Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Developmental trajectories of forward and backward digit spans in deaf children with cochlear implants

Abstract Background Accounting for outcome variability among pediatric cochlear implant (CI) recipients is an enduring clinical challenge. Short-term memory and working memory (STM/WM), as indexed by digit span forward (DSF) and digit span backward (DSB), have been shown to be strongly correlated with speech and language (S/L) outcomes. The enormous variability observed in conventional outcome measures of S/L may reflect individual differences in STM/WM. Methods Repeated measure auditory digit spans were obtained from 110 children (age 3–15 years; mean 7.2 years) with at least 2 years of CI use. Growth curves were computed for each child, and linear functions were fit to both DSF and DSB. Slopes and intercepts were used as parameters in mixed-models to assess relations between STM/WM capacity change over time and S/L outcome measures including vocabulary (PPVT), open-set set spoken word recognition (PBK), and sentence perception (HINT-C). Results For DSF, the percent of the sample more than 1 SD below the norm at each age ranged from 54 to 90% (mean = 66.5%). For DSB, the percent of the sample more than 1 SD below the norm at each age ranged from 23 to 42% (mean = 34.5%) at ages where there were at least five children. Four subgroups within our CI sample emerged: (Subgroup 1) children demonstrating age-appropriate growth in both DSF and DSB scores over time (49/110, 44.55%); (Subgroup 2) children demonstrating age appropriate growth in DSF over time but below average growth in DSB over time (23/110, 20.91%); (Subgroup 3) children demonstrating below average growth in DSF over time but age-appropriate growth in DSB over time (19/110, 17.27%); and (Subgroup 4) children demonstrating below average growth in both DSF and DSB over time (19/110, 17.27%). For all tests except CELF-3, Subgroup 4 demonstrated the poorest performance among the four DS slope subgroups. Significant differences were observed between Subgroup 1 and Subgroup 4 on last visit PBK-Word (P = 0.029), PPVT (P = 0.018), and HINT-C in Quiet (P = 0.001), but not CELF-3 (P = 0.433). Conclusion The findings from this longitudinal study suggest that differences in the rate of development of STM/WM may influence S/L outcomes in children with CIs. The clinical implications of these findings are significant because they indicate that the rate of development of STM/WM, and not just the actual level of STM/WM at a single time point, predicts later S/L development in this clinical population. Targeted interventions to improve developmental rate of verbal STM/WM may hold promise for enhancing S/L skills in children with CIs.
Carotid Intima-Media Thickening Indicates a Higher Vascular Risk Across a Wide Age Range: Prospective Data From the Carotid Atherosclerosis Progression Study (CAPS)

Background and Purpose— Carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) is an independent predictor of vascular events in age groups >45 years. However, there is little information about the predictive value of IMT in younger individuals. Methods— In the Carotid Atherosclerosis Progression Study (CAPS; n=5056; age range 19 to 90 years; mean age 50.1 years), common carotid artery (CCA) IMT, bifurcation IMT, internal carotid artery IMT and vascular risk factors were evaluated at baseline. The incidence of stroke, myocardial infarction (MI), and death was determined prospectively. Data for younger (<50 years; n=2436) and older subjects (≥50 years; n=2620) were analyzed separately using Cox proportional hazard regression models. Results— During a mean follow-up period of 4.2 years, there were 228 cases of MI, 107 strokes, and 50 deaths. IMT at all carotid segments was highly predictive of all end points (eg, hazard rate ratios [HRRs] per 1 SD CCA-IMT increase were 1.43 [95% CI: 1.35 to 1.51] for MI, 1.47 [1.35 to 1.60] for stroke, and 1.45 [1.38 to 1.52] for MI, stroke or death; all P<0.0001). Even after adjustment for age, sex, and vascular risk factors, the predictive value of CCA-IMT and bifurcation IMT remained significant for MI and the combined end point. For the latter, the HRRs were considerably higher in the younger than in the older age group (eg, HRR per 0.1 mm CCA-IMT was 1.34 [1.16 to 1.55] vis-à-vis 1.10 [1.05 to 1.15]; P=0.011 for age-IMT interaction). Conclusions— Carotid IMT independently predicts future vascular events. Its predictive value is at least as high in younger subjects as in older subjects.
Postsecondary education and heavy drinking by young adults: the moderating effect of race.

OBJECTIVE This study examined racial differences in the relationship between postsecondary education (PSE) and heavy drinking among young adults who participated in the 1998 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. METHOD In-home survey data collected from 6,374 18-25 year olds were analyzed to examine black-white differences in the relationship between PSE and past-month heavy drinking (five or more consecutive alcoholic beverages). Logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the interactive effect of PSE and race on heavy drinking, and the degree to which selected psychosocial risk and protective factors help to explain the differential association between PSE and heavy drinking. RESULTS The prevalence of past-month heavy drinking was significantly higher among whites with at least some PSE than whites without any PSE (41% vs 30%/6), whereas no differences in past-month heavy drinking were observed among blacks who did and did not have at least some PSE (15% vs 16%). This differential relationship persisted when early initiation of alcohol use and demographic characteristics were adjusted for. The effect of PSE on heavy drinking among whites was substantially reduced by controlling for perceived drinking among friends, friends' social support and subjects' propensity for risk taking or sensation seeking. PSE was inversely, although not significantly, associated with heavy drinking among blacks, after adjusting for early alcohol use and demographic characteristics. This inverse relationship was no longer present after controlling for psychosocial factors (e.g., religiosity, perceived harm of heavy drinking) that were associated with PSE and heavy drinking among blacks. CONCLUSIONS The apparent effect of college attendance on heavy drinking among young adults is driven by the fact that the majority of young adults who attend college are white. College attendance does not appear to increase the likelihood of heavy drinking among black young adults. Additional research with longitudinal data is needed to better understand how the college environment affects alcohol use among whites, and whether blacks who attend predominantly white colleges are more likely to drink heavily than those who attend traditionally black colleges.
Racial differences in the survival of childhood B-precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia: a Pediatric Oncology Group Study.

PURPOSE We conducted a historic cohort study to test the hypothesis that, after adjustment for biologic factors, African-American (AA) children and Spanish surname (SS) children with newly diagnosed B-precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia had lower survival than did comparable white children. PATIENTS AND METHODS From 1981 to 1994, 4,061 white, 518 AA, and 507 SS children aged 1 to 20 years were treated on three successive Pediatric Oncology Group multicenter randomized clinical trials. RESULTS AA and SS patients were more likely to have adverse prognostic features at diagnosis and lower survival than were white patients. The 5-year cumulative survival rates were (probability +/- SE) 81.9% +/- 0.6%, 68.6% +/- 2.1%, and 74.9% +/- 2.0% for white, AA, and SS children, respectively. Adjusting for age, leukocyte count, sex, era of treatment, and leukemia blast cell ploidy, we found that AA children had a 42% excess mortality rate compared with white children (proportional hazards ratio [PHR] = 1.42; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.12 to 1. 80), and SS children had a 33% excess mortality rate compared with white children (PHR = 1.33; 95% CI, 1.19 to 1.49). CONCLUSION Clinical presentation, tumor biology, and deviations from prescribed therapy did not explain the differences in survival and event-free survival that we observed, although differences seem to be diminishing over time with improvements in therapy. The disparity in outcome for AA and SS children is most likely related to variations in chemotherapeutic response to therapy and not to compliance. Further improvements in outcome may require individualized dosing based on specific pharmacogenetic profiles, especially for AA and SS children.
A net carbohydrate and protein system for evaluating cattle diets: I. Ruminal fermentation.

The Cornell Net Carbohydrate and Protein System (CNCPS) has a kinetic submodel that predicts ruminal fermentation. The ruminal microbial population is divided into bacteria that ferment structural carbohydrate (SC) and those that ferment nonstructural carbohydrate (NSC). Protozoa are accommodated by a decrease in the theoretical maximum growth yield (.50 vs .40 g of cells per gram of carbohydrate fermented), and the yields are adjusted for maintenance requirements (.05 vs .150 g of cell dry weight per gram of carbohydrate fermented per hour for SC and NSC bacteria, respectively). Bacterial yield is decreased when forage NDF is < 20% (2.5% for every 1% decrease in NDF). The SC bacteria utilize only ammonia as a N source, but the NSC bacteria can utilize either ammonia or peptides. The yield of NSC bacteria is enhanced by as much as 18.7% when proteins or peptides are available. The NSC bacteria produce less ammonia when the carbohydrate fermentation (growth) rate is rapid, but 34% of the ammonia production is insensitive to the rate of carbohydrate fermentation. Ammonia production rates are moderated by the rate of peptide and amino acid uptake (.07 g of peptide per gram of cells per hour), and peptides and amino acids can pass out of the rumen if the rate of proteolysis is faster than the rate of peptide utilization. The protein-sparing effect of ionophores is accommodated by decreasing the rate of peptide uptake by 34%. Validation with published data of microbial flow from the rumen gave a regression with a slope of . 94 and an r2 of . 88.
Power Allocation in HetNets with Hybrid Energy Supply Using Actor-Critic Reinforcement Learning

In order to utilize renewable energy and save conventional energy, energy saving traffic offloading in heterogeneous networks (HetNets) has been attracting attentions by many literature in recent years. This paper focuses on the power allocation problem after user scheduling or traffic offloading, with the goal of optimizing the network energy efficiency. Due to the stochastic property of wireless channels and green energy situation, meanwhile the state transition probabilities and expected rewards for all states are unknown in mobile environments, a stochastic optimal power allocation policy for in HetNets should be learned. We formulate and solve the energy-efficiency oriented power allocation problem in HetNets with the policy-gradient-based actor-critic algorithm, which is a model-free reinforcement learning framework and has been successfully used in applications, such as robotics and operations research. We use the parameterized policy to select actions and update the parameters using the gradient ascend method. The numerical simulations are shown to demonstrate the performance of the proposed algorithm.
Minimum Mean-Square Error Timing Recovery Schemes for Digital Equalizers

Two algorithms are presented for optimum timing recovery in digitally implemented equalizers. The first one is a polarity-type algorithm based on the conventional minimum mean-square error criterion. A theoretical analysis is made to characterize the algorithm phase detector and evaluate its steady-state phase jitter variance. Influence of various channel and system design parameters on the algorithm performance is illustrated using phase jitter probability densities obtained by means of computer simulations. Interaction of the algorithm with decision-directed carrier recovery is also examined. It is shown that interaction with carrier recovery may considerably degrade the timing acquisition performance, and a second algorithm is then presented which eliminates this interaction. The second algorithm is based on the minimization of a modified mean-square error criterion which provides a measure of the intersymbol interference, independently of the carrier phase. Decision-directed timing and carrier recoveries are thus decoupled and the system startup period is considerably reduced. Phase detector characteristic and steady-state jitter performance of the second algorithm are evaluated by analytical means and computer simulations, as in the first algorithm.
Nomophobia: The Mobile Phone in Panic Disorder With Agoraphobia: Reducing Phobias or Worsening of Dependence?

ObjectiveIn this report, we present and discuss a hypothesis for the development, in individuals with panic disorder and agoraphobia, of dependence on his or her mobile phone (MP). BackgroundThis disorder, termed nomophobia, is a result of the development of new technologies. Nomophobia is considered a disorder of the modern world and refers to discomfort or anxiety caused by being out of contact with a MP or computer. It is the pathologic fear of remaining out of touch with technology. MethodWe present, the case report of a patient who has continuously kept his MP with him since 1995 because of his overwhelming need to feel safe and to be able to immediately call emergency services and people he trusts should he feel sick. ResultThe patient was treated with medication and cognitive-behavior psychotherapy. He has remained asymptomatic for 4 years. The patient showed significant medical improvement in his panic disorder and phobias, but there has been no change in his nomophobia. ConclusionsThe case presented here illustrates the dependence of an individual with panic disorder on his MP. A specific approach for this dependence should be used in some panic disorder patients.
Immunohistochemistry of pS2 in normal human breast and in various histological forms of breast tumours

Expression of pS2 was studied by immunocytochemistry in normal breast tissue (n= 20), benign tumours (n= 9) and 145 breast cancers representative of the different histological types. pS2 immunostaining was scored as negative (D1 = 0‐5% stained cells), positive (D2 = 5‐75% stained cells) or highly positive (D3 > 75% stained cells). pS2 protein was evident in all normal breast samples examined. Six of nine benign lesions showed pS2 staining. In both cases, immunostaining was weaker than in breast cancers. Of breast cancers, 77/145 (53.1%) were pS2 positive, including 33.1% with intense staining. The presence of pS2 was not correlated with the age of patients, the size of the primary tumour, or lymph node status, but was correlated with histological grading and nuclear grading. pS2 expression was also correlated with menopausal status and oestrogen receptor status (59% of receptor‐positive tumours were pS2 positive), but not to progesterone receptor status. pS2 expression in breast carcinomas is not a characteristic of specific histological types. Although this protein is predominantly expressed in oestrogen receptor‐positive and differentiated tumours, it shows oestrogen‐independent expression in about 30% of cases.
Classified Boards, the Cost of Debt, and Firm Performance

This paper documents that classified boards substantially reduce the cost of debt. The evidence is not consistent with the argument that bondholders benefit from board classification because they are concerned about hostile takeovers. Instead, the results suggest that the lessened concern for takeovers associated with a classified board structure reduces managerial risk-taking, and increases managerial incentive for financial disclosure, with both effects inuring to bondholders’ benefit. Consistent with prior literature, classified boards on average are associated with a lower firm performance. However, under the circumstances that the agency conflict between shareholders and bondholders is severe, the performance effect of classified boards appears benign.
Transport of specimens to the laboratory.

to customers infringe the consumer protection regulations, and it is likely to involve the coal merchants in financial loss. It pays everyone to keep coal dust to a minimum. Whether any depot is a nuisance in law must be decided on the local circumstances and evidence, but that the problem is not a simple one is clear from Irvine and Davies's paper. So long as raw coal is used for domestic and industrial purposes, so long will concentration of depots be an economic necessity. Reasonable siting, careful management, and screening so far as practicable from the gaze of the neighbours will minimize the annoyance they are apt to cause. " What the eye doesn't see the heart doesn't grieve over" is not a sound maxim in regard to noxious agents, but where subjective and psychological factors are involved " Out of sight, out of mind" is not an unwholesome tag to apply.
Civil Service Reform: Building a Government that Works

The authors of this book contend that the civil service system, which was devised to create a uniform process for recruiting high-quality workers to government, is no longer uniform or a system. Nor does it help government find and retain the workers it needs to build a government that works. The current civil service system was designed for a government in which federal agencies directly delivered most public services. But over the last generation, privatization and devolution have increased the number and importance of government's partnerships with private companies, nonprofit organizations, and state and local governments. Government workers today spend much of their time managing these partnerships, not delivering services, and this trend will only accelerate in the future. The authors contend that the current system poorly develops government workers who can effectively manage these partnerships, resulting too often in a gap between promise and performance. This short, lively, and bipartisan volume, authored by the nation's leading experts on government management, describes what the government of the future will look like, what it will need to work well, and how in particular the nation can build the next generation of workers required to lead it.
Fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making for evaluating mutual fund strategies

Investors often need to evaluate investment strategies according to their own subjective preferences based upon various criteria. This situation can be regarded as a Fuzzy Multiple Criteria Decision-Making (FMCDM) problem. The purpose of this study is to propose an FMCDM approach with fuzzy integral. This approach relaxes the independence assumption among criteria for the evaluation of the Multiple Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) problems, which is oftentimes the basic assumption in applying hierarchical system for evaluating the strategies of selecting investment style. We also employ Triangular Fuzzy Numbers (TFNs) to represent the decision-makers’ subjective preferences on the criteria, as well as for the criteria measurements to evaluate mutual funds investment style. To achieve this objective, first, we employ factor analysis to extract four independent common factors from those criteria. Second, we construct the evaluation frame using hierarchical system composed of four common factors with 16 evaluation criteria, and then derive the relative weights with respect to the considered criteria. Third, the synthetic utility value corresponding to each mutual fund's investment style is aggregated by the fuzzy weights with fuzzy performance values. Finally, we compare with empirical data and find that the model of FMCDM predicts the rate of return very accurately in certain ranges of λ, hence the nonadditive fuzzy integral technique is an effective method for evaluating mutual funds’ strategy.
Structures of Gram-Negative Cell Walls and Their Derived Membrane Vesicles

Gram-negative cell walls are strong enough to withstand ;3 atm of turgor pressure (40), tough enough to endure extreme temperatures and pHs (e.g., Thiobacillus ferrooxidans grows at ap H of’1.5) and elastic enough to be capable of expanding several times their normal surface area (41). Strong, tough, and elasti c.t hegram-negative cell wall is a remarkable structure which protects the contents of the cell and which has stood the test of time for many, many years. Presumably, these three descriptive traits, have much to do with the tremendous success gram-negative bacteria have had as a life-form on our planet; members of the domain Bacteria inhabit almost all imaginable habitats except those excruciatingly extreme environments in which (some) members of the domain Archaea thrive. Molecular biological methods have not yet given scientists a precise historical record of the origin of gram-negative bacteria, but ancient stromatolites containing fossilized remains of cyanobacterium-like prokaryotes date back to the Archean eon. Over such extraordinary periods of time (much of it when no other life existed), we can imagine that random mutation, selection, and the slowly but ever-changing global
Forest carbon in Amazonia: the unrecognized contribution of indigenous territories and protected natural areas

Carbon sequestration is a widely acknowledged and increasingly valued function of tropical forest ecosystems; however, until recently, the information needed to assess the carbon storage capacity of Amazonian indigenous territories (ITs) and protected natural areas (PNAs) in a global context remained either lacking or out of reach. Here, as part of a novel north–south collaboration among Amazonian indigenous and non-governmental organization (NGO) networks, scientists and policy experts, we show that the nine-nation network of nearly 3000 ITs and PNAs stores more carbon above ground than all of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Indonesia combined, and, despite the ostensibly secure status of these cornerstones of Amazon conservation, a conservative risk assessment considering only ongoing and planned development projects puts nearly 20% of this carbon at risk, encompassing an area of tropical forest larger than that found in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru combined. International recognition of and renewed investment in these globally vital landscapes are therefore critical to ensuring their continued contribution to maintaining cultural identity, ecosystem integrity and climate stability.