today's migration patterns have shifted in ways that bring new challenges to the field of refugee mental health. New refugee arrivals in developed countries are an extremely diverse group. As a result, multiple treatment approaches must be developed addressing the needs of diverse, multicultural and multilingual populations (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2003). There is now clearer recognition that, in a country as culturally and linguistically diverse as Australia, specific attention must be paid to the cultural dimensions of mental disorder and mental health service design and the specific needs of Indigenous people, immigrants and refugees (Minas et al, 1996). It has been clearly demonstrated that refugee children and adolescents are vulnerable to the effects of pre-migration, most notably exposure to trauma. Refugee children are often torn between their homeland culture, the culture of the new country and the culture of refugee resettlement (Hyman, Vu & Beiser, 2000). This research study interwove migration, resettlement and identity formation into an understanding of psychosocial wellbeing of adolescent refugee children. The conceptual framework used for this qualitative study viewed psychosocial well-being of an individual with respect to three core domains: human capacity (mental health and well being); social ecology (relationships linking individuals within and between communities); and culture and values (the value and meaning given to behaviour and experience)(Psychosocial Working Group, 2003). The research used a case study approach within a qualitative framework (Merriam, 1998). The qualitative approach, more sensitive to the context included in-depth interviews, focus group interviews, school visits, accumulation of documentary data and reflective narratives. This study provided recommendations, strategies and a framework for further research and interventions into school psychosocial health promotion and intervention for adolescent refugee children.
Model-based compressed sensing of fiber Bragg grating arrays in the frequency domain

We propose a model-based compressed sensing (MBCS) of FBG arrays (FBGA), interrogated with wavelength scanning incoherent optical frequency domain reflectometry. This method measures the frequency response of a FBGA with an electrical vector network analyzer combined with a tunable laser. Instead of the usual inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT), we apply a direct estimation of the grating reflectivities with a simple frequency domain model. A reconstruction of 10 gratings spaced by 20 cm is demonstrated. MBCS allows to reduce the number of measurement frequencies from 120 to 8, compared to an IDFT, while using a bandwidth of just 500 MHz.
Spring 6-10-2017 LEVERAGING TEXT MINING FOR THE DESIGN OF A LEGAL KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

In today’s globalized world, companies are faced with numerous and continuously changing legal requirements. To ensure that these companies are compliant with legal regulations, law and consulting firms use open legal data published by governments worldwide. With this data pool growing rapidly, the complexity of legal research is strongly increasing. Despite this fact, only few research papers consider the application of information systems in the legal domain. Against this backdrop, we pro-pose a knowledge management (KM) system that aims at supporting legal research processes. To this end, we leverage the potentials of text mining techniques to extract valuable information from legal documents. This information is stored in a graph database, which enables us to capture the relation-ships between these documents and users of the system. These relationships and the information from the documents are then fed into a recommendation system which aims at facilitating knowledge trans-fer within companies. The prototypical implementation of the proposed KM system is based on 20,000 legal documents and is currently evaluated in cooperation with a Big 4 accounting company.
Mobile robot motion estimation from a range scan sequence

This paper presents a innovative algorithm to estimate the motion parameters of a mobile robot equipped with a radial laser rangefinder. Our method is based on the spatial and temporal linearization of the range function, which leads to a velocity constraint equation for the scanned points. The proposed formulation computes the motion vectors of the scanned points as they move from scan to scan in the sequence. This motion field can be very useful in a number of applications including detection and tracking of moving objects. Experimental results are presented, showing that good results are achieved with both real and synthetic data.
Auditory Prostheses Research with Multiple Channel Intracochlear Stimulation in Man

Although single-channel electrode arrays implanted in the scala tympani of deaf patients are useful as an aid to lip reading and for distinguishing some environmental sounds, they do not transmit intelligible speech. However, multichannel electrode arrays, which take advantage of the cochlea's tonotopic organization, may be capable of generating the complex patterns of neural activity necessary for speech discrimination. In this study, multichannel electrodes were implanted in the cochleas of four volunteers, with access to the connecting wires made through the skin via a percutaneous connector. The major portion of the data presented is from two of these subjects: one has been bilaterally deaf since birth and the other has been unilaterally deaf for 15 years. Preliminary results of experiments with two more recently implanted subjects are described as well as experiments with a fifth volunteer who was implanted with five electrodes by House in 1969. Data on pitch and loudness discrimination as well as the effects of stimulation parameters on threshold, impedance, and electrode interaction are presented. Place pitch and periodicity pitch were observed in all five volunteers. The results of pitch-matching experiments with the unilaterally deaf volunteer were consistent with tonotopic maps of the cochlea, and experiments indicated that a pitch continuum may be achieved by combining place and periodicity pitch modulation. Preliminary experiments in tune recognition with one subject demonstrate his ability to recognize simple melodies based on periodicity pitch cues. These results, coupled with the finding that subjective sensations remain stable over the long-term, support the feasibility of providing artificial hearing with a multichannel cochlear stimulation system.
Alexithymia and Personality Disorder Functioning Styles in Paranoid Schizophrenia

Objectives: Personality disorder functioning styles might contribute to the inconclusive findings about alexithymic features in schizophrenia. We therefore studied the relationship between alexithymia and personality styles in paranoid schizophrenia. Methods: We administered the Chinese versions of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), the Parker Personality Measure (PERM), the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale as well as the Hamilton Anxiety and Depression Scales to 60 paranoid schizophrenia patients and 60 healthy control subjects. Results: Patients scored significantly higher on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, TAS ‘difficulty identifying feelings’ and ‘difficulty describing feelings’, Hamilton Depression Scale and most PERM scales. In healthy subjects, difficulty identifying feelings predicted the PERM ‘dependent’ style, and the Hamilton Anxiety Scale predicted difficulty identifying feelings and difficulty describing feelings. In patients, difficulty identifying feelings nonspecifically predicted all the PERM scales; by contrast, the PERM ‘antisocial’ style predicted difficulty identifying feelings, the ‘avoidant’ style predicted difficulty describing feelings, and the ‘histrionic’ and ‘paranoid (–)’ styles predicted ‘externally oriented thinking’. Conclusions: Personality disorder functioning styles – instead of anxiety, depression, psychotic symptoms or disease duration – were specifically associated with alexithymia scales in our patients, which sheds light on a cognitive-personological substrate in paranoid schizophrenia on the one hand, and calls for a longitudinal design to discover how premorbid or postacute residual personality styles contribute to the sluggish disorder on the other.
Upper Thoracic Spine Tuberculosis With Pathologic Fracture And Cord Compression

We report a 17 year old lady with upper thoracic pain and bilateral leg weakness of approximate 3 weeks duration. For the previous 3 weeks she has experienced difficulty in walking. Due to neurologic impairment secondary to cord compression surgery is preformed immediately. The T3 and T4 lesions are approached through an upper thoracotomy and drainage of a paravertebral abscess followed by vertebral corpectomy and interbody fusion with bone harvesting taken from the illiac crest is performed. Then the graft is stabilized with a cervical plate. After surgery the patient started a four drug therapy for tuberculosis (TB) due to active TB.
Pathways from childhood intelligence and socioeconomic status to late-life cardiovascular disease risk.

OBJECTIVE C-reactive protein (CRP) is an acute-phase marker of systemic inflammation and considered an established risk marker for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in old age. Previous studies have suggested that low childhood intelligence, lower socioeconomic status (SES) in childhood or in later life, unhealthy behaviors, poor wellbeing, and high body mass index (BMI) are associated with inflammation. Life course models that simultaneously incorporate all these risk factors can explain how CVD risks accumulate over time, from childhood to old age. METHODS Using the data from 1,091 Scottish adults (Lothian Birth Cohort Study, 1936), a path model was constructed to predict CRP at age 70 from concurrent health behaviors, self-perceived quality of life, and BMI and adulthood SES as mediating variables, and from parental SES and childhood intelligence as distal risk factors. RESULTS A well-fitting path model (CFI = .92, SRMR = .05) demonstrated significant indirect effects from childhood intelligence and parental social class to inflammation via BMI, health behaviors and quality of life (all ps < .05). Low childhood intelligence, unhealthy behaviors, and higher BMI were also direct predictors of CRP. CONCLUSIONS The life course model illustrated how CVD risks may accumulate over time, beginning in childhood and being both direct and transmitted indirectly via low adult SES, unhealthy behaviors, impaired quality of life, and high BMI. Knowledge on the childhood risk factors and their pathways to poor health can be used to identify high-risk individuals for more intensive and tailored behavior change interventions, and to develop effective public health policies.
A 0.25 /spl mu/m CMOS 17 GHz VCO

In recent years, the design of CMOS RF oscillators at ever-higher frequencies has gained interest. The driving force for this evolution is the wireless market that evolves towards standards implementing higher bandwidths at higher frequency bands. This paper demonstrates that electronic systems adhering to future portable wireless as well as fixed-point wireless communication standards come within the grasp of standard CMOS technology. For this design, full optimization of all VCO building blocks is necessary, because in this design the inductor is no longer the sole and dominant source of phase noise and power loss. The optimized LC-tank and gain cell for the VCO-topology is obtained using an in-house design tool. The on-chip inductor utilizes all 4 available metal layers. The voltage-variable capacitance is realized by a varactor diode. In the global optimization, all contributions to phase noise and power loss of inductor, gain cell and diode cell are taken into account. Special attention is given to a high layout-symmetry in both floorplan and building blocks, to avoid the introduction of any additional asymmetry in the oscillation waveform. This design is in a standard CMOS 0.25 μm technology with 4 Al metal layers and 15 Ωcm substrate. The oscillator operates from 16.25 GHz to 17.715 GHz, when the control voltage is swept from 0.64 V to 1.4 V. This corresponds to a tuning range of 8.6% with a 16.98 GHz center frequency.
Moderate and heavy oxygen uptake kinetics in postmenopausal women.

The lack of estrogen in postmenopausal women not using hormone replacement therapy (HRT), compared with those using HRT, may reduce submaximal blood flow during exercise and result in an oxygen delivery limitation constraining oxygen uptake (VO(2) have been changed to V in the abstract, but will appear correctly in the body of the paper. ) kinetics. The adaptation of pulmonary VO(2) (VO(2p)) during the transition to exercise in older women was examined in this study. Thirty-one healthy postmenopausal women (mean age, 61 +/- 6 years), 15 not using HRT and 16 using HRT, performed repeated exercise transitions (6 min) on a cycle, to work rates corresponding to 80% of estimated ventilatory threshold (moderate-intensity exercise) and to Delta50 (heavy-intensity exercise). There was no difference in moderate-intensity tauVO(2p) between non-HRT (40 +/- 9 s) and HRT (41 +/- 9 s) women. Similarly, there was no difference in heavy-intensity tauVO(2p) between non-HRT (44 +/- 8 s) and HRT (45 +/- 8 s) women. Thus, HRT did not affect the slowing of VO(2) kinetics of older women.
Polarization Reconfigurable Eccentric Annular Ring Slot Antenna Design

A microstrip-fed reconfigurable eccentric annular ring slot (EARS) antenna with switchable polarization is proposed. To generate orthogonal circular polarization (CP) radiations, two identical perturbation slots (PSs) are loaded below the eccentric ring-shaped slot. By incorporating a PIN diode switch across each PS, the proposed antenna can switch between left-hand CP (LHCP), right-hand CP (RHCP), and linear polarization (LP). All three polarizations have shown good impedance bandwidth and broad CP bandwidth that can cover the WLAN 2.4 GHz operating band (2400-2480 MHz). Furthermore, desirable gains of 2.49- 2.82 dBi and 2.94-3.24 dBic are also exhibited at LP and LHCP/RHCP, respectively.
Pharmacokinetics of Tipifarnib After Oral and Intravenous Administration in Subjects With Advanced Cancer

The primary objective of this study was to identify intravenous regimens of tipifarnib that would mimic the systemic exposure obtained after the current twice‐daily oral administration of tipifarnib. After determination of an intravenous dose that 6 subjects with advanced cancer could tolerate, another 26 subjects were randomly assigned to receive 3 consecutive 4‐day regimens of tipifarnib with different treatment sequences: a 100‐mg 2‐hour intravenous infusion, 200‐mg oral administration twice daily, and a 200‐mg/d continuous intravenous infusion. The systemic exposure to tipifarnib was comparable among these 3 regimens. The plasma concentration‐time profile of 2‐hour intravenous infusion more closely resembled the oral administration than did the continuous infusion. Glucuronidation is a metabolic pathway for tipifarnib with concentrations of the glucuronide conjugate greatly exceeding the parent compound after oral and intravenous administration. Analysis of plasma metabolites indicated that tipifarnib also undergoes dealkylation and loss of the imidazole group.
Intestinal IgA production and its role in host‐microbe interaction

Complex and diverse communities of bacteria establish mutualistic and symbiotic relationships with the gut after birth. The intestinal immune system responds to bacterial colonization by acquiring a state of hypo‐responsiveness against commensals and active readiness against pathogens. The resulting homeostatic balance involves a continuous dialog between the microbiota and lymphocytes with the intermediation of epithelial and dendritic cells. This dialog causes massive production of immunoglobulin A (IgA), a non‐inflammatory antibody specialized in mucosal protection. Here, we discuss recent advances on the regulation of intestinal IgA responses and their role in host‐microbe interaction.
Atypical Neural Processing of Ironic and Sincere Remarks in Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Individuals with ASD show consistent impairment in processing pragmatic language when attention to multiple social cues (e.g., facial expression, tone of voice) is often needed to navigate social interactions. Building upon prior fMRI work examining how facial affect and prosodic cues are used to infer a speaker's communicative intent, the authors examined whether children and adolescents with ASD differ from typically developing (TD) controls in their processing of sincere versus ironic remarks. At the behavioral level, children and adolescents with ASD and matched TD controls were able to determine whether a speaker's remark was sincere or ironic equally well, with both groups showing longer response times for ironic remarks. At the neural level, for both sincere and ironic scenarios, an extended cortical network—including canonical language areas in the left hemisphere and their right hemisphere counterparts—was activated in both groups, albeit to a lesser degree in the ASD sample. Despite overall similar patterns of activity observed for the two conditions in both groups, significant modulation of activity was detected when directly comparing sincere and ironic scenarios within and between groups. While both TD and ASD groups showed significantly greater activity in several nodes of this extended network when processing ironic versus sincere remarks, increased activity was largely confined to left language areas in TD controls, whereas the ASD sample showed a more bilateral activation profile which included both language and “theory of mind” areas (i.e., ventromedial prefrontal cortex). These findings suggest that, for high-functioning individuals with ASD, increased activity in right hemisphere homologues of language areas in the left hemisphere, as well as regions involved in social cognition, may reflect compensatory mechanisms supporting normative behavioral task performance.
A preliminary metabolomic analysis of older adults with and without depression

Metabolomics, the global science of biochemistry, is an emerging field that enables detection and quantification of small molecules involved in metabolic and signaling pathways. Metabolic signatures for disease and its treatment could provide valuable biomarkers and insights about disease mechanisms. In this pilot study, we evaluate the potential of metabolomics in the study of older depressed patients.
Evidence‐to‐practice gaps in the management of community‐dwelling Australian patients with ischaemic heart disease

Ischaemic heart disease (IHD) is a major cause of death in developed countries. Patients with IHD are at greater risk of subsequent myocardial infarction (MI). International studies suggest that guideline recommended therapies proven to reduce this risk are underutilised. The objectives of this study were to review the use of guideline‐recommended medications for the secondary prevention of IHD in Australians and identify patient characteristics influencing use of these medications.
Sal‐like protein 4 (SALL4), a stem cell biomarker in liver cancers

Liver cancers, including hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs), cholangiocarcinomas (CCs), and fibrolamellar HCCs (FL‐HCCs) are among the most common cancers worldwide and are associated with a poor prognosis. Investigations of genes important in liver cancers have focused on Sal‐like protein 4 (SALL4), a member of a family of zinc finger transcription factors. It is a regulator of embryogenesis, organogenesis, pluripotency, can elicit reprogramming of somatic cells, and is a marker of stem cells. We found it expressed in normal murine hepatoblasts, normal human hepatic stem cells, hepatoblasts and biliary tree stem cells, but not in mature parenchymal cells of liver or biliary tree. It was strongly expressed in surgical specimens of human HCCs, CCs, a combined hepatocellular and cholangiocarcinoma, a FL‐HCC, and in derivative, transplantable tumor lines in immune‐compromised hosts. Bioinformatics analyses indicated that elevated expression of SALL4 in tumors is associated with poor survival of HCC patients. Experimental manipulation of SALL4′s expression results in changes in proliferation versus differentiation in human HCC cell lines in vitro and in vivo in immune‐compromised hosts. Virus‐mediated gene transfer of SALL4 was used for gain‐ and loss‐of‐function analyses in the cell lines. Significant growth inhibition in vitro and in vivo, accompanied by an increase in differentiation occurred with down‐regulation of SALL4. Overexpression of SALL4 resulted in increased cell proliferation in vitro, correlating with an increase in expression of cytokeratin19 (CK19), epithelial cell adhesion molecules (EpCAM), and adenosine triphosphate (ATP)‐binding cassette‐G2 (ABCG2). Conclusion: SALL4′s expression is an indicator of stem cells, a prognostic marker in liver cancers, correlates with cell and tumor growth, with resistance to 5‐FU, and its suppression results in differentiation and slowed tumor growth. SALL4 is a novel therapeutic target for liver cancers. (HEPATOLOGY 2013)
OPTIMAL LINEAGE PRINCIPLE FOR AGE‐STRUCTURED POPULATIONS

We present a formulation of branching and aging processes that allows age distributions along lineages to be studied within populations, and provides a new interpretation of classical results in the theory of aging. We establish a variational principle for the stable age distribution along lineages. Using this optimal lineage principle, we show that the response of a population’s growth rate to age‐specific changes in mortality and fecundity—a key quantity that was first calculated by Hamilton—is given directly by the age distribution along lineages. We apply our method also to the Bellman–Harris process, in which both mother and progeny are rejuvenated at each reproduction event, and show that this process can be mapped to the classic aging process such that age statistics in the population and along lineages are identical. Our approach provides both a theoretical framework for understanding the statistics of aging in a population, and a new method of analytical calculations for populations with age structure. We discuss generalizations for populations with multiple phenotypes, and more complex aging processes. We also provide a first experimental test of our theory applied to bacterial populations growing in a microfluidics device.