Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Trends and predictors of changes in pulmonary function after treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis

OBJECTIVES: The present study aimed to investigate the trends in changes in pulmonary function and the risk factors for pulmonary function deterioration in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis after completing treatment. INTRODUCTION: Patients usually have pulmonary function abnormalities after completing treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis. The time course for changes in pulmonary function and the risk factors for deterioration have not been well studied. METHODS: A total of 115 patients with 162 pulmonary function results were analyzed. We retrieved demographic and clinical data, radiographic scores, bacteriological data, and pulmonary function data. A generalized additive model with a locally weighted scatterplot smoothing technique was used to evaluate the trends in changes in pulmonary function. A generalized estimating equation model was used to determine the risk factors associated with deterioration of pulmonary function. RESULTS: The median interval between the end of anti-tuberculosis treatment and the pulmonary function test was 16 months (range: 0 to 112 months). The nadir of pulmonary function occurred approximately 18 months after the completion of the treatment. The risk factors associated with pulmonary function deterioration included smear-positive disease, extensive pulmonary involvement prior to anti-tuberculosis treatment, prolonged anti-tuberculosis treatment, and reduced radiographic improvement after treatment. CONCLUSIONS: After the completion of anti-tuberculosis TB treatment, several risk factors predicted pulmonary function deterioration. For patients with significant respiratory symptoms and multiple risk factors, the pulmonary function test should be followed up to monitor the progression of functional impairment, especially within the first 18 months after the completion of anti-tuberculosis treatment.
PHASE SHIFTS, ALTERNATIVE STATES, AND THE UNPRECEDENTED CONVERGENCE OF TWO REEF SYSTEMS

Initial conditions can generate differences in the biotic composition of spatially disjunct communities, but intense, large-scale perturbations have the potential to reduce or eliminate those historical differences. The latter possibility is of particular concern with respect to coral reefs, which have undergone dramatic changes in the last 25–30 years. This paper reports a case in which two reef systems with different biotic histories were recently perturbed to a single, novel state. We compared millennial-scale records of species dominance from reefs in Bahia Almirante, a coastal lagoon in northwestern Panama, to previously published records from reefs in the shelf lagoon of Belize. Reef cores extracted from Bahia Almirante at 5–10 m water depth revealed that the Panamanian reefs were persistently dissimilar from the Belizean reefs for at least 2000–3000 years prior to the last several decades. The Panamanian reefs were dominated continuously by branching finger corals, Porites spp. (primarily P. furcata). Shifts from the Porites-dominated state to dominance by other coral species were rare, were restricted to small areas, and lasted for decades to centuries. The Belizean reefs were dominated continuously by the staghorn coral Acropora cervicornis in the same depth range during the same period. Excursions from the Acropora-dominated state were again rare and spatially localized. Populations of Ac. cervicornis in the Belizean lagoon were nearly extirpated by an outbreak of white-band disease in the late 1980s, and changes in water quality were apparently detrimental to branching Porites in Bahia Almirante in recent decades. These large-scale perturbations caused the two reef systems to converge on a third, historically unprecedented state: dominance by the lettuce coral Agaricia tenuifolia. Ag. tenuifolia possesses life-history attributes and environmental tolerances that enabled it to become dominant in both disturbed ecosystems. Although the two phase shifts to Ag. tenuifolia differed in both their general mechanisms and specific causes, they had the effect of eliminating the salient difference in benthic composition between the Panamanian and Belizean reefs. The changes in species composition thus obliterated the influence of several thousand years of reef history.
Spontaneous Recovery in US Extinction

Abstract When an unconditioned stimulus (US) signals a second US, magazine entries increase after the first US (acquisition) and magazine entries decline when US-alone presentations follow acquisition (extinction). Experiments 1 and 2 replicated these effects and, in addition, tested for spontaneous recovery. In spontaneous recovery, responding in extinction recovers if some time elapses before a stimulus is tested again. Spontaneous recovery was shown when subjects received four US-alone presentations in each daily extinction session (Experiment 1) or when a 3-week testing delay followed a single US-alone presentation in each of 12 daily extinction sessions (Experiment 2). Implications for theories of extinction and spontaneous recovery are considered.
Social ideologies and gifted education in today's schools

The myth that children are born gifted and therefore can make it on their own is the belief that most affects the perceptions of the public regarding the gifted student and, too often, the actions of educators. From such a belief comes much of the antagonism toward providing differentiated learning experiences for gifted students and the notion that excellence and equity are separate and contradictory concepts. As a result, the limits to support for gifted learners reflect a lack of accurate knowledge, not a lack of commitment to children. Members of society and even educators still hold beliefs and attitudes that result in actions that are often damaging to the optimal growth of bright children. Data relevant to these beliefs suggest a view that is more in keeping with current biological and genetic research. It is this perception—the interactive and dynamic development of intelligent—that provides the basis for this article. The issues of equity, democratic ideals, and human rights must be reemphasized .
Monocular based lane-change on scaled-down autonomous vehicles

Lane-change is considered to be one of the toughest challenges in the field of autonomous vehicles. Any vehicles that are driving around the host vehicle may effect this operation. To ascertain the safety during the lane-change process, a comprehensive understanding of surrounding environments as well as a real-time decision is needed. Many researchers have proposed several approaches based on kinematics to perform this task. However, human drivers does not concerned too much about the kinematic parameters of vehicles, but try to control vehicles mainly based on the scenes from vision and experiences accumulated from long-time driving. From this perspective, we propose a more human-like lane-change system, whose sensors mainly based on five monocular cameras. Information from these sensors are fused into MOR(My Own Range) which means the drivable area for the vehicles. Finally, two fuzzy controllers are used to imitate expert behaviors and responses upon vehicle control. To verify the efficiency of the proposed lane-change system, a test platform, which includes ten scaled-down autonomous vehicles and a scaled model highway, is built. With this platform, tons of ideas or tests, especially of some dangerous tests, can be examined and implemented with a low cost later.
Robust and efficient background subtraction by quadratic polynomial fitting

We present a background subtraction algorithm aimed at efficiency and robustness to common sources of disturbance such as illumination changes, camera gain and exposure variations, noise. The approach relies on modeling the local effect of disturbance factors on a neighborhood of pixel intensities as a second-degree polynomial transformation plus additive gaussian noise. This allows for classifying pixels as changed or unchanged by a simple least-squares polynomial fitting procedure. Experimental results prove that the approach is state-of-the-art in challenging sequences characterized by sources of disturbance yielding sudden and strong background appearance changes.
Japanese-accented English vowels: a perception study

AbstractThis study attempts to determine whether native English listeners are capable of detecting a foreign accent in isolated monosyllabic English words. A group of native English listeners were asked to identify the native talker in a forced-choice paired comparison task. Pairs of identical words produced by Australian and Japanese talkers were presented to listeners such that the Japanese productions of vowels were matched on F1, F2 at the temporal midpoint and duration as closely as possible to those produced by the native English talkers. Listeners were able to differentiate the two talker groups at better than chance levels regardless of the matched vowels. Their responses depended to a certain extent on both the vowel type and talker. These results suggest that apart from a combination of F1, F2 and duration of vowels there remain some unexplained cues, enabling native listeners to distinguish native from non-native talkers.
Cortactin as a Target for FAK in the Regulation of Focal Adhesion Dynamics

Background Efficient cell movement requires the dynamic regulation of focal adhesion (FA) formation and turnover. FAs are integrin-associated sites of cell attachment and establish linkages to the cellular actin cytoskeleton. Cells without focal adhesion kinase (FAK), an integrin-activated tyrosine kinase, exhibit defects in FA turnover and cell motility. Cortactin is an actin binding adaptor protein that can influence FA dynamics. FAK and cortactin interact, but the cellular role of this complex remains unclear. Principal Findings Using FAK-null fibroblasts stably reconstituted with green fluorescent protein (GFP) tagged FAK constructs, we find that FAK activity and FAK C-terminal proline-rich region 2 (PRR2) and PRR3 are required for FA turnover and cell motility. Cortactin binds directly to FAK PRR2 and PRR3 sites via its SH3 domain and cortactin expression is important in promoting FA turnover and GFP-FAK release from FAs. FAK-cortactin binding is negatively-regulated by FAK activity and associated with cortactin tyrosine phosphorylation. FAK directly phosphorylates cortactin at Y421 and Y466 and over-expression of cortactin Y421, Y466, and Y482 mutated to phenylalanine (3YF) prevented FAK-enhanced FA turnover and cell motility. However, phospho-mimetic cortactin mutated to glutamic acid (3YE) did not affect FA dynamics and did not rescue FA turnover defects in cells with inhibited FAK activity or with PRR2-mutated FAK that does not bind cortactin. Conclusions Our results support a model whereby FAK-mediated FA remodeling may occur through the formation of a FAK-cortactin signaling complex. This involves a cycle of cortactin binding to FAK, cortactin tyrosine phosphorylation, and subsequent cortactin-FAK dissociation accompanied by FA turnover and cell movement.
Initial management of burns.

The incidence of burn injury has declined steadily over the past several decades in the United States and in some other developed countries. In-hospital fatality rates have also declined and are now only about 4 percent among patients with major injuries who are treated in specialized burn units.1,2 Despite this declining incidence, about 1.25 million persons are still treated for burns annually in the United States, and 50,000 are hospitalized each year for the treatment of burns.3 Seventy-five percent of those hospitalized have burns covering less than 10 percent of the body-surface area.1 Such burns rarely cause hemodynamic problems .
Efficacy of a knee orthosis that uses an elastic element

In this study, we evaluate the support effect of a knee orthosis that uses the elasticity element from the perspective of human motor control. The speeds during level-ground walking and the angles during slope walking were varied during the experiments. It was observed that the support effect was remarkable at 4 km/h during the level-ground walking. In particular, at 12° during slope walking, the strength of the stretching muscle decreased for the knee joint in the stance phase and the hip joint in the swing phase. The results show that this orthosis exhibits a different effect from the conventional type adjustment to damping in the swing phase.
Talent Development as a Framework for Gifted Education

When used informally, talent development refers to the deliberate cultivation of ability or giftedness in a specific domain. However, recent discussions have used talent development to refer to a particular framework for viewing giftedness and the education of gifted children. In this article, the authors will present their views on the meaning of talent development, its distinguishing and defining features, how these compare with more traditional views on giftedness, and the implications of a talent development perspective for educational practice.
Research on control strategy of worms spread in complex networks

With the explosive growth of network applications and complexity, the threat of Internet worms against network security becomes increasingly serious. In this paper, s the structure and characteristic of complex networks are first analyzed, then the exploration function component and execution mechanism of Internet worms are presented, the strategies for worm scans are analyzed and evaluated, some critical techniques of internet worm prevention are given, meanwhile the advantage and disadvantage of these methods are analyzed, finally find how to improve the capability of worm detection system.
Development of Conditional Reasoning: A Longitudinal Study

This study examines the development of conditional reasoning within a longitudinal design. Two age cohorts were assessed each year for 3 years. One cohort began the investigation as 6th-grade students (M = 11 years, 6 months of age); the other cohort began as 8th-grade students (M =13 years, 8 months of age). At each measurement point, each participant completed 5 reasoning problems consisting of modified versions of the Wason Selection Task (Overton, 1990). Results demonstrated a significant improvement in reasoning performance for each cohort. Furthermore, participants performed better when "if-then" propositions were formulated with the antecedent phrase specifying an action and the consequent specifying a condition, than they did when the antecedent specified a condition and the consequent an action. The results are consistent with the position that the development of logical thinking moves toward the integration of inferential schemes into a systematic network, and that this network is not consistently available before adolescence.
Can anomalies of fetal brain circulation be useful in the management of growth restricted fetuses?

Assessment of the fetal cerebral circulation provides important information on the hemodynamic changes associated with chronic hypoxia and intrauterine growth restriction. Despite the incorporation of new US parameters, the landmark for the fetal brain hemodynamic evaluation is still the middle cerebral artery. However, new vascular territories, such as the anterior and posterior cerebral arteries, might provide additional information on the onset of the brain sparing effect. The fractional moving blood volume estimation and three‐dimensional power Doppler ultrasound indices are new techniques that seem to be promising in indentifying cases at earlier stages of vascular deterioration; still, they are not available for clinical application and more information is needed on the reproducibility and advantages of three‐dimensional power Doppler ultrasound blood flow indices. In the past, the brain sparing effect was considered as a protective mechanism; however, recent information challenges this concept. There is growing evidence of an association between brain sparing effect and increased risk of abnormal neurodevelopment after birth. Even in mild late‐onset intrauterine growth restriction affected fetuses with normal umbilical artery blood flow, increased cerebral blood perfusion can be associated with a substantial risk of abnormal neuroadaptation and neurodevelopment during childhood. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Satellite DNA-Like Elements Associated With Genes Within Euchromatin of the Beetle Tribolium castaneum

In the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum the major TCAST satellite DNA accounts for 35% of the genome and encompasses the pericentromeric regions of all chromosomes. Because of the presence of transcriptional regulatory elements and transcriptional activity in these sequences, TCAST satellite DNAs also have been proposed to be modulators of gene expression within euchromatin. Here, we analyze the distribution of TCAST homologous repeats in T. castaneum euchromatin and study their association with genes as well as their potential gene regulatory role. We identified 68 arrays composed of TCAST-like elements distributed on all chromosomes. Based on sequence characteristics the arrays were composed of two types of TCAST-like elements. The first type consists of TCAST satellite-like elements in the form of partial monomers or tandemly arranged monomers, up to tetramers, whereas the second type consists of TCAST-like elements embedded with a complex unit that resembles a DNA transposon. TCAST-like elements were also found in the 5′ untranslated region (UTR) of the CR1-3_TCa retrotransposon, and therefore retrotransposition may have contributed to their dispersion throughout the genome. No significant difference in the homogenization of dispersed TCAST-like elements was found either at the level of local arrays or chromosomes nor among different chromosomes. Of 68 TCAST-like elements, 29 were located within introns, with the remaining elements flanked by genes within a 262 to 404,270 nt range. TCAST-like elements are statistically overrepresented near genes with immunoglobulin-like domains attesting to their nonrandom distribution and a possible gene regulatory role.
Privacy-Preserving Image Retrieval in IoT-Cloud

Within the IoT-cloud, security has a very significant role to play. One of the best means by which the security and privacy of an image may be safeguarded confidentially is through encryption. However, this methodological process engenders a disadvantage in that it is difficult to search through encrypted images. A number of different means by which encrypted image can be searched have been devised, however, certain security solutions may not be used for smart devices within an IoTcloud due to the fact that such solutions are not lightweight. We present a lightweight scheme that is able to provide a contentbased search through images that have been encrypted. More specifically, images are represented using local features. A similar methodology further described in [1] is also used for image similarity discrimination. In addition, we use a hashing method concerning a locality sensitive hash (LSH) so that the searchable index can be devised. The use of the LSH index means that the proficiency and effectiveness of the system is increased, which allows the retrieval of only relevant images with a minimum number of distance evaluations. Refining vector techniques are used to refine relevant results efficiently and securely. Our index construction process ensures that stored data and trapdoors are kept private.
Versão Brasileira do Shoulder Pain and Disability Index: tradução, adaptação cultural e confiabilidade

OBJECTIVES: To translate and culturally adapt the Shoulder Pain and Disability Index (SPADI) into Brazilian-Portuguese and to assess its reliability. METHODS: The first step was the translation, synthesis, back-translation, revision by the committee, pre-testing and evaluation of documents by the committee and the author of the SPADI. The revised version by the committee was applied to 90 subjects with shoulder dysfunction, aged over 18 years from different education and sociocultural levels. The items misunderstood by 20% or more of patients were reformulated and reapplied until they reach values lower than 20%. The second stage consisted of two applications of SPADI to 32 patients with shoulder dysfunction in a interval ranging from 2 to 7 days. The data from the translation were analyzed descriptively, the test-retest reliability by Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) and the internal consistency by Cronbach's Alpha. RESULTS: Some expressions have been adapted to the Brazilian population and the items in the pain and disability subscales were changed for an easier reading in Portuguese Language. The pre-test revealed a need to change only one item of the pain domain and to administer the questionnaire by interview, since it was repeated three times and in the first two applications with self-reported questionnaire the patients had not been reporting their symptoms with regards to the past week and also they have not been properly used the item "Not Applicable". The test-retest reliability ranged from 0.90 to 0.94 and the internal consistency ranged from 0.87 to 0.89. CONCLUSION: After the translation and cultural adaptation, it was obtained a reliable version of SPADI-Brazil.
Some high-level language constructs for data of type relation

For the extension of high-level languages by data types of mode relation, three language constructs are proposed and discussed:- a repetition statement controlled by relations- predicates as a generalisation of boolean expressions- a constructor for relations using predicates.The language constructs are developed step by step starting with a set of elementary operations on relations. They are designed to fit into PASCAL without introducing too many additional concepts.
Nearest-Neighbor Searching and Metric Space Dimensions

Given a set S of points in a metric space with distance function D, the nearest-neighbor searching problem is to build a data structure for S so that for an input query point q, the point s 2 S that minimizes D(s,q) can be found quickly. We survey approaches to this problem, and its relation to concepts of metric space dimension. Several measures of dimension can be estimated using nearest-neighbor searching, while others can be used to estimate the cost of that searching. In recent years, several data structures have been proposed that are provably good for low-dimensional spaces, for some particular measures of dimension. These and other data structures for nearest-neighbor searching are surveyed.
Developmental Psychopathology: Reactions, Reflections, Projections

In this paper, I describe the field of developmental psychopathology, discuss its major tenets, and delineate its boundaries with other disciplines with an eye toward the future. I articulate how I envision those aspects of developmental psychopathology that I view as central to the discipline affecting the field and evolving over time. The current status and suggested directions for a number of issues are discussed, including: the interface between normal and abnormal development; developmental mechanisms and processes across the life span; the need for an interdisciplinary approach; prevention and intervention; and training. I believe that a continued and expanded interface between the study of normal and atypical development will span the dualisms that exist between the clinical study of and research into disorders of childhood and adulthood, between basic and applied research, and between psychology and biology. If fostered, I envision an exciting new era of theoretical and empirical work in the developmental sciences.