Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identification and Assignment of Colorimetric Observer Categories and Their Applications in Color and Vision Sciences

The main objective of this thesis is to offer a practical solution to the problems encountered in color-critical industrial applications, caused by individual variability among observers with normal color vision, commonly referred to as observer metamerism. This work starts by conducting a comprehensive theoretical analysis on various aspects of the physiologically-based observer model proposed in 2006. In the context of color perception on modern narrow-band displays, the performance of this model in predicting average observer data was evaluated, and based on a nonlinear optimization, an improvement of the model was proposed. Next, several color-matching experiments were performed on two displays, confirming the effect of observer metamerism in display color matches. Then, based on a statistical analysis of a comprehensive visual dataset, eight colorimetric observer categories were identified. An experimental observer classification method was developed, and was implemented by means of a compact prototype, the Observer Calibrator. Visual experiments performed on the prototype proved that a small number of categories can be assigned to color-normal observers based on their color vision. Finally, an implementation of colorimetric observer categories in relevant industrial applications has been proposed, and nonlinear transformations that result in accurate color transformations between categories have been derived. It is hoped that the observer classification method, together with the compact and economical prototype, will be valuable contributions not only for industrial applications, but also for scientific research in the domains of color science and vision.
Coronary stenting in stable patients: Identification of a low‐risk subgroup that may not require adjunctive antiplatelet therapy

The present study prospectively evaluated adjunctive antiplatelet therapy in patients without insulin‐requiring diabetes during elective coronary stenting. Three hundred patients were randomized to one of three treatment groups: clopidogrel pretreatment, adjunctive abciximab, or control. Stenting was successful in 98% and no deaths occurred. Thirty‐day and 1‐year major adverse coronary events (MACEs) was similar in all groups. A subgroup of 109 patients undergoing single‐vessel stenting of type A/B1 lesions with short guidewire times had no postprocedure myocardial infarction or 30‐day MACE. We conclude that patients with these characteristics may safely undergo elective coronary stenting without adjunctive antiplatelet therapy. Cathet Cardiovasc Intervent 2003;58: 459–466. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Sexual identity and HIV status influence the relationship between internalized stigma and psychological distress in black gay and bisexual men

ABSTRACT Experiences of internalized homophobia and HIV stigma in young Black gay and bisexual men (GBM) may lead to psychological distress, but levels of distress may be dependent upon their sexual identity or HIV status. In this study, we set out to explore the associations between psychological distress, sexual identity, and HIV status in young Black GBM. Participants were 228 young Black GBM who reported on their psychological distress, their HIV status, and their sexual identity. Results indicated that internalized homophobia was significantly related to psychological distress for gay men, but not for bisexual men. HIV stigma was related to psychological stress for HIV-positive men, but not for HIV-negative men. Results indicate a need for more nuanced examinations of the role of identity in the health and well-being of men who have sex with men.
Judges' Knowledge About Sexual Offenders, Difficulties Presiding Over Sexual Offense Cases, and Opinions on Sentencing, Treatment, and Legislation

Forty-two Midwestern trial judges responded to a survey designed to assess knowledge about sexual offenders; attitudes toward adjudication, sentencing, treatment, and release; and opinions regarding sexual offender-related legislation. Results indicated that the judges held a variety of beliefs regarding the etiology and dynamics involved in sexual offending which differ from those of most professionals in the field of sexual offender management. However, the judges accurately identified important issues related to victims and some myths about offenders. The importance of retribution and rehabilitation for sexual offenders was emphasized, and considerable support was revealed for controversial legislative issues such as community notification, mandatory registration, and civil commitment of sexual predators. Of particular interest is the finding that, compared to other cases, sexual offense cases were rated by judges as more difficult over which to preside from a legal and technical standpoint, a personal and emotional viewpoint, and a public scrutiny and public pressure perspective. These issues, as well as judges' comments on current systemic and decision-making difficulties, are discussed in terms of the importance of judicial education programs and future research.
Development of Electrical Membrane Properties and Discharge Characteristics of Superior Olivary Complex Neurons in Fetal and Postnatal Rats

Although hearing onset occurs relatively late during ontogeny of rats [around postnatal day (P) 12], anatomical brainstem connections are formed much earlier and are present before birth, indicating that a substantial amount of maturation occurs without acoustic input. Electrical activity is thought to influence neuronal development, but the physiological properties of auditory brainstem neurons during perinatal maturation are barely known. The present study focuses on the development of electrophysiological membrane properties of neurons in the rat's superior olivary complex (SOC), the first binaural station in the mammalian auditory brainstem. In in vitro slice preparations, intracellular recordings were obtained from 115 SOC cells from embryonic day (E) 18 to P17, and cells were morphologically identified by intracellular injection of biocytin or neurobiotin. By E18, i.e. 4 days before birth, SOC neurons were capable of generating Na+‐dependent action potentials. Several passive and active membrane properties, including the resting potential, spike threshold and spike amplitude, did not change with development. In contrast, input resistance, time constant and spike duration decreased significantly, and maximal spike frequency increased significantly during the age period sampled. Our results show that rat SOC neurons display mature as well as immature electrical membrane properties during the same developmental period when anatomical connections are refined and when the soma‐dendritic morphology develops. We conclude, therefore, that their membrane properties represent adequate physiological adaptations to the immature auditory brainstem microcircuits and that they form a basis upon which the development of these microcircuits is shaped.
Feasibility and acceptability of active book clubs in cancer survivors – an explorative investigation

Abstract Background: While the increasing number of people surviving cancer is promising, the long-term health effects warrant broad, innovative interventions. We investigated the feasibility and acceptability of a 24-week intervention called ‘Active Book Club’ comprising audio book listening, pedometer walking and supervised book club meetings. Material and methods: An exploratory and descriptive design was applied. Qualitative data included baseline and post-intervention focus group interviews as well as post-intervention individual interviews. The study also included data on retention, attendance, and adherence. Seventeen self-referred cancer survivors with various oncological and sociodemographic backgrounds were included. Results: Eight (47%) participants completed the entire intervention. Their median attendance at the book club meetings was eight [interquartile range (IQR) 6–9] of nine possible, and they reached the walking step goal in a median of 11 (IQR 7–12) of the first 12 weeks, and seven (IQR 1–10) of the last 12 weeks. The qualitative analysis revealed five themes including: Motivation and expectations (i.e. reasons for enrollment), Attentive listening (i.e. experiences of the audio book format), Affected by the story (i.e. experiences of the content of the books), Group involvement (i.e. experiences of the book club meetings) and Walking regularly (i.e. experiences of the walking program). Overall, findings revealed that while audio books may bring new meaning to physical activity and serve as a relief from own concerns, certain stories may affect some individuals negatively. The substantial dropout rate, however, suggested that modification is necessary and that patient involvement in choice of literature may be critical to enhance acceptability. Conclusion: The ‘Active Book Club’ represents a novel psychosocial intervention potentially supporting physical activity adoption and mental health in cancer survivors. However, several issues related to feasibility and acceptability including choice of literature genre, format and supervision of book club meetings need to be considered before larger scale clinical trials are initiated.
Clustered device-to-device caching based on file preferences

Proactive caching at the mobile network edge has been considered as a promising technology for enhancing users' Quality of Experience (QoE) and reducing redundant transmissions over the already overburdened cellular networks. The problem of video file caching in wireless Device-to-Device (D2D) communication networks, in which mobile users designated as helper users store popular video files and serve other requesting users via D2D localized transmissions, is studied in this paper. As personalized video recommendation systems are widely applied in video sites such as YouTube and Netflix, they cause mobile users' diversification and individuation in file preferences and users may make selfish caching decisions. Moreover, designing the file placement in caches is a task of hugely computational complexity due to the vast number of involved files and users. In this paper, we simultaneously cluster users and files into different interest groups and then propose a greedy intra-cluster caching scheme to greatly reduce its complexity. And we also compare the performance of each clustering algorithm while the file preferences matrix becomes high dimensional, sparse and highly asymmetric. Simulation results confirm that, with markedly reduced complexity, our proposed greedy caching scheme with spectral clustering using cosine similarity as the distance measure achieves near-optimal delay performance.
A Minimax Classification Approach to HMM-Based Online Handwritten Chinese Character Recognition Robust Against Affine Distortions

We present a minimax classification approach to online recognition of isolated handwritten Chinese characters, which is robust against global affine distortions of an input handwriting sample. According to the nature of features used in our continuous-density hidden Markov model (CDHMM) based handwriting recognizer, four types of affine transformations with different degrees of freedom are proposed to serve as a possible distortion model. The corresponding formulations are derived and presented for minimax classification rule. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated by an experimental study on the Nakayosi and Kuchibue Japanese character databases.
Individualized electronic decision support and reminders to improve diabetes care in the community: COMPETE II randomized trial

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a complex disease with serious complications. Electronic decision support, providing information that is shared and discussed by both patient and physician, encourages timely interventions and may improve the management of this chronic disease. However, it has rarely been tested in community-based primary care. Methods: In this pragmatic randomized trial, we randomly assigned adult primary care patients with type 2 diabetes to receive the intervention or usual care. The intervention involved shared access by the primary care provider and the patient to a Web-based, colour-coded diabetes tracker, which provided sequential monitoring values for 13 diabetes risk factors, their respective targets and brief, prioritized messages of advice. The primary outcome measure was a process composite score. Secondary outcomes included clinical composite scores, quality of life, continuity of care and usability. The outcome assessors were blinded to each patient’s intervention status. Results: We recruited sequentially 46 primary care providers and then 511 of their patients (mean age 60.7 [standard deviation 12.5] years). Mean follow-up was 5.9 months. The process composite score was significantly better for patients in the intervention group than for control patients (difference 1.27, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.79–1.75, p < 0.001); 61.7% (156/253) of patients in the intervention group, compared with 42.6% (110/258) of control patients, showed improvement (difference 19.1%, p < 0.001). The clinical composite score also had significantly more variables with improvement for the intervention group (0.59, 95% CI 0.09–1.10, p = 0.02), including significantly greater declines in blood pressure (−3.95 mm Hg systolic and −2.38 mm Hg diastolic) and glycated hemoglobin (−0.2%). Patients in the intervention group reported greater satisfaction with their diabetes care. Interpretation: A shared electronic decision-support system to support the primary care of diabetes improved the process of care and some clinical markers of the quality of diabetes care. (ClinicalTrials.gov trial register no. NCT00813085.)
Reproducibility of the 6-minute Walk Test in Obese Adults

The six-minute walk test (6MWT) is an inexpensive, quick and safe tool to evaluate the functional capacity of patients with heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The aim of this study was to determine the reproducibility of the 6MWT in overweight and obese individuals. We thus undertook a prospective repeated-measure validity study taking place in our academic weight management outpatient clinic. The 6MWT was conducted twice the same day in 21 overweight or obese adult subjects (15 females and 6 males). Repeatability of walking distance was the primary outcome. Anthropometric measures, blood pressure and heart rate were also recorded. Participant's mean BMI was 37.2+/-9.8 kg/m(2) (range: 27.0-62.3 kg/m(2)). Walking distance in the morning (mean=452+/-90 m) and in the afternoon (mean=458+/-97 m) were highly correlated (r=0.948; 95% Confidence Interval 0.877-0.978; p<0.001). Walking distance was negatively correlated with BMI (r=-0.47, p=0.03), waist circumference (r=-0.43, p=0.05) and pre-test heart rate (r=-0.54, p=0.01). Our findings indicate that the 6MWT is highly reproducible in obese subjects and could thus be used as a fitness indicator in clinical studies and clinical care in this population.
Hepatitis C Infection and Related Factors in Hemodialysis Patients in China: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background and Aims. To provide a comprehensive and reliable tabulation of available data on the epidemiological characteristics and risk factors for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in maintenance hemodialysis (HD) patients in China, and to help inform prevention programs and guide future research. Methods. A systematic review was constructed based on the computerized literature database by two reviewers independently. Ninety-five percent confidence intervals (CI) of infection rates were calculated using the approximate normal distribution model. Odds ratios and 95% CI were calculated by fixed or random effects models. Results. Forty-three studies met our inclusion criteria. The pooled prevalence of HCV infection among HD patients in China was 41.1% (95% CI 39.5–42.6%). No significant difference was found in HCV infection rates between male and female HD patients (OR = 0.75, 95% CI 0.52–1.07, p = 0.11). HD patients with blood transfusion were 5.65 times more likely to be infected with HCV than HD patients without blood transfusion. A longer duration of HD was associated with increased HCV prevalence. Co-infection with hepatitis B virus did not increase the probability of HCV infection among HD patients (OR = 1.19, 95% CI 0.34–3.20, p = 0.73). Conclusions. Viral hepatitis is still one of the main complications in HD patients, with hepatitis C being the most common one. The key to reducing the incidence of viral hepatitis in HD patients is to control contagion and reduce the frequency of blood transfusion and cross-infection.
Mutually exclusive interactions of EHD1 with GS32 and Syndapin II

GS32/SNAP-29 is a SNAP-25-like SNARE and has been shown to interact with syntaxin 6. Using immobilized recombinant GS32, we have recovered EHD1 as a major GS32-interacting protein from total HeLa cell extracts. This interaction is mediated by the EH domain of EHD1 and the N-terminal NPF-containing 17-residue region of GS32. Co-immunoprecipitation suggests that GS32 could also interact with EHD1 in intact cells. When immobilized GST-EHD1 was used to fish out interacting proteins from total brain extracts, syndapin II was identified as a major interacting partner. Similar to the GS32-EHD1 interaction, syndapin II also interacts with the EH domain of EHD1 via its NPF repeat region. Interaction of endogenous EHD1 and syndapin II was also established by co-immunoprecipitation. Furthermore, interaction of GS32 and syndapin II with EHD1 was shown to be mutually exclusive, suggesting that EHD1 may regulate/participate in the functional pathways of both GS32 and syndapin II in a mutual exclusive manner. Opposing roles of GS32 and syndapin II in regulating the surface level of transferrin receptor (TfR) were observed.
China’s ‘New Silk Roads’: sub-national regions and networks of global political economy

Abstract This paper argues that the Chinese government’s ‘belt and road’ initiative – the Silk Roads vision of land and maritime logistics and communications networks connecting Asia, Europe and Africa – has its roots in sub-national ideas and practices, and that it reflects their elevation to the national level more than the creation of substantially new policy content. Further, the spatial paradigms inherent in the Silk Roads vision reveal the reproduction of capitalist developmental ideas expressed particularly in the form of networks, which themselves have become a feature of contemporary global political economy. In other words, the Silk Roads vision is more of a ‘spatial fix’ than a geopolitical manoeuvre.
A systematic review on diagnostic procedures for specific language impairment: The sensitivity and specificity issues

Background: Identification of children with specific language impairment (SLI) has been viewed as both necessity and challenge. Investigators and clinicians use different tests and measures for this purpose. Some of these tests/measures have good psychometric properties, but it is not sufficient for diagnostic purposes. A diagnostic procedure can be used for identification a specific population with confidence only when its sensitivity and specificity are acceptable. In this study, we searched for tests/measures with predefined sensitivity and specificity for identification of preschool children with SLI from their typically developing peers. Materials and Methods: A computerized search in bibliographic databases from 2000 to August 2015 was performed with the following keywords: “specific language impairment” or SLI” and “primary language impairment” or ‘PLI’ with at least one of the followings: “diagnosis,” “identification,” “accuracy,” “sensitivity,” and “specificity. ” In addition, the related citations and reference lists of the selected articles were considered. Results: The results of reviewing 23 included studies show that the index measures used in studies vary in accuracy with the sensitivity ranging from 16% to 100% and the specificity ranging from 14% to 100%. Conclusion: These varieties in sensitivity and specificity of different tests/measures confirm the necessity of attention to the diagnostic power of tests/measures before their use as diagnostic tool. Further, the results indicate there are some promising tests/measures that the available evidence supports their performances in the diagnosis of SLI in preschool-aged children, yet the place of a reference standard for the diagnosis of SLI is vacant among investigations.
A model for non‐viral gene delivery: through syndecan adhesion molecules and powered by actin

Cell transfection requires cationic DNA complexes and heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) at the cell surface. Syndecans are transmembrane HSPGs that are ubiquitously expressed on adherent cells. Their polyanionic heparan sulfate moieties are bound at the distal end of their ectodomain, thus facilitating interaction with large cationic particles.
The Implementation of Equality Legislation: The Case of Disabled Graduates and Reasonable Adjustments

This article explores how reasonable adjustments, part of UK equality legislation, are secured in the workplace, and argues that an implementation gap exists where the impact of the law is weak, despite legal mandates to aid disabled people in employment. The research points to the importance of employers' knowledge of the effects disability as a key determinant of securing workplace adjustments.
Molecular Characterization of “Candidatus Parilichlamydia carangidicola,” a Novel Chlamydia-Like Epitheliocystis Agent in Yellowtail Kingfish, Seriola lalandi (Valenciennes), and the Proposal of a New Family, “Candidatus Parilichlamydiaceae” fam. nov. (Order Chlamydiales)

ABSTRACT Three cohorts of farmed yellowtail kingfish (Seriola lalandi) from South Australia were examined for Chlamydia-like organisms associated with epitheliocystis. To characterize the bacteria, 38 gill samples were processed for histopathology, electron microscopy, and 16S rRNA amplification, sequencing, and phylogenetic analysis. Microscopically, the presence of membrane-enclosed cysts was observed within the gill lamellae. Also observed was hyperplasia of the epithelial cells with cytoplasmic vacuolization and fusion of the gill lamellae. Transmission electron microscopy revealed morphological features of the reticulate and intermediate bodies typical of members of the order Chlamydiales. A novel 1,393-bp 16S chlamydial rRNA sequence was amplified from gill DNA extracted from fish in all cohorts over a 3-year period that corresponded to the 16S rRNA sequence amplified directly from laser-dissected cysts. This sequence was only 87% similar to the reported “Candidatus Piscichlamydia salmonis” (AY462244) from Atlantic salmon and Arctic charr. Phylogenetic analysis of this sequence against 35 Chlamydia and Chlamydia-like bacteria revealed that this novel bacterium belongs to an undescribed family lineage in the order Chlamydiales. Based on these observations, we propose this bacterium of yellowtail kingfish be known as “Candidatus Parilichlamydia carangidicola” and that the new family be known as “Candidatus Parilichlamydiaceae. ”