Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Treatment of Fatigue in Multiple Sclerosis Patients: A Neurocognitive Approach

The objective of the study was to treat fatigue in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) by a neurocognitive rehabilitation program aimed at improving motor planning by using motor imagery (MI). Twenty patients with clinically definite MS complaining of fatigue were treated for five weeks with exercises of neurocognitive rehabilitation twice a week. Patients were evaluated by Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), Modified Fatigue Impact Scale (MFIS), MSQoL54, Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS), and MS Functional Composite (MSFC). After treatment, a decrease in fatigue was detected with both FSS (P = 0.0001) and MFIS (P = 0.0001). MSFC (P = 0.035) and MSQoL54 (P = 0.002) scores improved compared to baseline. At six-month followup, the improvement was confirmed for fatigue (FSS, P = 0.0001; MFIS P = 0.01) and for the physical subscale of MSQoL54 (P = 0.049). No differences in disability scales were found. These results show that neurocognitive rehabilitation, based on MI, could be a strategy to treat fatigue in MS patients.
Toward a Doctrine of Containment: Grid Hosting with Adaptive Resource Control

Grid computing environments need secure resource control and predictable service quality in order to be sustainable. We propose a grid hosting model in which independent, self-contained grid deployments run within isolated containers on shared resource provider sites. Sites and hosted grids interact via an underlying resource control plane to manage a dynamic binding of computational resources to containers. We present a prototype grid hosting system, in which a set of independent globus grids share a network of cluster sites. Each grid instance runs a coordinator that leases and configures cluster resources for its grid on demand. Experiments demonstrate adaptive provisioning of cluster resources and contrast job-level and container-level resource management in the context of two grid application managers
An experimental investigation of a direct life-cycle in Reighardia sternae (Diesing, 1864), a pentastomid parasite of the herring gull (Larus argentatus)

A direct life-cycle in Reighardia sternae, a cephalobaenid pentastomid of gulls was investigated: the work was prompted by a report of eggs and larvae recovered from the stomach and intestine of a naturally infected gull. Infective pentastomid eggs were obtained by surgically transplanting maturing female Reighardia, taken from freshly shot wild gulls, into captive recipients. Faecal material from birds thus artificially infected was collected daily and examined for eggs. Eggs were force fed to 33 hand-reared (from eggs or nestlings) juvenile gulls which were selected at random and sacrificed at intervals thereafter and examined for pentastomids. One hour after infection, primary larvae appear in the body cavity where they moult immediately. They grow steadily and by 27–35 days are sexually differentiated, and by 66 days have copulated. Fertilized females take a further 116 days to produce eggs by which time they are 7·6 cm long. The complex migrations undertaken by developing larvae in the gull, and the problems of the mechanism of direct transmission, are discussed.
Iron Level and Myelin Content in the Ventral Striatum Predict Memory Performance in the Aging Brain

Age-related memory impairments have been associated with structural changes in the dopaminergic system, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Recent work indicates that iron accumulation might be of particular relevance. As iron accumulates, a degeneration of myelin sheaths has been observed in the elderly, but the relationship between both and their impact on memory performance in healthy elderly humans remain important open questions. To address this issue, we combined an established behavioral paradigm to test memory performance [verbal learning memory test (VLMT)] with state of the art quantitative magnetic resonance imaging techniques allowing us to quantify the degree of myelination and iron accumulation via markers of tissue microstructure in a group of young (18–32 years) and healthy elderly humans (55–79 years). As expected, we observed a decrease in gray matter volume and myelin, and an increase of iron in the elderly relative to the young subjects within widespread brain regions, including the basal ganglia. Furthermore, higher levels of iron within the ventral striatum were accompanied by a negative correlation between myelin and iron specific for the elderly participants. Importantly, both markers of iron and myelin (and their ratio) predicted the performance of the elderly in the VLMT. This suggests that ventral striatum iron accumulation is linked to demyelination and impairments in declarative memory. Together, our data provide novel insights into underlying microstructural mechanisms of memory decline in the elderly. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Memory decline in healthy elderly is a common phenomenon, but the underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear. We used a novel approach that allowed us to combine behavior and whole-brain measures of iron, myelin, and gray matter in the participant's individual subspace to analyze structure–structure and structure–behavior interactions. We were able to show, that age-related high levels of iron are accompanied by a negative correlation of iron and myelin in the ventral striatum, which predicted individual memory performance. As such, our findings provide unprecedented insights into the basic mechanisms of memory decline in the elderly.
The orexinergic system influences conditioned odor aversion learning in the rat: a theory on the processes and hypothesis on the circuit involved

A large variety of behaviors that are essential for animal survival depend on the perception and processing of surrounding smells present in the natural environment. In particular, food-search behavior, which is conditioned by hunger, is directly driven by the perception of odors associated with food, and feeding status modulates olfactory sensitivity. The orexinergic hypothalamic peptide orexin A (OXA), one of the central and peripheral hormones that triggers food intake, has been shown to increase olfactory sensitivity in various experimental conditions including the conditioned odor aversion learning paradigm (COA). COA is an associative task that corresponds to the association between an olfactory conditioned stimulus (CS) and a delayed gastric malaise. Previous studies have shown that this association is formed only if the delay separating the CS presentation from the malaise is short, suggesting that the memory trace of the odor is relatively unstable. To test the selectivity of the OXA system in olfactory sensitivity, a recent study compared the effects of fasting and of central infusion of OXA during the acquisition of COA. Results showed that the increased olfactory sensitivity induced by fasting and by OXA infusion was accompanied by enhanced COA learning performances. In reference to the duration of action of OXA, the present work details the results obtained during the successive COA extinction tests and suggests a hypothesis concerning the role of the OXA component of fasting on the memory processes underlying CS-malaise association during COA. Moreover, referring to previous data in the literature we suggest a functional circuit model where fasting modulates olfactory memory processes through direct and/or indirect activation of particular OXA brain targets including the olfactory bulb, the locus coeruleus (LC) and the amygdala.
The State and the South African University System under Apartheid.

This paper is offered as a contribution to the larger task of providing a comprehensive study of South Africa's universities during the era of apartheid (1948-1990). Because of the centrality of the state to apartheid, the focus adopted is that of the role of the state in university affairs. The inadequacies of state theory in general are acknowledged, but, it is argued nonetheless, that the state warrants special consideration, provided the limits of this type of approach are firmly grasped. It is also suggested that the state's actual relations with the racially fragmented university system are best conceptualised in terms of Neave's notion of 'boundaries' which implies flux. Indeed, the interactions between the state and universities in South Africa were more volatile than is generally portrayed in the literature and were especially so during the 1980s as the state struggled unsuccessfully to overcome the popular challenge to White domination in general and to apartheid university education in particular.
Learning More from Failure: Practice and Process

In their foregoing response, Hodgkinson and Wright (2006) claim that my article ‘Completing the practice turn in strategy research’ (Whittington 2006) contains misconceptions and unwarranted inferences with regard to one of its illustrations, drawn from their earlier paper ‘Confronting strategic inertia in a top management team: learning from failure’ (Hodgkinson and Wright 2002). They vigorously defend their professional competence as consultants in this unsuccessful episode. They also suggest that my article, in fact, neither completes the practice turn nor enriches the process tradition. My own response must begin here with an apology to Hodgkinson and Wright for any perceived slight on their professional competence as consultants: my focus was on academic issues and inattentive to other concerns. But I’d also like to do two more things: first, clarify what I mean by completing the practice turn and thereby adding to the process tradition; second, consider once more, Hodgkinson and Wright’s (2002) case in the light of their further gloss, concluding that my original interpretation was, in fact, pretty much warranted. In the original article, ‘completing the practice turn’ refers to the need to connect the detailed activity of individual practitioners with broader societal phenomena, these to be treated, not as organizational ‘context’ but as essentially involved in any particular strategizing episode (Whittington 2006). The alliteration in my terminology of praxis (the activity of strategizing), practices (strategy’s routines, tool-usages, norms and the like) and practitioners (the people engaged in strategy) is intended to reinforce exactly this connection. Practitioners and practices are constituents of societies as well as organisations. Practitioners are therefore more than individuals; they are classes of people — professional accountants or MBAs, consultants or business school academics — whose praxis is shaped, in part, by collective experiences within society. Practices are not just the innocent incidentals of particular praxis episodes, but, in cases such as Porterian analysis, strategy awaydays or PowerPoint presentations, come loaded with expectations derived from their trajectories in society at large. From a strategy-as-practice point of view, therefore, understanding what is going on deep inside organizations requires close attention to what is happening outside. This is not just to say that ‘micro’ phenomena occur in a ‘macro’ context; it is to recognize that such phenomena are intrinsically parts of that wider context. Completing the practice turn implies a broadening of the Organization Studies 27(12): 1903–1906 ISSN 0170–8406 Copyright © 2006 SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA & New Delhi) Richard Whittington Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, UK
Short-Term Haptic Memory for Three-Dimensional Objects

In 8 experiments college students felt 32 geometric objects and were tested in a signal-detection framework to same or distractor items. Retention intervals and intervening experiences were also manipulated following initial touching. In all instances performance was high, and there was no evidence of a decline in haptic sensitivity over the retention intervals employed. These surprising results were interpreted as consistent with the 1985 contention of Klatzky, Lederman, and Metzger that the haptic modality constitutes an expert system.
Albanian Parents and the Greek Educational Context: Who is Willing to Fight for the Home Language?

This article examines views of Albanian immigrant parents regarding home-language maintenance in Greece. It aims to reveal language ideologies in relation to broader ideologies about schooling and education. Following a qualitative interpretative approach, we conducted semi-structured individual and group interviews with 19 parents of bilingual students. Parents express a range of ideological stances from total resistance to the dominant school monolingual ideology to passive acceptance and could be grouped into three categories: (a) the “fighters,” who make a conscious claim for home-language use and education; (b) the “probilingualism” parents, who partially consent to the dominant discourse of monolingualism in the Greek school; and (c) the “indifferent” parents, who appear not to be concerned about the future of the Albanian language. Data from interviews suggest that dominant school-language attitudes and practices play an important role in shaping the language views and practices of immigrant parents.
Intelligent Interference Exploitation for Heterogeneous Cellular Networks Against Eavesdropping

This paper explores the co-existence of a macro cell and a small cell for heterogeneous cellular networks, where a macro base station (MBS) and small base station (SBS) transmit to respective macro user (MU) and small user (SU) through their shared spectrum in the face of a common eavesdropper. We consider two spectrum sharing mechanisms, namely the overlay spectrum sharing (OSS) and underlay spectrum sharing (USS). In the OSS, the MBS and the SBS take turns to access their shared spectrum. By contrast, the USS allows the MBS and SBS to simultaneously transmit over the shared spectrum with the aid of power control for limiting their mutual interference, thus called interference-limited USS (IL-USS). In order to take advantage of mutual interference in confusing the eavesdropper without causing adverse effect on the MU, we propose an interference-canceled USS (IC-USS) scheme, where a sophisticatedly designed signal is emitted at the MBS to cancel out the interference received at the MU, which is also beneficial in terms of defending the common eavesdropper. Closed-form expressions of overall outage probability and intercept probability are derived for OSS, IL-USS, and IC-USS schemes by taking into account both MBS-MU and SBS-SU transmissions. The secrecy diversity analysis is also carried out by characterizing an asymptotic behavior of the overall outage probability with a given intercept probability in the high signal-to-noise ratio region. It is shown that the secrecy diversity gains of conventional OSS and IL-USS are zero, whereas the proposed IC-USS achieves a higher secrecy diversity gain of one. This implies that with an arbitrarily low overall intercept probability, the conventional OSS and IL-USS methods converge to their respective outage probability floors; however, the proposed IC-USS scheme can make the overall outage probability asymptotically decrease to zero by simply increasing the transmit power. In addition, numerical results demonstrate an obvious advantage of the proposed IC-USS over OSS and IL-USS against eavesdropping.
EARLY EVOLUTION OF THE GENETIC BASIS FOR SOMA IN THE VOLVOCACEAE

To understand the hierarchy of life in evolutionary terms, we must explain why groups of one kind of individual, say cells, evolve into a new higher level individual, a multicellular organism. A fundamental step in this process is the division of labor into nonreproductive altruistic soma. The regA gene is critical for somatic differentiation in Volvox carteri, a multicellular species of volvocine algae. We report the sequence of regA‐like genes and several syntenic markers from divergent species of Volvox. We show that regA evolved early in the volvocines and predict that lineages with and without soma descended from a regA‐containing ancestor. We hypothesize an alternate evolutionary history of regA than the prevailing “proto‐regA” hypothesis. The variation in presence of soma may be explained by multiple lineages independently evolving soma utilizing regA or alternate genetic pathways. Our prediction that the genetic basis for soma exists in species without somatic cells raises a number of questions, most fundamentally, under what conditions would species with the genetic potential for soma, and hence greater individuality, not evolve these traits. We conclude that the evolution of individuality in the volvocine algae is more complicated and labile than previously appreciated on theoretical grounds.
An Efficient Identification Methodology for Improved Access to Music Heritage Collections

A comprehensive methodology for automatic music identification is presented. The main application of the proposed approach is to provide tools to enrich and validate the descriptors of recordings digitized by a sound archive institution. Experimentation has been carried out on three different datasets, including a collection of digitized vinyl discs, although the methodology is not linked to a particular recording carrier. Automatic identification allows a music digital library to retrieve metadata about music works even if the information was incomplete or missing at the time of the acquisition. Automatic segmentation of digitized material is obtained as a byproduct of identification, allowing the music digital library to grant access to individual tracks, even if discs are digitized using a single file for a complete disc side. Results show that the approach is both efficient and effective.
Impaired Cerebral Autoregulation Is Associated With Vasospasm and Delayed Cerebral Ischemia in Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

Background and Purpose— Cerebral autoregulation may be impaired in the early days after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between cerebral autoregulation and angiographic vasospasm (aVSP) and radiographic delayed cerebral ischemia (DCI) in patients with SAH. Methods— Sixty-eight patients (54±13 years) with a diagnosis of nontraumatic SAH were studied. Dynamic cerebral autoregulation was assessed using transfer function analysis (phase and gain) of the spontaneous blood pressure and blood flow velocity oscillations on days 2 to 4 post-SAH. aVSP was diagnosed using a 4-vessel conventional angiogram. DCI was diagnosed from CT. Decision tree models were used to identify optimal cut-off points for clinical and physiological predictors of aVSP and DCI. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to develop and validate a risk scoring tool for each outcome. Results— Sixty-two percent of patients developed aVSP, and 19% developed DCI. Patients with aVSP had higher transfer function gain (1.06±0.33 versus 0.89±0.30; P=0.04) and patients with DCI had lower transfer function phase (17.5±39.6 versus 38.3±18.2; P=0.03) compared with those who did not develop either. Multivariable scoring tools using transfer function gain >0.98 and phase <12.5 were strongly predictive of aVSP (92% positive predictive value; 77% negative predictive value; area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 0.92) and DCI (80% positive predictive value; 91% negative predictive value; area under the curve, 0.94), respectively. Conclusions— Dynamic cerebral autoregulation is impaired in the early days after SAH. Including autoregulation as part of the initial clinical and radiographic assessment may enhance our ability to identify patients at a high risk for developing secondary complications after SAH.
Toward hypermedia support for information relationship management

The overall research goal of this project is to provide hyper-media functionality to information systems (ISs) not enhanced with hypermedia with minimal or no changes to the ISs. ISs dynamically generate their contents and thus require some mapping mechanism to automatically map the generated contents to hypermedia constructs (nodes, links and link markers) instead of hypermedia links being hard-coded over static contents. No systematic approach exists, however, for identifying information relationships and building mapping rules to infer useful links that give users direct access to the ISs’ primary functionality, give access to meta-information about IS objects, give access to relationships among information objects and enable annotation and ad hoc (user-declared) linking. This paper contributes a procedure for analyzing ISs and building mapping rules that supplement ISs with hypermedia support, which results in new ways to view and manage the IS’s knowledge and information relationships.
The Cost of Environmental Protection

Reported expenditures for environmental protection are often cited as an assessment of the burden of current regulatory efforts. However, the potential for both incidental savings and uncounted costs means that the actual burden could be either higher or lower than these reported values. Using a production cost model that considers the possible interaction between environmental and non-environmental expenditures, we directly estimate the dollar-for-dollar incidental savings/uncounted costs arising from a one-dollar increase in reported environmental expenditures. Although recent literature supports the idea that reported expenditures probably understate the actual burden, we find no such evidence in the manufacturing sector based on a large panel of plant-level data. In one industry, we find statistically significant overstatement. In three others, we find no significant deviation in either direction. We conclude that, although cost estimates are not overstated on average, variation and uncertainty exist at the industry level, with some plants experiencing savings and others possibly facing uncounted burdens.
CENTER CHANNEL SEPARATION BASED ON SPATIAL ANALYSIS TEMPLATES FOR DAFX-08, FINLAND, FRANCE

This is a brief description of audio channel or sound source separation algorithm using spatial cues. Basically inter-channel level difference (ICLD) is used for discriminating sound sources in a spatial grid for each channel pair and analysis subband. Interchannel cross-correlation (ICC) is also used for determining sound source location area and contribution factor for the considering composite sound source. In this paper, the center and side channel separation of stereophonic music signal using spatial sound source discrimination method is introduced. This is simply implemented by using given information of center channel location and derived spatial cues. The separated center channel signal is well matched with separated side channels when reproduced simultaneously.