Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Alcohol and violence: use of possible confounders in a time-series analysis.

AIMS To assess the aggregate association between alcohol consumption and violence, while controlling for potential confounders. DESIGN AND MEASUREMENTS The data comprise aggregate time-series for Norway in the period 1880-2003 and 1911-2003 on criminal violence rates and per capita alcohol consumption. Possible confounders comprise annual rates of unemployment, divorce, marriage, total fertility rate, gross national product, public assistance/social care and the proportion of the population aged between 15 and 25. Autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) analyses were performed on differenced data. Both semilogarithmic and linear models were estimated. FINDINGS Alcohol consumption was associated significantly with violence, and an increase in alcohol consumption of 1 litre per year per inhabitant predicted a change of approximately 8% in the violence rate. The parameter estimate for the alcohol variable remained unaltered after including the covariates both in the semilogarithmic and the linear models. Of the seven covariates included in the models, only divorce was associated significantly with violence rate. CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that alcohol consumption has an independent effect on violence rates when other factors are controlled for. The results support the assumption of a causal effect of alcohol consumption on violence, and it appears that alcohol consumption is an important factor when we wish to explain changes in violence rates over time.
The Role of Severity in Consumer Attributions of Blame

Abstract This paper presents results from a study in Mexico which suggest that observers ' perceptions of the severity of a product-harm crisis affect their assessment of blame to the firm when culpability is ambiguous. As perceptions of crisis severity increase, more blame is assessed to the firm. This finding is consistent regardless of whether the nationality of the victims is the same or different from that of the observers. Perceptions of severity are in turn affected by the observer's tolerance for ambiguity-the lower the tolerance for ambiguity, the higher the perception of crisis severity. The theoretical and practical implications of this research are discussed.
A critical evaluation of current views regarding eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR): clarifying points of confusion.

EMDR is an active psychological treatment for PTSD that has received widely divergent reactions from the scientific and professional community. This article examines points of confusion in the published literature on EMDR, including the theoretical, empirical, and historical issues around EMDR and placebo effects, exposure procedures, the eye movement component, treatment fidelity issues, and outcome studies. It also examines historical information relevant to the scientific process and charges of "pseudoscience" regarding EMDR. We conclude that the confusion in the literature is due to (a) the lack of an empirically validated model capable of convincingly explaining the effects of the EMDR method, (b) inaccurate and selective reporting of research, (c) some poorly designed empirical studies, (d) inadequate treatment fidelity in some outcome research, and (e) multiple biased or inaccurate reviews by a relatively small group of authors. Reading the original research articles frequently helps to reduce the confusion arising from the research review literature.
Anaesthetic management of a patient of Brugada syndrome for an emergency appendicectomy

Brugada syndrome is a myocardial transmembrane conduction of sodium abnormality and a common cause of sudden cardiac death. It is characterized by a distinctive electrocardiograph pattern with right bundle branch block and ST segment elevation in precordial leads V1–V3. Many factors during general anesthetic management could precipitate malignant dysrhythmia. We report the anesthetic management of a patient with Brugada syndrome for emergency appendectomy uneventfully.
When environmental re-design creates autonomy hindrance : Learning from the investigation of local detail in the study of institutional Relocation

ABSTRACT Twenty-three residents were interviewed with the Geriatric Relocation Assessment Inventory (GRAI) to study the consequences of intra-institutional relocation from the residents' perspective. Interviews revealed that institutional relocation was associated with discrete positive and negative changes. Positive changes included brighter lights, new decor, and more privacy. Negative changes concerned restrictive room design and ward location. Responses are considered in light of theory to suggest that the reportedly substantial impact of minor changes can be explained as “autonomy hindrance,” such that seemingly minor losses associated with relocation become significant in a context of decreased opportunities for autonomy and increased environmental dependence. Studies that uncover such local detail may be usefull in understanding conflicting findings in relocation research.
Eye Shape and Corners Detection in Periocular Images Using Particle Filters

The eyes are the most preeminent features of the human face and the ability to accurate the eye landmarks is crucial to a variety of application domains. In this paper, we present a probabilistic method to detect the eye shape in periocular images based on particle filters. The proposed method does not need any prior information about the position of the iris and there is no need for initialization. The eyes are modeled by a simple feature vector that generates two parabolas for the upper and lower eyelid. In order to ensure the robustness of the solution, several measurement cues are fused together when computing the score of a hypothetical eye shape. The proposed method was extensively evaluated on a publicly available database.
Process and Object Models in Software Engineering: A Study of Their Choice and Subsequent Use

This paper provides a research model to analyze how decisions relating to the choice of modeling approach are made in the context of software engineering and how behavioral variables account for the intention and actual use associated with conceptual modeling frameworks. Modeling approach refers to the part of system development that involves investigating the problems and requirements of the users community and from that, developing a specification of the desired system. To that extent the choice of the conceptual modeling approach is a function of the methodology adopted for the entire software development lifecycle. We consider two broad classes of methodologies – the process-oriented approach (also known as the structured approach) and the object-oriented approach. We formalize the question whether there is a difference between object-oriented and structured approaches when it comes to requirements modeling. Secondly, we study decisions processes regarding the adoption of either an object-oriented, structured or combination approaches.
Using Markov-k Memory for Problems with Hidden-State

TRACA (Temporal Reinforcement learning and Classification Architecture) is a new learning system devel oped for robot-navigation problems. One difficulty in this area is dealing with problems which contain hidden-state. TRACA solves hidden-state tasks using a novel method to buil d Markovk memory chains wherek may be of arbitrary length. The seemingly simple strategy employed by TRACA presents a number of hidden complexities. Some important issues that arise are the need to direct and restrict search and to distin guish different types of hidden-state in order to correctly evaluate the usefulness of internal structures. These problems and others are discussed along with the various techniques for addressing them that have been imple mented in TRACA. The techniques hinge on TRACA’s ability to distinguish two different types of hidden-state. The sucess of TRACA’s implementation is demonstrated on some difficult hidden-state problems and its performance is compared to ot her state-of-the-art approaches.
Streptococcal Antagonism in Oral Biofilms: Streptococcus sanguinis and Streptococcus gordonii Interference with Streptococcus mutans

ABSTRACT Biofilms are polymicrobial, with diverse bacterial species competing for limited space and nutrients. Under healthy conditions, the different species in biofilms maintain an ecological balance. This balance can be disturbed by environmental factors and interspecies interactions. These perturbations can enable dominant growth of certain species, leading to disease. To model clinically relevant interspecies antagonism, we studied three well-characterized and closely related oral species, Streptococcus gordonii, Streptococcus sanguinis, and cariogenic Streptococcus mutans. S. sanguinis and S. gordonii used oxygen availability and the differential production of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to compete effectively against S. mutans. Interspecies antagonism was influenced by glucose with reduced production of H2O2. Furthermore, aerobic conditions stimulated the competence system and the expression of the bacteriocin mutacin IV of S. mutans, as well as the H2O2-dependent release of heterologous DNA from mixed cultures of S. sanguinis and S. gordonii. These data provide new insights into ecological factors that determine the outcome of competition between pioneer colonizing oral streptococci and the survival mechanisms of S. mutans in the oral biofilm.
Explicit Versus Latent Concept Models for Cross-Language Information Retrieval

The field of information retrieval and text manipulation (classification, clustering) still strives for models allowing semantic information to be folded in to improve performance with respect to standard bag-of-word based models. Many approaches aim at a concept-based retrieval, but differ in the nature of the concepts, which range from linguistic concepts as defined in lexical resources such as WordNet, latent topics derived from the data itself - as in Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) or (Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) - to Wikipedia articles as proxies for concepts, as in the recently proposed Explicit Semantic Analysis (ESA) model. A crucial question which has not been answered so far is whether models based on explicitly given concepts (as in the ESA model for instance) perform inherently better than retrieval models based on "latent" concepts (as in LSI and/or LDA). In this paper we investigate this question closer in the context of a cross-language setting, which inherently requires concept-based retrieval bridging between different languages. In particular, we compare the recently proposed ESA model with two latent models (LSI and LDA) showing that the former is clearly superior to the both. From a general perspective, our results contribute to clarifying the role of explicit vs. implicitly derived or latent concepts in (cross-language) information retrieval research.
Family and Kinship in East London

Although housing in Bethnal Green was often appalling, a complex network of relatives - families of three generations held together by the powerful mother-daughter bond at the centre - was always available to provide mutual aid and a sense of community. It was when families were rehoused in the immaculate new estates outside London, miles away from their kin, that the vital support system broke down, with disastrous effects on the quality of people's lives. This famous book, based on a major three-year research project, makes clear how planners have frequently failed to understand real human needs; it also provides a marvellous portrait of the resilience and generosity of spirit which went at least some way to compensate for the deprivations of inner-city working-class life.
The functional organization of area V2, I: Specialization across stripes and layers

We used qualitative tests to assess the sensitivity of 1043 V2 neurons (predominantly multiunits) in anesthetised macaque monkeys to direction, length, orientation, and color of moving bar stimuli. Spectral sensitivity was additionally tested by noting ON or OFF responses to flashed stimuli of varied size and color. The location of 649 units was identified with respect to cycles of cytochrome oxidase stripes (thick-inter-thin-inter) and cortical layer. We used an initial 8-way stripe classification (4 stripes, and 4 “marginal” zones at interstripes boundaries), and a 9-way layer classification (5 standard layers (2–6), and 4 “marginal” strata at layer boundaries). These classes were collapsed differently for particular analyses of functional distribution; the main stripe-by-layer analysis was performed on 18 compartments (3 stripes × 6 layers). We found direction sensitivity only within thick stripes, orientation sensitivity mainly in thick stripes and interstripes, and spectral sensitivity mainly in thin stripes. Positive length summation was relatively more frequent in thick stripes and interstripes, and negative length/size summation in thin stripes. All these “majority” characteristics of stripes were most prominent in layers 3A and 3B. By contrast, “minority” characteristics (e.g. spectral sensitivity in thick stripes; positive size summation in thin stripes) tended to be most frequent in the outer layers, that is, layers 2 and 6. In consequence, going by the four functions tested, the distinctions between stripes were maximal in layer 3, moderate in layer 2, and minimal in layer 6.
Sería preferible la dolarización de las economías latinoamericanas

Introduccion A pesar del razonable exito que estan teniendo en los ultimos anos las estrategias monetarias basadas en el seguimiento directo de un objetivo de inflacion en el marco de un regimen de tipos de cambio flexibles en las principales economias latinoamericanas (con la excepcion de Argentina), la altemativa de la dolarizacion continua encontrando algunos apoyos en la academia y en instancias gubernamentales, especialmente en los casos de Argentina (donde la dolarizacion, considerada una estrategia de salida "natural" para el currency board, cuenta con apoyos importantes)^ y Mexico. En otros casos (Ecuador) la dolarizacion se ha adoptado como altemativa al caos, en un contexto de desorden estructural e institucional generalizado. La dolarizacion implica el reemplazo completo de la moneda local por la moneda extranjera (en este caso el dolar) y la aceptacion de esta como moneda de curso legal que posee todas las propiedades caracteristicas del dinero: unidad de cuenta, medio de cambio y deposito de valor. Las variaciones de la base monetaria vienen estrictamente determinadas por la balanza de pagos y las autoridades monetarias pierden toda capacidad de control sobre los agregados monetarios y los tipos de interes. Un regimen monetario de dolarizacion produciria los mismos efectos que un compromiso institucional del banco central, completamente creible, de defender a toda costa el tipo de cambio: la disminucion sustancial de los costes reales del mantenimiento de la paridad2.
Laboratory diagnosis of chronic myelomonocytic leukemia and progression to acute leukemia in association with chronic lymphocytic leukemia: morphological features and immunophenotypic profile

Chronic myelomonocytic leukemia is a clonal stem cell disorder that is characterized mainly by absolute peripheral monocytosis. This disease can present myeloproliferative and myelodysplastic characteristics. According to the classification established by the World Health Organization, chronic myelomonocytic leukemia is inserted in a group of myeloproliferative/myelodysplastic disorders; its diagnosis requires the presence of persistent monocytosis and dysplasia involving one or more myeloid cell lineages. Furthermore, there should be an absence of the Philadelphia chromosome and the BCR/ABL fusion gene and less than 20% blasts in the blood or bone marrow. Phenotypically, the cells in chronic myelomonocytic leukemia can present myelomonocytic antigens, such as CD33 and CD13, overexpressions of CD56 and CD2 and variable expressions of HLA-DR, CD36, CD14, CD15, CD68 and CD64. The increase in the CD34 expression may be associated with a transformation into acute leukemia. Cytogenetic alterations are frequent in chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, and molecular mutations such as NRAS have been identified. The present article reports on a case of chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, diagnosed by morphologic and phenotypical findings that, despite having been suggestive of acute monocytic leukemia, were differentiated through a detailed analysis of cell morphology. Furthermore, typical cells of chronic lymphocytic leukemia were found, making this a rare finding.
Brain tumor as a threat to life and personality : The spouse's perspective

A highly malignant glioma is an extremely serious disease. The prognosis is poor, and the common presence of physical as well as mental deficiencies creates an exposed position not only for the patient but for the family as well. This study focused on the experiences of 24 spouses with their partner's disease during the entire course of the disease process. Repeated interviews displayed three different crisis trajectories: crisis delayed until the disease progressed, immediate crisis, and crisis delayed until the patient returned home. These trajectories were highly dependent on the patients' overall status, and they are discussed in relation to the healthy spouses' different disease experiences and coping possibilities.
Seasonal analysis of protistan community structure and diversity at the USC Microbial Observatory (San Pedro Channel, North Pacific Ocean)

The structure and genetic diversity of marine protistan assemblages were investigated in the upper 500 m of the water column at a Pacific Ocean time‐series station off the coast of Southern California. Deoxyribonucleic acid sequence‐based microbial eukaryote diversity was examined in January, April, July, and October of 2001 at four depths (5 m, chlorophyll maximum [CM], 150 m, and 500 m). A total of 2956 partial 18S ribosomal ribonucleic acid gene sequences yielded representatives from most of the major eukaryotic lineages. Notable among the taxonomic groups were recently described lineages of stramenopiles, alveolates, and euglenozoa. A large number of polycystine and acantharean sequences were observed at depth. Pairwise sequence analysis was performed to establish operational taxonomic units (OTUs) that were then used to estimate the unsampled protistan diversity by parametric and nonparametric techniques. A total of 2246 protistan sequences grouped into 377 distinct OTUs, with remaining sequences attributed to metazoa. Protistan richness estimates ranged from ~ 600 to 1500 OTUs when all depths and seasons were combined into a single data set. Seasonal and depth‐related trends in the observed protistan diversity were apparent from comparisons of univariate and multivariate analyses. Cluster analysis combined with nonmetric multidimensional scaling and analysis of similarity testing identified distinct protistan assemblages at the shallowest depths (5 m and CM) for each season, which were significantly different (p < 0.03) from assemblages at the two deepest depths (150 and 500 m) where seasonal changes in the protistan assemblage were not apparent.
pH-Dependent Entry of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Is Mediated by the Spike Glycoprotein and Enhanced by Dendritic Cell Transfer through DC-SIGN

ABSTRACT The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) synthesizes several putative viral envelope proteins, including the spike (S), membrane (M), and small envelope (E) glycoproteins. Although these proteins likely are essential for viral replication, their specific roles in SARS-CoV entry have not been defined. In this report, we show that the SARS-CoV S glycoprotein mediates viral entry through pH-dependent endocytosis. Further, we define its cellular tropism and demonstrate that virus transmission occurs through cell-mediated transfer by dendritic cells. The S glycoprotein was used successfully to pseudotype replication-defective retroviral and lentiviral vectors that readily infected Vero cells as well as primary pulmonary and renal epithelial cells from human, nonhuman primate, and, to a lesser extent, feline species. The tropism of this reporter virus was similar to that of wild-type, replication-competent SARS-CoV, and binding of purified S to susceptible target cells was demonstrated by flow cytometry. Although myeloid dendritic cells were able to interact with S and to bind virus, these cells could not be infected by SARS-CoV. However, these cells were able to transfer the virus to susceptible target cells through a synapse-like structure. Both cell-mediated infection and direct infection were inhibited by anti-S antisera, indicating that strategies directed toward this gene product are likely to confer a therapeutic benefit for antiviral drugs or the development of a SARS vaccine.
DNA barcoding for species identification in deep-sea clams (Mollusca: Bivalvia: Vesicomyidae)

Abstract Deep-sea clams (Bivalvia: Vesicomyidae) have been found in reduced environments over the world oceans, but taxonomy of this group remains confusing at species and supraspecific levels due to their high-morphological similarity and plasticity. In the present study, we collected mitochondrial COI sequences to evaluate the utility of DNA barcoding on identifying vesicomyid species. COI dataset identified 56 well-supported putative species/operational taxonomic units (OTUs), approximately covering half of the extant vesicomyid species. One species (OTU2) was first detected, and may represent a new species. Average distances between species ranged from 1.65 to 29.64%, generally higher than average intraspecific distances (0–1.41%) when excluding Pliocardia sp.10 cf. venusta (average intraspecific distance 1.91%). Local barcoding gap existed in 33 of the 35 species when comparing distances of maximum interspecific and minimum interspecific distances with two exceptions (Abyssogena southwardae and Calyptogena rectimargo-starobogatovi). The barcode index number (BIN) system determined 41 of the 56 species/OTUs, each with a unique BIN, indicating their validity. Three species were found to have two BINs, together with their high level of intraspecific variation, implying cryptic diversity within them. Although fewer 16 S sequences were collected, similar results were obtained. Nineteen putative species were determined and no overlap observed between intra- and inter-specific variation. Implications of DNA barcoding for the Vesicomyidae taxonomy were then discussed. Findings of this study will provide important evidence for taxonomic revision in this problematic clam group, and accelerate the discovery of new vesicomyid species in the future.