Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Retaining the Returning Adult in a Reading Program

The purpose of this paper is to discuss open entrance/ open-exit programs to prevent attrition in adult reading programs that are designed for the student who has not completed high school. Often these students need to become better readers and to become test wise in order to take high school proficiency tests or some other test necessary for entrance into military service, trade schools, and/or various government supported training programs. Suggestions for encouraging success within such a program are offered. RETAINING THE RETURNING ADULT IN A READING PROGRAM Paulette F. O'Malley UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA, TUCSON Ann Marie Bernozzo Hoose NEW YORK STATE EDUCA nON DEPARTMENT Education, as a life-long process, continuing regardless of a person's background or interests, is an idea that is gaining acceptance. The rapid changes in our increasingly complex society have made the need for adult reading programs acute. Many adults require increased reading skills for reasons that range from retraining for better employment to enrichment in personal lives (Jones, 1979; Knowles, 1978). The purpose of this paper is to discuss openentrance/open-exit programs to prevent attrition in adult reading programs that are designed for the student who has not completed high school. Often these students need to become better readers and to become test wise in order to take high school proficiency tests or some other test necessary for entrance into military service, trade schools, and/or various governmentsupported training programs. Suggestions for encouraging success within such a program are offered. The Adult Student in a Reading Program Adult students returning to school usually have had economic problems that have interfered with normal high school progress. Many, especially over fifty years of age, had to leave school in order to help support a family. Some middle-aged women students left in order to marry. These early marriages precluded further schooling because of social and financial considerations. Both types of students then return in order to be better employable or to be educated. Recently, young women in their late teens and early twenties have been returning after their babies are two or three years old . Divorced women of all ages return to school desperate to find an employable skill. Young men and young women return in order to obtain
Spiking of the tibial tubercles--a radiological feature of osteoarthritis?

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether 'spiking' or angulation of the tibial tubercle is associated with other radiographic markers of osteoarthritis (OA) or pain in the knee joint, and could be taken as a reliable marker for early OA, in a large general population sample. METHODS: A total of 950 women from the Chingford general population survey underwent anteroposterior extended weight bearing radiography of the knees. Angulation of the tip of the medial and lateral tubercles, and height of the tubercles above the tibial plateau were measured. These measures were compared with standard radiographic indices including qualitative Kellgren and Lawrence global score, individual scores of osteophytes and joint space narrowing, and pain score. Intraobserver and interobserver reproducibility for assessment of spiking was tested in a subgroup of 50 films using two observers and two readings. Tibial spiking (angulation and height) was defined for this study as the top 10th centile for the whole population. Patients with normal radiographs (Kellgren and Lawrence grade 0) were allocated to quartile groups on the basis of spiking to define severity. Odds ratios were then calculated for the association of spiking and knee pain. RESULTS: The majority of the measures of tibial spiking were highly reproducible. There was a significant correlation between tibial spike angulation and the presence of osteophytes, but not joint space narrowing. The correlations for spike height with osteophytes and joint space narrowing were poor. There was an association between spike angulation at the lateral tubercle and reported knee pain (odds ratio 1.45 (95% confidence interval 1.03 to 2.03)) after adjustment for age, body mass index, and Kellgren and Lawrence score. There was no association between medial spike angulation or spike height and pain. Among the 950 women, 683 (72%) had normal radiographs (Kellgren and Lawrence = 0); in this group there was a similar association between pain and lateral spike angulation, but not medial spike angulation or spike height. CONCLUSIONS: Tibial spiking is associated with the presence of knee osteophytes and is reproducible, but does not have a strong independent relationship with knee pain. In patients with normal radiographs there is no useful correlation between tibial spiking and pain. Isolated tibial spiking is not a reliable sign of early knee OA, and should not routinely be reported.
Fasting Plasma Glucose as Initial Screening for Diabetes and Prediabetes in Irish Adults: The Diabetes Mellitus and Vascular Health Initiative (DMVhi)

Objective Type 2 diabetes has a long pre clinical asymptomatic phase. Early detection may delay or arrest disease progression. The Diabetes Mellitus and Vascular health initiative (DMVhi) was initiated as a prospective longitudinal cohort study on the prevalence of undiagnosed Type 2 diabetes and prediabetes, diabetes risk and cardiovascular risk in a cohort of Irish adults aged 45-75 years. Research Design and Methods Members of the largest Irish private health insurance provider aged 45 to 75 years were invited to participate in the study. Exclusion criteria: already diagnosed with diabetes or taking oral hypoglycaemic agents. Participants completed a detailed medical questionnaire, had weight, height, waist and hip circumference and blood pressure measured. Fasting blood samples were taken for fasting plasma glucose (FPG). Those with FPG in the impaired fasting glucose (IFG) range had a 75gm oral glucose tolerance test performed. Results 122,531 subjects were invited to participate. 29,144 (24%) completed the study. The prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes was 1.8%, of impaired fasting glucose (IFG) was 7.1% and of impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) was 2.9%. Dysglycaemia increased among those aged 45-54, 55-64 and 65-75 years in both males (10.6%, 18.5%, 21.7% respectively) and females (4.3%, 8.6%, 10.9% respectively). Undiagnosed T2D, IFG and IGT were all associated with gender, age, blood pressure, BMI, abdominal obesity, family history of diabetes and triglyceride levels. Using FPG as initial screening may underestimate the prevalence of T2D in the study population. Conclusions This study is the largest screening study for diabetes and prediabetes in the Irish population. Follow up of this cohort will provide data on progression to diabetes and on cardiovascular outcomes.
G‐quadruplexes in RNA biology

G‐quadruplexes are noncanonical structures formed by G‐rich DNA and RNA sequences that fold into a four‐stranded conformation. Experimental studies and computational predictions show that RNA G‐quadruplexes are present in transcripts associated with telomeres, in noncoding sequences of primary transcripts and within mature transcripts. RNA G‐quadruplexes at these specific locations play important roles in key cellular functions, including telomere homeostasis and gene expression. Indeed, RNA G‐quadruplexes appear as important regulators of pre‐mRNA processing (splicing and polyadenylation), RNA turnover, mRNA targeting and translation. The regulatory mechanisms controlled by RNA G‐quadruplexes involve the binding of protein factors that modulate G‐quadruplex conformation and/or serve as a bridge to recruit additional protein regulators. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge on the role of G‐quadruplexes in RNA biology with particular emphasis on the molecular mechanisms underlying their specific function in RNA metabolism occurring in physiological or pathological conditions. WIREs RNA 2012, 3:495–507. doi: 10.1002/wrna.1113
Estimating the Technical Efficiency of Smallholder Cocoa Farmers in Malaysia

In Malaysia, cocoa production is characterized by several problems that lead to low productivity. The low productivity is evident from the continuous drop in cocoa production since 2001 despite efforts from governing bodies to boost output. This study investigates this issue by looking into the production efficiency among smallholder cocoa farmers in Malaysia. The technical efficiencies of cocoa farmers in Malaysia is estimated using data envelopment analysis. The study relies upon primary data gathered during the 2013 production season. Data are collected from a set of structured questionnaire administered on 375 smallholder cocoa farmers throughout Malaysia. Result of the analysis shows that the mean efficiency score is 0.526. In short, there existed inefficiency among the sampled farmers.
Safety and Immunogenicity of the Candidate Tuberculosis Vaccine MVA85A in West Africa

Background Vaccination with a recombinant modified vaccinia Ankara expressing antigen 85A from Mycobacterium tuberculosis, MVA85A, induces high levels of cellular immune responses in UK volunteers. We assessed the safety and immunogenicity of this new vaccine in West African volunteers. Methods and Findings We vaccinated 21 healthy adult male subjects (11 BCG scar negative and 10 BCG scar positive) with MVA85A after screening for evidence of prior exposure to mycobacteria. We monitored them over six months, observing for clinical, haematological and biochemical adverse events, together with assessment of the vaccine induced cellular immune response using ELISPOT and flow cytometry. MVA85A was well tolerated with no significant adverse events. Mild local and systemic adverse events were consistent with previous UK trials. Marked immunogenicity was found whether individuals had a previous BCG scar or not. There was not enhanced immunogenicity in those with a BCG scar, and induced T cell responses were better maintained in apparently BCG-naïve Gambians than previously studied BCG-naïve UK vaccinees. Although responses were predominantly attributable to CD4+ T cells, we also identified antigen specific CD8+ T cell responses, in subjects who were HLA B-35 and in whom enough blood was available for more detailed immunological analysis. Conclusions These data on the safety and immunogenicity of MVA85A in West Africa support its accelerated development as a promising booster vaccine for tuberculosis. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00423839
MUNIN - A Causal Probabilistic Network for Interpretation of Electromyographic Findings

Experience gained through building a causal network for interpretation of electromyographic findings has shown that probabilistic inference is a realistic possibility in networks of non-trivial size. The use of nodes with many internal states has made it possible to make a conceptually simple and compact representation of knowledge. "Deep knowledge" in the form of pathophysiological models are used to reduce the problem of estimating thousands of conditional probabilities to a manageble size. The network has built-in mechanisms that will detect when the network is confronted with a situation outside the limits of its own knowledge and it handles conflicting evidence in a simple and consistent way.
Impact of Patients Priority and Resource Availability in Ambulance Dispatching

A main role of Emergency Medical Service (EMS) systems is to efficiently allocate and dispatch emergency medical resources to patients. Efficiency of EMS systems is subject to three critical real-time decisions: 1) prioritizing emergency calls, 2) dispatching appropriate ambulances, and 3) selecting appropriate hospitals to serve the patient. A new model is proposed for improving current ambulance dispatching and relocation models by investigating on these three assumptions. Emergency calls are classified into types A and B, according to their urgency (i.e. priority). After a call arrives, the best available ambulance is dispatched and then the best available hospital is selected for serving the patient. Availability of ambulances and hospitals depend on their real-time capacity. The best choices among ambulances and hospitals are made via two algorithms investigating preparedness of ambulances and hospitals over the time. Moreover, ambulances are relocated according to types of patients; type A must be carried to the best hospital according to area preparedness and distance, while type B is served at the call location and then the ambulance is relocated. Several scenarios are designed to investigate improvements in service level and area preparedness under capacity limitation.
Genome Biology of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae JL03, an Isolate of Serotype 3 Prevalent in China

Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae is the etiologic agent of porcine contagious pleuropneumonia, a cause of considerable world wide economic losses in the swine industry. We sequenced the complete genome of A. pleuropneumoniae, JL03, an isolate of serotype 3 prevalent in China. Its genome is a single chromosome of 2,242,062 base pairs containing 2,097 predicted protein-coding sequences, six ribosomal rRNA operons, and 63 tRNA genes. Preliminary analysis of the genomic sequence and the functions of the encoded proteins not only confirmed the present physiological and pathological knowledge but also offered new insights into the metabolic and virulence characteristics of this important pathogen. We identified a full spectrum of genes related to its characteristic chemoheterotrophic catabolism of fermentation and respiration with an incomplete TCA system for anabolism. In addition to confirming the lack of ApxI toxin, identification of a nonsense mutation in apxIVA and a 5′-proximal truncation of the flp operon deleting both its promoter and the flp1flp2tadV genes have provided convincing scenarios for the low virulence property of JL03. Comparative genomic analysis using the available sequences of other serotypes, probable strain (serotype)-specific genomic islands related to capsular polysaccharides and lipopolysaccharide O-antigen biosyntheses were identified in JL03, which provides a foundation for future research into the mechanisms of serotypic diversity of A. pleuropneumoniae.
Centre for Intelligent Systems and Their Applications Evaluating Machine Creativity Evaluating Machine Creativity Evaluating Machine Creativity

We consider aspects pertinent to evaluating creativity to be input, output and the process by which the output is achieved. These issues may be further divided, and we highlight associated justifications and controversies. Appropriate methods of measuring these aspects are suggested and discussed. The authors and the University of Edinburgh retain the right to reproduce and publish this paper for non-commercial purposes. Permission is granted for this report to be reproduced by others for non-commercial purposes as long as this copyright notice is reprinted in full in any reproduction. Applications to make other use of the material should be addressed in the first instance to Copyright Permissions, Abstract We consider aspects pertinent to evaluating creativity to be input , output and the process by which the output is achieved. These issues may be further divided, and we highlight associated justifications and controversies. Appropriate methods of measuring these aspects are suggested and discussed.
Analysing Entity Type Variation across Biomedical Subdomains

Previous studies have shown that various biomedical subdomains have lexical, syntactic, semantic and discourse structure variations. It is essential to recognise such differences to understand that biomedical natural language processing tools, such as named entity recognisers, that work well on some subdomains may not work as well on others. In this paper, we investigate the pairwise similarity (or dissimilarity) amongst twenty selected biomedical subdomains, at the level of named entity types. We evaluate the contribution of these types in the classification task by computing the chi-squared statistic over their distributions. We then build a binary classifier for each possible pair of subdomains, the results of which indicate the subdomains that are highly different or similar to others. The findings can be of potential use to those building or using named entity recognisers in determining which types of named entities need to be taken into consideration or in adapting already existing tools.
Sensory Feedback Interferes with Mu Rhythm Based Detection of Motor Commands from Electroencephalographic Signals

Background: Electroencephalogram (EEG)-based brain-computer interfaces (BCI) represent a promising component of restorative motor therapies in individuals with partial paralysis. However, in those patients, sensory functions such as proprioception are at least partly preserved. The aim of this study was to investigate whether afferent feedback interferes with the BCI-based detection of efferent motor commands during execution of movements. Methods: Brain activity of 13 able-bodied subjects (age: 29.1 ± 4.8 years; 11 males) was compared between a motor task (MT) consisting of an isometric, isotonic grip and a somatosensory electrical stimulation (SS) of the fingertips. Modulation of the mu rhythm (8–13 Hz) was investigated to identify changes specifically related to the generation of efferent commands. A linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was used to investigate the activation pattern on a single-trial basis. Classifiers were trained with MT vs. REST (periods without MT/SS) and tested with SS and vice versa to quantify the impact of afferent feedback on the classification results. Results: Few differences in the spatial pattern between MT and SS were found in the modulation of the mu rhythm. All were characterized by event-related desynchronization (ERD) peaks at electrodes C3, C4, and CP3. Execution of the MT was associated with a significantly stronger ERD in the majority of sensorimotor electrodes [C3 (p < 0.01); CP3 (p < 0.05); C4 (p < 0.01)]. Classification accuracy of MT vs. REST was significantly higher than SS vs. REST (77% and 63%; p < 10-8). Classifiers trained on MT vs. REST were able to classify SS trials significantly above chance even though no motor commands were present during SS. Classifiers trained on SS performed better in classifying MT instead of SS. Conclusion: Our results challenge the notion that the modulation of the mu rhythm is a robust phenomenon for detecting efferent commands when afferent feedback is present. Instead, they indicate that the mu ERD caused by the processing of afferent feedback generates ERD patterns in the sensorimotor cortex that are masking the ERD patterns caused by the generation of efferent commands. Thus, processing of afferent feedback represents a considerable source of false positives when the mu rhythm is used for the detection of efferent commands.
On authentication in a connected vehicle: Secure integration of mobile devices with vehicular networks

Recent advances in in-vehicle technologies have paved way to a new era of connectivity. Vehicle manufacturers have already deployed various technologies for driving assistance, anti-theft, and infotainment. They are now developing ways to interface mobile devices with vehicles and provide the customer's smart phone or tablet the ability to send/receive information to/from the car. However, such an integration introduces severe security risks to the vehicle. The in-vehicle network was originally designed to operate in a closed environment and thus, security was not of concern. It has now become an important issue due to an increasing number of external interfaces to the in-vehicle network. Several studies have already shown that an in-vehicle network can be easily compromised just by connecting cheap commercial devices and doing reverse engineering. Although research efforts have been made to secure in-vehicle networks, most of them focused on defining security requirements, or presenting attack scenarios without providing any feasible solution. Also, to the best of our knowledge, there hasn't been any study with a specific focus on understanding and analyzing the security aspects of integrating mobile devices with cars. In this paper, we define the integration model, present the attack scenarios, define the security objectives, and then propose a 3-step verification mechanism that meets our objectives.
Identification system of the type of vehicle

The identification of objects is a difficult task because the objects of the real-world are highly variable in aspect, size, color, position in space, etc. The system of identification of object must thus have a very great adaptability. In this article we present a system of identification of the type (model) of vehicles per vision. Several geometrical parameters (distance, surface, ratio … ) of decision, on bases of images taken in real conditions, were tested and analyzed. According to these parameters, the rate of identification can reach 95% on a basis of images made up of 9 classes of the type of vehicles. The fusion of the three classifiers using the rate of identification for each parameter allows showing the effectiveness of our process for the identification of the type of vehicle.
Ultrafast Coherent EUV at 25-50 nm using the KMLabs XUUS 4 TM with the Coherent Astrella ®

Just as the invention of the laser has revolutionized science and technology in recent decades, the recent development of tabletop-scale coherent laser sources at much shorter wavelengths, EUV and soft X-rays, is likely to have a transformative impact on science and technology applications requiring laser-like performance at these short wavelengths. Coherent EUV is generated using the high-order harmonic generation (HHG) process driven by a high peak-power ultrafast laser. [1] Applications of HHG light sources include metrology for EUV lithography, spectroscopy, microscopy,[2] and dynamic studies of molecular, [3] magnetic,[4,5] material,[6] and nano systems. [7,8] Depending on application requirements, HHG source characteristics can be tailored to obtain attosecond time resolution or energy/spectral resolution as high as 30 meV/0.1 nm,[9-11] or to enable coherent imaging with spatial resolution as high as 12 nm. [2]
Evaluation of the Effects of Land Cover Change on Ecosystem Service Values in the Upper Reaches of the Heihe River Basin, Northwestern China

Ecological protection and restoration results in a series of complicated changes in land cover. Lack of research on the historical and potential effects of land cover change on ecosystem service value (ESV) hinders decision-making on trade-offs involved in environmental management. To address this gap, the effects of land cover change on ESV in the upper reaches of the Heihe River Basin in northwestern China were evaluated. First, on the basis of land cover maps for 2001, 2008 and 2015, the land cover map for 2029 was predicted with CA-Markov model. Then, the changes in ESV resulting from land cover change were valuated with the benefit transfer method. The results showed that the total ESV increased from $1207.33 million (USD) in 2001 to $1479.48 million (USD) in 2015, and the value was expected to reach $1574.53 million (USD) in 2029. The increase in ESV can be mainly attributed to expansion in areas of wetland. In this study, the elastic index was applied to identify areas that were more sensitive to ecological management, aiding in selecting sites for investment in ecological protection and restoration programs. Furthermore, the potential effects of land cover change on ESV was evaluated. The results are of great importance for guiding future ecological management.