Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Longitudinal thalamic diffusion changes after middle cerebral artery infarcts

Background: Cerebral infarcts are responsible for functional alterations and microscopic tissue damage at distance from the ischaemic area. Such remote effects have been involved in stroke recovery. Thalamic hypometabolism is related to motor recovery in middle cerebral artery (MCA) infarcts but little is known concerning the tissue changes underlying these metabolic changes. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is highly sensitive to microstructural tissue alterations and can be used to quantify in vivo the longitudinal microscopic tissue changes occurring in the thalamus after MCA infarcts in humans. Methods: Nine patients underwent DTI after an isolated MCA infarct. Mean diffusivity (MD), fractional anisotropy (FA), and thalamic region volume were measured from the first week to the sixth month after stroke onset in these patients and in 10 age matched controls. Results: MD significantly increased in the ipsilateral thalamus between the first and the sixth month (0.766×10−3 mm2/s first month; 0.792×10−3 mm2/s third month; 0.806×10−3 mm2/s sixth month). No significant modification of FA was detected. In six patients, the ipsilateral/contralateral index of MD was higher than the upper limit of the 95% CI calculated in 10 age matched controls. An early decrease of MD preceded the increase of ipsilateral thalamic diffusion in one patient at the first week and in two other patients at the first month. Conclusion: After MCA infarcts, an increase in diffusion is observed with DTI in the ipsilateral thalamus later than 1 month after the stroke onset. This is presumably because of the progressive loss of neurons and/or glial cells. In some patients, this increase is preceded by a transient decrease in diffusion possibly related to an early swelling of these cells or to microglial activation. Further studies in larger series are needed to assess the clinical correlates of these findings.
Towards a tamper-resistant kernel rootkit detector

A variety of tools and architectures have been developed to detect security violations to Operating System kernels. However, they all have fundamental flaw in the design so that they fail to discover kernel-level attack. Few hardware solutions have been proposed to address the outstanding problem, but unfortunately they are not widely accepted. This paper presents a software-based method to detect intrusion to kernel. The proposed tool named XenKIMONO, which is based on Xen Virtual Machine, is able to detect many kernel rootkits in virtual machines with small penalty to the system's performance. In contrast with the traditional approaches, XenKIMONO is isolated with the kernel being monitored, thus it can still function correctly even if the observed kernel is compromised. Moreover, XenKIMONO is flexible and easy to deploy as it absolutely does not require any modification to the monitored systems.
Phosphorylation of the Human Papillomavirus Type 16 E1^E4 Protein at T57 by ERK Triggers a Structural Change That Enhances Keratin Binding and Protein Stability

ABSTRACT The E1^E4 protein of human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16) causes cytokeratin reorganization in the middle and upper epithelial layers and is thought to contribute to multiple facets of the virus life cycle. Although little is known as to how HPV16 E1^E4 (16E1^E4) functions are controlled following the first expression of this protein, the finding that low-risk E1^E4 proteins can be phosphorylated in vivo suggests an important role for kinases. Here, we show that 16E1^E4 is phosphorylated by cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (CDK1) and CDK2, extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), protein kinase A (PKA), and PKC α, with CDK1/2 serine 32 and ERK threonine 57 phosphorylations representing the two primary events seen in cells in cycle. Interestingly, T57 phosphorylation was found to trigger a structural change in the 16E1^E4 protein that compacts the central fold region, leading to an increase in 16E1^E4 stability and overall abundance in the cell. When compared to wild-type 16E1^E4, a T57D phosphomimic was found to have greatly enhanced keratin-binding ability and an ability to modulate the binding of the unphosphorylated form, with keratin binding protecting the T57-phosphorylated form of 16E1^E4 from proteasomal degradation. In HPV16 genome-containing organotypic rafts, the T57-phosphorylated form was specifically detected in the intermediate cell layers, where productive infection occurs, suggesting that T57 phosphorylation may have a functional role at this stage of the viral life cycle. Interestingly, coexpression with 16E5 and ERK activation enhanced T57 phosphorylation, suggesting that E1^E4 and E5 may work together in vivo. Our data suggest a model in which the expression of 16E5 from the major E1^E4-E5 mRNA promotes T57 phosphorylation of E1^E4 and keratin binding, with dephosphorylation occurring following the switch to late poly(A) usage. Other forms of E1^E4, with alternative functional roles, may then increase in prevalence in the upper layers of the epithelium.
Teaching and learning in hard science research environments: views of academics and educational developers

Obligatory educational training of Swedish university teachers rarely involves senior teaching staff from research‐dominated environments, despite the positive effects of junior staff training. Senior science academics were surveyed to gauge their views on the principles of teaching and learning and of teaching rewards. These views were compared with educational developers’ views on ‘ideal values of academics’ and on educational rewards. Based on this study, it is suggested that to reduce inherent teaching–research conflicts, convergence of teaching and research, in terms of teaching design and curriculum content, is necessary. To involve and convince science researchers who teach, educational staff development should probably focus on didactic aspects of their scientific disciplines and rely largely on empirical evidence.
Projection, Inference, and Consistency

Projection can be seem as a unifying concept that underlies inference in logic and consistency maintenance in constraint programming. This perspective allows one to import projection methods into both areas, resulting in deeper insight as well as faster solution methods. We show that inference in propositional logic can be achieved by Benders decomposition, an optimization method based on projection. In constraint programming, viewing consistency maintenance as projection suggests a new but natural concept of consistency that is achieved by projection onto a subset of variables. We show how to solve this combinatorial projection problem for some global constraints frequently used in constraint programming. The resulting projections are useful when propagated through decision diagrams rather than the traditional domain store.
On the Design of a Reliable Storage Component for Distributed Database Management Systems

Robustness to failures is an important issue to be considered when designing a database management system. A design of a reliable storage component of a distributed database management systerm (DDBMS) is presented in this paper. This design builds on several existing ideas and adds some other crash recovery strategies. The result is an integrated design which can lead to a direct implementation. The interface between the storage component and the rest of the DDBMS is composed of a set of functions which are described bere along with the update strategy used to implement them. A summary of performance analysis results in terms of the price paid to achieve a robust design is also given.
Methods of communication and mediating processes in realistic job previews.

Une etude de terrain menee aupres de 164 caissiers de banque etudie l'efficacite de deux methodes de presentation d'une brochure sur les caracteristiques reglistes d'un emploi et examine les processus de mediation possibles impliques dans de tels procedes
‘You are not born being racist, are you?’ Discussing racism with primary aged-children

Ethnic-racial socialisation is broadly described as processes by which both minority and majority children and young people learn about and negotiate racial, ethnic and cultural diversity. This article extends the existing ethnic-racial socialisation literature in three significant ways: (1) it explores ways children make sense of their experiences of racial and ethnic diversity and racism; (2) it considers ways children identify racism and make distinctions between racism and racialisation; and (3) it examines teacher and parent ethnic-racial socialisation messages about race, ethnicity and racism with children. This research is based on classroom observations, semi-structured interviews and focus groups with teachers, parents and students aged 8–12 years attending four Australian metropolitan primary schools. The findings reveal that both teachers and parents tended to discuss racism reactively rather than proactively. The extent to which racism was discussed in classroom settings depended on: teachers’ personal and professional capability; awareness of racism and its perceived relevance based on student and community experiences; and whether they felt supported in the broader school and community context. For parents, key drivers for talking about racism were their children’s experiences and racial issues reported in the media. For both parents and teachers, a key issue in these discussions was determining whether something constituted either racism or racialisation. Strategies on how ethnic-racial socialisation within the school system can be improved are discussed.
Educating for competency and reflective practice: fostering a conjoint approach in education and training

Looks initially at the theoretical foundations of both competency‐based training (CBT) and reflective practice, then at current approaches to CBT and reflective practice. The compatibility of these two in educational practice, and the extent to which they might be combined in an educational or training context is discussed. CBT and reflective practice are not regarded as having a mutual equivalence in adult education and training. Rather, it is argued that they constitute two approaches within this educational field which function at different levels of teaching and learning and, as such, there exists at least the potential for them to be designed and developed so as to be complementary.
Constraint theory: A cognitive, motivational theory of dependence

Aims: A new theory of substance dependence is presented that models dependence as the absence of cognitive constraints on substance use. Methods: (1) Critical review of the predominant paradigm that assumes that substance dependence is a pathological state fundamentally caused by the neuropsychopharmacological effects of drugs (NPP paradigm) identified four counter-factual assumptions. Contrary to the NPP paradigm: (I) dependence can occur on a-typical substances and other things; (II) dependence is a complex, gradated phenomenon, not a state; (III) heavy protracted substance use can occur without dependence; and (IV) NPP interventions against dependence have not worked other than as drug substitutes. (2) Reconceptualisation of dependence as substance use with few cognitive, behavioural or social constraints. (3) Development of an exhaustive list of constraints on substance use with a panel of experts, achieving theoretical saturation. (4) Modelling of dependence, specifically to explain why socioeconomic deprivation is correlated with substance dependence. Results: Fifteen common constraints are described, which prevent most substance users becoming dependent. People in more socioeconomically deprived conditions tend to have fewer constraints. Similarities between Constraint Theory and previous sociological and social cognitive theories are discussed. Conclusions: Constraint theory describes the known nature of substance dependence better than theories from the NPP paradigm. Conceptualising dependence as an absence of constraints shows promise as a theory of addiction and fits with existing knowledge about what works to prevent and treat substance dependence.
Nutrient intakes from complementary foods consumed by young children (aged 12–23 months) from North Wollo, northern Ethiopia: the need for agro-ecologically adapted interventions

Abstract Objective To characterize current feeding practices and to evaluate the adequacy of energy and nutrient intakes of young children in subsistence farming rural households in North Wollo, Ethiopia. Design A cross-sectional study examining sociodemographic status, anthropometry, breast-feeding and complementary feeding practices using two in-home non-consecutive 24 h recalls. Settings Two rural villages in the highlands and lowlands of Gobalafto district, North Wollo. Subjects Seventy-six young children aged 12–23 months, thirty-nine from the lowlands and thirty-seven from the highlands. Results About 33 % of the children, ∼46 % in the highlands and 24 % in the lowlands (P = 0·05), were stunted. Complementary diets were low in animal products, fruits and vegetables. Cereals and legumes were the major sources of energy, protein, Ca, Fe, Zn and vitamin A. Legumes with potentially toxic components (grass pea, broad beans) and low nutrient-dense beverages such as tea were frequently consumed. Intakes of energy, Ca, Zn, vitamin A and vitamin C from complementary foods were below WHO recommendations assuming average breast-milk intakes. In contrast, Fe and protein intakes and densities met WHO recommendations. Although vitamin C intakes and densities were higher (P < 0·05) for the lowlands, they remained far below WHO recommendations. Conclusions Interventions promoting the WHO guiding principles for complementary feeding practices and behaviours that take the agro-ecological contexts into account are needed here. Furthermore, specific recommendations should be formulated to discourage the consumption of grass pea, broad beans and low nutrient-dense beverages such as tea.
Unsupervised Parsing for Generating Surface-Based Relation Extraction Patterns

Finding the right features and patterns for identifying relations in natural language is one of the most pressing research questions for relation extraction. In this paper, we compare patterns based on supervised and unsupervised syntactic parsing and present a simple method for extracting surface patterns from a parsed training set. Results show that the use of surfacebased patterns not only increases extraction speed, but also improves the quality of the extracted relations. We find that, in this setting, unsupervised parsing, besides requiring less resources, compares favorably in terms of extraction quality.
Evaluation of the implementation of a bowel management protocol in intensive care: effect on clinician practices and patient outcomes.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To evaluate the effect of a multifaceted implementation of a bowel management protocol on outcomes for intensive care patients, in particular the incidence of constipation and diarrhoea, and on clinicians' bowel management practices. BACKGROUND Complications associated with poor bowel management for critically ill patients result in adverse outcomes. Implementation of protocols requires strategies proven to change clinician behaviour. DESIGN Before and after study. METHODS Our bowel management protocol was implemented using three evidence-based elements: education sessions, printed educational materials in the form of a fact sheet and reminders. We retrospectively collected data from patients' medical records admitted at two time points within three Sydney metropolitan intensive care units (preimplementation, n = 101; postimplementation, n = 107). RESULTS No significant difference was found in the incidence of constipation and diarrhoea pre and postimplementation of the protocol. Seventy-two per cent (n = 73) of patients preimplementation and 70% (n = 75) of patients postimplementation experienced one or more episodes of constipation (bowels not open for 72 hours or greater), and 16% (n = 16) of patients preimplementation and 20% (n = 21) of patients postimplementation experienced one or more episodes of diarrhoea. There was a slight nonsignificant increase in bowel assessment on admission by medical officers postimplementation (pre, 47%, n = 48; post, 60%, n = 64). CONCLUSION Targeted multifaceted implementation of a bowel management protocol did not have an impact on the incidence of constipation or diarrhoea for intensive care patients or on clinician practices. The lack of impact on patient outcomes may be due to clinicians' nonadherence to our bowel management protocol. Reasons clinicians' practices did not change may include the influences of clinical decision-making on behaviour. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE This study highlights difficulties inherent in changing clinician behaviour and practices to improve patient outcomes despite using an evidence-based multifaceted implementation strategy. Further research is required to ascertain the most effective implementation strategies.
Extending the Scope of the Resource Admission Control Subsystem (RACS) in IP Multimedia Subsystem Using Cognitive Radios

This paper highlights issues relating to signaling of IMS traffic, and how a truly seamless converged network may be achieved using cognitive radio technology. In this paper we propose implementation of the Resource Admission Control Subsystem (RACS) in IMS using cognitive radios to achieve the required flexibility in resource allocation across different networks. Our proposed model enables the RACS to have an extended 'view' of available networks and resources. The end result is that the scope of the RACS is greatly increased, and resource reservation and QoS management by the RACS is also greatly increased.
Dendritic cells fused with different pancreatic carcinoma cells induce different T-cell responses

Background It is unclear whether there are any differences in the induction of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) and CD4+CD25high regulatory T-cells (Tregs) among dendritic cells (DCs) fused with different pancreatic carcinomas. The aim of this study was to compare the ability to induce cytotoxicity by human DCs fused with different human pancreatic carcinoma cell lines and to elucidate the causes of variable cytotoxicity among cell lines. Methods Monocyte-derived DCs, which were generated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), were fused with carcinoma cells such as Panc-1, KP-1NL, QGP-1, and KP-3L. The induction of CTL and Tregs, and cytokine profile of PBMCs stimulated by fused DCs were evaluated. Results The cytotoxicity against tumor targets induced by PBMCs cocultured with DCs fused with QGP-1 (DC/QGP-1) was very low, even though PBMCs cocultured with DCs fused with other cell lines induced significant cytotoxicity against the respective tumor target. The factors causing this low cytotoxicity were subsequently investigated. DC/QGP-1 induced a significant expansion of Tregs in cocultured PBMCs compared with DC/KP-3L. The level of interleukin-10 secreted in the supernatants of PBMCs cocultured with DC/QGP-1 was increased significantly compared with that in DC/KP-3L. Downregulation of major histocompatibility complex class I expression and increased secretion of vascular endothelial growth factor were observed with QGP-1, as well as in the other cell lines. Conclusion The present study demonstrated that the cytotoxicity induced by DCs fused with pancreatic cancer cell lines was different between each cell line, and that the reduced cytotoxicity of DC/QGP-1 might be related to the increased secretion of interleukin-10 and the extensive induction of Tregs.
Treebanks of Logical Forms: they are Useful Only if Consistent

Logical Forms are an exceptionally important linguistic representation for highly demanding semantically related tasks like Question/ Answering and Text Understanding, but their automatic production at runtime is higly error-prone. The use of a tool like XWNet and other similar resources would be beneficial for all the NLP community, but not only. The problem is: Logical Forms are useful as long as they are consistent, otherwise they would be useless if not harmful. Like any other resource that aims at providing a meaning representation, LFs require a big effort in manual checking order to reduce the number of errors to the minimum acceptable – less than 1% from any digital resource. As will be shown in detail in the paper, the available resources – XWNet, WN30-lfs, ILF suffer from lack of a careful manual checking phase, and the number of errors is too high to make the resource usable as is. We classified mistakes by their syntactic or semantic type in order to facilitate a revision of the resource that we intend to do using regular expressions. We also commented extensively on semantic issues and on the best way to represent them in Logical Forms.
Spectrum Sensing Measurements of Pilot, Energy, and Collaborative Detection

In this paper we present an experimental study that comprehensively evaluates the performance of three different detection methods proposed for sensing of primary user signals in cognitive radios. For pilot and energy detection, our measurement results confirmed the theoretical expectations on sensing time performance. However, a physical implementation of these detectors in the presence of real noise uncertainties, analog impairments and interference allowed us to establish practical bounds on the detectable signal levels. In the case of collaborative detection, our analysis of experimental data collected in indoor environments identified the design parameters that can significantly improve the sensing gain: adaptive threshold, spatial separation and multiple antennas
Automatic S-Wave Picker for Local Earthquake Tomography

High-resolution seismic tomography at local and regional scales requires large and consistent sets of arrival-time data. Algorithms combining accurate pick- ing with an automated quality classification can be used for repicking waveforms and compiling large arrival-time data sets suitable for tomographic inversion. S-wave velocities represent a key parameter for petrological interpretation, improved hypocenter determination, as well as for seismic hazard models. In our approach, we combine three commonly used phase detection and picking methods in a robust S-wave picking procedure. Information from the different techniques provides an in situ estimate of timing uncertainty and of the reliability of the automatic phase identification. Automatic picks are compared against manually picked reference picks of selected earthquakes in the Alpine region. The average accuracy of automatic picks and their classification is comparable with the reference picks, although a higher number of picks is downgraded to lower quality classes by the automatic picker. In the production-mode, we apply the picker to a data set of 552 earthquakes in the Alps recorded at epicentral distances ≤150 km. The resulting data set includes about 2500 S phases with an upper error bound of 0.27 sec. Online Material: Details on the proposed automatic S-wave picking algorithm.