Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Doing harm reduction better: syringe exchange in the United States.

OBJECTIVE To trace the growth of syringe exchange programs (SEPs) in the United States since 1994-95 and assess the current state of SEPs. METHODS Annual surveys of US SEPs known to North American Syringe Exchange Network (NASEN). Surveys mailed to executive directors with follow-up interviews by telephone and/or e-mail. Response rates have varied between 70% and 88% since surveys were initiated in 1996. RESULTS The numbers of programs known to NASEN have increased from 68 in 1994-95 to 186 in 2007. Among programs participating in the survey, numbers of syringes exchanged have increased from 8.0 million per year to 29.5 million per year, total annual budgets have increased from 6.3 to 19.6 million US dollars and public funding (from state and local governments) has increased from 3.9 to 14.4 million US dollars. In 2007, 89% of programs permitted secondary exchange and 76% encouraged it. Condoms, referrals to substance abuse treatment, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), hepatitis B virus (HBV) counseling and testing and naloxone for overdose were among the most commonly provided services in addition to basic syringe exchange. Each of these services was provided by 40% or more of SEPs in 2007. CONCLUSIONS While syringe exchange has remained controversial in the United States, there has been very substantial growth in numbers of programs, syringes exchange and program budgets. Utilizing secondary exchange to reach large numbers of injecting drug users and utilizing SEPs as a new platform for providing health and social services beyond basic syringe exchange have been the two major organizational strategies in the growth of SEPs in the United States.
Lateral Ankle Sprain and Chronic Ankle Instability

Many studies investigated the contributing factors of chronic ankle instability, but a consensus has not yet been obtained. The objective of this critical review is to provide recent scientific evidence on chronic ankle instability, including the epidemiology and pathology of lateral ankle sprain as well as the causative factors of chronic ankle instability. We searched MEDLINE from 1964 to December 2013 using the terms ankle, sprain, ligament, injury, chronic, functional, mechanical, and instability. Lateral ankle sprain shows a very high recurrence rate and causes considerable economic loss due to medical care, prevention, and secondary disability. During the acute phase, patients with ankle sprain demonstrate symptoms such as pain, range of motion deficit, postural control deficit, and muscle weakness, and these symptoms may persist, leading to chronic ankle instability. Although some agreement regarding the effects of chronic ankle instability with deficits in postural control and/or concentric eversion strength exists, the cause of chronic ankle instability remains controversial. Levels of Evidence: Therapeutic Level IV: Review of Level IV studies
A Pruning Approach Improving Face Identification Systems

We propose, in this paper, a new biometric identification approach which aims to improve recognition performances in identification systems. We aim to split the identity database into well separated partitions in order to simplify the identification task. In this paper we develop a face identification system and we use the reference algorithms of Eigenfaces and Fisherfaces in order to extract different features describing each identity. These features, which describe faces, are generally optimized to establish the required identity in a classical identification process. In this work, we develop a novel criterion to extract features used to partition the identity database. We develop database partitioning with clustering methods which split the gallery by bringing together identities which have similar features and separating dissimilar features in different bins. Pruning the most dissimilar bins from the query identity features allows us to improve the identification performances. We report results from the XM2VTS database.
A natural derivative on [0,n] and a binomial Poincaré inequality

We consider probability measures supported on a nite discrete interval [0 ;n]. We introduce a new nite dierence operator rn, dened as a linear combination of left and right nite dierences. We show that this operator rn plays a key role in a new Poincar e (spectral gap) inequality with respect to binomial weights, with the orthogonal Krawtchouk polynomials acting as eigenfunctions of the relevant operator. We briey discuss the relationship of this operator to the problem of optimal transport of probability measures. 2010 Mathematics Subject Classication : 46N30 (primary); 60E15 (secondary)
Yves Chauvin-Nobel Lecture

At no time in my life did I dream of such a Prize. Indeed, as I explained in my biography, I had no training in research as such and as a consequence I am in a sense self-taught. What I owe to the Institut Français du Pétrole is some freedom to choose my research area. I have always been an avid reader of chemical literature, eager for what is new. Like all sciences, chemistry is marked by magic moments. For someone fortunate enough to live such a moment, it is an instant of intense emotion: an immense field of investigation suddenly opens up before you. There were very many of these moments in the course of my career. For example, the discovery of ferrocene, the stereospecific polymerization of olefins by G. Natta (I never failed to read any of his articles! ), the homogeneous catalysis of hydrogenation by rhodium complexes (G. Wilkinson), the homogeneous catalysis of dimerization of olefins by nickel complexes (G. Wilke and B. Bogdanovic) and the catalysis of asymmetric hydrogenation. I experienced the latter with an especially keen intensity because we were in very close touch with Henri Kagan, who came every month to tell us about his chemistry; it was outstanding! And 1964 was an especially magical year (Figure 1): a revelation for me, by R.L. Banks of Phillips Petroleum, of the disproportionation of olefins catalyzed by a molybdenumor tungsten-based heterogeneous catalyst deposited on alumina, the homogeneous catalysis of polymerization of cyclopentene by ring opening, published by G. Natta, the existence of a new metal-carbon bond, the carbenes of E.O. Fischer. A priori these three had nothing in common. The disproportionation of linear olefins, since called metathesis, is a equilibrated reaction, governed basically by entropy. This is doubtless why, from the start, “pairwise mechanisms” was favored (Figure 2), which assume a perfect symmetry of the reaction intermediates. In addition, these intermediates are based on the only bonds known at the time: bonds and bonds between hydrocarbons and transition metals. Other mechanisms were proposed (Figure 3). The polymerization of cyclopentene into polypentenylene, for its part, is
Frame discrimination training for HMMs for large vocabulary speech recognition

This paper describes the application of a discriminative HMM parameter estimation technique called frame discrimination (FD), to medium and large vocabulary continuous speech recognition. Previous work has shown that FD training can give better results than maximum mutual information (MMI) training for small tasks. The use of FD for much larger tasks required the development of a technique to be able to rapidly find the most likely set of Gaussians for each frame in the system. Experiments on the resource management and North American business tasks show that FD training can give comparable improvements to MMI, but is less computationally intensive.
Poultry Genome Sequences: Progress and Outstanding Challenges

The first build of the chicken genome sequence appeared in March, 2004 – the first genome sequence of any animal agriculture species. That sequence was done primarily by whole genome shotgun Sanger sequencing, along with the use of an extensive BAC contig-based physical map to assemble the sequence contigs and scaffolds and align them to the known chicken chromosomes and linkage groups. Subsequent sequencing and mapping efforts have improved upon that first build, and efforts continue in search of missing and/or unassembled sequence, primarily on the smaller microchromosomes and the sex chromosomes. In the past year, a draft turkey genome sequence of similar quality has been obtained at a much lower cost primarily due to the development of ‘next-generation’ sequencing techniques. However, assembly and alignment of the sequence contigs and scaffolds still depended on a detailed BAC contig map of the turkey genome that also utilized comparison to the existing chicken sequence. These 2 land fowl (Galliformes) genomes show a remarkable level of similarity, despite an estimated 30–40 million years of separate evolution since their last common ancestor. Among the advantages offered by these sequences are routine re-sequencing of commercial and research lines to identify the genetic correlates of phenotypic change (for example, selective sweeps), a much improved understanding of poultry diversity and linkage disequilibrium, and access to high-density SNP typing and association analysis, detailed transcriptomic and proteomic studies, and the use of genome-wide marker- assisted selection to enhance genetic gain in commercial stocks.
Asking the Right Question: The Essence of Teaching. Fastback 343.

Questions Questions that are too abstract defeat thoughtful examination. Such questions prematurely reach beyond students' levels of experience and thus beyond what they are able to comprehend. These questions may appear to be challenging but usually result in inappropriate answers, or worse, no answers. The premature use of such overly challenging questions likely explains the data reporid by some researchers to show the "ineffectiveness of higher order questions" (Rosenshiie 1979). To ask a six-year-old, "How does the sound get on the audiotape? " is an example of a question that is too abstract and beyond a normal six-year-old's conceptual grasp. Other highly abstract questions include such humdingers as: Why do people litter? How do birds learn to fly? How do magnets get their power? These questions are, of course, "answerable" in some fashion by even the inexperienced student. However, if the teacher's purpose is to promote students' understanding, questions framed in the following ways are likely to yield more thoughtful, intelligent examination of the important concepts: What can you tell me about bow all the candy wrappers and orange peels end up in our schoolyard? How do you suppose b ids learn to fly? What ideas do you have about it? You have observed how magnets have the power to attract and repel. Tell us about some of your observations. When abstract concept questions are phrased as requests for hypotheses, this brings them down to lower levels of abstraction. In that way, students may respond from observations rooted in their experiences, building habits of thinking and giving way to more intelligent discourse.
Cyclic Classifier Chain for Cost-Sensitive Multilabel Classification

We propose a novel method, Cyclic Classifier Chain (CCC), for multilabel classification. CCC extends the classic Classifier Chain (CC) method by cyclically training multiple chains of labels. Three benefits immediately follow the cyclic design. First, CCC resolves the critical issue of label ordering in CC, and therefore reaches more stable performance. Second, CCC matches the task of cost-sensitive multilabel classification, an important problem for satisfying application needs. The cyclic aspect of CCC allows estimating all labels during training, and such estimates makes it possible to embed the cost information into weights of labels. Experimental results justify that cost-sensitive CCC can be superior to state-of-the-art cost-sensitive multilabel classification methods. Third, CCC can be easily coupled with gradient boosting to inherit the advantages of ensemble learning. In particular, gradient boosted CCC efficiently reaches promising performance for both linear and non-linear base learners. The three benefits, stability, cost-sensitivity and efficiency make CCC a competitive method for real-world applications.
Strong subtournaments of close to regular multipartite tournaments

If x is a vertex of a digraph D, then we denote by d(x) and d−(x) the outdegree and the indegree of x, respectively. The global irregularity of a digraph D is defined by ig(D) = max{d+(x), d−(x)}−min{d+(y), d−(y)} over all vertices x and y of D (including x = y). If ig(D) = 0, then D is regular and if ig(D) ≤ 1, then D is called almost regular. Recently, L. Volkmann and S. Winzen showed that every almost regular c-partite tournament D with c ≥ 5 contains a strongly connected subtournament of order p for every p ∈ {3, 4, . , c}. In this paper we will investigate multipartite tournaments with ig(D) ≤ l and l ≥ 2. Treating a problem of L. Volkmann (Australas. J. Combin. 20 (1999), 189–196) we will prove that, if D is a c-partite tournament with at least three vertices in each partite set, ig(D) ≤ l and c ≥ l + 2 with l ≥ 2, then D contains a strongly connected subtournament of order p for every p ∈ {3, 4, . , c − l + 1}. 1 Terminology and introduction In this paper all digraphs are finite without loops and multiple arcs. The vertex set and arc set of a digraph D are denoted by V (D) and E(D), respectively. If xy is an arc of a digraph D, then we write x → y and say x dominates y, and if X and Y are two disjoint vertex sets or subdigraphs of D such that every vertex of X dominates every vertex of Y , then we say that X dominates Y , denoted by X → Y . Furthermore, X Y denotes the fact that there is no arc leading from Y to X . For the number of arcs from X to Y we write d(X, Y ), i.e., d(X, Y ) = |{xy ∈ E(D) : x ∈ X, y ∈ Y }|. If D is a digraph, then the out-neighborhood N D (x) = N (x) of a vertex x is the set of vertices dominated by x and the inneighborhood N− D (x) = N −(x) is the set of vertices dominating x. Therefore, if there is the arc xy ∈ E(D), then y is an outer neighbor of x and x is an inner neighbor of y. The numbers dD(x) = d (x) = |N+(x)| and dD(x) = d−(x) = |N−(x)| are
Microleakage under ceramic and metallic brackets bonded with resin-modified glass ionomer.

OBJECTIVE To test the null hypothesis that there is no significant difference between the microleakage of adhesive interferences at the occlusal and gingival margins of both ceramic and metallic brackets bonded with light-cured resin-modified glass ionomer and a conventional adhesive. MATERIALS AND METHODS Sixty freshly extracted human maxillary premolar teeth were randomly divided into four groups of 15 teeth each. Metal and ceramic brackets were bonded to groups 1 and 2 with resin-modified glass ionomer adhesive (RMGIA). Metal and ceramic brackets were bonded to group 3 and group 4 with a conventional adhesive (CA) system. A dye-penetration method was used for microleakage evaluation. Microleakage from the occlusal and gingival margins was determined by a stereomicroscope for the enamel-adhesive and bracket-adhesive interfaces. Statistical analysis was performed using the Kruskal-Wallis test and the Mann-Whitney U-test with a Bonferroni correction. RESULTS The gingival side of all groups exhibited higher microleakage scores compared with the occlusal side for both adhesive interfaces. All bracket and adhesive combinations displayed statistically significant differences in microleakage between the enamel-adhesive and adhesive-bracket interfaces at the occlusal and gingival sides of the brackets (P < .001). When the adhesive systems were compared, the RMGIA showed more microleakage than the CA between the different interfaces. CONCLUSIONS The hypothesis is rejected. RMGIA results in more microleakage between enamel-adhesive interfaces.
Change Process in Preservice Teachers Beliefs about Teaching and Learning during a Literacy Methods Course.

Teacher educators have become increasingly interested in the beliefs preservice teachers bring to their undergraduate methods courses. S. Lortie (1975) posited that the major influence in shaping future teachers' conceptions of teaching is their previous years of experience as students. A study of students in preservice reading methods courses investigated the following questions: (1) What are preservice teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning? (2) What changes occur in preservice teachers' beliefs during their first literacy methods course? and (3) To what do preservice teachers attribute changes in beliefs during their first literacy methods course? Participants were selected from two sections of a methods course at a small southwestern university. A self-report questionnaire with open-ended questions was administered at three points during the semester. Of the 40 participants, 10 chose to respond to all three questionnaires; they constituted the core of the study. Results showed preservice teachers continuing to think of teaching as being skills oriented. For instance, asked how they would teach reading, three said they would use objects from the environment; three would teach the alphabet; two would read to students; and one would put students in groups. Of these 10, 6 showed changes in their beliefs after the methods course. These changes, however, tended to be largely at the knowledge level. The preservice teachers indicated that they would use new approaches and materials in traditional ways. (Contains 15 references.) (TB) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** CHANGE PROCESS IN PRESERVICE TEACHERS BELIEFS ABOUT TEACHING AND LEARNING DURING A LITERACY METHODS COURSE Linda Hughes Doctoral Candidate, East Texas State University Presented at the Annual Meeting of the National Reading Coference San Diego, CA: Nov. 30-Dec. 3, 1994 PE TIMISYON TO HF PEit )1:1 E 1HIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN 'oRANIED BY TO THE [DUCA TIONAI RiSOIER(.ES INFORMATION CENTLH 'ERIC) 115 IIC ',ANNA-NT CFI l (AK-ANON I 1)(11:A1 IONAL ItI.SOUltet S INF 011MATIoN CENTFR Icnic:) )! k Thr, dur rrmro hdti born rep. rd . 1 received t,c,r, (he re.t.r, rn rir(t.req.rt,o.1, ra (p11,1109 it CA %nor (11.(Ago, Ildw I+rr,n 111.1,10 In P.,.111. 14 or N. 01 11,.11,011, .11ed Of1.1.111 oI6,.1.11 OF. Iii 1)0,11011 nl poll( y
A randomized heuristic for kernel parameter selection with large-scale multi-class data

Over the past few years kernel methods have gained a tremendous amount of attention as existing linear algorithms can easily be extended to account for highly non-linear data in a computationally efficient manner. Unfortunately most kernels require careful tuning of intrinsic parameters to correctly model the distribution of the underlying data. For large-scale problems the multiplicative scaling in time complexity imposed by introducing free parameters in a cross-validation setup will prove computationally infeasible, often leaving pure ad-hoc estimates as the only option. In this contribution we investigate a novel randomized approach for kernel parameter selection in large-scale multi-class data. We fit a minimum enclosing ball to the class means in Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Spaces (RKHS), and use the radius as a quality measure of the space, defined by the kernel parameter. We apply the developed algorithm to a computer vision paradigm where the objective is to recognize 72.000 objects among 1.000 classes. Compared to other distance metrics in the RKHS we find that our randomized approach provides better results together with a highly competitive time complexity.
Sensitivities of Germinating Spores and Carvacrol-Adapted Vegetative Cells and Spores of Bacillus cereus to Nisin and Pulsed-Electric-Field Treatment

ABSTRACT Treatment of Bacillus cereus spores with nisin and/or pulsed-electric-field (PEF) treatment did not lead to direct inactivation of the spores or increased heat sensitivity as a result of sublethal damage. In contrast, germinating spores were found to be sensitive to PEF treatment. Nisin treatment was more efficient than PEF treatment for inactivating germinating spores. PEF resistance was lost after 50 min of germination, and not all germinated spores could be inactivated. Nisin, however, was able to inactivate the germinating spores to the same extent as heat treatment. Resistance to nisin was lost immediately when the germination process started. A decrease in the membrane fluidity of vegetative cells caused by incubation in the presence of carvacrol resulted in a dramatic increase in the sensitivity to nisin. On the other hand, inactivation by PEF treatment or by a combination of nisin and PEF treatments did not change after adaptation to carvacrol. Spores grown in the presence of carvacrol were not susceptible to nisin and/or PEF treatment in any way.
βPIX-activated Rac1 stimulates the activation of phospholipase D, which is associated with exocytosis in neuroendocrine cells

Rho GTPases are crucial regulators of actin cytoskeletal rearrangements and play important roles in many cell functions linked to membrane trafficking processes. In neuroendocrine cells, we have previously demonstrated that RhoA and Cdc42 mediate part of the actin remodelling and vesicular trafficking events that are required for the release of hormones by exocytosis. Here, we investigate the functional importance of Rac1 for the exocytotic reaction and dissect the downstream and upstream molecular events that might integrate it to the exocytotic machinery. Using PC12 cells, we found that Rac1 is associated with the plasma membrane and is activated during exocytosis. Silencing of Rac1 by siRNA inhibits hormone release, prevents secretagogue (high K+)-evoked phospholipase D1 (PLD1) activation and blocks the formation of phosphatidic acid at the plasma membrane. We identify βPix as the guanine nucleotide-exchange factor integrating Rac1 activation to PLD1 and the exocytotic process. Finally, we show that the presence of the scaffolding protein Scrib at the plasma membrane is essential for βPix/Rac1-mediated PLD1 activation and exocytosis. As PLD1 has recently emerged as a promoter of membrane fusion in various exocytotic events, our results define a novel molecular pathway linking a Rho GTPase, Rac1, to the final stages of Ca2+-regulated exocytosis in neuroendocrine cells.
Assistive surgical manipulator for cochlear implant surgery

Robot assisted surgery is emerging as a prominent technology in the area of healthcare technology. Robotics are especially useful in surgical procedures proven to be complex in the conventional form, in terms of accessibility, anatomical complexity, miniature scale, required precision and accuracy. The cochlear implant procedure in otolaryngology is one such procedure, in which precise drilling of the temporal bone is required at the vicinity of critical organs and structure. In this paper, we describe the design of minimal invasive robotic device which is able to increase the accuracy of the drilling procedure, enhance patient safety without disrupting clinical workflow.
A Case Study Examination of Social Norms Marketing Campaign to Improve Responsible Drinking

This research discusses the use of social norms marketing to improve responsible drinking among college students. It was observed in each year of research that students studied overestimated their peers’ drinking practices. During the social norms marketing campaign decreases were observed in both students’ self-reported number of drinks consumed and perceived number of drinks consumed by peers at bars or parties, indicating that the social norms marketing efforts were somewhat successful. In addition, students reported drinking less alcohol over a shorter period of time. However, some negative behaviors related to drinking did not improve.