Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Can the quality of high-risk violent prisoners' release plans predict recidivism following intensive rehabilitation? A comparison with risk assessment instruments

Abstract Even when motivated to desist from crime, many high-risk offenders fail quickly following release from prison. One cause may be a lack of preparation for release. Recent research with child-sex offenders has demonstrated that men who avoided reconvictions not only had better plans made for life on parole prior to their release, but plan quality also added significant incremental validity to the prediction of recidivism after controlling for both static and dynamic measures of risk. This study examined release planning in high-risk violent prisoners in an intensive cognitive-behavioural rehabilitation programme. We compared the predictive validity of plan quality with three well-validated risk assessment instruments. Men who were reconvicted had significantly higher scores on all three risk instruments and significantly poorer plans, but plan quality did not significantly improve prediction when risk was controlled. Plan quality was also significantly poorer in men who were reimprisoned, and did significantly improve prediction over and above each risk prediction instrument. Findings suggest that higher quality release plans may protect offenders from being quickly reimprisoned, despite high levels of assessed criminal risk, and that enhancing resources put into release planning may lead to improved parole outcomes.
Uplink analysis of large MU-MIMO systems with space-constrained arrays in Ricean fading

Closed-form approximations to the expected perterminal signal-to-interference-plus-noise-ratio (SINR) and ergodic sum spectral efficiency of a large multiuser multiple-input multiple-output system are presented. Our analysis assumes correlated Ricean fading with maximum ratio combining on the uplink, where the base station (BS) is equipped with a uniform linear array (ULA) with physical size restrictions. Unlike previous studies, our model caters for the presence of unequal correlation matrices and unequal Rice factors for each terminal. As the number of BS antennas grows without bound, with a finite number of terminals, we derive the limiting expected perterminal SINR and ergodic sum spectral efficiency of the system. Our findings suggest that with restrictions on the size of the ULA, the expected SINR saturates with increasing operating signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) and BS antennas. Whilst unequal correlation matrices result in higher performance, the presence of strong line-of-sight (LoS) has an opposite effect. Our analysis accommodates changes in system dimensions, SNR, LoS levels, spatial correlation levels and variations in fixed physical spacings of the BS array.
Telephone Intervention With Family Caregivers of Stroke Survivors After Rehabilitation

Background and Purpose— Social problem-solving therapy shows promise as an intervention to improve the well-being of family caregivers. There is some evidence that training in problem solving may be effectively delivered by telephone. The purpose of this study was to quantify the impact of social problem-solving telephone partnerships on primary family caregiver outcomes after stroke survivors are discharged home from a rehabilitation facility. Methods— Using a randomized 3-group repeated-measures experimental design, 74 stroke survivors with an admitting diagnosis of ischemic stroke and their primary family caregivers were entered into the study. The intervention consisted of an initial 3-hour home visit between a trained nurse and the family caregiver within 1 week after discharge to begin problem-solving skill training. This initial session was followed by weekly (the first month) and biweekly (the second and third month) telephone contacts. Results— Compared with the sham intervention and control groups, family caregivers who participated in the social problem-solving telephone partnership intervention group had better problem-solving skills; greater caregiver preparedness; less depression; and significant improvement in measures of vitality, social functioning, mental health, and role limitations related to emotional problems. There were no significant differences among the groups in caregiver burden. Satisfaction with healthcare services decreased over time in the control group while remaining comparable in the intervention and sham intervention groups. Conclusion— These results indicate that problem-solving training may be useful for family caregivers of stroke survivors after discharge from rehabilitative facilities.
FEBA: A Bandwidth Allocation Algorithm for Service Differentiation in IEEE 802.16 Mesh Networks

In wireless mesh networks, the end-to-end throughput of traffic flows depends on the path length, i.e., the higher the number of hops, the lower becomes the throughput. In this paper, a fair end-to-end bandwidth allocation (FEBA) algorithm is introduced to solve this problem. FEBA is implemented at the medium access control (MAC) layer of single-radio, multiple channels IEEE 802.16 mesh nodes, operated in a distributed coordinated scheduling mode. FEBA negotiates bandwidth among neighbors to assign a fair share proportional to a specified weight to each end-to-end traffic flow. This way traffic flows are served in a differentiated manner, with higher priority traffic flows being allocated more bandwidth on the average than the lower priority traffic flows. In fact, a node requests/grants bandwidth from/to its neighbors in a round-robin fashion where the amount of service depends on both the load on its different links and the priority of currently active traffic flows. If multiple channels are available, they are all shared evenly in order to increase the network capacity due to frequency reuse. The performance of FEBA is evaluated by extensive simulations. It is shown that wireless resources are shared fairly among best-effort traffic flows, while multimedia streams are provided with a differentiated service that enables quality of service.
NADPH oxidase-4 mediates protection against chronic load-induced stress in mouse hearts by enhancing angiogenesis

Cardiac failure occurs when the heart fails to adapt to chronic stresses. Reactive oxygen species (ROS)-dependent signaling is implicated in cardiac stress responses, but the role of different ROS sources remains unclear. Here we report that NADPH oxidase-4 (Nox4) facilitates cardiac adaptation to chronic stress. Unlike other Nox proteins, Nox4 activity is regulated mainly by its expression level, which increases in cardiomyocytes under stresses such as pressure overload or hypoxia. To investigate the functional role of Nox4 during the cardiac response to stress, we generated mice with a genetic deletion of Nox4 or a cardiomyocyte-targeted overexpression of Nox4. Basal cardiac function was normal in both models, but Nox4-null animals developed exaggerated contractile dysfunction, hypertrophy, and cardiac dilatation during exposure to chronic overload whereas Nox4-transgenic mice were protected. Investigation of mechanisms underlying this protective effect revealed a significant Nox4-dependent preservation of myocardial capillary density after pressure overload. Nox4 enhanced stress-induced activation of cardiomyocyte hypoxia inducible factor 1 and the release of vascular endothelial growth factor, resulting in increased paracrine angiogenic activity. These data indicate that cardiomyocyte Nox4 is a unique inducible regulator of myocardial angiogenesis, a key determinant of cardiac adaptation to overload stress. Our results also have wider relevance to the use of nonspecific antioxidant approaches in cardiac disease and may provide an explanation for the failure of such strategies in many settings.
Geometric integrators for ODEs

Geometric integration is the numerical integration of a differential equation, while preserving one or more of its 'geometric' properties exactly, i.e. to within round-off error. Many of these geometric properties are of crucial importance in physical applications: preservation of energy, momentum, angular momentum, phase-space volume, symmetries, time-reversal symmetry, symplectic structure and dissipation are examples. In this paper we present a survey of geometric numerical integration methods for ordinary differential equations. Our aim has been to make the review of use for both the novice and the more experienced practitioner interested in the new developments and directions of the past decade. To this end, the reader who is interested in reading up on detailed technicalities will be provided with numerous signposts to the relevant literature.
Parallel Local Search Algorithms

In general, neural networks are regarded as models for massively parallel computation. But very often, this parallelism is rather limited, especially when considering symmetric networks. For instance, Hoppeld networks do not really compute in parallel as their updating algorithm always requires sequential execution. We describe a recurrent network corresponding to a symmetric network and introduce a method of parallel updating multiple units. We show how this may be extended to Boltzmann machines with continuous activation functions, and point out possible applications of this architecture, e.g. local hill-climbing algorithms to solve the satissability problem. In terms of SAT-algorithms, we present an approach which allows the simultaneous change of truth value assignments for more than one propositional variable at a time, such that the theoretical properties of the considered algorithms are preserved, and give experimental evidence that this algorithm is indeed faster than the respective sequential variants.
Personal-Level Representation

: The current orthodoxy on mental representation can be characterized in terms of three central ideas. The first is ontological, the second semantic, and the third methodological. After elucidating those, I argue that the emerging picture of mental representation is satisfactory only as an account of mental representation at the sub-personal level. It is unsatisfactory, in a principled way, as an account of mental representation at the personal level.
Creating Neighborhood Typologies of GIS-Based Data in the Absence of Neighborhood-Based Sampling: A Factor and Cluster Analytic Strategy

This article describes an innovative means of identifying a neighborhood typology that can be used for analyses of individual-level data that were not obtained through neighborhood-based sampling. A two-step approach was employed. First, exploratory factor analysis was used to reduce the number of neighborhood indicators to five clear factors of neighborhood characteristics. Second, a cluster analytic procedure was used to identify neighborhood types based on the five factors. These analyses resulted in a parsimonious solution of five distinct neighborhood clusters, or types, that constituted a manageable number of categories that could be used for future analyses of individuals grouped within neighborhood types. This method is a promising way to conduct neighborhood impact analyses that maximize the ability of researchers to characterize neighborhoods accurately (without sampling at the neighborhood level) while retaining the ability to conduct analyses of participants grouped within types of neighborhoods.
Assessing Oral Proficiency: A Comparison of Holistic and Objective Measures.

This study examines the relationship between holistic judgments of oral proficiency and objective measures of syntactic matuTIty in the Oral Proficiency Interviews (OPIs) of 107 students of English as a foreign language (EFL) in Tianjin, China. The analysis compares a holistic rating of proficiency level (Intermediate, Advanced, and SupeTIor) with objective measures (Mean T-Unit Length, Mean Error-Free T-Unit Length, and Percent of Error-Free T-Units) for three separate interview tasks (DescTIbing/Narrating, Role Playing, and Asking Questions). Results of the repeated measures MultivaTIate Analyses of VaTIance (MAN-OVAs) indicate significant main effects for proficiency level and interview task.
Examining the temporal relationship between depression and obesity: meta-analyses of prospective research

Abstract Cross-sectional research has linked depression with obesity, leading to prospective assessments of the two variables. We conducted two meta-analyses aimed at (1) clarifying the temporal sequence of obesity and depression development; and (2) identifying moderator variables. Meta-analysis 1 involved studies assessing depression as a risk factor for weight gain, and included 26 effect sizes, based on the responses of 31,189 individuals. The weighted average correlation between depression and weight gain was small, but statistically significant (r=0.08). Moderator analyses showed more substantial effect sizes for females (r=0.12) and for studies that used as their dependent variable becoming obese (r=0.17). Meta-analysis 2 involved studies assessing elevated weight as a risk factor for depression, and included 13 effect sizes (15 for moderator analyses) based on the responses of 24,120 participants. The weighted average correlation between baseline overweight/obesity and increased depression at follow-up was also small (r=0.05), but significant. No significant moderators were found. The findings are consistent with a bi-directional model of depression and obesity, with small effect sizes.
GMF is an evolutionarily developed Adf/cofilin‐super family protein involved in the Arp2/3 complex‐mediated organization of the actin cytoskeleton

Actin‐depolymerizing factor (ADF)/cofilin is widely expressed in eukaryotes and plays a central role in reorganizing the actin cytoskeleton by disassembling actin filaments. The ADF‐homologous domain (ADF‐H) is conserved in several other actin‐modulating proteins such as twinfilin, Abp1/drebrin, and coactosin. Although these proteins interact with actin via ADF‐H, their effects on actin are not identical to each other. Here, we report a novel ADF/cofilin‐super family protein, Gmf1 (Glia maturation factor‐like protein 1), from the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Gmf1 is a component of actin patches, which are located on the cell cortex and required for endocytosis, and may be involved in the control of the disassembly of actin patches since its overexpression diminishes them. We provide evidence that Gmf1 binds weakly if at all to actin, but it associates with actin‐related protein (Arp) 2/3 complex and suppresses its functions such as the promotion of actin polymerization and branching filaments. Importantly, Arp2/3 complex‐suppressing activity is conserved among GMF‐family proteins from other organisms. Given the functional plasticity of ADF‐H, GMF‐family proteins possibly have changed their target from conventional actin to Arps through molecular evolution. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Gendering late-life depression? The coping process in a group of elderly men

The increase in suicide rates in older men poses a serious challenge in terms of better detection and diagnosis of depression, as the increase could suggest that there are a number of aging, depressive men who are not diagnosed and therefore remain untreated for their depression. This study is an interview study with 8 elderly men (between 66 and 85 years of age) diagnosed with depression in late-life. It examines how the men discuss, perceive and act in relation to stressful situations in late life, and how their perception may influence the coping process and the presentation of depressive symptoms. It was found that the men only used two types of coping strategies: Restoration strategies and Palliative strategies. The coping strategies used were mainly aimed at continuing life as it was before (or trying hard and working hard to maintain that illusion) and to avoid, divert or distract from the stress, but not to solve the underlying problems. The men did not use any active resignation strategies, which are strategies for normalizing the situation after a stressful situation, and bring in an acceptance of limitations or changes in life circumstances.The exclusive use of restorative and palliative strategies in the stressful situations leads to poorer psychological adjustment than when active resignation strategies are included in the repertoire. These findings suggest that focusing on the male coping process to stressful situations in late life may offer new perspectives with regard to early detection of depression and offer a new understanding of the complex symptoms representation and incongruent depressive behaviours in elderly males.
Creatinine-based GFR predicting equations in renal transplantation: reassessing the tubular secretion effect.

BACKGROUND The real utility of blocking the tubular secretion of creatinine with cimetidine in order to ameliorate the prediction of renal graft function is questionable, particularly in the context of an increasing diffusion of the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) study equation. We have compared the impact of cimetidine on the performances of the Cockcroft-Gault (C-G) and MDRD equations in 56 renal transplant patients with an estimated glomerular filter rate (GFR) >30 mL/min/1.73 m(2) for whom true GFR was directly measured by inulin clearance. METHODS Serum creatinine concentration (SCr) was measured [isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS) traceable enzymatic assay] at the beginning of the inulin clearance procedure and 2 days later, after three oral cimetidine doses of 800 mg every 12 h. Predictive and diagnostic performances of the re-expressed MDRD and C-G formulas were compared before and after cimetidine intake. RESULTS Mean SCr (+/-SD) increased from 120 micromol/L (+/-34) before to 154 micromol/L (+/-47) after cimetidine. The beneficial effect of cimetidine was significant only on the accuracy of the C-G formula (accuracy 30% post-cimetidine of 93 and 79% for the C-G and MDRD equations, respectively). Likewise, while a higher proportion of patients were correctly staged using the chronic kidney disease classification after cimetidine with the C-G equation (59% before and 68% after), no improvement was seen with the MDRD formula (59 vs 57%). For both equations, receiver operating characteristic curves analysis showed only a marginal gain in GFR prediction. CONCLUSION Our data do not support the use of a cimetidine-based strategy for the evaluation of renal graft function in the clinic, particularly when the GFR is estimated by the MDRD equation.
Serotonin reuptake inhibitors are associated with reduced severity of ictal hypoxemia in medically refractory partial epilepsy

Ictal respiratory dysfunction occurs in patients with epilepsy and may contribute to sudden unexplained death in epilepsy (SUDEP). Fluoxetine reverses respiratory arrest in a mouse model of epilepsy, suggesting that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) may reduce ictal respiratory dysfunction. Video–electroencephalography (EEG) and pulse oximetry data from 496 seizures in 73 consecutive patients with partial epilepsy was reviewed, including 87 seizures in 16 patients taking SSRIs (SSRI+) and 409 seizures in 57 patients not taking SSRIs (SSRI−). The proportion of ictal‐related oxygen desaturation <85% with partial seizures without secondary convulsions in SSRI+ patients was reduced relative to SSRI− patients (p = 0.011). There was no statistically significant difference in ictal oxygen desaturation for secondarily generalized convulsions. SSRIs are associated with reduced likelihood of ictal oxygen desaturation in patients with partial seizures.
EEG quantification of alertness: methods for early identification of individuals most susceptible to sleep deprivation

Electroencephalographic (EEG) and neurocognitive measures were simultaneously acquired to quantify alertness from 24 participants during 44-hours of sleep deprivation. Performance on a three-choice vigilance task (3C-VT), paired-associate learning/memory task (PAL) and modified Maintenance of Wakefulness Test (MWT), and sleep technician-observed drowsiness (eye-closures, head-nods, EEG slowing) were quantified. The B-Alert system automatically classifies each second of EEG on an alertness/drowsiness continuum. B-Alert classifications were significantly correlated with technician-observations, visually scored EEG and performance measures. B-Alert classifications during 3C-VT, and technician observations and performance during the 3C-VT and PAL evidenced progressively increasing drowsiness as a result of sleep deprivation with a stabilizing effect observed at the batteries occurring between 0600 and 1100 suggesting a possible circadian effect similar to those reported in previous sleep deprivation studies. Participants were given an opportunity to take a 40-minute nap approximately 24-hours into the sleep deprivation portion of the study (i.e., 7 PM on Saturday). The nap was followed by a transient period of increased alertness. Approximately 8 hours after the nap, behavioral and physiological measures of drowsiness returned to levels prior to the nap. Cluster analysis was used to stratify individuals into three groups based on their level of impairment as a result of sleep deprivation. The combination of B-Alert and neuro-behavioral measures may identify individuals whose performance is most susceptible to sleep deprivation. These objective measures could be applied in an operational setting to provide a “biobehavioral assay” to determine vulnerability to sleep deprivation.
Frightening or enlightening? An appraisal of the functions of the military metaphor in the AIDS context

CITATION: Biberauer, T. 1996. Frightening or englightening? An appraisal of the functions of the military metaphor in the AIDS context. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus, 29:130-143, doi:10.5842/29-0-102.
The effects of management education on careers and compensation

Purpose – This study aims to explore how the amount and the nature of learning accrued during an MBA – measured in terms of competency development – impact on career advancement and compensation.Design/methodology/approach – Applying nonparametric statistical analysis on data from behavioral event interviews and survey questionnaires to a sample of 44 Italian MBA graduates, the study investigates: the type and extent of competency development during the MBA programme and the relationship between this competency development and post‐MBA career and compensation.Findings – The findings support the hypothesis that the degree of competency development during the MBA programme enhances career advancement, and that some competencies, like planning, result orientation, networking, organizational awareness, system thinking and use of technology, do so particularly, which is consistent with literature on career competencies. No relationship is found, instead, between competency development during the MBA and compen.
Three-dimensional reconstruction of a comet nucleus by optimal control of Maxwell's equations: A contribution to the experiment CONSERT onboard space craft Rosetta

COmet Nucleus Sounding Experiment by Radio Wave Transmission (CONSERT) is one of 20 experiments onboard the ESA mission Rosetta and aimed at the reconstruction of the unknown internal material parameter distribution of a comet nucleus. The details on the experiment setup can be found in [1], [2]. CONSERT consists of a lander module which attaches to the surface of the comet and an orbiter module which circulates the comet in space. An electromagnetic sounding of the comet nucleus will be achieved by a signal link between the lander and orbiter antenna system. We propose an optimal control approach to solve for the unknown 3D material parameter distribution of the comet nucleus. We optimize the computed electromagnetic field distribution at the receiver locations for the measured (observed) electromagnetic field distribution by controlling the material parameters. The target functional, the difference between computed and observed field for all receiver locations and time steps is minimized by means of a gradient-based quasi-Newton optimization algorithm. The optimal control problem is solved if the target functional yields its global minimum.