Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Classification du retard de langage à deux ans et analyse des caractéristiques personnelles et sociofamiliales associées et de leur cumul

OBJECTIVES: 15 % of two year old children present with a delay in expressive vocabulary in the context of otherwise normal development. It is associated with delays in socio affective development as well as negative features of parental language stimulation. Moreover, half of these children will have a persistent language problem. A review of the literature on late-talkers underscores the heterogeneity found within that population. It also points to the relevance of studying language delay at two within a multifactorial perspective. These two conclusions support the aims pursued in this study: (1) to identify sub-groups in these children and (2) to compare these sub-groups with regards to factors known to be adversely associated with the development of language as well as to examine the effect of the accumulation of risk factors. METHODS: 68 children aged 18 to 35 months who present with a language delay and one their parents take part in the study. A variety of instruments measure the linguistic skills as well as other characteristics of the children, parents, families and of their environment. RESULTS: The cluster analysis uses the variables of language comprehension and expression. Three sub-groups found along a continuum of severity of language delay are identified and described. In a second analysis, the children who present exclusively with a vocabulary delay (n=52) are compared to those who have a wider reaching language delay (n=16). Results reveal a strong association between the level of linguistic skills and the cognitive development of the more impaired children. Moreover, the accumulation of risk factors is associated to belonging to the group presenting with a more pronounced language delay. CONCLUSION: With an aim of better characterizing this sub-group of the population, the results confirm the importance of taking into account language skills which go beyond the expressive vocabulary delay in two year old children. Association between a wider reaching delay of language and an the accumulation of risk factors further suggests an intervention which, in addition to stressing the linguistic aspects, must target the family and environmental characteristics of these children.
Characterization of the Pathogenicity of Streptococcus intermedius TYG1620 Isolated from a Human Brain Abscess Based on the Complete Genome Sequence with Transcriptome Analysis and Transposon Mutagenesis in a Murine Subcutaneous Abscess Model

ABSTRACT Streptococcus intermedius is known to cause periodontitis and pyogenic infections in the brain and liver. Here we report the complete genome sequence of strain TYG1620 (genome size, 2,006,877 bp; GC content, 37.6%; 2,020 predicted open reading frames [ORFs]) isolated from a brain abscess in an infant. Comparative analysis of S. intermedius genome sequences suggested that TYG1620 carries a notable type VII secretion system (T7SS), two long repeat regions, and 19 ORFs for cell wall-anchored proteins (CWAPs). To elucidate the genes responsible for the pathogenicity of TYG1620, transcriptome analysis was performed in a murine subcutaneous abscess model. The results suggest that the levels of expression of small hypothetical proteins similar to phenol-soluble modulin β1 (PSMβ1), a staphylococcal virulence factor, significantly increased in the abscess model. In addition, an experiment in a murine subcutaneous abscess model with random transposon (Tn) mutant attenuation suggested that Tn mutants with mutations in 212 ORFs in the Tn mutant library were attenuated in the murine abscess model (629 ORFs were disrupted in total); the 212 ORFs are putatively essential for abscess formation. Transcriptome analysis identified 37 ORFs, including paralogs of the T7SS and a putative glucan-binding CWAP in long repeat regions, to be upregulated and attenuated in vivo. This study provides a comprehensive characterization of S. intermedius pathogenicity based on the complete genome sequence and a murine subcutaneous abscess model with transcriptome and Tn mutagenesis, leading to the identification of pivotal targets for vaccines or antimicrobial agents for the control of S. intermedius infections.
Multirate parallel distributed compensation of a cluster in wireless sensor and actor networks

The stabilisation problem for one of the clusters with bounded multiple random time delays and packet dropouts in wireless sensor and actor networks is investigated in this paper. A new multirate switching model is constructed to describe the feature of this single input multiple output linear system. According to the difficulty of controller design under multi-constraints in multirate switching model, this model can be converted to a Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy model. By designing a multirate parallel distributed compensation, a sufficient condition is established to ensure this closed-loop fuzzy control system to be globally exponentially stable. The solution of the multirate parallel distributed compensation gains can be obtained by solving an auxiliary convex optimisation problem. Finally, two numerical examples are given to show, compared with solving switching controller, multirate parallel distributed compensation can be obtained easily. Furthermore, it has stronger robust stability than arbitrary switching controller and single-rate parallel distributed compensation under the same conditions.
Perceptions of Johannesburg small business operators about their small business support systems

Central to the current South African economic debates are the issues of equity, black empowerment and the promotion of small business activities. The promotion of small business activities is felt relevant as they are assumed to be addressing most of the country’s unemployment problem and those mentioned above while contributing largely to the GDP. Assumed problems facing this industry include the unavailability of support systems. This quantitative research explored through telephonic interviews, the perceptions of 60 Johannesburg small business operators of their small business support systems. The findings revealed access to information to be the perceived most important support system and business partnerships and subcontracting the least accessible.
Family ties and health cross-nationally: the contextualizing role of familistic culture and public pension spending in Europe.

OBJECTIVES Although previous research theorizes that cross-national variation in the relationship between family ties and health is due to nation-level differences in culture and policy/economics, no study has examined this theorization empirically. METHOD Using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), this study uses multilevel modeling to analyze individual-, nation-, and cross-level effects for 30,291 older adults in 14 nations. RESULTS Family ties to spouses/partners and parents are associated with better health, but ties to coresident children are associated with poorer health in certain contexts. Familistic culture and public pension spending have a weak but statistically significant moderating effect on the relationship between intergenerational family ties and health. DISCUSSION This article underscores the complexity of family and highlights the need for continued theorization and measurement at the nation level to promote older adults' health in diverse contexts.
APT Traffic Detection Based on Time Transform

APT(Advanced persist threat) is an emerging attack on the Internet. Attackers may combine phishing emails, malware, social engineering and botnets to create a series of attacks in one APT attack which makes it quite difficult for detection. In this way, attackers can remotely control the infected host, or steal sensitive information. In this paper, we proposed a time transform features approach for distinguishing APT attacks based on the observation that malicious payload must be transferred to the target hosts in an APT attack. By comparing the normal traffic with the traffic containing a malicious payload, we are able to catch the signal of malicious payload and further infer the existence of APT attacks. Then we use machine learning methods to detect APT attacks in big data. To verify this approach, we placed a device on the gateway of our university for catching the real Internet traffic of the university for one month. Then we mixed the APT traffic with these flows, and see whether our approach can identify the malicious payloads. We found our approach is not only accurate but also efficient for catching APT attacks.
The informal economy in East-Central Europe 1991-1998

Abstract: The informal economy was an essential part of the former Communist economies and is now an important part of the transition economies in Central and Eastern Europe. Many claim that it is growing. This paper will consider the relative size and dynamics of the informal economy in different countries during the course of transition, the forms of participation in the informal economy and its role in economic and political developments in the region. In doing so, it draws upon one repeatedsurvey: New Democracies Barometer (NDB) for the years 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996, and 1998. The paper is divided into six parts: Part 1 introduction, Part 2, the informal economy and economic development, Part 4, the structure of participation in informal economies, or who is participating and how, Part 5 Subjective economic well-being and the informal economy, Part 6 the impact of the informal economy on trust in political and social institutions and upon perceptions of corruption, then in Part 7 we end with a multivariate model which looks at all these factors and participation in the informal economy. The paper covers the following countries: Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, FRY, Romania, Bulgaria, Belarus, and Ukraine. For most of these countries, we have repeated cross-sectional data between 1991 and 1998 (see Methodological Appendix 1). ;
Being Eager to Prove Oneself: U-Shaped Relationship between Competence Frustration and Intrinsic Motivation in Another Activity

Competence frustration has been consistently found to undermine one’s intrinsic motivation in the same activity. However, the relationship between competence frustration in a preceding activity and one’s intrinsic motivation in a subsequent one remains unclear. In order to explore this relationship, self-reported data were collected from 617 undergraduate students of a large comprehensive university in southern China, who took varied courses immediately before taking a less-demanding one. Results suggested a U-shaped relationship between students’ competence frustration in a preceding course and intrinsic motivation in a subsequent one. To be specific, for students whose competence frustration reached the inflection point, a restoration process would be activated if the current course would help restore their competence. Importantly, these students’ competence frustration in a preceding course was found to positively predict their intrinsic motivation level in a subsequent course. As far as we are concerned, this is the first study to reveal a potential positive effect of need frustration outside of its primary thwarting context, which complements and extends existing literatures on the dynamics between need frustration and intrinsic motivation.
Persistence of megalencephaly in a subgroup of young boys with autism spectrum disorder

A recurring finding in autism spectrum disorder research is that head and brain growth is disproportionate to body growth in early childhood. Nordahl et al. (2011) demonstrated that this occurs in approximately 15% of boys with autism. While the literature suggests that brain growth normalizes at older ages, this has never been evaluated in a longitudinal study. The current study evaluated head circumference and total cerebral volume in 129 male children with autism and 49 age‐matched, typically developing controls. We determined whether 3‐year‐old boys with brain size disproportionate to height (which we call disproportionate megalencephaly) demonstrated an abnormal trajectory of head growth from birth and whether they maintained an enlarged brain at 5 years of age. Findings were based on longitudinal, structural MRI data collected around 3, 4, and 5 years of age and head circumference data from medical records. At 3 years of age, 19 boys with autism had enlarged brains while 110 had brain sizes in the normal range. Boys with disproportionate megalencephaly had greater total cerebral, gray matter, and white matter volumes from 3–5 years compared to boys with autism and normal sized brains and typically developing boys, but no differences in body size. While head circumference did not differ between groups at birth, it was significantly greater in the disproportionate megalencephaly group by around 2 years. These data suggest that there is a subgroup of boys with autism who have brains disproportionate to body size and that this continues until at least 5 years of age. Autism Res 2016, 9: 1169–1182. © 2016 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Emotional wellbeing and radiotherapy: a methodological approach to improving the patient experience

Medical technological advances have been instrumental in improving the physical health of many individuals over the past 50 years. However, the impact that a patient's care experience has on their emotional health has just begun to be explored. Using quantitative, qualitative, and design research methods, I am researching stress, anxiety, and perceptions of care in cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy. This 3-tiered methodological approach allows me to create a holistic understanding of the patient experience. Based upon insights gained from this data, I am implementing design interventions within this environment to evaluate their ability to improve the patient experience.
Monoclonal antibodies to Coxiella burnetii that cross-react with strain Nine Mile

Results are presented to show the binding properties of five monoclonal antibodies directed to Coxiella burnetii Priscilla with cross-reactions to the Nine Mile strain. The monoclonal antibodies preferentially recognize phase I epitopes by ELISA and recognize phase II epitopes by immunoblotting but do not allow differentiation between so-called chronic and acute strains of C. burnetii. The only difference in reactivity was in the staining pattern revealed after reactions with lipopolysaccharide I antigens.
An algebraic theory of real-time formal languages. (Théorie algébrique des langages formels temps réel)

A timed automaton is an automaton augmented with several clocks that measure the time passage and may influence state changes in the system. Timed automata were introduced as a formal model for real-time systems hoping that their role in the verification of such systems will be similar to the role of finite automata in the systematic search of errors in the design of untimed systems. In our thesis we are concerned with several theoretical questions related to timed automata and timed languages. In the first part of the thesis we investigate a simple sub-class of timed automata with one clock which is reset at each transition. We show that for this sub-class we can obtain simple analogs of the classical results of automata theory, namely Kleene and Myhill-Nerode theorems and closure under complementation. The second and main part of the thesis is motivated by the timed regular expressions of Asarin, Caspi and Maler where it was shown that, in order to match the expressive power of timed automata, one needs to introduce intersection into the expressions. We investigate an alternative to intersection by using colored parentheses for defining timing restrictions on overlapping parts of a sequence. This idea leads to an alternative representation of languages of timed automata, which is based on a new class of languages called here . We develop the theory of regular expressions over regminoes and prove that their emptiness problem is undecidable in general, and decidable for a large subclass of languages. From these results we develop new data-structures and algorithms for solving emptiness and reachability problems for timed automata and regular expressions.
When Good Measurement Goes Wrong

Hoffman’s (2015) replication of Sabia, Burkhauser, and Hansen (SBH 2012) suggests that “unlucky” measurement error in low-skilled employment in the Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Groups (CPS-ORG) led SBH to produce upwardly biased estimates of the labor demand effects of the 2005 to 2006 New York State minimum wage increase. This study replicates Hoffman’s preferred policy estimates from the full CPS and finds evidence that the parallel trends assumption underlying his difference-in-difference approach is violated. When a synthetic control state with pretreatment employment trends similar to those in New York is constructed, this study estimates a relatively large negative employment elasticity with respect to the minimum wage for low-skilled individuals (–0.5), similar to the estimate SBH obtained using the CPS-ORG (–0.6).
CIB2, defective in isolated deafness, is key for auditory hair cell mechanotransduction and survival

Defects of CIB2, calcium‐ and integrin‐binding protein 2, have been reported to cause isolated deafness, DFNB48 and Usher syndrome type‐IJ, characterized by congenital profound deafness, balance defects and blindness. We report here two new nonsense mutations (pGln12* and pTyr110*) in CIB2 patients displaying nonsyndromic profound hearing loss, with no evidence of vestibular or retinal dysfunction. Also, the generated CIB2−/− mice display an early onset profound deafness and have normal balance and retinal functions. In these mice, the mechanoelectrical transduction currents are totally abolished in the auditory hair cells, whilst they remain unchanged in the vestibular hair cells. The hair bundle morphological abnormalities of CIB2−/− mice, unlike those of mice defective for the other five known USH1 proteins, begin only after birth and lead to regression of the stereocilia and rapid hair‐cell death. This essential role of CIB2 in mechanotransduction and cell survival that, we show, is restricted to the cochlea, probably accounts for the presence in CIB2−/− mice and CIB2 patients, unlike in Usher syndrome, of isolated hearing loss without balance and vision deficits.
Protecting Sensitive Information in the Volatile Memory from Disclosure Attacks

The protection of the volatile memory data is an issue of crucial importance, since authentication credentials and cryptographic keys remain in the volatile memory. For this reason, the volatile memory has become a prime target for memory scrapers, which specifically target the volatile memory, in order to steal sensitive information, such as credit card numbers. This paper investigates security measures, to protect sensitive information in the volatile memory from disclosure attacks. Experimental analysis is performed to investigate whether the operating systems (Windows or Linux) perform data zeroization in the volatile memory. Results show that Windows kernel zeroize data after a process termination, while the Linux kernel does not. Next, we examine functions and software techniques in C/C++ programming language that can be used by developers to modify at process runtime the contents of the allocated blocks in the volatile memory. We have identified that only the Windows operating system provide a specific function named SecureZeroMemory that can reliably zeroize data. Finally, driven by the fact that malware scrapers primarily target web browsers, we examine whether it is feasible to extract authentication credentials from the volatile memory allocated by web browsers. The presented results show that in most cases we can successfully recover user authentication credentials from all the web browsers except when the user has closed the tab that used to access the website.
Does exposure to parental substance use disorders increase substance use disorder risk in offspring? A 5-year follow-up study.

BACKGROUND This study examined the impact of exposure to parental substance use disorders (SUD) (alcohol or drug abuse or dependence) on the development of SUD in offspring. METHODS The original sample was derived from pediatric and psychiatric ascertained females 6-17 years old with (N = 140) and without Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD; N = 122). At baseline, these groups had 143 and 131 biological siblings and 274 and 238 parents, respectively. All subjects and their family members were comprehensively and blindly assessed by structured psychiatric interviews for psychopathology and substance use. The female probands and their siblings were reassessed after a follow-up period of 5 years. RESULTS At follow-up the mean age of offspring was 17.9 ± 4.20 years. Independently of ADHD, familial risk, and socioeconomic status, exposure to maternal drug use disorders, but not paternal drug use disorders, was significantly associated with the development of a drug use disorder in offspring (OR: 7.04; p = 0.03). There was a significant association between exposure to parental SUD during adolescence (relative to preschool or latency years) and SUD in offspring (OR: 3.61; p = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS Exposure to maternal drug use disorders during adolescent years increased the risk for the development of a drug use disorder in a sample of females with and without ADHD and their siblings. Exposure to parental SUD during adolescence specifically increases the risk of SUD development in offspring.
Quantification of DNaseI-sensitivity by real-time PCR: quantitative analysis of DNaseI-hypersensitivity of the mouse beta-globin LCR.

We employ real-time PCR to allow us to quantify the sensitivity of chromatin to digestion by DNaseI. This approach has three clear advantages over the more conventional use of the Southern hybridization assay: the accuracy of quantification is improved; the resolution of the assay is enhanced, by designing primers to amplify small amplicons it is possible to analyze sequences both co-incident and proximal to sites of DNaseI-hypersensitivity; less material is needed, as little as 5 ng of treated genomic DNA. We applied this method in an analysis of the chromatin structure of the previously described mouse beta-globin locus control region (LCR) using fetal liver cells. The four hypersensitive sites of the canonical mouse LCR, HS1 to HS4, are shown to have kinetics of digestion consistent with these sequences being nucleosome-free in vivo. A different pattern was seen for HS6, a recently described "weak" hypersensitive site. The site was also rapidly lost but more of the sites proved resistant, we interpreted this to show that this hypersensitive was only forming in a portion of the erythroid cells. This finding implies that in vivo the LCR is structurally heterogeneous. Sequences proximal to the hypersensitive sites show a third pattern of intermediate sensitivity, consistent with the chromatin being unfolded but the sites still bound by a continual nucleosomal array. Our results demonstrate that this method has the potential to achieve accurate and detailed mapping of chromatin structure from small amounts of tissue samples.