Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Shortened constraint-induced movement therapy in subacute stroke - no effect of using a restraint: a randomized controlled study with independent observers.

OBJECTIVE To examine the effect of using a mitt during shortened constraint-induced movement therapy for patients in the subacute phase after stroke. SUBJECTS Twenty-four patients with stroke (mean age 57.6 (standard deviation (SD) 8.5) years; average 7 weeks post-stroke) with mild to moderate impaired hand function. METHODS The patients were randomized to mitt use or no mitt use on the less affected hand for 90% of waking hours for 12 days. All patients received 3 h of arm and hand training per day for 2 weeks. Assessments were made by blinded observers using the modified Motor Assessment Scale, the Sollerman hand function test, the 2-Point Discrimination test and Motor Activity Log test. RESULTS Patients in both groups showed significant improvements in arm and hand motor performance and on self-reported motor ability after 2 weeks of therapy and at 3 months follow-up. However, no statistically significant differences between the groups were found in any measures at any point in time. CONCLUSION In this study, no effect of using a restraint in patients with subacute stroke was found. Thus, this component in the constraint-induced therapy concept seems to be of minor importance for the outcome.
Reporting IP Network Performance Metrics: Different Points of View

Consumers of IP network performance metrics have many different uses in mind. This memo provides "long-term" reporting considerations (e.g., hours, days, weeks, or months, as opposed to 10 seconds), based on analysis of the points of view of two key audiences. It describes how these audience categories affect the selection of metric parameters and options when seeking information that serves their needs. This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is published for informational purposes.
On some nonparametric methods for detection of the number of signals

A simpler, more elegant, and more flexible method for estimating the number of signals is proposed. Strong consistency is proved. Bounds for error probabilities are given. This method depends on choosing a function with a parameter r. The previous methods correspond to the case r = 1. It seems the larger the r, the faster the convergence. We can choose r as any positive integer, even ∞. Applications are discussed, including the coherent cases.
VIRTLAB: a virtual molecular biology laboratory

SUMMARY VIRTLAB is a self-training program based on PBL (Problem-Based-Learning Pathway) built to simulate a molecular biology laboratory. It has been designed to stimulate students in the biological sciences to analyse and solve molecular biology problems using standard laboratory techniques (e.g. restriction enzyme digestions, analytical and preparative agarose gels, DNA cloning and sequencing, etc.) and can thus be viewed as a teaching aid. AVAILABILITY The VIRTLAB package is distributed free of charge to non-profit organisations by the authors (virtlab@biol.dgbm. unina.it). On-line help and tutorials, available now in English, French, Italian, and shortly in German, are provided with the software or at http://biol.dgbm. unina.it:8080/virtlab.html++ +
Temperature quantitation and mapping of frozen tissue

A method was developed for quantitating the temperature within frozen tissue with the magnetic resonance (MR) parameter R2*. The pulse sequence uses half‐pulse excitation and a short spiral readout to achieve echo times as short as 0.2 msec. Fiber‐optic temperature sensors were inserted into bovine liver tissue. The tissue was frozen at one end while being held warm at the other end. Once steady state was reached, the parameter R2* was measured. A linear dependence of R2* on temperature was demonstrated. R2* is independent of freeze number and of the orientation of the temperature gradient with respect to the main magnetic field. Feasibility in a canine prostate during cryosurgery is demonstrated. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2001;13:99–104. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Noninvasive approach for enhancing small interfering RNA delivery percutaneously

ABSTRACT Introduction: Topically applied small interfering RNA (siRNA) can be an effective treatment for skin disorders. Using noninvasive strategies can be a safe and effective siRNA-permeation-enhancement approach for facilitating skin delivery. It has been demonstrated that noninvasive approaches for enhancing siRNA transport provide some advantages, including enhanced storage stability, targeted delivery, improved permeability and increased bioavailability. Areas covered: This review describes recent developments using noninvasive approaches for siRNA absorption enhancement. This review systematically introduces the concepts and enhancement mechanisms of the techniques, highlighting the potential of these techniques for increasing gene absorption via the skin. These techniques include nanomedicine, penetration enhancers, matrix-based delivery, microneedles, iontophoresis, electroporation and lasers. These modalities are useful for enhancing the permeation of a wide variety of siRNA for treating skin cancers, gene-related diseases, immune-related diseases and cutaneous wounds. Expert opinion: The potential use of the noninvasive approaches affords a new treatment for topical siRNA application with significant efficacy. Further studies using a large group for humans or patients are needed to confirm and clarify the findings in animal studies. Although a safe and nontoxic outcome is claimed, the possible adverse effects and irritation elicited by the noninvasive techniques cannot be ignored.
Clinical Results After Islet Transplantation

After the discovery of insulin,1it was believed that diabetes was cured; however, the chronic complications of diabetes soon became evident. For the patient with Type 1 diabetes, the fine control of hyperglycemia to prevent retinopathy, nephropathy, neuropathy, or vascular disease has to be offset against the risk of hypoglycemia. The Diabetes Control and Complications Trial of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has unequivocally confirmed that hyperglycemia is associated with progressive complications, yet at the same time intensive insulin therapy has been associated with a three-fold increased risk of hypoglycemia.2These observations provide the stimulus for the development of alternative means of therapy. Although insulin analogues will undoubtedly facilitate this, to date they have not been associated with euglycemia. Pancreas transplantation alone has been associated with normoglycemia, but it is a major surgical procedure that is associated with significant morbidity, some mortality, and a one-year graft survival rate of about 86%. 3,4Islet transplantation, on the other hand, is a simple procedure, but it has been associated with poor long-term success; at best, 10% of recipients have insulin independence at one year.5Last year we published preliminary results that confirmed that islet transplantation can be successful in establishing insulin independence,6and now we provide an update of these results as fully detailed in our recent report.7 Patients with Type 1 diabetes were selected for these studies. All had confirmed C-peptide absence and were selected on the basis of labile glucose values, as confirmed by a mean amplitude of glycemic excursion8of greater than 11.1 mmol/L, or by recurrent hypoglycemia, particularly if it is associated with decreased patient-awareness of hypoglycemia. In addition to labile glucose values, patients typically demonstrated disruption of their daily lives by diabetes. All patients must have …
La orquesta en Chile. Génesis y evolución

Resena de libro: Ernesto Guarda Carrasco y Jose Manuel Izquierdo. La orquesta en Chile: genesis y evolucion. Santiago: Sociedad Chilena del Derecho de Autor (SCD), Coleccion Nuestros Musicos, 2012. 239 pp.
Circularly polarized antennas based on metamaterial transmission lines

Two types of circularly polarized (CP) antennas based on metamaterial transmission lines will be presented. First, a dual-band omnidirectional circularly polarized (CP) antenna of epsilon negative (ENG) transmission lines (TLs) is introduced. The antenna is based on a circular mushroom structure with curved branches and designed without additional feeding parts for a 90° phase difference between two orthogonal modes as well as additional radiators for dual-band operations. A left-hand CP (LHCP) and a right-hand CP (RHCP) are obtained at the zeroth and the first order resonance modes, respectively. Second, a circularly polarized (CP) antenna based on mu-negative (MNG) transmission lines (TLs) is presented. The antenna consists of two pairs of resonators for two orthogonal polarizations. The 90° phase difference between them is achieved by detuning the corresponding resonance frequencies. The experimental results agree with the theoretical results.
A biologist’s perspective on malaria vaccine development

A vaccine to reduce human suffering caused by malarial parasites has been the holy grail of malaria research. Early studies in the 1940’s indicated that attenuated parasites could induce useful immunity. Since that time the genomic revolution led inevitably to the idea of cheap production of safe recombinant vaccines using either expressed protein or DNA vector technologies. It has been difficult to reflect with these ‘simple’ formulations the efficacies observed with intact parasite immunogens. With the new-found ability to attenuate the parasites by genetic manipulation, ideas have come full circle. Some of the highs and lows of this journey are described from the specific viewpoint of our growing understanding of parasite biology. The objective of many current vaccine initiatives targeting morbidity and mortality is questioned in the light of renewed calls to consider eradication as an objective. The biological rational for approaches to limit parasite transmission are highlighted and their place in future efforts to improve the lives of the 40% of the world’s population at risk of the disease is discussed.
An Ultra-Wideband Filtering Hybrid Ring Coupler with Super Wide Upper Stopband

In this paper, a filtering hybrid ring coupler is proposed with an ultra-wideband passband and a super wide upper stopband. Both double-sided parallel-strip line swap phase inverter and electromagnetic bandgap structures are used. It takes the area of 0.92 × 0.7 $\lambda g ^ { 2 }$ to provide a 110% wide passband centered at 1.55 GHz. Good in-band reflection, port isolation, magnitude and phase balances are achieved for both the in- and out-of-phase excitations. The rejection from the upper cutoff frequency to 20 GHz is over 20 dB.
Constant Current Controller for Electric Vehicles Chargers Based on IPT Systems

This paper proposes a single controller placed on the primary side of an inductive power transfer (IPT) system to deliver a constant current to the electric vehicle (EV) batteries. The magnetic coupling structure model was developed in a finite element analysis software coupled to Simulink. Both theoretical and simulated results are presented to evaluate the proposed controller.
Identification of HuR target circular RNAs uncovers suppression of PABPN1 translation by CircPABPN1

ABSTRACT HuR influences gene expression programs and hence cellular phenotypes by binding to hundreds of coding and noncoding linear RNAs. However, whether HuR binds to circular RNAs (circRNAs) and impacts on their function is unknown. Here, we have identified en masse circRNAs binding HuR in human cervical carcinoma HeLa cells. One of the most prominent HuR target circRNAs was hsa_circ_0031288, renamed CircPABPN1 as it arises from the PABPN1 pre-mRNA. Further analysis revealed that HuR did not influence CircPABPN1 abundance; interestingly, however, high levels of CircPABPN1 suppressed HuR binding to PABPN1 mRNA. Evaluation of PABPN1 mRNA polysomes indicated that PABPN1 translation was modulated positively by HuR and hence negatively by CircPABPN1. We propose that the extensive binding of CircPABPN1 to HuR prevents HuR binding to PABPN1 mRNA and lowers PABPN1 translation, providing the first example of competition between a circRNA and its cognate mRNA for an RBP that affects translation.
Is There Dissociation of Perceptual and Motor Responses to Figural Illusions?

Open-loop reaching for locations within figural illusions was measured in three experiments. The experiments differed with respect to whether subjects were provided a visible target toward which to direct their reaching or were required to form a mental representation of the intended target. In the first experiment, subjects' reaching errors for vertices of a Müller-Lyer figure were similar to those for a nonillusory control stimulus. In experiment 2, subjects' errors while reaching to the imaginary bisector of the Judd illusion were consistent with the presence of an illusion of bisector location. However, when a bisector line was added to the Judd figure, reaching errors were similar to those obtained with a control figure. In experiment 3, subjects' open-loop reaching at the perceived midpoint of a triangle was biased toward its illusory perceptual midpoint. When a mark was placed at the midpoint between a vertex and the opposite side, reaching errors were similar to those obtained with a control figure. The results of the experiments indicate that hand–eye coordination is biased in the direction of illusions of bisector location only when no target is present at the intended goal of the reaching response and subjects are required instead to form a mental image of the target. Under these conditions, reaching responses appear to utilize the spatial map of the visual system, and are influenced by figural illusions of bisector location. The present data can be understood without invoking the notion of visual–motor dissociation.
A Subgrouping Strategy that Reduces Complexity and Speeds Up Learning in Recurrent Networks

An algorithm, called RTRL, for training fully recurrent neural networks has recently been studied by Williams and Zipser (1989a, b). Whereas RTRL has been shown to have great power and generality, it has the disadvantage of requiring a great deal of computation time. A technique is described here for reducing the amount of computation required by RTRL without changing the connectivity of the networks. This is accomplished by dividing the original network into subnets for the purpose of error propagation while leaving them undivided for activity propagation. An example is given of a 12-unit network that learns to be the finite-state part of a Turing machine and runs 10 times faster using the subgrouping strategy than the original algorithm.
Self-reports on the IQCODE in Older Adults: A Psychometric Evaluation

The Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline (IQCODE) has been successful in identifying demented persons in a general population. In this study, this questionnaire was used as a self-report screening for dementia symptoms. The object was to investigate the feasibility, homogeneity, and construct validity of self-reports on the IQCODE. Participants were 4823 community-dwelling older adults who received an IQCODE-SR. Feasibility was assessed on the basis of response rate, the proportion of missing data for each item, and the number of persons who received help in completing the questionnaire. Homogeneity was checked with Cronbach's α. To investigate construct validity, hypotheses on performance of the IQCODE-SR were tested. Feasibility was acceptable, with a response rate of 58.9%. Missing answers per item ranged from 2.5% to 7.3%, and 915 of 2841 participants received help in completing the questionnaire. Homogeneity was good, with Cronbach's α = . 94. The majority of hypotheses on construct validity were confirmed. It was concluded that the IQCODE-SR meets the basic requirements of a good measurement instrument.
Human Capital Spill-Overs and the Geography of Intergenerational Mobility

We develop and estimate an equilibrium model of geographic variation in the intergenerational elasticity of earnings (IGE). The theory extends the Becker-Tomes model, introducing a production sector in which workers' human capital inputs are complements. In this setting the return to parental human capital investments is lower where skill complementarity is more intense, and this is reflected in less intergenerational persistence. We also show that education subsidies may be more desirable where skill complementarities are stronger, endogenously leading to a negative correlation between progressive public policy and IGE. Using microdata we construct location-specific measures of skill complementarity and document that patterns of geographic variation in IGE are consistent with this hypothesis. Geographic differences in skill complementarity directly account for roughly one fifth of cross-country variation in IGE, and possibly more if one allows for the indirect effect through government expenditure in public education. (Copyright: Elsevier)
Visual Map Building and Localization with an Appearance-based Approach - Comparisons of Techniques to Extract Information of Panoramic Images

Appearance-based techniques have proved to constitute a robust approach to build a topological map of an environment using just visual information. In this paper, we describe a complete methodology to build appearance-based maps from a set of omnidirectional images captured by a robot along an environment. To extract the most relevant information from the images, we use and compare the performance of several compressing methods. In this analysis we include their invariance against rotations of the robot on the ground plane and small changes in the environment. The main objective consists in building a map that the robot can use in any application where it needs to know its position and orientation within the environment, with minimum memory requirements and computational cost but with a reasonable accuracy. This way, we present both a method to build the map and a method to test its performance in future applications.
Polymeric wavelength filter based on a Bragg grating using nanoimprint technique

A polymeric waveguide-type wavelength filter based on a Bragg grating has been proposed and fabricated using the simple nanoimprint technique, for the first time to our knowledge. An ultraviolet transparent stamp with the single-mode waveguide pattern incorporating a surface-relief-type Bragg grating was efficiently developed using laser interference lithography and a specially designed selective dry-etching process. Using this stamp, the device fabrication was substantially simplified involving just a single-step process of imprint followed by polymer spin-coating. The achieved maximum reflection was higher than 25 dB at the center wavelength of 1569 nm. And the 3-dB bandwidth was 0.8 nm for the device length of 1.5 cm.
What is the Value of an Archaeology Degree

Introduction A few summers ago, I arranged for a friend and I to spend a day at the St Leonard’s Hospital excavation in York, a project where interested members of the public could get some experience of what it is like to work on a dig. My friend had never been on a working archaeological site before and under the supervision of York Archaeological Trust staff we spent the day patiently trowelling and brushing, turning up occasional sherds as we went. When we finished I asked whether she had enjoyed herself. Oh yes, she thought it had been interesting but, she asked, why do you need a degree to do that?
Secular trends in BMI changes among the military population between 2000 and 2010 in Poland - a retrospective study.

OBJECTIVES The aim of the study was to investigate secular trends in body mass index among the young military population. This involved a comparison of changes in the body mass index (BMI) and height among 19-year-old males from 11 successive birth cohorts. DESIGN Samples of a total of 37,934 conscripts between 2000 and 2010 were examined using the BMI defined as weight (kg)/ height (m2). SETTING The analysis included each medical record for all recruits reporting for examination between 2000 and 2010 to the Military Headquarters in south-east of Poland. Underweight, overweight and obesity were estimated according to World Health Organization criteria. Means of the BMI, body mass and height were calculated for the following three subgroups: (1) rural resident; (2) urban resident (towns with population of 10,000+); and, (3) urban resident (cities with populations of 100,000+). RESULTS Secular trends in body mass index have changed significantly between 2000 and 2010. A statistically significant increase in both the prevalence of overweight (10.5% to 15.6%) and obesity (2.5% to 3.8%) were observed. However, the prevalence of underweight also increased from 8.3% to 10.2%. CONCLUSIONS Secular trends in BMI have been unfavourable for the military population over the last 10 years studied and, therefore, the need for promotion of health among recruits is very important.
A Minimal Structural Analogue of Cyclic ADP-ribose

Cyclic ADP-ribose (cADPR) is an endogenous Ca2+-mobilizing second messenger in many cell types and organisms. Although the biological activity of several modified analogues of cADPR has been analyzed, most of these structures were still very similar to the original molecule. Recently, we have introduced simplified analogues in which the northern ribose (N1-linked ribose) was replaced by an ether strand (Gu, X., Yang, Z., Zhang, L., Kunerth, S., Fliegert, R., Weber, K., Guse, A. H., and Zhang, L. (2004) J. Med. Chem. 47, 5674–5682). Here we also demonstrate that the southern ribose (N9-linked ribose) can be replaced by an ether strand resulting in N1-[(phosphoryl-O-ethoxy)-methyl]-N9-[(phosphoryl-O-ethoxy)-methyl]-hypoxanthinecyclic pyrophosphate (cIDP-DE). This minimal structural analogue of cyclic ADP-ribose released Ca2+ from intracellular stores of permeabilized Jurkat T lymphocytes. In intact T lymphocytes initial subcellular Ca2+ release events, global Ca2+ release, and subsequent global Ca2+ entry were observed. Cardiac myocytes freshly prepared from mice responded to cIDP-DE by increased recruitment of localized Ca2+ signals and by global Ca2+ waves.
Evolution of library and information science, 1965–2005: Content analysis of journal articles

This article first analyzes library and information science (LIS) research articles published in core LIS journals in 2005. It also examines the development of LIS from 1965 to 2005 in light of comparable data sets for 1965, 1985, and 2005. In both cases, the authors report (a) how the research articles are distributed by topic and (b) what approaches, research strategies, and methods were applied in the articles. In 2005, the largest research areas in LIS by this measure were information storage and retrieval, scientific communication, library and information‐service activities, and information seeking. The same research areas constituted the quantitative core of LIS in the previous years since 1965. Information retrieval has been the most popular area of research over the years. The proportion of research on library and information‐service activities decreased after 1985, but the popularity of information seeking and of scientific communication grew during the period studied. The viewpoint of research has shifted from library and information organizations to end users and development of systems for the latter. The proportion of empirical research strategies was high and rose over time, with the survey method being the single most important method. However, attention to evaluation and experiments increased considerably after 1985. Conceptual research strategies and system analysis, description, and design were quite popular, but declining. The most significant changes from 1965 to 2005 are the decreasing interest in library and information‐service activities and the growth of research into information seeking and scientific communication.