Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does Leaving Welfare Improve Health? Evidence for Germany

Using exceptionally rich linked administrative and survey information on German welfare recipients we investigate the health effects of transitions from welfare to employment and of assignments to welfare-to-work programmes. Applying semi-parametric propensity score matching estimators we find that employment substantially increases (mental) health. The positive effects are mainly driven by males and individuals with bad initial health conditions and are largest for males with poor health. In contrast, the effects of welfare-to-work programmes, including subsidised jobs, are ambiguous and statistically insignificant for most outcomes.
System Considerations for a Combined UMTS/GNSS Receiver

This paper introduces a hybrid receiver architecture for user equipment positioning by using UMTS and GNSS signals. After a review of the UMTS and Galileo/GPS signal structures and the state-of-the-art in receiver RF and base-band architectures, a configurable GNSS/UMTS architecture is proposed. The investigated concept is based on a reconfigurable receive chain to prevent duplication of hardware, which will result in considerably lower costs. The biggest challenge in the design of Galileo receivers are the extremely tight noise figure (NF) requirements. Another key issue of integrated GNSS/UMTS receivers is the maximum tolerable UMTS transmit leakage injected into the Galileo receiver.
Massively Parallel Programming Languages – A Classification of Design Approaches

This paper presents the results of a study in which we examined about 50 parallel programming languages in order to detect typical approaches towards supporting massive parallelism. Based on a classification into nine classes, semantic properties affecting the development of parallel programs are compared. From a consideration of the general function of programming languages in software engineering, we derive basic requirements on parallel languages.
Mutant alcohol dehydrogenase leads to improved ethanol tolerance in Clostridium thermocellum

Clostridium thermocellum is a thermophilic, obligately anaerobic, Gram-positive bacterium that is a candidate microorganism for converting cellulosic biomass into ethanol through consolidated bioprocessing. Ethanol intolerance is an important metric in terms of process economics, and tolerance has often been described as a complex and likely multigenic trait for which complex gene interactions come into play. Here, we resequence the genome of an ethanol-tolerant mutant, show that the tolerant phenotype is primarily due to a mutated bifunctional acetaldehyde-CoA/alcohol dehydrogenase gene (adhE), hypothesize based on structural analysis that cofactor specificity may be affected, and confirm this hypothesis using enzyme assays. Biochemical assays confirm a complete loss of NADH-dependent activity with concomitant acquisition of NADPH-dependent activity, which likely affects electron flow in the mutant. The simplicity of the genetic basis for the ethanol-tolerant phenotype observed here informs rational engineering of mutant microbial strains for cellulosic ethanol production.
Switching from a preserved to a preservative‐free prostaglandin preparation in topical glaucoma medication

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the tolerability and intraocular pressure (IOP) reducing effect of the first preservative‐free prostaglandin tafluprost (Taflotan®) in patients exhibiting ocular surface side‐effects during latanoprost (Xalatan®) treatment.
Two Coupled Motor Recovery Protocols Are Better Than One: Electromyogram-Triggered Neuromuscular Stimulation and Bilateral Movements

Background and Purpose— Overcoming chronic hemiparesis from a cerebrovascular accident (CVA) can be challenging for many patients, especially after the first 12 months after the CVA. With the use of established motor control theories, the present study investigated electromyogram (EMG)-triggered neuromuscular stimulation and bilateral coordination training. Methods— Twenty-five CVA subjects volunteered to participate in this motor recovery protocol study. Subjects were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups: (1) coupled protocol of EMG-triggered stimulation and bilateral movement (n=10); (2) EMG-triggered stimulation and unilateral movement (n=10); or (3) control (n=5). All participants completed 6 hours of rehabilitation during a 2-week period according to group assignments. Motor capabilities of the wrist and fingers were evaluated on the basis of 3 categories of motor tasks in a pretest-posttest control group design. Results— Significant findings for the (1) number of blocks moved in a functional task, (2) chronometric reaction times to initiate movements, and (3) sustained muscle contraction capability all favored the coupled bilateral movement training and EMG-triggered neuromuscular stimulation protocol group. In addition, the unilateral movement/stimulation group exceeded the control group in the number of blocks moved and rapid onset of muscle contractions. Conclusions— This new evidence is convincing in that subjects in the coupled protocol group were able to demonstrate enhanced voluntary motor control across 3 categories of tasks. Chronic hemiparesis decreased considerably in the wrist and fingers as CVA patients expanded their motor repertoire.
Altered brain activation by a false recognition task in young abstinent patients with alcohol dependence.

BACKGROUND Heavy alcohol intake induces both structural and functional changes in the central nervous system. Recent research developments converged on the idea that even in patients with alcohol dependence without apparent structural brain changes, some cognitive impairment exists, and associated functional change could be visualized by neuroimaging techniques. However, these data were from old (more than 50 years) patients using working memory and response inhibition tasks. Whether young abstinent patients show aberrant signs of brain activation is a matter of interest, specifically by the long-term memory retrieval task. METHODS Subjects were 9 young patients with alcohol dependence with long-term abstinent (8 males and 1 female) and age- and education-matched 9 healthy controls (7 males and 2 females). We used a modified false recognition task in a functional MRI study. RESULTS The young patients with alcohol dependence showed reduced activation in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), left pulvinar in the thalamus, and in the right ventral striatum, although behavioral performances and regional patterns of brain activation were similar between patients and controls. CONCLUSIONS Long-term memory retrieval induced altered activations in prefrontal lobes, ACC, thalamus, and ventral striatum in young patients with alcohol dependence. These findings were correspondent to deficits of goal directed behavior, monitoring the erroneous responses, memory function, and drug-seeking behavior. Furthermore, these reduced activations can be considered as latent "lesions," suggesting subclinical pathology in alcoholic brains.
Free launch: Optimizing GPU dynamic kernel launches through thread reuse

Supporting dynamic parallelism is important for GPU to benefit a broad range of applications. There are currently two fundamental ways for programs to exploit dynamic parallelism on GPU: a software-based approach with software-managed worklists, and a hardware-based approach through dynamic subkernel launches. Neither is satisfactory. The former is complicated to program and is often subject to some load imbalance; the latter suffers large runtime overhead. In this work, we propose free launch, a new software approach to overcoming the shortcomings of both methods. It allows programmers to use subkernel launches to express dynamic parallelism. It employs a novel compiler-based code transformation named subkernel launch removal to replace the subkernel launches with the reuse of parent threads. Coupled with an adaptive task assignment mechanism, the transformation reassigns the tasks in the subkernels to the parent threads with a good load balance. The technique requires no hardware extensions, immediately deployable on existing GPUs. It keeps the programming convenience of the subkernel launch-based approach while avoiding its large runtime overhead. Meanwhile, its superior load balancing makes it outperform manual worklist-based techniques by 3X on average.
Synergistic Co-activation Increases the Extent of Mechanical Interaction between Rat Ankle Plantar-Flexors

Force transmission between rat ankle plantar-flexors has been found for physiological muscle lengths and relative positions, but only with all muscles maximally activated. The aims of this study were to assess intermuscular mechanical interactions between ankle plantar-flexors during (i) fully passive conditions, (ii) excitation of soleus (SO), (iii) excitation of lateral gastrocnemius (LG), and (iv) during co-activation of SO, and LG (SO&LG). We assessed effects of proximal lengthening of LG and plantaris (PL) muscles (i.e., simulating knee extension) on forces exerted at the distal SO tendon (FSO) and on the force difference between the proximal and distal LG+PL tendons (ΔFLG+PL) of the rat. LG+PL lengthening increased FSO to a larger extent (p = 0.017) during LG excitation (0.0026 N/mm) than during fully passive conditions (0.0009 N/mm). Changes in FSO in response to LG+PL lengthening were lower (p = 0.002) during SO only excitation (0.0056 N/mm) than during SO&LG excitation (0.0101 N/mm). LG+PL lengthening changed ΔFLG+PL to a larger extent (p = 0.007) during SO excitation (0.0211 N/mm) than during fully passive conditions (0.0157 N/mm). In contrast, changes in ΔFLG+PL in response to LG+PL lengthening during LG excitation (0.0331 N/mm) were similar (p = 0.161) to that during SO&LG excitation (0.0370 N/mm). In all conditions, changes of FSO were lower than those of ΔFLG+PL. This indicates that muscle forces were transmitted not only between LG+PL and SO, but also between LG+PL and other surrounding structures. In addition, epimuscular myofascial force transmission between rat ankle plantar-flexors was enhanced by muscle activation. However, the magnitude of this interaction was limited.
Memristive Neuro-Fuzzy System

In this paper, a novel neuro-fuzzy computing system is proposed where its learning is based on the creation of fuzzy relations by using a new implication method without utilizing any exact mathematical techniques. Then, a simple memristor crossbar-based analog circuit is designed to implement this neuro-fuzzy system which offers very interesting properties. In addition to high connectivity between neurons and being fault tolerant, all synaptic weights in our proposed method are always non-negative, and there is no need to adjust them precisely. Finally, this structure is hierarchically expandable, and it can do fuzzy operations in real time since it is implemented through analog circuits. Simulation results confirm the efficiency and applicability of our neuro-fuzzy computing system. They also indicate that this system can be a good candidate to be used for creating artificial brain.
An effect of combining CDN with reactive in-network guidance method

These days, server load has been increasing because of various factors such as larger content size and flash crowd. Content Delivery Network (CDN) is widely used to deal with this problem. In CDN, replica servers are placed dispersedly in all over the Internet to achieve high QoS content delivery. On the other hand, Breadcrumbs (BC) method is proposed to implement content-oriented network framework on the conventional IP network. BC is a guidance information which is created in routers to utilize user's cache. In this paper, we operate CDN and BC framework together on IP network to improve the performance on content retrieval and acquisition. Finally, we make a CDN model and evaluate the coexisting approach through simulation. Simulation results show that our approach can greatly reduce server load.
Mothers with recurrent depression : co-occurring psychopathology and parenting as risks for offspring psychopathology

Offspring of depressed mothers are at increased risk of developing a variety of psychopathologies. Risk factors and mechanisms for the development of these heterogeneous outcomes are poorly understood. Disruptions in the mother-child relationship may be one mechanism by which maternal depression increases risk for offspring psychopathology. Many adults with depression present with co-occurring psychopathology, but how these co-occurring problems affect offspring risk, or impact upon the mother-child relationship, has rarely been considered. Data were from the Early Prediction of Adolescent Depression study. Mothers with a history of recurrent major depressive disorder and their adolescent offspring were assessed three times between 2007 and 2011. Mothers completed questionnaires assessing their own depression severity and co-occurring psychopathology (anxiety, antisocial behaviour (ASB), and alcohol misuse). Offspring psychopathology (presence of psychiatric disorder, symptoms of depression, anxiety and disruptive behaviour disorder (DBD)) were assessed using the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment. The mother-child relationship was assessed using parent-rated questionnaires and an interviewer-rated speech sample. Co-occurring problems in mothers predicted new-onset psychiatric disorder in offspring; this remained significant after controlling for maternal depression severity. When investigating the specificity of risk for offspring, maternal co-occurring ASB was specifically associated with offspring DBD, whereas maternal depression severity predicted offspring depression. The mother-child relationship mediated the effect of maternal depression severity on risk for offspring psychopathology. However this was better accounted for by co-occurring maternal ASB, which predicted both maternal warmth and hostility. Maternal hostility was a specific risk factor for offspring DBD. Bidirectional effects were observed between offspring DBD and maternal hostility. Findings highlight the importance of assessing co-occurring psychopathology in mothers with recurrent depression when considering risk for offspring. Parenting interventions that reduce hostility may be beneficial for preventing or reducing adolescent DBD, particularly when depressed mothers report additional ASB. Furthermore, interventions that reduce offspring DBD may also show benefits for the mother-child relationship.
What’s Cooking? – Cognitive Training of Executive Function in the Elderly

Executive function involves the efficient and adaptive engagement of the control processes of updating, shifting, and inhibition (Miyake, 2000) to guide behavior toward a goal. It is associated with decrements in many other cognitive functions due to aging (West, 1996; Raz, 2000) with itself particularly vulnerable to the effect of aging (Treitz et al., 2007). Cognitive training in the form of structural experience with executive coordination demands exhibited effective enhancement in the elderly (Hertzog et al., 2008). The current study was thus aimed at the development and evaluation of a training regime for executive function in the elderly. The breakfast cooking task of Craik and Bialystok (2006) was adapted into a multitasking training task in a session (pre-test vs. post-test) by group (control vs. training). In the training condition, participants constantly switched, updated, and planned in order to control the cooking of several foods and concurrently performed a table setting secondary task. Training gains were exhibited on task related measures. Transfer effect was selectively observed on the letter–number sequencing and digit symbol coding test. The cooking training produced short term increase in the efficiency of executive control processing. These effects were interpreted in terms of the process overlap between the training and the transfer tasks.
Language and Metamorphosis Supervising Computer Science Students diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome

Many, although not all people with autistic disorders like Asperger Syndrome, (AS), experience social hindrances and learning difficulties, although they have average or above average intelligence. They interpret the spoken and written word literally. Instructors must avoid misunderstandings caused by the use of metaphors, synonyms and homonyms. Teachers must use a clear, consistent and unambiguous language in their instruction. This paper describes an approach to supervising students with Asperger Syndrome. The outlined method is based on the author’s experience with two University College students of computer technology, and one adult male, also with AS. All three remain anonymous, and have given their consent to the information presented in the paper.
Hypophosphataemia: An Easy Strategy for Diagnosis and Treatment in HIV Patients

Because HIV infection has become a chronic disease, it is crucial that metabolic complications secondary to HIV infection or prolonged therapy be diagnosed and managed appropriately over time. Therefore the optimal follow-up becomes complex and time consuming. Our review aimed to provide physicians in charge of HIV-infected patients with key data helping them to diagnose and understand hypophosphataemia in HIV patients. Hypophosphataemia is frequent and sometimes secondary to renal phosphate wasting. It is very rarely a component of a complex proximal tubular disorder, such as Fanconi syndrome. When isolated, hypophosphataemia is easy to rule out and treat. In rare cases, prolonged hypophosphataemia, when related to renal phosphate wasting and tubular dysfunction, might have potential consequences on bone outcome, however, more studies are needed. HIV infection by itself might be a risk factor for bone metabolism abnormalities; antiretroviral drugs might also be involved. Therefore, it seems valuable for patients that the minimal screening should be performed routinely, in order to prevent long-term disabilities.
The Occurrence of Philadelphia Chromosome (Ph) Negative Leukemia after Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation for Ph Positive Chronic Myeloid Leukemia: Implications for Disease Monitoring and Treatment

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a clonal neoplastic disorder, characterized by t(9;22)(q34;q11) that results in the formation of the Philadelphia chromosome (Ph) and the BCR/ABL fusion gene. Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is a curative treatment for CML. Much of its therapeutic efficacy is attributed to a graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) effect exerted by donor-derived lymphoid cells against the Ph positive (Ph+) clone. Post-HSCT monitoring by cytogenetic and molecular detection of the Ph+ clone is necessary, so that pre-emptive immunologic or pharmacologic treatment may be administered at an early stage of relapse. However, under rare circumstances a second Ph negative (Ph-) leukemia may evolve post-HSCT. The pathogenetic possibilities included leukemia arising from donor-derived hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), or transformation of residual recipient-derived Ph- HSCs that have survived the conditioning chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Recipient-derived Ph- leukemia may be related to genetic alterations that precede the onset of CML, or myelotoxic effects of the HSCT conditioning regimen. The diagnosis of Ph- relapses requires detailed investigations by conventional karyotyping, fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH), and molecular analysis; as well as chimerism studies that help to document the donor or recipient origin of the leukemia. Although uncommonly reported in the past, Ph- relapses may in fact be more frequent if leukemic relapses post-HSCT are more thoroughly evaluated with these investigations. The recognition of Ph- relapses are important in several ways. Ph- relapses cannot be identified by monitoring investigations targeting the Ph+ clone, so that the early detection of Ph- leukemia is usually not possible. Furthermore, Ph- relapses will not respond to therapeutic strategies effective against the Ph+ CML clone.
Design and analysis of a 20-GHz clock multiplication unit in 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS technology

A 20-GHz clock multiplication unit for SONET OC-768 systems employs dual loops and third-order loop filter to suppress the jitter. Realized in 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS technology, this circuit achieves an output jitter of 0.2 ps,rms and 4.5 ps,pp while consuming 40 mW from a 1.8-V supply.
Assessing the Dyadic Nature of the Democratic Peace, 1918–88

The literature on the democratic peace has emerged from two empirical claims: (1) Democracies are unlikely to conflict with one another, and (2) democracies are as prone to conflict with nondemocracies as nondemocracies are with one another. Together these assertions imply that the democratic peace is a dyadic phenomenon. There is strong support for the first observation, but much recent scholarship contravenes the second. This paper assesses whether the democratic peace is a purely dyadic, a monadic, or perhaps a mixed dyadic and monadic effect. Our analysis offers two important advances. First, our model directly compares the dyadic and monadic explanations by using the state as the unit of analysis rather than the potentially problematic dyad. Second, our model controls for an important but overlooked confounding variable: satisfaction with the status quo. Our results indicate that the initiation of violence within crises is predominantly a dyadic phenomenon, but we also find evidence suggesting a strong monadic effect regarding the emergence of crises.
Evaluating the iPhone as a Mobile Platform for Pe ople-Centric Sensing Applications

A number of mobile phones such as the Nokia N95 and Apple iPhone are being used by researchers to explore new people-centric sensing applications. These top-end phones include various sensors (e.g., accelerometer, proximity sensor, GPS, camera, microphone), radios (e.g., Bluetooth, WiFi, cellular), operating systems (e.g., Symbian, customized Mac OS X), and processors (e.g., 330 Mhz ARM, 412 Mhz ARM). While there is some data on the Nokia N95, little, however, is known about the ability of Apple’s iPhone to support the necessary sensing, processing and communications needs of these emerging sensing applications. We present the first quantitative performance evaluation of the iPhone’s sensors, localization engine, and networking stack while running CenceMe, a representative people-centric sensing application. We profile the performance of CenceMe running on the iPhone in terms of energy consumption and computational speed of its algorithms. One drawback of using the iPhone over the N95 is that it does not allow third party applications such as CenceMe to run as a background process, making continuous sensing problematic. The upside is that the iPhone offers a rich UI architecture, high computational capability, and an efficient application distribution system through Apple’s App Store.
Hepatitis E Virus and Neurologic Disorders

Information about the spectrum of disease caused by hepatitis E virus (HEV) genotype 3 is emerging. During 2004-2009, at 2 hospitals in the United Kingdom and France, among 126 patients with locally acquired acute and chronic HEV genotype 3 infection, neurologic complications developed in 7 (5.5%): inflammatory polyradiculopathy (n = 3), Guillain-Barre syndrome (n = 1), bilateral brachial neuritis (n = 1), encephalitis (n = 1), and ataxia/proximal myopathy (n = 1). Three cases occurred in nonimmunocompromised patients with acute HEV infection, and 4 were in immunocompromised patients with chronic HEV infection. HEV RNA was detected in cerebrospinal fluid of all 4 patients with chronic HEV infection but not in that of 2 patients with acute HEV infection. Neurologic outcomes were complete resolution (n = 3), improvement with residual neurologic deficit (n = 3), and no improvement (n = 1). Neurologic disorders are an emerging extrahepatic manifestation of HEV infection.