Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Obesity and the pulmonologist

Obese children have more respiratory symptoms than their normal weight peers and respiratory related pathology increases with increasing weight. Some will need specialist assessment (box 1). Obesity produces mechanical effects on respiratory system performance. Breathlessness, wheeze, and cough are not related to increased airway responsiveness and may respond more to weight loss than bronchodilator therapy. A significant number of obese children have signs and symptoms of obstructive sleep apnoea largely related to the effect of obesity on upper airway dimensions. It seems likely that unless action is taken soon,34 increasing numbers of children will experience preventable respiratory morbidity as a result of nutritional obesity.
Low-risk gestational trophoblastic neoplasia and methotrexate resistance: predictors of response to treatment with actinomycin D and need for combination chemotherapy.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether any clinical parameters predict the need for multiagent chemotherapy for treatment of low-risk gestational trophoblastic neoplasia (GTN) after the development of methotrexate (MTX) resistance. STUDY DESIGN We retrospectively analyzed clinical data from the New England Trophoblastic Disease Center from women with post-molar GTN between 1973 and 2003. RESULTS We analyzed data from 150 women (40 with partial mole, 110 with complete mole) who received single-agent MTX for low-risk GTN using FIGO and WHO scoring systems. Of the 45 women who developed MTX resistance, the majority (37/45) of these patients received actinomycin D, with 10 patients ultimately requiring multiagent chemotherapy. The requirement for multiagent chemotherapy following MTX resistance was associated with a beta-hCG > 600 mlU/mL 1 week following initial MTX therapy (p < 0.03). Conversely, a beta-hCG < 600 mlU/mL 1 week following initial MTX therapy was as-sociated with a 93% probability of remission with actinomycin D alone. All patients went into durable remission. CONCLUSION The prognosis for patients with low-risk GTN following molar gestation is excellent, with 100% remission rate, though a small but significant proportion (7%) required multiagent chemotherapy. The need for multiagent chemotherapy was associated with beta-hCG levels 1 week following initial MTX therapy.
Spatial structure of X‐ray filaments in SN 1006

The theory of non-linear diffusive shock acceleration (NLDSA) predicts the formation of a precursor upstream of the shock, where accelerated particles diffuse and induce magnetic field amplification (MFA) through streaming instability. The non-detection of this precursor in X-rays in Chandra observations of the north-eastern region of SN 1006 (G329.6+14.6) led the authors of some previous work to impose an upper limit to the X-ray emission generated by accelerated electrons diffusing in this precursor, at an emissivity level of <1.5 per cent of the emission from the downstream region. This has been used as an argument against Fermi acceleration at this shock. Here, we calculate the spectrum and spatial distribution of accelerated particles in SN 1006 and show that Chandra results (including more recent data) are in perfect agreement with the predictions of NLDSA suggesting efficient particle acceleration and MFA upstream of the shock by a factor of ∼10.
The influence of ethnicity on organizational commitment and merit pay of IT workers: the role of leader support

Projections of looming shortages in the supply of skilled IT workers, along with high employee replacement costs, make employee attraction, retention and support a pressing concern for organizations. One potential remedy for these shortages is to focus more attention on historically underrepresented groups. We explore ways organizations can support ethnic minority IT professionals to enhance their career success. Integrating affective, cognitive and social perspectives through affective events theory and social exchange theory, our objective is to explore the implications of ethnic minority status for the relationship between leader support (i.e., mentoring and leader–member exchange (LMX)) and subjective and objective indicators of career success (i.e., organizational commitment and merit pay) among IT workers. To test the model, we conducted a field study of 289 IT workers in a Fortune 500 company. Our results showed that LMX influenced organizational commitment for ethnic minorities, while career mentoring and LMX influenced organizational commitment for majorities. Psychosocial mentoring influenced merit pay for ethnic minorities, while neither LMX nor mentoring influenced merit pay for majorities. Our study contributes to the literature on IT personnel issues by exploring how and why these leader support mechanisms enhance organizational commitment and merit pay for IT workers. Moreover, we demonstrate that ethnicity is an important consideration for researchers studying organizational commitment, merit pay, mentoring and LMX. Our findings suggest that managers can boost organizational commitment among IT workers by focusing on LMX and career mentoring. Moreover, they may want to place particular emphasis on psychosocial mentoring and interventions to enhance LMX for their ethnic minority IT workers.
Live Stream Oriented Age and Gender Estimation using Boosted LBP Histograms Comparisons

Research has recently focused on human age and gender estimation because they are useful cues in many applications such as human-machine interaction, soft biometrics or demographic statistics for marketing. Even though human perception of other people's age is often biased, attaining this kind of precision with an automatic estimator is still a difficult challenge. In this paper, we propose a real time face tracking framework that includes a sequential estimation of people's gender then age. A single gender estimator and several gender-specific age estimators are trained using a boosting scheme and their decisions are combined to output a gender and an age in years. We choose to train all these estimators using local binary patterns histograms extracted from still facial images. The whole process is thoroughly tested on state-of art databases and video sets. Results on the popular FG-NET database show results comparable to human perception (overall 70% correct responses within 5 years tolerance and almost 90% within 10 years tolerance). The age and gender estimators can output decisions at 21 frames per second. Combined with the face tracker, they provide real-time estimations of age and gender.
A Reliable Approach for Modeling the Actual Antenna Pattern in Millimeter-Wave Communication

This letter presents a mathematical framework for evaluating the link capacity of an interfered communication link in a millimeter-wave mobile scenario, accounting in detail for the shape of the antenna pattern and for the statistic of the direction of arrivals. The developed approach, whose accuracy is verified by Monte Carlo validations in 2D and 3D wireless environments, does not require simplified antenna models, thus enabling to maintain the actual pattern during the analysis.
Evidence-Based Practice in Pediatric Audiology

“Evidence Based Practice” (EBP) is an approach to clinical service delivery that has become increasingly advocated in the past decade (McKibbon 1999). EBP was initially discussed in the field of medicine, and evidence-based medicine (EBM) received increasing attention in the 1990’s. EBM is defined as the “conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of patients . achieved through integrating individual expertise with access to systematic evidence” (OxfordCentre for Evidence Based Medicine 2004). EBM incorporates several elements, the primary of which is the major role of scientific evidence in clinical decision-making (McKibbon 1999). Scientific evidence is not sufficient, as in EBM clinical experience and a strong basic education of the practitioner are used in conjunction with research. Finally and importantly, EBM considers each individual’s unique situation, recognizing the preferences, expectations, culture and feelings of the patient are incorporated into the clinical decision making process (OxfordCentre for Evidence Based Medicine 2004, on line article; McKibbon 1999). Why is EBM so strongly advocated in the delivery of healthcare today? Numerous factors impact on delivery of medical healthcare services including resources availability, quality of life, identification, comprehensive diagnosis, and timely treatment. Therefore, there is a need to ensure that the medical practices delivered to patients are the best that can be provided. Dr. Muir Gray, Director, National Elec-
Persistence and Change of Regional Industrial Activities: The Impact of Diversification in the German Machine Tool Industry

The paper investigates the stability and change of regional economic activities in the long run. As the unit of analysis, we selected the machine tool industry in West Germany for the years 1953–2002. We spot a strong variance in the activities between different regions. These differences are relatively stable over time, and the regional activities are rather path-dependent. Nevertheless, the paper also identifies changes in the level of activities. As the main driving factors for these developments, we examine the effect of changing regional degrees of diversification over time. We find that those regions which generally broaden their scope of activities have a higher likelihood to grow than regions which are specializing. Furthermore, diversification into totally new technological and product fields is only beneficial under specific circumstances based on technological and market developments. Hence, in most cases, a broad diversification is superior to one focusing on new state-of-the-art technological fields.
Petals' shape descriptor for blooming flowers recognition

This paper proposes a new descriptor to identify the petals' shape of a blooming flower based on the digital images captured in natural scene. The proposed descriptor can be used as one of features in computer aided flower recognition system beside the commonly used features such as number of petals and color. Experiments were conducted on the Malaysia flowers with same number of petals and with similar color across different species of flowers. 35 images from 7 species were used as the training set to set up the reference values of petals' shape descriptor and 7 new images were used as the testing set. The descriptor calculated from the testing set is then compared to the reference values from the training set to achieve the flowers recognition purpose. With the given set of data, complete success in full identification rate was obtained.
Insertion/deletion polymorphism in the gene for angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) in panic disorder: A gender-specific effect?

Abstract Family, twin, and segregation analytic studies indicate a complex genetic contribution to panic disorder with an estimated heritability of 48%. Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) degrades substance P, which has been implicated in anxiety-related behaviour. ACE has been suggested as a potential risk factor in the pathogenesis of panic attacks. A functional insertion deletion (I/D) polymorphism in the ACE gene was suggested to be associated with panic disorder in a potentially gender-specific way (21). The present study aimed to replicate this finding and thereby to further elucidate the role of ACE gene variation in the pathomechanism of panic disorder. The ACE I/D polymorphism was genotyped in a sample of 102 German patients with panic disorder with or without agoraphobia as well as a healthy German control group matched with regard to age and sex (n = 102). In the male subgroup (n = 43) of panic patients a significant association of the ACE I allele (P = 0.0474) and genotypes containing the I allele (P = 0.0195), respectively, was observed. The present results provide further support for a potentially male-specific role of the less active ACE I allele in the pathogenesis of panic disorder, possibly by altering substance P levels.
Holonomy-based control of a three-joint underactuated manipulator

In the author's previous work, a motion planning algorithm for nonholonomic systems in the second-order chained form has been proposed. A basic idea of the algorithm is that the use of sinusoidal inputs extracts holonomy, which is essential motion of nonholonomic systems. This paper addresses a control problem of rest-to-rest motion for a three-joint underactuated manipulator that moves in a horizontal plane. The dynamics of this manipulator can be transformed to the second-order chained form via appropriate coordinate and input transformation. This correspondence between two system description helpes us to construct a control method based on the proposed algorithm. The effectiveness of the control method is numerically demonstrated by some examples.
Mucosal Schwann Cell “Hamartoma”: Clinicopathologic Study of 26 Neural Colorectal Polyps Distinct From Neurofibromas and Mucosal Neuromas

Colorectal polyps containing S-100–positive neural proliferations in the lamina propria that lack ganglion cells have been variously referred to as “neuromas” or “neurofibromas. ” However, these lesions have not been systematically examined, and whether they are associated with type 1 neurofibromatosis (NF1) or other inherited syndromes is unknown. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinicopathologic and immunohistochemical features of these lesions, in comparison to colorectal neurofibromas from known NF1 patients. Morphologically similar lesions from 26 patients (mean age, 62 y; range, 46 to 88 y; male/female ratio, 10/16) were retrieved from surgical pathology and consult files. Clinical and endoscopic data were obtained, and immunohistochemistry for S-100 protein, glial fibrillary acidic protein, neurofilament protein (NFP), epithelial membrane antigen, claudin-1, CD34, smooth muscle actin, and KIT was performed. The findings were compared with those in mucosal biopsies of 5 submucosal neurofibromas from NF1 patients. All 26 polyps were sessile, ranging from 1 to 6 mm in size (mean, 2.5 mm). Most arose in the distal colon (15 rectosigmoid, 7 descending, 2 transverse, and 2 ascending), and were incidentally found at screening colonoscopy. After a mean follow-up of 6.5 years (range, 3 mo to 17.5 y), none of the patients developed other neural polyps, and none had evidence of NF1 or other inherited syndromes. Histologically, the lamina propria of the polyps contained a diffuse cellular proliferation of uniform bland spindle cells with elongated, tapering nuclei, abundant, dense eosinophilic cytoplasm, and indistinct cell borders, entrapping adjacent crypts. No nuclear atypia, pleomorphism, mitotic activity, or associated ganglion cells were observed. All showed strong staining for S-100 protein in essentially 100% of cells. NFP highlighted rare axons in 7 lesions. All other markers were negative. The 5 neurofibromas showed similar histologic features, but were generally less uniformly cellular, showed some intralesional heterogeneity, and showed less extensive staining for S-100 protein; all contained scattered NFP-positive axons. In summary, solitary colorectal polyps containing pure Schwann cell proliferations in the lamina propria are not associated with NF1. Distinguishing these lesions from NF1-associated neurofibromas is difficult based on histologic features; the presence of an underlying submucosal nodule or mass should be excluded endoscopically, and immunohistochemistry should be performed. Although their nature is uncertain, we propose the interim designation “mucosal Schwann cell ‘hamartoma’” to avoid confusion with the neural lesions that have significant associations with inherited syndromes.
Expression of Transferrin mRNA in Rat Oligodendrocytes is Iron-independent and Changes with Increasing Age

As transferrin in the brain may originate principally from synthesis by three different cell types, i.e. hepatocytes, oligodendrocytes and choroid plexus, this study employed a morphological analysis to specifically address oligodendrocytic expression of transferrin mRNA in young (P17) and adult (P50) rats. In spite of a lowering of the concentration of brain iron by approximately 22% in the young iron deficient rats transferrin mRNA expression in oligodendrocytes was not affected when measured by quantitative densitometry. In adult rats, the baseline transferrin mRNA expression in oligodendrocytes was higher than in the young animals, but did not change in spite of a reduction in brain iron by approximately 19%. Brain iron and transferrin mRNA expression in oligodendrocytes were unaltered in iron overloaded rats when compared to age-matched controls. As transferrin expression was lower in the young rat, when constituents from the blood have a relatively higher concentration in the brain than during adulthood, it seems unlikely that blood-borne factors such as transition metals act as inducers of transferrin gene expression in oligodendrocytes. Instead, the higher but constitutive expression of transferrin mRNA at later ages, when the blood-brain barrier segregates the brain from other body parts, may indicate that molecules released from the brain interior are responsible for regulating transcription of the transferrin gene.
Network Delay Analysis of a Class of Fair Queueing Algorithms

A self-clocked fair queueing (SCFQ) scheme has been proposed by Golestani (see Proc. IEEE INFOCOM, p. 636-636, 1994) as an easily implementable version of fair queueing. In this paper, the worst case network delay performance of a class of fair queueing algorithms, including the SCFQ scheme, is studied. We build upon and generalize the methodology developed by Parekh and Gallager (see ACM/IEEE Trans. Networking, vol.1, no.3, p.344-357, 1993, and vol.2, no.2, p.137-150, 1994) to study this class of algorithms based on the leaky-bucket characterization of traffic. Under modest resource allocation conditions, the end-to-end session delays and backlogs corresponding to this class of algorithms are shown to be bounded. For the SCFQ scheme, these bounds are larger, but practically as good as the corresponding bounds for the PGPS scheme. It is shown that the SCFQ scheme can provide adequate performance guarantees for the delay-sensitive traffic in ATM. >
A Novel Delta Operator Kalman Filter Design and Convergence Analysis

This paper focuses on the development of a delta operator Kalman filter and its convergence analysis. The delta operator Kalman filter is designed to estimate the state vectors of a delta operator system. Note that the designed delta operator Kalman filter can express both continuous-time and discrete-time cases. Then, the convergence analysis of the delta operator Kalman filter is also investigated by using Lyapunov approach in delta domain. Furthermore, this paper gives fundamental results for the analysis and application of the delta operator Kalman filter as a state observer in an inverted pendulum model. Some experimental results of an inverted pendulum on a laboratory-scale setup are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the designed Kalman filter and its implementation.
Perceived Teaching Behaviors and Self-Determined Motivation in Physical Education

Abstract In the present study, we tested the effects of specific dimensions of perceived teaching behaviors on students' self-determined motivation in physical education. In accordance with the tenets of self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2000), we expected the psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness would mediate these effects. Secondary school students (N = 498) ages 12–17 years completed measures of perceived teaching behaviors for seven dimensions: (a) democratic behavior, (b) autocratic behavior, (c) teaching and instruction, (d) situation consideration, (e) positive general feedback, (f) positive nonverbal feedback, and (h) negative nonverbal feedback. They also completed measures of perceived satisfaction for competence, autonomy, relatedness, and self-determined motivation. A path-analytic model revealed a positive, indirect effect of perceived positive general feedback on self-determined motivation. The effects of perceived autocratic behavior and negative nonverbal feedback were direct and negative, whereas the effects of teaching and instruction and situation consideration were direct and positive. Results suggest that feedback, situation consideration, and teaching and instruction are essential antecedents to self-determined motivation.
Retornos a la educación superior en el mercado laboral:¿vale la pena el esfuerzo?

En las ultimas decadas, el numero de profesionales que ingresan cada ano al mercado laboral peruano se ha multiplicado 65 veces. Hoy en dia, estudian en el Peru medio millon de jovenes en 85 universidades, mientras que otros cerca de cuatrocientos mil jovenes se forman en mas de un millar de institutos superiores no universitarios. Todos los anos siguen egresando en nuestro pais cerca de cien mil profesionales universitarios y tecnicos con estudios superiores. Y muchos se preguntan si vale la pena todo este esfuerzo de inversion individual, familiar y como sociedad en su conjunto. La presente investigacion encuentra evidencia mixta acerca de la rentabilidad de la inversion en educacion superior en el mercado laboral peruano. Gracias a la convexificacion de los retornos a la educacion, la educacion universitaria (tanto privada como publica) ofrece en la actualidad rentabilidades privadas y sociales comparables, en terminos reales, con otras alternativas de inversion financiera y economica disponibles en el pais. En cambio, la educacion superior no universitaria tiene rentabilidades privadas y sociales muy por debajo de cualquier inversion alternativa disponible, e incluso cercanas a cero en terminos reales.
Word Identification and Reading Disorders in the Spanish Language

In this study, a reading-level-match design was used to test the hypothesis that children with reading disability (RD) are characterized by poor phonological skills, and that a developmental lag, as opposed to a specific deficit, will be found in transparent orthographies. Spanish has a transparent orthography and thus children with RD should not show severe difficulties in the use of the phonological route, as in the English language. A sample of 118 participants was selected and organized into three different groups: 40 with RD, 38 normal readers matched in age with the former, and 40 younger normal readers at the same reading level as those with RD. Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of lexicality, word frequency, word length, and positional frequency of syllables on lexical decision making and word-naming performance. While the participants were performing the naming task, we recorded what they read to subsequently analyze the form as well as the frequency of naming errors. The present study provides evidence for a deficit in phonological processing in a transparent orthography, particularly in nonword reading, because there were differences between the reading-level-matched groups.