Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ASSESSMENT OF RETINAL FUNCTION IN PATIENTS WITH HIV WITHOUT INFECTIOUS RETINITIS BY MULTIFOCAL ELECTRORETINOGRAM AND AUTOMATED PERIMETRY

Purpose: To determine if multifocal electroretinogram (mfERG) testing shows abnormalities that correspond to perimetric defects in HIV positive patients without infectious retinitis. Methods: We studied three groups of patients: HIV negative controls, HIV high CD4 nadir patients (lowest CD4 T cell count is over 100) and low CD4 nadir patients (below 100 for over 6 months). Twenty-six HIV positive eyes and 16 HIV negative control eyes were studied by mfERG. A subset of 10 eyes also underwent computerized perimetry for comparison. We analyzed mfERG by hexagons as well as by quadrants and rings. Results: Of 103 hexagon locations there was no significant difference in the amplitudes P1 and N1 (nV/degree2) between the three studied groups (p>0.05), similarly, the latencies were not different (p>0.05). All eyes with significant visual field defects at the 0.01 and 0.005 level (Humphrey pattern deviation; 24-2) were compared to mfERG amplitudes and latencies at those locations–there were no corresponding defects in mfERG data (p>0.2). Conclusion: In the era of HAART there are still demonstrable visual field defects and other evidence of damage to the retinal nerve fiber layer in HIV patients. Our mfERG studies show that the damage appears to affect the inner retina, the outer retina is spared. Further studies of inner retinal structure and function are indicated to elucidate this process.
Induction interactive d'extracteurs n-aires pour les documents semi-structurés

La these defendue dans ce memoire est qu'il est possible de concevoir des algorithmes d'apprentissage de programmes d'extraction n-aire pour les documents semi-structures, qui est une classe non triviale de transformation d'arbres, de maniere supervisee et avec peu d'intervention de l'utilisateur. Les documents semi-structures ont une structure arborescente. Hors peu de systemes d'induction supervisee d'extracteurs en tirent partie. La plupart d'entre eux considerent les documents comme une sequence melangeant balises et contenu [51, 42, 40, 78, 65]. Plus recemment sont apparus des algorithmes d'induction exploitant pleinement la structure d'arbre des documents semi-structures [43, 48, 81, 12, 39, 56, 36]. Cette these s'inscrit dans ce courant et soutient l'idee que l'exploitation de la structure des documents semi-structures permet d'induire des extracteurs expressifs et performants. L'induction est realisee a l'aide d'algorithmes d'apprentissage automatique de classification supervisee. Ce choix est motive a la fois par le succes des approches d'extractions fondee sur la classification, mais surtout par la volonte d'utiliser des algorithmes d'apprentissage existants et connus. Bien que le codage de exemples d'apprentissage en attribut-valeur prenne en compte la nature arborescente des documents semi-structures, il est generique et integre peu de connaissance de base. Cependant toute nouvelle connaissance est facilement integrable. Notre representation des donnees est adaptative. Dans notre approche, l'extraction n-aire est realisee de maniere incrementale au cours d'une boucle croissante sur la taille des n-uplets. Ce procede d'extraction ne fait aucune hypothese sur la disposition des donnees dans les documents. Aucun post-traitement n'est effectue : notre algorithme realise en meme temps l'extraction des composantes et leur combinaison en n-uplets. Precisons qu'un extracteur obtenu par PaF, notre systeme, est utilisable tel quel, comme une boite noire, avec en entree des documents HTML ou XML, et en sortie l'ensemble des n-uplets extraits. De plus le systeme PaF est implemente dans un cadre interactif qui permet l'induction a partir d'un faible nombre d'interactions. L'utilisateur fournit quelques annotations qui servent d'amorce a l'apprentissage d'un extracteur hypothese. Ici commence une boucle d'interaction dans laquelle l'utilisateur corrige les erreurs de l'hypothese courante et relance l'apprentissage jusqu'a l'obtention d'une hypothese correcte. PaF permet d'apprendre des extracteurs n-aires performants a partir de peu d'exemples. Les resultats experimentaux montrent que PaF atteint les performances des meilleurs systemes n-aires. De plus son procede d'extraction reste applicable et efficace meme lorsque l'organisation des donnees dans les documents semi-structures est complexe. L'evaluation experimentale montre egalement que le cadre interactif de PaF permet de reduire l'effort d'annotation de l'utilisateur, tout en preservant la qualite des extracteurs induits.
Eight Weeks of Exercise Training Improves Fitness Measures in Methamphetamine-Dependent Individuals in Residential Treatment

Objectives:Physical exercise has been shown to benefit diverse medical and behavioral conditions. This study assesses the feasibility and efficacy of an 8-week endurance and resistance training program on fitness measures in individuals undergoing residential treatment for methamphetamine (MA) dependence. Methods:A total of 39 MA-dependent individuals were randomized to 3 days/week of exercise training (ET, n = 15) or health education without training (equal attention [EA], n = 14) over 8 weeks. Aerobic performance (O2max) was measured by indirect calorimetry, body composition by skinfolds, muscle strength by 1-repetition maximum (1-RM), and endurance at 85% of 1-RM for both leg press (LP) and chest press (CP). Results:A total of 29 individuals completed the study for a 74% adherence rate. Baseline characteristics (mean ± SD) were balanced between groups: age 31 ± 7 years; height = 1.74 ± 0.07 m; weight 82.0 ± 15.0 kg. The ET group significantly improved O2max by 0.63 ± 0.22 L/min (+21%), LP strength by 24.4 ± 5.6 kg (+40%), and CP strength by 20.6 ± 5.7 kg (+49%). The ET group increased LP and CP endurance by 120% and 96%, respectively and showed significant reductions in body weight of 1.7 ± 2.4 kg (−2%), % body fat of 2.8 ± 1.3% (−15%), and fat weight 2.8 ± 1.8 kg (−18%). All changes were significant (P < 0.001) for ET, and no changes were seen for the EA group. Conclusions:Individuals recovering from MA dependence showed substantial improvements in aerobic exercise performance, muscle strength and endurance, and body composition with ET. These findings demonstrate the feasibility of an ET intervention in these participants and also show excellent responsiveness to the exercise stimulus resulting in physiological changes that might enhance recovery from drug dependency.
Chromosome ends: different sequences may provide conserved functions

The structures of specific chromosome regions, centromeres and telomeres, present a number of puzzles. As functions performed by these regions are ubiquitous and essential, their DNA, proteins and chromatin structure are expected to be conserved. Recent studies of centromeric DNA from human, Drosophila and plant species have demonstrated that a hidden universal centromere‐specific sequence is highly unlikely. The DNA of telomeres is more conserved consisting of a tandemly repeated 6–8 bp Arabidopsis‐like sequence in a majority of organisms as diverse as protozoan, fungi, mammals and plants. However, there are alternatives to short DNA repeats at the ends of chromosomes and for telomere elongation by telomerase. Here we focus on the similarities and diversity that exist among the structural elements, DNA sequences and proteins, that make up terminal domains (telomeres and subtelomeres), and how organisms use these in different ways to fulfil the functions of end‐replication and end‐protection. BioEssays 27:685–697, 2005. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Fraud or Fairytales: Russia and Ukraine's Electoral Experience

Three experts on post-Soviet elections examine the "fingerprints of fraud" found in election returns aggregated up to the level of Russia's 2500+ and Ukraine's 225 rayons from the first round of Russia's 1996 presidential election through the third round of Ukraine's 2004 presidential contest. The objective is to develop means for detecting and measuring fraud that rely on official data rather than eyewitness accounts of irregularities. The secondary objective is to measure the extent of electoral fraud. On the basis of this novel methodology, estimates are offered of the extent of fraud in each of the Russian and Ukrainian elections studied.
Optimal Sequencing of Unpunctual Patients in High‐Service‐Level Clinics

Even though patients often arrive early and out of turn for scheduled appointments in outpatient clinics, no research has been undertaken to establish whether an available provider should see an early patient right away (preempt) or wait for the patient scheduled next. This problem, which we call the “Wait‐Preempt Dilemma,” is particularly relevant for “high‐service‐level” clinics (such as psychotherapy, chiropractic, acupuncture), where preempting may cause the missing patient to wait for an excessively long time, should she show up soon. Typically, the dilemma is resolved by preemption, where the provider starts serving the patient who has already arrived to avoid staying idle. By contrast, we analytically determine the time intervals where it is optimal to preempt and those where it is optimal to wait, and find that in some cases the provider should in fact stay idle, even in the presence of waiting patients. Our results suggest that the proposed analytical method outperforms the always‐preempt policy in clinics that do not overbook and have service times longer than 30 minutes. In these cases, the analytical method dramatically reduces patient waiting times at the cost of a modest increase in overtime. By contrast, in clinics that overbook or have short service times, the two policies perform similarly, and hence the always‐preempt policy is preferable due to its simplicity. A software application is provided that clinics can readily use to solve the wait‐preempt dilemma.
Working women work‐life conflict

Purpose – Working women being housewives have to face major problems. They have to trade off between work domain and family life domain, in perspective sector and area chosen. This study investigates the factors behind work‐life conflict experienced by women with responsibilities and type of work arrangement experiencedDesign/methodology/approach – The study is conducted by exploring the responses of 100 women working in 25 different banks (public as well as private banks) in non‐contrived environment using random sampling in Attock and Islamabad cities of Pakistan. Regression and correlation is used for statistical analysisFindings – The impact of women's earning potentials, household responsibilities, workplace environment and financial needs is analyzed on women work‐life conflict. Results from the study indicate that household responsibilities and workplace environment are strongly correlated to women work‐life conflict. Response rate is 75 percent and all the values for Cronbach Alpha are agreeable.
Making Harvard Modern: The Rise of America's University

Making Harvard Modern is a candid, richly detailed portrait of America's most prominent university from 1933 to the present: seven decades of dramatic change. Early twentieth century Harvard was the country's oldest and richest university, but not necessarily its outstanding one. By the century's end it was widely regarded as the nation's, and the world's, leading institution of higher education. With verve, humor, and insight, Morton and Phyllis Keller tell the story of that rise: a tale of compelling personalities, notable achievement and no less notable academic pratfalls. Their book is based on rich and revealing archival materials, interviews, and personal experience. Young, humbly born James Bryant Conant succeeded Boston Brahmin A. Lawrence Lowell as Harvard's president in 1933, and set out to change a Brahmin-dominated university into a meritocratic one. He hoped to recruit the nation's finest scholars and an outstanding national student body. But the lack of new money during the Depression and the distractions of World War Two kept Conant, and Harvard, from achieving this goal. In the 1950s and 1960s, during the presidency of Conant's successor Nathan Marsh Pusey, Harvard raised the money, recruited the faculty, and attracted the students that made it a great meritocratic institution: America's university. The authors provide the fullest account yet of this transformation, and of the wrenching campus crisis of the late 'sixties. During the last thirty years of the twentieth century, a new academic culture arose: meritocratic Harvard morphed into worldly Harvard. During the presidencies of Derek Bok and Neil Rudenstine the university opened its doors to growing numbers of foreign students, women, African- and Asian-Americans, and Hispanics. Its administration, faculty, and students became more deeply engaged in social issues; its scientists and professional schools were more ready to enter into shared commercial ventures. But worldliness brought its own conflicts: over affirmative action and political correctness, over commercialization, over the ever higher costs of higher education. This fascinating account, the first comprehensive history of a modern American university, is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the present state and future course of higher education.
Dielectric Resonator Antennas: From the Basic to the Aesthetic

This paper explains the basic characteristics of dielectric resonator antennas (DRAs), with emphasis on the effect of the form factor on their resonance (operating) frequencies. It is followed by discussions on their recent developments in higher order mode, circularly polarized, dual function, and transparent designs over the last few years. The idea of using glass DRAs as decoration antennas is proposed and demonstrated for the first time.
Interorganisational collaboration in the public sector

II DEDICATION . III TABLE OF CONTENTS . IV LIST OF FIGURES . XI LIST OF TABLES . XII LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . XIII ACKNOWLEDGMENT . XV DECLARATION . XVI 1 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION . 1 1.
An Exploratory Study of Movie‐Induced Tourism: A Case of the Movie The Sound of Music and Its Locations in Salzburg, Austria

Although it has been acknowledged that movies can induce people to travel to the sites where the movies were filmed, there is still little research related to behavioral characteristics of tourists who actually visit different movie sites. The purpose of this study was to explore a relationship between a movie and its effect on the local tourism where the movie was filmed. In this study, specifically, the movie The Sound of Music was chosen to examine the role that the movie played in attracting people to Salzburg, Austria that was used as a backdrop for the movie. The results of the survey have supported the phenomenon of movie‐induced tourism by showing that the movie The Sound of Music influenced visitors in selecting the film locations as their travel destination.
Handling Intensity and the Short- and Long-term Survival of Elephant Seals: Addressing and Quantifying Research Effects on Wild Animals

Abstract This study addresses the consequences of repeated human handling on the survival of an endangered phocid, the southern elephant seal and the implications for wildlife research. Southern elephant seal pups were repeatedly handled during the first six weeks of their lives. The possibility that such anthropogenic research may have altered the very parameters that were being investigated is a topical and relevant study area that we address here. Our results show that there were no measurable effects on pups that were repeatedly handled and subjected to invasive research methods with respect to survivorship in the short term (the 24-day nursing period) nor in the long term (the first year of life and beyond) and hence fitness one year after handling. In support of this conclusion we were unable to detect any significant differences in the survival rates of the most intensively handled seals and the least intensively handled seals.
Efficient SNR estimation in OFDM system

It is very important to estimate the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of received signal and to transmit the signal effectively for the modern communication system. The performance of existing non-data-aided (NDA) SNR estimation methods are substantially degraded for high level modulation scheme such as M-ary amplitude and phase shift keying (APSK) or quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). In this paper, we propose a SNR estimation method which uses zero point auto-correlation of received signal per block and auto/cross- correlation of decision feedback signal in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system. Proposed method can be studied into two types; Type 1 can estimate SNR by zero point auto-correlation of decision feedback signal based on the second moment property. Type 2 uses both zero point auto-correlation and cross-correlation based on the fourth moment property. In block-by-block reception of OFDM system, these two SNR estimation methods can be possible for the practical implementation due to correlation based the estimation method and they show more stable estimation performance than the previous SNR estimation methods.
Neural Program Meta-Induction

Most recently proposed methods for Neural Program Induction work under the assumption of having a large set of input/output (I/O) examples for learning any underlying input-output mapping. This paper aims to address the problem of data and computation efficiency of program induction by leveraging information from related tasks. Specifically, we propose two approaches for cross-task knowledge transfer to improve program induction in limited-data scenarios. In our first proposal, portfolio adaptation, a set of induction models is pretrained on a set of related tasks, and the best model is adapted towards the new task using transfer learning. In our second approach, meta program induction, a $k$-shot learning approach is used to make a model generalize to new tasks without additional training. To test the efficacy of our methods, we constructed a new benchmark of programs written in the Karel programming language. Using an extensive experimental evaluation on the Karel benchmark, we demonstrate that our proposals dramatically outperform the baseline induction method that does not use knowledge transfer. We also analyze the relative performance of the two approaches and study conditions in which they perform best. In particular, meta induction outperforms all existing approaches under extreme data sparsity (when a very small number of examples are available), i.e., fewer than ten. As the number of available I/O examples increase (i.e. a thousand or more), portfolio adapted program induction becomes the best approach. For intermediate data sizes, we demonstrate that the combined method of adapted meta program induction has the strongest performance.
Testing Nonlinear New Economic Geography Models

We test a New Economic Geography (NEG) model for U.S. counties, employing a new strategy that allows us to bring the full NEG model to the data, and to assess selected elements of this model separately. We find no empirical support for the full NEG model. Regional wages in the U.S. do not respond to local wage shocks in the way predicted by the model. We show that the main reason for this is that the model does not predict either the migration patterns induced by local wage shocks or the repercussions of this migration for regional wages correctly.
TERMINAL FLOWER1 Is a Mobile Signal Controlling Arabidopsis Architecture[W]

Shoot meristems harbor stem cells that provide key growing points in plants, maintaining themselves and generating all above-ground tissues. Cell-to-cell signaling networks maintain this population, but how are meristem and organ identities controlled? TERMINAL FLOWER1 (TFL1) controls shoot meristem identity throughout the plant life cycle, affecting the number and identity of all above-ground organs generated; tfl1 mutant shoot meristems make fewer leaves, shoots, and flowers and change identity to flowers. We find that TFL1 mRNA is broadly distributed in young axillary shoot meristems but later becomes limited to central regions, yet affects cell fates at a distance. How is this achieved? We reveal that the TFL1 protein is a mobile signal that becomes evenly distributed across the meristem. TFL1 does not enter cells arising from the flanks of the meristem, thus allowing primordia to establish their identity. Surprisingly, TFL1 movement does not appear to occur in mature shoots of leafy (lfy) mutants, which eventually stop proliferating and convert to carpel/floral-like structures. We propose that signals from LFY in floral meristems may feed back to promote TFL1 protein movement in the shoot meristem. This novel feedback signaling mechanism would ensure that shoot meristem identity is maintained and the appropriate inflorescence architecture develops.
Regulatory T-Cells in the Graft and the Risk of Acute Graft-Versus-Host Disease After Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation

Background. FOXP3+ regulatory T-cells (Treg) are important regulators of allo-reactivity and may therefore represent an important predictor for the risk of graft versus-host disease (GVHD) after allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Methods. To determine the clinical significance of Treg-content in stem cell grafts, we analyzed 58 human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-identical sibling donors (34 patients received myeloablative and 24 patients reduced intense conditioning regimens) and correlated the Treg frequency with clinical outcome after stem cell transplantation (SCT). Results. A mean value of 9.1×106 CD4+FOXP3+ Treg per kg body weight (bw) of the recipient was transplanted (ranging from 0.7 to 33.7×106 Treg/kg bw). Graft content of Treg correlated with mononuclear cells and CD3+ T-cells. Patients receiving low numbers of Treg (Treglow) after myeloablative conditioning for SCT had a significantly increased cumulative incidence of 76% for acute GVHD when compared with 23% for individuals receiving high numbers of Treg (Treghigh). This observation, however, was not made in patients after reduced intense conditioning-SCT. Notably, relapse rate was not significantly different between Treglow and Treghigh patients in either patient group and overall survival was even increased in Treghigh patients after myeloablative SCT. Finally, low Treg graft levels represent an independent prognostic factor in multivariate analysis for the appearance of acute GHVD. Conclusion. Donor-derived Treg might be of particular significance for the development of acute GVHD after myeloablative SCT using HLA-identical sibling donors.
EXCESSIVE NAKED MEGAKARYOCYTE NUCLEI IN MYELODYSPLASTIC SYNDROME MIMICKING IDIOPATHIC THROMBOCYTOPENIC PURPURA: A Complicated Pre- and Post-transplantation Course

A boy 3 years 7 months old with thrombocytopenia and history of intracranial hemorrhage who underwent bone marrow transplantation is presented. He was refractory to steroids, immunoglobulin G, vincristine, azathioprine, cyclosporine A, interleukin-11, chemotherapy, and splenectomy. Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura was excluded by light /electron microscopic and flow cytometric findings; the diagnosis of refractory cytopenia, a subgroup of pediatric myelodysplastic syndrome, was made. Naked megakaryocyte nuclei were 55.38 ± 28.2% vs. 31.67 ± 23.22% of all megakaryocytes in the patient and the control group of 9 patients with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, respectively (p = .016). The posttransplatation course was complicated by delayed platelet engraftment, bronchiolitis obliterans associated with pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, which resolved completely.