Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effects of Cultural Schemata on Reading Processing Strategies.

A study examined the relationship between cultural schemata and the reading process to identify the strategies proficient readers employ to develop their understanding of culturally familiar and unfamiliar passages and to examine those strategies in relation to the cultural backgrounds of the readers and the cultural perspectivss of the reading materials. Subjects, 30 American and 30 Palauan eleventh grade students (from the Paulau Islands) identified by Cleir teachers as proficient readers, read and responded to a passage concerning funeral rites of the other culture. The subjects' think-aloud protocols and post-reading retelling were analyzed in four phases: (1) phase 1 produced a taxonomy of 22 processing strategies and five categories of strategies; (2) phase 2 determined statistically significant differences in the frequency with which subjects used these strategies when reading culturally familiar and unfamiliar passages; (3) phase 3 identified three patterns in the manner in which individual subjects used the strategies to construct their interpretations of the passages; and (4) phase 4 revealed statistically significant differences in the number of idea units, elaborations, and distortions which appeared in the subjects' retellings. Results indicated that cultural schemata influence the processing strategies readers employ and the level of comprehension they achieve, and that comprehension monitoring strategies seem to provide the strategic scaffolding readers require to develop a unified meaning of text when they lack sufficient background knowledge. (Four tables of data are included; 41 references, the taxonomy of processing strategies, and two .ppendixes of data are attached.) (RS) 30000000000000EXXN300000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000E X Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. 300000000000000000000000EX3000000000000EX3000000000000000000000000000000a "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS BEEN Abe TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC). " U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Othce ot Educahona: Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER IERtC) D Tms document has been reproduced as recewe0 tram me person or organuabon onginatmg d. MotOr chanties have been made to unprov e reproduction Quaidy POentS (Awes. / 0 OP mons stated . nth CIOCtr ment do not necessarily represent °Moat OERI pond on or POhcY The Effects of Cultural Schemata on Reading Processing Strategies
Automatic generation of question answer pairs from noisy case logs

In a customer support scenario, a lot of valuable information is recorded in the form of `case logs'. Case logs are primarily written for future references or manual inspections and therefore are written in a hasty manner and are very noisy. In this paper, we propose techniques that exploit these case logs to mine real customer concerns or problems and then map them to well written knowledge articles for that enterprise. This mapping results into generation of question-answer (QA) pairs. These QA pairs can be used for a variety of applications such as dynamically updating the frequently-asked-questions (FAQs), updating the knowledge repository etc. In this paper we show the utility of these discovered QA pairs as training data for a question-answering system. Our approach for mining the case logs is based on a composite model consisting of two generative models, viz, hidden Markov model (HMM) and latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) model. The LDA model explains the long-range dependencies across words due to their semantic similarity and HMM models the sequential patterns present in these case logs. Such processing results in crisp `problem statement' segments which are indicative of the real customer concerns. Our experiments show that this approach finds crisp problem-statements in 56% of the cases and outperforms other alternate methods for segmentation such as HMM, LDA and conditional random field (CRF). After finding these crisp problem-statements, appropriate answers are looked up from an existing knowledge repository index forming candidate QA pairs. We show that considering only the problemstatement segments for which the answers can be found further improves the segmentation performance to 82%. Finally, we show that when these QA pairs are used as training data, the performance of a question-answering system can be improved significantly.
Effects of Speaker Adaptive Training on Tensor-based Arbitrary Speaker Conversion

This paper introduces speaker adaptive training techniques to tensor-based arbitrary speaker conversion. In voice conversion studies, realization of conversion from/to an arbitrary speaker’s voice is one of the important objectives. For this purpose, eigenvoice conversion (EVC), which is based on an eigenvoice Gaussian mixture model (EV-GMM), was proposed. Although the EVC can effectively construct the conversion model for arbitrary target speakers using only a few utterances, increase of the utterances used to construct the conversion model does not always improve the conversion performance. This is because the EV-GMM method has an inherent problem in representation of GMM supervectors. We previously proposed tensor-based speaker space as a solution for this problem, and realized more ﬂexible control of speaker characteristics. In this paper, to aim larger improvement of the performance of VC, speaker adaptive training and tensor-based speaker representation are integrated. The proposed method can construct the ﬂexible and precise conversion model, and experimental results of one-to-many voice conversion demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Response of skeletal muscle protein synthesis to insulin in suckling pigs decreases with development

Wray-Cahen, Diane, Hanh V. Nguyen, Douglas G. Burrin, Philip R. Beckett, Marta L. Fiorotto, Peter J. Reeds, Timothy J. Wester, and Teresa A. Davis. Response of skeletal muscle protein synthesis to insulin in suckling pigs decreases with development. Am. J. Physiol. 275 (Endocrinol. Metab. 38): E602–E609, 1998. —The elevated rate of muscle protein deposition in the neonate is largely due to an enhanced stimulation of skeletal muscle protein synthesis by feeding. To examine the role of insulin in this response, hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic-amino acid clamps were performed in 7and 26-day-old pigs. Pigs were infused with 0, 30, 100, or 1,000 ng·kg20.66 ·min21 of insulin to mimic the plasma insulin levels observed under fasted, fed, refed, and supraphysiological conditions, respectively. Whole body amino acid disposal was determined from the rate of infusion of an amino acid mixture necessary to maintain plasma essential amino acid concentrations near their basal fasting levels. A flooding dose of L-[4-3H]phenylalanine was used to measure skeletal muscle protein synthesis. Whole body amino acid disposal increased progressively as the insulin infusion rate increased, and this response was greater in 7than in 26-dayold pigs. Skeletal muscle protein synthesis was stimulated by insulin, and this response was maximal at a low insulin infusion rate (30 ng·kg20.66 ·min21). The stimulation of muscle protein synthesis by insulin was also greater in 7than in 26day-old pigs. These data suggest that muscle protein synthesis is more sensitive to insulin than whole body amino acid disposal. The results further suggest that insulin is a central regulatory factor in the elevated rate of muscle protein deposition and the increased response of skeletal muscle protein synthesis to feeding in the neonate.
Effects of repeated administration of zolpidem on sleep, diurnal and nocturnal respiratory function, vigilance, and physical performance in patients with COPD.

STUDY OBJECTIVE To assess the effects of repeated 10-mg oral doses of zolpidem on diurnal and nocturnal respiratory function, as well as on diurnal vigilance and physical performance in COPD patients with disordered sleep. DESIGN Prospective single-blind placebo-controlled clinical study. SETTING Outpatients of a respiratory medicine department. PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients with stable COPD were enrolled for 10 days (D0 to D10), ie, 9 consecutive nights (N1 to N9). They received placebo on N1 and N9 and zolpidem, 10 mg, from N2 to N8. MEASUREMENTS The following parameters were measured: nocturnal polysomnographic recordings with respiratory signals and arterial blood gas values on retiring and awakening on N0, N1, N2, N8, and N9; subjective evaluation of the quality of sleep and of diurnal vigilance by visual analog scales every day from D0 to D10; pulmonary function test, central control of breathing, and walking test on D0 and D9; biological laboratory tests and theophylline level on D0 and D8. RESULTS Ten COPD patients (PaO2 = 72.7 +/- 7.6 mm Hg; PaCO2 = 47.7 +/- 5.4 mm Hg; FEV1 = 0.84 +/- 0.3 L; FEV1/vital capacity = 42.5 +/- 12.3%), 56.8 +/- 8.3 years old, were studied. Compared with placebo, no significant change was found for the various sleep architecture parameters, except an increase in the duration of stage 2 during the D8/N8 night (p < 0.05). In contrast, the autoevaluation score for the quality of sleep was significantly improved during the D6/N6 night relative to that with placebo (p < 0.05), with no change in the other subjective criteria. No variable of the nocturnal respiratory parameters, pulmonary function test, central control of breathing, and physical performance was altered by zolpidem. Arterial blood gas values on awakening were not altered. Clinical and biological tolerance of zolpidem was correct with no significant variation of the theophylline level. CONCLUSION This study shows that repeated 10-mg oral doses of zolpidem during 8 days does not impair nocturnal respiratory and sleep architecture parameters or diurnal pulmonary function tests, central control of breathing, and physical performances in patients with stable COPD.
Treatment costs of cystoid macular edema among patients following cataract surgery

Purpose The current costs of treating cystoid macular edema (CME), a complication that can follow cataract surgery, are largely unknown. This analysis estimates the treatment costs for CME based on the recently released US Medicare data. Setting Nationally representative database. Design Retrospective analysis of the 2011 through 2013 Medicare 5% Beneficiary Encrypted Files. Methods Beneficiaries who underwent cataract surgery were identified and stratified by diagnosis of CME (cases) or no diagnosis of CME (controls) within 6 months following surgery. Claims and reimbursements for ophthalmic care were identified. Subgroup analyses explored the rates of CME in beneficiaries based on the presence of selected comorbidities and by the type of procedure (standard vs complex). Total Medicare and ophthalmic costs for cases and controls are presented. The analysis explored the effect of considering diabetic macular edema (DME) and macular edema (ME) as exclusion criteria. Results Of 78,949 beneficiaries with cataract surgery, 2.54% (n=2,003) were diagnosed with CME. One-third of beneficiaries had one or more conditions affecting retinal health (including diabetes), 4.5% of whom developed CME. The rate of CME, at 22.5%, was much higher for those patients with preoperative DME or ME. Ophthalmic charges were almost twice as high for cases compared with controls (US$10,410 vs $5,950); payments averaged 85% higher ($2,720 vs $1,470) (both P<0.0001). Conclusion Substantial costs can be associated with CME; beneficiaries whose retinas are already compromised before cataract surgery face higher risk. Cost savings could be realized with the use of therapies that reduce the risk of developing CME. Future analyses could identify whether and to what extent comorbidities influence costs.
The evolving schistosomiasis agenda 2007-2017—Why we are moving beyond morbidity control toward elimination of transmission

Over the past decade at PLOS NTD, our thinking about schistosomiasis control has changed dramatically. Before going further in this article, though, it is especially important for me, as an editor, to ask everyone in the NTD world to be much more precise now about their terminology when referring to ‘schistosomiasis control’. One can no longer talk about schistosomiasis and its control in loose fashion. Properly, schistosomiasis is the morbidity and disease that are caused by Schistosoma blood fluke infections, and the two states, infection and disease, should not be conflated when we are discussing control program objectives. I am not splitting hairs when I say that you absolutely cannot be ‘infected by schistosomiasis’. Schistosomiasis develops because you have been infected with Schistosoma parasites, and the distinction is important. Control of each entity is different, and when we discuss control in the future we should not mistake one for the other. We now know that a program of annual or every-other-year mass drug administration [1, 2] can control morbidity (schistosomiasis) [3], but often without achieving any significant reduction in local parasite transmission (the process of Schistosoma infection) [4]. However, we also know that the disease schistosomiasis will be ultimately abolished when we reach the goal of total elimination of local Schistosoma transmission. Because many mass drug administration (MDA) programs have now attained very low levels of Schistosoma prevalence [5], it is notable that the World Health Assembly in 2012 called, for the first time, for Schistosoma transmission interruption ‘wherever possible’ (WHA 65.21). Clearly, a standard morbidity-control program, or a more aggressive infection-control program, each has its own objectives and practices, and each has its own costs and benefits, so we should pay attention to these differences. In the past, a post-colonial worldview of the 20-century World Health Organization (WHO) led to the notion that the only feasible objective for schistosomiasis-control programs was to get modest morbidity control at limited cost. Disappointingly, morbidity control by repeated treatment was the only objective to be pursued, and this focus may have sold endemic populations short. Drugs such as praziquantel and oxamniquine were too expensive for general use, so it was age-targeted treatment of high risk schoolchildren that was recommend as a ‘best practice’ at that time. Because of the risk of rapid reinfection, annual retreatment was considered by some to be ‘futile’, and nontreatment of some segments of the population (preschoolers and adults) was considered acceptable [6]. Subsequently, a very important barrier to effective implementation of preventive MDA was breached when the cost of praziquantel was reduced more than 90% through
An Input Current Feedback Method to Mitigate the DC-Side Low-Frequency Ripple Current in a Single-Phase Boost Inverter

A boost DC/AC converter is popular in AC line-integrated energy storage systems (ESSs) based on low-voltage DC sources such as battery, fuel cell, or supercapacitor. The direct DC/AC power conversion in the boost inverter introduces a second-order harmonic ripple current at the DC side of the boost converter, which leads to internal heating of the energy storage devices and degradation of their lifetime. In this paper, a novel current feedback method is proposed to mitigate the second-order harmonic current component at the DC side. The proposed method is able to significantly reduce the second-order harmonic component in the DC-side current of the boost inverter without increasing other harmonic components. Performance of the proposed method is validated on a single-phase grid-connected DC/AC boost inverter-based battery ESS experimental prototype.
Suppression of ERR targets by a PPARα/Sirt1 complex in the failing heart

Heart failure is a leading cause of death worldwide. Estrogen-related receptors (ERRs) are a nuclear receptor subfamily that facilitates the transcription of contractile and nucleus-encoded mitochondrial genes in the heart. Impaired expression of these ERR target genes is frequently observed in human heart failure patients. However, the responsible molecular mechanism is not well-understood. Recently, we have shown that PPARα forms a protein complex with Sirt1, which is involved in the downregulation of ERR targets through direct interaction with the ERR response element (ERRE) in the failing heart. Here, we provide additional lines of evidence supporting the pathological involvement of the PPARα/Sirt1 complex in heart failure. Pressure overload-induced left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy was attenuated in mice with heterozygous knockout of either PPARα (PPARα+/-) or Sirt1 (Sirt1+/-), whereas cardiac-specific PPARα and Sirt1 bigenic mice showed LV hypertrophy accompanied by a high mortality rate even without pressure overload. Microarray analyses indicated that nuclear-encoded mitochondrial genes were largely downregulated and mitochondrial morphological abnormalities were observed in PPARα/Sirt1 bigenic mice. Those downregulated mitochondrial genes frequently harbor the ERRE in the promoter regions. Artificial and physiological PPARα ligands suppressed reporter genes driven by the ERREs. PPARα bound to and recruited Sirt1 to the genomic flanking region of the ERREs in the heart. Pressure overload downregulated many ERR targets, which were partly normalized by PPARα+/- and Sirt1+/- mice. These results suggest that PPARα and Sirt1 downregulate ERR target gene expression through direct interaction with the ERRE in the failing heart.
Exercise training in patients with severe chronic heart failure: impact on left ventricular performance and cardiac size. A retrospective analysis of the Leipzig Heart Failure Training Trial

Background Exercise training (ET) has been shown to improve functional work capacity in patients with stable chronic heart failure (CHF) having moderate symptoms (NYHA class II). This analysis was conducted, to evaluate the effects of ET on left ventricular function and haemodynamics in patients with advanced CHF (NYHA class III) fulfilling the inclusion criteria of the COPERNICUS trial. Methods Seventy-three patients with moderate and advanced CHF were prospectively randomised to a training (n = 36), or to a control group (n = 37). At baseline and after six months, patients underwent echocardiography and symptom-limited ergospirometry with measurement of central haemodynamics by thermodilution. Results Nine out of 37 patients in the control group (C) and 10 out of 36 patients in the training group (T) had symptoms of advanced CHF. Exercise training over a period of six months resulted in an improvement of functional status on average by one NYHA class in patients with advanced CHF. Moreover, oxygen uptake at the ventilatory threshold increased by 49% (from 7.7 ± 1.0 to 11.4 ± 0.4 mL/min/kg, P<0.01 versus baseline) and at peak exercise by 32% (from 16.3 ± 1.6 to 21.5 ± 1.2 mL/min/kg, P<0.01 versus baseline) in training patients. The small, but significant reduction in left ventricular end-diastolic diameter by 7% (from 70 ± 2 to 66 ± 2 mm; P<0.05 versus baseline) was accompanied by an augmentation in stroke volume at rest by 32% (from 45 ± 3 to 60 ± 6 mL, P<0.05 versus baseline) and at peak exercise by 27% (63 ± 9 to 81 ±9 mL, P<0.05 versus baseline) as a result of ET in patients with advanced CHF. Conclusion In patients with advanced CHF (NYHA class III), long-term exercise training is associated with an enhanced physical work capacity, an improvement in stroke volume and a reduction in cardiomegaly.
Comparison of Role Demands, Relationships, and Child Functioning in Single-Mother, Single-Father, and Intact Families

Abstract Numerous studies have examined the impact of divorce on parents and children, but most of these studies have been restricted to single-mother families. This study compared differences in role demands, relationships, and child functioning using the responses of parents and children in 30 single-mother, 30 single-father, and 30 intact families. Single fathers had better resources than single mothers, more positive parenting than married fathers, and relied more on friends than the married parents. Single mothers had less education, less prestigious jobs, lower incomes, and more economic strain than the other parents. They also had fewer social resources and more difficulty than married parents with the parenting role. Despite these disadvantages of single mother families, children in these families were no different than children in other families on most measures of well-being. The only problem that was identified in the functioning of children from single-parent families was with their behavior. These findings can be used to develop strategies to reduce risks and enhance the existing resources and strengths of single-parent families.
Identification of patients not requiring endomyocardial biopsies late after cardiac transplantation.

BACKGROUND The risk for rejection is highest early, but graft rejection requiring intensified immunosuppression may be present even late after transplantation. Nonetheless, a considerable number of patients are absolutely free of rejection requiring intensified immunosuppression (Rej) late after transplantation. Therefore, we tried to identify patients who do not need endomyocardial biopsies > or = 2 years after transplantation and those who may benefit from long-term follow-up with routine endomyocardial biopsies. METHODS A total of 112 patients (age 45+/-12 years) had a follow-up with regular endomyocardial biopsies of > or = 3 years. A total of 4194 endomyocardial biopsies were performed (1364 > or = 2 years after transplantation). They were divided into three categories: rejection score=0, Texas 0-2 or International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) 0 or 1A; rejection score=1, Texas 3-4 or ISHLT 1B or 2; rejection score=2, Texas > or = 5 or ISHLT > or = 3A. RESULTS During the third and subsequent posttransplantation years, 31 of 112 (28%) patients had < or = 1 further Rej (total 51). Independent predictors identifying patients with Rej in multivariate analysis were age [odds ratio (OR)=0.96 per year, P<0.05], the sum of rejection score (OR=1.07 per score point, P<0.005) and the mean cyclosporine level in the first 2 years (OR=1.07 per % of upper therapeutic range, P<0.01). Fifty-eight (52%) patients with age >25 years, sum of rejection score < or = 17, and mean cyclosporine level <90th percentile during the first 2 years would not have needed biopsies in the third and subsequent years, whereas the other 48% had a risk of 54% to develop further Rej. In addition to predictors identifying patients with rejection, time after transplantation (OR=0.73 per year, P<0.005), cyclosporine level below therapeutic range (OR=2.15, P<0.05), and reduction of prednisone (OR=2.64, P<0.05) were independent predictors at each endomyocardial biopsy. CONCLUSIONS Risk of Rej remained considerably high in approximately one third of our patients late after transplantation. In these, further surveillance biopsies appear justified, whereas half of the patients had no risk of Rej as long as immunosuppressive therapy was sufficient.