Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Plasma Levels of t-PA and PAI-1 Correlate With the Formation of Experimental Post-Surgical Peritoneal Adhesions

This study has evaluated whether systemic changes of plasminogen activator (t-PA) and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) parallel the adhesions development and whether they could be used as predictors of adhesion risk. This has been studied in an animal model of post-surgical peritoneal adhesion by monitoring for 10 days the plasma and tissue levels of t-PA and PAI-1. The results showed that both tissular and plasmatic levels of t-PA were decreased in concomitance with the development of peritoneal adhesions. In contrast, PAI-1 was found increased into the tissue and into the plasma samples of the rats taken at 5 and 10 days time points. Inflammatory mediators such as ICAM-1, VCAM-1, and IL-6 within the peritoneal lavage fluid also correlated with the adhesion formation process. In conclusion, post-surgical peritoneal adhesions provide alterations of local inflammatory components and local and systemic fibrinolytic components, possibly with PAI-1 quenching t-PA. This may have potential for the identification of high-risk patients.
Sexual Coercion and Victimization of College Men

The purpose of this research was to investigate the role of love styles, sexual coercion, and victimization among men. Men were classified in two categories: perpetrator (either inexperienced, consensual, or coercive) and victim (never victimized, verbally victimized, physically victimized, or both verbally and physically victimized). Love styles were indicative of both perpetrators and victims of sexual coercion. Men who reported engaging in coercive strategies were more likely to endorse Ludus (game-playing love) love style, and less likely to endorse Agape (unconditional love) love style than noncoercive men. Men who reported love styles of Storge (a friendship-first attitude toward love) and Pragma (a selective, practical approach toward love) were more likely to report being victims of sexually coercive behaviors. Those men who reported being sexually victimized were also more likely to report using coercive strategies. The results can further our understanding of male victimization and usage of sexually coercive strategies.
Foster children who decide to be called by a new first name: links to extreme defences, identity and attachment

This case-based study describes three foster children in the US, who decided to be called by a new first name at a time when hopes of reunification were fading and parental rights were being terminated. Two children decided on their own to be called by a different first name. The third child accepted the idea, which was suggested by her foster mother. Children embraced the name changes because they felt lost and wanted to fit in. For two children, the decision represented an extreme defence. With the name change, the children were able to ward off extreme anxiety and pain set in train by the impending decision about termination, but they also cut themselves off prematurely from their identities and from powerful attachment feelings. Encouraged in therapy to talk about feelings and memories associated with her real name, the third child was better able to integrate past and present, and to move forward. A sudden decision on the part of a foster child to be called by a new first name should alert others to the possible precarious state of the child’s sense of identity and attachment relationships. Helping the child in therapy to access, explore and experience feelings about the name change may have important benefits in integration and help to avoid identity foreclosure.
Social Structure from Multiple Networks. II. Role Structures

Role structures in small populations are given operational meaning as algebras generated from the sociometric blockmodels of Part I by Boolean multiplication (matrix multiplication employing binary arithmetic). Many different sociometric structures can yield the same algebraic multiplication table, which captures a different level of social structure. Elements of the algebras are interpreted concretely as compound roles, and interlock among these roles is studied through investigation of their algebraic properties (equations and inclusions). Similarities and differences among algebras from six case studies are explored by means of homomorphisms as well as by multidimensional scaling on a derivative numerical distance measure. Results for particular populations, including reliability and stability tests, are summarized through simple target tables reporting aggregations of more complicated role structures.
Participation in the Community Social Control, the Neighborhood Watch Groups

Studies confirm differences between participants and nonparticipants in voluntary organizations in general as well as those for crime prevention. Participants are more stable, longer residents, and attached residents with better socioeconomic status. Yet, previous studies have not thoroughly considered neighborhood conditions. A few studies show the overall participation-rate differences across neighborhoods without considering whether individuals residing in neighborhoods with different conditions show dissimilar patterns of participation. In addition, studies rarely consider the crime-related problems of communities. This study examines the differences between participants and nonparticipants in neighborhood crime-prevention associations with particular attention paid to the neighborhood-related factors, including crime problems. In addition, whether individual-related characteristics show the same or similar impact on participation when the community social context is in consideration is another question to be answered. It is revealed that individual- and neighborhood-related factors differentiate the residents’ participation. In particular, crime problems of the neighborhood affect participation in crime-prevention associations.
Single Insulin-Speci fi c CD 8 + T Cells Show Characteristic Gene Expression Pro fi les in Human Type 1 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE—Both the early steps and the high recurrence of autoimmunity once the disease is established are unexplained in human type 1 diabetes. Because CD8 T cells are central and insulin is a key autoantigen in the disease process, our objective was to characterize HLA class I–restricted autoreactive CD8 T cells specific for preproinsulin (PPI) in recent-onset and long-standing type 1 diabetic patients and healthy control subjects.
Measuring Boundary-Spanning Behaviors in Community Engagement.

Community engagement professionals and partners serve as, work with, study, and build the capacity of boundary spanners. To augment knowledge about these functions, the Weerts– Sandmann Boundary Spanning Conceptual Framework (2010) has been operationalized through a survey instrument to examine community engagement boundary-spanning behaviors by campus-based actors—leaders, faculty, staff, and stu dents—as well as by community-based spanners in different contexts. This article provides an explication of the underlying theoretical constructs and the development and testing process of the instrument, along with applications for multiple audiences. Implications are presented concerning contextual issues of boundary spanning and generalization of boundary-spanning roles across a variety of potential subjects.
The Asymptotic Local Structure of the Cox Modified Likelihood-Ratio Statistic for Testing Non-Nested Hypotheses

It is shown that the Cox modified likelihood-ratio statistic for testing partially non-nested hypotheses H0 and H1 is asymptotically equivalent to a bilinear form in nondegenerate asymptotically normal random vectors for sequences of data-generating processes converging to the intersection of H0 and H1 but not necessarily belonging to either H0 or H1. One of the asymptotically normal vectors is the complete parametric encompassing vector of Mizon and Richard, while the other is a close relative. The results are valid regardless of whether or not the data-generating process is exponential and imply that the Cox statistic is not generally asymptotically locally normal. This corrects an assumption made in recent literature.
Revealing the role of the product metal in DNA polymerase β catalysis

Abstract DNA polymerases catalyze a metal-dependent nucleotidyl transferase reaction during extension of a DNA strand using the complementary strand as a template. The reaction has long been considered to require two magnesium ions. Recently, a third active site magnesium ion was identified in some DNA polymerase product crystallographic structures, but its role is not known. Using quantum mechanical/ molecular mechanical calculations of polymerase β, we find that a third magnesium ion positioned near the newly identified product metal site does not alter the activation barrier for the chemical reaction indicating that it does not have a role in the forward reaction. This is consistent with time-lapse crystallographic structures following insertion of Sp-dCTPαS. Although sulfur substitution deters product metal binding, this has only a minimal effect on the rate of the forward reaction. Surprisingly, monovalent sodium or ammonium ions, positioned in the product metal site, lowered the activation barrier. These calculations highlight the impact that an active site water network can have on the energetics of the forward reaction and how metals or enzyme side chains may interact with the network to modulate the reaction barrier. These results also are discussed in the context of earlier findings indicating that magnesium at the product metal position blocks the reverse pyrophosphorolysis reaction.
iFuice - Information Fusion utilizing Instance Correspondences and Peer Mappings

a new approach to information fusion of web data sources. It is based on peer-to-peer mappings between sources and utilizes correspondences between their instances. Such correspon- dences are already available between many sources, e.g. in the form of web links, and help combine the information about spe- cific objects and support a high quality data fusion. Sources and mappings relate to a domain model to support a semantically fo- cused information fusion. The iFuice architecture incorporates a mapping mediator offering both an interactive and a script-driven, workflow-like access to the sources and their mappings. The script programmer can use powerful generic operators to execute and manipulate mappings and their results. The paper motivates the new approach and outlines the architecture and its main com- ponents, in particular the domain model, source and mapping model, and the script operators and their usage.
A method of calculating hearing loss for speech from an audiogram.

In the present paper a formula is developed for calculating the hearing loss for speech from an audiogram showing the hearing loss for each of a series of pure tones. The formula is based upon studies of loudness, including the determination of the relative contributions of different frequency regions to the audibility of speech at or near the threshold level. The formula is tested for each of 165 ears involving a wide variety of hearing losses. In every instance an audiogram is available and also an independent observation of the hearing loss for speech. The formula yields a calculated value which generally is in closer agreement with the observation than is the value calculated by the familiar rule of averaging the losses at 500, 1000, and 2000 c.p.s. The agreement is particularly better when the audiogram is not "flat. " A simplified computational rule, indicated by the more complete formula, is found within indicated limits to be almost as reliable as the
Comparison of a single case to a control or normative sample in neuropsychology: Development of a Bayesian approach

Frequentist methods are available for comparison of a patient's test score (or score difference) to a control or normative sample; these methods also provide a point estimate of the percentage of the population that would obtain a more extreme score (or score difference) and, for some problems, an accompanying interval estimate (i.e., confidence limits) on this percentage. In the present paper we develop a Bayesian approach to these problems. Despite the very different approaches, the Bayesian and frequentist methods yield equivalent point and interval estimates when (a) a case's score is compared to that of a control sample, and (b) when the raw (i.e., unstandardized) difference between a case's scores on two tasks are compared to the differences in controls. In contrast, the two approaches differ with regard to point estimates of the abnormality of the difference between a case's standardized scores. The Bayesian method for standardized differences has the advantages that (a) it can directly evaluate the probability that a control will obtain a more extreme difference score, (b) it appropriately incorporates error in estimating the standard deviations of the tasks from which the patient's difference score is derived, and (c) it provides a credible interval for the abnormality of the difference between an individual's standardized scores; this latter problem has failed to succumb to frequentist methods. Computer programs that implement the Bayesian methods are described and made available.
High productivity reconfigurable digital control system and its application on magnetic bearing

This paper proposes a digital control system with features of high productivity and reconfiguration, which is named HPRDCS. The system is partitioned into two subsystems with three layers and implemented based on a single FPGA chip. The control subsystem performs basic control functions using hardware methods based on HDL languages, thus forms the hardware real-time layer. The embedded subsystem with Linux-RTAI OS forms the hard real-time layer and user layer, which provides real-time and non-real-time features for different demands of required functions. The detailed system block design and realization of the HPRDCS is presented. Rapid developing prototyping methods based on Matlab/Simulink are given. An application of developing an active magnetic bearing system using HPRDCS shows the system is easy to use and has a comparable performance with that of dSpace system.
The Developmental Dynamics of Aggression and the Prevention of School Violence

The authors consider school violence from a dynamic systems conceptualization of aggression. This perspective suggests that aggression and school violence involve the contributions of both school social dynamics and the developmental histories of youth who are at risk for involvement in antisocial behavior. The authors present the concept of correlated constraints to describe the systematic alignment of developmental factors and their role in behavioral continuity and realignment. Building from this perspective, the authors present a theoretical framework that complements public health models of prevention to guide the establishment of comprehensive programs for preventing aggressive and violent behavior in schools. This framework suggests that three distinct but complementary levels of intervention are required to effectively reduce school violence: (a) universal strategies to address contextual factors, including the social dynamics of aggression and the activities of “conventional” peers that promote interpersonal conflict; (b) selective strategies for supporting the strengths of at-risk youth to prevent the negative reorganization of their developmental systems; and (c) indicated strategies involving coordinated services from multiple providers to reorganize the developmental systems of high-risk youth (i.e., youth with emotional and behavioral disorders).
Small amounts of tissue preserve pancreatic function

AbstractMiddle-segment preserving pancreatectomy (MPP) is a novel procedure for treating multifocal lesions of the pancreas while preserving pancreatic function. However, long-term pancreatic function after this procedure remains unclear.The aims of this current study are to investigate short- and long-term outcomes, especially long-term pancreatic endocrine function, after MPP.From September 2011 to December 2015, 7 patients underwent MPP in our institution, and 5 cases with long-term outcomes were further analyzed in a retrospective manner. Percentage of tissue preservation was calculated using computed tomography volumetry. Serum insulin and C-peptide levels after oral glucose challenge were evaluated in 5 patients. Beta-cell secreting function including modified homeostasis model assessment of beta-cell function (HOMA2-beta), area under the curve (AUC) for C-peptide, and C-peptide index were evaluated and compared with those after pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) and total pancreatectomy. Exocrine function was assessed based on questionnaires.Our case series included 3 women and 2 men, with median age of 50 (37–81) years. Four patients underwent pylorus-preserving PD together with distal pancreatectomy (DP), including 1 with spleen preserved. The remaining patient underwent Beger procedure and spleen-preserving DP. Median operation time and estimated intraoperative blood loss were 330 (250–615) min and 800 (400–5500) mL, respectively. Histological examination revealed 3 cases of metastatic lesion to the pancreas, 1 case of chronic pancreatitis, and 1 neuroendocrine tumor. Major postoperative complications included 3 cases of delayed gastric emptying and 2 cases of postoperative pancreatic fistula. Imaging studies showed that segments representing 18.2% to 39.5% of the pancreas with good blood supply had been preserved. With a median 35.0 months of follow-ups on pancreatic functions, only 1 patient developed new-onset diabetes mellitus of the 4 preoperatively euglycemic patients. Beta-cell function parameters in this group of patients were quite comparable to those after Whipple procedure, and seemed better than those after total pancreatectomy. No symptoms of hypoglycemia were identified in any patient, although half of the patients reported symptoms of exocrine insufficiency.In conclusion, MPP is a feasible and effective procedure for middle-segment sparing multicentric lesions in the pancreas, and patients exhibit satisfied endocrine function after surgery.
Economic Geographies of Power: Methodological Challenges and Interdisciplinary Analytical Possibilities

How can the modalities and whereabouts of power - and specifically the spatio-temporal contingencies and reach of power relations - be more effectively studied? This paper shows how issues of validity and reflexivity restrict existing empirical work’s ability to advance understandings of power, and demonstrates how such issues can be overcome through the refined use of methods and analytical techniques that tease out the double contingencies of the social relations that underlie power. Refinements are shown to be possible by learning, in particular, from approaches to analysing power elsewhere in the social sciences, and particularly from management studies and linguistics.
Japanese Language Proficiency, Social Networking, and Language Use during Study Abroad: Learners' Perspectives

This study examines the self-perceived speaking proficiency development of 204 learners of Japanese who studied abroad in Japan and analyzes connections between self-reported social network development, language use, and speaking development. Learners perceived that they gained the most in areas associated with the intermediate and advanced levels of the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) Speaking Proficiency Guidelines and the least in novice and superior-level abilities, largely because of a ceiling effect - learners were highly capable of novice-level tasks before study abroad and therefore had little to gain. Regression analysis indicated that self-reported pre-departure proficiency level, dispersion (number of social groups in which a learner participated), time spent in Japan, total time spent speaking Japanese, time spent speaking with native-speaker friends, and time spent speaking English with native speakers of Japanese predicted 44.6% of the variance in the perceived gains of study abroad in speaking proficiency. Self-reported pre-departure proficiency level and time spent speaking English with native speakers of Japanese were negative predictors.
A Generic Query Model for the Unified Discovery of Heterogeneous Services

In this paper, we propose Proteus, a generic query model for the discovery of operations offered by heterogeneous services. We demonstrate the need for such a model, and show how it unifies the task of service discovery through abstractions, which allow for the technology-independent formulation of service advertisements, queries, and query responses. On top of these generic elements, we build an intuitive, fuzzy-based query evaluation mechanism that supports the service matchmaking process by employing and appropriately combining existing similarity metrics. Thanks to the generality of Proteus, it is possible to seamlessly accommodate the discovery of operations provided by various types of services without the need of changing the existing service infrastructure. Thus, our approach is applicable to a variety of settings ranging from traditional web services to service-oriented grids, peer-to-peer networks, geospatial information systems, and so on. Overall, compared to the existing query models supported by standard service discovery technologies, our approach is marked by openness, flexibility, and improved performance in terms of precision and recall. The feasibility and efficiency of Proteus are verified by a series of experiments.
Affective Norms for English Words (ANEW): Instruction Manual and Affective Ratings

depressed individuals recalled fewer positive words than did their taken from the Affective Norms for English. Words list (ANEW, Bradley Affective norms for English words (ANEW): Instruction manual and affective ratings (pp. 1–45). Publication » Affective Norms for English Words (ANEW): Instruction Manual and Affective Ratings. Affective norms. English words (ANEW): Stimuli, instruction manual and affective ratings. Technical report. The Center for Research in Psychophysiology.
A Practical Approach to Requirements Reuse in Product Families of On-Board Systems

Requirements reuse has become one of the most challenging topics in the Requirements Engineering (RE) field over the last years. Tangible solutions are needed to address the practicalities. This paper aims to show how such a solution can be integrated into a well-known RE tool. An add-in was created to ensure the coherency of reused specifications within the product family (PF) and to allow their evolution in future programs of the PF. This paper also presents the experience gained in the creation of PF specifications in military aircraft on-board systems for tactical missions. This kind of system typically reuses components associated with a standard set of sensors capturing real-time battlefield information. A reuse model and genuine data regarding savings are provided to illustrate the economic benefits derived from the systematic reuse of requirements. Inferred potential additional savings from the reuse of testing procedures and design elements are also outlined.