Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Executive functions in late childhood: age differences among groups

functions (EF) have been a major focus of interest in neuropsychology. However, there are few studies about their development in healthy children. To fill this gap in the literature, the current study aims to compare the performance in EF tasks in children from 6 to 12 (n=90) years old. Three age groups (6-7, 8-10 and 11-12 years- old) were assessed using the following instruments: verbal fluency, narrative discourse, random number generation, N-Back, Bells Test and Hayling Test. Analyses of variance were used to compare the scores among groups. There was a significant effect of age in all executive performance scores, especially between the youngest and oldest groups. The most significant differences were observed in the central executive component of working memory and inhibition, which showed a marked development between 6-7 and 8-10 years of age. In addition, a remarkable peak was observed in the tasks that assess planning and processing speed in the group of 11-12 year-old children. The current results suggest that the development of all components of EF should be further investigated in school-aged children in normative studies so that possible dissociations in the development of these abilities can be better understood.
A design flow for partially reconfigurable hardware

This paper presents a top-down designer-driven design flow for creating hardware that exploits partial run-time reconfiguration. Computer-aided design (CAD) tools are presented, which complement conventional FPGA design environments to enable the specification, simulation (both functional and timing), synthesis, automatic placement and routing, partial configuration generation and control of partially reconfigurable designs. Collectively these tools constitute the dynamic circuit switching CAD framework. A partially reconfigurable Viterbi decoder design is presented to demonstrate the design flow and illustrate possible power consumption reductions and performance improvements through the exploitation of partial reconfiguration.
Direct detection and isolation of plasmid-bearing virulent serotypes of Yersinia enterocolitica from various foods

A procedure was developed for direct detection, isolation, and maintenance of plasmid-bearing virulent serotypes of Yersinia enterocolitica from different food sources. Plasmid-bearing virulent strains of Y. enterocolitica representing five serotypes were simultaneously detected and isolated from enriched swab samples of artificially contaminated pork chops, ground pork, cheese, and zucchini, using Congo red binding and low-calcium-response tests. The method was also effective in isolating plasmid-bearing virulent strains of Y. enterocolitica from naturally contaminated porcine tongues. Virulence of the strains isolated from these foods was confirmed by PCR, the expression of plasmid-associated phenotypes, and mouse pathogenicity.
Carousel: Scalable Logging for Intrusion Prevention Systems

We address the problem of collecting unique items in a large stream of information in the context of Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPSs). IPSs detect attacks at gigabit speeds and must log infected source IP addresses for remediation or forensics. An attack with millions of infected sources can result in hundreds of millions of log records when counting duplicates. If logging speeds are much slower than packet arrival rates and memory in the IPS is limited, scalable logging is a technical challenge. After showing that naive approaches will not suffice, we solve the problem with a new algorithm we call Carousel. Carousel randomly partitions the set of sources into groups that can be logged without duplicates, and then cycles through the set of possible groups. We prove that Carousel collects almost all infected sources with high probability in close to optimal time as long as infected sources keep transmitting. We describe details of a Snort implementation and a hardware design. Simulations with worm propagation models show up to a factor of 10 improvement in collection times for practical scenarios. Our technique applies to any logging problem with non-cooperative sources as long as the information to be logged appears repeatedly.
Igor' Aleksandrovic Mel'cuk, Dependency syntax: theory and practice . Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1988. Pp. xx + 428.

Dependency syntax contains much of value to linguists working on dependency theory, grammatical relations and ergativity. Equally, there is much that is unremarkable and much to provoke disagreement. The title is misleading. Of the eleven chapters, two deal with dependencies; one presents a sketch of the meaning-text model henceforth MTM developed by the author and others in the Soviet Union over a number of years; five discuss ergativity and whether or not languages such as Dyirbal and Lezgian are to be recognized as possessing an ergative construction; one is on the problem of whether zero lexemes are to be employed in syntactic analyses; and three look at various problems in Russian syntax. In spite of Mel'cuk's explanations (8-10), the chapters do not cohere. The discussion of ergativity could have been published quite separately from dependency theory and the MTM; the chapters on zero lexemes and on topics in Russian syntax could be set in any framework. These weaknesses make the book disappointing. Mel'cuk himself emphasizes the need to defend and develop dependency syntax, but misplays his hand. He sets his discussion in the framework of the MTM, which is not in itself a bad move, but the sparse account of that model is a major obstacle. Most of the potential readers of the book do not know of the MTM and a thorough presentation is essential. Dependency syntax is also inadequately dealt with. The authors does indeed provide rigorous definitions of notions such as 'head': the problem is that the real difficulties arise when definitions are applied to data, because there are frequently competing analyses of one and the same construction. Furthermore, his discussion of dependencies is influenced by ideas on grammatical functions which are open to doubt. A thorough application of dependency syntax to areas of different languages would have been invaluable. Unfortunately, the chapters on ergativity, etc. contribute nothing to the theoretical core.
Prehistoric Arthritis in the Americas

Arthritic conditions are among the most commonplace diseases affecting humans, not only today, but in the past as well. Although arthritis means literally "inflammation of the joints," the term is used to encompass an array of conditions affecting the joints, many of which do not involve inflammation. Perhaps the most familiar of these conditions is osteoarthritis (OA) or degenerative joint disease (DJD), caused by what is sometimes described as "wear and tear" on the joints (82). Because of the role that activities play in the etiology of OA, it is often used as an indicator of activity levels in prehistoric societies, or of the prevalence of specific activities (e.g. spear-throwing). Here I focus on osteoarthritis in prehistoric Amerindians and on what may be inferred from its prevalence about differences in the level and type of activities in these groups. With respect to several other forms of arthritis
An Aid to Learning Letter-Sound Correspondences

For some children learning the letter-sound correspondences in the phonics approach to teaching reading can be difficult. Set out below is a scheme in which each lower-case letter of the alphabet has been paired with a picture which not only resembles each letter, but also has this letter as the first letter of its name. Through games with the teacher, parents or other children using this scheme, the child learns to associate the letter shape and sound with the picture. Eventually when s/he sees a letter in print and cannot remember its sound the child learns to recall the picture s/he has learnt to associate with it, recall the first sound of the name of the picture and thereby works out the sound of the letter in print.
Maximal glaucoma therapy.

The goal of glaucoma therapy is to preserve sufficient visual function to allow the patient the best possible quality of life. While we can argue whether maximal glaucoma therapy should represent the maximal intensity of treatment needed to achieve this goal in an individual, it is impossible to resolve this debate with our current state of knowledge. We can identify when someone is getting worse under our treatment. However, it is difficult to identify one who would do equally well with less intervention.
Histopathology and computed tomography of age-associated degeneration of the equine temporohyoid joint.

REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY The aetiology of temporohyoid osteoarthropathy (THO) is unknown; both primary infectious and degenerative causes have been suggested. HYPOTHESIS There is a significant association between increasing age and severity of temporohyoid joint degeneration. To examine the histopathology of the temporohyoid articulation in aged horses and to compare the appearance of the joint with computed tomography (CT) and peripheral quantitative CT (pQCT). METHODS pQCT scans of the temporohyoid articulations were obtained bilaterally from 31 horses (range age 1-44 years) post mortem and images were graded by 2 blinded observers on 2 occasions for the presence of osteophytes, irregularity of the joint surface and mineralisation. Eight heads had been examined previously by CT, with the images similarly graded for the shape and density of the proximal stylohyoid bones, bone proliferation surrounding the joint, mineralisation of the tympanohyoid cartilage and the relationship of the petrous temporal bone to the stylohyoid bone. Sixteen temporohyoid joints were then evaluated histologically. RESULTS There was significant association between the mean pQCT degeneration score and age (rho = 0.75; P<0.0001), between the pQCT and CT score (rho = 0.63; P = 0.01) and between the degenerative changes identified within each temporohyoid joint within each horse (rho = 0.81; P<0.0001). Age-associated changes included the development of a club shape by the proximal stylohyoid bone, rounding of the synostosis with the petrous temporal bone and extension of osteophytes from the petrous temporal bone to envelope the stylohyoid head and bridge the joint. In no horse was there any evidence of osteomyelitis within the petrous temporal bone, stylohyoid bone or tympanohyoid cartilage. CONCLUSIONS This study provides evidence that age is associated with increasing severity of degenerative changes in the equine temporohyoid joint and that similar changes are commonly found bilaterally. POTENTIAL RELEVANCE The changes identified appear similar, albeit milder to the changes reported in horses with THO, suggesting that degenerative, rather than infectious causes may underlie the aetiology of THO. Future work should be directed at examining the histopathology of clinical THO cases.
Muscle Action Potentials in Polymyositis

THE recent description of virus infections similar in symptomatology to poliomyelit i~,~,**~ but characterized by extensive lesions in skeletal muscle, has aroused new interest in the study of inflammatory reactions of skeletal muscle. Primary inflammatory processes have been described in polymyositis and dermatomyositis (the literature on this subject has recently been reviewed) In a number of myopathies, inflammation may occur secondarily, e. g. in progressive muscular dystrophy and myasthenia. It is well known that the clinical diagnosis of the subacute and chronic phases of polymyositis can be extremely difficult since symptoms are nonspecific, and in a number of cases there is not the characteristic involvement of the skin. Therefore, the diagnosis must be based on muscle biopsy. Microscopic examination reveals the presence of lymphocytes, histiocytes, in severe cases of polynucleocytes, and sometimes eosinophilic cells infiltrating the interstitial tissue of the muscle and surrounding the individual muscle fibers. The degree of atrophy varies according to the duration and severity of the disease. In most cases, inflammation is patchy, with localized foci of atrophic tissue (nodular polymyositis5 ) . The inflammatory process can either persist for several years or, unless regeneration occurs, result in dystrophic changes histologically indistinguishable from progressive muscular dy~trophy. ~ The mean duration of muscle action potentials has been used to differentiate between atrophies of neurogenic and of myogenic origin. In atrophies caused by affection of the lower motor neuron, the mean duration of the muscle action potentials was found to be considerably increased,6 while in muscular dystrophies a decrease has been de~cribed. ~ It is the aim of the present study to investigate muscle action potentials in polymyositis with respect to mean duration, shape and amplitude. It was thought possible that such a study might contribute to our knowledge of the etiology of dystrophic changes in muscle in view of the fact that, in our experience,s patients with genuine muscular dystrophy do not always show the changes in mean duration of action potentials described as t y p i ~ a l . ~
Interventions to reduce repetition of deliberate self-harm

Estimates of age-standardized DSH rates show marked variation between different countries with a ® ve-fold difference between European centres, although this variation may reect differences in service contact following DSH rather than true differ- ences in rates (Schmidtke et al., 1996). DSH is often a repetitive behaviour, with up to 30% of self- harmers repeating within one year. Kreftman and Casey (1988) reported that 13% weremajor repeat- ers', de® ned as those who had a lifetime history of ® ve or more episodes. Risk factors for repetition have been identi® ed, the strongest being a history of at least one previous episode (Kreitman & Foster, 1991). As well as being a common problem, those presenting following DSH are one of the groups at highest risk of future suicide, with 1% dying within one year of an attempt and 7% after ten years (NHS CRD, 1998). Offering effective interventions to those presenting following DSH will not only reduce the burden of DSH on general hospitals and psychiatric services, but may have an important role in suicide preven- tion. However, to date no single intervention has been shown to be effective in reducing repetition of DSH.
Tracker for sleepy drivers at the wheel

Sleepiness behind the wheel is the major contribution to fatal accidents. Recognizing the drowsiness of the driver is one of the surest methods for measuring driver drowsiness. In this paper a tracker has been created which plans to evaluate driver's fatigue, exhaustion, and diversion throughout driving. The framework composed is a non-intrusive constant checking framework and it consists of camera which keeps a vigilant eye on driver's movements to detect drowsiness. The algorithm developed is unique to any currently published papers, which was a primary objective of the project. The system deals with detecting eyes in an extracted image from video input. All the possible actions have been considered and output is generated accordingly. Drowsiness is determined by observing the eye blinking patterns of the driver. If eyes are found to be closed for a particular time period given by threshold value, the framework reaches the determination that the driver is nodding off and issues a notice flag. The system is implemented using Haar cascade object detector using OpenCV (Open Source Computer Vision Library), which detects eyes from the input image. The system is also able to work under low lighting conditions.
Protein kinase C regulates functional coupling of β1‐adrenergic receptors to Gi/o‐mediated responses in cardiac myocytes

The effect of protein kinase C (PKC) activation on β1‐adrenergic receptor (β1‐AR) regulation of the cardiac L‐type Ca2+ current (ICa,L) was studied using the whole‐cell patch clamp technique. Treatment of guinea pig ventricular myocytes with phorbol‐12,13‐dibutyrate (PDBu) caused a significant decrease in ICa,L sensitivity to stimulation by submaximal β1‐AR activation using isoproterenol (Iso). This decrease in sensitivity was also associated with the ability of higher concentrations of Iso to directly inhibit the stimulatory response. PDBu treatment produced similar effects on H2 histamine receptor‐mediated ICa,L responses. In the presence of PDBu, higher concentrations of Iso inhibited the histamine stimulated ICa,L, and this effect was blocked by a selective β1‐AR antagonist. Higher concentrations of histamine also inhibited the Iso stimulated ICa,L, and this effect was blocked by a selective H2 receptor antagonist. The effects of PDBu were blocked by the PKC inhibitor bisindolylmaleimide I, and they were not mimicked by the inactive phorbol ester 4a‐phorbol‐12,13‐didecanoate. The inhibitory effects of Iso and histamine were significantly reduced when Gi/o mediated responses were blocked with pertussis toxin. These results suggest that PKC promotes coupling of cardiac β1‐adrenergic and H2 histamine receptors to Gi/o mediated inhibitory responses.
The Tonoplast-associated Citrate Binding Protein (CBP) of Hevea brasiliensis

A detailed comparison of citrate uptake into the vacuole-like lutoids of rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis Muell. Arg.) and of malate and citrate transport into barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) vacuoles revealed very similar transport specificities. In order to identify proteins mediating the transport, two photoreactive analogues (N′-(2-hydroxy-5-azido)-diazo-N-3,5-benzenedicarboxylic acid and 5-azidoisophthalic acid) of malate/citrate were synthesized and found to efficiently inhibit citrate uptake into barley vacuoles (K = 18 μM) and Hevea lutoid vesicles (K = 27 μM). In vacuoles from both plant species, these photoaffinity probes specifically labeled a single protein with a molecular mass of 23.6 kDa. This citrate binding protein (CBP) was purified to homogeneity from Hevea lutoids, and amino acid sequences were determined for NH2-terminal and tryptic peptides. Using degenerate oligonucleotides of the NH2-terminal sequence, a cDNA coding for the CBP protein of Hevea was isolated. The cDNA codes for a precursor protein of 238 amino acids, containing an NH2-terminal 31-amino acid signal sequence for endoplasmic reticulum targeting, a prerequisite for vacuolar localization. The mature CBP does not show significant sequence similarities to any known primary protein structure and thus represents a member of a novel class of proteins.
System synthesis based on a formal computational model and skeletons

Formal approaches to HW and system design have not been generally adopted because designers often view the modelling concepts used in these approaches as unsuitable for their problems. Moreover, they are frequently on a too high abstraction level to allow for efficient synthesis with today's techniques. We address this problem with a synthesis method which bridges the gap between a highly abstract functional model and an efficient hardware implementation. The functional model is strictly formal and based on formal semantics, a pure functional language, and the synchrony hypothesis. However, the use of skeletons in conjunction with a proper computational model allows a hardware interpretation, where the structure is given by skeletons and the combinatorial logic by elementary functions. Thus, without compromising the formal properties we offer an effective modelling technique on a high abstraction level which is still natural for hardware designers, and is the basis for synthesis into an efficient implementation. Furthermore, we describe a design methodology which uses the modelling concepts and the synthesis method. It contains a design exploration phase and defines how and when design decisions are formally introduced into the synthesis process. Finally, we illustrate design space exploration and synthesis with a FIFO component taken from an ATM switch.
F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose PET in vivo evaluation of pancreatic glucose metabolism for detection of pancreatic cancer.

PURPOSE To evaluate positron emission tomography (PET) with fluorine-18-labeled fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) for detection of pancreatic cancer compared with computed tomography (CT) and ultrasonography (US). MATERIALS AND METHODS Forty patients with suspected pancreatic cancer underwent static PET after intravenous injection of 150-300 MBq FDG. Focal FDG accumulation was regarded as a sign of malignancy and was quantitated by calculating differential uptake ratios (DURs) and tumor-liver ratios (TLRs). RESULTS Malignancy was histologically proved in 27 patients. PET helped correctly classify 25 of 27 malignant conditions and 11 of 13 benign disorders. DUR and TLR were statistically significantly higher in malignant compared with benign disease (P < .01). False-negative findings were obtained in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes. False-positive findings were noted in a patient with retroperitoneal fibrosis and in one with pancreas divisum with chronic pancreatitis. PET was superior to CT and US in detection of lymph node metastases (13 of 17 vs three of 17 or one of 15, respectively. CONCLUSION FDG PET has the potential to improve the detection of lymphadenopathy and the differential diagnosis of pancreatic masses.
Identification of mutations in the AIPL1, CRB1, GUCY2D, RPE65, and RPGRIP1 genes in patients with juvenile retinitis pigmentosa

Objective: To identify mutations in the AIPL1, CRB1, GUCY2D, RPE65, and RPGRIP1 genes in patients with juvenile retinitis pigmentosa. Methods: Mutation analysis was carried out in a group of 35 unrelated patients with juvenile autosomal recessive retinitis pigmentosa (ARRP), Leber’s congenital amaurosis (LCA), or juvenile isolated retinitis pigmentosa (IRP), by denaturing high performance liquid chromatography followed by direct sequencing. Results: All three groups of patients showed typical combinations of eye signs associated with retinitis pigmentosa: pale optic discs, narrow arterioles, pigmentary changes, and nystagmus. Mutations were found in 34% of patients: in CRB1 (11%), GUCY2D (11%), RPE65 (6%), and RPGRIP1 (6%). Nine mutations are reported, including a new combination of two mutations in CRB1, and new mutations in GUCY2D and RPGRIP1. The new GUCY2D mutation (c.3283delC, p.Pro1069ArgfsX37) is the first pathological sequence change reported in the intracellular C-terminal domain of GUCY2D, and did not lead to the commonly associated LCA, but to a juvenile retinitis pigmentosa phenotype. The polymorphic nature of three previously described (pathological) sequence changes in AIPL1, CRB1, and RPGRIP1 was established. Seven new polymorphic changes, useful for further association studies, were found. Conclusions: New and previously described sequence changes were detected in retinitis pigmentosa in CRB1, GUCY2D, and RPGRIP1; and in LCA patients in CRB1, GUCY2D, and RPE65. These data, combined with previous reports, suggest that LCA and juvenile ARRP are closely related and belong to a continuous spectrum of juvenile retinitis pigmentosa.