Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Home literacy environment: characteristics of children with cerebral palsy.

BACKGROUND Various aspects of the home literacy environment are considered to stimulate the emergent literacy development in children without disabilities. It is important to gain insight into the home literacy environment of children with cerebral palsy given that they have been shown to have difficulty acquiring literacy skills. AIMS The aims of the present study were to investigate whether the home literacy environment of children with cerebral palsy was comparable with that of peers without disabilities and to investigate to what extent speech, fine motor, and intellectual impairments limit their home literacy experiences. METHODS & PROCEDURES Questionnaires addressed to the parents of the children were devised to investigate differences in the home literacy environment in 40 children with cerebral palsy and in 62 peers without disabilities who were comparable on chronological age, i.e., 6 years old, socio-economic status (SES) and sex. The relative influence of speech intelligibility, fine motor skills, and intelligence skills for the home literacy environment factors of children with cerebral palsy was investigated. OUTCOMES & RESULTS Only a few group differences were significant: children with cerebral palsy were less interested in participating in writing activities, and less involved in word-orientation activities during shared storybook reading. On the other hand, parents of children with cerebral palsy were doing more leisure activities with their child. The speech intelligibility scores of the children with cerebral palsy predicted the amount of emergent literacy activities they were doing with their parents, as wells as their active participation in word-related activities during storybook reading. In addition, the active participation of the child in story-related activities could be predicted by his or her fine motor skills. Furthermore, parents of the children in the comparison group often had high expectations, while parents of the children with cerebral palsy often did not know what expectations to have for their child's literacy level at the end of elementary school. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS Although both groups have stimulating home literacy environments, children with cerebral palsy with speech or fine motor impairments are disadvantaged in a small number of literacy activities. Teachers and speech and language therapists can work with parents to give them suggestions on how to conduct emergent literacy activities with their child with speech impairments as well as how on to involve their child with speech and fine motor dysfunctions more actively in storybook reading activities. Furthermore, parents should be given more information about their child's language development in order the better to understand what goals are achievable so they may begin to form realistic expectations.
Dendritic cells in atherosclerotic plaques: solving identification puzzles

Sir, Paraproteins are composed of complete or fragments of immunoglobulin that can be detected as a monoclonal protein spike in serum or urine immunoelectrophoresis. Extracellular deposition of immunoglobulin generally occurs in two forms: amyloid, and free light chains. Clinical manifestations often result from renal, cardiac, hepatic or neural involvement. Usually, involvement of the heart occurs in the form of amyloid, but light chain disease of the heart may also result in heart failure. Although rare, cardiac light chain deposition generally occurs in the interstitium. We report a case of isolated IgM lambda immunoglobulin deposition disease of the heart, with the unusual localisation within small myocardial vessels, a distribution previously reported only once. Small vessel occlusion led to acute myocardial infarction in a patient with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) with Richter’s progression. We report a 65-year-old female who was diagnosed with CLL several years before death. In the last 12 months, her disease progressed with diffuse lymphadenopathy diagnosed as diffuse large B cell lymphoma (Richter’s progression). Her total white cell count reached 316 600/mL with a majority of atypical blast-like cells. Additionally, her serum demonstrated a high IgM level (600 nL 26–271 mg/dL). Electrophoresis showed a paraprotein peak of 0.3 g/dL in the gamma region. At her terminal admission for chest pain, she was diagnosed with acute non-ST elevation myocardial infarction. Plasmapheresis was performed, with a reduction in the total white cell count to 75 000/mL. Three hours after plasmapheresis she complained of worsening chest pain, and collapsed. Resuscitation was unsuccessful. A complete autopsy was conducted. There was massive lymphomatous involvement of mediastinal, para-aortic, axillary, portal, inguinal and supraclavicular lymph nodes. The spleen weighed 2900 g and was diffusely infiltrated by lymphoma. Histologically, the tumour was consistent with diffuse large B cell lymphoma. Grossly, the heart weighed 380 g. There was diffuse mottling of the myocardium, with nodular pale areas most prominent in the subendocardial left ventricle and interventricular septum (Fig. 1A). There were no other significant gross abnormalities. Histological evaluation of the heart revealed acellular, amorphous, slightly eosinophilic subintimal deposits within the small arteries and arterioles of the myocardium (Fig. 1B). Occluded vessels were present in areas of acute infarction, characterised by hypereosinophilia of myocytes (Fig. 1C) with a sparse neutrophilic inflammatory reaction at the junction between viable and ischaemic myocardium. There were lymphomatous infiltrates in the myocardium, seen microscopically, in the epicardium and endocardium (Fig. 1D). The deposits were negative for Congo red staining. Immunohistochemical studies and special stains were performed on paraffin embedded post-mortem tissue using a standard avidin-biotin immunoperoxidase technique; the primary antibodies included IgG, IgM, and immunoglobulin light chains kappa and lambda.
Novel lightweight FF-APUF design for FPGA

Physical unclonable functions (PUFs), are a new type of physical security primitive which enable digital identifiers to be extracted from devices, such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) or application specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Due to their flexibility and lower time to market, FPGAs are increasingly used for many applications. Arbiter PUFs (APUFs) are among the most widely studied PUF designs. However, they often suffer from poor uniqueness and reliability characteristics, are difficult to implement in FPGAs and consume excessive FPGA resources. To address these problems, a new Flip-flop based APUF (FF-APUF) design is proposed that offers a compact architecture, combined with strong uniqueness and good reliability. It is specifically designed for FPGAs. The proposed work is verified on a low-cost Nexys4 board based on the latest 28 nm technology Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA. The proposed FF-APUF circuit for generating a 1-bit response consumes only 44 slices, which is a saving of more than 66% in hardware resources over previous related research. Moreover, experimental results show improvements in both uniqueness and reliability. In particular, the expected uniqueness of the response bits is 40% on FPGA, which significantly improves upon a uniqueness of 9% achieved in previous work.
Low over‐expression of TNFα in the mouse heart increases contractile performance via TNFR1

TNFα is a cytokine wit pleiotropic functions in many organs. In the heart increased TNFα levels are not only associated with heart failure, but also, paradoxically, with protection from ischemic damage. To test whether the protective role of TNFα in the heart is concentration‐dependent, we studied two mouse heart models with low (two‐ to threefold) over‐expression of endogenous TNFα: mice deficient in a translational repressor of TNFα mRNA, TIA‐1−/−, and mice over‐expressing human TNFα. Hearts lacking TIA‐1 were characterized for their endogenous TNFα over‐expression during normal Langendorff perfusion. To define which TNFα receptor mediates cardiac protection, we also used mice lacking the TNFR1 receptor. Contractile function was assessed in isolated hearts perfused in the isovolumic Langendorff mode during and following global no‐flow ischemic stress and in response to varying extracellular [Ca2+] to determine their contractile response and Ca2+ sensitivity. All hearts with low over‐expression of TNFα, independent of human or murine origin, have improved contractile performance and increased Ca2+ sensitivity (by 0.2–0.26 pCa). Hearts lacking TNFR1 have contractile performance equal to wild type hearts. Recovery from ischemia was greater in TIA‐1−/− and was diminished in TNFR1−/−. Better contractile function in TNFα over‐expressing hearts is not due to improved cardiac energetics assessed as [ATP] and glucose uptake or to differences in expression of SERCA2a or calmodulin. We suggest that low levels of TNFα increase the Ca2+ sensitivity of the heart via a TNFR1‐mediated mechanism. J. Cell. Biochem. 105: 99–107, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A reliable test key for thin film mechanical properties characterization

In this study, a reliable test key using resonant technique to characterize the mechanical properties of thin film materials is reported. The test key consists of micromachined cantilever array that are fabricated using the thin film to be determined. The Young's modulus, Shear modulus, and Poisson's ratio of the thin film are successfully extracted after the natural frequencies of bending and torsional modes are measured. In applications, this technique has been employed to determine the mechanical properties of SiO/sub 2/ film fabricated from bulk micromachining processes. Moreover, the test key has also been used to determine the mechanical properties of poly-silicon layers in MUMPs surface processes.
Human microvascular endothelial cell toxicity caused by Brazilian purpuric fever-associated strains of Haemophilus influenzae biogroup aegyptius.

An in vitro cytotoxicity model that uses an immortalized human microvascular endothelial cell line (HMEC-1) differentiates Brazilian purpuric fever (BPF)-associated Haemophilus influenzae biogroup aegyptius (HAE) strains from non-BPF-associated HAE strains. Toxic strains produced a characteristic HMEC-1 phenotype at an MOI of < 1 bacterium/1000 tissue culture cells (TCC). Nontoxic strains required MOIs of > 1000 bacteria/TCC to produce an observable effect. The cytotoxic phenotype was characterized by the presence of large clumps of HMEC-1 cells, which detached from the monolayer within 48 h of inoculation by HAE cells. The cytotoxic phenotype was observed with 100% of BPF-associated HAE (40/40) and 14% of non-BPF-associated HAE (8/57; P < .001). The ability to study a BPF-associated phenotype in vitro using human microvascular cells should enhance our knowledge of BPF pathogenesis.
Time context unifying collaborative filtering

With the advanced information technology and rapidly changed information technology, recommend technique quickly becomes a hot topic and is widely used in social networking and business website. Collaborative filtering (CF) is the most important recommend technique. Towards the problem of personalized recommendation, this paper proposed a collaborative filtering algorithm based on context similarity for timeliness by incorporating time context information into collaborative filtering recommendation process. Furthermore, this paper use a linear ensemble to associate the user-based and item-based models so that the four elements (user and user's neighbors, selected item and its adjacent items in database) have inter-influence on one another and thus improve the effectiveness and accuracy of our algorithm. Experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm has increased the accuracy of recommendation system which means our model is suitable for personalized time context recommendation system.
Psychosocial Predictors of Suicidal Ideation in Patients Diagnosed with Chronic Illnesses in Jordan

Suicide ideation (SI) is considered a major psychiatric emergency in patients diagnosed with chronic illnesses. Suicide ideation is a multifaceted issue that involves bio- psychosocial and cultural factors that interfere with patients’ abilities. The purpose of this study is to investigate the psychosocial predictors of SI among Jordanian patients with chronic illnesses. A cross-sectional design using self-administered questionnaires was used to collect data from 480 patients diagnosed with diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. The mean score of suicide ideation was 4.07 (SD = 1.7) and almost 20% (n = 85) of the participants found to be suicidal, the majority were suffering from moderate to severe depressive symptoms and low levels of life satisfaction. Also, the analysis showed that the patients had a high level of optimism and moderate perception of social support from family, friends, and significant other. Type of illness has a significant relation to the ‘seriousness’ component of SI (p = 0.023). Depression (β = 0.345, p<0.001) was a significant risk factor for ‘thought’ component of SI, and optimism (β = –0.008, p<0.05) a significant protective factor against the thought component of SI. Patients with chronic illnesses suffer serious psychological disturbances and are in need of psychological care, and periodic psychological screening to maintain their psychological wellbeing.
Utility of Green Fluorescent Nucleic Acid Dyes and Aluminum Oxide Membrane Filters for Rapid Epifluorescence Enumeration of Soil and Sediment Bacteria

ABSTRACT High background fluorescence and unspecific staining hampered the epifluorescence enumeration of bacteria in 45% of the tested soil and sediment samples with 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) and polycarbonate membrane filters. These problems of the determination of total cell counts can be circumvented by using green fluorescent high-affinity nucleic acid dyes and aluminum oxide membrane filters. Due to the bright staining of cells, we recommend SYBR Green II as dye.
Visualization and Quantification of Browning Using a Ucp1-2A-Luciferase Knock-in Mouse Model

Both mammals and adult humans possess classic brown adipocytes and beige adipocytes, and the amount and activity of these adipocytes are considered key factors in combating obesity and its associated metabolic diseases. Uncoupling protein 1 (Ucp1) is the functional marker of both brown and beige adipocytes. To facilitate a reliable, easy, and sensitive measurement of Ucp1 expression both in vivo and in vitro, we generated a Ucp1-2A-luciferase knock-in mouse by deleting the stop codon for the mouse Ucp1 gene and replacing it with a 2A peptide. This peptide was followed by the luciferase coding sequence to recapitulate the expression of the Ucp1 gene at the transcriptional and translational levels. With this mouse, we discovered a cold-sensitive brown/beige adipose depot underneath the skin of the ears, which we named uBAT. Because of the sensitivity and high dynamic range of luciferase activity, the Ucp1-2A-luciferase mouse is useful for both in vitro quantitative determination and in vivo visualization of nonshivering thermogenesis. With the use of this model, we identified and characterized axitinib, an oral small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor, as an effective browning agent.
Editorial Overview – Computational Approaches in Aid of Advancing Understanding in Plant Physiology

The exact impact of computers on any branch of science is impossible to predict, however, as highlighted in a recent article in Science the internet has already had a profound effect on the way academics use their brains as information retrieval units (Sparrow et al., 2011). Whilst Coleridge is often cited as the last man who read (or would have been capable of reading) every article in print, the advent of the internet dwarfs even the rapid expansion of the printing presses. It's impact on science, though vast, is clearly incalculable. From a data, as opposed to a text, perspective computation has undoubtedly greatly enabled genomics – a discipline that would certainly not exist in its current form without recent advances in computational power. For example the recently sequenced potato genome (Xu et al., 2011) could easily be stored on a standard laptop computer (Usadel, personal communication).
Dual reflector antenna with spherical main reflector

The investigation of the design of spherical dual reflector antennas is extended without imposing any restriction on the subreflector surface. The shaping is obtained using geometrical optics, and a diffraction analysis is used to predict radiation. When compared to the work of Ramanujan et al. (1987), the geometry modifications considered allow more control over the dimension of the system, making it possible to design more compact systems. They also make it possible to increase efficiency and simultaneously to adjust the offset angle, theta /sub 0/, to reduce the crosspolar peak or to reduce the spillover effects. <<ETX>>
Robust Fault-Tolerant Control for a Biped Robot Using a Recurrent Cerebellar Model Articulation Controller

A design technique of a recurrent cerebellar model articulation controller (RCMAC)-based fault-tolerant control (FTC) system is investigated to rectify the nonlinear faults of a biped robot. The proposed RCMAC-based FTC (RCFTC) scheme contains two components: 1) an online fault estimation module based on an RCMAC is used to provide approximation information for any nonnominal behavior due to the system failure and modeling error of the biped robot; and 2) a controller module consisting of a computed torque controller and a robust FTC is utilized to achieve FTC. In the controller module, the computed torque controller reveals a basic stabilizing controller to stabilize the system, and the robust FTC is utilized to compensate for the effects of the system failure so as to achieve fault accommodation. The adaptive laws of the RCFTC system are rigorously established based on the Lyapunov function, so that the stability of the system can be guaranteed. Finally, two simulation cases of a biped robot are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed design method. Simulation results show that the RCFTC system can effectively recover the control performance for the system in the presence of the nonlinear faults and modeling uncertainties
The effects of preconception interventions on improving reproductive health and pregnancy outcomes in primary care: A systematic review

ABSTRACT Background: Reproductive health and pregnancy outcomes may be improved if the reproductive risk assessment is moved from the antenatal to the preconception period. Primary care has been highlighted as an ideal setting to offer preconception assessment, yet the effectiveness in this setting is still unclear. Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of preconception interventions on improving reproductive health and pregnancy outcomes in primary care. Methods: MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE and PsycINFO databases were searched from July 1999 to the end of July 2015. Only interventional studies with a comparator were included, analysed and appraised systematically, taking into consideration the similarities and differences of the participants, the nature of interventions and settings. Results: Eight randomized controlled trials were eligible. Preconception interventions involved multifactorial or single reproductive health risk assessment, education and counselling and the intensity ranged from brief, involving a single session within a day to intensive, involving more than one session over several weeks. Five studies recruited women planning a pregnancy. Four studies involved multifactorial risks interventions; two were brief and the others were intensive. Four studies involved single risk intervention, addressing folate or alcohol. There was some evidence that both multifactorial and single risk interventions improved maternal knowledge; self-efficacy and health locus of control; and risk behaviour, irrespective of whether brief or intensive. There was no evidence to support reduced adverse pregnancy outcomes. One study reported no undue anxiety. The quality of the studies was moderate to poor. Conclusion: The evidence from eligible studies is limited to inform future practice in primary care. Nevertheless, this review has highlighted that women who received preconception education and counselling were more likely to have improved knowledge, self-efficacy and health locus of control and risk behaviour. More studies are needed to evaluate the effects on adverse pregnancy outcomes.
Confucian business ethics in Korea: pre-modern welfare state

Abstract From the start, the Choseon state had vigorously engaged in relieving people’s famine by establishing a granary system dedicated to that purpose. The reason was its allegiance to the Confucian minben ideal. As the granary system proved ineffective, however, it adopted a new taxation/granary system that relied much on market exchange. Paradoxically, the new system greatly enhanced the importance of state granary system as a means of implementing its redistributive policies, the role of market exchange in that process remaining subordinate. The reinforced state granary system was to perform multiple, potentially conflicting, functions and was allowed to develop a strong tendency towards path dependence and to incur high transaction costs behind such a development lay ideological and institutional factors. The Choseon state’s commitment to a physiocratic ideal and to Confucianism called for the creation and maintenance of the prodigious granary system. However, the institutional shortcomings built into the organization that was supposed to manage the system finally led the people to question the legitimacy not only of the system but even of the state itself.
Perceptions and Understanding Towards Sustainable Development

This article drew managers’ understanding on concept, dimensions, mechanisms and stakeholders of sustainable development (SD). The respondents were 338 managers of seven randomly selected ministries including the Ministries of: Education; the Interior; Housing and Urban Development; Health and Medical Education; Science, Research and Technology; Energy; and Jihad-e-Agriculture. The main research tool was a questionnaire. The findings revealed that responsible well-being and improvement is central to sustainable development from the managers’ prospective, while the linkage between sustainability and development issues has less importance. Respondents also pointed out that combating deforestation, protecting the atmosphere, managing fragile ecosystems and protecting the quality and supply of freshwater resources were the most important dimensions for achieving the goals of SD in practice. Results of the study on the mechanisms of SD also showed that respondents believed, “financial resources,” and, “clean technology transfer,” have greater priority over other mechanisms for implementing SD programs. Overall, they pointed out that major groups, namely NGOs, trade unions, farmers, scientific and technological community and indigenous people play key roles in practicing SD programs.