Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cognitive profiles and social-communicative functioning in children with autism spectrum disorder.

BACKGROUND Whether there is an unusual degree of unevenness in the cognitive abilities of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and whether different cognitive profiles among children with ASD might index etiologically significant subgroups are questions of continued debate in autism research. METHOD The Differential Ability Scales (DAS) and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) were used to examine profiles of verbal and nonverbal abilities and their relationship to autistic symptomatology in 120 relatively high-functioning children with ADI-confirmed diagnoses of autism. RESULTS Discrepancies between verbal and nonverbal ability scores occurred at a significantly higher rate than in the DAS normative sample (30%) in both a younger group of 73 children (56%) with a mean age of 5;5 and an older group of 47 children (62%) with a mean age of 8;11. Discrepancies were mainly in favor of nonverbal ability in the younger group, but occurred equally in favor of verbal and nonverbal abilities in the older group. Comparison of the two age groups suggested a growing dissociation between verbal and nonverbal (and particularly visual processing) skills with age. In the older group, children with discrepantly higher nonverbal abilities demonstrated significantly greater impairment in social functioning, as measured on the ADOS, independent of absolute level of verbal and overall ability. CONCLUSIONS These findings demonstrate a high rate of uneven cognitive development in children with ASD. Indications of a dissociation between verbal and visual-perceptual skills among the older children, and the specific association of discrepantly high nonverbal skills with increased social symptoms suggest that the nonverbal > verbal profile may index an etiologically significant subtype of autism.
Characterization of the Erwinia chrysanthemi expI–expR locus directing the synthesis of two N‐acyl‐homoserine lactone signal molecules

The plant pathogen Erwinia chrysanthemi produces three acyl‐homoserine lactones (acyl‐HSLs). One has been identified as N‐(3‐oxohexanoyl)‐homoserine lactone (OHHL), and the two others were supposed to be N‐(hexanoyl)‐homoserine lactone (HHL) and N‐(decanoyl)‐homoserine lactone (DHL). The genes for a quorum‐sensing signal generator (expI ) and a response regulator (expR ) were cloned. These genes are convergently transcribed and display high similarity to the expI–expR genes of Erwinia carotovora. ExpI is responsible for both OHHL and HHL production. Inactivation of expI had little effect on pectinase synthesis in E. chrysanthemi, as expression of only two of the pectate lyase genes, pelA and pelB, was decreased. E. chrysanthemi expR mutants still produced acyl‐HSL and pectinases. However, gel shift and DNAse I footprinting experiments showed that the purified E. chrysanthemi ExpR protein binds specifically to the promoter regions of the five major pel genes. Addition of OHHL modified the ExpR‐DNA bandshift profiles, indicating that ExpR interacts with OHHL and binds to DNA in different ways, depending on the OHHL concentration. Localization of the ExpR binding sites just upstream of promoter regions suggests that ExpR functions as an activator of pel expression in the presence of OHHL. The absence of a phenotype in expR mutants strongly suggests that at least an additional interchangeable ExpR homologue exists in E. chrysanthemi. Finally, transcription of expI ::uidA and expR ::uidA fusions is dependent on the population density, suggesting the existence of a quorum‐sensing hierarchy in E. chrysanthemi. These results suggest that the expI–expR locus is part of a complex autoregulatory system that controls quorum sensing in E. chrysanthemi.
An equivalent A-Stable dynamic simulation algorithm of active distribution networks based on the implicit projective method

The dynamic characteristics of active distribution networks (ADNs) need to be concerned if a large number of distributed generators are connected. A highly efficient and reliable simulation algorithm with good numerical stability is therefore essential for the stability analysis of ADNs. This paper proposes a novel dynamic simulation algorithm of ADNs based on the implicit projective method, which is a second order integration algorithm. The proposed method is an equivalent A-Stable method and the calculation efficiency is increased significantly compared with the traditional integration algorithms. It is especially suitable for the dynamic simulation and stability analysis of the ADNs with a large number of DGs. Case studies based on the IEEE 123-node test feeder show the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method, which is verified through the comparison with the commercial simulation tool DIgSI-LENT/PowerFactory and the traditional trapezoidal method.
Integration of yaws control and primary health care.

Where a primary health care (PHC) system (e.g., a community health worker and a health center as the first referral level) is fully operational, control activities for yaws should be part of PHC. Where the whole population is adequately covered, the PHC system is responsible for early detection of cases of active clinical yaws, treatment and follow-up of these cases, treatment and follow-up of contacts, and health education related to yaws control. In circumstances where PHC is not as yet fully implemented, the structure for a yaws control program must be different. In areas with adequately functioning static health services or with a nascent PHC system, yaws control could be started as a vertical program--initial treatment survey and resurvey by a yaws team working in close collaboration with a health worker selected by the community. Subsequently, active yaws surveillance is taken over by that worker who also assumes the other functions of primary health care. In areas with nonexisting or poorly functioning static health services, a program for yaws control should not be implemented because control and effectiveness are likely to be poor.
LncATLAS database for subcellular localization of long noncoding RNAs

Background The subcellular localisation of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) holds valuable clues to their molecular function. However, measuring localisation of newly-discovered lncRNAs involves time-consuming and costly experimental methods. Results We have created “LncATLAS”, a comprehensive resource of lncRNA localisation in human cells based on RNA-sequencing datasets. Altogether, 6768 GENCODE-annotated lncRNAs are represented across various compartments of 15 cell lines. We introduce “Relative concentration index” (RCI) as a useful measure of localisation derived from ensemble RNAseq measurements. LncATLAS is accessible through an intuitive and informative webserver, from which lncRNAs of interest are accessed using identifiers or names. Localisation is presented across cell types and organelles, and may be compared to the distribution of all other genes. Publication-quality figures and raw data tables are automatically generated with each query, and the entire dataset is also available to download. Conclusions LncATLAS makes lncRNA subcellular localisation data available to the widest possible number of researchers. It is available at lncATLAS.crg. eu.
Controlling the Coolies: Chinese Mineworkers and the Struggle for Labor in South Africa, 1904-1910

Importes en Afrique du Sud apres la guerre des Boers pour palier au manque de main d'oeuvre, les coolies chinois employes dans les mines d'or vivaient au quotidien l'exploitation et l'oppression. L'A. explore les conflits entre le management et les travailleurs et les tactiques et strategies utilisees par les deux groupes. La convergence de plusieurs circonstances a conduit a un regime de travail particulierement repressif pour les Chinois employes dans les mines d'or sud-africaines. Les coolies etaient dans une situation unique : en raison de leur statut de travailleurs sous contrat ils constituaient une force de travail captive, ce qui determinait leurs possibilites d'action et de resistance. Par ailleurs, la convergence des interets economiques de l'administration coloniale et des proprietaires des mines renforcait la dependance des mineurs chinois. Cependant, malgre ce contexte defavorable, la resistance collective des travailleurs chinois a permis d'attenuer le degre d'oppression.
Synchronization design for MB-OFDM ultra wideband (UWB) system

In this paper, a synchronization design scheme for Multi-band OFDM ultra wideband (MB-OFDM UWB) system is proposed. Taking into consideration of the low SNR scenario, we address the problems of packet detection, symbol timing synchronization and carrier frequency offset estimation. Packet detection adopts the sign-bit cross correlation, complex multiplication and multi-path energy collection approach. A novel algorithm based on distinguishing the first significant multi-path component (FSMC) is introduced to improve the accuracy of symbol timing synchronization and carrier frequency offset estimation. Simulation results in AWGN and CM channels demonstrate that our proposal achieves better performance than the existed algorithms.
MEmbER: Max-Margin Based Embeddings for Entity Retrieval

We propose a new class of methods for learning vector space embeddings of entities. While most existing methods focus on modelling similarity, our primary aim is to learn embeddings that are interpretable, in the sense that query terms have a direct geometric representation in the vector space. Intuitively, we want all entities that have some property (i.e. for which a given term is relevant) to be located in some well-defined region of the space. This is achieved by imposing max-margin constraints that are derived from a bag-of-words representation of the entities. The resulting vector spaces provide us with a natural vehicle for identifying entities that have a given property (or ranking them according to how much they have the property), and conversely, to describe what a given set of entities have in common. As we show in our experiments, our models lead to a substantially better performance in a range of entity-oriented search tasks, such as list completion and entity ranking.
A novel urban traffic management mechanism based on FOG

An increase of vehicles in a city without an efficient infrastructure of traffic management can cause damages not only financial but also environmental and social. In order to support urban traffic system to relieve the traffic congestion and the damage caused by congestion of vehicles, in this paper, we propose a mechanism for Intelligent Transport Systems named FOg RoutE VEhiculaR (FOREVER), in order to assist the traffic management in Vehicular Networks (VANET). For achieving this, FOREVER will detect and recommend an alternative route for the vehicles to avoid previous congestion. FOREVER is based on FOG computing paradigm that aims of to compute and modify the route of the vehicle to avoid the formation of congestion. Thus, the results show that FOREVER had a reduction about 7.9% of the CO2 emissions, 8.3% the stop time and 7.6% of the trip time.
Rapid deglacial and early Holocene expansion of peatlands in Alaska

Northern peatlands represent one of the largest biospheric carbon (C) reservoirs; however, the role of peatlands in the global carbon cycle remains intensely debated, owing in part to the paucity of detailed regional datasets and the complexity of the role of climate, ecosystem processes, and environmental factors in controlling peatland C dynamics. Here we used detailed C accumulation data from four peatlands and a compilation of peatland initiation ages across Alaska to examine Holocene peatland dynamics and climate sensitivity. We find that 75% of dated peatlands in Alaska initiated before 8,600 years ago and that early Holocene C accumulation rates were four times higher than the rest of the Holocene. Similar rapid peatland expansion occurred in West Siberia during the Holocene thermal maximum (HTM). Our results suggest that high summer temperature and strong seasonality during the HTM in Alaska might have played a major role in causing the highest rates of C accumulation and peatland expansion. The rapid peatland expansion and C accumulation in these vast regions contributed significantly to the peak of atmospheric methane concentrations in the early Holocene. Furthermore, we find that Alaskan peatlands began expanding much earlier than peatlands in other regions, indicating an important contribution of these peatlands to the pre-Holocene increase in atmospheric methane concentrations.
On parallelization and load balancing aspects of the finite-pointset method

The Finite-pointset method (FPM) is a mesh-free Lagrangian method. In this article, we discuss issues in parallelizing the FPM on distributed memory architecture. The Message Passing Interface (MPI) standard library is used for communication. We have developed algorithms to achieve fine-grained parallelism. Issues relating to Load Balancing and communication between processors have been addressed. A parallel version of the BiCGSTAB linear solver is implemented. The efficiency and speedup results for the parallel linear solver, used in conjunction with our load-balancing technique, are presented.
List decoding for arbitrarily varying multiple access channels with conferencing encoders

Research activities reveal a trend from an exclusive to a shared use of certain frequency bands. Then, uncoordinated interference will be unavoidable resulting in a channel that may vary in an arbitrary and unknown manner from channel use to channel use. This is the arbitrarily varying channel (AVC), for which it has been shown that the classical deterministic approaches with pre-specified encoder and decoder fail if the AVC is symmetrizable. This necessitates more sophisticated strategies such as common randomness (CR) assisted strategies or list decoding which are capable to resolve the ambiguity induced by symmetrizable AVCs. Here, we study the arbitrarily varying multiple access channel (AVMAC) with conferencing encoders, which is motivated by cooperating base stations or access points in future communication systems. The capacity region of the AVMAC with conferencing encoders is established and it is shown that list decoding allows for reliable communication also for symmetrizable AVMACs. The list capacity region equals the CR-assisted capacity region for large enough list size. Finally, for fixed probability of decoding error the amount of resources, i.e., CR or list size, is shown to be finite.
Motivational Interviewing: A Valuable Tool for the Psychiatric Advanced Practice Nurse

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is well known and respected by many health care professionals. Developed by , it is a way to promote behavior change from within and resolve ambivalence. MI is individualized and is most commonly used in the psychiatric setting; it is a valuable tool for the Psychiatric Advanced Nurse Practice Nurse. There are many resources that talk about what MI is and the principles used to apply it. However, there is little information about how to incorporate MI into a clinical case. This article provides a summary of articles related to MI and discusses two case studies using MI and why advanced practice nurses should use MI with their patients.
Chemical Characterization of Ethambutol Binding to Mycobacterium smegmatis

Recent studies showed that critical binding of ethambutol to Mycobacterium smegmatis was both inhibited and reversed by ions. This apparent ion-susceptible characteristic suggested that ethambutol is held at critical sites by electrostatic bonds. Dissociation constant, pH, and ionic strength studies were designed to further characterize ethambutol binding. M. smegmatis was grown in Sauton synthetic liquid medium (pH 7.4) under aerated conditions at 37 C. The pH or ionic strength of the medium was modified to meet the needs of particular experiments. Titration data revealed that ethambutol dihydrochloride has two apparent dissociation constants (pKa1 = 6.35, pKa2 = 9.35). Uptake experiments, in which pH was varied, showed that dihydrochloride and free base ethambutol were bound to a greater extent than the monohydrochloride. However, dihydrochloride and free base binding were not related to biological activity. Ethambutol exerted its maximal growth inhibitory effect at pH values near neutrality, where it exists primarily as the monohydrochloride and showed minimal binding. The increased ethambutol binding observed at pH 7.4 in media of lowered ionic strength was consistent with growth studies showing a reduction in the minimal inhibitory growth concentration in such media. However, nonspecific as well as critical binding was enhanced at low ionic strength. We conclude that binding of ethambutol by M. smegmatis involves a heterogeneous group of drug binding sites, only one of which is directly related to biological activity. Although nothing is known about the ethambutol target site itself, critical binding of the drug seems to require the single positively charged monohydrochloride form. Both hydrogen bonds and ionic linkages are probably involved.
Découverte de services basée sur leurs protocoles de conversation

RESUME.La decouverte de services utiles a une application devient de plus en plus critique dans plusieurs domaines. Les approches de decouverte actuelles, basees sur l’appariement des entrees/sorties, ou meme completees par des ontologies, sont limitees car elles ne prennent pas en compte l’aspect semantique de ces services. Aussi, la selectivite de ces approches reste tres faible ; il revient a l’utilisateur de naviguer sur les nombreux resultats pour retrouver les services qui l’interessent. Dans cet article, nous affirmons qu’une approche basee sur le comportement des services(en particulier leurs protocoles de conversation) peut aider a selectionner les meilleurs services et a reduire l’effort de navigation de l’utilisateur. Ceci est d’autant plus important que la decouverte peut se faire de facon programmee et dynamique. L’approche proposee se base sur un appariement semantique des graphes de processus, delivrant aussi bien des resultats exacts que des resultats approches. Des operations d’edition permettent de modifier le graphe requete pour le rapprocher le plus possible des graphes cibles selon une distance associee a chaque requete. Nous illustrons notre approche par un exemple base sur des protocoles de conversation exprimes en utilisant le langage WSCL.
Tamoxifen and chemotherapy for axillary node-negative, estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer: findings from National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project B-23.

PURPOSE Uncertainty about the relative worth of doxorubicin/cyclophosphamide (AC) and cyclophosphamide/methotrexate/fluorouracil (CMF), as well as doubt about the propriety of giving tamoxifen (TAM) with chemotherapy to patients with estrogen receptor-negative tumors and negative axillary nodes, prompted the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project to initiate the B-23 study. PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients (n = 2,008) were randomly assigned to CMF plus placebo, CMF plus TAM, AC plus placebo, or AC plus TAM. Six cycles of CMF were given for 6 months; four cycles of AC were administered for 63 days. TAM was given daily for 5 years. Relapse-free survival (RFS), event-free survival (EFS), and survival (S) were determined by using life-table estimates. Tests for heterogeneity of outcome used log-rank statistics and Cox proportional hazards models to detect differences across all groups and according to chemotherapy and hormonal therapy status. RESULTS No significant difference in RFS, EFS, or S was observed among the four groups through 5 years (P =.96,.8, and.8, respectively), for those aged < or = 49 years (P =.97,.5, and.9, respectively), or for those aged > or = 50 years (P =.7,.6, and.6, respectively). A comparison between all CMF- and all AC-treated patients demonstrated no significant differences in RFS (87% at 5 years in both groups, P =.9), EFS (83% and 82%, P =.6), or S (89% and 90%, P =.4). There were no significant differences in RFS, EFS, or S between CMF and AC in patients aged < or = 49 or > or = 50 years. No significant difference in any outcome was observed when chemotherapy-treated patients who received placebo were compared with those given TAM. RFS in both groups was 87% (P =.6), 87% in patients aged < or = 49 (P =.9), and 88% and 87%, respectively (P =.4), in those aged > or = 50 years. CONCLUSION There was no significant difference in the outcome of patients who received AC or CMF. TAM with either regimen resulted in no significant advantage over that achieved from chemotherapy alone.
Effects of depuration of molluscs experimentally contaminated with Escherichia coli, Vibrio cholerae O1 and Vibrio parahaemolyticus

Aims: The aim of the present study was to investigate the behaviour of two pathogenic vibrios (Vibrio cholerae O1 and Vibrio parahaemolyticus) during depuration and to compare it with that of Escherichia coli, used as an indicator of suitability for consumption.
Independent Associations Between Personality Traits and Clinical Characteristics of Depression

Few studies have examined age of onset and chronicity of depression in the same subject sample. The present study sought to determine whether personality traits related to early onset depression were different from those related to chronic depression. We tested the associations between personality self-reports and clinical characteristics of depression by conducting multiple and logistic regression analyses to determine whether personality uniquely predicted clinical characteristics and whether clinical characteristics uniquely predicted personality, after adjusting for depression severity. We also analyzed data at 6-month follow-up to determine whether age of onset and chronicity maintained their associations with personality. The study found that low levels of positive personality traits had unique associations with chronicity of depression, whereas elevated levels of negative personality traits had unique associations with an earlier onset of depression. Furthermore, associations were generally maintained over time, suggesting that associations between personality and these depression subtypes are stable.
Learning process, strategies and web-based concordancers: a case study

The recent widespread use of web-based concordancers seems to provide a promising mode for language teaching and learning, especially in the English as a foreign language (EFL) setting, because through concordancers students can easily gain exposure to a huge number of authentic and sorted language examples. This paper describes a case study of the learning process and strategies used by three Taiwanese college students in the concordancer setting. A web-based concordancer was used to assist the participants while undertaking a proofreading activity. Think-aloud protocol was used to collect their data. The results showed that the following four factors have influenced learners’ learning process and strategies in use: (1) prior knowledge, (2) cognitive skills, (3) teacher intervention and (4) concordancer skills.
Large-Range MEMS Motion Detection With Subangström Noise Level Using an Integrated Piezoresistive Silicon Nanowire

Electrostatically actuated microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices integrating a surface micromachined silicon nanowire were batch processed to investigate motion detection with a nanowire piezoresistive gauge. In the proposed implementation, the nanogauge is indirectly coupled to the MEMS structure through an intermediate coupling spring. This design allows an arbitrary choice of MEMS motion detection range and a resolution improvement of in situ nanowire gauge factor measurements. Using this approach, it is demonstrated that an in-plane MEMS displacements up to 180 nm with a noise level down to 0.7 Å/Hz1/2 can be achieved. MEMS resonance measurement in air and in vacuum by this method is also demonstrated. Results are compared with ex situ measurements of MEMS displacement by optical microscopy and by integrated capacitive detection.