Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluating the Industry Relationships of Presenting Physicians at the American Neurotological Society Spring Meetings.

OBJECTIVE 1) Evaluate the accuracy of financial disclosures reporting by research presenters and moderators at the American Neurotology Society Spring meetings between 2014 and 2016. 2) Tabulate the reported monetary value of undisclosed financial relationships. 3) Determine the degree of compliance to the standards put forth by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education. STUDY DESIGN Cross-sectional analysis. SETTING N/A. PATIENTS N/A. INTERVENTIONS N/A. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The number of undisclosed payments, the accuracy of reporting, and the value of undisclosed payments were measured to test the hypothesis. RESULTS At the 2014 American Neurotology Society Spring Meeting, the organizers maintained a median amount of $950 and $6,525.89 for the presenters. 2015 showed a median amount of undisclosed payment of $7,134.74 for organizers and $12,256.46 for presenters. Likewise, 2016 showed a median of $4,165.14 in undisclosed payment for the organizers and $12,031.70 for the presenters. CONCLUSIONS It is promising to see improvement in disclosure rates as organizers and presenters are effectively complying with the requirements set by Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education. However, there is a substantial difference in disclosures by the presenters group compared with the organizers. The presenters had more undisclosed financial relationships than the organizers and although, not all undisclosed financial relationships are actual conflict of interest, it is safer and better practice to avoid the potential for undisclosed conflict of interest altogether. Presenters should be encouraged to fully disclose all relationships in the manner that organizers are required to do so.
Intensive decontamination of emergency department surfaces is required to prevent spread of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus from actively colonised patients

Commentary on: Liang SY, Jansson DR, Hogan PG, et al . Emergency department environmental contamination with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus after care of colonized patients. Ann Emerg Med 2019;4:31578–6. Patients colonised or infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) shed bacteria and contaminate environmental surfaces during their hospital stay, and create risks for transmission of MRSA to healthcare professionals and other patients.1 2 Existing literature demonstrates that the prevalence of MRSA contamination in the hospital environment has ranged from 0.6% to …
Profile of Fatty Acids, Tocopherols, Phytosterols and Polyphenols in Mediterranean Oils (Argan Oils, Olive Oils, Milk Thistle Seed Oils and Nigella Seed Oil) and Evaluation of their Antioxidant and Cytoprotective Activities.

BACKGROUND The effects of vegetable oils on human health depends on their components. Therefore, their profiles of lipid nutrients were determined. OBJECTIVE To establish and compare the fatty acid, tocopherol, phytosterol and polyphenol profiles of Mediterranean oils: cosmetic and dietary argan oils (AO; Morocco: Agadir, Berkane); olive oils (OO; Morocco, Spain, Tunisia); milk thistle seed oils (MTSO; Tunisia: Bizerte, Sousse, Zaghouane); nigella seed oil (NSO). METHOD The biochemical profiles were determined by gas chromatography-flame ionization, high performance liquid chromatography and gas chromatography, coupled with mass spectrometry as required. The antioxidant and cytoprotective activities were evaluated with the KRL (Kit Radicaux Libres) and the fluorescein diacetate tests on nerve cells treated with 7-ketocholesterol (7KC). RESULTS The fatty acid profile revealed high linoleic acid (C18:2 n-6) content in AO, OO, MTSO and NSO. The highest levels of oleic acid (C18:1 n-9) were found in AO and OO. The tocopherol profile showed that Agadir AO contained the highest amount of α-tocopherol, also present at high level in MTSO and Tunisian OO; Berkane AO was rich in γ-tocopherol. The phytosterol profile indicated that β-sitosterol was predominant in the oils, except AO; spinasterol was only present in AO. Polyphenol profiles underlined that OO was the richest in polyphenols; hydroxytyrosol was only in OO; few polyphenols were detected in AO. The oils studied have antioxidant activities, and all of them, except NSO, prevented 7KC-induced cell death. The antioxidant characteristics of AO were positively correlated with procatechic acid and compestanol levels. CONCLUSION Based on their biochemical profiles, antioxidant and cytoprotective characteristics, AO, OO, and MTSO are potentially beneficial to human health.
Evolving ATLAS Computing For Today's Networks

The ATLAS computing infrastructure was designed many years ago based on the assumption of rather limited network connectivity between computing centres. ATLAS sites have been organized in a hierarchical model, where only a static subset of all possible network links can be exploited and a static subset of well connected sites (CERN and the Tier-1s) can cover important functional roles such as hosting master copies of the data.
Computerized Adaptive Testing: A Primer

Contents: C.V. Bunderson, Foreword to the First Edition. D.H. Gitomer, Foreword to the Second Edition. H. Wainer, Preface to the First Edition. H. Wainer, Preface to the Second Edition. H. Wainer, Introduction and History. B.F. Green, System Design and Operation. R. Flaugher, Item Pools. H. Wainer, R.J. Mislevy, Item Response Theory, Item Calibration, and Proficiency Estimation. D. Thissen, R.J. Mislevy, Testing Algorithms. N.J. Dorans, Scaling and Equating. D. Thissen, Reliability and Measurement Precision. L. Steinberg, D. Thissen, H. Wainer, Validity. H. Wainer, N.J. Dorans, B.F. Green, R.J. Mislevy, L. Steinberg, D. Thissen, Future Challenges. H. Wainer, D. Eignor, Caveats, Pitfalls, and Unexpected Consequences of Implementing Large-Scale Computerized Testing.
Variable selection from random forests: application to gene expression data

AbstractRandom forest is a classiﬁcation algorithm well suited for microarray data: it shows excellent performanceeven when most predictive variables are noise, can be used when the number of variables is much largerthan the number of observations, and returns measures of variable importance. Thus, it is important tounderstand the performance of random forest with microarray data and its use for gene selection.We ﬁrst show the eﬀects of changes in parameters of random forest on the prediction error. Then wepresent an approach for gene selection that uses measures of variable importance and error rate, and istargeted towards the selection of small sets of genes. Using simulated and real microarray data, we showthat the gene selection procedure yields small sets of genes while preserving predictive accuracy.We ﬁrst show the eﬀects of changes in parameters of random forest on the prediction error rate withmicroarray data. Then we present two approaches for gene selection with random forest: 1) comparingvariable importance plots of variable importance from original and permuted data sets; 2) using backwardsvariable elimination. Using simulated and real microarray data, we show: 1) variable importance plots canbe used to recover the full set of genes related to the outcome of interest, without being adversely aﬀected bycollinearities; 2) backwards variable elimination yields small sets of genes while preserving predictive accuracy(compared to several state-of-the art algorithms). Thus, both methods are useful for gene selection.All code is available as an Rpackage, varSelRF,from CRANhttp://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/PACKAGES.htmlor from the supplementary material page.Supplementary information: http://ligarto.org/rdiaz/Papers/rfVS/randomForestVarSel.html
CALLing for help: researching language learning strategies using help facilities in a web-based multimedia program

This paper summarizes the research described in a PhD thesis (Pujolă, 2000) which presents a description of how learners use the help facilities of a web-based multimedia CALL program, called ImPRESSions, designed to foster second language learners’ reading and listening skills and language learning strategies. The study investigates the variation of strategy use in a CALL environment: Twenty two Spanish adult students of English worked with the program in four sessions and their computer movements were digital-video screen recorded. Together with direct observation and retrospective questions a detailed picture of learners’ deployment of strategies was drawn. As the emphasis was on the process rather than the product, the description and analysis of the data focus on the observation of the language learning strategies learners deployed when using the help facilities provided: Dictionary, Cultural Notes, Transcript, Subtitles and Play Controls, Feedback and an Experts module specifically designed to provide the language learner training component of the program. The qualitative analysis of the data indicates that many variables have an influence on the amount and quality of the use of the help provided by the program, from the learners’ individual differences to the fact that the CALL environment may prompt learners to behave or work in a different way from a more conventional type of learning. The results of the study provide information for future CALL material design and the type of research offers new possibilities for CALL research methods.
World shares of publications of the USA, EU-27, and China compared and predicted using the new web of science interface versus scopus

The new interface of the Web of Science (Thomson Reuters) enables users to retrieve sets larger than 100,000 documents in a single search. This makes it possible to compare publication trends for China, the USA, EU-27, and smaller countries with the data in the Scopus (Elsevier) database. China no longer grew exponentially during the 2000s, but linearly. Contrary to previous predictions on the basis of exponential growth, the cross-over of the lines for China and the USA is postponed to the next decade (after 2020) according to this data. These long extrapolations, however, should be used only as indicators and not as predictions. Uncertainty in trends can be specified using the coefficient of determination of the regression (R 2 ) and confidence intervals. Along with the dynamics in the publication trends, one also has to take into account the dynamics of the databases used for the measurement.
3D Shape Mapping of Obstacle Using Stereo Vision Sensor on Quadrotor UAV

Shape mapping algorithm of unknown obstacle is proposed using stereo vision for a quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle. Stereo vision is assumed to be mounted on the quadrotor to obtain a depth map. After detecting an obstacle through the depth map, mapping the shape of the obstacle is performed by extracting the distance information from the depth map along with the information of the quadrotor’s current state. Due to the inherent property of the stereo vision, more precise information can be extracted as the quadrotor moves closer to the obstacle. Guidance command is generated to make the quadrotor move around the obstacle to obtain the information of the obstacle from all directions while the obstacle is maintained inside the image plane during the mapping process. Points with overlapped information are removed by comparing their disparities for computational efficiency. Numerical simulation is performed to demonstrate the performance of the proposed mapping algorithm.
Is the get-passive really that adversative?

The characteristics commonly attributed to central get -passives in the relevant literature include the possibility of taking an overtly expressed agent by -phrase, a dynamic meaning conveyed by the lexical verb, an animate and human referent who is at the same time responsible for the action expressed in the clause, and an adversative semantic implication of the past participle. This paper focuses on one of the abovementioned features: the semantic implication of get -passives, that is, whether the event described in the clause is beneficial or favorable for the subject ( get awarded , get elected , get promoted ), adversative or unfavorable for the subject ( get arrested , get killed , get shot ), or semantically neutral ( get printed , get sent , get written ). Data collected from a corpus-based analysis of the spoken British English component and other spoken ESL components of the International Corpus of English (ICE) will be deployed to argue against those claims which define the get -passive as a predominantly negative or adversative construction in Present-Day English.
Bilingualism enhances neural speech encoding

40 The Hearing Journal July 2014 M ost Americans are monolingual, but, with increased population diversity and international travel, more people are interested in the impact of bilingualism. Since the bilingual brain develops the facility to switch from one language to another, executive function abilities that engage attention and inhibit irrelevant information are present to a greater degree in these speakers (Cerebrum 2012:13). Babies raised in bilingual homes more easily adapt to stimuli changes in an auditory learning task than babies raised in monolingual homes (Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2009; 106[16]:6556-6560). Bilingualism also seems to have a protective effect against age-related cognitive decline. In a group of patients with probable Alzheimer’s disease, bilingual patients were diagnosed 4.3 years later than monolingual patients (Neurology 2010;75[19]:1726-1729). In a previous issue, we discussed the benefits of playing a musical instrument for long-term training (Hear Res 2014;308:109-121). The use of multiple languages may also be viewed this way.
A Theory and Computational Model of Auditory Selective Attention

The auditory system must separate an acoustic mixture in order to create a perceptual description of each sound source. It has been proposed that this is achieved by a process of auditory scene analysis (ASA) in which a number of streams are produced, each describing a single sound source. Few computer models of ASA attempt to incorporate attentional effects, since ASA is typically seen as a precursor to attentional mechanisms. This assumption may be flawed: recent work has suggested that attention plays a key role in the formation of streams, as opposed to the conventional view that attention merely selects a pre-constructed stream. This study presents a conceptual framework for auditory selective attention in which the formation of groups and streams is heavily influenced by conscious and subconscious attention. This framework is implemented as a computational model comprising a network of neural oscillators which perform stream segregation on the basis of oscillatory correlation. Within the network, attentional interest is modelled as a gaussian distribution in frequency. This determines the connection weights between oscillators and the attentional process the attentional leaky integrator (ALI). A segment or group of segments are said to be attended to if their oscillatory activity coincides temporally with a peak in the ALI activity. The output of the model is an ‘attentional stream’: a description of which frequencies are being attended at each epoch. The model successfully simulates a range of psychophysical phenomena. Furthermore, a number of predictions are made and a psychophysical experiment is conducted to investigate the time course of attentional allocation in a binaural streaming task. The results support the model prediction that attention is subject to a form of ‘reset’ when the attentional focus is moved in space.
Indicators of adult information literacy

Information literacy (IL), defined as the capacity to locate, evaluate and use information to create new knowledge, is a core adult life skill and an extension of the notion of functional literacy. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has identified information literacy as an essential capacity for participation in the knowledge economy and has included this construct as a strategic priority in the Information for All Programme (IFAP). To support this initiative UNESCO has commissioned research to consider whether a household survey could be used to identify the extent to which people in member states are information literate in all aspects of their life, including work and lifelong learning, and in relation to their personal well-being, and in their participation in civil society. United Nations agencies use surveys to provide indications of the extent to which various agreed objectives are being achieved. These include international surveys of education and of health and well-being. This paper reports on an investigation aimed at determining whether indicators of IL could be identified by secondary analysis of existing data collected in other household surveys.It was concluded that IL has unique elements that are not encompassed in the surveys that were examined.
The GREVIS Project: Revise or Court Calamity

GREVIS (Groupe de recherche en revision humaine) aimed to set up an ac- celerated method of revising while improving the quality of the operation. The project had a three fold objective: to strengthen the place of revision in the field of translation studies, to increase revisers' satisfaction and to help the translation industry. The hypothesis of this study was that monolingual revision was just as effective as bilingual revision, and could be done at a lower cost, because it is less time-consuming. However, the results of the study disproved this hypothesis: bilingual revision was more than twice as effective as monolin- gual revision. The 19,407-word corpus comprised translations from the E>F pair (translated and revised in Canada) and from the F>E pair (translated and revised in the United States). Each sub-corpus (E>F and F>E) was analyzed by a team of scholars and/or revisers, ac- cording to Louise Brunette's (1997) revision criteria: accuracy, readability, appropriateness and linguistic coding. The study looked at the number of corrections, omissions and revisor- injected errors, in relation to these four criteria.
Elaboration, Generalization, Triangulation, and Interpretation

This article examines means of enhancing the value of mixed method research for organizational science. Conclusions are based on a comprehensive analysis of 69 mixed method articles published in four empirical journals between 2009 and 2014, detailed case comparison of four illustrative articles, and personal interviews with lead authors for each case. Findings provide three key contributions. First, documenting the prevalence of mixed methods over the past six years in a broad selection of journals, five approaches to mixed method research are identified—including three novel approaches not yet elaborated on in prior treatises on research methods, expanding the feasible options for mixed method scholarship and bolstering confidence in considering such approaches. Second, themes pertaining to enhancing the value of mixed method research are revealed, including elaboration, generalization, triangulation, and interpretation. Finally, findings uncovered four sets of practical techniques by which this value can be increased. Together, these contributions provide guidance for those endeavoring to utilize a mixed method approach in organizational science.
A compact high-speed (31, 5) parallel counter circuit based on capacitive threshold-logic gates

A novel high-speed circuit implementation of the (31,5)-parallel counter (i.e., population counter) based on capacitive threshold logic (CTL) is presented. The circuit consists of 20 threshold logic gates arranged in two stages, i.e., the parallel counter described here has an effective logic depth of two. The charge-based CTL gates are essentially dynamic circuits which require a periodic refresh or precharge cycle, but unlike conventional dynamic CMOS gates, the circuit can be operated in synchronous as well as in asynchronous mode. The counter circuit is implemented using conventional 1.2 /spl mu/m double-poly CMOS technology, and it occupies a silicon area of about 0.08 mm/sup 2/. Extensive post-layout simulations indicate that the circuit has a typical input-to-output propagation delay of less than 3 ns, and the test circuit is shown to operate reliably when consecutive 31-b input vectors are applied at a rate of up to 16 Mvectors/s. With its demonstrated data processing capability of about 500 Mb/s, the CTL-based (31,5) parallel counter offers a number of application possibilities, e.g., in high-speed parallel multiplier arrays and data encoding circuits.
Efficient fault ordering for automatic test pattern generation for sequential circuits

This paper analyzes fault dependency in sequential circuits to accelerate parallel automatic test pattern generation (ATPG). We present the new algorithms improved fault collapsing and fault arranging for an efficient fault ordering to speedup ATPG. Experimental results obtained for sequential and fault parallel ATPG show the efficiency of the proposed methods. <<ETX>>
Cognitive Styles and Feedback in Computer-Assisted Instruction

Feedback during student practice is considered a fundamental component of well-designed computer-assisted instruction (CAI). This project focuses on the appropriate applications of feedback in a CAI lesson which teaches knowledge bases and concepts. The student's learning style/characteristics are a factor in the process. The project follows a 4 × 2 design which includes a pretest, intervention, posttest, and delayed posttest model. The factors of the design are feedback (KCR, KCRI, KOR, KORI) and learner characteristics (field dependent, field independent). The learners, freshmen cadets at the USAF Academy, were assigned to treatment groups via stratified random sampling. Stratification was based on pretest scores of prior knowledge and learner characteristics. The results of the primary intervention, level of feedback, were statistically significant, favoring increasing levels of information feedback. This article also provides instructors, instructional designers and authors of computer-assisted instruction useful methodologies for implementing the results in instructional products.
Dynamical Modelling and Controllability Analysis of an Underactuated 2-Dimensional TORA System on a Slope

The 2-Dimensional Translational Oscillators with Rotating Actuator (2DTORA) is a novel underactuated system which has one actuated rotor and two unactuated translational carts. This paper focuses on dynamical modelling and simulation analysis of the underactuated 2DTORA on a slope. Based on Lagrange equations, the dynamics of the 2DTORA is achieved by selecting a transverse position of a cart, a travelling position of a cart, and the rotor angle as the general coordinates and torque acting on the rotor as the general force. When the slope angle is set to zero, the dynamics of 2DTORA on a slope is reduced to that of 2DTORA on the horizontal plane. Moreover, by eliminating one degree of translational cart motion, the dynamics of 2DTORA is reduced to that of TORA which is a benchmark of underactuated systems. In addition, the equilibrium and controllability of the 2DTORA system on a slop are discussed. Finally, numerical simulations are performed to verify the feasibility of the developed dynamic models.
10 Gb/s framer/demultiplexer IC for SONET STS-192 applications

This paper presents the first ever reported 10 Gb/s SONET framer/demultiplexer IC which integrates the functions of serial to parallel conversion, byte alignment and frame detection on a single chip. This IC identifies the SONET framing pattern from the input STS-192 data stream, and converts the serial input bit stream into a byte-parallel, frame-synchronized output data stream. It is implemented using a high-current gain baseline AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) technology, consumes approximately 3 W of power using a -5.2 V supply, has a phase margin of 270/spl deg/ and differential input sensitivity of 100 mV/sub p-p/ at 10 Gb/s.