Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Are lapsed donors willing to resume blood donation, and what determines their motivation to do so?

BACKGROUND: This study investigated the possibility of rerecruiting lapsed blood donors. Reasons for donation cessation, motivation to restart donation, and modifiable components of donation motivation were examined. We distinguished between lapsed donors who had passively withdrawn by merely not responding to donation invitations and donors who had contacted the blood bank to actively withdraw.
Primary empty sella.

CONTEXT The term primary empty sella (PES) refers to a number of endocrine and/or neurological disturbances that may be caused by the herniation of subarachnoid space within the sella. SETTING The records of all patients with a diagnosis of empty sella between 1985 and 2002 seen at the Catholic University of Rome and University of Brescia were examined retrospectively. PATIENTS We have observed 171 female and 42 male patients affected by PES (over 4:1 sex ratio). The mean age at diagnosis in our subjects was 51.8 +/- 2.1 yr. Mean body mass index was 27.3 +/- 3.5 kg/m2. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE All the patients have been analyzed first either with sellar computed tomography scan or magnetic resonance imaging. All patients underwent neurological, ophthalmological, and baseline endocrine evaluation (appropriate stimulation tests were performed when hypopituitarism was suspected). RESULTS In the overall population, 40 of 213 patients had documented endocrine abnormalities, specifically 31 females and nine males. Twenty-two patients (10.3% of total patients; 18 women, 10.5% of all women, with a mean age of 38.6 +/- 1.1 yr and four males, with a mean age 46.5 +/- 3.52 yr) presented with hyperprolactinemia. Global anterior hypopituitarism was confirmed in nine patients. Eight patients presented an isolated GH deficiency. One hundred thirty-eight of our patients presented a so-called partial empty sella at computed tomography scan/magnetic resonance imaging, and 75 had total PES. CONCLUSIONS PES may be associated with variable clinical conditions ranging from mild endocrine disturbances to severe intracranial hypertension and rhinorrhea. The need for treatment of hyperprolactinemia as well as for replacement hormone therapy must be assessed in PES. Symptomatic intracranial hypertension makes cerebrospinal fluid shunting procedures necessary.
Causes of educational segregation in Sweden – school choice or residential segregation

ABSTRACT The aims of the study were to examine changes in school segregation across different types of municipalities between 1998 and 2011 in Sweden, and to explore the extent to which these changes are the consequences of school choice. Multilevel models were applied to register data using a counterfactual approach. The results showed that school segregation with respect to migration background and educational achievement had increased over time, while social segregation remained rather constant. The degree of school segregation varied largely across different municipality types, and it was concluded that school choice was a determinant of school segregation. The findings have strong policy implications and are discussed in relation to the recent educational reforms in Sweden.
Systems combination in large vocabulary continuous speech recognition

We present a review of the most significant advances in the field of system combination towards reducing word error rates (WER) in large vocabulary continuous speech recognition (LVCSR). We have mainly focused on Recognizer Output Voting Error Reduction (ROVER), confusion network (CN) and minimum frame word error rate (fWER) based combination along with the latest improvements. Despite lot of progress witnessed in this field, some challenges still remain in enhancing the performance of LVCSR. We suggest in this paper some directions that may lead to a lower WER within the framework of system combination.
Laparoscopic surgery for the treatment of rectal cancer: short-term results.

UNLABELLED The aim of this study was to establish the efficiency, safety and feasibility of laparoscopic surgery for rectal cancer by assessing the short-term outcomes. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this prospective clinical study, from 2008 to 2011, 60 patients with laparoscopic resection for rectal cancer were included, treated in "Prof. Dr. Octavian Fodor" Gastroenterology and Hepatology Institute, Department of Surgery and Surgery Clinic I, Cluj-Napoca. RESULTS Surgical procedures included 38 abdominal-perineal resections, 21 anterior resections and 1 Hartmann procedure. Average blood loss was 250 ml (100-800 ml) and median length of postoperative hospital stay was 9 days (4-91 days). Blood loss was significantly higher in patients with low rectal cancer than those with upper rectal cancer (300 ml vs 200 ml, p=0.031). Conversion to open surgery was required in 8 patients (13.3%). Overall postoperative complications were 28.8%. Positive circumferential margins occurred in 1 patient (1.7%), while distal margins were negative in all patients. CONCLUSIONS Laparoscopic surgery is safe and feasible in selected patients with rectal cancer, with favorable shortterm results.
Elevated plasma levels of soluble TNFRs and TACE activity in Alzheimer's disease patients of Northern Han Chinese descent.

BACKGROUND We recently reported elevated cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of soluble tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptors and TNF-α converting enzyme (TACE) activity in subjects with Alzheimer's disease (AD) in a Caucasian population. The TNF receptor-mediated signaling pathway contributes to the production of Aβ and the subsequent cytotoxicity that is observed in AD brains. However, whether the plasma levels of soluble TNF receptors (sTNFRs) are changed is still unclear in AD patients of Han descent. METHODS In the present study, we analyzed the plasma sTNFR levels using commercially available immunoassay kits in 76 AD patients and 40 age- and sex-matched control subjects of Northern Han Chinese descent. Furthermore, the TACE activity was measured using a solution-based assay containing a fluorescently labeled TACE substrate. RESULTS AD patients exhibited higher levels of both sTNFR and TACE activity in their plasma compared with age- and sex-matched control subjects. The levels of sTNFR1 strongly correlated with the levels of sTNFR2 (rs =0.526, P < 0.001). In addition, the levels of sTNFR1 were significantly correlated with TACE activity (rs = 0.308, P < 0.01). CONCLUSION These results suggest that sTNFRs and TACE activity might serve as potential peripheral diagnostic candidate biomarkers in AD.
Finding information about mental health in microblogging platforms: a case study of depression

Searching for online health information has been well studied in web search, but social media, such as public microblogging services, are well known for different types of tacit information: personal experience and shared information. Finding useful information in public microblogging platforms is an on-going hard problem and so to begin to develop a better model of what health information can be found, Twitter posts using the word "depression" were examined as a case study of a search for a prevalent mental health issue. 13,279 public tweets were analysed using a mixed methods approach and compared to a general sample of tweets. First, a linguistic analysis suggested that tweets mentioning depression were typically anxious but not angry, and were less likely to be in the first person, indicating that most were not from individuals discussing their own depression. Second, to understand what types of tweets can be found, an inductive thematic analysis revealed three major themes: 1) disseminating information or link of information, 2) self-disclosing, and 3) the sharing of overall opinion; each had significantly different linguistic patterns. We conclude with a discussion of how different types of posts about mental health may be retrieved from public social media like Twitter.
Dynamic privacy management: a plug-in service for the middleware in pervasive computing

Context-aware applications can better meet users' needs when sensing agents installed in the environment automatically provide input relevant to the application. However, this non-intrusive context usage may cause privacy concerns since sensitive user data could be leaked to unauthorized parties. Therefore, data privacy protection becomes one of the major issues for context-aware applications. In this paper, in order to provide services based on various levels of privacy concerns, we extend the Platform for Privacy Preferences of W3C and define a specification for representing user privacy preferences for context-aware applications. We also propose a privacy infrastructure, which could be installed as a plug-in service for middleware supporting context-aware applications. This infrastructure enables the middleware to automatically generate a privacy policy and the user preference file according to the current context. The middleware simply matches these two files to decide whether to proceed with the application. We demonstrate the efficacy of this approach through a prototype implementation.
Taking culture seriously: Can we improve the developmental health and well‐being of Australian Aboriginal children in out‐of‐home care?

BACKGROUND Children in out-of-home care have well-documented health and developmental needs. Research suggests that Aboriginal children in care have unmet health and intervention needs. In metropolitan Sydney, Kari Aboriginal Resources Inc. (KARI), an Aboriginal organization, provides support to indigenous children in care, including clinical assessment and intervention. We wanted to determine the health and developmental needs of a subset of children in out-of-home care with KARI, who had been in stable care for at least a year. We wanted to identify child, carer, and intervention characteristics that contributed to children doing well. We also wanted to identify enablers and barriers to providing culturally competent intervention. METHODS We used mixed methods. From the KARI clinic database over the past 3 years, we identified children who had been in stable care with KARI for >12 months. We compared clinical measures and outcomes for these children with results from previous audits. We carried out a group discussion and key informant interviews with therapists and caseworkers to identify risk and resilience factors for each child, as well as enablers and barriers to culturally competent intervention. RESULTS The health and developmental profile of the 26 children identified as being in stable care was similar to that of previous audits. Most (88%) were getting speech pathology intervention; one third were getting occupational therapy and psychological intervention; most children and their carers attended cultural programmes. The majority of children (25/26) improved in their developmental health. Caseworkers and therapists identified risk and resilience factors related to child, carer, and home characteristics. They also identified elements of good practice; systemic issues prevented some interventions from being carried out. CONCLUSIONS There are challenges delivering a trauma-informed, culturally respectful service to Aboriginal children in out-of-home care in an urban setting, but it can be done if attention is paid to culture and the enablers and barriers are identified.
Moving beyond average values: assessing the night-to-night instability of sleep and arousal in DSM-IV-TR insomnia subtypes.

STUDY OBJECTIVES We explored differences between individuals with DSM-IV-TR diagnoses of primary insomnia (PI) and insomnia related to a mental disorder (IMD) by using serial measurements of self-reported sleep variables (sleep onset latency, SOL; wake after sleep onset, WASO; total sleep time, TST; sleep efficiency, SE), and visual analogue scale ratings of 2 forms of bedtime arousal (cognitive and emotional). Furthermore, we sought to examine the relationship between sleep and arousal within each diagnostic subgroup. DESIGN Between-group and within-group comparisons. SETTING Duke and Rush University Medical Centers, USA. PARTICIPANTS One hundred eighty-seven insomnia sufferers (126 women, average age 47.15 years) diagnosed by sleep specialists at 2 sleep centers as PI patients (n=126) and IMD patients (n=61). INTERVENTIONS N/A. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS Multilevel models for sleep measures indicated that IMD displayed significantly more instability across nights in their TST (i.e., larger changes) than did PI patients. With respect to pre-sleep arousal, IMD patients exhibited higher mean levels of emotional arousal, as well as more instability on the nightly ratings of this measure. Within the PI group, correlational analyses revealed a moderate relationship between the 2 arousal variables and SOL (r values 0.29 and 0.26), whereas the corresponding correlations were negligible and statistically nonsignificant in the IMD group. CONCLUSIONS We found a number of differences on nighttime variables between those diagnosed with primary insomnia and those diagnosed with insomnia related to a mental disorder. These differences imply different perpetuating mechanisms involved in their ongoing sleep difficulties. Additionally, they support the categorical distinctiveness and the concurrent validity of these insomnia subtypes.
School Psychology in Nova Scotia

Registration as a psychologist in Nova Scotia can be at the master’s or doctoral level; however, the Nova Scotia Board of Examiners in Psychology has announced a move to the doctoral degree as the entry-level to practice. Many school psychologists in Nova Scotia practice at the master’s level; therefore, this change could affect school psychology training and practice. School psychologists in Nova Scotia have indicated that they wish to expand their roles to include more intervention and consultation, and teachers have also indicated that they would like more access to psychologists in their schools. Given recent calls to increase access to mental health services for children and youth, school psychologists could play an important role in service provision in this province. The move to doctoral-level registration may provide the impetus to begin important conversations about role expansion for school psychologists.
The impact of initiatives to limit the advertising of food and beverage products to children: a systematic review

In response to increasing evidence that advertising of foods and beverages affects children's food choices and food intake, several national governments and many of the world's larger food and beverage manufacturers have acted to restrict the marketing of their products to children or to advertise only ‘better for you’ products or ‘healthier dietary choices’ to children. Independent assessment of the impact of these pledges has been difficult due to the different criteria being used in regulatory and self‐regulatory regimes. In this paper, we undertook a systematic review to examine the data available on levels of exposure of children to the advertising of less healthy foods since the introduction of the statutory and voluntary codes. The results indicate a sharp division in the evidence, with scientific, peer‐reviewed papers showing that high levels of such advertising of less healthy foods continue to be found in several different countries worldwide. In contrast, the evidence provided in industry‐sponsored reports indicates a remarkably high adherence to voluntary codes. We conclude that adherence to voluntary codes may not sufficiently reduce the advertising of foods which undermine healthy diets, or reduce children's exposure to this advertising.
Dual-frequency printed dipole loaded with metamaterial particles

In this paper a dual-frequency printed dipole is presented. This antenna is made by loading a dipole printed on both sides of a FR-4 substrate with metamaterial resonant particles. First, a simplified model based on a printed dipole loaded with LC parallel resonators is used as an approximation. This model shows the dual-band performance of the antenna. Then, an implementation of the antenna is developed by loading the printed dipole with metamaterial particles, in particular split ring resonators (SRRs). Both resonant frequencies can be arbitrarily chosen and they depend on the self-resonant frequencies of the dipole and the SRRs. In this paper we propose a dipole working at 1.32 GHz and 2.08 GHz simultaneously (1.58 ratio).
Effect of brivaracetam on cardiac repolarisation – a thorough QT study*

ABSTRACT Objectives: To assess the effect on cardiac repolarisation of the investigational synaptic vesicle protein 2A (SV2A) ligand brivaracetam. Research design and methods: Subjects received double-blind, multiple bid doses of placebo (n = 53), brivaracetam 75 mg (n = 39) or brivaracetam 400 mg (n = 40), or open-label single-dose moxifloxacin 400 mg (positive control, n = 52). Continuous 12-lead ECG recordings were performed at baseline and after last dosing, using a Mortara Holter device. Plasma samples were obtained before and up to 12 h after last dosing for drug determination. Triplicate ECGs were extracted before each sample, and read centrally in a blinded manner. QT was corrected using a centre- and gender-specific correction (QTcSS). Main outcome measures: The primary endpoint was the largest time-matched mean difference of QTcSS change from baseline between drug and placebo (maximum ΔΔQTcSS). The same approach was adopted using the Fridericia's correction (QTcF). The relationships between ΔQTcSS and plasma concentration of brivaracetam and moxifloxacin were fitted to a straight line using linear least-squares regression. Results: Mean maximum ΔΔQTcSS for brivaracetam 75 and 400 mg bid, and moxifloxacin 400 mg was 0.2 ms, −1.1 ms and 12.4 ms, respectively. The one-sided 95% upper limit for 75 mg and 400 mg brivaracetam was 4.3 ms and 3.0 ms, respectively; the one-sided 95% lower limit for moxifloxacin was 8.6 ms. After brivaracetam no QTcSS intervals >480 ms or changes from baseline of >60 ms were observed. ΔQTcSS did not increase with plasma concentration of brivaracetam, whereas there was a statistically significant rise with increasing moxifloxacin concentrations. Conclusions: The study was found to be valid in terms of assay sensitivity and the results demonstrated the absence of effects of brivaracetam on cardiac repolarisation. These results suggest that no intensive cardiac monitoring is required during the subsequent stages of brivaracetam development.
Primate conservation in the new millennium: The role of scientists

For nearly three decades, the academic community has clearly recognized that many primate populations are severely threatened by human activities. In 1983, Wolfheim estimated that more than 50% of all primate species faced some form of threat. Over a decade later, the Primate Specialist Group of the Species Survival Commission of the World Conservation Union5 estimated that half of the world's 250 species of primates were of serious conservation concern. In a recent review of the current status of primate communities, Wright and Jernvall commented that it was an achievement for primate conservationists that we had not lost any species in the last millennium. It is ironic that the first documented extinction of a widely recognized primate taxon occurred just as we entered the new millennium. Based on surveys in Ghana and Cote d'lvoire, Oates and colleagues have failed to find any surviving populations of Miss Waldron's red colobus (Procolobus badius waldroni), a primate taxon endemic to this region and one that some authorities consider worthy of species status. Because 96 primate species are now considered to be critically endangered or endangered, much must be done in the near future to ensure that extinction curves do not lag behind tropical deforestation and high levels of commercial and subsistence hunting.
A simulation-based approach to test pattern generation for synchronous sequential circuits

Particular design environments, e.g., those based on partial scan, may prevent design for testability techniques from reducing testing to a combinational problem: ATPG for sequential devices thus remains a challenge. Random and deterministic structure-oriented techniques are state-of-the-art, but there is a growing interest in methods that resort to the automaton of the circuit. The authors present SETA, a sequential test generator based on automata, an ATPG applicable to synchronous circuits working in the fundamental mode. SETA generates test patterns while trying to disprove the equivalence of two automata. SETA is simulation-based: within the theoretical framework of the product machine, state-of-the-art simulation techniques are used to yield satisfactory experimental results on the ISCAS89 benchmark set. <<ETX>>
Energy-aware power control for a multiple-relay cooperative network using Q-learning

In this paper, we investigate the power control problem in a cooperative network with multiple wireless transmitters, multiple full-duplex amplify-and-forward relays, and one destination. A game-theory-based power control algorithm is devised to allocate the powers among all active nodes: the source nodes aim at maximizing their energy efficiency, whereas the relays aim at maximizing the network sum-rate. After showing that the proposed game admits multiple pure/mixed-strategy Nash equilibrium points, we formulate a Q-learning-based algorithm to let the active players converge to the best Nash equilibrium point that combines good performance in terms of both energy efficiency and overall data rate, also calling for a low computational burden. Numerical results show that the proposed scheme outperforms Nash bargaining, max-min fairness, and max-rate optimization schemes.
Apport de la réalité virtuelle pour la rééducation fonctionnelle. (Contribution of virtual reality to functional rehabilitation)

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. Apport de la réalité virtuelle pour la rééducation fonctionnelle Van Hanh Nguyen
Outage Analysis of Space Time Block Coding MIMO Cooperative System with Amplify-and-Forward Scheme

Outage analysis of cooperative space-time block coding (STBC) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) relaying system with a single relay is discussed in this paper. The source node, equipped with two transmit antennas, broadcasts each STBC code to the relay and the destination nodes. Then, the relay node also equipped with multiple antennas, amplifies-and-forwards (AF) the received STBC codes. Finally, the destination node uses maximum ratio combining (MRC) and exploits the diversity gain obtained through the direct and the indirect links simultaneously. Lower bounds of the outage probability is derived using the moment generating function (MGF) of the total signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for a particular signal of M-ary-quadrature-amplitude modulation (M-QAM). Simulation results are provided to verify the validity of the analytical results.