Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Successful Outcomes with Oral Fluoroquinolones Combined with Rifampicin in the Treatment of Mycobacterium ulcerans: An Observational Cohort Study

Background The World Health Organization currently recommends combined streptomycin and rifampicin antibiotic treatment as first-line therapy for Mycobacterium ulcerans infections. Alternatives are needed when these are not tolerated or accepted by patients, contraindicated, or neither accessible nor affordable. Despite in vitro effectiveness, clinical evidence for fluoroquinolone antibiotic use against Mycobacterium ulcerans is lacking. We describe outcomes and tolerability of fluoroquinolone-containing antibiotic regimens for Mycobacterium ulcerans in south-eastern Australia. Methodology/Principal Findings Analysis was performed of prospectively collected data including all primary Mycobacterium ulcerans infections treated at Barwon Health between 1998 and 2010. Medical treatment involved antibiotic use for more than 7 days; surgical treatment involved surgical excision of a lesion. Treatment success was defined as complete lesion healing without recurrence at 12 months follow-up. A complication was defined as an adverse event attributed to an antibiotic that required its cessation. A total of 133 patients with 137 lesions were studied. Median age was 62 years (range 3–94 years). 47 (34%) had surgical treatment alone, and 90 (66%) had combined surgical and medical treatment. Rifampicin and ciprofloxacin comprised 61% and rifampicin and clarithromycin 23% of first-line antibiotic regimens. 13/47 (30%) treated with surgery alone failed treatment compared to 0/90 (0%) of those treated with combination medical and surgical treatment (p<0.0001). There was no difference in treatment success rate for antibiotic combinations containing a fluoroquinolone (61/61 cases; 100%) compared with those not containing a fluoroquinolone (29/29 cases; 100%). Complication rates were similar between ciprofloxacin and rifampicin (31%) and rifampicin and clarithromycin (33%) regimens (OR 0.89, 95% CI 0.27–2.99). Paradoxical reactions during treatment were observed in 8 (9%) of antibiotic treated cases. Conclusions Antibiotics combined with surgery may significantly increase treatment success for Mycobacterium ulcerans infections, and fluoroquinolone combined with rifampicin-containing antibiotic regimens can provide an effective and safe oral treatment option.
Secondary prevention for patients following a myocardial infarction: summary of NICE guidance

Mortality from coronary heart disease has been falling in the UK since the 1970s, but remains higher than in most other Western countries. Most patients receive some treatment for secondary prevention after myocardial infarction, but not all patients are offered the most effective secondary prevention package. The recently published NICE guideline for secondary prevention in patients after myocardial infarction, summarised in this article, makes clear recommendations for management of patients after myocardial infarction, based on best available evidence. The guidelines update the 2001 NICE guideline, and have expanded and emphasised the recommendations for physical activity, dietary and other lifestyle changes, and cardiac rehabilitation, and updated the recommendations for drug therapy.
Some Comments on "Transition-Oriented" Versus "Structured" Specification of Distributed Algorithms and Protocols

Formal description techniques (FDT's) are being developed for the specification of communication protocols and other distributed systems. Some of them (namely SDL and Estelle) are based on an extended state transition model and promote a "transition-oriented" specification style. Another one (namely Lotos) and most highlevel programming languages promote a style which is called "structured. " The correspondence compares these two specification styles in the framework of rendezvous interactions between different system modules. The advantages of each of the two styles are discussed in relation with an example of a virtual ring mutual exclusion protocol. Transformation rules between the two approaches are given. An extension to the state transition oriented FDT's is also suggested in order to allow for a structured specification style.
Lacibacter nakdongensis sp. nov., isolated from river sediment.

A novel Gram-stain-negative, non-spore-forming, orange-pigmented bacterium, designated strain SS2-56T, was isolated from sediment of the Nakdong River in Sangju-si, Republic of Korea. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that the isolate SS2-56T belongs to the family Chitinophagaceae, and was most closely related to Lacibacter daechungensis H32-4T (96.6 % similarity) and Lacibacter cauensis NJ-8T (96.1 %). Strain SS2-56T contained menaquinone 7 (MK-7) as a respiratory quinone and iso-C15 : 0, iso-C17 : 0 3-OH, iso-C15 : 1 G, summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω7c and/or C16 : 1ω6c) and C16 : 0 as major fatty acids. The major polar lipids of strain SS2-56T were phosphatidylethanolamine, one unidentified aminophospholipid and four unidentified lipids. The DNA G+C content was 43.8 mol%. Phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic evidence clearly indicates that strain SS2-56T represents a novel species of the genus Lacibacter, for which the name Lacibacter nakdongensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is SS2-56T (=KCTC 52160T=JCM 31372T).
Spatio-Temporal Fading Scheme for Error Concealment in Block-Based Video Decoding Systems

In this contribution we propose a new spatio-temporal fading scheme for block loss recovery in block-based video decoding systems. Based on a boundary error criterion obtained from temporal error concealment, either spatial, temporal, or fading of both methods is used for recovering lost image samples in one macroblock. The weights for fading are interpolated from the boundary error. A weighted absolute difference between well received macroblock boundary samples from the current frame and motion compensated macroblock boundary samples from the previous frame represents the boundary error. It is shown, that in case of transmission errors this method can successfully be used for block loss recovery.
What Happened to the “Superior Abilities” in Adults With Dyslexia and High IQs? A Behavioral and Neurological Illustration

Observable behavior, such as test scores, is the gold standard by which we make judgments about levels of function, grade placements, and the presence/absence of pathology. Individual differences in test performance have long intrigued researchers and clinicians, and some have noted how people can come up with essentially the same answers using different strategies. Thus, product, or overt test score, does not always tell us about the underlying cognitive or neurological process involved. We provide results from an ongoing brain imaging study of spatially superior–reading disabled adults, showing how different, hitherto unseen, neural processes can yield similar overt test behavior in some domains and not others. These data raise our awareness of how individual differences in neurology might be considered alongside behavioral observations. Implications for practice and how these data address assumptions in the twice-exceptional field are discussed.
Associations among parent–adolescent relationships, pubertal growth, dieting, and body image in young adolescent girls: A short-term longitudinal study.

This investigation examined the degree to which pubertal development and parent-adolescent relationships were associated with girls' current and future dieting and body image. Via longitudinal path models, we also separately tested the possibility of bidirectional effects between parental relationships and dieting and parental relationships and body image. Early adolescent girls (N = 127) who were predominantly of normal weight, were seen for 2 consecutive years (M = 12.19 and M = 13.15 years), completed measures assessing their dieting, body image, and relationships with their parents, and had their weights and heights measured. Mothers rated their daughters' pubertal growth by indicating their daughters' level of breast development using the Tanner rating system. Results indicate that girls' perceptions of their relationships with their parents were associated with their dieting attitudes and behaviors, and body image at Time 1 and Time 2. Body mass (kg/m2) was only associated in the concurrent regressi.
[Classic strategies for diagnosis of cryptosporidiosis in patients with AIDS and chronic diarrhea].

Cryptosporidium sp. , a protozoa organism, has been increasingly recognized in association with severe enteritis in patients with the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. The studied subjects included 84 adult patients with AIDS and chronic diarrhea. We describe 14 patients with intestinal infection caused by Cryptosporidium sp. The mean CD4 count in these patients was < or = 300 cells/mm3 (7 out of 14). Examination of duodenal aspirates and feces included dimethylsulfoxide, auramine and acid-fast preparation of concentrated samples. We carried out videoesophagogastroduodenoscopy (VEDA) to visually inspect the mucosa and obtain biopsy specimens. VEDA revealed granular duodenum in ten patients and jasper duodenum in one of them. Duodenal biopsy specimens were stained with hematoxylin-eosin, Giemsa and Azure II. Histologic changes included atrophy (3/14), duodenitis (2/14) or both (3/14). Transmission electron microscopy was used for the identification of developmental stages of Cryptosporidium sp.
Can children with autistic spectrum disorders perceive affect in music? An experimental investigation

Background. Children with autistic spectrum disorders typically show impairments in processing affective information within social and interpersonal domains. It has yet to be established whether such difficulties persist in the area of music; a domain which is characteristically rich in emotional content. Methods. Fourteen children with autism and Asperger syndrome and their age and intelligence matched controls were tested for their ability to identify the affective connotations of melodies in the major or minor musical mode. They were required to match musical fragments with schematic representations of happy and sad faces. Results. The groups did not differ in their ability to ascribe the musical examples to the two affective categories. Conclusions. In contrast to their performance within social and interpersonal domains, children with autistic disorders showed no deficits in processing affect in musical stimuli.
Automatic multiple threshold scheme for segmentation of tomograms

Tomographic reconstructions, which are generally gray-scale images, are often segmented as to extract quantitative information, such as the shape or volume of image objects. At present, segmentation is usually performed by thresholding. However, the process of threshold selection is somewhat arbitrary and requires human interaction. In this paper, we present an algorithmic approach for automatically selecting the segmentation thresholds by using the available tomographic projection data. Assuming that each material (i.e., tissue type) in the sample has a characteristic, approximately constant gray value, thresholds are computed for which the segmented image corresponds optimally with the projection data.
Teenagers’ Internet Use and Family Rules: A Research Note

The Internet poses challenges to parents who want their children to take advantage of online resources but also want to protect their children from questionable content. Using data from 749 dyads of American parents and their teenage children with Internet access, this study finds that the majority of parents report regulating their teenage children's Internet use, but parents report more monitoring (61%) than teens report (38%). Multivariate regression analyses indicate fathers, younger parents, parents who use the Internet with their children, and parents with younger teens engage in a higher level of parental monitoring. This study provides a first look at parental monitoring of children's Internet use and points to the need to study family rules from both parents’ and children's perspectives.
Asymptotically optimal algorithm for stochastic adwords

In this paper we consider the adwords problem in the unknown distribution model. We consider the case where the budget to bid ratio k is at least 2, and give improved competitive ratios. Earlier results had competitive ratios better than 1-1/e only for "large enough" k, while our competitive ratio increases continuously with k. For k=2 the competitive ratio we get is 0.729 and it is 0.9 for k=16. We also improve the asymptotic competitive ratio for large k from 1 - O(√log n/k) to 1 - O(√1/k), thus removing any dependence on n, the number of advertisers. This ratio is optimal, even with known distributions. That is, even if an algorithm is tailored to the distribution, it cannot get a competitive ratio of 1 - o(√1/k), whereas our algorithm does not depend on the distribution. The algorithm is rather simple, it computes a score for every advertiser based on his original budget, the remaining budget and the remaining number of steps in the algorithm and assigns a query to the advertiser with the highest bid plus his score. The analysis is based on a "hybrid argument" that considers algorithms that are part actual, part hypothetical, to prove that our (actual) algorithm is better than a completely hypothetical algorithm whose performance is easy to analyze.
Aspect and the bounded/unbounded (telic/atelic) distinction

This paper deals with the bounded/unbounded (telicjatelic) distinction which is relevant to the study of aspect (more specifically, 'Aktionsart') but which has been defined in different ways and has been applied to different objects in the linguistic literature. In this paper the author aims (1) to clear up some of the confusion by formulating an accurate definition; (2) to show that the distinction has been wrongly defined in terms of two values ('-Abounded' and '—bounded'), as some sentences clearly require a neutral value ('&bounded'); (3) to make clear that this triple distinction also provides a basis for distinguishing between relevant classes ofdurational adverbials; and (4) to throw some light on the factor s that determine the +bounded, —bounded, or to-bounded character of linguistic objects. In most recent articles on aspect and related semantic problems a distinction is made between verb phrases like drink beer and drink three glasses of beer. The former are said to be 'unbounded' (atelic, durative, imperfective, nonconclusive, activities), the latter have been referred to as 'bounded' (telic, nondurative, perfective, conclusive, terminative, resultative, performances, accomplishments). The distinction (which appears to go back to Aristotle) has proved very useful for explaining the meaning and use of particular verb forms in many languages. Thus, Garey (1957) relies on it to explain the difference between the French 'imparfait' and the 'passe compose'; Bauer (1970) and Zydatiss (1976) use the distinction to account for the different meanings and uses of the English perfect; and many linguists have applied it in making clear the different uses and implications of simple and progressive tense forms in English. In spite of the fact that it has been widely made use of, the distinction has not been applied in a uniform way. In the linguistic literature we find it applied to various objects, such as verbs (e.g. Garey, 1957; Kenny, 1963; Bauer, 1970), verb phrases (e.g. Dowty, 1977), sentences (e.g. Zydatiss, 0024-3949/79/0017-0761 $2.00 Linguistics 17 (1979), 761-794. © Mouton Publishers, The Hague
Altered Fat Distribution in HIV‐Positive Men on Nucleoside Analog Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitor Therapy

Summary: To determine whether HIV infection, the wasting syndrome, or nucleoside analog reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) or protease inhibitor (PI) therapy uniquely affect fat distribution in men, we performed manual regional analysis of total, appendicular, trunk, and central abdominal fat measured by dual‐energy X‐ray absorp tiometry (DEXA). Five groups of study subjects were identified for this cross‐sectional analysis: HIV‐negative controls (HIV‐; N = 44) and four groups of HIV‐posi tive subjects: antiretroviral (ARV)‐naive or with limited prior use of NRTIs (ARV‐; N = 23); on NRTIs for ≥ months but Pi‐naive (NRTI; N = 30); on an NRTI/PI regimen for ≥6 months but with no complaints of abnormal fat distribution (NRTI/PI; N = 26); and those on NRTIs but Pi‐naive with the wasting syndrome (NRTI/WS; N = 40). Total, appendicular, trunk, and central abdominal fat was sig nificantly lower in NRTI/WS. The ratio of trunk fat to appendicular fat was virtually identical in HIV‐ and ARV‐. This ratio was significantly higher in the NRTI, NRTI/PI, and NRTI/WS groups, and values in these three groups were similar. These cross‐sectional data suggest that HIV‐infected men receiving NRTIs have an altered pattern of fat distribution, compared with HIV‐negative men and HIV‐positive men who are not receiving antiretroviral therapy. This effect was independent of the con comitant use of a PI or a diagnosis of the wasting syndrome. We saw no evidence of a unique effect of HIV infection per se on regional fat distribution. Although the fat ratio is increasingly employed, its physiologic significance is unclear. Our results, which have been obtained retrospectively, are intended to provide the impetus for prospective, controlled studies of the interactions among drug and host factors in the development of fat distribution abnormalities.
Hospice volunteers: bridging the gap to the community?

Abstract Current demographic, policy and management changes are a challenge to hospices to develop their volunteering practices. The study upon which this paper is based aimed to explore good practice in volunteer involvement and identify ways of improving care through developing volunteering. The project consisted of a narrative literature review; a survey of volunteer managers; and organisational case studies selected through purposive diversity sampling criteria. A total of 205 staff, volunteers, patients and relatives were interviewed across 11 sites in England in 2012. This article focuses on one of the findings – the place that volunteers occupy between the hospice and the community beyond its walls. External changes and pressures in society were impacting on volunteer management, but were viewed as requiring a careful balancing act to retain the ‘spirit’ of the hospice philosophy. Honouring the developmental history of the hospice was vital to many respondents, but viewed less positively by those who wished to modernise. Hospices tend to be somewhat secluded organisations in Britain, and external links and networks were mostly within the end‐of‐life care arena, with few referring to the wider volunteering and community fields. Volunteers were seen as an informal and symbolic ‘link’ to the local community, both in terms of their ‘normalising’ roles in the hospice and as providing a two‐way flow of information with the external environment where knowledge of hospice activities remains poor. The diversity of the community is not fully represented among hospice volunteers. A few hospices had deliberately tried to forge stronger interfaces with their localities, but these ventures were often controversial. The evidence suggests that there is substantial scope for hospices to develop the strategic aspects of volunteering through greater community engagement and involvement and by increasing diversity and exploiting volunteers' ‘boundary’ position more systematically to educate, recruit and raise awareness.
SEEING AND BELIEVING: VISUAL ACCESS AND THE STRATEGIC USE OF DECEPTION

While prior work has focused on the importance of visual access and visual cues to targets of deception, this article highlights its importance to deceivers. We introduce a new approach for conceptualizing deception and distinguish between two types of lies according to the relative value to the deceiver of being able to monitor the target's reaction to the lie; deceivers telling monitoring‐dependent lies benefit significantly more from being able to monitor their target than do deceivers telling monitoring‐independent lies. We examine this distinction and its implications for the strategic use of deception, by manipulating visual access in a negotiation experiment with teleconference and videoconference media. We find consistent differences between deceivers use of and consequences of these two types of lies as a function of visual access. First, the use of monitoring‐dependent lies was significantly greater with visual access than without it, while the use of monitoring‐independent lies was unaffected by visual access. Second, consistent with our conceptu‐alization, participants who lied were trusted less by their counterpart than were participants who did not lie, except when participants with visual access told monitoring‐dependent lies. In these cases deceivers were actually trusted more by their counterpart than participants who did not lie. These results support our conceptualization and suggest that visual access may actually harm potential targets of deception—by increasing their risk of being deceived and inappropriately increasing their interpersonal trust.
The Social Psychology of Creativity

Motivation plays a crucial role in the creative process. It is not enough to have unusually high levels of skill or a deep conceptual understanding. In order for students to reach their creative potential, they must approach a task with intrinsic motivation; they must engage in that task for the sheer pleasure and enjoyment of the activity itself rather than for some external goal. Researchers and theorists now understand that there is a direct relation between the motivational orientation brought to a task and the likelihood of creativity at that task. And it is particular features of the school environment and students' daily routine that in large part determine that motivation. The present paper outlines investigations revealing that the typical classroom is fraught with teaching practices and programme features that kill intrinsic motivation and creativity. Research designed to immunise students against the negative effects of these damaging classroom elements is reviewed. The argument is made that the undermining of intrinsic motivation and creativity of performance may be largely driven by an affective, rather than a cognitive, mechanism, and recent cross-cultural data gathered in a non-western educational setting are reviewed.
A K-band CMOS Differential Vackar VCO With the Gate Inductive Feedback

This brief presents a K-band differential Vackar voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) with gate inductive feedback which enhances negative impedance and thus simplifies the startup condition. Simple analysis and simulations examine the transistor loading effect and amplitude stability. Results indicate that the Vackar VCO has improved amplitude stability compared to the Colpitts VCO. The improved amplitude stability is favorable for suppressing amplitude-to-phase noise conversion. The Vackar VCO was implemented in a 0.13- RF CMOS process. The oscillation frequency ranged from 19 to 19.95 GHz. The measured phase noise at 1-MHz offset was 103 dBc/Hz at 19.5 GHz with a figure of merit of 182 dB.
Behavioral and Psychological Consequences of Boundary Spanning Burnout for Customer Service Representatives

Marketing boundary spanners—especially customer service representatives—are notably susceptible to burnout. The authors define the burnout construct and develop hypotheses to examine if burnout acts as a partial mediator between role stressors and key behavioral and psychological job outcomes. Responses from 377 customer service representatives reveal that burnout levels are high relative to other burnout-prone occupations (e.g., police, nursing) and that burnout has consistent, significant, and dysfunctional effects on their behavioral and psychological outcomes. Moreover, burnout mediates the negative effects of role stressors on job outcomes, whereas the positive effects of role stressors are unmediated.