Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Experimental Setup to Test Dual-Joystick Directional Responses to Vibrotactile Stimuli

In this paper we investigate the influence of the location of vibrotactile stimulation in triggering the response made using two handheld joysticks. In particular, we compare performance with stimuli delivered either using tactors placed on the palm or on the back of the hand and with attractive (move toward the vibration) or repulsive prompts (move away from the vibration). The experimental set-up comprised two joysticks and two gloves, each equipped with four pager motors along the cardinal directions. In different blocks, fifty-three volunteers were asked to move the joysticks as fast as possible either towards or away with respect to the direction specified by a set of vibrating motors. Results indicate that participants performed better with attractive prompts (i.e., responses were faster and with fewer errors in conditions where participants were asked to move the joysticks in the direction of the felt vibration) and that the stimulation delivered on the back of the hand from the gloves gives better results than the stimulation on the palm delivered by the joysticks. Finally, we analyse the laterality, the relation between correct responses and reaction times, the direction patterns for wrong responses and we perform an analysis on the Stimulus-Response Compatibility and on the training effect.
The Effect of Supplemental Oxygen on Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting in Children Undergoing Dental Work

Administration of 80% intraoperative oxygen has been proposed as being a cheap, safe and effective means reducing postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) but no studies have been performed in the high risk paediatr population. We tested whether 80% intraoperative oxygen reduces PONV in well children undergoing electi day-stay dental treatment under general anaesthesia. Ninety-five children received standardized sevoflurane, morphin vecuronium anaesthesia with either 30% or 80% intraoperative oxygen and no antiemetic prophylaxis in a randomize double blind, prospective trial. There was no difference in PONV or in the use of rescue ondansetron between the groups. The total incidence of PONV was 40% in the group that received 30% oxygen and 33% in those that receive 80% oxygen. High inspired intraoperative oxygen was not found to significantly reduce PONV in well children undergoing dental work under general anaesthesia.
Crizotinib-Resistant Mutants of EML4-ALK Identified Through an Accelerated Mutagenesis Screen

Activating gene rearrangements of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) have been identified as driver mutations in non‐small‐cell lung cancer, inflammatory myofibroblastic tumors, and other cancers. Crizotinib, a dual MET/ALK inhibitor, has demonstrated promising clinical activity in patients with non‐small‐cell lung cancer and inflammatory myofibroblastic tumors harboring ALK translocations. Inhibitors of driver kinases often elicit kinase domain mutations that confer resistance, and such mutations have been successfully predicted using in vitro mutagenesis screens. Here, this approach was used to discover an extensive set of ALK mutations that can confer resistance to crizotinib. Mutations at 16 residues were identified, structurally clustered into five regions around the kinase active site, which conferred varying degrees of resistance. The screen successfully predicted the L1196M, C1156Y, and F1174L mutations, recently identified in crizotinib‐resistant patients. In separate studies, we demonstrated that crizotinib has relatively modest potency in ALK‐positive non‐small‐cell lung cancer cell lines. A more potent ALK inhibitor, TAE684, maintained substantial activity against mutations that conferred resistance to crizotinib. Our study identifies multiple novel mutations in ALK that may confer clinical resistance to crizotinib, suggests that crizotinib’s narrow selectivity window may underlie its susceptibility to such resistance and demonstrates that a more potent ALK inhibitor may be effective at overcoming resistance.
Discrimination of Motor Imagery-Induced EEG Patterns in Patients with Complete Spinal Cord Injury

EEG-based discrimination between different motor imagery states has been subject of a number of studies in healthy subjects. We investigated the EEG of 15 patients with complete spinal cord injury during imagined right hand, left hand, and feet movements. In detail we studied pair-wise discrimination functions between the 3 types of motor imagery. The following classification accuracies (mean ± SD) were obtained: left versus right hand 65.03% ± 8.52, left hand versus feet 68.19% ± 11.08, and right hand versus feet 65.05% ± 9.25. In 5 out of 8 paralegic patients, the discrimination accuracy was greater than 70% but in only 1 out of 7 tetraplagic patients. The present findings provide evidence that in the majority of paraplegic patients an EEG-based BCI could achieve satisfied results. In tetraplegic patients, however, it is expected that extensive training-sessions are necessary to achieve a good BCI performance at least in some subjects.
Dynamic inventory and pricing policy with ordering and price adjustment cost

In this paper, we study a dynamic inventory control and pricing optimization problem in a periodic review inventory system with fixed ordering cost and price adjustment cost. At the same time, the ordering quantity is limited. We show that the optimal inventory control is partially characterized by an (s, s', p) policy in four regions, and the optimal pricing policy is dependent on the inventory level after the replenishment decision.
Asymptotic Performance Analysis of Distributed Space-Time Codes

We study the asymptotic behavior of a cooperative scheme operating in amplify-and-forward (AF) mode for a large number of relays. An optimal code design rule is derived through the investigation of pair wise error probability (PEP) expression. The design rule turns out to be a Euclidean-distance-type metric including some scaling terms due to path loss and shadowing effects associated with underlying relay links and AF operation mode. Since the design criterion is channel dependent, it does not allow itself for a practical code design. However, we demonstrate that classical Euclidean distance can be used as a sub-optimal solution for realizing cooperative diversity advantages which we further verify through our simulation study
The Third Signal Cytokine IL-12 Rescues the Anti-Viral Function of Exhausted HBV-Specific CD8 T Cells

Optimal immune activation of naïve CD8 T cells requires signal 1 mediated by the T cell receptor, signal 2 mediated by co-stimulation and signal 3 provided by pro-inflammatory cytokines. However, the potential for signal 3 cytokines to rescue anti-viral responses in functionally exhausted T cells has not been defined. We investigated the effect of using third signal cytokines IL-12 or IFN-α to rescue the exhausted CD8 T cell response characteristic of patients persistently infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV). We found that IL-12, but not IFN-α, potently augmented the capacity of HBV-specific CD8 T cells to produce effector cytokines upon stimulation by cognate antigen. Functional recovery mediated by IL-12 was accompanied by down-modulation of the hallmark inhibitory receptor PD-1 and an increase in the transcription factor T-bet. PD-1 down-regulation was observed in HBV but not CMV-specific T cells, in line with our finding that the highly functional CMV response was not further enhanced by IL-12. IL-12 enhanced a number of characteristics of HBV-specific T cells important for viral control: cytotoxicity, polyfunctionality and multispecificity. Furthermore, IL-12 significantly decreased the pro-apoptotic molecule Bim, which is capable of mediating premature attrition of HBV-specific CD8 T cells. Combining IL-12 with blockade of the PD-1 pathway further increased CD8 functionality in the majority of patients. These data provide new insights into the distinct signalling requirements of exhausted T cells and the potential to recover responses optimised to control persistent viral infections.
Molecular dynamics simulation of thermal ripples in graphene with bond-order-informed harmonic constraints

We describe the results of atomistic molecular dynamics simulations of thermal rippling in graphene with the use of a generic harmonic constraint model. The distance and angular constraint constants are calculated directly from the second-generation bond-order interatomic potential that describes carbon binding in graphene. We quantify the thermal rippling process in detail by calculating the overall rippling averages, the normal-normal correlation distributions and the height distributions. In addition, we consider the effect of a dihedral angular constraint, as well as the effect of sample size on the simulated rippling averages. The dynamic corrugation morphologies of simulated graphene samples obtained with the harmonic constraint model at various temperatures are, overall, consistent with those obtained with the bond-order potential and are in qualitative accord with previously reported findings. Given the wide availability of the harmonic constraint model in various molecular mechanics implementations, along with its high computational efficiency, our results indicate a possible use for the presented model in multicomponent dynamic simulations, including atomically thin layers.
Energy Aware Scheduling on Heterogeneous Multiprocessors with DVFS and Duplication

Duplication and dynamic voltage/frequency scaling (DVFS) creates an interesting trade-off for scheduling task graphs on multiprocessors to improve energy consumption and schedule length (or makespan). With DVFS, tasks are made to run on low voltages, which decreases their computation power. However, it also increases their execution costs and hence, may increase the schedule length. Furthermore, applying DVFS on processors does not impact the communication delay/energy consumption. Duplicating a task on multiple processors reduces the communication delay among them, which further reduces the schedule length. Although duplication reduces the communication energy among processors, it also increases the overall computation energy. In this paper, we explore this trade-off between duplication and DVFS, and propose a polynomial time heuristic to schedule task graphs on heterogeneous multiprocessors. The tasks are carefully duplicated with DVFS to reduce its impact on the computation energy. The results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is able to effectively balance the makespan and energy consumption over other algorithms in various scenarios.
Links between children's attachment behavior at early school-age, their attachment-related representations, and behavior problems in middle childhood

The objective of the present study was to examine associations between children's attachment behavior at early school-age, dimensions of narrative performance, and behavior problems as assessed in middle childhood. Children's attachment patterns with mother were assessed at age 6 (N = 127) using the Main and Cassidy (1988) separation—reunion classification system. Two years later, these children (N = 109) completed the Narrative Story Stem Battery (Bretherton, Oppenheim, Buchsbaum, Emde, & The MacArthur Narrative Group, 1990), and teachers rated their level of behavior problems using the Social Behavior Questionnaire (Tremblay, Vitaro, Gagnon, Piché, & Royer, 1992). Results indicated that secure children depicted fewer conflict themes in their narratives than did disorganized/controlling children, produced more discipline themes than avoidant children, and had higher coherence scores than ambivalent children. Avoidant children also depicted fewer conflict themes than disorganized/controlling children. Finally, children's narrative conflict themes significantly predicted both level of externalizing and total behavior problems, even after controlling for variance explained by gender and disorganized/controlling attachment behavior. Girls' narratives were more likely to evoke discipline and affection/affiliation themes, and to be more coherent than boys' narratives.
Reconceptualizing barriers to family leisure

Abstract While research indicates that leisure is an important source of both family cohesion and conflict, comparatively little attention has been given to the development of conceptual models which define the nature and operation of leisure barriers. Traditionally, barriers have been assumed to constitute intervening variables in the leisure preference‐participation relationship. This paper suggests that the prevailing conceptualization of leisure barriers addresses only one of the ways in which barriers may be associated with preferences and participation. The model proposed in this paper considers barriers to be of three types: (1) intrapersonal barriers, wherein the primary relationship of importance is between preferences and barriers; (2) interpersonal barriers, which result from either the non‐correspondence of individuals’ intrapersonal barriers or from the behavioral patterning of interpersonal relations, thus indicating a relationship with both preferences and participation; and (3) structural .
Cultural Psychiatry and Medical Anthropology: An Introduction and Reader

Will reading habit influence your life? Many say yes. Reading cultural psychiatry and medical anthropology an introduction and reader is a good habit; you can develop this habit to be such interesting way. Yeah, reading habit will not only make you have any favourite activity. It will be one of guidance of your life. When reading has become a habit, you will not make it as disturbing activities or as boring activity. You can gain many benefits and importances of reading.
Visible Japanese and Invisible Filipino: Narratives of the Development of Davao, 1900s to 1930s

Although the southern Philippine province of Davao had the largest number of Japanese inhabitants in Southeast Asia before the Second World War, the Japanese in Davao were a minority compared with the Filipino settlers there. Nonetheless, the literature has focused predominantly on the role of the Japanese in the development of Davao’s abaca (Manila hemp) industry and, by extension, the development of Davao itself during the period of American colonial rule. This article seeks to explain, given this predominant focus on the Japanese, the relative invisibility of Filipinos in the narratives of Davao’s development during the period of the 1900s to the 1930s.
Insulin-Resistant Heart Exhibits a Mitochondrial Biogenic Response Driven by the Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor-&agr;/PGC-1&agr; Gene Regulatory Pathway

Background— Obesity and diabetes mellitus are complex metabolic problems of pandemic proportion, contributing to significant cardiovascular mortality. Recent studies have shown altered mitochondrial function in the hearts of diabetic animals. We hypothesized that regulatory events involved in the control of mitochondrial function are activated in the prediabetic, insulin-resistant stage. Methods and Results— Morphometric analyses demonstrated that cardiac myocyte mitochondrial volume density was increased in insulin-resistant uncoupling protein-diptheria toxin A (UCP-DTA) transgenic mice, a murine model of metabolic syndrome, compared with littermate controls. Mitochondrial DNA content and expression of genes involved in multiple mitochondrial pathways were also increased in insulin-resistant UCP-DTA hearts. The nuclear receptor, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-&agr; (PPAR&agr;), is known to activate metabolic genes in the diabetic heart. Therefore, we evaluated the role of PPAR&agr; in the observed mitochondrial biogenesis response in the insulin-resistant heart. Insulin-resistant UCP-DTA mice crossed into a PPAR&agr;-null background did not exhibit evidence of mitochondrial biogenesis or induction of mitochondrial gene expression. Conversely, transgenic mice with cardiac-specific overexpression of PPAR&agr; exhibited signatures of cardiac mitochondrial biogenesis. A screen for candidate mediators of the PPAR&agr;-driven mitochondrial biogenic response revealed that expression of PPAR&ggr; coactivator-1&agr; (PGC-1&agr;), a known regulator of mitochondrial biogenesis, was activated in wild-type UCP-DTA mice but not in PPAR&agr;-deficient UCP-DTA mice. Conclusions— These results demonstrate that mitochondrial biogenesis occurs early in the development of diabetic cardiac dysfunction through a transcriptional regulatory circuit that involves activation of PGC-1&agr; gene expression by the fatty acid–activated nuclear receptor PPAR&agr;.
Functional Specification and Verification of Object-Oriented Programs

One weakness of Hoare-style verification techniques based on first-order predicate logic is that reasoning is backward from postconditions to preconditions. A natural, forward reasoning is possible by viewing a program as a mathematical function that maps one program state to another. This functional program verification technique requires a minimal mathematical background as it uses equational reasoning based on sets and functions. Thus, it can be easily taught and used in practice. In this paper, we formalize a functional program specification and verification technique and extend it for object-oriented programs. Our approach allows one to formally specify and verify the behavior of an object-oriented program in a way that is natural and closer to the way one reasons about it informally.
Psychological Consequences of Pregnancy Loss and Infant Death in a Sample of Bereaved Parents

This study aimed to explore a broad range of psychological reactions to trauma in a sample of bereaved parents in order to assess whether the traumatic framework is adequate for describing the entire range of emotional reactions to infant death. A sample of bereaved parents (N = 455) who lost their child through perinatal or postnatal loss were compared to a control group of parents (N = 110) who gave birth to a healthy child. Multivariate regression analysis clearly demonstrated that bereaved parents scored significantly higher on the Depression, Anxiety, Dissociation, Sleep Disturbances, Somatization, Interpersonal Sensitivity, and Aggression subscales of the Trauma Symptom Checklist. Consistent with previous studies, the results showed that for up to 5 years postloss bereaved parents expressed elevated levels of trauma-specific and psychological outcomes, in particular interpersonal sensitivity and aggression.
highlighted topics Plasticity in Skeletal, Cardiac, and Smooth Muscle Invited Review: Effects of different activity and inactivity paradigms on myosin heavy chain gene expression in striated muscle

Invited Review: Effects of different activity and inactivity paradigms on myosin heavy chain gene expression in striated muscle. J Appl Physiol 90: 345–357, 2001. —The goal of this mini-review is to summarize ﬁndings concerning the role that different models of muscular activity and inactivity play in altering gene expression of the myosin heavy chain (MHC) family of motor proteins in mammalian cardiac and skeletal muscle. This was done in the context of examining parallel ﬁndings concerning the role that thyroid hormone (T 3 , 3,5,3 9 -triiodothyronine) plays in MHC expres- sion. Findings show that both cardiac and skeletal muscles of experimental animals are initially undifferentiated at birth and then undergo a marked level of growth and differentiation in attaining the adult MHC phenotype in a T 3 /activity level-dependent fashion. Cardiac MHC ex- pression in small mammals is highly sensitive to thyroid deﬁciency, diabetes, energy deprivation, and hypertension; each of these interventions induces upregulation of the b -MHC isoform, which functions to economize circulatory function in the face of altered energy demand. In skeletal muscle, hyperthyroidism, as well as interventions that unload or reduce the weight-bearing activity of the muscle, causes slow to fast MHC conversions. Fast to slow conversions, however, are seen under hypothyroidism or when the muscles either become chronically overloaded or subjected to intermittent loading as occurs during resistance training and endurance exercise. The regulation of MHC gene expression by T 3 or mechanical stimuli appears to be strongly regulated by tran- scriptional events, based on recent ﬁndings on transgenic models and animals transfected with promoter-reporter constructs. However, the mechanisms by which T 3 and mechanical stimuli exert their control on transcriptional processes appear to be different. Additional ﬁndings show that individual skeletal muscle ﬁbers have the genetic machinery to express simultaneously all of the adult MHCs, e.g., slow type I and fast IIa, IIx, and IIb, in unique combinations under certain experimental conditions. This degree of heterogeneity among the individual ﬁbers would ensure a large functional diversity in performing complex movement patterns. Future studies must now focus on 1 ) the signaling pathways and the underlying mechanisms governing the transcriptional/ translational machinery that control this marked degree of plasticity and 2 ) the morphological organization and functional implications of the muscle ﬁber’s capacity to express such a diversity of motor proteins.
Comparison of the Effects of Three Different Weight‐Training Programs on the One Repetition Maximum Squat

This study compares the effects of 3 weight-training programs on the 1 repetition maximum (1RM) squat (SQ). Subjects were 21 college-age men. The criteria for subject inclusion was initial 1RM > 110 kg and > 1.3 × body mass and the ability to complete > 80% of the programmed repetitions. The groups were Group 1 (n = 5) 5 × 6RM, Group 2 (n = 9) stepwise periodized model, and Group 3 (n = 7) overreaching periodized model. Groups 1 and 2 were equalized on programmed repetitions (720 and 732), and Group 3 was programmed at 18 and 19.4% fewer repetitions (590). Actual repetitions achieved for Groups 1–3 were 619, 629, and 529, respectively. The 1RM squat was measured before and after 12 weeks. Within-group analysis showed that only Groups 2 and 3 increased significantly (p <0.05) in the 1RM (kg ± SD): Group 1, 141.4 ± 28.1–155.4 ± 23.7; Group 2, 124.8 ± 12.0–143.4 ± 12.1; and Group 3, 132.8 ± 17.0–153.3 ± 19.3. Derived variables were squat (SQ) × body mass−1 and SQ gain score × Sinclair coefficient (the method of obviating differences in body mass). Percent differences between groups for Groups 1 and 2 were SQ = 33, SQ × body mass = 53, and Sinclair formula = 33. For Group 3, SQ = 46, SQ × body mass = 67, and Sinclair formula = 109. These data indicate that periodized models increased the 1RM squat to a greater extent than a constant repetition scheme, even when the repetitions were equalized (Group 1 vs. Group 2) or when the repetitions were substantially fewer (Group 1 vs. Group 3).