Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Psychometric Properties of the Portuguese Version of the Student Engagement Instrument

Student engagement is an emergent research domain in educational psychology, as research increasingly supports the connection between academic achievement, school-related behaviours, and student engagement. In spite of the important role of student engagement in academic achievement across cultures, little is known about the cross-cultural validation of the factorial structure of students’ school engagement instruments. This study explores the psychometric properties of The Student Engagement Instrument (Appleton & Christenson, 2004) in a population with a culture different from that in which the original version was developed and validated. The participants were 760 high school Portuguese students. Results confirm the factorial structure of the original version and reinforce the empirical support for a six-factor structure. However, some items loaded in different subscales, raising questions about the cultural specificities of the student engagement construct. L’engagement scolaire est un domaine émergent de l’investigation dans la psychologie de l’éducation, dans le même sens où l’investigation est en train de appuyer de plus en plus la liaison entre la réussite scolaire, les comportements rapportés à l’école, et l’engagement scolaire. Malgré le rôle important de l’engagement scolaire dans le succès académique à travers des cultures, peu se sait au sujet de la validation dans ces mêmes cultures de la structure factorielle des instruments de l’engagement scolaire des étudiants. Le but de cette étude était d’explorer les propriétés psychométriques de The Student Engagement Instrument (Appleton & Christenson, 2004) dans une population avec des différences culturelles en relation avec la population utilisée pour le développement et la validation de la version originale. Les participants étaient 760 lycéens étudiants portugais. Les résultats confirment la structure factorielle de la version originale et le soutien empirique d’une structure de six facteurs a été renforcé. Cependant, quelques items appuyés sur différentes sous-échelles soulèvent des questions au sujet des spécificités culturelles de construction de l’engagement scolaire.
C/EBPα Is Required for Long-Term Self-Renewal and Lineage Priming of Hematopoietic Stem Cells and for the Maintenance of Epigenetic Configurations in Multipotent Progenitors

Transcription factors are key regulators of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and act through their ability to bind DNA and impact on gene transcription. Their functions are interpreted in the complex landscape of chromatin, but current knowledge on how this is achieved is very limited. C/EBPα is an important transcriptional regulator of hematopoiesis, but its potential functions in HSCs have remained elusive. Here we report that C/EBPα serves to protect adult HSCs from apoptosis and to maintain their quiescent state. Consequently, deletion of Cebpa is associated with loss of self-renewal and HSC exhaustion. By combining gene expression analysis with genome-wide assessment of C/EBPα binding and epigenetic configurations, we show that C/EBPα acts to modulate the epigenetic states of genes belonging to molecular pathways important for HSC function. Moreover, our data suggest that C/EBPα acts as a priming factor at the HSC level where it actively promotes myeloid differentiation and counteracts lymphoid lineage choice. Taken together, our results show that C/EBPα is a key regulator of HSC biology, which influences the epigenetic landscape of HSCs in order to balance different cell fate options.
Early transfusion and length of survival in acquired immune deficiency syndrome: experience with a population receiving medical care at a public hospital

An extensive body of literature has attributed an immunosuppressive, and potentially deleterious, effect to blood transfusion. The possibility of a deleterious effect of transfusion on the subsequent survival of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients was investigated in a public hospital‐based cohort of 569 AIDS patients not treated with zidovudine and followed in a retrospective cohort study. With controls for the effects of baseline anemia, mode of initial disease manifestation of AIDS, most prevalent cause of death, and several other morbidities, a highly significant (p < 0.001) reduction was observed in the subsequent length of survival associated with the transfusion of packed red cells in the first trimester of the illness. However, when the most stringent assumptions with regard to control for illness severity were applied, this association was marginally significant (p = 0.055) only when transfusion was analyzed as a categorical variable. Analysis of transfusion as a continuous variable in this latter case failed to demonstrate a significant association. In this way, the findings substantiated but did not prove the hypothesis that the transfusion of packed red cells may be detrimental in patients with AIDS. There is a need for an experimental study directly comparing currently available alternative technologies to the transfusion of packed red cells to resolve the issue.
Communicating and resolving entity references

Statements about entities occur everywhere, from newspapers and web pages to structured databases. Correlating references to entities across systems that use different identifiers or names for them is a widespread problem. In this paper, we show how shared knowledge between systems can be used to solve this problem. We present "reference by description", a formal model for resolving references. We provide some results on the conditions under which a randomly chosen entity in one system can, with high probability, be mapped to the same entity in a different system.
Any questions? Automatic question detection in meetings

In this paper, we describe our efforts toward the automatic detection of English questions in meetings. We analyze the utility of various features for this task, originating from three distinct classes: lexico-syntactic, turn-related, and pitch-related. Of particular interest is the use of parse tree information in classification, an approach as yet unexplored. Results from experiments on the ICSI MRDA corpus demonstrate that lexico-syntactic features are most useful for this task, with turn-and pitch-related features providing complementary information in combination. In addition, experiments using reference parse trees on the broadcast conversation portion of the OntoNotes release 2.9 data set illustrate the potential of parse trees to outperform word lexical features.
Three years clinical experience with intestinal transplantation.

BACKGROUND After the successful evolution of hepatic transplantation during the last decade, small bowel and multivisceral transplantation remains the sole elusive achievement for the next era of transplant surgeons. Until recently, and for the last thirty years, the results of the sporadic attempts of intestinal transplantation worldwide were discouraging because of unsatisfactory graft and patient survival. The experimental and clinical demonstration of the superior therapeutic efficacy of FK 506, a new immunosuppressive drug, ushered in the current era of small bowel and multivisceral transplantation with initial promising results. STUDY DESIGN Forty-three consecutive patients with short bowel syndrome, intestinal insufficiency, or malignant tumors with or without associated liver disease, were given intestinal (n = 15), hepatic and intestinal (n = 21), or multivisceral allografts that contained four or more organs (n = 7). Treatment was with FK 506 based immunosuppression. The ascending and right transverse colon were included with the small intestine in 13 of the 43 grafts, almost evenly distributed between the three groups. RESULTS After six to 39 months, 30 of the 43 patients are alive, 29 bearing grafts. The most rapid convalescence and resumption of diet, as well as the highest three month patient survival (100 percent) and graft survival (88 percent) were with the isolated intestinal procedure. However, this advantage was slowly eroded during the first two postoperative years, in part because the isolated intestine was more prone to rejection. By the end of this time, the best survival rate (86 percent) was with the multivisceral procedure. With all three operations, most of the patients were able to resume diet and discontinue parenteral alimentation, and in the best instances, the quality of life approached normal. However, the surveillance and intensity of care required for these patients for the first year, and in most instances thereafter, was very high, being far more than required for patients having transplants of the liver, kidney or heart. CONCLUSIONS Although intestinal transplantation has gone through the feasibility phase, strategies will be required to increase its practicality. One possibility is to combine intestinal transplantation with contemporaneous autologous bone marrow transplantation.
New code parameters from Reed-Solomon subfield codes

We determine the dimensions of subfield codes of Reed-Solomon codes and construct certain extensions and lengthenings of these codes. We start from the duals, using the language of orthogonal arrays. As a first result this allows us to obtain a fair number of improvements in the list of binary, ternary, and quaternary linear codes with largest known minimal distance.
Solubility of Astaxanthin in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide and Extraction Efficiency of Astaxanthin Extraction from H. pluvialis

INTRODUCTION Astaxanthin is a type of carotenoids in form of ant ioxidant with about 500 times activity greater than vitamin E. A large amount of astaxanth in, around 0.5-5.0%, is available in H. pluvialis [1, 4]. Supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO 2) extraction has been reported to be effective for astaxanthin recovery with regar ding to clean technology and environmental friendly perspective as it operates a t rel tively low temperature, and the separation of carbon dioxide from the extract can b e carried out simply by depressurization [5]. A number of previously publis hed literatures concerning astaxanthin extraction from H. pluvialis by SC-CO2 are available [ 6, 7]. To make further development on the design of the extraction process , the information on astaxanthin solubility in SC-CO2 is necessary. Although there are a few reports on solubility of a staxanthin determination [8-9], inconsistencies among the solubility data were fo und. In this report, the solubility of astaxanthin in SC-CO 2 over the range of temperature and pressure of 40-80 °C and 20-40 MPa was examined. Several solubility models, i.e. the density based Chrastil’s model [10], the enhanced density based model [11] a nd the equation of state (EOS) model [12-16] were fitted to describe astaxanthin s olubility in SC-CO2 in the range of conditions employed.
Improving spatial localization in MEG inverse imaging by leveraging intersubject anatomical differences

Modern neuroimaging techniques enable non-invasive observation of ongoing neural processing, with magnetoencephalography (MEG) in particular providing direct measurement of neural activity with millisecond time resolution. However, accurately mapping measured MEG sensor readings onto the underlying source neural structures remains an active area of research. This so-called “inverse problem” is ill posed, and poses a challenge for source estimation that is often cited as a drawback limiting MEG data interpretation. However, anatomically constrained MEG localization estimates may be more accurate than commonly believed. Here we hypothesize that, by combining anatomically constrained inverse estimates across subjects, the spatial uncertainty of MEG source localization can be mitigated. Specifically, we argue that differences in subject brain geometry yield differences in point-spread functions, resulting in improved spatial localization across subjects. To test this, we use standard methods to combine subject anatomical MRI scans with coregistration information to obtain an accurate forward (physical) solution, modeling the MEG sensor data resulting from brain activity originating from different cortical locations. Using a linear minimum-norm inverse to localize this brain activity, we demonstrate that a substantial increase in the spatial accuracy of MEG source localization can result from combining data from subjects with differing brain geometry. This improvement may be enabled by an increase in the amount of available spatial information in MEG data as measurements from different subjects are combined. This approach becomes more important in the face of practical issues of coregistration errors and potential noise sources, where we observe even larger improvements in localization when combining data across subjects. Finally, we use a simple auditory N100(m) localization task to show how this effect can influence localization using a recorded neural dataset.
Worldwide incidence of hip fracture in elderly women: relation to consumption of animal and vegetable foods.

BACKGROUND Hip fracture, a major health problem in elderly persons, varies in incidence among the populations of different countries and is directly related to animal protein intake, a finding that suggests that bone integrity is compromised by endogenous acid production consequent to the metabolism of animal proteins. If that is so, vegetable foods might provide a countervailing effect, because they are a rich source of base (bicarbonate) in the form of metabolizable organic anions, which can neutralize protein-derived acid and supply substrate (carbonate) for bone formation. METHODS We analyzed reported hip fracture incidence (HFI) data among countries (N = 33) in women aged 50 years and older, in relation to corresponding country-specific data on per capita consumption of vegetable and animal foods as reported by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. RESULTS HFI varied directly with total (r = +.67, p < .001) and animal (r = +.82, p < .001) protein intake and inversely with vegetable protein intake (r = .37, p < .04). The countries in the lowest tertile of HFI (n = 11) had the lowest animal protein consumption, and invariably, vegetable protein (VP) consumption exceeded the country's corresponding intake of animal protein (AP): VP/AP > 1.0. By contrast, among the countries in the highest tertile of HFI, animal protein intake exceeded vegetable protein intake in nearly every case (10 of 11 countries). Among all countries, HFI correlated inversely and exponentially with the ratio of vegetable/animal protein intake (r = -.84, p < .001) and accounted for 70% of the total variation in HFI. Adjusted for total protein intake, vegetable food consumption was an independent negative predictor of HFI. All findings were similar for the subset of 23 countries whose populations are predominantly Caucasian. CONCLUSION The findings suggest that the critical determinant of hip fracture risk in relation to the acid-base effects of diet is the net load of acid in the diet, when the intake of both acid and base precursors is considered. Moderation of animal food consumption and an increased ratio of vegetable/animal food consumption may confer a protective effect.
Sweep and point and shoot: phonecam-based interactions for large public displays

This paper focuses on enabling interactions with large public displays using the most ubiquitous personal computing device, the mobile phone. Two new interaction techniques are introduced that use the embedded camera on mobile phones as an enabling technology. The "Point & Shoot" technique allows users to select objects using visual codes to set up an absolute coordinate system on the display surface instead of tagging individual objects on the screen. The "Sweep" technique enables users to use the phone like an optical mouse with multiple degrees of freedom and allows interaction without having to point the camera at the display. Prototypes of these interactions have been implemented and evaluated using modern mobile phone technologies. This proof of concept provides a performance baseline and gives valuable insights to guide future research and development. These techniques are intended to inspire and enable new classes of large public display applications.
Vasoactive intestinal peptide prevents activated microglia‐induced neurodegeneration under inflammatory conditions: potential therapeutic role in brain trauma

In most neurodegenerative disorders, including multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease, a massive neuronal cell death occurs as a consequence of an uncontrolled inflammatory response, where activated microglia and its cytotoxic agents play a crucial pathologic role. Because current treatments for these diseases are not effective, several regulatory molecules termed “microglia‐deactivating factors” recently have been the focus of considerable research. Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) is a neuropeptide with a potent anti‐inflammatory effect, which has been found to protect from other inflammatory disorders, such as endotoxic shock and rheumatoid arthritis. In the present study, we investigate the effect of VIP on inflammation‐mediated neurodegeneration in vitro and in vivo as well as on the putative neuroprotective effect of VIP on experimental pathological conditions in which central nervous system (CNS) inflammation is involved, such as brain trauma. The involvement of activated microglia and their derived cytotoxic products is also studied. VIP has a clear neuroprotective effect on inflammatory conditions by inhibiting the production of microglia‐derived proinflammatory factors (tumor necrosis factor α, interleukin‐1β, nitric oxide). In this sense, VIP prevents neuronal cell death following brain trauma by reducing the inflammatory response of neighboring microglia. Therefore, VIP emerges as a valuable neuroprotective agent for the treatment of pathologic conditions of the CNS where inflammation‐induced neurodegeneration occurs.
Induction chemotherapy followed by concomitant TFHX chemoradiotherapy with reduced dose radiation in advanced head and neck cancer.

PURPOSE Induction chemotherapy with carboplatin and paclitaxel followed by concomitant TFHX (paclitaxel, infusional 5-fluorouracil, hydroxyurea, and twice-daily radiation therapy administered every other week) has resulted in 70% 3-year survival in stage IV patients. Locoregional and distant control rates were 94 and 93%, respectively. In an attempt to decrease toxicity without compromising local control, a second cohort of patients was treated with a lower dose of radiation to sites of potential microscopic disease. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Sixty-four patients were entered on study. Patients received six weekly doses of carboplatin (area under the curve 2) and paclitaxel (135 mg/m2) followed by five cycles of TFHX. The radiation dose to gross disease was 75 Gy as in the previous trial. The radiation dose to high-risk microscopic disease was reduced from 60 to 54 Gy, and the dose to low-risk microscopic disease was reduced from 45 to 39 Gy. RESULTS Ninety-seven percent of patients had stage IV disease. The response rate to induction chemotherapy was 82% with a complete response rate of 42%. At the completion of therapy the clinical complete response rate rose to 100% with a median follow-up of 29 months. The actuarial 2 and 3-year survival was 77 and 70%, respectively. Five patients developed progressive disease for an overall 3-year progression-free survival of 90%. Two patients failed in locoregional sites alone, resulting in a 3-year locoregional control of 97%. The 3-year systemic control was 95%. Four patients were completely feeding tube dependent at the time of analysis. Only 1 of these patients had normal swallowing function before treatment. CONCLUSIONS In this second trial, induction chemotherapy with carboplatin and paclitaxel followed by TFHX chemoradiotherapy results in high survival and progression-free survival. The reduction in radiation dose did not compromise survival or disease control compared with our prior study using higher radiation doses. Data continues to support definitive evaluation of this approach.
A two-step strategy for the complementation of M. tuberculosis mutants

The sequence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, completed in 1998, facilitated both the development of genomic tools, and the creation of a number of mycobacterial mutants. These mutants have a wide range of phenotypes, from attenuated to hypervirulent strains. These phenotypes must be confirmed, to rule out possible secondary mutations that may arise during the generation of mutant strains. This may occur during the amplification of target genes or during the generation of the mutation, thus constructing a complementation strain, which expresses the wild-type copy of the gene in the mutant strain, becomes necessary. In this study we have introduced a two-step strategy to construct complementation strains using the Ag85 promoter. We have constitutively expressed dosR and have shown dosR expression is restored to wild-type level.
Craniofacial Tissue Engineering by Stem Cells

Craniofacial tissue engineering promises the regeneration or de novo formation of dental, oral, and craniofacial structures lost to congenital anomalies, trauma, and diseases. Virtually all craniofacial structures are derivatives of mesenchymal cells. Mesenchymal stem cells are the offspring of mesenchymal cells following asymmetrical division, and reside in various craniofacial structures in the adult. Cells with characteristics of adult stem cells have been isolated from the dental pulp, the deciduous tooth, and the periodontium. Several craniofacial structures—such as the mandibular condyle, calvarial bone, cranial suture, and subcutaneous adipose tissue—have been engineered from mesenchymal stem cells, growth factor, and/or gene therapy approaches. As a departure from the reliance of current clinical practice on durable materials such as amalgam, composites, and metallic alloys, biological therapies utilize mesenchymal stem cells, delivered or internally recruited, to generate craniofacial structures in temporary scaffolding biomaterials. Craniofacial tissue engineering is likely to be realized in the foreseeable future, and represents an opportunity that dentistry cannot afford to miss.
Phylogenetic Analysis of Hampala Fishes (Subfamily Cyprininae) in Malaysia Inferred from Partial Mitochondrial Cytochrome b DNA Sequences

Abstract This study examined 396 base pairs of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene from 110 individuals belonging to the genus Hampala, a group of freshwater cyprinids that inhabit Southeast Asia. The samples were taken from various locations throughout Sarawak, Sabah, and peninsular Malaysia. The nucleotide sequences were subjected to phylogenetic analyses by using the neighbor-joining, maximum parsimony, and maximum likelihood methods. All three methods revealed the reciprocally monophyletic relationship of Hampala macrolepidota to the other Hampala forms, thus strongly supporting its status as a distinct species. Phylogenetic analysis also discovered the existence of two H. bimaculata lineages endemic to Borneo: (1) a newly identified species from the southern and central part of Sarawak assigned as H. bimaculata Type A and (2) the previously described H. bimaculata from northern Sarawak and the west coast of Sabah assigned as H. bimaculata Type B. However, the status of H. sabana and an intermediate form were not elucidated. The results suggest that the intermediate form from the Tawau population is actually a subpopulation of H. sabana, while the highly divergent intermediate form from Kalabakan could represent a cryptic species. The sharing of H. macrolepidota haplotypes in the southern peninsular Malaysia and southern and central Sarawak samples (Hm1 and Hm2) reflected the recent disconnection of the two regions, during the late Pleistocene. Overall, the partial sequence of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene was useful for resolving the phylogenetic relationships among Hampala fishes in Malaysia.