Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Men's experiences of vasectomy in the Brazilian Public Health Service.

BACKGROUND Vasectomy was legalized in Brazil in 1996 and is freely available in some public health institutions. Nevertheless, the prevalence of vasectomy is less than 4.4%, demonstrating how rarely this contraceptive resource is used. The promotion of greater male involvement in reproductive health was one of the recommendations of the Cairo International Conference of Population and Development (ICPD). RESEARCH OBJECTIVE To describe the experiences of a group of men who had had vasectomy. METHOD The thematic oral history method was used. Twenty men vasectomized in a Sao Paolo State Health Service Clinic were interviewed. Each tape-recorded narrative was analysed through transcription, textualization, and transcreation, a process used to transform the oral history into written narrative form. From each narrative a 'vital tone' was extracted, revealing the essence of the individual experience. All the data were analysed under an inductive and interpretative process. The similarities among histories were identified, and submitted to a process of reduction in order to develop descriptive categories. RESULTS The following descriptive categories were developed from the men's experiences: Misconceptions regarding vasectomy that were overcome after hearing positive results expressed by other men; Vasectomy was the last solution for a couple's troubles related to contraceptive methods; Satisfaction related to professional support received during the process of searching for a method and deciding upon vasectomy; Satisfaction was the main feeling expressed following vasectomy and they recommended this contraceptive method to other men; Men's behaviours towards postvasectomy control was divergent despite the professional guidance. CONCLUSIONS An integrated public policy is required to promote male involvement in reproductive health. Family planning programmes must be meaningful socioculturally and the inclusion of men in these programmes is recommended. The use of anonymized videotaped narratives or the recruitment of the men themselves during counselling about this method would be helpful for the resolution of reservations related to vasectomy. All the interviewed men expressed satisfaction with vasectomy and this feeling was mainly based on the certainty of the preservation of sexual performance. LIMITATIONS A third of those invited for interview did not attend.
An Approach for Evaluating the Technical Quality of Interim Assessments

Increasing numbers of schools and districts have expressed interest in interim assessment systems to prepare for summative assessments and to improve teaching and learning. However, with so many commercial interim assessments available, schools and districts are struggling to determine which interim assessment is most appropriate to their needs. Unfortunately, there is little research-based guidance to help schools and districts to make the right choice about how to spend their money. Because we realize the urgency of developing criteria that can describe or evaluate the quality of interim assessments, this article presents the results of an initial attempt to create an instrument that school and district educators could use to evaluate the quality and usefulness of the interim assessment. The instrument is designed for use by state and district leaders to help them select an appropriate interim assessment system for their needs, but it could also be used by test vendors looking to evaluate and improve their own systems and by researchers engaged in studies of interim assessment use.
Intrinsic Motivation of Open Content Contributions: The Case of Wikipedia

Modern information technology has enabled many community-based innovations, in which looselyconnected contributors, dispersed across organizational and geographical boundaries, collaborate via the Internet. This community-based model of knowledge creation differs considerably from traditional rm-based production process and has stimulated curiosity of scholars from a variety of elds. Two well-known examples are open source software (OSS) projects (e.g., the Apache project) and open content production (e.g., Wikipedia). In OSS projects, hundreds and thousands of programmers collaborate on some software code base. In open content production, contributors codify some knowledge base with wiki, a piece of server software that allows them to freely create and edit Web page content.
Machine Learning for Interactive Systems: Challenges and Future Trends

Machine learning has been introduced more than 40 years ago in interactive systems through speech recognition or computer vision. Since that, machine learning gained in interest in the scientific community involved in human- machine interaction and raised in the abstraction scale. It moved from fundamental signal processing to language understanding and generation, emotion and mood recogni- tion and even dialogue management or robotics control. So far, existing machine learning techniques have often been considered as a solution to some problems raised by inter- active systems. Yet, interaction is also the source of new challenges for machine learning and offers new interesting practical but also theoretical problems to solve. In this paper, we address these challenges and describe why research in machine learning and interactive systems should converge in the future.
Generating correlated Nakagami fading channels

We present a method to simulate Nakagami m-distributed fading channels. The method uses a zero memory nonlinear, zmnl, to map the amplitude of correlated complex Gaussian sequences to Nakagami m-distributed sequences. The method permits correlation both in time and between different ray paths. To model the two-dimensional fading process we assume the fading process behaves according to a p-th order autoregressive model. The AR coefficients are obtained by solving a system of Yule-Walker equations while compensating for the effects of the zmnl on the correlation.
Decoupling beliefs from reality in the brain: an ERP study of theory of mind

Theory of mind, attributing behaviors to mental states, is a cognitive ability central to human social interactions. To investigate the neural substrates of theory of mind reasoning, we recorded human event-related brain potentials (ERP) while participants made judgments about belief and judgments about reality. A late ERP component (peaking around 800 ms post-stimulus) with a left frontal scalp distribution, which was inconsistent with a source in the anterior paracingulate cortex and consistent with a source possibly in the left orbitofrontal cortex, differentiated judgments about belief and about reality. This late left frontal component is probably associated with the decoupling mechanism that distinguishes mental states from reality.
Medication adherence among homeless patients: A pilot study of cell phone effectiveness

Purpose: We examined the feasibility of using cell phones to monitor medication adherence among homeless participants and collected data for research purposes. Data sources: Ten homeless individuals with a co‐occurring substance use and psychiatric disorders who were receiving psychopharmacologic treatment participated in the study. All psychopharmacologic treatment was provided by a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner. Cell phones were provided to participants with unlimited phone service for 45 days. An automated telephone system was programmed to call participants daily for 30 days. All participant responses were reported to a computer and reviewed by study staff on a daily basis. Conclusions: The automated calls reached study participants 93% of days and, when reached, participants reported 100% adherence with the prescribed medication regimen. Exit interviews indicated strong support for the usefulness of the phone and the value of the call and survey as reminders to take their medication. No patients dropped out of this study. Implications for practice: This pilot study establishes the feasibility of using cell phones to monitor and manage medication regimens for hard‐to‐reach populations, such as the homeless with co‐occurring disorders. It also establishes that this technology would work for research data collection. Disclaimer The views expressed in this article do not represent the views of the Veterans Administration or the United States Government.
Efikasi Mengajar Sebagai Mediator Peranan Faktor Kepribadian terhadap Performasi Mengajar Guru

AbstractThe aim of this study is to test the role of teaching efficacy as a mediatorrelationship between personality factors and optimal teaching performance.Construct personality factor involved is Big Five personality. Participantsin this study were 142 teachers who are representatives of the provincesin Indonesia. Measurement instruments are Five Factors Personality Scale,Teaching Efficacy Scale and Teaching Performance Scale. This studysuggest that the role of personality factors indirectly effect is better to explainvariations in teaching performance than directly effect. This conclusionsare based on two results of the statistical analysis: (1) results fromhierarchical regression analysis indicates that at final stage, entering factorsof teaching efficacy has reduced the role of all five factors of personality tothe teaching performance of teachers ( F = 17.81 p<0.01; R2 = 21.8%). Comparison of coefficient value from two types of effect (direct effectversus indirect effect) in structural equation modeling (SEM), suggest thatthe indirect effect coefficient more significant than direct effect. In general,our findings suggest that construct personality has a broad scope that requireother construct more specific or narrower trait as a mediator in explainingthe behavior of the criteria.
OPINION ON SAFETY OF NANOMATERIALS IN COSMETIC PRODUCTS

2 About the Scientific Committees Three independent non-food Scientific Committees provide the Commission with the sound scientific advice it needs when preparing policy and proposals relating to consumer safety, public health and the environment. The Committees also draw the Commission's attention to the new or emerging problems which may pose an actual or potential threat. SCCP Questions concerning the safety of consumer products (non-food products intended for the consumer). In particular, the Committee addresses questions related to the safety and allergenic properties of cosmetic products and ingredients with respect to their impact on consumer health, toys, textiles, clothing, personal care products, domestic products such as detergents and consumer services such as tattooing. The opinions of the Scientific Committees reflect the views of the independent scientists who are members of the committees. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission. The opinions are published by the European Commission in their original language only.
Physicochemical Characterization, and Relaxometry Studies of Micro-Graphite Oxide, Graphene Nanoplatelets, and Nanoribbons

The chemistry of high-performance magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents remains an active area of research. In this work, we demonstrate that the potassium permanganate-based oxidative chemical procedures used to synthesize graphite oxide or graphene nanoparticles leads to the confinement (intercalation) of trace amounts of Mn2+ ions between the graphene sheets, and that these manganese intercalated graphitic and graphene structures show disparate structural, chemical and magnetic properties, and high relaxivity (up to 2 order) and distinctly different nuclear magnetic resonance dispersion profiles compared to paramagnetic chelate compounds. The results taken together with other published reports on confinement of paramagnetic metal ions within single-walled carbon nanotubes (a rolled up graphene sheet) show that confinement (encapsulation or intercalation) of paramagnetic metal ions within graphene sheets, and not the size, shape or architecture of the graphitic carbon particles is the key determinant for increasing relaxivity, and thus, identifies nano confinement of paramagnetic ions as novel general strategy to develop paramagnetic metal-ion graphitic-carbon complexes as high relaxivity MRI contrast agents.
Exercise Training Increases Parietal Lobe Cerebral Blood Flow in Chronic Stroke: An Observational Study

Exercise is increasingly recommended as an essential component of stroke rehabilitation, yet uncertainty remains with respect to its direct effect on the cerebral vasculature. The current study first demonstrated the repeatability of pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling (ASL) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in older adults with stroke, and then investigated the change in cerebrovascular function following a 6-month cardiovascular rehabilitation program. In the repeatability study, 12 participants at least 3 months post-stroke underwent two ASL imaging scans 1 month apart. In the prospective observational study, eight individuals underwent ASL imaging and aerobic fitness testing before and after a 6-month cardiovascular rehabilitation program. Cerebral blood flow (CBF) and the spatial coefficient of variation of CBF (sCoV) were quantified to characterize tissue-level perfusion and large cerebral artery transit time properties, respectively. In repeat scanning, intraclass correlation (ICC) indicated moderate test-retest reliability for global gray matter CBF (ICC = 0.73) and excellent reliability for sCoV (ICC = 0.94). In the observational study, gray matter CBF increased after training (baseline: 40 ± 13 vs. 6-month: 46 ± 12 ml·100 g−1·min−1, P = 0.036). The greatest change occurred in the parietal lobe (+18 ± 12%). Gray matter sCoV, however, did not change following training (P = 0.31). This study provides preliminary evidence that exercise-based rehabilitation in chronic stroke enhances tissue-level perfusion, without changing the relative hemodynamic properties of the large cerebral arteries.
Online unsupervised overlapping speaker detection using enhanced classification history-based features

Overlapping speaker localization approaches generally require a binary detector which performs the source/noise classification of the location estimates. This is mainly due to the unknown time-varying number of sources, and to the presence of noise and reverberation. In this paper, we firstly introduce an online implementation of a previously developed offline multiple speaker detector. This classifier is then extended to include new detection features. More precisely, the proposed approach uses the classified location estimates as labelled data to train new classification models for different potential features. The resulting models are then integrated into the online classifier to improve the classification performance. In particular, this paper investigates three different classification history-based models, namely, the location, the kurtosis and the probabilistic steered response power features. Experiments conducted on the AV16.3 corpus show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Decoupled Homography-based Visual Servoing with Omnidirectional Cameras

This paper presents a new hybrid decoupled vision-based control scheme valid for the entire class of central catadioptric sensors (including conventional perspective cameras). First, we consider the structure from motion problem using imaged 3D lines (conics). Polar lines of the principal point with respect to the conic curves are exploited to estimate a generic homography matrix from which a partial Euclidean reconstruction is obtained. The polar lines and the information extracted from the homography are then used to design a control law which allow us to fully decouple rotational motions from translational motions
Safety, feasibility, and mid-term follow-up of Willis stent graft placement in the treatment of symptomatic complicated intra- or extra-cranial aneurysms: A multicenter experience

Abstract We report the technical success rate and mid-term follow-up results after deploying stent-grafts to treat a cohort of patients with symptomatic complicated intra- or extracranial aneurysms (SCIEAs). This study was a retrospective review of 58 patients (39 male; mean age 40.4 ± 12.3 years) with 60 SCIEAs treated by 67 Willis covered stents at three medical centers in China between April 2005 and January 2010. The locations of the SCIEAs were as follows: Intracranial internal carotid artery (ICA) in 54 patients, extracranial ICA in one, intracranial vertebral artery (VA) in three and extra-cranial VA in two. Surgery was successful in 59 (98.3%) SCIEAs. Total exclusion was immediately achieved in 48 SCIEAs, and minor endoleaks were present in 11. Acute thrombosis occurred in two patients and hemorrhage in one. Follow-up angiography (mean 13.8 ± 8.9 months) revealed that 49 of 52 (94.2%) aneurysms were completely isolated, with mild in-stent stenosis in only two patients and in-stent occlusion in one patient. Willis stent-graft application is an alternative therapy to treat SCIEAs in either intra- or extracranial ICAs or VAs. In the case of a tortuous intracranial ICA or potential side branch coverage, however, it is still not a first choice.
A method for collecting and interpreting interpersonal behavioral data in Second Life: A sample study on Asians’, Blacks’, and Whites’ social distances

In this paper, we describe a method for collecting and interpreting interpersonal behavioral data in the Virtual World, Second Life. To illustrate this method we provide details for the implementation of a study on social distances between Black, White, and Asian participants in Second Life. Participants’ avatars were fitted with a virtual object containing a computer script that recorded their coordinates on the Second Life grid at one-second intervals. Participants interacted at a social event in a controlled environment in Second Life for 15 minutes. A computer algorithm (developed for this study in the statistical analysis program, R) was used to calculate each participant’s average social distance from one another across the 15-minute event. Average social distance scores were then aggregated into social distance towards racial groups as a whole (i.e., each participants’ social distance towards Blacks, Whites, and Asians). This paper provides details for researchers interested in adopting or modifying our Virtual World method for interpersonal behavioral data collection and interpretation. Specifically we focus on the development of a controlled Second Life environment, the adaptation of a Second Life computer script (adapted from Yee & Bailenson, 2008), the computer algorithm for calculating social distances, and our methods for recruiting and conducting study trials.
The Development of Social and Environmental Reporting Research on Bangladeshi Organizations: A Postcolonial Critique

This article depicts the chronological development of research on social and environmental accounting practices of the companies of a developing country – Bangladesh. The research identifies that research on social and environmental accounting from Bangladeshi perspective started in 1996. Form then up to 2006, the researches were mostly small scale and methodologically simple. It is mainly from 2007 the researchers having Western university affiliation became interested in conducting research on Bangladesh. From then a development in terms of content and methodology can be noticed. The article concluded that the main contributors in the development of research in this area are the scholars affiliated with the Western universities. Local Bangladeshi researchers, because of their ‘colonized’ mentality, just followed and imitated the Westerners in terms of the methodologies and other aspects of research.
The Importance of Interface Irregularity between the Tumor and Brain Parenchyma in Differentiating between Typical and Atypical Meningiomas: Correlation with Pathology

Purpose: To understand clinical significance of irregular interface between meningioma and adjacent brain parenchyma in predicting histological grading of tumor, focusing on brain parenchymal invasion. Materials and Methods: Pathologically confirmed 79 cases with meningiomas with pathological reports about the presence of parenchymal invasion were included. We defined the presence of interface irregularity as either spiculations or fuzzy margins between the tumor and brain parenchyma. We counted number of spiculations and measured ratio of fuzzy margin length to whole length of mass with consensus of two neuroradiologists. We classified the patients into Present group and Absent group, and the two groups were compared by using the Mann-Whitney U test. Statistical correlations between the presence of an interface irregularity and brain parenchymal invasion by the tumor as well as meningioma histological grade were tested with chi-square test. The optimal cutoff values of spiculation numbers and the ratio of fuzzy margins were determined. The sensitivity and specificity of number of spiculations, ratio of fuzzy margin and the presence of irregular interface as combined parameters for predicting the parenchymal invasion were calculated using ROC curve analysis. Results: Statistically significant differences were noted between the Present and Absent groups for number of spiculations and ratio of fuzzy margin (P = 0.038 and P = 0.028, respectively). The optimal cutoff value for number of spiculations (> 4.5 with 61.1% sensitivity and 68.9% specificity) and the ratio of fuzzy margin (> 0.24 with 66.7% sensitivity and 65.6% specificity) were determined. The sensitivity and specificity of interface irregularity as the combined parameters were 72% and 59%, respectively. The interface irregularity between tumor and brain parenchyma significantly correlated with not only brain parenchymal invasion (P = 0.001) and but also histological grade (P < 0.001). Conclusion: The interface irregularity between tumor and brain parenchyma in MRI can be a strong predictive factor for brain parenchymal invasion and high grade meningioma.
Identifying spatially overlapping local cortical networks with MEG

Recent modelling studies (Hadjipapas et al. [2009]: Neuroimage 44:1290‐1303) have shown that it may be possible to distinguish between different neuronal populations on the basis of their macroscopically measured (EEG/MEG) mean field. We set out to test whether the different orientation columns contributing to a signal at a specific cortical location could be identified based on the measured MEG signal. We used 1.5deg square, static, obliquely oriented grating stimuli to generate sustained gamma oscillations in a focal region of primary visual cortex. We then used multivariate classifier methods to predict the orientation (left or right oblique) of the stimuli based purely on the time‐series data from this one location. Both the single trial evoked response (0–300 ms) and induced post‐transient power spectra (300–2,300 ms, 20–70 Hz band) due to the different stimuli were classifiable significantly above chance in 11/12 and 10/12 datasets respectively. Interestingly, stimulus‐specific information is preserved in the sustained part of the gamma oscillation, long after perception has occurred and all neuronal transients have decayed. Importantly, the classification of this induced oscillation was still possible even when the power spectra were rank‐transformed showing that the different underlying networks give rise to different characteristic temporal signatures. Hum Brain Mapp, 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.