Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Psychometric Properties of the Doloplus-2 Observational Pain Assessment Scale and Comparison to Self-assessment in Hospitalized Elderly

ObjectivesSelf-report is the “gold standard” for pain assessment, however, observational pain scales, such as Doloplus-2 must be used for patients who cannot communicate. In this follow-up study, we report the psychometric properties of the observational Doloplus-2 scale using the visual analog scale (VAS) pain score as a gold standard and evaluate its performance. MethodProspective clinical study of 180 hospitalized older patients who demonstrated good comprehension and reliable use of the VAS: 131 participants with dementia and 49 without. All participants assessed their chronic pain using the VAS. Doloplus-2 was independently completed by the nursing team. ResultsMean age of patients (133 women, 47 men) was 83.7±6.5. Median mini-mental state examination of patients with diagnosis of dementia was 18.0±7.7. Nearly half of the patients (49%) reported that they experienced pain in response to a direct question. The administration of Doloplus-2 was possible in all 180 patients. Doloplus-2 correlated moderately with self-assessment (Spearman coefficient: 0.46). In a multiple regression model, Doloplus-2 predicted 41% of the variability in pain intensity measured by VAS. The somatic dimension alone explained 36% of the variance, the psychosocial bloc 5% with no better contribution of the psychomotor bloc. To shorten Doloplus-2, we constructed a version with only the 5 items that were significantly associated with the VAS score in the multiple regression models. DiscussionThe observational Doloplus-2 scale correlates moderately with self-assessment pain score and has adequate internal consistency. Our data also suggest that Doloplus-2 could be substantially shortened as the brief version performed similarly to the complete Doloplus-2.
Multiagent Systems and Software Architecture

Biographical notes: Danny Weyns is a post-doctoral researcher at the Katholieke Universiteit of Leuven, Belgium. He obtained his PhD in 2006 for research on the connection between multiagent systems and software architecture. Weyns's research interests include the role of the environment in multiagent systems, architectural description languages for decentralised systems and aspect-oriented software development. Since the mid-1990s the idea that multiagent systems are a radically new way of engineering software has dominated research in agent-oriented software engineering. Wooldridge et al. (2000) state: " There is a fundamental mismatch between the concepts used by object-oriented developers and other mainstream software engineering paradigms, and the agent-oriented view. [. ] Existing software development techniques are unsuitable to realise the potential of agents as a software engineering paradigm. " Zambonelli and Omicini (2003) state, " Agent-based computing can be considered as a new general-purpose paradigm for software development, which tends to radically influence the way a software system is conceived and developed. " This vision has led to the development of numerous multiagent system methodologies. However, the results that have been obtained in the application of these methodologies to real-world problems are disappointing. Another perspective on engineering multiagent systems starts from the viewpoint that multiagent system engineering fits well within mainstream software engineering. One particular argument that researchers of this vision have put forward is the observation that there is a strong connection between multiagent systems and software architecture. Mainstream software engineering has generally recognised software architecture as the primary vehicle to manage complexity and to achieve the system's required qualities. Software architecture consists of the structures of the system, which comprise software elements, the externally visible properties of those elements and the relationships among them (Bass et al., 2003). Software elements provide the functionality of the system, while the required system qualities are primarily achieved through the structures of the software architecture. A multiagent system is structured as a set of autonomous software components (agents) that are situated in a shared environment. Agents can flexibly 2 D. Weyns achieve their design objectives by acting in the environment and interacting with one another. Multiagent systems are typically ascribed quality properties such as adaptability, robustness and scalability. The connection between multiagent systems and software architecture was the subject of a special track at Net.ObjectDays 2006 (Weyns and Holvoet, 2006). This special issue contains a selection of four thoroughly revised papers from this special track. 'View composition …
Overexpression of the Catalytic Subunit of Protein Phosphatase 2A Impairs Cardiac Function*

Reversible protein phosphorylation is an essential regulatory mechanism in many cellular functions. In contrast to protein kinases, the role and regulation of protein phosphatases has remained ambiguous. To address this issue, we generated transgenic mice that overexpress the catalytic subunit α of protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) (PP2Acα) in the heart driven by the α-myosin heavy chain promoter. Overexpression of the PP2Acα gene in the heart led to increased levels of the transgene both at RNA and protein levels. This was accompanied by a significant increase of PP2A enzyme activity in the myocardium. Morphological analysis revealed isles of necrosis and fibrosis. The phosphorylation state of phospholamban, troponin inhibitor, and eukaryotic elongation factor 2 was reduced significantly. The expression of junctional (calsequestrin) and free SR proteins (SERCA and phospholamban) was not altered. Whereas no increase in morbidity or mortality was noted, transgenic mice developed cardiac hypertrophy and reduced contractility of the heart, as well as cardiac dilatation as shown by biplane echocardiography. Taken together, these findings are indicative of the fundamental role of PP2A in cardiac function and imply that disturbances in protein phosphatases expression and activity may cause or aggravate the course of cardiac diseases.
Freeze‐dried stallion spermatozoa: evaluation of two chelating agents and comparative analysis of three sperm DNA damage assays

During the freeze‐drying procedure, sperm DNA might become damaged by both freezing and drying stresses. Sperm DNA status can be detected using well‐established assays; however, most techniques are expensive and involve elaborate protocols and equipment. Indirect assessments can provide alternative strategies. The objective of this study was to compare a simple test of DNA status using Diff‐Quik (DQ) with two established procedures: acridine orange test (AOT) and sperm chromatin dispersion (SCD) on freeze‐dried (FD) stallion spermatozoa. Ejaculated spermatozoa from three stallions were freeze‐dried in basic medium supplemented with two different chelating agents: EGTA or EDTA. After rehydration, the spermatozoa were subjected to DNA damage detection using a SCDt, AOT and DQ stain simultaneously. The results showed that the DNA damage levels in the EGTA group were significantly lower than those in the EDTA group. AOT detected a significantly higher proportion of spermatozoa with fragmented DNA than DQ and SCD. The results of the SCD test and DQ stain exhibited a significant positive correlation for DNA fragmentation (r = 0.528), whereas a negative correlation was observed between SCD, DQ and AOT (r = −0.134 and r = −0.332 respectively). The present study shows that both the SCD test and DQ assay are effective methods for detecting FD stallion sperm DNA fragmentation, whereas using of AOT is questionable.
A More Accurate Space Saving Algorithm for Finding the Frequent Items

The frequent items problem is to process a stream as a stream of items and find all items occurring more than a given fraction of the time. It is one of the most heavily studied problems in data stream mining, dating back to the 1980s. Aiming at higher false positive rate of the Space-Saving algorithm, an LRU-based (Least Recently Used, LRU) improved algorithm with low frequency item pre-eliminated is proposed. Accuracy, stability and adaptability of the improved algorithm have been apparently enhanced. Experimental results indicate that the algorithm can not only be used to find the frequent items, and can be used to estimate the frequency of them precisely. The improved algorithm can be used for online processing both high-speed network packet stream and backbone NetFlow stream.
Epidemiology of the Metabolic Syndrome

The clustering of cardiovascular risk factors, known as the metabolic syndrome, greatly increases the risk of developing diabetes, kidney disease, and cardiovascular disease. Individuals with the metabolic syndrome are also at increased risk for premature death from cardiovascular disease or all-cause mortality. Cross-sectional and longitudinal epidemiologic studies provide prevalence data on the syndrome based on criteria proposed by the World Health Organization and the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III. Owing to differences in the criteria, estimates of the prevalence of the syndrome vary according to the criteria used. Generally, the syndrome is more common in older people and in the United States and it is more prevalent among Mexican Americans. Obesity and sedentary lifestyles are major contributing factors to the syndrome and provide opportunities for interventions. Recent data from a randomized controlled trial indicate that a weight loss and exercise intervention reduced the incidence of the metabolic syndrome by 41% among individuals with impaired glucose tolerance. Pharmacologic treatment of the individual components of the metabolic syndrome provides an alternate strategy for managing the syndrome. The rising global epidemics of overweight and obesity will likely lead to increases in the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome posing a serious burden for clinicians and public health officials.
Biodegradable poly(ethylene oxide)/poly(epsilon-caprolactone) multiblock copolymers.

A series of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)/poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL) containing biodegradable poly(ether ester urethane)s, covering a wide range of compositions, were synthesized and characterized. The synthesis consisted of a two-step process. During the first step, the ring-opening reaction of epsilon-caprolactone was carried out, initiated by the hydroxyl terminal groups of the PEO chain. The second step involved the chain extension of these PCL-PEO-PCL trimers with hexamethylene diisocyanate. By varying either the ethylene oxide/epsilon-caprolactone ratio or the length of both segments, we obtained a series of polymers having different morphologies and displaying a broad range of properties.
Hurricane Andrew Ethnicity, Gender, and the Sociology of Disasters

This book explores how social, economic and political factors set the stage for Hurricane Andrew by influencing who was prepared, who was hit the hardest, and who was most likely to recover. Employing unique research data the authors analyze the consequences of conflict and competition on disaster preparation, response and recovery, especially where associated with race, ethnicity and gender.
Client Attitudes Towards Relationships: Changes Following a Sex Education Programme

This paper reports some findings from a sex education programme run over the last three years. An experimental group is compared with a control group in terms of acquisition of sexual knowledge and the effectiveness of the service is established in those terms. However, the main bulk of this paper is given over to analysis of changes in attitude in clients following a sex education course. These changes in attitude are illustrated in three areas: naivety towards sexual relationships, attitudes towards heterosexual relationships and attitudes towards homosexual relationships. Attitude change is discussed in terms of the effects that they have on the client's life and their relationships with significant others.
Planned Vaginal Delivery Following Cesarean Section

A program of trial labor by patients who had previously undergone one low cervical transverse cesarean section is described. Experience with 526 such patients shows that 49% delivered vaginally, doing so with slightly less morbidity and a shorter hospital stay than 108 similar patients not given a trial labor. Perinatal mortality and morbidity were unaffected by trial or route of delivery. Uterine rupture was encountered three times in the trial group and once in the nontrial patients but at no time resulted in a serious threat to the mother or child. Fertility was retained in 2 of the 4 patients. A significant increase in maternal morbidity was noted among patients whose trial labor resulted in a repeat cesarean section.
Identifying Publication Types Using Machine Learning

Every year the number of journals and the number of articles to be indexed grows at the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) causing an ever increasing demand on the highly qualified, but, relatively small, dedicated staff of indexers. We present a methodology for identifying MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) Publication Types for assisting the indexers in the categorization of these MEDLINE citations. Publication Types are used by the indexer to describe the type or genre of an article instead of what the article is about, making this a different kind of text categorization problem from identifying MeSH Descriptors. Our goal is to apply a machine learning approach to recommending Publication Types which will save indexers time by providing a precise list of possible Publication Types for each article. Our experiments involved several different machine learning methods to provide Publication Type recommendations which were then evaluated against the gold standard of human indexing. Our results show that machine learning in most cases adds a great deal to the overall performance of recommending Publication Types. Our experiments also show that in some cases, either the full text of the article or feature engineering will be required to accurately produce some Publication Type recommendations.
Operationalisation of norms for usage in electronic institutions

Agent-mediated electronic institutions belong to a new and promising field where interactions between a group of agents are regulated by means of a set of explicit norms. Current implementations of such open-agent systems are, however, mostly using constraints on the behaviour of the agents, thereby severely limiting the autonomy of the agents. To increase the autonomy of agents and possibly boost the efficiency of the overall system, a more flexible norm enforcement is required. However, as norms make extensive use of vague and ambiguous concepts and lack operational meaning (not expressing how the norm should be enforced), translating norms for usage with such a flexible enforcement mechanism might be difficult. In this paper we propose an extension to electronic institutions to allow for a flexible enforcement of norms, and manners to help overcome the difficulties of translating abstract norms.
The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Your Mistake Is My Mistake . . . or Is It? Behavioural Adjustments following Own and Observed Actions in Cooperative and Competitive Contexts

distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or
The Welfare State and the Conservatives

There can be no doubt that the Conservative governments between 1979 and 1997 made radical, and almost certainly permanent, changes to those policies and institutions which we sum up in convenient shorthand as the Welfare State. Little happened in the ®rst two terms. Continuity was much more striking than change. In spite of all the talk about cuts and rolling back the state the percentage of GDP going to public welfare in 1987±8 was exactly the same as in 1978±9 ± 23 per cent. Various factors inhibited radical change. There were other more pressing priorities ± in particular the economy and industrial relations. There was a lack of clarity about precisely what to do and how to do it. As Timmins puts it `A set of instincts is not a set of policies'. There was anxiety about public reaction to radical change. What went on in the ®rst two Thatcher governments was a process of policy learning. They discovered that what could be achieved by cuts to welfare programmes acceptable to nation, party and a divided cabinet was little more than candle ends apart from in housing. They learned that the scope for wholesale privatization was equally limited. They discovered that the potential for the increased targeting of bene®ts on the worst o and of increasing charges on the better o using services was also limited without increasing disincentives to work and provoking a middle class backlash. What was needed was a radically new approach. This was what was put in place in the years between 1987 and 1990. Le Grand describes what took place as `a major oensive against the bureaucratic structures of welfare provision'. Glennerster and his colleagues see the 1988±9 legislation as `the most signi®cant break in the incrementalist tradition of social policy since 1944±48'. Willetts, from an insider position, describes 1988 as an `annus mirabilis' for Thatcher social policy. What was introduced in the years 1988±90 was legislation which fundamentally reshaped British social policy. The providing state ± central and local ± was signi®cantly weakened and replaced by a more pluralist system of provision dominated by quasi or internal markets. It radically changed the face of the NHS, Education, Social Care, Local Authority Housing and the role of the local authority more generally.
Prosodic focus in Hong Kong Cantonese without post-focus compression

A recent study reported that post-focus compression (PFC) previously found in Beijing Mandarin is absent in two related languages, Taiwanese and Taiwan Mandarin, and that PFC is beneficial to focus recognition. This paper presents the results of acoustic and perception experiments for Hong Kong Cantonese, another Chinese dialect, which show that PFC does not occur in Hong Kong Cantonese, making it similar to Taiwanese and Taiwan Mandarin. Duration and intensity are found to be the two main acoustic correlates of prosodic focus in Hong Kong Cantonese, with pitch excursion size significant only in the dynamic tones. Focus recognition rate in Hong Kong Cantonese is high compared to the three languages above, and this suggests that other factors which were not examined, including the effect of prosodic structure on initial consonants, may also be important for the realization and recognition of prosodic focus.
A distributed matching/combining network suitable for Doherty power amplifiers covering more than an octave frequency band

This contribution presents a ground breaking distributed matching/combining network that allows to develop ultra-broadband Doherty Power Amplifiers (DPAs). In 73% of fractional bandwidth, from 1.2 GHz to 2.6 GHz, input return loss lower than -18 dB is demonstrated with 1.82 resistance transformation ratio. The active load modulation capability is verified, resulting in a resistance modulation index within 1.8 and 2.1 in the overall frequency range. In order to quantify the benefits, both matching and combining performance of the proposed network are compared with the conventional output network of DPAs. The solution is validated through the realization of a hybrid GaN prototype with more than 83% of fractional bandwidth. From 1 GHz to 2.6 GHz, continuous wave measurements show efficiency levels within 85 %-45% and within 57 %-35% at saturation and 6 dB of output power back-off, respectively. Measurement results applying a 5MHz 3gpp signal with carrier frequency from 1.2 GHz to 2.5 GHz confirm the efficient amplification of the prototype with envelope varying signals.
Ndd1 Turnover by SCFGrr1 Is Inhibited by the DNA Damage Checkpoint in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Ndd1 is the dedicated transcriptional activator of the mitotic gene cluster, which includes thirty-three genes that encode key mitotic regulators, making Ndd1 a hub for the control of mitosis. Previous work has shown that multiple kinases, including cyclin-dependent kinase (Cdk1), phosphorylate Ndd1 to regulate its activity during the cell cycle. Previously, we showed that Ndd1 was inhibited by phosphorylation in response to DNA damage. Here, we show that Ndd1 is also subject to regulation by protein turnover during the mitotic cell cycle: Ndd1 is unstable during an unperturbed cell cycle, but is strongly stabilized in response to DNA damage. We find that Ndd1 turnover in metaphase requires Cdk1 activity and the ubiquitin ligase SCFGrr1. In response to DNA damage, Ndd1 stabilization requires the checkpoint kinases Mec1/Tel1 and Swe1, the S. cerevisiae homolog of the Wee1 kinase. In both humans and yeast, the checkpoint promotes Wee1-dependent inhibitory phosphorylation of Cdk1 following exposure to DNA damage. While this is critical for checkpoint-induced arrest in most organisms, this is not true in budding yeast, where the function of damage-induced inhibitory phosphorylation is less well understood. We propose that the DNA damage checkpoint stabilizes Ndd1 by inhibiting Cdk1, which we show is required for targeting Ndd1 for destruction.
Quality of Life and Resource Allocation

A new word has recently entered the British medical vocabulary. What it stands for is neither a disease nor a cure. At least, it is not a cure for a disease in the medical sense. But it could, perhaps, be thought of as an intended cure for a medicosociological disease: namely that of haphazard or otherwise ethically inappropriate allocation of scarce medical resources. What I have in mind is the term ‘QALY’, which is an acronym standing for quality adjusted life year. Just what this means and what it is intended to do I shall explain in due course. Let me first, however, set the scene.
Writing Reusable Code Feedback at Scale with Mixed-Initiative Program Synthesis

In large introductory programming classes, teacher feedback on individual incorrect student submissions is often infeasible. Program synthesis techniques are capable of fixing student bugs and generating hints automatically, but they lack the deep domain knowledge of a teacher and can generate functionally correct but stylistically poor fixes. We introduce a mixed-initiative approach which combines teacher expertise with data-driven program synthesis techniques. We demonstrate our novel approach in two systems that use different interaction mechanisms. Our systems use program synthesis to learn bug-fixing code transformations and then cluster incorrect submissions by the transformations that correct them. The MistakeBrowser system learns transformations from examples of students fixing bugs in their own submissions. The FixPropagator system learns transformations from teachers fixing bugs in incorrect student submissions. Teachers can write feedback about a single submission or a cluster of submissions and propagate the feedback to all other submissions that can be fixed by the same transformation. Two studies suggest this approach helps teachers better understand student bugs and write reusable feedback that scales to a massive introductory programming classroom.