Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Incidentally detected renal cell carcinomas are highly associated with comorbidity and mortality unrelated to renal cell carcinoma

Abstract Objective. The aim of this study was to investigate the underlying reasons for symptomatic (SRCC) and incidental diagnosis of renal cell carcinoma (IRCC), and possible differences in cancer-specific (CSS) and overall survival (OS) with regard to reasons for detection. Material and methods. Between 1997 and 2010, 413 patients underwent surgery for renal cell carcinoma (RCC). SRCCs were divided into groups with general and classical symptoms. IRCCs were divided into “true” IRCCs, found owing to investigation of another definitive medical condition, and “unrelated” IRCCs, found owing to investigation for signs and symptoms presumed to be unrelated to RCC. Gender- and age-adjusted estimated overall survival (EOS) rates based on national mortality data were calculated for both the total material and the subgroups. Results. IRCC tumours were smaller, and of lower stage and grade than SRCCs, which was also reflected in the lower CSS in this group. Most IRCCs were found during investigations related to another definitive condition. There was a significantly higher level of comorbidity in the IRCC group, and the “true” IRCC group had the highest rates. The two IRCC subgroups had similar CSS and tumour characteristics. In the SRCC group, however, those with general symptoms had worse tumour characteristics and lower rates of CSS compared to those with classical symptoms. The true IRCC group had significantly inferior OS compared to the unrelated IRCCs (p = 0,040). Only the unrelated IRCC patients had an OS similar to the EOS; for all other subgroups the OS was inferior to the EOS. Conclusions. Most IRCCs were found during investigations for other medical conditions, and the OS rate in this group of patients was lower than expected.
Does initial teacher education make a difference? The impact of teacher preparation on student teachers’ attitudes towards educational inclusion

This paper examines the extent to which student teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion change over the course of a four‐year Bachelor of Education programme in Scotland. Using a mixed methods design, the study employed a quantitative survey, a qualitative interview and survey to obtain data from two cohorts of student teachers. Results indicate significant changes in student teachers’ attitude towards educational inclusion. The student teachers’ conceptualised inclusion as an interrelated component of support, belongingness, sensitivity and fairness. Their evaluation shows that programme inputs on inclusion contributed to an enhancement of their attitudes and understanding. However, there is a need for further practical knowledge in the area of inclusion.
A Cascaded Sliding Mode Hybrid Force/Position Controller

This paper presents a novel method for controlling force and position simultaneously using a sliding-mode position controller and a sliding-mode position error estimator for the position controller according to force error (which is used to control force essentially). The main advantage of this method is that there is no explicit control mode switching between distinct force and position controllers, but one sliding-mode position controller, for which the force error affects the position error by means of a sliding-mode position error estimator, is used for both cases. With experimental results on a voltage-driven piezo actuator, submicron accuracy (a maximum position error of 0.2 μm) for position control and a maximum force error of 0.02 N are achieved. Also, it is shown that with this approach, the jump of control input (the main stability problem of using separate force and position controllers) is removed without losing control power.
Probabilistic Event Cascades for Alzheimer's disease

Accurate and detailed models of neurodegenerative disease progression are crucially important for reliable early diagnosis and the determination of effective treatments. We introduce the ALPACA (Alzheimer's disease Probabilistic Cascades) model, a generative model linking latent Alzheimer's progression dynamics to observable biomarker data. In contrast with previous works which model disease progression as a fixed event ordering, we explicitly model the variability over such orderings among patients which is more realistic, particularly for highly detailed progression models. We describe efficient learning algorithms for ALPACA and discuss promising experimental results on a real cohort of Alzheimer's patients from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative.
Informal counterterrorism arrangements in Europe: Beauty by variety or duplicity by abundance?

Most existing analyses of counterterrorism cooperation among EU Member States have focused on the formal EU agencies and institutions, which may be regarded as direct vertical extensions of political and executive power in the EU Member States. When it comes to practical cooperation, however, it appears that national security agencies in Europe often prefer to utilize horizontal non-EU counterterrorism arrangements. Because of their flexibility and relative independence from national governments, as well as their ability to include a broader range of participants on equal footing, it is generally assumed that these informal arrangements are more suitable for achieving common goals than their more formal and hierarchical EU counterparts. This article argues that the informal non-EU arrangements also suffer from a number of distinct shortcomings. This, in turn, questions the wisdom of the post-9/11 response to terrorism by putting yet more formal EU bodies and/or informal arrangements on the already crowded map of security bodies in Europe.
Intercultural education in everyday practice

While there is substantive work in intercultural education, especially that which proposes intellectual or conceptual road maps for pedagogic interculturalism and, more specifically for the classroom, there is a need to surface the complexity of everyday intercultural classroom practices. This article reflects on some Singapore students’ responses to materials designed to help them engage critically with intercultural issues. These responses can be categorized into three types of tajectories: reifying, critical and conflicted. Reifying practices basically mean that students essentialize individuals, communities and countries despite (and perhaps because of) the intercultural approach to the teaching of communication. Critical trajectories, on the other hand, showcase students’ ability to identify stereotypes and provide much more nuanced characterizations of individuals and countries. Conflicted trajectories, however, seem to be the most dominant classroom practice: these are attempts of students to be critical but, in practice, their criticality is enmeshed in reifying tendencies. In other words, ‘criticality’ as it is envisioned is always incomplete on the ground. Thus, we need micro-lenses in interculturalism and intercultural education to help us critically reflect on and surface essentialisms, tensions and struggles in everyday classroom practice.
Sounds can affect visual perception mediated primarily by the parvocellular pathway

Abstract We investigated the effect of auditory–visual sensory integration on visual tasks that were predominantly dependent on parvocellular processing. These tasks were (i) detecting metacontrast-masked targets and (ii) discriminating orientation differences between high spatial frequency Gabor patch stimuli. Sounds that contained no information relevant to either task were presented before, synchronized with, or after the visual targets, and the results were compared to conditions with no sound. Both tasks used a two-alternative forced choice technique. For detecting metacontrast-masked targets, one interval contained the visual target and both (or neither) intervals contained a sound. Sound–target synchrony within 50 ms lowered luminance thresholds for detecting the presence of a target compared to when no sound occurred or when sound onset preceded target onset. Threshold angles for discriminating the orientation of a Gabor patch consistently increased in the presence of a sound. These results are compatible with sound-induced activity in the parvocellular visual pathway increasing the visibility of flashed targets and hindering orientation discrimination.
Attachments, Social Networks, and Developmental Contexts

Whereas the first two thirds of the twentieth century were characterized by the creation of, competition among, and dominance by grand overarching theories, the decades that followed have spawned narrower, more focused, and less ambitious ‘nano theories’ as well as more inclusive but vague frameworks and perspectives. In many ways, the attachment theory has served as a bridge between these two eras. Bowlby’s [1969] crowning achievement was the integration of cybernetics, evolutionary biology, and psychoanalysis – three grand theories – into a coherent account of the processes by which infants formed their first social relationships. Evolutionary considerations led Bowlby to emphasize the extent to which infants depended on the protective nurturance of their parents during the periods of life during which they were most vulnerable and dependent, while psychoanalytic assumptions led him to emphasize the life course-defining formative impact of the resulting parent-child relationships on subsequent psychological health and adjustment. Empirical research has demonstrated that the quality of early infant-parent interaction indeed has a reliable impact on the quality or ‘security’ of the resulting relationships, and that this quality in turn affects both the child’s interactions with other individuals and his or her behavior in diverse challenging circumstances [De Wolff & van IJzendoorn, 1997; Lamb, 1987]. Such findings validate some of the fundamental formulations and predictions of the attachment theory. Unfortunately, however, zealous proponents of the attachment theory have misinterpreted and exaggerated the power and utility of the attachment theory in ways that several papers in this special issue illustrate and question. First, whereas Bowlby’s psychoanalytically inspired concerns led him to focus on the formative significance of infant-mother interactions and relationships, evolutionary biologists, anthropologists, and developmental psychologists have persuasively documented that humans grow up in more complex and diverse social groups than the infant-mother dyad [e.g., Hewlett & Lamb, in press; Lewis & Feiring, 1981; Lewis, this issue], and that formatively important experiences continue to shape individual development long after infancy. As early as the 1970s, researchers
Catalyzing Political Engagement: Lessons for Civic Educators from the Voices of Students

This article analyzes the comparative impact of three educational interventions aimed at increasing students' political engagement, two at the undergraduate level and one at the high school level. Findings from interviews with student participants in these programs indicate that political competencies are best acquired through democratic practice, particularly programs and courses that encourage student voice. This study also demonstrates the need to widen our understanding of politics beyond electoral competition if we want to engage young people politically.
Reversing the General One-Trailer System: Asymptotic Curvature Stabilization and Path Tracking

Backing up a trailer can be a challenge, particularly for inexperienced recreational drivers. We therefore develop two feedback controllers, which support the driver with automatic steering inputs in various situations. Based on the kinematics of the general one-trailer system, we first derive an input/output-linearizing control law that asymptotically stabilizes a given curvature for the trailer. This enables the driver to directly steer the trailer, e.g., by means of a turning knob, such that the trailer will automatically be prevented from jackknifing. The control task is then modified and solved so that the vehicle can also take over the complete stabilization task along given paths. In combination with a path-planning algorithm, this enables automated parallel parking for example. The complete system is implemented on a rapid-prototyping environment and evaluated in real-world scenarios.
Application of UML associations and their adornments in design recovery

Many CASE tools support reverse engineering and UML. However, it can be observed that, usually, only a subset of the UML notation is supported, namely those parts with a more or less direct code representation. Although a lot of research has been done in this field, the more advanced features of UML notations are not commonly supported in reverse engineering. In this paper, we show approaches to discover patterns in program code that can be represented by means of the advanced notational features of UML class diagrams. We obtain the necessary information by reverse-engineering Java programs with different methods. These have been implemented in a prototype implementation.
Inter-scale Prediction of Motion Information for a Wavelet-based Scalable Video

In this paper we present an efficient inter-scale motion vect or prediction scheme for a wavelet based scalable video codec which uses inter-scale wavelet prediction. The scalable vi d o codec considered in our work belongs to the class of 2D+t+2D schemes which applies 2-D spatial wavelet transform on the input data first, motion compensated temporal transform sec ond and further spatial decomposition at the last stage. Although inter-scale wavelet coefficient prediction is prove n to be very efficient in this coding scheme, inter-scale motion p rediction has not yet been analyzed in this context. We propose a prediction scheme that enables exploitation of inter scale motion redundancy and significantly enhances coding efficiency. PSNR increase of up to 1.45 dB and side information rate savings of up to 13% can be denoted, particularly fo fast moving sequences.
Purification and characterization of glutathione S-transferase of the African catfish Clarias lazera gonads

Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) catalyze the transfer of glutathione (GSH) to a variety of xenobiotic and toxic endogenous compounds. GST was purified from ovary and testis of the freshwater fish Clarias lazera by affinity chromatography. Testis GST appeared to be a homodimer of two subunits each with a molecular weight of 27.5 kDa. While ovary GST appeared to be a heterodimer of two different subunits having molecular weights of 27.5 KDa and 25.1 KDa. Kinetic analysis revealed high Km GSH value (2.5 mM) for testis GST compared to 0.5 mM for ovary GST. Ovary GST showed high activity toward the substrates paranitrophenyl acetate(pNPA), phenthylisothiocyanate (phenthyl -ITC), benzyl isothiocyanate (benzyl-ITC) and styrene-7, 8-oxide (SO) (9.39 ± 0.39, 6.96 ± 0.266, 4.76 ± 0.55 and 4.37 ± 0.075 μmol/min/mg protein, respectively). Maximum activity was obtained with SO for testis GST (215 ± 34.5μmol/min/mg protein). Hematin is the most potent inhibitor for testis GST activity however it had no effect on ovary GST. The variation in the examined characters between C. lazera GST ovary and testis account for structural composition difference between gonads GST and may suggest a critical role for GST in the reproduction process and sex differentiation.
Intercept of frequency agility signal using coding Nyquist folding receiver

The parameter estimation of the frequency agility (FA) signal using the coding Nyquist folding receiver (CNYFR) is presented. The estimation algorithm adopting linear frequency modulation (LFM) as the local analogue modulation is derived. The Nyquist zone is estimated by the pseudo Wigner-Ville distribution (PWVD) and the hopping frequencies are calculated by the maximum likelihood (ML) method. Simulations show that CNYFR with analogue modulation of LFM has better performance than the sinusoidal frequency modulation (SFM) one, and the parameter estimation accuracy is acceptable when the SNR is above 0dB.
Complex intermittency in Switching converters

Intermittent instability is commonly observed in switching power supplies during the design and development phase. It manifests as symmetrical period-doubling bifurcation in the time domain with long intermittent periods. Such intermittent operation is considered undesirable in practice and is usually avoided by appropriate adjustments of circuit parameters. This paper explores the mechanism and conditions for the emergence of intermittency in a common voltage-mode controlled buck converter. It is found that interference at frequencies near the switching frequency or its rational multiples will induce intermittent operation. The strengths and frequencies of the interfering signals determine the type and period of intermittency. The problem is analyzed by transforming the conventional parameter-bifurcation analysis to a time-bifurcation analysis. Analytical results are verified by simulations and experimental measurements.
STAR–GALAXY CLASSIFICATION IN MULTI-BAND OPTICAL IMAGING

Ground-based optical surveys such as PanSTARRS, DES, and LSST will produce large catalogs to limiting magnitudes of r ≳ 24. Star–galaxy separation poses a major challenge to such surveys because galaxies—even very compact galaxies—outnumber halo stars at these depths. We investigate photometric classification techniques on stars and galaxies with intrinsic FWHM <0.2 arcsec. We consider unsupervised spectral energy distribution template fitting and supervised, data-driven support vector machines (SVMs). For template fitting, we use a maximum likelihood (ML) method and a new hierarchical Bayesian (HB) method, which learns the prior distribution of template probabilities from the data. SVM requires training data to classify unknown sources; ML and HB do not. We consider (1) a best-case scenario (SVMbest) where the training data are (unrealistically) a random sampling of the data in both signal-to-noise and demographics and (2) a more realistic scenario where training is done on higher signal-to-noise data (SVMreal) at brighter apparent magnitudes. Testing with COSMOS ugriz data, we find that HB outperforms ML, delivering ∼80% completeness, with purity of ∼60%–90% for both stars and galaxies. We find that no algorithm delivers perfect performance and that studies of metal-poor main-sequence turnoff stars may be challenged by poor star–galaxy separation. Using the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve, we find a best-to-worst ranking of SVMbest, HB, ML, and SVMreal. We conclude, therefore, that a well-trained SVM will outperform template-fitting methods. However, a normally trained SVM performs worse. Thus, HB template fitting may prove to be the optimal classification method in future surveys.
Estimation of Physical Activity Energy Expenditure during Free-Living from Wrist Accelerometry in UK Adults

Background Wrist-worn accelerometers are emerging as the most common instrument for measuring physical activity in large-scale epidemiological studies, though little is known about the relationship between wrist acceleration and physical activity energy expenditure (PAEE). Methods 1695 UK adults wore two devices simultaneously for six days; a combined sensor and a wrist accelerometer. The combined sensor measured heart rate and trunk acceleration, which was combined with a treadmill test to yield a signal of individually-calibrated PAEE. Multi-level regression models were used to characterise the relationship between the two time-series, and their estimations were evaluated in an independent holdout sample. Finally, the relationship between PAEE and BMI was described separately for each source of PAEE estimate (wrist acceleration models and combined-sensing). Results Wrist acceleration explained 44–47% between-individual variance in PAEE, with RMSE between 34–39 J•min-1•kg-1. Estimations agreed well with PAEE in cross-validation (mean bias [95% limits of agreement]: 0.07 [-70.6:70.7]) but overestimated in women by 3% and underestimated in men by 4%. Estimation error was inversely related to age (-2.3 J•min-1•kg-1 per 10y) and BMI (-0.3 J•min-1•kg-1 per kg/m2). Associations with BMI were similar for all PAEE estimates (approximately -0.08 kg/m2 per J•min-1•kg-1). Conclusions A strong relationship exists between wrist acceleration and PAEE in free-living adults, such that irrespective of the objective method of PAEE assessment, a strong inverse association between PAEE and BMI was observed.
The Optimal Exponent Base for emPAI Is 6.5

Exponentially Modified Protein Abundance Index (emPAI) is an established method of estimating protein abundances from peptide counts in a single LC-MS/MS experiment. EmPAI is defined as 10PAI minus one, where PAI (Protein Abundance Index) denotes the ratio of observed to observable peptides. EmPAI was first proposed by Ishihama et al [1] who found that PAI is approximately proportional to the logarithm of absolute protein concentration. I define emPAI65 = 6.5PAI-1 and show that it performs significantly better than emPAI, while it is equally easy to compute. The higher accuracy of emPAI65 is demonstrated by analyzing three data sets, including the one used in the original study [1]. I conclude that emPAI65 ought to be used instead of the original emPAI for protein quantitation.
Graph processing on GPUs: Where are the bottlenecks?

Large graph processing is now a critical component of many data analytics. Graph processing is used from social networking Web sites that provide context-aware services from user connectivity data to medical informatics that diagnose a disease from a given set of symptoms. Graph processing has several inherently parallel computation steps interspersed with synchronization needs. Graphics processing units (GPUs) are being proposed as a power-efficient choice for exploiting the inherent parallelism. There have been several efforts to efficiently map graph applications to GPUs. However, there have not been many characterization studies that provide an in-depth understanding of the interaction between the GPGPU hardware components and graph applications that are mapped to execute on GPUs. In this study, we compiled 12 graph applications and collected the performance and utilization statistics of the core components of GPU while running the applications on both a cycle accurate simulator and a real GPU card. We present detailed application execution characteristics on GPUs. Then, we discuss and suggest several approaches to optimize GPU hardware for enhancing the graph application performance.
An Anesthesia Information System Designed to Provide Physician-Specific Feedback Improves Timely Administration of Prophylactic Antibiotics

Surgical site infections are a frequent cause of morbidity and mortality and add significantly to the cost of care. One component of the national Surgical Infection Prevention (SIP) program is to ensure timely administration of prophylactic antibiotics, a key factor to reduce postoperative infection. Our anesthesia department decided to assume the responsibility for timing and administration of antibiotic prophylaxis and we initiated a multitiered approach to remind the anesthesiologist to administer the prophylactic antibiotics. We used our anesthesia clinical information system to implement practice guidelines for timely antibiotic administration and to generate reports from the database to provide specific feedback to individual care providers with the goal of ensuring that patients receive antibiotic prophylaxis within 1 h of incision. Before the initiation of this project, 69% of eligible patients received antibiotics within 60 min of the incision. After the program began, there was a steady increase in compliance to 92% 1 yr later. Provider-specific feedback increases compliance with practice guidelines related to timely administration of prophylactic antibiotics. Anesthesia information systems hold promise for implementing and monitoring new practice guidelines and the anesthesiologist may play a key role in influencing surgical outcomes by ensuring appropriate therapy that may not be directly related to anesthesia care.