Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Wi-Fi could be much more

Wi-Fi has become an essential wireless technology in our daily lives, although the original intention of its introduction was to replace Ethernet cable. In this article, we outline the most remarkable features introduced during its ongoing technological evolution in terms of three major directions: throughput enhancement, longrange extension, and greater ease of use. By stitching these advanced features together, we also envision a promising future that Wi-Fi technology will bring us in terms of spectrum heterogeneity, seamless service provisioning, and possible relations with cellular networks.
Myofascial techniques have no additional beneficial effects to a standard physical therapy programme for upper limb pain after breast cancer surgery: a randomized controlled trial

Objective: To investigate the effects of myofascial techniques, in addition to a standard physical therapy programme for upper limb pain shortly after breast cancer surgery. Design: Double-blinded (patient and assessor) randomized controlled trial with two groups. Setting: University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium Patients: A total of 147 patients with unilateral axillary clearance for breast cancer. Intervention: All participants received a standard physical therapy programme starting immediately after surgery for four months. The intervention group received additionally eight sessions of myofascial therapy from two up to four months after surgery. The control group received eight sessions of a placebo intervention, including static hand placements at the upper body region. Main measurements: The primary outcome was prevalence rate of upper limb pain. Additionally, pain intensity (Visual Analogue Scale (VAS, 0–100)), pressure hypersensitivity (pressure pain thresholds (PPTs; kg/cm2)) and pain quality (McGill Pain Questionnaire) were evaluated. All measurements were performed at 2 (=baseline), 4, 9 and 12 months post-surgery. Results: At 4, 9 and 12 months post-surgery, prevalence rates of pain, pain intensity and pain quality were comparable between the intervention and control group. PPT of the upper trapezius muscle was significantly higher in the intervention group at four months with a difference of −1.2 (−1.9 to −0.4) kg/cm2, P = 0.012). PPT of the supraspinatus muscle was significantly higher in the intervention group at four months (−0.7 (−1.4 to −0.1) kg/cm2, P = 0.021) and at nine months (−0.5 (−1.1 to 0.0), P = 0.040). Conclusion: Myofascial therapy has no added beneficial effect as standard physical therapy modality in the postoperative stage.
Religion and Tourism: Crossroads, Destinations and Encounters

and citing some of the authors of these intriguing publications along the way. Not only is ‘the stuff’ everywhere, but an increasing number of scholars are recognizing that the metaphysical is important enough to override the professional costs of such an interest. The author’s central point in looking at this material is that paranormal phenomena ‘‘signal, symbolize, or speak across a ‘gap’ between the conscious, socialized ego and an unconscious or superconscious field’’ (25). Admitting that he is as ‘baffled as anyone’ by what this all means, he offers some intriguing suggestions and additions to the positions outlined by the four major authors he has selected. This an intriguing and daring book that significantly contributes to its topic, even if one might not accept all that it offers. I found myself re-reading a lot of sections for clarification and further insight, accepting much and considering anew facets of which I was less accepting. It is the type of book that one could return to many times. It is a very good text for advanced students of studies in religion courses, consciousness studies, anthropology, philosophy, the human condition and beyond (way beyond), and the general reader who is fascinated by any facets of the ‘occulture’. The book is of particular interest to serious researchers interested in the interface between the metaphysical, consciousness, and modern science, those who are willing to think the impossible and to take discussions from the furtive to the fruitful, to engage, as Kripal writes, in a ‘‘metaphysical dialectic of consciousness and culture’’ (252). Here is a book that greatly contributes to those discussions and suggests methodologies that can integrate the humanities and the sciences, the brain/ mind distinctions, contemporary neuroscience, and psychical research. Psychical and paranormal phenomena, writes Kripal, are ‘‘hermeneutical realities’’ (257). Far from proposing that we surrender reason and critical theory, Kripal suggests that we need reason to be open to every possible avenue of looking at the ‘impossible’, to address ‘‘the greatest taboo among serious intellectuals’’, the ‘‘heresy of challenging a materialist worldview’’ (268). The professional debunkers are the ones who are now challenged.
Time-multiplexed test data decompression architecture for core-based SOCs with improved utilization of tester channels

In this paper we first observe that the required amount of compressed test data transferred from the tester to the embedded cores in a system-on-a-chip (SOC) varies significantly during the testing process. This motivates a new approach to test data compression, mainly applicable to core-based SOCs, based on time-multiplexing the tester channels through which the on-chip decompressors will receive compressed test data only when necessary. The distinguishing advantage of this approach is that it is suitable for concurrent testing of multiple cores in an SOC and not only will the volume of test data be reduced but also the tester channel utilization will be increased.
La rémunération au mérite dans le secteur public : bilan des connaissances et avenues de recherche

Apres avoir decrit ce que le secteur public des Etats-Unis, de l’Angleterre et de la France font en matiere de remuneration basee sur la performance individuelle, nous presentons une synthese des etudes sur ses incidences Se pose alors la question : pourquoi de nombreux Etats persistent a adopter et a maintenir la remuneration au merite alors qu’elle comporte des limites semblables a celles qui ont ete identifiees dans le secteur prive mais qu’en sus, le secteur public presente des contraintes particulieres additionnelles ? Pour expliquer ce paradoxe, nous recourons aux perspectives des theories institutionnelle et conventionnaliste.
Consumer Responses to Advertising: The Effects of Ad Content, Emotions, and Attitude toward the Ad on Viewing Time

This study develops and tests a hierarchical model of advertising effects on viewing time. The ads studied represent a sample of commercials aired during prime-time broadcasts, and the effects are analyzed across the ads rather than across people. Primary emphasis is placed on the attempt to explain a simulated behavioral measure of attention to television commercials--that of channel switching (zapping) and fast-forwarding through ads on prerecorded programs (zipping). In addition, the study demonstrates a chain of effects from the content of television ads, through emotional reactions and attitude toward the ad, to actual viewing behaviors. Copyright 1991 by the University of Chicago.
When family looks strange and strangers look normal: A case of impaired face perception and recognition after stroke

We describe a patient (JS) with impaired recognition and distorted visual perception of faces after an ischemic stroke. Strikingly, JS reports that the faces of family members look distorted, while faces of other people look normal. After neurological and neuropsychological examination, we assessed response accuracy, response times, and skin conductance responses on a face recognition task in which photographs of close family members, celebrities and unfamiliar people were presented. JS' performance was compared to the performance of three healthy control participants. Results indicate that three aspects of face perception appear to be impaired in JS. First, she has impaired recognition of basic emotional expressions. Second, JS has poor recognition of familiar faces in general, but recognition of close family members is disproportionally impaired compared to faces of celebrities. Third, JS perceives faces of family members as distorted. In this paper we consider whether these impairments can be interpreted in terms of previously described disorders of face perception and recent models for face perception.
The 11-20 Money Request Game: A Level-k Reasoning Study

We study experimentally a new two-player game: each player requests an amount between 11 and 20 shekels. He receives the requested amount and if he requests exactly one shekel less than the other player, he receives an additional 20 shekels. Level-k reasoning is appealing due to the natural starting point (requesting 20) and the straightforward best-response operation. Nevertheless, almost all subjects exhibit at most three levels of reasoning. Two variants of the game demonstrate that the depth of reasoning is not increased by enhancing the attractiveness of the level-0 strategy or by reducing the cost of undercutting the other player.
Children as Teachers: Developmental Studies of Instructional Communication.

PRATT, MICHAEL W. ; SCRIBNER, SYLVIA; and COLE, MICHAEL. Children as Teachers: Developmental Studies of Instructional Communication. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1977, 48, 1475-1481. 2 studies with elementary and preschool children investigated the effects of varying the perceptual support for speakers on the process of listener-adaptation in communication. An instructional task in which the child taught a peer to play a board game was utilized. Study 1 showed that first and third graders both adapt to listener needs, irrespective of perceptual supports for the speaker, though the fluency of speakers' explanations is disrupted by a lack of supporting informational context. Study 2 showed that preschoolers also demonstrate some evidence of adaptation to differing listener needs, but their instructions are less well planned than those of older children.
Cyclical Effects on Job-to-Job Mobility: An Aggregated Analysis on Microeconomic Data

This paper analyses cyclical effects on job-to-job mobility using German data. The focus lies on the influence of the regional unemployment rate and the regional growth of the GDP. Job-to-job transitions are fragmented into external and internal movements. The innovation is to describe mobility using background information why the moves occur because the available empirical labour market literature is in deficit with analyzing the motive why these transitions occur with respect to the business cycle. External movements can be introduced by quits or forced by layoffs, the end of the contract, or other reasons such as bankruptcy of a firm. Internal transitions are classified as promotions and transfers. Our estimates show that job-to-job mobility is strongly affected by the business cycle. External movements are more likely in times of growing GDP and less probable when the unemployment rate increases. For internal transitions our results suggest that Eastern and Western Germany's workers differ in their mobility properties along the business cycle.
Efficacy of etanercept for the treatment of juvenile idiopathic arthritis according to the onset type.

OBJECTIVE To assess the efficacy of etanercept in patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), and to assess the tolerance of these patients to etanercept. METHODS All JIA patients with active chronic polyarthritis, who were first treated with etanercept between November 1999 and June 2001 in 18 French centers because of poor response or intolerance to methotrexate, were included in this open-label, prospective, multicenter study. A standardized questionnaire was sent to the treating physicians. We assessed the validated international core-set score for JIA activity every 3 months and performed an intent-to-treat analysis. We also compared the risk of treatment failure in patients defined as having systemic-onset, oligoarticular-onset, or polyarticular-onset JIA. RESULTS Sixty-one patients were enrolled and were followed up for a median of 13 months. Treatment had to be stopped in 1 patient who became pregnant and in 12 patients due to severe side effects, including neurologic or psychiatric disorders, retrobulbar optic neuropathy, major weight gain, severe infection, cutaneous vasculitis with systemic symptoms, hemorrhagic diarrhea, uveitis flare, and pancytopenia. All of these side effects disappeared after discontinuation of etanercept. Crohn's disease was subsequently diagnosed in 1 child. Scores improved by > or =30% in 73% of patients after 3 months, but this proportion decreased to 39% after 12 months. The response rate was significantly lower in patients with systemic-onset JIA than in those with oligoarticular- or polyarticular-onset JIA. CONCLUSION Treatment of JIA with etanercept may be associated with a wide spectrum of severe side effects. Although most patients initially respond to etanercept, this initial response is not always followed by sustained improvement over longer periods of time. In addition, the higher rate of treatment failure in the group with systemic-onset JIA indicates that these patients in particular may require alternative treatments.
Aggregation Methods for Proximity-Based Opinion Retrieval

The enormous amount of user-generated data available on the Web provides a great opportunity to understand, analyze, and exploit people’s opinions on different topics. Traditional Information Retrieval methods consider the relevance of documents to a topic but are unable to differentiate between subjective and objective documents. Opinion retrieval is a retrieval task in which not only the relevance of a document to the topic is important but also the amount of opinion expressed in the document about the topic. In this article, we address the blog post opinion retrieval task and propose methods that rank blog posts according to their relevance and opinionatedness toward a topic. We propose estimating the opinion density at each position in a document using a general opinion lexicon and kernel density functions. We propose and investigate different models for aggregating the opinion density at query terms positions to estimate the opinion score of every document. We then combine the opinion score with the relevance score based on a probabilistic justification. Experimental results on the BLOG06 dataset show that the proposed method provides significant improvement over the standard TREC baselines. The proposed models also achieve much higher performance compared to all state of the art methods.
Change of basis in polynomial interpolation

Several representations for the interpolating polynomial exist: Lagrange, Newton, orthogonal polynomials, etc. Each representation is characterized by some basis functions. In this paper we investigate the transformations between the basis functions which map a specific representation to another. We show that for this purpose the LU‐ and the QR‐decomposition of the Vandermonde matrix play a crucial role. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
[Chronic inflammatory portal hypertensive enteropathy in the rat].

INTRODUCTION Experimental portal hypertensive enteropathy could have an inflammatory etiopathogenesis and, if so, it would produce intestinal remodeling. The aim of this study was to test this hypothesis. MATERIAL AND METHOD Male Wistar rats with portal hypertension (PHT) produced by partial portal vein ligation were divided into four groups: group I (control; n = 9), group II (PHT; n = 8) at 3 months after surgery, group III (control; n = 8), and group IV (PHT; n = 10) at 1 year after surgery. The density of duodenal goblet cells and ileal levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)alpha, interleukin (IL)-1beta, and IL-10 were studied using an ELISA method. RESULTS At 3 months after surgery, rats with PHT showed an increase in the number of goblet cells in the small bowel (103.63 +/- 14.37 vs 99.42 +/- 19.19/1,000 microm2). This change was associated with an increase (p < 0.05) in ileal levels of TNFalpha (0.20 +/- 0.09 vs 0.08 +/- 0.02 pmol/mg protein), and IL-1beta (0.40 +/- 0.21 vs 0.19 +/- 0.09 pmol/mg protein), as well as with a decrease (p < 0.05) in ileal IL-10 levels (0.06 +/- 0.02 vs 0.12 +/- 0.03 pmol/mg protein). At 1 year after surgery, rats with PHT showed hyperplasia of goblet cells in the small bowel (172.79 +/- 40.46 vs 121.76 +/- 20.74 /1,000 microm2) (p < 0.01), associated with an increase in ileal levels of TNFalpha (0.37 +/- 0.18 vs 0.17 +/- 0.08 pmol/mg protein) (p < 0.05), IL-1beta (0.28 +/- 0.14 vs 0.205 +/- 0.05 pmol/mg protein), and IL-10 (0.25 +/- 0.14 vs 0.20 +/- 0.11 pmol/mg protein). CONCLUSIONS The increase in TNFalpha and IL-1beta levels and the decrease in IL-10 level in the small bowel in rats with chronic prehepatic PHT suggest the existence of an inflammatory process related to goblet cell hyperplasia. This inflammation could be responsible for the intestinal epithelial remodeling that occurs in the long term in this experimental model.
High efficiency resonance-based spectrum filters with tunable transmission bandwidth fabricated using nanoimprint lithography

We propose a nanostructured color filter based on a metallic resonant waveguide structure capable of extremely high transmission efficiency. As an experimental demonstration, a blue and a red device were fabricated over a large area using nanoimprint lithography. Achieving transmission as high as 90% with a variable transmission bandwidth, these devices exhibit desirable features for numerous color filter applications.
Liver injury in inflammatory bowel disease: Long‐term follow‐up study of 786 patients

Background: The aim of the study was to evaluate the incidence of abnormality of liver tests (LTs) or hepatotoxicity in a large group of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients and, specifically, to assess the incidence of azathioprine (AZA) / mercaptopurine (MP)‐induced liver injury in a long‐term follow‐up study. Methods: All consecutive IBD patients followed for at least 5 years were included in this retrospective study. LTs including alanine transaminase, aspartate transaminase, alkaline phosphatase, &ggr;‐glutamyl transferase, and bilirubin were periodically monitored. “Abnormality‐of‐LTs” was defined as LTs between N (upper limit of the normal range) and 2 N, and “liver injury/hepatotoxicity” as LTs >2 N. Results: A total of 786 patients were included, and 138 received AZA/MP; 120 patients (15%) and 39 (5%) presented abnormality of LTs or hepatotoxicity, respectively, during follow‐up. The most frequent explanations were AZA/MP treatment and fatty liver disease. Among AZA/MP‐treated patients (690 patient‐years follow‐up) the incidence of abnormal LTs and hepatotoxicity was, respectively, 7.1% and 2.6% per patient‐year. Most patients spontaneously normalized LTs despite maintaining AZA/MP. These drugs were withdrawn due to hepatotoxicity (LTs >5 N and lack of decrease despite 50% dose reduction) in 3.6% of the patients and all of them normalized LTs. Conclusions: In IBD patients, AZA or MP treatment induces abnormality of LTs in a relatively high proportion of the cases, but the development of true hepatotoxicity/liver injury is exceptional. Moreover, most of the cases of thiopurine‐induced hepatotoxicity in IBD patients are mild, and the abnormalities in LTs spontaneously return to normal values despite AZA/MP being maintained, therapy withdrawal being necessary in only ≈4% of the patients.
Factors affecting storage of Slovak native rabbit semen in the gene bank

Summary In this study, fresh and frozen–thawed semen of Nitra and Zobor rabbit breeds were evaluated for potential inter-breed or inter-male differences in sperm quality traits. Individual male semen from four rabbits of each breed were diluted (v:v; 1:1) in a freezing medium composed of a commercial diluent, 16% of dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO), 4% of Ficoll 70 and 2% of sucrose and frozen in liquid nitrogen vapours before being plunged into liquid nitrogen. Different motility traits, viability and plasma membrane integrity of fresh and frozen–thawed semen were evaluated in vitro using computer-assisted sperm analysis and flow cytometry. To evaluate the sperm fertilization ability, artificial insemination of fresh and frozen–thawed sperm was performed. Our results showed the effect of breed (P ≤ 0.05) on frozen–thawed sperm viability and plasma membrane integrity. Moreover, individual variability in semen quality among the rabbits was revealed (0.31 to 0.71 among quality traits). Our results thereby confirmed that the cryopreservation procedure could not ensure comparable sperm post-thaw survival for different breeds or males. Nevertheless, correlations between numbers of fresh total motile and progressively moving sperm and several quality parameters measured post thawing were revealed. Therefore, we suggest that the objective assessment of fresh rabbit sperm motility may be an effective indicator of frozen–thawed semen quality. Consequently, regular semen assessment is required in order to preserve good-quality insemination doses from native breeds.
β1/2 or M2/3 Receptors Are Required for Different Gastrointestinal Motility Responses Induced by Acupuncture at Heterotopic or Homotopic Acupoints

Acupuncture at homotopic acupoints or heterotopic acupoints is known to either inhibit or facilitate gastrointestinal motility, depending on the acupoint location. However, little effort has been made to investigate the roles of specific receptors (such as adrenergic and muscarinic acetylcholine receptors) in mediating the effects of acupuncture at heterotopic and homotopic acupoints. Different adrenergic receptor subtypes or cholinergic receptor subtypes are predominantly expressed in various sections of the gut, resulting in variations between the effects of acupuncture at heterotopic or homotopic acupoints on gastrointestinal motility. Here, we investigated the role of β1/β2 receptors and M2/M3 receptors in gastrointestinal motility regulated by acupuncture at ST37, a heterotopic acupoint, and ST25, a homotopic acupoint, by simultaneously recording intraluminal pressures in the distal colon and stomach or jejunum and examining fecal phenol red excretion in β1/2 receptor-knockout mice and M2/3 receptor-knockout mice. We found that knockout of the M2/3 receptor significantly inhibited ST37 acupuncture-induced enhancement of gastric motility, jejunal motility, and colonic motility. Additionally, knocking out of the β1/2 receptor significantly diminished the ST25 acupuncture-induced inhibition of gastric motility and jejunal motility without significantly altering the enhancement of colonic motility induced by acupuncture at ST25. Acupuncture at ST37 significantly accelerated gastrointestinal transition in β1/2 receptor-knockout mice and their wild-type littermates. However, this acceleration of gastrointestinal transition was markedly diminished in M2/3 receptor-knockout mice relative to their wild-type littermates. Acupuncture at ST25 significantly increased gastrointestinal transition in β1/2 receptor-knockout mice and significantly decreased gastrointestinal transition in M2/3 receptor-knockout mice without altering gastrointestinal transition in wild-type littermates of either. Our study revealed that M2/3 receptors are required for the gastrointestinal motility associated with whole gastrointestinal transition enhanced by acupuncture at heterotopic acupoints, whereas β1/2 receptors are required for the same gastrointestinal motility processes inhibited by acupuncture at homotopic acupoints. Therefore, our findings reveal important biological mechanisms underlying acupuncture treatment of disorders involving gastrointestinal motility dysfunction.