Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sitting up and transferring to a chair: two functional tests for patients with stroke.

OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was to evaluate the reliability of two clinical tests of mobility for stroke patients. DESIGN The study took place in a university hospital with a case control design. SUBJECTS A sample of convenience including 31 subjects: a group of patients with prior stroke (n = 19); a control group (n = 12). METHODS The time(s) for sitting up from a supine position and transferring from an examination table to a chair were measured and inter- and intra-rater reliability were assessed. The source of variation in the test results as well as intra-class correlations were estimated. RESULTS The largest source of variation in the supine position was between subjects, and the between-tester variability was very low, with similar results for the transfer from table to chair. The intra-class correlations are all high (range 0.77-0.98). This indicates that it is of little importance which tester is performing the tests. CONCLUSION Sitting up on an examination table and transferring from an examination table to a chair seem to be reliable timed clinical tests of mobility in stroke research.
Teaching Play Activities to Preschool Children with Disabilities

The purpose of this study was to determine whether three preschool children with autism or autistic-like behaviors would learn and generalize pretend play activities targeted at two different play levels—a developmentally appropriate (DA) level and an age appropriate (AA) leve—-differently. The children's readiness for the DA play level was assessed with the Developmental Play Assessment (DPA) instrument (Lifter, Edwards, Avery, Anderson, & Sulzer-Azaroff, 1988). We taught individual exemplars from the two different play levels one at a time, to each of the children, in a sequential treatments design. In contrast to the consistently acquired DA activities, the activities of the AA category apparently were more difficult, and in most cases, they were not acquired. In addition, the children were less likely to generalize the AA skills to other activities or toys. The results are discussed in terms of (a) the importance of developmental considerations in selecting instructional objectives, and (b) the usefulness of directly teaching play activities to children with developmental disabilities.
Development of the ultrasound power meter for therapeutic applications

The total output power from a medical ultrasound transducer has to be measured due to various reasons but in general they are related to patient safety and assessment of performance. The objective of this work was to develop an ultrasound power meter to measure a total output power from therapeutic ultrasound devices. The implementation of this work utilizes a radiation force balance technique based on the method recommended in the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC 61161). Ultrasound therapy unit and its transducer were used as an ultrasonic source. To verify the performance of the developed system, the ultrasonic power measurement results from our developed ultrasound power meter were compared with those from the commercial ultrasound power meter (UPM) at 5 nominal intensity values (0.5 W/cm2, 1 W/cm2, 1.5 W/cm2, 2 W/cm2, 3 W/cm2) with three frequencies, 0.86 MHz, 2 MHz and 3 MHz, and four different output pulse modes; continuous wave (100% duty cycle), 1:2 (50% duty cycle), 1:5 (20% duty cycle) and 1:10 (10% duty cycle). The results show that the developed system is currently able to determine the ultrasonic output power in the frequency range from about 1 MHz to 3 MHz, and in the power range from 100 mW to approximately 15 W. Current efforts are being made to focus on testing the performance of the developed ultrasound power meter by comparing the results from the developed system with those from the standard system at the National Institute of Metrology, Thailand (NIMT) and developing a three axis positioning system with computer control for the alignment of the ultrasonic transducer.
Automating Distributed Partial Aggregation

Partial aggregation is of great importance in many distributed data-parallel systems. Most notably, it is commonly applied by MapReduce programs to optimize I/O by successively aggregating partially reduced results into a final result, as opposed to aggregating all input records at once. In spite of its importance, programmers currently enable partial aggregation by tediously encoding their reduce functionality into separate reduce and combine functions. This is error prone and often leads to missed optimization opportunities. This paper proposes an algorithm that automatically verifies if the original monolithic reduce function of a MapReduce program is eligible for partial aggregation, and if so, synthesizes enabling partial aggregation code. The key insight behind this algorithm is a novel necessary and sufficient condition for when partial aggregation is applicable to a reduce function. This insight provides us with a formal foundation for an automaton, which derives a satisfiability problem that can be fed into a standard SMT solver. By doing so, we transform the problem of synthesis into a program inversion problem, which is however nondeterministic. Although such inversion is hard to solve in general, we observe that most reducers in practical distributed computing contexts can be classified into a few categories for which we can design efficient synthesis algorithms. Finally, we build and evaluate a prototype of our method to demonstrate its feasibility in the SCOPE distributed data-parallel system.
Parallel Multigrid Preconditioning of the Conjugate GradientMethod for Systems of Subsurface HydrologyLeesa Brieger

Parallel preconditioners are considered for improving the convergence rate of the conjugate gradient method for solving sparse symmetric positive deenite systems generated by nite element models of subsurface ow. The diiculties of adapting eeective sequential preconditioners to the parallel environment are illustrated by our treatment of incomplete Cholesky preconditioning. These diiculties are avoided with multigrid preconditioning, which can be extended naturally to many processors so that the preconditioner remains global and eeective. The coarse grid correction which deenes the multigrid preconditioner is outlined and its parallel implementation with the distributed nite element data structure is presented, along with some examples of its use as a parallel preconditioner.
Electroencephalography Signal Grouping and Feature Classification Using Harmony Search for BCI

This paper presents a heuristic method for electroencephalography (EEG) grouping and feature classification using harmony search (HS) for improving the accuracy of the brain-computer interface (BCI) system. EEG, a noninvasive BCI method, uses many electrodes on the scalp, and a large number of electrodes make the resulting analysis difficult. In addition, traditional EEG analysis cannot handle multiple stimuli. On the other hand, the classification method using the EEG signal has a low accuracy. To solve these problems, we use a heuristic approach to reduce the complexities in multichannel problems and classification. In this study, we build a group of stimuli using the HS algorithm. Then, the features from common spatial patterns are classified by the HS classifier. To confirm the proposed method, we perform experiments using 64-channel EEG equipment. The subjects are subjected to three kinds of stimuli: audio, visual, and motion. Each stimulus is applied alone or in combination with the others. The acquired signals are processed by the proposed method. The classification results in an accuracy of approximately 63%. We conclude that the heuristic approach using the HS algorithm on the BCI is beneficial for EEG signal analysis.
The requirement of Mettl3-promoted MyoD mRNA maintenance in proliferative myoblasts for skeletal muscle differentiation

Myogenic progenitor/stem cells retain their skeletal muscle differentiation potential by maintaining myogenic transcription factors such as MyoD. However, the mechanism of how MyoD expression is maintained in proliferative progenitor cells has not been elucidated. Here, we found that MyoD expression was reduced at the mRNA level by cell cycle arrest in S and G2 phases, which in turn led to the absence of skeletal muscle differentiation. The reduction of MyoD mRNA was correlated with the reduced expression of factors regulating RNA metabolism, including methyltransferase like 3 (Mettl3), which induces N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modifications of RNA. Knockdown of Mettl3 revealed that MyoD RNA was specifically downregulated and that this was caused by a decrease in processed, but not unprocessed, mRNA. Potential m6A modification sites were profiled by m6A sequencing and identified within the 5′ untranslated region (UTR) of MyoD mRNA. Deletion of the 5′ UTR revealed that it has a role in MyoD mRNA processing. These data showed that Mettl3 is required for MyoD mRNA expression in proliferative myoblasts.
Inferring Others' Hidden Thoughts: Smart Guesses in a Low Diagnostic World

People are biased toward believing that what others say is what they truly think. This effect, known as the truth bias, has often been characterized as a judgmental error that impedes accuracy. We consider an alternative view: that it reflects the use of contextual information to make the best guess when the currently available information has low diagnosticity. Participants learnt the diagnostic value of four cues, which were present during truthful statements between 20% and 80% of the time. Afterwards, participants were given contextual information: either that most people would lie or that most would tell the truth. We found that people were biased in the direction of the context information when the individuating behavioral cues were nondiagnostic. As the individuating cues became more diagnostic, context had less to no effect. We conclude that more general context information is used to make an informed judgment when other individuating cues are absent. That is, the truth bias reflects a smart guess in a low diagnostic world. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
A survey of various propagation models for mobile communication

In order to estimate the signal parameters accurately for mobile systems, it is necessary to estimate a system's propagation characteristics through a medium. Propagation analysis provides a good initial estimate of the signal characteristics. The ability to accurately predict radio-propagation behavior for wireless personal communication systems, such as cellular mobile radio, is becoming crucial to system design. Since site measurements are costly, propagation models have been developed as a suitable, low-cost, and convenient alternative. Channel modeling is required to predict path, loss and to characterize the impulse response of the propagating channel. The path loss is associated with the design of base stations, as this tells us how much a transmitter needs to radiate to service a given region. Channel characterization, on the other hand, deals with the fidelity of the received signals, and has to do with the nature of the waveform received at a receiver. The objective here is to design a suitable receiver that will receive the transmitted signal, distorted due to the multipath and dispersion effects of the channel, and that will decode the transmitted signal. An understanding of the various propagation models can actually address both problems. This paper begins with a review of the information available on the various propagation models for both indoor and outdoor environments. The existing models can be classified into two major classes: statistical models and site-specific models. The main characteristics of the radio channel - such as path loss, fading, and time-delay spread - are discussed. Currently, a third alternative, which includes many new numerical methods, is being introduced to propagation prediction. The advantages and disadvantages of some of these methods are summarized. In addition, an impulse-response characterization for the propagation path is also presented, including models for small-scale fading, Finally, it is shown that when two-way communication ports can be defined for a mobile system, it is possible to use reciprocity to focus the energy along the direction of an intended user without any explicit knowledge of the electromagnetic environment in which the system is operating, or knowledge of the spatial locations of the transmitter and the receiver.
A Content Analysis of the Journal of Business Communication: Toward a Body of Knowledge

This study analyzes the first thirteen volumes of this journal to deter mine research trends and methodologies discussed in the articles. Organi zational communication, message effect and meaning, and teaching metho dology were the three most popular topics. The author is also interested in trends in styles of articles, major concerns of authors, and the content of articles as they reveal the professional interests of those in the business communication field.
Confirmation Bias in a Simulated Research Environment: An Experimental Study of Scientific Inference

Numerous authors (e.g., Popper, 1959) argue that scientists should try to falsify rather than confirm theories. However, recent empirical work (Wason and Johnson-Laird, 1972) suggests the existence of a confirmation bias, at least on abstract problems. Using a more realistic, computer controlled environment modeled after a real research setting, subjects in this study first formulated hypotheses about the laws governing events occurring in the environment. They then chose between pairs of environments in which they could: (I) make observations which would probably confirm these hypotheses, or (2) test alternative hypotheses. Strong evidence for a confirmation bias involving failure to choose environments allowing tests of alternative hypotheses was found. However, when subjects did obtain explicit falsifying information, they used this information to reject incorrect hypotheses.
Reduction in clonogenic survival of sodium-iodide symporter (NIS)-positive cells following intracellular uptake of 99mTc versus 188Re

Abstract Purpose: Cellular radionuclide uptake increases the heterogeneity of absorbed dose to biological structures. Dose increase depends on uptake yield and emission characteristics of radioisotopes. We used an in vitro model to compare the impact of cellular uptake of 188Re-perrhenate and 99mTc-pertechnetate on cellular survival. Materials and methods: Rat thyroid PC Cl3 cells in culture were incubated with 188Re or 99mTc in the presence or absence of perchlorate for 1 hour. Clonogenic cell survival was measured by colony formation. In addition, intracellular radionuclide uptake was quantified. Results: Dose effect curves were established for 188Re and 99mTc for various extra- and intracellular distributions of the radioactivity. In the presence of perchlorate, no uptake of radionuclides was detected and 188Re reduced cell survival more efficiently than 99mTc. A37, the activity that is necessary to yield 37% cell survival was 14 MBq/ml for 188Re and 480 MBq/ml for 99mTc. In the absence of perchlorate, both radionuclides showed similar uptakes; however, A37 was reduced by 30% for the beta-emitter and by 95% for 99mTc. The dose D37 that yields 37% cell survival was between 2.3 and 2.8 Gy for both radionuclides. Conclusions: Uptake of 188Re and 99mTc decreased cell survival. Intracellular 99mTc yielded a dose increase that was higher compared to 188Re due to emitted Auger and internal conversion-electrons. Up to 5 Gy there was no difference in radiotoxicity of 188Re and 99mTc. At doses higher than 5 Gy intracellular 99mTc became less radiotoxic than 188Re, probably due to a non-uniform lognormal radionuclide uptake.
Generation of Antigenic Variants via Gene Conversion: Evidence for Recombination Fitness Selection at the Locus Level in Anaplasma marginale

ABSTRACT Multiple bacterial and protozoal pathogens utilize gene conversion to generate antigenically variant surface proteins to evade immune clearance and establish persistent infection. Both the donor alleles that encode the variants following recombination into an expression site and the donor loci themselves are under evolutionary selection: the alleles that encode variants that are sufficiently antigenically unique yet retain growth fitness and the loci that allow efficient recombination. We examined allelic usage in generating Anaplasma marginale variants during in vivo infection in the mammalian reservoir host and identified preferential usage of specific alleles in the absence of immune selective pressure, consistent with certain individual alleles having a fitness advantage for in vivo growth. In contrast, the loci themselves appear to have been essentially equally selected for donor function in gene conversion with no significant effect of locus position relative to the expression site or origin of replication. This pattern of preferential allelic usage but lack of locus effect was observed independently for Msp2 and Msp3 variants, both generated by gene conversion. Furthermore, there was no locus effect observed when a single locus contained both msp2 and msp3 alleles in a tail-to-tail orientation flanked by a repeat. These experimental results support the hypothesis that predominance of specific variants reflects in vivo fitness as determined by the encoding allele, independent of locus structure and chromosomal position. Identification of highly fit variants provides targets for vaccines that will prevent the high-level bacteremia associated with acute disease.
The Release of Elements of Dental Casting Alloys into Cell-culture Medium

Ten dental casting alloys were tested for alloy-element release into cell-culture medium, and this release was related to alloy composition, alloy microstructure, and alloy cytotoxicity (previously determined). Cell-culture medium was analyzed for alloy elements by flame atomic absorption. Concentrations of elements in the medium were normalized by dividing them by their atomic abundance in the alloy, giving element medium-alloy ratios (EMA ratios). Results showed that Au, In, and Pd generally did not dissolve into the medium, but that Ag, Cd, Cu, Ga, Ni, and Zn frequently dissolved. Comparison of EMA ratios for Ag, Cu, and Zn showed that each element retained a behavioral identity in diverse metallurgical environments, but that these environments influenced the release behavior to some degree. Some EMA ratios in multiphase alloys were greater than those in solid solutions, and EMA ratios showed great diversity within all the alloys. Nominal composition seemed to be of little value in the prediction of metal release unless the composition supported multiple-phase formation. In addition, release of alloy elements did not, in itself, completely predict alloy cytotoxicity measured previously. However, cytotoxicity was associated with metal release in each case. The commercial alloys used in this study exhibited more complex and less predictable release behavior than did the simpler ternary alloy systems used by previous investigators. It is believed that the use of commercial preparations is necessary for their in vivo behavior to be modeled.
Fast broadcasting and gossiping in radio networks

We establish an O(n log/sup 2/n) upper bound on the time for deterministic distributed broadcasting in multi-hop radio networks with unknown topology. This nearly matches the known lower bound of /spl Omega/(n log n). The fastest previously known algorithm for this problem works in time O(n/sup 3/2/). Using our broadcasting algorithm, we develop an O(n/sup 3/2/log/sup 2/n) algorithm for gossiping in the same network model.
Mestiza Double Consciousness

In this article, the author proposes a confluence of W. E. B. Du Bois's “double consciousness” (1903/1982) and Gloria Anzaldúa's “mestiza consciousness” (1989) to analyze the experiences of three Afro-Peruvian women. The merging of double and mestiza consciousness is necessary to holistically understand how gendered racism shapes their lives and why they have a desire to forge transnational solidarity with other women in the African Diaspora of the Americas. By gendering double consciousness and expanding mestiza consciousness beyond the United States and the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, we can better understand how women's agency plays a role in what the author refers to as mestiza double consciousness.
Approaches to Learning at Work and Workplace Climate

Three studies are reported concerning employees' approaches to learning at work and their perceptions of the workplace environment. Based on prior research with university students, two questionnaires were devised, the Approaches to Work Questionnaire (AWQ) and the Workplace Climate Questionnaire (WCQ). In Studies 1 and 2, these questionnaires were administered to two different samples of employees, and the factor structure of the questionnaires was explored. In Study 3, the two data sets were combined, and a random half of it was used to develop reduced sets of items that addressed selected factors for each of the questionnaires. The other half of the data was used to test the scales developed. For the AWQ, three factors are proposed: deep, surface-rational, and surface-disorganised. The first of these is consistent with the student learning literature, but the other two represent a division of a unitary surface factor. The three components of the WCQ are good supervision, choice-independence, and workload. Correlations between scales indicated that the deep approach is positively associated with good supervision and choice-independence, whereas the surface-disorganised approach is negatively associated with these two constructs and positively associated with workload. Surface-rational is negatively, though less strongly associated with choice-independence. Suggestions are presented for use of these instruments in future research and practice.
The ironic effect of national identification on support for collective action

Previous research has suggested that dual and superordinate identities are not only prerequisites of collective action among minority group members but they can also be associated with greater acceptance of the ingroup's disadvantaged position. In this three-wave study among Ingrian Finnish migrants from Russia to Finland (N=153T1−85T3), we tested the indirect association between superordinate national identification (T1) and support for collective action (T3), via perceived permeability of group boundaries (T2). Support for collective action was operationalized as one's personal willingness, and the perceived need of the Russian-speaking community, to engage in it. When controlling for the direct association between Russian minority identification and support for collective action, perceived permeability was shown to mediate the negative association between Finnish national identification and support for community's collective action. Thus, being close to the majority may make immigrants perceive group boundaries as more permeable and be less inclined to improve their group's position.
Predictive performance of early warning scores in acute leukemia patients receiving induction chemotherapy

John L. Vaughn, David Kline, Nathan M. Denlinger, Leslie A. Andritsos, Matthew C. Exline and Alison R. Walker Department of Internal Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA; Center for Biostatistics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA; Divison of Hematology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA; Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA