Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamic load at baseline can predict radiographic disease progression in medial compartment knee osteoarthritis

Objective: To test the hypothesis that dynamic load at baseline can predict radiographic disease progression in patients with medial compartment knee osteoarthritis (OA). Methods: During 1991–93 baseline data were collected by assessment of pain, radiography, and gait analysis in 106 patients referred to hospital with medial compartment knee OA. At the six year follow up, 74 patients were again examined to assess radiographic changes. Radiographic disease progression was defined as more than one grade narrowing of minimum joint space of the medial compartment. Results: In the 32 patients showing disease progression, pain was more severe and adduction moment was higher at baseline than in those without disease progression (n=42). Joint space narrowing of the medial compartment during the six year period correlated significantly with the adduction moment at entry. Adduction moment correlated significantly with mechanical axis (varus alignment) and negatively with joint space width and pain score. Logistic regression analysis showed that the risk of progression of knee OA increased 6.46 times with a 1% increase in adduction moment. Conclusions: The results suggest that the baseline adduction moment of the knee, which reflects the dynamic load on the medial compartment, can predict radiographic OA progression at the six year follow up in patients with medial compartment knee OA.
Evaluation of the Meaning of Life Program in Israel

During the 2009–2010 academic year, 10 schools participated in the Meaning of Life educational program, an adaption of the popular U.S. Laws of Life program. The program sought to encourage each participant to develop a personal approach to finding meaning in life. To evaluate the success of the program, we conducted a study to compare measures of psychological health among participants in the program. We administered questionnaires to participants pre- and postintervention that dealt with the following topics: Meaning in Life, Perceived Hope, Self-Efficacy, Virtues and Values Enacted, and School Climate. We conducted an analysis on a sample of 256 Jewish children (91 boys, 165 girls) and 396 Arab children (155 boys, 241 girls) in 8 schools. Results yielded convergent and construct validity among the 5 measures. Differential results were found among the different schools in both Jewish and Arab samples. From this data we discuss implications for future research.
Measuring Congruence of Ranking Results Applying Particular MCDM Methods

The aim of the current research is to measure objective congruence (incongruence) of the results obtained in a process of multiple criteria analysis when applying different MCDM methods. The methodology for evaluation of ranking results is developed on the ground of a case study of the redevelopment of derelict buildings as well as on composed experimental tasks. Fuzzified COPRAS, TOPSIS and VIKOR methods are applied for ranking the alternatives. Calculation results are evaluated by applying mathematical statistics methods. A methodology for measuring the congruence (incongruence) of the relative significances of alternatives is proposed.
A confirmatory factor analysis of the structure of schizotypy

Recent research into schizotypal traits has been concerned with the number and nature of these personality dimensions. Earlier exploratory factor analytic work using a wide variety of scales (the CSTQ) has generated a four‐factor solution but other solutions have been provided by other investigators. This study uses confirmatory factor analysis on a large sample to compare several plausible models of the relationships between scales. These models include a two‐factor model separating ‘positive’ from ‘negative’ schizotypal features, a three‐factor model including features of cognitive disorganization, and the four‐factor model generated previously by exploratory factor analysis. Results offer support for the four‐factor solution as the only structure meeting multiple criteria for goodness of fit. The relevance of Eysenck's dimensions, and the P scale in particular, to the results is discussed. Attention is drawn to the possibility that the factors describe predispositions of risk of psychotic disorders beyond that of schizophrenia.
Development of a linear induction motor based artificial muscle system

We present the design of a linear induction motor based on electromagnetic interactions. The engine is capable of producing a linear movement from electricity. The design consists of stators arranged in parallel, which produce a magnetic field sufficient to displace a plunger along its axial axis. Furthermore, the winding has a shell and cap of ferromagnetic material that amplifies the magnetic field. This produces a force along the length of the motor that is similar to that of skeletal muscle. In principle, the objective is to use the engine in the development of an artificial muscle system for prosthetic applications, but it could have multiple applications, not only in the medical field, but in other industries.
Identification of Genes Associated with Survival of Salmonella enterica Serovar Enteritidis in Chicken Egg Albumen

ABSTRACT Salmonella enterica consists of over 2,000 serovars that are major causes of morbidity and mortality associated with contaminated food. Despite similarities among serovars of Salmonella enterica, many demonstrate unique host specificities, epidemiological characteristics, and clinical manifestations. One of the unique epidemiological characteristics of the serovar Enteritidis is that it is the only bacterium routinely transmitted to humans through intact chicken eggs. Therefore, Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis must be able to persist inside chicken eggs to be transmitted to humans, and its survival in egg is important for its transmission to the human population. The ability of Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis to survive in and transmit through eggs may have contributed to its drastically increased prevalence in the 1980s and 1990s. In the present study, using transposon-mediated mutagenesis, we have identified genes important for the association of Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis with chicken eggs. Our results indicate that genes involved in cell wall structural and functional integrity, and nucleic acid and amino acid metabolism are important for Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis to persist in egg albumen. Two regions unique to Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis were also identified, one of which enhanced the survival of a Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium isolate in egg albumen. The implication of our results to the serovar specificity of Salmonella enterica is also explored in the present study.
Urban sidewalks: visualization and routing for individuals with limited mobility

People with limited mobility in the U.S. (defined as having difficulty or inability to walk a quarter of a mile without help and without the use of special equipment) face a growing informational gap: while pedestrian routing algorithms are getting faster and more informative, planning a route with a wheeled device in urban centers is very difficult due to lack of integrated pertinent information regarding accessibility along the route. Moreover, reducing access to street-spaces translates to reduced access to other public information and services that are increasingly made available to the public along urban streets. To adequately plan a commute, a traveler with limited or wheeled mobility must know whether her path may be blocked by construction, whether the sidewalk would be too steep or rendered unusable due to poor conditions, whether the street can be crossed or a highway is blocking the way, or whether there is a sidewalk at all. These details populate different datasets in many modern municipalities, but they are not immediately available in a convenient, integrated format to be useful to people with limited mobility. Our project, AccessMap, in its first phase (v.1) overlayed the information that is most relevant to people with limited mobility on a map, enabling self-planning of routes. Here, we describe the next phase of the project: synthesizing commonly available open data (including streets, sidewalks, curb ramps, elevation data, and construction permit information) to generate a graph of paths to enable variable cost-function accessible routing.
Whole‐Genome Amplification of Single‐Cell Genomes for Next‐Generation Sequencing

DNA sequence analysis and genotyping of biological samples using next‐generation sequencing (NGS), microarrays, or real‐time PCR is often limited by the small amount of sample available. A single cell contains only one to four copies of the genomic DNA, depending on the organism (haploid or diploid organism) and the cell‐cycle phase. The DNA content of a single cell ranges from a few femtograms in bacteria to picograms in mammalia. In contrast, a deep analysis of the genome currently requires a few hundred nanograms up to micrograms of genomic DNA for library formation necessary for NGS sequencing or labeling protocols (e.g., microarrays). Consequently, accurate whole‐genome amplification (WGA) of single‐cell DNA is required for reliable genetic analysis (e.g., NGS) and is particularly important when genomic DNA is limited. The use of single‐cell WGA has enabled the analysis of genomic heterogeneity of individual cells (e.g., somatic genomic variation in tumor cells). This unit describes how the genome of single cells can be used for WGA for further genomic studies, such as NGS. Recommendations for isolation of single cells are given and common sources of errors are discussed. Curr. Protoc. Mol. Biol. 104:7.14. 1‐7.14. 11. © 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Use of a handheld computer by respiratory care practitioners to improve the efficiency of weaning patients from mechanical ventilation*

Objective To evaluate the impact of a handheld computer containing a unit-specific weaning protocol on the efficiency of weaning patients from mechanical ventilation. Design A prospective before-after study design with consecutive control and intervention time periods. Setting A medical intensive care unit of an urban teaching hospital. Participants All patients receiving mechanical ventilation in the medical intensive care unit were eligible for study enrollment. Interventions Weaning of mechanical ventilation during the control period was conducted by respiratory care practitioners using a previously published protocol (n = 176). During the intervention period, respiratory care practitioners weaned patients using a handheld computer version of the same protocol (n = 176). Measurements and Results The time for the first spontaneous breathing trial to occur was significantly shorter during the intervention period compared with the control period (49.9 ± 63.2 hrs vs. 72.5 ± 86.9 hrs, p = .018). The percentage of patients undergoing a spontaneous breathing trial when first meeting established criteria for a spontaneous breathing trial was significantly greater during the intervention period (89.8% vs. 63.6%, p < .001). Length of stay in the intensive care unit was also significantly shorter for patients during the intervention period (6.2 ± 7.1 days vs. 7.7 ± 8.0 days, p = .018). Conclusions This experience suggests that respiratory care practitioners employing a weaning protocol programmed on a handheld computer can wean patients from mechanical ventilation more efficiently compared with the use of a paper-based weaning protocol.
SNR AND BER ANALYSIS OF 256-QAM FOR OFDM SYSTEM

In this paper, we proposed an analysis of M-QAM for hybrid OFDM system in AWGN channel. The proposed scheme is shown to achieve lower bit error rate (BER). Selecting a fraction of the subcarriers with highest channel gain. Simulation results show that system utilizes the proposed scheme can achieve higher PSNR, especially at low SNR. We set N = 64 and NCP = 16. 10 OFDM symbols per transmission frame were used. A bandwidth of 20 MHz was employed.
Understanding the benefits of open access in Femtocell networks: stochastic geometric analysis in the uplink

We introduce a comprehensive analytical framework to compare between open access and closed access in two-tier femtocell networks, with regard to uplink interference and outage. Interference at both the macrocell and femtocell levels is considered. A stochastic geometric approach is employed as the basis for our analysis. We further derive sufficient conditions for open access and closed access to outperform each other in terms of the outage probability, leading to closed-form expressions to upper and lower bound the difference in the targeted received power between the two access modes. Simulations are conducted to validate the accuracy of the analytical model and the correctness of the bounds.
AI for the Web - Ontology-Based Community Web Portals

Community web portals serve as portals for the information needs of particular communities on the web. We here discuss how a comprehensive, ontology-based approach for building and maintaining a high-value community web portal has been conceived and implemented. The ontology serves as a semantic backbone for accessing knowledge on the portal, for contributing information, as well as for developing and maintaining the portal. In particular, the ontology allows for flexible querying and inferencing of knowledge. Actual usage of our technology is facilitated through a set of tools that are about to turn our research system into a portal for wide-spread usage right now. The development of these tools has greatly benefited from some first experiences we had with actual users of the community web portal of the knowledge acquisition community.
Evaluation of Spinal Cord Response During Magnetic Stimulation of the Lumbar Area

This paper aims in determining the necessary characteristics of a magnetic stimulator, capable to trig- ger stimulation of the spinal cord in a healthy subject. Our previous work showed that the magnetic stimulator used in some preliminary experiments, performed in co- operation with researchers from the Medical University of Vienna, was unable to stimulate the spinal cord, and only adjacent spinal nerves were activated during the procedure.
Transcriptome Profiling of a Multiple Recurrent Muscle-Invasive Urothelial Carcinoma of the Bladder by Deep Sequencing

Urothelial carcinoma of the bladder (UCB) is one of the commonly diagnosed cancers in the world. The UCB has the highest rate of recurrence of any malignancy. A genome-wide screening of transcriptome dysregulation between cancer and normal tissue would provide insight into the molecular basis of UCB recurrence and is a key step to discovering biomarkers for diagnosis and therapeutic targets. Compared with microarray technology, which is commonly used to identify expression level changes, the recently developed RNA-seq technique has the ability to detect other abnormal regulations in the cancer transcriptome, such as alternative splicing. In this study, we performed high-throughput transcriptome sequencing at ∼50× coverage on a recurrent muscle-invasive cisplatin-resistance UCB tissue and the adjacent non-tumor tissue. The results revealed cancer-specific differentially expressed genes between the tumor and non-tumor tissue enriched in the cell adhesion molecules, focal adhesion and ECM-receptor interaction pathway. Five dysregulated genes, including CDH1, VEGFA, PTPRF, CLDN7, and MMP2 were confirmed by Real time qPCR in the sequencing samples and the additional eleven samples. Our data revealed that more than three hundred genes showed differential splicing patterns between tumor tissue and non-tumor tissue. Among these genes, we filtered 24 cancer-associated alternative splicing genes with differential exon usage. The findings from RNA-Seq were validated by Real time qPCR for CD44, PDGFA, NUMB, and LPHN2. This study provides a comprehensive survey of the UCB transcriptome, which provides better insight into the complexity of regulatory changes during recurrence and metastasis.
The limitations of ‘inter-racial contact’: stories from young South Africa

Abstract This paper argues that, while the demise of apartheid has led to many situations in which South Africans now come into closer contact with one another, this increased ‘contact’ does not amount to greater racial integration. Contact occurs within a context of unequal power relations in which ‘whiteness’ continues to be privileged over ‘blackness’. The result is that white people tend to benefit more from contact with the racial ‘other’ than black people, who often experience this contact as reinforcing their expectations of continued white dominance and privilege. While contact may undermine blatantly racist practices and overt racial conflict, racialized patterns of reasoning continue to exist, often unnoticed and unchallenged. These include the assumption that race is an incontrovertible fact of experience, the privileging of whiteness, the assumption that there exist different (biological) races which evince different forms of social behaviour and that these are essential properties of people rather than being historically or socially contingent.
Self-Evaluation

Ethnic minority and majority students in the United States were given the opportunity to receive score information about their own and about the other ethnic group, after they themselves had taken a test. Young majority white children generally chose to look at other whites' scores. A large portion of young Chicanos also -sought white score information, or sought Chicanos who had performed better and whites who had performed worse than they. This group-enhancement strategy was also prevalent among college blacks. Ethnic information seeking was discussed in terms of three strategies-seeking in-group information, seeking out-group information, and seeking group-enhancement information-and the differential use of these strategies by minority and majority students.
Towards planning Human-Robot Interactive manipulation tasks: Task dependent and human oriented autonomous selection of grasp and placement

In a typical Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) scenario, the robot needs to perform various tasks for the human, hence should take into account human oriented constraints. In this context it is not sufficient that the robot selects grasp and placement of the object from the stability point of view only. Motivated from human behavioral psychology, in this paper we emphasize on the mutually depended nature of grasp and placement selections, which is further constrained by the task, the environment and the human's perspective. We will explore essential human oriented constraints on grasp and placement selections and present a framework to incorporate them in synthesizing key configurations of planning basic interactive manipulation tasks.
Integrity-Oriented Content Offloading in Vehicular Sensor Network

In this paper, an integrity-oriented content offloading (ICO) problem with variable modulation and coding schemes is proposed for relay-assisted vehicular sensor network. To accurately describe the link duration properties, a finite-state Markov chain-based model is built by jointly considering the mobility and radio propagation characteristics. Considering the ICO problem is NP-hard, our solution divides it into two offloading sub-problems with direct link and relay-assisted path, respectively. These two sub-problems are solved heuristically, and the corresponding results are combined to achieve a near-optimal result as the ICO scheme. While the analytical model is validated by Monte Carlo simulations and chi-square goodness fit test, the performance of our proposed ICO scheme is verified through simulations and comparisons, showing that our ICO solution can reduce the integral content offloading time compared with two other selected schemes and an upper performance bound.
AUTOSAR – Current results and preparations for exploitation

This communication highlights a course status of the AUTOSAR development partnership by spring 2006. A first comprehensive set of specifications has been achieved, which is referred to as Release 2.0. Major parts of this release are now available for download. The partnership applies a proof of concept approach based on prototype implementations. The results from the first validation step sharpen and consolidate the 1.0 specification set. Consequently this validation process is repeated for release 2.0. The resulting controlled correctness will secure a set of AUTOSAR specifications that is ready for series applications. In addition to specifying the software infrastructure, the AUTOSAR development partnership does investigate into a new methodology as a basis for more cost-effective system development processes. In order to effectively support the exploitation of the standard, processes for a controlled maintenance and conformance testing are in the scope of the initiative, too. Also, means for a smooth migration from proprietary solutions to the AUTOSAR standard are available to avoid unacceptable disruptive effects. A first complete set of specification for the purpose of commercial exploitation will be made available by the end of 2006. In addition, the AUTOSAR development partnership is now preparing for the Phase 2 of its initiative in order to continue its efforts of standardization to the benefit of the automotive industries.
Some complexity results for the Traveling Salesman Problem

It is shown that, unless P&equil;NP, local search algorithms for the Traveling Salesman Problem having polynomial time complexity per iteration will generate solutions arbitrarily far from the optimal. The Traveling Salesman Problem is also shown to be NP-Complete even if its instances are restricted to be realizable by a set of points on the Euclidean plane.
Reasoning From Uncertain Premises

Previous studies have shown that 1 participants are reluctant to accept a conclusion as certainly true when it is derived from a valid conditional argument that includes a doubtful premise, and 2 participants typically link the degree of uncertainty found in a given premise set to its conclusion. Two experiments were designed to further investigate these phenomena. Ninety adult participants in Experiment 1 were first asked to judge the validity of three conditional arguments Modus Ponens, Denial of the Antecedent, and Affirmation of the Consequent. They were then required to evaluate conclusion uncertainty as a function of two degrees of asserted uncertainty in the major conditional premise (If p then it is very probable that q and if p then it is not very probable that q) of the arguments from the first task that were otherwise unchanged. Results revealed an effect for asserted-uncertainty in two of the three argument forms. Marginal support was found for the hypothesis that perceived argument validity w.