Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The influence of verbal training and visual feedback on manual wheelchair propulsion

Purpose. To determine if verbal training with visual feedback improved manual wheelchair propulsion; to examine propulsion differences between an individual with paraplegia and an individual with tetraplegia. Method. Quasi-experimental study: Nine manual wheelchair-using adults participated in propulsion assessments and training. Baseline propulsion performance was measured on several tasks on different surfaces. Participants were trained on a wheelchair treadmill with verbal and visual feedback to increase push length, reduce push frequency and to modify propulsion pattern. Handrim biomechanics were measured with an instrumented wheel. Changes in propulsion were assessed. Differences in propulsion characteristics between a participant with paraplegia and a participant with tetraplegia were examined. Results. Push length increased (p < 0.05), push frequency decreased (p < 0.01) and peak (p < 0.05) and average (p < 0.01) forces increased immediately after training. These changes were not sustained over time. Graphic representations showed differences in propulsion characteristics between a participant with paraplegia and a participant with tetraplegia. Conclusions. Verbal training may produce changes in push biomechanics of manual wheelchair users. Longer training periods may be needed to sustain propulsion changes. Findings from this study support other studies that have shown propulsion differences between people with tetraplegia and paraplegia. Propulsion training for populations with upper-extremity impairments warrants further study.
Unfunded Mandates and Fiscal Structure: Empirical Evidence from a Synthetic Control Model

An unfunded expenditure mandate occurs when a local government must provide a good or service by dictate of a higher level of government without an accompanying revenue source to fully finance it. This paper is the first to provide empirical evidence on the influence of local unfunded mandates by studying Florida’s 1990 constitutional Amendment 3, which sought to limit this power of the state. A synthetic control model is employed to derive the causal effects of the mandate limit on total state expenditures and state transfers to local governments. The results indicate that the additional barriers to imposing local mandates resulted in substantive changes to the fiscal structure of the state. First, state expenditures increased by an annual average of 9.5%. Second, while total state transfers to local governments are not altered, the mandate restrictions did impact which governments received transfers. Namely, the general purpose local governments protected by Amendment 3 saw 10% decreases in intergovernmental revenue from the state. The inference is that the mandate limit caused the state to take on new programs and spending that would otherwise have been shifted to the general purpose governments, and that remaining mandates were more likely to be directed at special districts.
Step count targets corresponding to new physical activity guidelines for the early years.

PURPOSE New physical activity guidelines recommend that children age 3–4 yr should accumulate at least 180 min of physical activity at any intensity spread throughout the day, including progression toward at least 60 min of energetic play by 5 yr of age. Step count targets corresponding to these recommendations will help practitioners and researchers monitor physical activity. METHODS One hundred thirty-three preschoolers were instructed to wear accelerometers for seven consecutive days. Activity and step count data were recorded in 3-s epochs. Step count targets equivalent to physical activity recommendations were derived using prediction equations from regression analyses. Receiver operating curve analyses were conducted to compare the sensitivity and specificity of the derived thresholds as well as a range of other targets. RESULTS The daily step count target derived for 180 min of physical activity of any intensity was 6013 +/- 88, whereas the target for 180 min of physical activity of any intensity including at least 60 min of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity was 6191 +/- 103. The smallest discrepancy between days meeting physical activity guidelines and step count targets was found with a 6000-step-per-day target. Receiver operating curves confirmed a balanced sensitivity and specificity of this target. CONCLUSIONS On the basis of our data, we suggest that a new step count target of 6000 steps per day should be used to determine whether 3- to 5-yr-old children are meeting physical activity recommendations.
Prognostic and predictive value of c-erbB2 overexpression in osteogenic sarcoma.

BACKGROUND Osteogenic sarcoma (OS) is a highly malignant tumor of the bone. There are few reports in the literature regarding determination of c-erb B-2 (HER-2/neu) expression in cases of OS and also the results are quite variable. AIM The present study was undertaken to correlate the expression of c-erbB2 with the survival of patients of OS. SETTINGS AND DESIGN A retrospective study of cases of OS, in which the expression of c-erbB-2 by immunohistochemistry (IHC) was studied and correlated with the survival rate of the patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS Out of a total of 49 cases, proper follow up data in the form of total and disease free survival was available in only 20 cases. IHC for c-erb-B2 was carried out in these 20 cases. RESULTS The staining pattern was as follows: no staining in 3 cases, 1 + in 5 cases, 2 + in 3 cases, 3 + in 3 cases and 4 + cytoplasmic positivity in 6 cases. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS Spearman rank correlation test was used to correlate the intensity of cytoplasmic staining of c-erbB-2 with survival rate of the patients, response to chemotherapy and metastasis. CONCLUSIONS Previous studies have shown that c-erbB-2/HER-2 is an independent prognostic factor in osteogenic sarcoma, but in the present study, its expression was not seen to be correlating with survival rate of the patients. Therefore, further studies are needed to reach a consensus regarding the reliability of c-erbB-2 as an independent prognostic factor in OS.
Alcohol use and mental health in adolescents: interactions with age and gender-findings from the Dutch 2001 Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children survey.

OBJECTIVE This study examines the association between alcohol use and mental health in adolescence, specifically the interaction with age and gender. METHOD Data were derived from the 2001 Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) survey--a repeated cross-sectional study with a total of 5,730 students aged 12-16 years, carried out as part of the World Health Organization cross-national HBSC Project. A two-stage random sampling procedure was used. Written questionnaires were administered in classroom settings. These contained questions about alcohol and other drug use as well as sociodemographic and behavioral variables. In addition, the Youth Self-Report was used to assess mental health. RESULTS Weekly alcohol use among adolescents is related to less withdrawn behavior and more delinquent, aggressive behavior. Significant interactions between weekly alcohol use and age were found on both externalizing and internalizing problems, indicating a stronger association between weekly alcohol use and problems among younger adolescents. No interactions with gender were found. CONCLUSIONS Particularly at a young age, the weekly use of alcohol is associated with mental health problems. Regular alcohol use should alert parents and professionals that these adolescents might experience problems in other areas.
A structural model to assess international visitors' perceptions about local foods in Tanzania

ABSTRACT Interest in the use of local food in tourism and hospitality is growing in both industry and academic circles. Most research on local food has focused on its potential to enhance local community development, while relatively little research has examined the way tourists perceive local foods in developing countries. This study applies image theory to evaluate perceptions of international tourists regarding local foods in Tanzania. Data were collected between June and August, 2014 using a survey method. The study population consisted of 520 international tourists departing from Kilimanjaro International Airport. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) with EQS 6.2. The results demonstrated that cognitive/perceptual and affective evaluations are two interdependent psychological constructs which, taken together, play a key role in understanding individuals’ overall perception about local foods. The cognitive/perceptual evaluations formed by individuals as a result of accumulated knowledge and beliefs about local foods influence the way individuals perceive local foods. Likewise, the affective evaluations (feelings) about local foods significantly influenced individuals’ overall perceptions about local foods. The results also show that many hotels where tourists stayed did not provide sufficient varieties of, or information about, local foods. Recommendations arising from the research relating to food policy and regulation are presented.
Measurement of Longitudinal β-Amyloid Change with 18F-Florbetapir PET and Standardized Uptake Value Ratios

The accurate measurement of β-amyloid (Aβ) change using amyloid PET imaging is important for Alzheimer disease research and clinical trials but poses several unique challenges. In particular, reference region measurement instability may lead to spurious changes in cortical regions of interest. To optimize our ability to measure 18F-florbetapir longitudinal change, we evaluated several candidate regions of interest and their influence on cortical florbetapir change over a 2-y period in participants from the Alzheimer Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). Methods: We examined the agreement in cortical florbetapir change detected using 6 candidate reference regions (cerebellar gray matter, whole cerebellum, brain stem/pons, eroded subcortical white matter [WM], and 2 additional combinations of these regions) in 520 ADNI subjects. We used concurrent cerebrospinal fluid Aβ1–42 measurements to identify subgroups of ADNI subjects expected to remain stable over follow-up (stable Aβ group; n = 14) and subjects expected to increase (increasing Aβ group; n = 91). We then evaluated reference regions according to whether cortical change was minimal in the stable Aβ group and cortical retention increased in the increasing Aβ group. Results: There was poor agreement across reference regions in the amount of cortical change observed across all 520 ADNI subjects. Within the stable Aβ group, however, cortical florbetapir change was 1%–2% across all reference regions, indicating high consistency. In the increasing Aβ group, cortical increases were significant with all reference regions. Reference regions containing WM (as opposed to cerebellum or pons) enabled detection of cortical change that was more physiologically plausible and more likely to increase over time. Conclusion: Reference region selection has an important influence on the detection of florbetapir change. Compared with cerebellum or pons alone, reference regions that included subcortical WM resulted in change measurements that are more accurate. In addition, because use of WM-containing reference regions involves dividing out cortical signal contained in the reference region (via partial-volume effects), use of these WM-containing regions may result in more conservative estimates of actual change. Future analyses using different tracers, tracer–kinetic models, pipelines, and comparisons with other biomarkers will further optimize our ability to accurately measure Aβ changes over time.
Design and Fabrication of Biodegradable Polymer Devices to Engineer Tubular Tissues

Engineering new tissues by transplanting cells on polymeric delivery devices is one approach to alleviate the vast shortage of donor tissue. However, it will be necessary to fabricate cell delivery devices that deliver cells to a given location and promote the formation of specific tissue structures from the transplanted cells and the host tissue. This report describes the design and fabrication of a polymeric device for guiding the development of tubular vascularized tissues, which may be useful for engineering a variety of tissues including intestine, blood vessels, tracheas, and ureters. Porous films of poly (d, l-lactic-co-glycolic acid) have been formed and fabricated into tubes capable of resisting compressional forces in vitro and in vivo. These devices promote the ingrowth of fibrovascular tissue following implantation into recipient animals, resulting in a vascularized, tubular tissue. To investigate the utility of these devices as cell delivery devices, enterocytes (intestinal epithelial cells) were seeded onto the devices in vitro. Enterocytes were found to attach to these devices and form an organized epithelial cell layer. These results suggest that these devices may be an appropriate delivery vehicle for transplanting cells and engineering new tubular tissues.
Decision Making Under Information Asymmetry: Experimental Evidence on Belief Refinements

We explore how individuals make decisions in an operations management setting when there is information asymmetry between the firm and an outside investor. A common assumption in the signaling game literature is that beliefs among the participants in the game are refined using the Intuitive Criterion refinement. Our experimental results provide evidence that the predictive power of this refinement is quite low, and that the Undefeated refinement better captures actual choice behavior. This is surprising because the Intuitive Criterion refinement is the most commonly utilized belief refinement in the literature while the Undefeated refinement is rarely employed. Our results have material implications for both research and practice because the Undefeated and Intuitive Criterion refinements often produce divergent predictions. Our results demonstrate that conformance to the Undefeated and Intuitive Criterion refinements is influenced by changes in the underlying newsvendor model parameters. We also show that adherence to the Undefeated refinement is especially pronounced among subjects who report a high level of understanding of the game and that subjects whose choices conformed with the predictions of the Undefeated refinement were rewarded by investors with higher payoffs in the game. Finally, we demonstrate, through a reexamination of Cachon and Lariviere (2001), how the application of the Undefeated refinement can substantively extend the implications of extant signaling game theory in the operations management literature. ∗The Johnson School, Cornell University, Sage Hall, Ithaca NY 14853. E-mail: wschmidt@cornell.edu. †Harvard Business School, Soldiers Field Park, Boston MA 02163. E-mail: rbuell@hbs.edu.
The Portuguese-Canadian Coalition for Better Education A decade of community activism in education (1995-2005)

Executive summary: After a decade of activism, from 1995 till the end of 2004, the Portuguese-Canadian Coalition for Better Education folded as a lobbying group. The Coalition was a grouping of initially about sixty volunteers, individual activists, as well as representing different associations, all of whom with an interest in education - namely bettering the academic achievement of Portuguese-Canadian students. The purpose of this document is to explain the work of the Coalition based on the files left behind by the volunteers, now housed at the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, located in the Scott Library, Keele Campus,York University. Preceded by the Toronto Portuguese Parents Association in Liaison with the Toronto Board of Education (TBE), the Coalition came to being as a result of the 1991 The Every Secondary Student Survey, and a petition to the Ontario Ministry of Education calling for action to address deficiencies in the teaching of Toronto’s Portuguese-Canadian students. A meeting with Minister of Education David Cooke in April 1995 initiated a collaboration - between the Coalition and the two school boards in Toronto with the highest numbers of Portuguese-Canadian students - in face-to-face meetings of the Work/ Advisory Group, and later through the Tutoring Project. The issues discussed among the Coalition membership and with the two school boards were: Academic underachievement (Best Practices & tutoring projects), the placement of students in special education services, standard testing in inner-city schools; International Languages, parental involvement in the school system, School Community Advisors (SCAs); making available to the community statistical data on income, educational achievement, and special education; the onset of June Portuguese Month in Catholic and Public schools. The struggle to initiate and keep educational TV programs (ABC Show - CFMT), and the campaign to maintain the Portuguese Lectureship at the University of Toronto, were two other aspects of the Coalitions’ lobbying work, beyond the school system. The crowning achievement and legacy of the Coalition’s work was the Tutoring Program. It was started in 2001 and has been sustained until present by the Working Women Community Centre (WWCC) under the name On Your Mark. It assists 300 students in 53 schools.
Living longer, working longer? The impact of subjective life expectancy on retirement intentions and behaviour.

BACKGROUND Virtually all Western countries are seeking to bring retirement ages more in line with increases in longevity. The central question in this article is whether individuals choose a retirement age that fits their life expectancy. This would be ideal from a public policy perspective. The present study aims to test empirically whether retirement planning varies with expectations of survival among a sample of older employees in the Netherlands. Two questions are addressed: (i) what are older employees' expectations of their remaining lifetime, and what factors influence this subjective life expectancy? (ii) Are individuals who perceive longer life horizons (high subjective life expectancy) more inclined to retire later than people who expect to live shorter? METHODS Using data from a panel study on retirement behaviour in the Netherlands (N = 1621 older employees aged 50-60 years), regression and survival models are estimated to examine the effect of subjective life expectancy on retirement planning and behaviour. RESULTS The results indicate that subjective life expectancy is a factor that is taken into account in retirement decision making, at least as far as retirement intentions are concerned. Older employees with longer time horizons have a preference for later retirement. When it comes to actual behaviour, however, time horizon does not appear to play a role. CONCLUSION The results suggest that particularly employees with a high perceived life expectancy and an intention to work longer do not succeed in carrying their intentions into effect.
A buck/boost based Multilevel inverter topology for UPEC2012 conference proceeding

This paper is to present a new model of multilevel DC to AC inverter. The Multilevel inverter topology is based on buck/boost converter circuit. The output voltage of the inverter is shaped by selecting the appropriate duty cycle of the buck/boost switching pattern. This new topology offers almost step-less output voltage without the need for multi DC sources or several capacitor banks.
Interaction between virtual scene based on Kinect and Unity3D

In order to study the Kinect and Unity3D combined with the deeper application, based on the use of Kinect to identify the body and made a new attempt for the binding of Unity3D. Using Kinect to get the dynamic behavior in the scene of the human body, to achieve control of the Unity object in the scene. Build the virtual scene in Unity3D platform. The test shows that the use of Kinect for human behavior recognition and fast response, high accuracy. Otherwise, the use of Unity3D as a platform of virtual scene is fast and convenient, the combination is very suitable for the target system in various industries.
Dread and Risk Elimination Premium for the Value of a Statistical Life

The value of a statistical life (VSL) is a widely used measure for the value of mortality risk reduction. As VSL should reflect preferences and attitudes to risk, there are reasons to believe that it varies depending on the type of risk involved. It has been argued that cancer should be considered a “dread disease,” which supports the use of a “cancer premium. ” The objective of this study is to investigate the existence of a cancer premium (for pancreatic cancer and multiple myeloma) in relation to road traffic accidents, sudden cardiac arrest, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Data were collected from 500 individuals in the Swedish general population of 50–74‐year olds using a web‐based questionnaire. Preferences were elicited using the contingent valuation method, and a split‐sample design was applied to test scale sensitivity. VSL differs significantly between contexts, being highest for ALS and lowest for road traffic accidents. A premium (92–113%) for cancer was found in relation to road traffic accidents. The premium was higher for cancer with a shorter time from diagnosis to death. A premium was also found for sudden cardiac arrest (73%) and ALS (118%) in relation to road traffic accidents. Eliminating risk was associated with a premium of around 20%. This study provides additional evidence that there exist a dread premium and risk elimination premium. These factors should be considered when searching for an appropriate value for economic evaluation and health technology assessment.
Depletion of CD4+CD25+ Regulatory Cells Augments the Generation of Specific Immune T Cells in Tumor-Draining Lymph Nodes

Recent studies have identified a unique population of CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells that is crucial for the prevention of spontaneous autoimmune diseases. Further studies demonstrated that depletion of CD4+CD25+ T cells enhances immune responses to nonself antigens. Because immune responses to malignant tumors are weak and ineffective, depletion of regulatory T cells has been reported to result in tumor regression. In the current study, using the weakly immunogenic MCA205 sarcoma and the poorly immunogenic B16/BL6/D5 (D5) melanoma, depletion of CD4+CD25+ T cells by the administration of anti-CD25 monoclonal antibodies (mAb), PC61 induced some tumor growth retardation, but all mice eventually succumbed to tumors. In our laboratory, immunotherapy by the transfer of tumor-immune T cells has demonstrated potent antitumor effects. A reliable source of tumor-reactive T cells has been lymph nodes (LN) draining progressive tumors. Therapeutic effector T cells can be generated by in vitro activation of draining LN cells with anti-CD3 mAb followed by culture in interleukin-2. In this system, PC61 mAb depletion of CD4+CD25+ T cells before or on day 8 of tumor growth resulted in increased sensitization in the draining LN. The therapeutic efficacy of activated tumor-draining LN cells from mAb depleted mice increased approximately three fold while maintaining specificity when tested in adoptive immunotherapy of established pulmonary metastases. Specific interferon-gamma secretion by LN T cells from mice treated with PC61 mAb 1 day before tumor inoculation increased significantly. However, this increase was not demonstrated with LN T cells from mice treated on day 8 despite their enhanced therapeutic reactivities. Our results indicate that although the antitumor immunity enhanced by the depletion of CD4+CD25+ T cells is insufficient to eradicate tumors, it augments the sensitization of immune T cells in the draining LN, thus, facilitating adoptive immunotherapy.