Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Measuring Early Literacy Skills: A Latent Variable Investigation of the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening for Preschool

Psychometric properties of the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening for Preschool (PALSPreK) instrument were investigated in a sample of 4,518 children. PALS-PreK figures prominently in state and federal early literacy programs as an assessment of emergent literacy skills in preschool-aged children. Exploratory Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and multigroup CFA were employed to evaluate the underlying factor structure and determine whether the identified structure was invariant across boys and girls. Results suggest that PALSPreK effectively measures the most important precursors to successful literacy acquisition: alphabet knowledge, phonological awareness, and print concepts, with generally the same degree of accuracy for boys and girls. These results, combined with the instructional transparency of the instrument, support the educational utility of PALS-PreK as a tool for guiding instruction in preschool literacy.
ENHANCING SECURITY IN TWO-WAY RELAY NETWORK BY USING COOPERATION JAMMING AND RELAY SELECTION APPROACH

In wireless media, secure communication is one of the important concepts. We use Identity based cryptosystems in order to provide security in two-way relay networks. But due to the use of identity of a node as their public key, this scheme lacks the anonymity and privacy preservation. So, in order to solve this problem, propose a new approach in two-way relay networks by using cooperation jamming and relay selection approach for enhancing security. In this scheme, we propose a two-way relay network consisting of two sources, relays and an eavesdropper and there is a new relay chatting based on transmission scheme is proposed. It uses a single relay in order to forward the messages and the remaining relays transmit interference signals to confuse the eavesdropper by distributed beam forming.
A State-of-the-Art Survey on Semantic Web Mining

The integration of the two fast-developing scientific research areas Semantic Web and Web Mining is known as Semantic Web Mining. The huge increase in the amount of Semantic Web data became a perfect target for many researchers to apply Data Mining techniques on it. This paper gives a detailed state-of-the-art survey of on-going research in this new area. It shows the positive effects of Semantic Web Mining, the obstacles faced by researchers and propose number of approaches to deal with the very complex and heterogeneous information and knowledge which are produced by the technologies of Semantic Web.
HISTORY/PHILOSOPHY/SCIENCE: SOME LESSONS FOR PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY

Rheinberger's brief history brings into sharp profile the importance of history of science for a philosophical understanding of historical practice. Rheinberger presents thought about the nature of science by leading scientists and their interpreters over the course of the twentieth century as emphasizing increasingly the local and developmental character of their learning practices, thus making the conception of knowledge dependent upon historical experience, “historicizing epistemology. ” Linking his account of thought about science to his own work on “experimental systems,” I draw extensive parallels with other work in the local history of science (the ideas of Latour, Pickering, Rouse, and others) and consider the epistemological implications both for the relation between history and philosophy of science and between history and theory more broadly. In doing so, I suggest that the long-standing gap between the natural sciences and history as a “human science” has been significantly bridged by the insistence upon the local, mediated, indeed “historicized epistemology” of actual science.
Reciprocal screw-based force-closure of an n-DOF open chain: Minimum number of cables required to fully constrain it

Due to the unilateral driving property of cables, it has been mathematically proven that a 6-DOF single rigid-bodied cable-driven platform requires a minimum of 7 cables with positive tension to fully constrain it. However, force-closure analysis of open chains driven by cables is still an open question. For the case of an n-DOF open chain driven by cables, two important questions arise: (i) Are n+1 cables sufficient to fully constrain the entire chain? (ii) How can force-closure analysis be carried out for a given cable routing configuration while retaining the geometric insights of the problem? This paper will address these issues and propose a systematic and novel approach based on the reciprocal screw theory. The analysis shows that the entire n-DOF open chain requires a minimum of n+1 cables to fully constrain it and the proposed methodology can analyze any cable routing configuration.
High expression of Sp 1 is significantly correlated with tumor progression and poor prognosis in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between specificity protein 1 (Sp1) expression and clinicopathological feature and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We detected Sp1 mRNA and protein expressions in 12 fresh HCC tissues by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and western blot analysis, respectively. Immunohistochemical assay was performed in 127 paraffin-embedded HCC tissues. The mRNA and protein expressions of Sp1 were significantly higher in HCC tissues than in matched adjacent normal tissues. Sp1 high expression was detected in the cytoplasm and nuclei of carcinoma cells from 68 (53.5%) patients. In addition, high expression of Sp1 was significantly correlated with HBsAg infection (P = 0.036), liver cirrhosis (P = 0.024), tumor differentiation (P = 0.010), vascular invasion (P = 0.035) and metastasis (P = 0.029). Furthermore, Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that patients with high Sp1 expression had significantly lower overall survival (OS) and disease free survival (DFS) rates, compared with patients with low Sp1 expression. Sp1 is an independent prognostic factor for HCC patients. In conclusion, Sp1 expression is significantly up-regulated in HCC and could identify a subset of HCC with aggressive clinical behavior and poor clinical outcome. Sp1 is a potential independent prognostic biomarker for HCC patients after surgery.
Integrated water resources management: evolution, prospects and future challenges

Abstract This paper analyzes the evolution of the concept of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) at international conferences over the past three decades and addresses the prospects of IWRM in resolving the current water crisis. It also identifies seven crucial challenges to implementing IWRM. Our rivers and aquifers are the life-blood of the planet. To achieve sustainable development, we must manage our most vital natural resource, water, in an integrated manner, or precisely through Integrated Water Resources Management. Since water is fundamental to many aspects of life, and to the surrounding natural environment, there is a need not only to review IWRM’s evolution in the last three decades, but also to identify future challenges to its implementation.
Materialism and diminished well-being: Experiential avoidance as a mediating mechanism

Abstract Being preoccupied with the pursuit of money, wealth, and material possessions arguably fails as a strategy to increase pleasure and meaning in life. However, little is known about the mechanisms that explain the inverse relation between materialism and well–being. The current study tested the hypothesis that experiential avoidance mediates associations between materialistic values and diminished emotional well–being, meaning in life, self–determination, and gratitude. Results indicated that people with stronger materialistic values reported more negative emotions and less relatedness, autonomy, competence, gratitude, and meaning in life. As expected, experiential avoidance fully mediated associations between materialistic values and each dimension of well–being. Emotional disturbances such as social anxiety and depressive symptoms failed to account for these findings after accounting for shared variance with experiential avoidance. The results are discussed in the context of alternative, more ful.
Migration, new‐dialect formation and sociolinguistic refunctionalisation: reallocation as an outcome of dialect contact

When mutually intelligible, but distinct dialects of the same language come into contact, linguistic accommodation occurs. When this contact is long-term, for example in post-colonial settings, such as the English in Australia and New Zealand (Trudgill 1986; Trudgill et al forthcoming); or as a result of, say, New Town development (Omdal 1977; Kerswill and Williams 1992, forthcoming; Britain and Simpson forthcoming); indentured labour schemes (Barz and Siegel 1988; Siegel 1997); or land reclamation (Britain 1991; Scholtmeijer 1992), the accommodation can become routinised and permanent through the process of koineisation, and a new dialect can emerge. These new dialects are characteristically less ‘complex’ and contain fewer marked or minority linguistic features than the dialects which came together in the original mix. In this paper we wish to highlight another possible outcome of koineisation, namely reallocation. Reallocation occurs where two or more variants in the dialect mix survive the levelling process but are refunctionalised, evolving new social or linguistic functions in the new dialect. We provide a range of examples of social and linguistic reallocation, from a number of speech communities around the world, the dialects of which have developed from long-term contact and linguistic accommodation.
Antagonistic regulation of Fus2p nuclear localization by pheromone signaling and the cell cycle

When yeast cells sense mating pheromone, they undergo a characteristic response involving changes in transcription, cell cycle arrest in early G1, and polarization along the pheromone gradient. Cells in G2/M respond to pheromone at the transcriptional level but do not polarize or mate until G1. Fus2p, a key regulator of cell fusion, localizes to the tip of the mating projection during pheromone-induced G1 arrest. Although Fus2p was expressed in G2/M cells after pheromone induction, it accumulated in the nucleus until after cell division. As cells arrested in G1, Fus2p was exported from the nucleus and localized to the nascent tip. Phosphorylation of Fus2p by Fus3p was required for Fus2p export; cyclin/Cdc28p-dependent inhibition of Fus3p during late G1 through S phase was sufficient to block exit. However, during G2/M, when Fus3p was activated by pheromone signaling, Cdc28p activity again blocked Fus2p export. Our results indicate a novel mechanism by which pheromone-induced proteins are regulated during the transition from mitosis to conjugation.
Automatic phase detection for stochastic on-chip traffic generation

(NoC) prototyping is used for adapting NoC parameters to the application running on the chip. This prototyping is currently done using traffic generators which emulate the SoC components (IPs) behavior: processors, hardware accelerators, etc. Traffic generated by processor-like IPs is highly non-regular, it must be decomposed into program phases. We propose an original feature for NoC prototyping, inspired by techniques used in processor architecture performance evaluation: the automatic detection of traffic phases. Integrated in our NoC prototyping environment, this feature permits to have a completely automatic toolchain for the generation of stochastic traffic generators. We show that our traffic generators emulate precisely the behavior of processors and that our environment is a versatile tool for networks-on-chip prototyping. Simulations are performed in a SystemC-based simulation environment with a mesh network-on-chip (DSPIN) and a processor running MP3 decoding applications.
Specific serotonin and noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs). A review of their pharmacology, clinical efficacy and tolerability

Considerable progress has been made in improving the tolerability of antidepressant drugs. The classical tricyclic antidepressants (TCA) are still, however, the standard for efficacy. The selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are better tolerated that the tricyclics, but their efficacy in major depression is, at best, equivalent to the earlier compounds and probably inferior in certain cases. Recently a new class of antidepressants has been developed that inhibit selectively the reuptake of both serotonin and noradrenaline with no affinity for the receptors responsible for the adverse effects of the TCAs. These compounds are referred to as the specific serotonin and noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors or SNRIs. This article reviews the pharmacological and clinical characteristics of the two principal compounds of this class, milnacipran (Ixel®) and venlafaxine (Effexor®). This new class of antidepressants, as represented by these two compounds, presents an efficacy comparable to TCAs with a more benign side‐effect profile. Certain trials suggest that they may have efficacy superior to SSRIs, especially in more severe depression, with a tolerability which is globally similar. This class therefore appears to offer a potential useful addition to the therapeutic arsenal of antidepressant drugs. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
On the Fair Division of Multiple Stochastic Pies to Multiple Agents within the Nash Bargaining Solution

The fair division of a surplus is one of the most widely examined problems. This paper focuses on bargaining problems with fixed disagreement payoffs where risk-neutral agents have reached an agreement that is the Nash-bargaining solution (NBS). We consider a stochastic environment, in which the overall return consists of multiple pies with uncertain sizes and we examine how these pies can be allocated with fairness among agents. Specifically, fairness is based on the Aristotle’s maxim: “equals should be treated equally and unequals unequally, in proportion to the relevant inequality”. In this context, fairness is achieved when all the individual stochastic surplus shares which are allocated to agents are distributed in proportion to the NBS. We introduce a novel algorithm, which can be used to compute the ratio of each pie that should be allocated to each agent, in order to ensure fairness within a symmetric or asymmetric NBS.
Echolucent Plaques Are Associated With High Risk of Ischemic Cerebrovascular Events in Carotid Stenosis: The Tromsø Study

BackgroundThe purpose of the study was to assess in a prospective design whether plaque morphology is associated with risk of ischemic stroke and other cerebrovascular events in subjects with carotid stenosis. Methods and ResultsA total of 223 subjects with carotid stenosis (123 with 35% to 49% degree of stenosis, 100 with 50% to 99% stenosis) and 215 control subjects matched by age and sex who participated in a population health survey at baseline were followed up for 3 years. Plaque echogenicity was assessed by ultrasound at baseline and scored as echolucent, predominantly echolucent, predominantly echogenic, or echogenic. Forty-four subjects experienced ≥1 ischemic cerebrovascular events in the follow-up period. Plaque echogenicity, degree of stenosis, and white blood cell count were independent predictors of cerebrovascular events. The unadjusted relative risk for cerebrovascular events was 13.0 (95% CI 4.5 to 37.4) in subjects with echolucent plaques and 3.7 (95% CI 0.7 to 18.2) in subjects with echogenic plaques when subjects without stenosis were used as the reference. The adjusted relative risk for cerebrovascular events in subjects with echolucent plaques was 4.6 (95% CI 1.1 to 18.9), and there was a significant linear trend (P =0.015) for higher risk with increasing plaque echolucency. The adjusted relative risk for a 10% increase in the degree of stenosis was 1.2 (95% CI 1.04 to 1.4). ConclusionsSubjects with echolucent atherosclerotic plaques have increased risk of ischemic cerebrovascular events independent of degree of stenosis and cardiovascular risk factors. Subjects at high risk for ischemic vascular events may be identified by ultrasound assessment of plaque morphology.
EMDR and Low Frequency Stimulation of the Brain

Laboratory research on animals indicates that the potentiation of synapses in various areas of the limbic system is the primary step in fear memory formation. Depotentiation of these synapses can result in erasure or modification of these memories. The principal mechanism for depotentiation is induction of low frequency stimulation (LFS). This research has also shown that during memory recall, potentiated circuits within the limbic system become labile, and more vulnerable to depotentiation. The authors propose that LFS can be induced in the human brain during eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy (EMDR), and that this can lead to quenching or modification of fear memory traces. Hence, the authors theorize that this process is the main biological basis for the therapeutic effects of EMDR.
Leveraging electronic health record systems to create and provide electronic cancer survivorship care plans: a pilot study.

PURPOSE The Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommends cancer survivors receive survivorship care plans after completing active cancer treatment. However, care plan creation requires significant time and effort, contributing to diminished adoption of this recommendation. Electronic health record (EHR) systems have been proposed as a solution. We assessed the feasibility of creating and delivering care plans within an EHR system. METHODS Thirty-eight breast cancer survivors without existing care plans were recruited during a follow-up visit to their primary oncologist. Using an EHR template, an oncologist created an individualized care plan for each participant. Time spent creating each plan was recorded. Participant use and feedback were collected. RESULTS Participants enrolled a median of 19.7 months after diagnosis (range, 4.3 to 57 months). A minority of IOM-recommended plan elements could be automatically imported without any manual entry. The majority of elements required interpretation and manual import by the clinician. However, with an established infrastructure for importing elements, the time needed to create a care plan electronically was short (median, 3 minutes; range 2 to 12 minutes). Most survivors (n = 36; 95%) successfully accessed their care plans online and spent a median of 12 minutes (range, 0.5 to 61.9 minutes) reviewing them. Survivors perceived the plans as useful and did not generally report difficulty in accessing them online or understanding content. CONCLUSION Rapid care plan creation and delivery within an EHR is possible. Plans were available to all (survivors, oncologists, primary care physicians) via the EHR. Further research is required to explore the barriers to automating data importation into plans as well as the impact of EHR-integrated plans.
Highly efficient in vivo delivery of PMO into regenerating myotubes and rescue in laminin-α2 chain-null congenital muscular dystrophy mice

Abstract Phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomer (PMO)-mediated exon skipping is among the more promising approaches to the treatment of several neuromuscular disorders including Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The main weakness of this approach arises from the low efficiency and sporadic nature of the delivery of charge-neutral PMO into muscle fibers, the mechanism of which is unknown. In this study, to test our hypothesis that muscle fibers take up PMO more efficiently during myotube formation, we induced synchronous muscle regeneration by injection of cardiotoxin into the tibialis anterior muscle of Dmd exon 52-deficient mdx52 and wild-type mice. Interestingly, by in situ hybridization, we detected PMO mainly in embryonic myosin heavy chain-positive regenerating fibers. In addition, we showed that PMO or 2′-O-methyl phosphorothioate is taken up efficiently into C2C12 myotubes when transfected 24–72 h after the induction of differentiation but is poorly taken up into undifferentiated C2C12 myoblasts suggesting efficient uptake of PMO in the early stages of C2C12 myotube formation. Next, we tested the therapeutic potential of PMO for laminin-α2 chain-null dy3K/dy3K mice: a model of merosin-deficient congenital muscular dystrophy (MDC1A) with active muscle regeneration. We confirmed the recovery of laminin-α2 chain and slightly prolonged life span following skipping of the mutated exon 4 in dy3K/dy3K mice. These findings support the idea that PMO entry into fibers is dependent on a developmental stage in myogenesis rather than on dystrophinless muscle membranes and provide a platform for developing PMO-mediated therapies for a variety of muscular disorders, such as MDC1A, that involve active muscle regeneration.
Quality assurance and the role of a national organisation involved in credit rating

This paper presents a critical analysis of a national organisation involved in credit rating, focusing on credit rating as a quality assurance issue. The organisation ‐ The SCOTCAT Health Studies Group (SHSG) ‐ began with an ethos of self‐help and mutual aid. It now inhabits a world sited ambiguously between, on the one hand, professional and fee‐for‐service imperatives and, on the other hand, an emergent Government‐sponsored rhetoric of transparency and cooperation for life‐long learning. The paper stems from our concern that issues of quality may be compromised by these imperatives and tensions. We have used the metaphor of SHSG as a “life form” to facilitate exploration of its origins, structure, and place in a wider context, noting limits in the metaphor’s power to illuminate these matters. The paper addresses issues which SHSG must face, as an organisation having members from both the professional (nursing) and the higher educational domains must face; particularly when the two worlds it bridges are changing. The analysis focuses on four themes: evolution, co‐operation, confidence, and mutual recognition of quality. Each theme has a reflexive aspect. Linkages between the themes are discussed in light of the development of SHSG, and some general issues related to changes in inter‐institutional relationships are raised.
FPGA implementation of nonlinear control on hard disk drive

Most servo control algorithm implementations have been realized using digital signal processors (DSPs) due to large amount of digital signal processing. Nowadays, parallel programmable logic devices, such as the field programmable gate array (FPGA), have become powerful hardware options, offering low cost, high execution speed, reconfigurability and parallelism. This work intends to exploit the current available resources in commercial FPGAs to implement servo control for hard disk drive system. Simulation and experimental results included in this paper show the viability of exploiting the parallelism and modularity of a low cost FPGA to implement a high sampling rate neural network-based controller. This FPGA-based servo control system platform will allow fast prototyping of new control concepts and evaluation of nonlinear control. The implementation results show that it is possible to develop much higher servo sampling rate controller and more sophisticated controller on FPGA to achieve the tracking density target for 10 Terabit/in2 disk drive technology.