Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Heredity of Low Back Pain in a Young Population: A Classical Twin Study

Abstract Important genetic influence on intervertebral disc degeneration has been shown previously. However, the role of the disc in pain production is not clear and the genetic influence on the development of the symptoms of low back pain is largely unknown. Therefore, data on lifetime prevalence of low back pain from the young cohort in The Danish Twin Registry (aged 12–41) were analyzed with respect to heredity. Casewise concordance rates, odds ratios, tetrachoric correlation coefficients and biometric liability models were estimated in relation to gender and age. Finally, age-adjusted heritability of liability estimates were obtained. Both concordance rates and odds ratios show significant genetic influence on the liability to develop low back pain. Also, tetrachoric correlation coefficients show gnetic influence, but this is not statistically significant for all age groups. The biometric modeling demonstrates shared environment to be a strong component in the youngest age group (12–15), but not above age 15, and it also demonstrates some non-additive genetic effects in the older age groups. Age-adjusted heritability of liability is estimated to 44% (37–50) for males and 40% (34–46) for females aged 16 to 41. Thus, the various analyses all demonstrate significant genetic influence on the liability to low back pain. The shared environment is an important component until age 15. After age 15, this component is unimportant. As people grow older, the effect of the non-shared environment increases and non-additive genetic effects become more evident, indicating an increasing degree of genetic interaction as age increases.
Análisis de sesiones de la web del Cindoc: una aproximación a la minería de uso web

This paper try an usability and navigability study of the Cindoc web site through web log files of the main server for october 2003. For this, web mining are used, concretly, web usage mining techniques to the detection of sessions with the aim of determine navigation patterns and design faults. Several design problems are detected in the navigation menu, in the layouth of the contents and in the web structure. Different navigation identificated patterns are discussed and many advices are made about its design in forward changes.
Customizing Word Processing Manuals for Business Writing Instruction

So-called easy guides are widely available in software stores and college computer labs. But these are often as complex or as long as manufacturers’ manuals. Such guides waste time presenting too much explanation that may have no immediate application (Augustin, 1988), creating negative student attitudes toward computerassisted instruction (CAI) and business writing in general (Wedell and Allerheiligen, 1991). Nash and Schwartz stated the problem very well: Teachers who become involved in computerassisted writing instruction will have to hack their own trails through bewildering technical forests and swamps. (Ironically, many of the pitfalls they will encounter are caused by poor writing-instructions or manuals that are ambiguous and at times indecipherable.) (1985, p. 22) End-users have not been realistically defined and their needs analyzed for the purpose of documentation (Mirel, 1992). As J. M. Carroll noted, &dquo;People come to the learning task with a personal agenda of goals and concerns that structure their use of training materials. They skip crucial material if it doesn’t suit their present concerns&dquo; (cited in Watts, 1990, p. 32). Software program tutorials, as well, present time problems for students working under deadlines. Thus the most effective guides should provide short, abbreviated instructions for beginners. More unpredictable than novices are students who think they know a program: these computer zealots can be dangerous, experimenting with their own and others’ files. Providing such students with a set of simple written instructions can often prevent computer lab disasters caused by their impulsiveness and reluctance to read long, dry manuals. In a study employing three computer-assisted teaching methods, Ruehr (1987) found that students preferred individual coaching by an instructor available
Simple and Efficient Computer Algorithm to Solve Radial Distribution Networks

A simple and efficient algorithm is presented to solve radial distribution networks (RDN). It solves the simple algebraic recursive expression of voltage magnitude and all the data are stored in vector form. The algorithm uses the basic principle of circuit theory and can be easily understood. The proposed algorithm has been tested with several distribution networks and results are compared with two other existing methods. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated through two examples.
Neoadjuvant therapy of early stage human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 positive breast cancer: latest evidence and clinical implications

Neoadjuvant therapy in human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive breast cancer is exactly the paradigm of targeted therapy and a suitable setting to develop and test rapidly novel therapies in early stages. Moreover, neoadjuvant approaches provide a significant source of tumour tissue to identify molecular heterogeneity and potential predictive biomarkers of response. The addition of trastuzumab to primary chemotherapy revolutionized the treatment of this tumour subtype, increasing pathological complete response rate (pCR) that, even with its limitations, has also been shown to be an early marker of survival in HER2-positive disease. HER2-positive breast cancer is a biological heterogeneous disease with different characteristics and clinical outcomes. Multiple promising anti-HER2 drugs with nonoverlapping mechanisms of action have recently been developed. Combined administration of two different HER2-targeted agents, that is, trastuzumab with lapatinib or pertuzumab, and primary chemotherapy shows enhanced antitumour activity, with an increase in pCR to values never reached in the past. Moreover, results of recent studies show that the combination of targeted therapy alone (dual HER2 blockade with or without endocrine therapy) also has activity in a substantial percentage of patients, eradicating HER2-positive tumours without chemotherapy and with a favourable toxicity profile. It is still necessary to be able to select the appropriate group of patients who can avoid chemotherapy (approximately 25%), and to establish robust predictive biomarkers of response or resistance to the anti-HER2 approach. Neoadjuvant therapy represents an enormous step forward in HER2-positive breast cancer. The results of the most relevant neoadjuvant studies and latest evidence are described in this review, though new questions have emerged.
No correlation between COMT genotype and entacapone benefits in Parkinson's disease

Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) inhibitors are used to increase the bioavailability of therapeutic L-dopa. We examined the effi cacy of entacapone in Parkinson’s disease patients who had daily “off” duration of ≤2 hours, and carried different COMT polymorphisms. A total of 168 PD patients were recruited from 19 centers. Subjects were administered with 100–200 mg of entacapone in combination with each dose of L-dopa for 2 months. The clinical effi cacy was evaluated based on the activities of daily living (ADL), score on the Unifi ed Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), Hoehn and Yahr (H&Y) stage, and Clinical Global Impression (CGI). COMT polymorphisms were genotyped. 3-O-methyldopa (3-OMD) levels were measured before and after the administration of entacapone. Entacapone administration produced signifi cant improvements in the total daily “on” duration, ADL, UPDRS score, and H&Y stage. Nineteen patients (11.3%) had the low-activity COMT genotype, 68 patients (40.5%) had the intermediate-activity COMT genotype, and 81patients (48.2%) had the high-activity COMT genotype. The effi cacy, and adverse effects of entacapone therapy did not differ between the three groups. There was a signifi cant reduction in 3-OMD, but this did not differ among the three genotypes. Entacapone provided an increased “on” duration and improved motor function in all COMT genotypes.
Assessment of Parafunctional Oral Habits among a Sample of Saudi Dental Patients

Abstract. The aim of this study is to assess the prevalence of parafucntional oral habits including breathing disorder, bruxism, thumb-sucking, clenching and some of the related factors among a group of Saudi dental patients ranging ITom6 to 16 years of age. The sample of this study comprised 1032 Saudi children (712 boys and 320 girls) collected ITomthe screening clinic, Faculty of Dentistry, King Abdulaziz University. Standardized questionnaire form, information about the presence or absence of different parafunctional oral habits and the participant's oral health knowledge was obtained. Age, sex and number of siblings were collected. Descriptive statistics, t test and Chi square test were used as appropriate. The prevalence of breathing disorders, bruxism, thumb-sucking and clenching habits were 20.2%. 30.2%, 16.7% and 13.6%, respectively. Bruxism was more prevalent in boys (33.1%) than girls (23.7%), while girls had a significantly higher prevalence of thumb-sucking and clenching (p=O.OOI). The number of siblings had a significant effect on bruxism and thumb-sucking (p=O.04), but not on breathing disorder (p=O.44) or clenching (p=O.22). Oral health knowledge had insignificant effect on breathing disorders, bruxism, thumb-sucking and clenching (p=O.88, 0.71, 0.28 and 0.31, respectively).
Notes on the Writing of Scientific English for Japanese Physicists

The main guiding principles I have used are the following. First, it is much more important that the English written by Japanese authors be clear and easily readable than that it be elegant. Therefore, in a situation where there is a choice between an elegant form of expression which, however, may easily lead to confusion if misused and a less elegant but practically "foolproof" one, I have never hesitated to recommend the latter. Secondly, the importance of avoiding a mistake is roughly proportional to the amount of misunderstanding it may entail and/or the amount of psychological "wear and tear" it may cause on the reader's nerves. Accordingly, I have spent a good deal of space on "macroscopic" points like sentence construction, and proportionately less on "microscopic" ones like the correct use of "a" and "the"; prepositions, which most Japanese writers seem to consider a major point of difficulty in writing English, I have scarcely mentioned, not only because this is the sort of point for which one can easily refer to dictionaries but because I believe the reader can usually correct any mistakes for himself with very little mental effort. Thirdly, the usefulness of a set of notes such as this is much reduced if the rules given become too complicated. Therefore, rather than give a complicated set of rules which would ensure correctness 100% of the time, I have often preferred to give a simple rule which will be right 95% of the time, provided that in the other 5% of cases, it is unlikely to lead to confusion. I do not claim that anyone who tries to follow the advice given here will write beautiful or even invariably correct English; but I hope that what he writes will be clear and readable and that any mistakes he does make will be minor ones.
Learning by design: Games as learning machines

, are long, complex, and difficult, especially for beginners. People are not always eager to do difficult things. Faced with the challenge of getting them to do so, two choices are often available. We can force them, which is the solution schools use. Or, a temptation when profit is at stake, we can dumb down the product. Neither option is open to the game industry, at least for the moment. They can’t force people to play and most avid players don’t want their games dumbed down. For people interested in learning, this raises an interesting question. How do good game designers manage to get new players to learn their long, complex, and difficult games—not only learn them, but pay to do so? It won’t do simply to say games are “motivating”. That just begs the question of “Why? ”. Why is a long, complex, and difficult game motivating? I believe it is something about how games are designed to trigger learning that makes them so deeply motivating. So the question is: How do good game designers manage to get new players to learn long, complex, and difficult games? Of course, there are some forces in the game industry that want to dumb games down. That is not a very interesting answer to our question. Another answer that is not interesting, at least initially, is that some good games appear to be made only for people who are already adept game players. These games can be uninviting or frustrating for newcomers. Some thoroughly excellent games that fall into this category are
The Challenge to Situate Digital Learning Technologies in Preservice Teacher Mathematics Education.

This paper focuses on how preservice primary teachers can be supported to embrace digital learning technologies (DLTs) in their teaching of mathematics. The nature of the instruction and the assessment in the final mathematics unit of the bachelor of education program were changed. Despite being tagged as “tech-savvy,” preservice students use digital technologies primarily for social networking and information retrieval. These uses of digital technologies do not guarantee any facility for their utilization as learning technologies, which may result in early career teachers being unprepared to enact the effective use of expensive equipment in schools. The provision of a communal constructivism environment supported student learning as they met the challenges of creating interactive digital applications to teach a mathematical concept to their peers. This paper is likely to be of interest to mathematics educators who are trying to steer preservice teachers away from “worksheet maths” as well as other preservice teacher educators who wish to incorporate digital technologies into their content and methodology units.
Entwicklung und kurzfristige Effektivität eines standardisierten Schulungsprogramms für die Rehabilitation bei koronarer Herzkrankheit

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund und Zielsetzung: Patientenschulungen sind ein wesentliches Element in der Behandlung koronarer Herzkrankheiten (KHK). Für den deutschsprachigen Raum liegt bislang kein standardisiertes und evaluiertes Schulungsprogramm für die kardiologische Rehabilitation vor. Die vorliegende Studie hat das Ziel der systematischen Entwicklung und Evaluation einer qualitätsgesicherten Patientenschulung auf Grundlage des Curriculums Herz-Kreislauf-Erkrankungen aus dem Gesundheitstrainingsprogramm der Deutschen Rentenversicherung Bund. Methodik: In einem mehrstufigen Prozess wurde das Curriculum mit Bezug auf Evidenz, Leitlinien, Theorien des Gesundheitsverhaltens und Schulungskriterien sowie klinischer Expertise überarbeitet und als Curriculum Koronare Herzkrankheit manualisiert. In einer formativen Evaluation wurden die Durchführbarkeit und Akzeptanz des modifizierten Curriculums mittels schriftlicher Patienten- und Dozentenbefragungen sowie strukturierten Beobachtungen geprüft. Anschließend wurde in einer multizentrischen quasi-experimentellen Kontrollgruppenstudie mit 4 Messzeitpunkten (Reha-Beginn, Reha-Ende, 6- und 12-Monats-Katamnese) die Wirksamkeit der Schulung bei Rehabilitanden mit koronarer Herzkrankheit (n=434) im Vergleich zur traditionellen Schulung geprüft. Ergebnisse: Die Ergebnisse der formativen Evaluation zeigen eine gute Akzeptanz des Programms und bestätigen die praktische Durchführbarkeit des manualisierten Curriculums. Ergebnisse zur kurzfristigen Wirksamkeit zu Reha-Ende zeigen einen signifikanten, kleinen Gruppenunterschied im primären Zielkriterium Krankheits- und Behandlungswissen zugunsten des neuen Curriculums (p=0,001, η2 =0,028). Weitere signifikante, kleine Gruppenunterschiede bestehen in einigen sekundären Outcomeparametern, wie Einstellungen zur Medikamenteneinnahme, Handlungsplanung zu körperlicher Aktivität, psychische Lebensqualität und Schulungszufriedenheit. Schlussfolgerung: In einer systematischen Entwicklungsarbeit konnte ein standardisiertes Schulungsprogramm bei KHK nach den bestehenden Qualitätsstandards erarbeitet werden. Nach Abschluss der Evaluation kann das Curriculum bei mittel- und langfristiger Wirksamkeit disseminiert werden. Mit der Manualisierung ist die Voraussetzung für einen erfolgreichen Transfer der Schulungsergebnisse gegeben.
Applications of Mean and Covariance Structure Analysis: Integrating Correlational and Experimental Approaches

This article discusses mean and covariance structure (MACS) analysis as a mechanism for testing individual differences and group mean differences within a single integrated framework. The article is most appropriate for those with a basic understanding of confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling but who have not been introduced to mean structures in either model. The article is both a tutorial and an extension of previous research. It is a tutorial because it introduces the MACS framework using more familiar regression terms, proposes a model-testing framework to be followed, provides numerous illustrations and applications, and discusses both conceptual and programming issues (as well as providing the code for the programming). It is also an extension of previous research because it illustrates several novel applications of MACS to organizational research questions, including how to (a) model mean differences across three independent groups, (b) conduct latent pairwise comparisons, (c) conduct latent contrasts, and (d) analyze repeated measures data. As these examples illustrate, applying MACS more frequently in those organizational research designs that call for it could perhaps improve theory testing by helping to integrate experimental and correlational research methods.
[Prevalence of cervical infection by human papillomavirus and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia in HIV-positive and negative women].

PURPOSE To conduct a comparative study between two groups of women (HIV positive and negative) analyzing: the prevalence of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and cervical HPV infection; viral risk and relationship with development of CIN; and sociodemographic and behavioral parameters that influence cervical HPV infection and the development of CIN. METHODS A cross-sectional study in which 202 HIV-positive women and 164 HIV-negative women were analyzed to assess the prevalence of CIN and 171 HIV-positive women and 160 HIV-negative women were analyzed to assess the prevalence of cervical HPV infection. The following procedures were performed on the occasion of each medical visit: collection of cervical samples for cytology and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect HPV DNA; colposcopy; standardized questionnaire to collect demographic and behavioral data; and biopsy of all colposcopic changes. Histopathology was the gold standard for the diagnosis of CIN. RESULTS The prevalence of CIN was 2.4 and 15.3% (p<0.001) and the prevalence of cervical HPV infection was 37.1 and 55.5% (p=0.002), respectively, among HIV-negative and -positive women. HIV-positive women had a higher risk of HPV infection (35.7 and 23.6%) (p=0.02). HPV 16 was the most prevalent virus type, occurring in 11.3 and 10.2% of HIV-positive and negative women and was also more prevalent among women presenting CIN in both groups. Factors associated with the development of CIN were: HIV infection (HT=4.64; 95%CI 2.23-9.65), age (HT=0.95; 95%CI 0.93-0.98 for each year of life) and marital status (HT=0.49; 95%CI 0.30-0.80). Associated factors for HPV infection were: HIV presence (HT=2.72; 95%CI 1.77-4.17), greater number of sexual partners (HT=1.87; 95%CI 1.23-2.84), age (HT=0.97; 95%CI 0.95-0.99 for each year of life) and marital status (HT=0.65; 95%CI 0.42-1.0 for stable union/widows). CONCLUSION The prevalence of CIN and cervical HPV infection was higher in HIV-positive women, who also presented a higher risk of HPV infections and multiple viral types. Type 16 was predominant in both groups and in women with CIN. Older women and women with stable union/widows were less likely to acquire cervical HPV infection and CIN.
Kimura's disease: A clinical case related to a mosquito bite

Kimura's disease is a benign, but locally injurious disease with a marked predilection for the head and neck. Of uncertain etiology, its tendency to present as a discrete, enlarging mass with associated lymphadenopathy makes it a condition of interest to clinicians who see head and neck pathology. Although rare, there are increasing numbers of reports of the condition and it should become part of the standard differential diagnosis. A typical case of this rare disease, apparently originating from a mosquito bite several years before presentation is presented.
Heart rate dependent changes in spectral analysis

Analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) is used to study the influence of the autonomic nervous system on the heart For appropriate spectral analysis using fast Fourier transformation (FFT), resampling techniques like linear interpolation are often used. Some of these techniques however, introduce significant bias. We compared FFT using three different resampling techniques with discrete Fourier transformation (DFT) and concluded that spectral power is reproduced more accurately by DFT than by FFT using resampling techniques. <<ETX>>
Mobile satellite communications

The paper presents an up-to-date overview as well as new results on mobile satellite communications. Specifically, the following subjects are addressed: worldwide activities; satellite orbits; multiple access techniques; Novstar global positioning system; economic and regulatory issues; future trends. Some of these technical and nontechnical subjects appeal disjoint, but they are unique and significant among the many facets, which effect the development and operation of mobile satellite communication systems. >
A Review of Estimate at Completion Research

Abstract The cancellation of the Navy's A-12 program has increased interest in forecasting the completed cost of a defense contract, termed “Estimate at Completion” (EAC). In addition, popular software packages and electronic spreadsheets allow users to quickly compute a range of EACS. Analysts and managers are left with the task of deciding which EAC or range of EACs is most accurate. Although there have been many studies that either compare existing EAC formulas and models, or propose new ones, few have been published in journals or magazines and there is little guidance regarding which formula or model is most accurate. This paper reviews 25 studies which either propose or compare EAC formulas and models. Each study is briefly described. Tables which summarize research results are provided. Results show that no one formula or model is always best. Additional research with regression-based models is needed.