Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Antagonist thigh-muscle activity in 6-to-8-year-old children assessed by surface EMG during walking

Analysis of muscle co-contractions seems to be relevant in the characterization of children pathologies such as spastic cerebral palsy. The aim of the study was the quantification of thigh-muscle co-contractions during walking in healthy children. To this aim, the Statistical Gait Analysis, a recent methodology providing a statistical characterization of gait, was performed on surface EMG signals from Vastus Medialis (VM) and Lateral Hamstrings (LH) in 30 healthy 6-to-8-year-old children. Muscular co-contraction was assessed as the overlapping period between activation intervals of agonist and antagonist muscles. As in adults, VM activity occurring from terminal swing to the following loading response superimposed LH activity in the same percentage of the gait cycle. This co-contraction occurred in order to control knee joint stability during weight acceptance. It was acknowledged in the totality (100 %) of the considered strides. Concomitant activity of VM and LH was detected also in the second half of stance phase in 17.1 ± 4.8 % of the considered strides. Working VM and LH on different joints, this concomitant activity of antagonist muscles should not be considered as an actual co-contraction. Present findings provide new information on the variability of the reciprocal role of VM and LH during child walking, useful for comparison between normal and pathological walking in the clinical context and for designing future studies on maturation of gait.
Religious Orientation and Moral Judgment

Two studies were conducted to examine 1) the relationship between the three dimensions (quest, end, and means) of Batson's model of religiosity and level of moral judgment; and 2) the utility of Allport's religious orientations (intrinsic, extrinsic, indiscriminately proreligious, and indiscriminately antireligious) in predicting differences in level of moral judgment. Of Batson's three dimensions, only the quest orientation correlated significantly with moral judgment, while of Allport's orientations, the indiscriminately antireligious orientation had some utility for predicting differences among levels of moral judgment.
Microvascular Complications of NIDDM in Hispanics and Non-Hispanic Whites: San Luis Valley Diabetes Study

The goal of this article was to examine the differences in the rates of microvascular complications of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) in Hispanic and non-Hispanic white subjects. This was a geographically based case-control study where prevalent cases of NIDDM were identified in medical records. Subjects attended a 4-h clinic to confirm NIDDM diagnosis and assess complication end points. Retinopathy was defined by stereofundus photographs. Distal symmetric neuropathy was determined by standardized clinical examination. Nephropathy was indicated by serum creatinine level, urine protein-creatinine ratio, and urine albumin concentration. This study consisted of 279 NIDDM subjects confirmed by oral glucose tolerance test and World Health Organization criteria aged 20–74 yr (187 Hispanic and 92 non-Hispanic white subjects). Duration-adjusted prevalence of retinopathy was significantly higher in non-Hispanic white subjects (54.1 per 100, 95% confidence interval [CI] 44.4–63.7) than in Hispanics (41.8 per 100, 95% CI 34.8–48.8). This excess occurred only in non-Hispanic white subjects with background retinopathy but not in those with more severe retinopathy. Hispanics and non-Hispanic white subjects did not differ significantly for the prevalence of neuropathy (31.6 per 100 in non-Hispanic white subjects and 26.3 per 100 in Hispanics) or nephropathy by any measure. There were no significant differences in duration of diabetes or mean glycohemoglobin levels between ethnic groups. Microvascular complications of NIDDM are not in excess among Colorado Hispanics, and retinopathy may be somewhat more common in non-Hispanic white people.
Biomagnetic inverse solution using combined-norm and pointwise normalization

In this paper, we propose a method of solving the biomagnetic inverse problem consisting of two approaches, the first of which is pointwise normalization. In the conventional normalization technique, each variable is normalized individually. This variablewise normalization is appropriate for scalar fields, but not for vector fields where one vector on a grid point is represented by several variables. Hence, pointwise operation is needed for vector fields. The second is a combination of norms. Use of the /spl lscr//sub 2/-norm as the cost function of an optimization problem is known to lead to spatially spread solutions, while the /spl lscr//sub 2/-norm leads to sparse solutions. To control sparseness of solutions, we propose to use an internal division of the /spl lscr//sub 2/-norm and pointwise normalized /spl lscr//sub 2/-norm. The optimization problem constructed as above can be recast as a second-order cone program (SOCP), a nonlinear convex problem. The problem can be solved using recently developed efficient interior-point methods. Computer simulations showed that the sparseness of estimators obtained with the proposed method reflects both the ratio of internal division and the sparseness of true sources. Regularization of normalization and relaxation of constraint conditions in the presence of noise are also presented.
The Role of Gallium (Ga-67) Scintigraphy in the Diagnosis of Sarcoidosis

Purpose: To identify and interrogate the role of Gallium-67 scintigraphy in the diagnosis of Sarcoidosis. Methods: A retrospective study of 75 patients with suspected Sarcoidosis in a large teaching hospital with a specialist Sarcoidosis Centre. Results: Ga-67 scintigraphy in patients considered on clinical grounds to have Sarcoidosis is a useful and sensitive test, and furthermore, by relaxing the interpretation of gallium scintigraphy sensitivity may be increased (from 20% to 80%) for a relatively small drop in specificity. Conclusions: The sensitivity of diagnostic power may be increased with a change in diagnostic criteria at the expense of only a small drop in specificity. In the context of Neurosarcoidosis, our results support the theory that Ga-67 scintigraphy has value in identifying potential, asymptomatic biopsy sites outside of the CNS that may not be identified by other forms of imaging.
PTEN breast cancer susceptibility: a matter of dose

The phosphatase and tensin homolog located on chromosome ten, PTEN, is one of the most commonly mutated tumor suppressor genes (TSGs) in human cancer [1–3]. PTEN catalyzes the conversion of the membrane lipid second messenger PIP3 to PIP2 and is therefore a key mediator of the AKT/PKB pathway [4,5]. Although inherited PTEN mutations predispose to the development of Cowden syndrome, which is also a breast cancer susceptibility syndrome, the role of PTEN in breast tumorigenesis has been considered minor when compared to that of other TSGs such as BRCA1 or p53 [6]. There is no current evidence that mutations in PTEN account for a substantial proportion of familial breast cancer in the absence of Cowden syndrome [6]. Moreover, PTEN mutations or deletions are not common in sporadic breast tumors, especially when compared with other tumor types (<5%) such as prostate cancer [7, 8]. Despite this evidence, recent studies have demonstrated that PTEN protein down-regulation is frequently observed (more than 50%) in sporadic breast tumors, highlighting the relevance of the dose of this TSG for the pathogenesis of breast cancer [7–9]. Our paper, in the last month’s issue of Nature Genetics provides additional evidence of the role of PTEN dose in breast cancer susceptibility, braking current dogmas regarding the development of cancer and opening to novel clinical and therapeutic implications [10].
ProbeBuilder: Uncovering Opaque Kernel Data Structures for Automatic Probe Construction

VM-based inspection tools generally implement probes in the hypervisor to monitor events and the state of kernel of the guest system. The most important function of a probe is to carve information of interest out of the memory of the guest when it is triggered. Implementing probes for a closed-source OS demands manually reverse-engineering the undocumented code/data structures in the kernel binary image. Furthermore, the reverse-engineering result is often non-reusable between OS versions or even kernel updates due to the rapid change of these structures. In this paper, we propose ProbeBuilder, a system automating the process to inference kernel data structures. Based on dynamic execution, ProbeBuilder searches for data structures matching the “pointer-offset-pointer” pattern in guest memory. The sequences of these offsets, which are referred to as dereferences, are then verified by ProbeBuilder with instruction evidence that traverse them. The experiment on Windows kernel shows that ProbeBuilder efficiently narrows thousands of choices for kernel-level probes down to dozens. The finding allows analysts to quickly implement probes, facilitating rapid development/update of inspection tools for different OSes. With these features, ProbeBuilder is the first system capable of automatically generating practical probes that extracts information through dereferences to opaque kernel data structures.
EXPONENTIATED GUMBEL DISTRIBUTION FOR ESTIMATION OF RETURN LEVELS OF SIGNIFICANT WAVE HEIGHT

The exponentiated Gumbel (EG) distribution has been proposed as a generalization of the classical Gumbel distribution. In this paper we discuss estimation of T-year return values for significant wave height in a case study and compare point estimates and their uncertainties to the results given by alternative approaches using Gumbel or Generalized Extreme Value distributions. A jackknife approach is made to investigate the sensitivity of the parameter estimates and various model selection criteria are employed to compare the models. When examining Anderson–Darling distances between samples and extreme value distributions, the EG distribution turns out to give the closest fit. However, general recommendations whether to use Gumbel or EG distribution cannot be given.
The developmental functions of BDNF and MeCP2 on dendritic and synaptic structure

Mutations in the transcriptional repressor MeCP2 cause Rett Syndrome (RTT), a mental retardation disease associated with reduced dendritic architecture of cortical pyramidal neurons, in addition to a decrease in the number of dendritic spines. I present the first quantification analysis of spine density in postmortem human brain tissue, demonstrating that hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons have reduced spine densities in RTT patients throughout their lives. One gene that MeCP2 regulates is BDNF, an important developmental factor that modulates synaptic transmission and plasticity, as well as spine formation and maturation. In immature cultured hippocampal neurons, cell-autonomous expression of BDNF accelerates the differentiation and growth of dendrites and axons. In hippocampal slice cultures, BDNF increases the number of dendritic spines and modulates their morphology towards more mature shaped spines. However, fine-tuned BDNF expression is critical for spine development, as BDNF overexpression in hippocampal pyramidal neurons is associated with spine regression and instability. Since BDNF is a critical player in dendritic and axonal development, I examined the influence of MeCP2 expression on neuronal differentiation and dendritic spine maintenance. The knockdown of MeCP2 in cultured hippocampal neurons and slices reduced dendritic length and number of mature-shaped spines. The overexpression of wildtype MeCP2 causes an increase in neurite outgrowth in neuronal cultures, but negatively regulates spine density 48hrs after overexpression in slice cultures. Consistent with the neuropathology observed in RTT pa-
Dynamics of fine root carbon in Amazonian tropical ecosystems and the contribution of roots to soil respiration

Radiocarbon (C) provides a measure of the mean age of carbon (C) in roots, or the time elapsed since the C making up root tissues was fixed from the atmosphere. Radiocarbon signatures of live and dead fine (o2 mm diameter) roots in two mature Amazon tropical forests are consistent with average ages of 4–11 years (ranging from o1 to 440 years). Measurements of C in the structural tissues of roots known to have grown during 2002 demonstrate that new roots are constructed from recent (o2-year-old) photosynthetic products. High DC values in live roots most likely indicate the mean lifetime of the root rather than the isotopic signature of inherited C or C taken up from the soil. Estimates of the mean residence time of C in forest fine roots (inventory divided by loss rate) are substantially shorter (1–3 years) than the age of standing fine root C stocks obtained from radiocarbon (4–11 years). By assuming positively skewed distributions for root ages, we can effectively decouple the mean age of C in live fine roots (measured using C) from the rate of C flow through the live root pool, and resolve these apparently disparate estimates of root C dynamics. Explaining the C values in soil pore space CO2, in addition, requires that a portion of the decomposing roots be cycled through soil organic matter pools with decadal turnover time.
Automating data warehouse conceptual schema design and evaluation

The popularity of data warehouses for analysis of data has grown tremendously, but much of the creation of data warehouses is done manually. We propose and illustrate algorithms for automatic conceptual schema development and evaluation. Our creation algorithm uses an enterprise schema of an operational database as a starting point for source-driven data warehouse schema design. Candidate conceptual schemas are created using the ME/R model, extended to note where additional user input can be used to further refine a schema. Our evaluation algorithm follows a user-driven requirements approach that utilizes queries to guide selection of candidate schemas most likely to meet user needs. In addition, we propose a guideline of manual steps to refine a conceptual schema to suit additional user needs, for example, the level of detail needed for date fields. The algorithms are illustrated using the TPC-H Benchmark schema and queries. Our algorithms provide a foundation for a software tool to create and evaluate data warehouse conceptual schemas.
On the feasibility of utilizing correlations between user populations for traffic inference

Network models today are often derived from two different methods. On one hand, detailed traffic models are generated based on traces from a single tap into the network. Alternatively, one can collect higher-level traffic-matrix data with SNMP from many routers. However, inferring flow-level details from such data is still an open research issue. Today it is infeasible to collect a fine-grained, packet-level representation of a complete, multi-router network. Even if it were economically feasible to synchronize and monitor every router in a large network, the amount of data generated would tax storage and computation resources. In this work, we propose a methodology to infer flow-level traffic across a network by exploiting the correlations between user populations across different networks. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, based on traces of Web traffic collected from two different sources, we observe that the user-behavior parameters of the traffic (such as user "think" time in Web traffic) are correlated across time, while the application-specific parameters of the traffic (such as object size) are correlated across "similar" networks. Second, by utilizing the correlations between similar networks, we propose a methodology for inferring traffic at places where continuously taking measurements is infeasible. We evaluate the effectiveness of our methodology via simulation
Tactics for teaching evidence-based practice: improving self-efficacy in finding and appraising evidence in a master's evidence-based practice unit.

This column shares the best evidence-based strategies and innovative ideas on how to facilitate the learning of EBP principles and processes by clinicians as well as nursing and interprofessional students. Guidelines for submission are available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley. com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1741-6787.
Acquisition Experience and Acquisition Success : Examining the Mediating Role of Acquisition Implementation and Mode Selection Capabilities

Recent studies explore how firms’ experience with corporate acquisitions can influence acquisition outcomes and firm performance. Although discussion has focused on the idea that acquisition experience may improve performance by improving firms’ capability to implement acquisitions, little research has systematically tested the idea that acquisition implementation capabilities might mediate any impact of experience on performance. Moreover, the literature has paid little attention to an important preceding step, the selection of when acquisitions are appropriate to use as a means of obtaining targeted resources. This paper draws on the organizational learning literature to argue that acquisition experience improves firms’ ability to select acquisitions in appropriate governance conditions as well as their ability to implement acquisitions effectively. Using a sample of 162 acquisitions in the international telecommunications industry, we find that both types of acquisition capability increase with acquisition experience and, in turn, contribute to both acquisition success and long-term firm survival. We found that an apparent positive direct impact of acquisition experience on acquisition success disappears when one accounts for the mediators of acquisition selection and implementation capabilities.
The acceptability of nanocarriers for drug delivery in different contexts of use: perceptions of researchers and research trainees in the field of new technologies

Background Despite marked optimism in the field of nanomedicine about the use of drug-delivery nanocarriers, uncertainties exist concerning nanocarriers’ possible unintended impacts and effects. These uncertainties could affect user acceptance and acceptability. “Acceptance” refers to the intention to put a technology or a device to a specified use. “Acceptability” refers to a value judgment that accounts for acceptance. The objectives of this study were to characterize impact perception, acceptance, and acceptability in relation to drug-delivery nanocarriers in different contexts of use, and to explore relationships among these concepts. Methods A sample of European and Canadian researchers and graduate research trainees active in the field of new technologies was recruited by targeted email invitation for participation in a web-based questionnaire study. The questionnaire presented scenarios for two contexts of use (lung cancer, seasonal flu) of drug-delivery nanocarriers with two compositions (carbon, synthetic DNA). Respondents’ impact perception, acceptance, and acceptability judgment in relation to each kind of nanocarrier in each context of use were measured with Likert scale questions and scored using categorical values. Results Two hundred and fourteen researchers and graduate research trainees completed the questionnaire. The results showed that nanocarrier composition influenced impact perception: as compared with the carbon nanocarrier impact perception, the positive impacts of the synthetic DNA nanocarrier were perceived as more significant and more likely to occur than its negative impacts. Composition did not influence acceptance or acceptability. Context of use significantly influenced acceptance and acceptability of both kinds of nanocarriers: researchers were more likely to accept the use of nanocarriers to treat lung cancer than the seasonal flu. The results also showed a significant relationship between acceptance and the perceived usefulness of the treatments. Conclusion Nanocarrier composition does not appear to influence acceptance or acceptability. On the other hand, the nanocarriers’ perceived usefulness and context of use are both major factors in accounting for acceptance and acceptability.
Malaria overdiagnosis: is patient pressure the problem?

OBJECTIVE In Africa antimalarials are often prescribed when malaria is unlikely, a problem that is becoming critical as more expensive antimalarials replace established drugs. However, little is known about what drives the overuse of antimalarials. We conducted this study to explore to what extent current prescribing behaviour in hospitals is driven by patient demand. METHODS Consultations were observed followed by exit interviews with patients or caretakers. Five district hospitals where microscopy was routinely available were selected in areas of low (n = 3) and high (n = 2) malaria transmission in north-eastern Tanzania. All outpatient consultations during the study period were observed (n = 669). Those sent for a malaria blood slide or treated with antimalarials presumptively were interviewed (n = 326). At the end of the study, clinicians were interviewed for their opinions on the use of antimalarials. FINDINGS Patients were not observed to demand antimalarials from clinicians, but occasionally asked for a malaria slide. Patient satisfaction on exit was similar between those prescribed antimalarials and those not prescribed antimalarials, but more patients or carers expressed satisfaction when the patient had been tested than when not. Clinicians rarely reported perceiving patient demand for antimalarials and asserted that such demand for medication would not affect their prescribing behaviour. CONCLUSIONS Patient demand was not found to be driving the over-prescription of antimalarials found in the hospitals in our setting. To the contrary, the involvement of patients may provide an opportunity to improve prescribing practice if their expectations for testing and treatment in line with test results can be effectively communicated to clinicians.
Principles and algorithms of EMMIL marketplaces

EMMIL - e-marketplace model integrated with logistics - represents a new approach to B2B e-commerce. EMMIL structures bring together three entity types - seller, buyer and third party logistics service provider - within the same transaction thus enabling combined total cost optimisation for purchase and delivery. We give an overview of the general principles of EMMIL then present the case of buyer oriented marketplaces in more detail. A composite procurement auction is introduced in which bids from sellers of goods and from logistics providers are combined. After formulating the optimisation problem, we investigate possible solution methods for different scenarios.
Peak Detector Effect in Low-Dropout Regulators

The peak detector effect is a phenomenon that makes single event transients much longer once an error amplifier switches from linear to saturation zone due to the presence of external capacitors. This is so-called since it was discovered in a simple voltage reference in which a parasitic lossy peak detector was unwillingly built in the output stage. In this paper, peak detector effect is generalized to explain the appearance of long duration pulses in typical low dropout voltage regulator built with discrete devices. This effect has been related to the way in which the negative feedback loop is closed and to the kind of pass device in the output stage. Thus, if the linear voltage regulator consists in an error amplifier the output of which controls a current source, the peak detector effect will occur if the current source is unidirectional, the output load does not drain enough current and is in parallel with an external capacitor.