Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Altered Recruitment of the Attention Network Is Associated with Disability and Cognitive Impairment in Pediatric Patients with Acquired Brain Injury

We assessed abnormalities of brain functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activity during a sustained attention task (Conners' Continuous Performance Test (CCPT)) in 20 right-handed pediatric acquired brain injury (ABI) patients versus 7 right-handed age-matched healthy controls, and we estimated the correlation of such abnormalities with clinical and cognitive deficits. Patients underwent the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, and Functional Independence Measure (FIM) evaluations. During fMRI, patients and controls activated regions of the attention network. Compared to controls, ABI patients experienced a decreased average fMRI recruitment of the left cerebellum and a decreased deactivation of the left anterior cingulate cortex. With increasing task demand, compared to controls, ABI patients had an impaired ability to increase the recruitment of several posterior regions of the attention network. They also experienced a greater activation of frontal regions, which was correlated with worse performance on FIM, WISC, and fMRI CCPT. Such abnormal brain recruitment was significantly influenced by the type of lesion (focal versus diffuse axonal injury) and time elapsed from the event. Pediatric ABI patients experienced an inability to optimize attention network recruitment, especially when task difficulty was increased, which likely contributes to their clinical and cognitive deficits.
Recent Advances in Antiviral Therapy for Chronic Hepatitis C

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major worldwide health problem. Chronic infection induces continuous inflammation in the liver, progression of hepatic fibrosis, eventual cirrhosis, and possible hepatocellular carcinoma. Eradication of the virus is one of the most important treatment aims. A number of promising new direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) have been developed over the past 10 years. Due to their increased efficacy, safety, and tolerability, interferon-free oral therapies with DAAs have been approved for patients with HCV, including those with cirrhosis. This review introduces the characteristics and results of recent clinical trials of several DAAs: NS3/4A protease inhibitors, NS5A inhibitors, and NS5B inhibitors. DAA treatment failure and prognosis after DAA therapy are also discussed.
A girl with type 1 diabetes and a yellowish appearance

Type 1 diabetes mellitus in children has been associated with other autoimmune diseases, especially coeliac disease and autoimmune thyroiditis. This association may be the result of a common pathogenic background. We describe the case of a girl with type 1 diabetes mellitus who developed icterus due to autoimmune hepatitis, a disease rarely found in children. Thyroiditis-associated and diabetes-associated autoantibodies were also present. Human leucocyte antigen typing revealed DRB1*03 heterozygosity, which has been associated with the occurrence of both autoimmune hepatitis and type 1 diabetes. This finding implies that similar pathogenic pathways may be involved in different autoimmune diseases including type 1 diabetes and autoimmune hepatitis. The patient was successfully treated with prednisolone and azathioprine. Autoimmune hepatitis can be a serious co-occurring disease in patients with type 1 diabetes.
The role of conflict-based communication patterns in male physical aggression toward female partners

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the association between twenty conflict-based, communication patterns and the level of occurrence (categorical variable) and frequency (continuous variable) of male physical aggression towards female partners. Participants were 280 male volunteers drawn from a community preventative health clinic (n=236) and from a domestic violence monitoring program for misdemeanor domestic violence offenses (n=44). Males reported on nine verbally aggressive, five avoidance/withdraw, and six problem-solving/cooperation communication patterns for both self and partner. The communication patterns included mutual verbal aggression, unilateral verbal aggression, threaten/back down, blame/defend, pressure/resist, mutual avoidance, unilateral avoidance, demand/withdraw, mutual problem-solving, unilateral problem-solving, and net constructive communication (i.e., mutual problem-solving minus mutual verbal aggression). Four groups were formed based upon the occurrence of physically aggressive acts during the last twelve months: (a) completely nonviolent, (b) nonviolent toward panner but violent toward others, (c) 1-5 instances of violence toward partner, and (d) 6 or more instances of violence toward panner. Relationship distress was also examined as a moderator and as distress-nonviolence contrasted with violence. Primary findings were that 19 of 20 communication patterns were significantly associated with low and/or high frequency of physical aggression in comparison to nonviolence. Verbally aggressive patterns contributed most (33%), problem-solving/cooperation patterns contributed the second most (27%), and 12 avoidance/withdraw patterns contributing the least (13%) to explaining differences in the level of occurrence of physical aggression. The seven strongest communication patterns indicated that physically aggressive relationships had more mutual verbal aggression, more male and female unilateral aggression, more male threaten/partner back down, less net constructive communication, less mutual problem-solving, and more male demand/panner withdraw than dieir nonviolent counterparts. Relationship distress was not found to moderate the relationships between any of the twenty communication patterns and physical aggression. Furthermore, only five patterns were found to be more characteristic of physically aggressive relationships than distressed, nonviolent relationships (the above seven patterns excluding problemsolving and demand/withdraw); the other fifteen were equally characteristic of either physical aggression or distress-nonviolence.
Seamless multi-robot programming for the people: ASEBA and the wireless Thymio II robot

Robots are an ideal tool for introducing programming to young generations. To be accessible to a large public, educational robots must be affordable and easy to use. In a previous work, the authors have developed Thymio II, an educational robot costing about 100 $. Thymio II is programmable using the ASEBA framework, which provides an interactive development experience through real-time compilation and inspection of the internal variables of the robot. However, this solution currently requires a USB cable connection between the robot and a computer, impairing the robot's mobility. This paper presents a radio-based wireless interface, allowing to program the Thymio II robot without the hassle of wires. This solution is transparent to the user, and implements the ASEBA protocol in a backward-compatible way. It is built on top of IEEE 802.15. 4, costs a fraction of the robot's price, and does not affect its battery life significantly. After discussing the challenges and presenting the design of the interface, this paper shows performance results assessing the suitability of this interface for educational use. The presented solution opens new perspectives for the use of robotics in schools from the first graders to the universities.
POISSON MIXTURE MODEL FOR STRATIFICATION LEARNING

A framework for the regularized and robust estimation of non-uniform dimensionality and density in high dimensional noisy data is introduced in this work. This leads to learning stratifications, that is, mixture of manifolds rep r senting different characteristics and complexities in the data set. The basic idea relies on modeling the high dimensional sample points as a process of Translated Poisson mixtures, with regularizing restrictions, leading to a model which in cludes the presence of noise. Theoretical asymptotic resul ts for the model are presented as well. The presentation of the theoretical framework is complemented with artificial and real examples showing the importance of regularized stratification learning in high dimensional data analysis in general and computer vision and image analysis in particular.
Pre-existing Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Is an Independent Risk Factor for Mortality and Progression in Patients With Renal Cell Carcinoma

AbstractMalignancies are one of the main causes of mortality in diabetic patients; however, to date, very limited data have been reported on the specific influence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) on the survival of patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC). In the present long-term retrospective study, we investigated whether T2DM may influence the overall survival (OS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), and progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with surgically treated RCC.Medical records of 924 patients treated by radical or partial nephrectomy for sporadic, unilateral RCC were reviewed. Patients with type-1 DM and with T2 DM receiving insulin treatment were excluded. Survival estimates were calculated according to the Kaplan–Meier method and compared with the log-rank test. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed using the Cox regression model.Of the 924 RCC patients, 152 (16.5%) had T2DM. Mean follow-up was 68.5 months. Mean OS was 41.3 and 96.3 months in T2DM and non-T2DM patients, respectively (P < 0.0001). The estimated CSS rates at 1, 3, and 5 years in T2DM versus non-T2DM patients were 63.4% versus 76.7%, 30.4% versus 56.6%, and 16.3% versus 48.6%, respectively (P = 0.001). Mean PFS was significantly lower (31.5 vs 96.3 months; P < 0.0001) in the T2DM group. At multivariate analysis, T2DM was an independent adverse prognostic factor for OS (hazard ratio [HR] = 3.44; 95% confidence interval [CI]:2.40–4.92), CSS (HR = 6.39; 95% CI: 3.78–10.79), and PFS (HR = 4.71; 95% CI: 3.11–7.15). In conclusion, our findings suggest that patients with RCC and pre-existing T2DM have a shorter OS, increased risk of recurrence, and higher risk for kidney cancer mortality than those without diabetes.
Complete Annotated Genome Sequences of Four Klebsiella pneumoniae Phages Isolated from Sewage in Poland

ABSTRACT Four lytic phages, vB_KpnP_BIS33, vB_KpnP_IL33, and vB_KpnP_PRA33 of the Podoviridae family and vB_KpnM_BIS47 of the Myoviridae family, which act against animal-pathogenic Klebsiella pneumoniae strains, were isolated from sewage plants in Poland. They possess double-stranded DNA genomes of 41,697 bp, 41,335 bp, 40,605 bp, and 147,443 bp, respectively.
Memory, imprinting, and the brain : an inquiry into mechanisms

Approaches to the analysis of the neural bases of memory Biochemical consequences of imprinting Real effects of learning? Cerebral localization Brain lesions, acquisition, and retention Imprinting and associative learning How many stores? Cerebral asymmetry and imprinting Predispositions and preferences Physiological constraints on memory and imprinting Physiological and morphological consequences of training A structure for memory? Towards a synthesis Appendix: A sketch of the avian brain with particular reference to the domestic chick Indexes.
SDMinP: a program to control the family wise error rate using step-down minP adjusted P-values

SDMinP is an easy-to-use program for fast calculation of empirical and adjusted P-values for correlated and uncorrelated hypotheses in multiple testing experiments. It is based on the Free Step-Down Resampling Method for controlling the family wise error rate, and implements a variation of an efficient algorithm, which reduces the originally required re-sampling effort considerably and makes the method computationally feasible. The program is independent of the underlying test statistic and works with provided observed and permutation test statistics.
A study of the effect of disruptions on the performance of software engineering teams

This paper describes ethnographic observations and analysis of the performance of student teams working on year-long software projects for industrial clients. Personality types were measured using an online version of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), as a basis for studying how individuals interacted within the teams, and the effects of disruptive issues on the quality of work produced by the teams. Aspects recorded included the effect of personality type on behavior towards team mates and how this related to the amount of disruption, and the numbers of positive ideas brought forward from each member. A significant finding was that issues which teams did not discuss adequately caused more problems for the quality of work than issues which produced actual disruption within the team.
Social movements and the state

Introduction - Ghanshyam Shah Nine Theses on Social Movements - Andre Gunder Frank and Marta Fuentes Cyclical Movement toward the 'Eternal' - 'Nine Theses of Social Movements' - D N Dhanagare and J John A Critique Masses, Classes and the State - Rajni Kothari Social Origins of the Peasant Insurrection in Telengana, 1946-51 - D N Dhanagare Naxalbari and the Left Movement - Sumanta Banerjee Farmers' Movements in Contemporary India - Dipankar Gupta Organized Labour and Militant Unionism - Salim Lakha The Bombay Textile Workers' Strike of 1982 Tribal Solidarity Movements in India - Surajit Sinha A Review Tribal Autonomy Movements in Chhotanagpur - K S Singh Ambedkar and After - Gail Omvedt The Dalit Movement in India Taking Stock - Lakshmi Lingam Women's Movement and the State Direct Action in India - Ghanshyam Shah A Study of Gujarat and Bihar Agitations Little Nationalism Turned Chauvinist - Amalendu Guha Assam's Anti-Foreigner Upsurge, 1979-80 'God Must Be Liberated' - Peter Van Der Veer A Hindu Liberation Movement in Ayodhya Chipko - Ramachandra Guha Social History of an 'Environmental' Movement
Stress-aware P/G TSV planning in 3D-ICs

Power/Ground (P/G) Through-Silicon-Vias (TSVs) in the Power Distribution Network (PDN) of Three-Dimensional-Integrated-Circuit (3D-IC) have a twofold impact on the delays of the surrounding gates. TSV fabrication causes thermal stress around TSVs, which results in significant carrier mobility variations in their vicinity. On the other hand, the insertion of P/G TSVs will change the voltage of each node in the power grid, which also impacts the delays of the connected gates. Thus, it is necessary to consider the combined effect on delay variation during the P/G TSV planning. In this work, we propose a methodology using Mixed-Integer-Bilinear-Programming (MIBLP) to optimize this delay variation by a refined P/G TSV allocation. Taking into account the impact of thermal stress as well as voltage drop on the circuit delay, we optimally plan the P/G TSVs to minimize the circuit delay for different keep-out zones (KOZs) and PDN pitches.
Route directions generation using visible landmarks

The aim of this research is to investigate how to communicate route directions for wayfinding assistance in indoor environments including visible landmarks along the route. We propose an algorithm to automatically generate low level directions, as an XML file, that can be later translated in other languages, e.g., IndoorGML. The most suitable data model is a graph with openings (doors, windows, passages), features and concave corners as nodes, and edges based on geometrical visibility between them. For a given route, the proposed algorithm extracts all the surrounding visible nodes and groups them to simplify subsequent textual instructions. This process is then implemented in a software prototype, "IndoorNav", based on an Android device. It uses QRcode scanning for locating user position, calculates the best route to follow, generates low-level route directions, and translates them into textual instructions in the requested language; finally, it shows them to users.
A MODEL-BASED APPROACH TO MULTI-OBJECTIVE OPTIMIZATION

We develop a model-based algorithm for the optimization of multiple objective functions that can only be assessed through black-box evaluation. The algorithm iteratively generates candidate solutions from a mixture distribution over the solution space and updates the mixture distribution based on the sampled solutions’ domination count such that the future search is biased towards the set of Pareto optimal solutions. The proposed algorithm seeks to find a mixture distribution on the solution space so that 1) each component of the mixture distribution is a degenerate distribution centered at a Pareto optimal solution and 2) each estimated Pareto optimal solution is uniformly spread across the Pareto optimal set by a threshold distance. We demonstrate the performance of the proposed algorithm on several benchmark problems.
On the effect of ISI in the error performance of precoded FBMC/OQAM systems

When the transmitter does not have channel state information (CSI), linear precoding can be used in multicarrier systems in order to minimize the degradation of the overall bit error rate (BER) caused by deep fades appearing on subchannels. Within the multicarrier systems family, filterbank multicarrier (FBMC) systems were proposed to overcome the poor frequency localization together with the bandwidth/energy waste caused by the use of the cyclic prefix in classical Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) systems. Previous work [1] has focused on BER performance of precoded FBMC systems with perfect equalization at the receiver. In this paper we extend our analysis taking into account the effect of the intersymbol interference (ISI) stemming from non-completely equalized subchannels in these systems, specially when the transmission channel is highly frequency selective. An analytical expression of the error performance of single-input single-output (SISO) precoded FBMC systems with linear minimum mean square error (MMSE) equalization is established taking into account the ISI resulting from imperfect equalization, which causes a loss of diversity. This expression is for uncoded transmissions and matches accurately Monte Carlo simulation results.
Towards a Transferable and Domain-Independent Reputation Indicator to Group Students in the Collaborative Logical Framework Approach

Collaborative indicators derived from quantitative statistical indicators of students’ interactions in forums can be used by e-learning systems in order to support the collaborative behaviour and motivation of students. The main objective of this research is to achieve a transferable and domain-independent reputation indicator, considering the information extracted from social network analysis, statistical indicators, and opinions received by students in terms of ratings. This paper describes how to consider the reputation indicator in a collaborative environment in order to group students (distributing the most prominent students into different groups) aimed to improve the collaborative indicators (such as initiative, activity, regularity).
Parametric Analysis of fMRI Data Using Linear Systems Methods

Using a model of the functional MRI (fMRI) impulse response based on published data, we have demonstrated that the form of the fMRI response to stimuli of freely varied timing can be modeled well by convolution of the impulse response with the behavioral stimulus. The amplitudes of the responses as a function of parametrically varied behavioral conditions are fitted well using a piecewise linear approximation. Use of the combined model, in conjunction with correlation analysis, results in an increase in sensitivity for the MRI study. This approach, based on the well-established methods of linear systems analysis, also allows a quantitative comparison of the response amplitudes across subjects to a broad range of behavioral conditions. Fit parameters, derived from the amplitude data, are relatively insensitive to a variety of MRI-related artifacts and yield results that are compared readily across subjects.
Effect of thermal pre-treatment on inoculum sludge to enhance bio-hydrogen production from alkali hydrolysed rice straw in a mesophilic anaerobic baffled reactor

The effect of thermal pre-treatment on inoculum sludge for continuous H2 production from alkali hydrolysed rice straw using anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) was investigated. Two reactors, ABR1 and ABR2, were inoculated with untreated and thermally pre-treated sludge, respectively. Both reactors were operated in parallel at a constant hydraulic retention time of 20 h and organic loading rate ranged from 0.5 to 2.16 g COD/L d. The results obtained indicated that ABR2 achieved a better hydrogen conversion rate and hydrogen yield as compared with ABR1. The hydrogen conversion rates were 30% and 24%, while the hydrogen yields were 1.19 and 0.97 mol H2/mol glucose for ABR2 and ABR1, respectively. Similar trend was observed for chemical oxygen demand (COD) and carbohydrate removal, where ABR2 provided a removal efficiency of 53±2.3% for COD and 46±2% for carbohydrate. The microbial community analysis using 16S rRNA phylogeny revealed the presence of different species of bacteria, namely Clostridium, Prevotella, Paludibacter, Ensifer, and Petrimonas within the reactors. Volatile fatty acids generated from ABR1 and ABR2 were mainly in the form of acetate and butyrate and a relatively low fraction of propionate was detected in ABR1. Based on these results, thermal pre-treatment of inoculum sludge is preferable for hydrogen production from hydrolysed rice straw.
BWIG: Bluetooth Web Internet Gateway

Bluetooth is a new wireless standard for low cost, low power, local radio communications. This technology is designed to be small enough to fit inside any electronic device, hence revolutionizing wireless connectivity by enabling many new and innovative services for its users. Several usage models and applications are already being identified for various Bluetooth wireless mobile devices such as headsets, telephones, computers, modems, and so forth. In this paper, we propose a new architecture called BWIG (Bluetooth Web Internet Gateway) which defines a Bluetooth usage model that provides seamless ad-hoc Web access for Internet-enabled Bluetooth portable devices such as PDA, notebook computers and WAP mobile telephones. We validate our proposal by developing a prototype implementation of the various functional blocks of BWIG and show how it can be deployed and used in actual devices for Internet access.
Dynamics of Microbial Community Composition and Function during In Situ Bioremediation of a Uranium-Contaminated Aquifer

ABSTRACT A pilot-scale system was established to examine the feasibility of in situ U(VI) immobilization at a highly contaminated aquifer (U.S. DOE Integrated Field Research Challenge site, Oak Ridge, TN). Ethanol was injected intermittently as an electron donor to stimulate microbial U(VI) reduction, and U(VI) concentrations fell to below the Environmental Protection Agency drinking water standard (0.03 mg liter−1). Microbial communities from three monitoring wells were examined during active U(VI) reduction and maintenance phases with GeoChip, a high-density, comprehensive functional gene array. The overall microbial community structure exhibited a considerable shift over the remediation phases examined. GeoChip-based analysis revealed that Fe(III)-reducing bacterial (FeRB), nitrate-reducing bacterial (NRB), and sulfate-reducing bacterial (SRB) functional populations reached their highest levels during the active U(VI) reduction phase (days 137 to 370), in which denitrification and Fe(III) and sulfate reduction occurred sequentially. A gradual decrease in these functional populations occurred when reduction reactions stabilized, suggesting that these functional populations could play an important role in both active U(VI) reduction and maintenance of the stability of reduced U(IV). These results suggest that addition of electron donors stimulated the microbial community to create biogeochemical conditions favorable to U(VI) reduction and prevent the reduced U(IV) from reoxidation and that functional FeRB, SRB, and NRB populations within this system played key roles in this process.