Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The immediate effects of two manual therapy techniques on ankle musculoarticular stiffness and dorsiflexion range of motion in people with chronic ankle rigidity: A randomized clinical trial.

OBJECTIVE Ankle rigidity is a common musculoskeletal disorder affecting the talocrural joint, which can impair weight-bearing ankle dorsiflexion (WBADF) and daily-life in people with or without history of ankle injuries. Our objective was to compare the immediate effects of efficacy of Mulligan Mobilization with Movement (MWM) and Osteopathic Mobilization (OM) for improving ankle dorsiflexion range of motion (ROM) and musculoarticular stiffness (MAS) in people with chronic ankle dorsiflexion rigidity. DESIGN A randomized clinical trial with two arms. METHODS Patients were recruited by word of mouth and via social network as well as posters, and analyzed in the neuro musculoskeletal laboratory of the "Université Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve", Brussels, Belgium. PARTICIPANTS 67 men (aged 18-40 years) presenting with potential chronic non-specific and unilateral ankle mobility deficit during WBDF were assessed for eligibility and finally 40 men were included and randomly allocated to single session of either MWM or OM. INTERVENTIONS Two modalities of manual therapy indicated for hypothetic immediate effects in chronic ankle dorsiflexion stiffness, i.e. MWM and OM, were applied during a single session on included patients. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Comprised blinding measures of MAS with a specific electromechanical device (namely: Lehmann's device) producing passive oscillatory ankle joint dorsiflexion and with clinical measures of WBADF-ROM as well. RESULTS A two-way ANOVA revealed a non-significant interaction between both techniques and time for all outcome measures. For measures of MAS: elastic-stiffness (p= 0.37), viscous-stiffness (p= 0.83), total-stiffness (p= 0.58). For WBADF-ROM: toe-wall distance (p= 0.58) and angular ROM (p= 0.68). Small effect sizes between groups were determined with Cohen's d ranging from 0.05 to 0.29. One-way ANOVA demonstrated non-significant difference and small to moderate effects sizes (d= 0.003-0.58) on all outcome measures before and after interventions within both groups. A second two-way ANOVA analyzed the effect of each intervention on the sample categorized according to injury history status, and demonstrated a significant interaction between groups and time only for viscous stiffness (p= 0.04, d=-0.55). CONCLUSION A single session of MWM and OM targeting the talocrural joint failed to immediately improve all measures in.
FcγRIIB Inhibits the Development of Atherosclerosis in Low-Density Lipoprotein Receptor-Deficient Mice

The immune processes associated with atherogenesis have received considerable attention during recent years. IgG FcRs (FcγR) are involved in activating the immune system and in maintaining peripheral tolerance. However, the role of the inhibitory IgG receptor FcγRIIB in atherosclerosis has not been defined. Bone marrow cells from FcγRIIB-deficient mice and C57BL/6 control mice were transplanted to low-density lipoprotein receptor-deficient mice. Atherosclerosis was induced by feeding the recipient mice a high-fat diet for 8 wk and evaluated using Oil Red O staining of the descending aorta at sacrifice. The molecular mechanisms triggering atherosclerosis was studied by examining splenic B and T cells, as well as Th1 and Th2 immune responses using flow cytometry and ELISA. The atherosclerotic lesion area in the descending aorta was ~5-fold larger in mice lacking FcγRIIB than in control mice (2.75 ± 2.57 versus 0.44 ± 0.42%; p < 0.01). Moreover, the FcγRIIB deficiency resulted in an amplified splenocyte proliferative response to Con A stimulation (proliferation index 30.26 ± 8.81 versus 2.96 ± 0.81%, p < 0.0001) and an enhanced expression of MHC class II on the B cells (6.65 ± 0.64 versus 2.33 ± 0.25%; p < 0.001). In accordance, an enlarged amount of CD25-positive CD4 T cells was found in the spleen (42.74 ± 4.05 versus 2.45 ± 0.31%; p < 0.0001). The plasma Ab and cytokine pattern suggested increased Th1 and Th2 immune responses, respectively. These results show that FcγRIIB inhibits the development of atherosclerosis in mice. In addition, they indicate that absence of the inhibiting IgG receptor cause disease, depending on an imbalance of activating and inhibiting immune cells.
Attributional analysis of computer self-efficacy

The use of computers by individuals in their work lives has received considerable attention by Information Systems researchers and practitioners. Finding solutions to why people elect to avoid this technology is a longstanding goal of the field. In order to deepen our understanding of this phenomenon, this study linked Attribution Theory with Self-Efficacy Theory. Based on these two theories, an Attribution/Self-Efficacy model was formulated and tested in an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) context. A three-phased research approach was used to test two research questions: (1) determination of the desirable and undesirable attributions of users' past computer-related performance; and (2) investigation of whether the desirable and undesirable attributions influence individuals' computer self-efficacy. During Phase One the research questions were initially examined by conducting a survey in an organization of PeopleSoft users. The results of this study provided preliminary support for the Attribution/Self-Efficacy model. Users reported that the causes of their successful computer performance (i.e., Desirable Attributions) were willingness to change applications, effort, and persistence. The causes of their unsuccessful computer performance (i.e., Undesirable Attributions) were lack of computer training, lack of computer support, and difficult to use software. The second phase developed and tested multi-item measurements for Desirable Attributions (i.e., acceptance of change, willingness to change, effort, and persistence), and Undesirable Attributions (i.e., difficult to use applications, inadequate training, inadequate support, inadequate documentation, and inadequate communications) using semi-structured interviews followed by a card sorting methodology. These measurements were used to test users' attributional analysis of their ERP Self-Efficacy during Phase Three. Phase Three was a cross-sectional survey of ERP users from one organization. The results of this phase provided evidence for linking Attribution Theory to Self-Efficacy Theory. Moreover, the findings showed that an attributional analysis of users' prior ERP performances played an important role in the formation of self-efficacy judgements, which in turn, influenced users' affective and behavioural outcomes (i.e., satisfaction, performance, and productivity). The combined findings of this research speak to the need to consider users' attributional analysis of their ERP performances when attempting to understand individuals' reactions to this technology, and to successfully implement these complex solutions into organizations.
A Dog Tail Interface for Communicating Affective States of Utility Robots

As robots continue to enter people’s spaces and environments, it will be increasingly important to have effective interfaces for interaction and communication. One such aspect of this communication is people’s awareness of the robot’s actions and state. We believe that using high-level state representations, as a peripheral awareness channel, will help people to be aware of the robotic states in an easy to understand way. For example, when a robot is boxed in a small area, it can suggest a negative robot state (e.g., not willing to work in a small area as it cannot clean the entire room) by appearing unhappy to people. To investigate this, we built a robotic dog tail prototype and conducted a study to investigate how different tail motions (based on several motion parameters, e.g., speed) influence peoples perceptions of the robot. The results from this study formed design guidelines that Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) designers can leverage to convey robotic states. Further, we evaluated our overall approach and tested these guidelines by conducting a design workshop with interaction designers where we asked them to use the guidelines to design tail behaviors for various robotic states (e.g., looking for dirt) for robots working in different environments (e.g., domestic service). Results from this ii
Build It Yourself! Homegrown Tools in a Large Software Company

Developers sometimes take the initiative to build toolsto solve problems they face. What motivates developers to buildthese tools? What is the value for a company? Are the tools builtuseful for anyone besides their creator? We conducted a qualitativestudy of tool building, adoption, and impact within Microsoft. Thispaper presents our findings on the extrinsic and intrinsic factorslinked to toolbuilding, the value of building tools, and the factorsassociated with tool spread. We find that the majority of developersbuild tools. While most tools never spread beyond their creator'steam, most have more than one user, and many have more than onecollaborator. Organizational cultures that are receptive towardstoolbuilding produce more tools, and more collaboration on tools.When nurtured and spread, homegrown tools have the potential tocreate significant impact on organizations.
Probabilistic environments in the quantitative analysis of (non-probabilistic) behaviour models

System specifications have long been expressed through automata-based languages, enabling verification techniques such as model checking. These verification techniques can assess whether a property holds or not, given a system specification. Quantitative model checking can provide additional information on the probability of these properties holding. We are interested in quantitatively analysing the probability of errors in non-probabilistic system models by composing them with probabilistic models of the environment. Although many probabilistic automata-based formalisms and composition operators exist, these are not adequate for such a setting. In this work we present a formalism inspired on interface automata and a suitable composition operator for these automata that enables validation of environment models in isolation and sound analysis of its composition with the non-probabilistic model of the system-under-analysis.
Fast solution of Foldy-Lax equations for two-dimensional radiation and scattering problems

The general fast multipole expressions of arbitrary order Hankel functions are derived by using lowering and raising operators of cylindrical harmonics. These expressions are then used to transform the dense matrix in Foldy-Lax equations into a combination of sparse matrices (aggregation, translation and disaggregation matrices). Thus, the computational complexity of such an algorithm is found to be of O(N 1.5) instead of O(N2) of the traditional scattering matrix method, where N denotes the total harmonics number used to expand scattered of all the cylinders. The details of the implementation issues are investigated and, the accuracy and efficiency of this novel fast algorithm are verified by several numerical examples
The Significance and Basic Postulates of Economic Theory: A Reply to Professor Knight

PROFESSOR KNIGHT opened his thirty-two-page Blitzkrieg on my essay by remarking that many thoughtful people in the world ask the question of our title "'What is Truth' in Economics? " At the outset I must beg to disclaim any place among these thoughtful people, as I have never, in print at least, either asked or tried to answer this question and have no intention of ever doing so. The questions to which, as Professor Knight said, I volunteered an answer without waiting to be asked were much less general and much less ambitious, and also much less imprecise. They will be found formulated throughout the book on which Professor Knight has kindly volunteered his extensive criticisms. My gratitude to Professor Knight for his comments (in addition to a debt incurred when I first read Risk, Uncertainty and Projit, as an undergraduate) is, I am sorry to say, considerably modified by the fact that he unfortunately allowed himself, as he said, to be-in A.D. 1940"particularly irritated" by my "methodology or philosophy of economics. " His irritation was not even assuaged by the reflection (p. i), which he said he found so comforting, that such books as mine "probably do not do much damage," being "more interesting . to their authors than . to any considerable number of readers" and are only "likely to be read and taken seriously by the young. " (By the
Improving Children's Understanding of Formalisms through Interacting with Multimedia

IMM (Interactive multimedia) has the potential to facilitate learning by providing new means of interacting with information, offering learners the ability to explore ideas and concepts that they find difficult to understand when represented in traditional media (e.g. diagrams and text in books). To know how to capitalise on this, however, requires understanding how IMM works. In this paper we describe our Cognitive Interactivity framework that outlines the benefits and properties of IMM. To support our assumptions we developed and empirically tested a software prototype for teaching children how to use foodweb diagrams to reason about the dynamic behaviour of ecosystems. Findings suggest that IMM can be developed to help children understand better how to use formalisms as computational aids with which to reason about a complex system.
Promoting the integration of theory and practice by the use of a learning contract

This qualitative study presents occupational therapy BSc students' perceptions of the value of learning contracts to promote the integration of theory and practice within a problem-based learning course. Focus groups, consisting of first- and third-year students, were used to generate data. Content analysis was carried out to establish common themes. The main findings indicated that students use learning contracts within the academic field to structure their learning, identify knowledge and remain client-centred. Within the fieldwork setting, learning contracts were influenced by supervisory styles and the ability of the students to negotiate their learning needs. The key factor that promoted integration was negotiation, enhanced greatly when students were given the lead role as negotiator. Learning contracts were perceived as being of value in integrating theory and practice. Placements using group or long-arm (off-site) supervision were seen as making the best use of learning contracts. Recommendations .
Measurement of peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer thickness and macular thickness in anisometropia using spectral domain optical coherence tomography: a prospective study

Purpose To study whether there is a difference in central macular thickness (CMT) and peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness between the two eyes of individuals having anisometropia >1 diopter (D) using spectral domain optical coherence tomography (OCT). Material and methods One hundred and one subjects, 31 with myopic anisometropia, 28 with astigmatic anisometropia, and 42 with hypermetropic anisometropia, were enrolled in the study. After informed consent, detailed ophthalmological examination was performed for every patient including cycloplegic refraction, best corrected visual acuity, slit lamp, and fundus examination. After routine ophthalmic examination peripapillary RNFL and CMT were measured using spectral domain OCT and the values of the two eyes were compared in the three types of anisometropia. Axial length was measured using an A Scan ultrasound biometer (Appa Scan-2000). Results The average age of subjects was 21.7±9.3 years. The mean anisometropia was 3.11±1.7 D in myopia; 2±0.99 D in astigmatism; and 3.68±1.85 D in hypermetropia. There was a statistically significant difference in axial length of the worse and better eye in both myopic and hypermetropic anisometropia (P=0.00). There was no significant difference between CMT of better and worse eyes in anisomyopia (P=0.79), anisohypermetropia (P=0.09), or anisoastigmatism (P=0.16). In anisohypermetropia only inferior quadrant RNFL was found to be significantly thicker (P=0.011) in eyes with greater refractive error. Conclusion There does not appear to be a significant difference in CMT and peripapillary RNFL thickness in anisomyopia and anisoastigmatism. However, in anisohypermetropia inferior quadrant RNFL was found to be significantly thicker.
Character-based DNA barcoding allows discrimination of genera, species and populations in Odonata

DNA barcoding has become a promising means for identifying organisms of all life stages. Currently, phenetic approaches and tree-building methods have been used to define species boundaries and discover ‘cryptic species’. However, a universal threshold of genetic distance values to distinguish taxonomic groups cannot be determined. As an alternative, DNA barcoding approaches can be ‘character based’, whereby species are identified through the presence or absence of discrete nucleotide substitutions (character states) within a DNA sequence. We demonstrate the potential of character-based DNA barcodes by analysing 833 odonate specimens from 103 localities belonging to 64 species. A total of 54 species and 22 genera could be discriminated reliably through unique combinations of character states within only one mitochondrial gene region (NADH dehydrogenase 1). Character-based DNA barcodes were further successfully established at a population level discriminating seven population-specific entities out of a total of 19 populations belonging to three species. Thus, for the first time, DNA barcodes have been found to identify entities below the species level that may constitute separate conservation units or even species units. Our findings suggest that character-based DNA barcoding can be a rapid and reliable means for (i) the assignment of unknown specimens to a taxonomic group, (ii) the exploration of diagnosability of conservation units, and (iii) complementing taxonomic identification systems.
Lexical differences and similarities between Moroccan dialect and Arabic

This paper describes the relationship existing between Moroccan dialect (MD) and Arabic language through a comparative study to prove that those languages have a lot in common at the lexical level. For this purpose, we used `MDED' an MD electronic lexicon containing 15000 entries that we have built in a previous work versus Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Among MDED origins (MSA, French, Spanish, Tamazight and unknown), we focused on the unknown origin in order to perform a survey comparing MDED's content with data collected from some Arabic lexicons. The survey consists of a semiautomatic evaluation showing that about 39% of words having unknown origin existing in the MDED lexicon have been derived from MSA, so that almost 86% of MD lexical content is inspired from Arabic.
A Realistic Benchmark for Vision-based Indoor Place Recognition ⋆

An important competence for a mobile robot system is the ability to localize and perform context interpretation. This is required to perform basic navigation and to facilitate local specific services. Recent advances in vision have made this modality a viable alternative to the traditional range sensors and visual place recognition algorithms emerged as a useful and widely applied tool for obtaining information about robot’s position. Several place recognition methods have been proposed using vision alone or combined with sonar and/or laser. This research calls for standard benchmark datasets for development, evaluation and comparison of solutions. To this end, this paper presents two carefully designed and annotated image databases augmented with an experimental procedure and extensive baseline evaluation. The databases were gathered in an uncontrolled indoor office environment using two mobile robots and a standard camera. The acquisition spanned across a time range of several months and different illumination and weather conditions. Thus, the databases are very well suited for evaluating the robustness of algorithms with respect to a broad range of variations, often occurring in real-world settings. We thoroughly assessed the databases with a purely appearance-based place recognition method based on Support Vector Machines and two types of rich visual features (global and local).
Calcitriol protects renovascular function in hypertension by down-regulating angiotensin II type 1 receptors and reducing oxidative stress.

AIMS The present study investigated whether or not calcitriol, an active form of vitamin D, protects against renovascular dysfunction in hypertension and, if so, whether or not such protection alters the expression of key proteins involved in that dysfunction. METHODS AND RESULTS Changes in isometric tension showed that the impaired endothelium-dependent relaxations in renal arteries of hypertensive patients were enhanced by 12 h in vitro treatment with calcitriol. Dihydroethidium fluorescence revealed an elevated level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in these arteries which was reduced by calcitriol. Immunofluorescence showed that calcitriol treatment reduced the expression of AT(1)R, NOX-2, NOX-4, and p67(phox) and increased that of superoxide dismutase (SOD)-1. Twelve-hour exposure to calcitriol prevented angiotensin (Ang) II-induced increases in ROS and the over-expression of NOX-2, NOX-4, and p67(phox) in renal arteries from normotensive patients. A specific antagonist of the human vitamin D receptor (VDR), TEI-9647, abolished these effects of calcitriol. Both in vitro exposure to and chronic in vivo administration of calcitriol enhanced relaxations to acetylcholine and abolished exaggerated endothelium-dependent contractions in renal arteries of normotensive rats pre-exposed to Ang II or harvested from spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). Reactive oxygen species levels and expressions of AT(1)R, NAD(P)H oxidase subunits, SOD-1, and SOD-2 in SHR arteries were normalized by the chronic treatment with calcitriol. CONCLUSION In vivo and in vitro activation of VDR with calcitriol improves endothelial function by normalizing the expressions of AT(1)R and radical generating and scavenging enzymes and thus preventing ROS over-production. The present findings suggest that calcitriol is effective in preserving endothelial function in hypertension.
Analysis of Boundary Slip in a Flow with an Oscillating Wall

(Dated: August 1, 2012)Molecular dynamic (MD) simulation is used to study slip at the ﬂuid-solid boundary in an un-steady ﬂow based on the Stokes second problem. An increase in slip is observed in comparison tothe steady ﬂow for shear rates below the critical shear rate of the corresponding steady ﬂow. Thisincreased slip is attributed to ﬂuid inertial forces not represented in a steady ﬂow. An unsteadymathematical model for slip is established, which estimates the increment in slip at the boundary.The model shows that slip is also dependent on acceleration in addition to the shear rate of ﬂuid atthe wall. By writing acceleration in terms of shear rate, it is shown that slip at the wall in unsteadyﬂows is governed by the gradient of shear rate and shear rate of the ﬂuid. Non-dimensionalizing themodel gives a universal curve which can be used to ﬁnd the slip boundary condition at the ﬂuid-solidinterface based on the information of shear rate and gradient of shear rate of the ﬂuid. A governingnon-dimensional number, deﬁned as the ratio of phase speed to speed of sound, is identiﬁed to helpin explaining the mechanism responsible for the transition of slip boundary condition from ﬁniteto a perfect slip and determining when this would occur. Phase lag in ﬂuid velocity relative towall is observed. The lag increases with decreasing time period of wall oscillation and increasingwall hydrophobicity. The phenomenon of hysteresis is seen when looking into the variation of slipvelocity as a function of wall velocity and slip velocity as a function of ﬂuid shear rate. The causefor hysteresis is attributed to the unsteady inertial forces of the ﬂuid.