Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Outcome of intrathecal opioids in chronic non‐cancer pain

Eighty‐eight patients (58 women and 30 men; mean age 53.4 years) with chronic non‐cancer pain present on average for 9.8 years were evaluated following treatment with intrathecal opioids for an average duration of 36.2 months. Outcome measures were global pain relief, physical activity levels, medication consumption, work status, intrathecal opioid side‐effects, proportion of patients who ceased therapy and patient satisfaction. The most common diagnosis in this group was lumbar spinal or radicular pain after failed spinal surgery (n= 55, 63%). At the time of follow‐up, mean pain relief was 60% with 74% of patients (36 of 49) reporting increased activity levels. Oral medication intake was significantly reduced (Medication Quantification Scale Score prior to implantation 31.0±2.6 and at follow‐up 12.7±1.4;n= 48;p< 0.0001). These gains were not accompanied by a change in work status (43 of 50 working age patients not working at follow‐up). There were frequent reports of opioid side‐effects, including sexual dysfunction and menstrual disturbance. Technical complications occurred with the drug administration device, most often catheter related, requiring at least one further surgical procedure in 32 patients (40%). Patient satisfaction with intrathecal opioids was high, with 45 of 51 (88%) reporting satisfaction. Mean intrathecal morphine dose increased from 9.95±1.49 mg/day (mean±SEM) at 6 months to 15.26±2.52 mg/day 36 months after initiation of therapy. Drug administration systems were permanently removed in five patients (6%). Intrathecal opioid therapy appears to have a place in the management of chronic non‐cancer pain. Therapy does not seem to be significantly inhibited by the development of tolerance.
Conceptualizing Research in Educational Leadership

How field members design research and from this develop data collection methods is located in particular knowledge claims. This article presents a typology of knowledge and knowing, and argues that the claims being made within particular research and publications are related to competing conceptualizations of the truth and how this is constructed. The article argues that research in the field needs to embrace and celebrate this pluralism and the dialogue that it generates. This does not undermine positions but legitimizes the dynamism of the field and makes it less vulnerable to hegemony and external interference. Such an approach is consistent with educational leadership, and if field members are to describe, understand and explain this then there is a need to use a multi-level framework that is technical (what is), illuminative (what does it mean), critical (why is it like that), practical (how might it be better) and positional (who says so and why? ).
Inositol 1,4,5 trisphosphate releases calcium from specialized sites within Limulus photoreceptors

We have investigated the subcellular distribution and identity of inositol trisphosphate (InsP3)-sensitive calcium stores in living Limulus ventral photoreceptor cells, where light and InsP3 are known to raise intracellular calcium. We injected ventral photoreceptor cells with the photoprotein aequorin and viewed its luminescence with an image intensifier. InsP3 only elicited detectable aequorin luminescence when injected into the light-sensitive rhabdomeral (R)-lobe where aequorin luminescence induced by light was also confined. Calcium stores released by light and InsP3 are therefore localized to the R- lobe. Within the R-lobe, InsP3-induced aequorin luminescence was further confined around the injection site, due to rapid dilution and/or degradation of injected InsP3. Prominent cisternae of smooth endoplasmic reticulum are uniquely localized within the cell beneath the microvillar surface of the R-lobe (Calman, B., and S. Chamberlain, 1982, J. Gen. Physiol., 80:839-862). These cisternae are the probable site of InsP3 action.
Eye movements in reading: Old questions and new directions

Trends in the articles reported in this volume are identified: (1) landing position effects, (2) word skipping, (3) parafoveal‐on‐foveal effects, (4) eye movement control, and (5) eye movements and word identification. Each of these issues is discussed in the context of prior research on the issue. We also identify some issues that are not included in the present set of articles, as well as some research questions that need further attention.
How can we increase Spanish technology firms' performance?

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of different technological aspects of organizations for Spanish firms' performance through organizational learning and corporate entrepreneurship (where organizational innovation is essential). Design/methodology/approach – The relationships studied are confirmed empirically using a structural equation model to demonstrate the hypotheses. The sample was selected from the database Dun & Bradstreet Espana for 2003, obtaining 201 Spanish firms. CEOs were the main informants.Findings – The results show that the support adopted by top managers will directly influence the organizational learning process, technological distinctive competencies and corporate entrepreneurship. Technological distinctive competencies are also supported by organizational slack resources, technological skills and a technological infrastructure. Finally, corporate entrepreneurship influences organizational performance.Research limitations/implications – The paper is explorat.
Models of Interpersonal Trust Development: Theoretical Approaches, Empirical Evidence, and Future Directions

Most research on trust has taken a static, “snapshot” view; that is, it has approached trust as an independent, mediating, or dependent variable captured by measuring trust at a single point in time. Limited attention has been given to conceptualizing and measuring trust development over time within interpersonal relationships. The authors organize the existing work on trust development into four broad areas: the behavioral approach and three specific conceptualizations of the psychological approach (unidimensional, two-dimensional, and transformational models). They compare and contrast across these approaches and use this analysis to identify unanswered questions and formulate directions for future research.
An MOEA-based Method to Tune EA Parameters on Multiple Objective Functions

In this paper, we demonstrate the benefits of using a multi-objective approach when tuning the parameters of an Evolutionary Algorithm. To overcome the specific challenges that arise when using a meta-algorithm for parameter tuning on multiple functions, we introduce a new algorithm called the Multi-Function Evolutionary Tuning Algorithm (M-FETA) that is able to approximate the parameter Pareto front effectively. The results of the experiments illustrate how the approximated Parameter Pareto front can be used to gain insights, identify ‘generalists’, and study the robustness of the algorithm to be tuned.
Differing involvement of sulfoquinovosyl diacylglycerol in photosystem II in two species of unicellular cyanobacteria.

Sulfoquinovosyl diacylglycerol (SQDG) is involved in the maintenance of photosystem II (PSII) activity in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii[Minoda, A. , Sato, N. , Nozaki, H. , Okada, K. , Takahashi, H. , Sonoike, K. & Tsuzuki, M. et al. (2002) Eur. J. Biochem.269, 2353-2358]. To understand the spread of the taxa in which PSII interacts with SQDG, especially in cyanobacteria, we produced a mutant defective in the putative sqdB gene responsible for SQDG synthesis from two cyanobacteria, Synechocystis sp. PCC6803 and Synechococcus sp. PCC7942. The mutant of PCC6803, designated SD1, lacked SQDG synthetic ability and required SQDG supplementation for its growth. After transfer from SQDG-supplemented to SQDG-free conditions, SD1 showed decreased net photosynthetic and PSII activities on a chlorophyll (Chl) basis with a decrease in the SQDG content. Moreover, the sensitivity of PSII activity to 3-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,1-dimethylurea and atrazine was increased in SD1. However, SD1 maintained normal amounts of cytochrome b559 and D1 protein (the subunits comprising the PSII complex) on a Chl basis, indicating that the PSII complex content changed little, irrespective of a decrease in the SQDG content. These results suggest that the role of SQDG is the conservation of the PSII properties in PCC6803, consistent with the results obtained with C. reinhardtii. In contrast, the SQDG-null mutant of PCC7942 showed the normal level of PSII activity with little effect on its sensitivity to PSII herbicides. Therefore, the difference in the SQDG requirement for PSII is species-specific in cyanobacteria; this could be of use when investigating the molecular evolution of the PSII complex.
Neocognitron for rotated pattern recognition

Ideally computer pattern recognition systems should be insensitive to scaling, translation, distortion and rotation. Many neural network models have been proposed to address this purpose. The Neocognitron is a multi-layered neural network model for pattern recognition introduced by Fukushima in the early 1980s. It was considered effective and, after supervised learning, it can recognise input patterns without being affected by distortion, change in size, or shift in position but it was not designed to handle rotated patterns. This paper examines the layers of the Neocognitron to emphasize their importance in Fukushima's theory. We also provide an additional filer layer to deal with rotated patterns.
Tracking and Teacher Satisfaction: Role of Study Culture and Trust

ABSTRACT A multilevel analysis of data from 711 teachers and 3,760 pupils in a sample of 34 Flemish (Belgium) secondary schools (19 technical/vocational and 15 general schools) demonstrated a relation between tracking and teachers' job satisfaction. Teachers in technical/vocational schools tended to be less satisfied with their jobs than were teachers in general schools. The relation seemed ascribable to pupils' culture, which was far less study oriented in technical/vocational schools than in general schools. Results show that pupils' study culture affected teacher satisfaction by its influence on teacher trust and faculty trust.
Vascular endothelial growth factor in articular cartilage of healthy and osteoarthritic human knee joints

OBJECTIVE To determine the levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) mRNA and protein expression in normal and osteoarthritic (OA) human articular cartilage, and whether VEGF expression alters during the progression of OA. METHODS Sections from normal and OA human knee cartilage were immunotained with a polyclonal antibody recognising VEGF. In addition, total RNA was isolated from normal and osteoarthritic human knee cartilage and analysed by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for VEGF mRNA expression. RESULTS VEGF was found to be present in normal and OA human knee cartilage in all cartilage layers. A significant increase of VEGF immunopositive chondrocytes to up to ∼82% was detected in severe OA cartilage compared with normal articular cartilage (∼56% of immunopositive chondrocytes). RT-PCR analysis showed the expression of VEGF also on the mRNA level. CONCLUSIONS VEGF is expressed by articular chondrocytes in normal and OA human knee cartilage. The percentage of VEGF immunopositive chondrocytes significantly increases in late stages of the disease. The VEGF transcript levels encoding all four isoforms shows a big variability in samples from different donors, suggesting a distinct regulation of the expression of the four VEGF isoforms in normal and OA cartilage.
Creating Work-Life Balance: A Model of Pluralism across Life Domains

This article develops a theoretical framework that explains how life complexity and dynamism affect work-life balance. The authors explain the moderating effects of munificence and accessibility of resources in one’s life as well as the personality differences and individual value systems on the relationship between life complexity/dynamism and work-life balance. The analysis leads to implications for future research and practice.
Auditory and vestibular hair cell stereocilia: relationship between functionality and inner ear disease

Abstract The stereocilia of the inner ear are unique cellular structures which correlate anatomically with distinct cochlear functions, including mechanoelectrical transduction, cochlear amplification, adaptation, frequency selectivity and tuning. Their function is impaired by inner ear stressors, by various types of hereditary deafness, syndromic hearing loss and inner ear disease (e.g. Ménière's disease). The anatomical and physiological characteristics of stereocilia are discussed in relation to inner ear malfunctions.
Do Parents Discriminate Against their Heavyweight Daughters?

In a 1991 study, the author found that females were less likely to receive support from their parents for college education if they were fatter than average. This effect is replicated for female undergraduates (n = 576); no effect emerged for males (n = 450). Controlling for income, ethnicity, family size, and number of children attending college did not change the results. The selection bias against fat women was strongest for daughters of political conservatives, a group previously found to endorse antifat attitudes. This suggests that parents' attitudes may lead to discrimination within families. To demonstrate that this may be due to parents' bias, data from a representative sample of high school seniors (n = 3,386) showed no association between politics, weight, and predictors of college attendance, including grade point average, self-rated intelligence and ability, college aspirations, and health. The evidence accumulates that parents are discriminating against their own heavyweight daughters.
Asynchronous Design Methods for Dark Silicon Chips

The scaling of CMOS technologies continues to enable each two years more and more transistors to the ASIC designers and eventually application users. In theory this would mean that the processing architectures could also exponentially develop in the direction of further many-processor systems scaling. Nevertheless there are significant issues which may disable such scenario with the current (20 nm, 14 nm) and future (10 nm, 8 nm and beyond) technology nodes. The power consumption which can be provided to the silicon unfortunately cannot scale further. This leads to the phenomenon named as dark silicon [1]. As a consequence, even if the increased number of available transistors is used to implement additional processor cores, all available cores cannot be powered at the same time, in order not to overload the thermal budget of the chip. Dark silicon is potentially very significant issue, practically disabling further simple scaling of homogenous processor architectures.
Intravaginal Practices, Vaginal Infections and HIV Acquisition: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background Intravaginal practices are commonly used by women to manage their vaginal health and sexual life. These practices could, however, affect intravaginal mucosal integrity. The objectives of this study were to examine evidence for associations between: intravaginal practices and acquisition of HIV infection; intravaginal practices and vaginal infections; and vaginal infections and HIV acquisition. Methodology/Principal Findings We conducted a systematic review of prospective longitudinal studies, searching 15 electronic databases of journals and abstracts from two international conferences to 31st January 2008. Relevant articles were selected and data extracted in duplicate. Results were examined visually in forest plots and combined using random effects meta-analysis where appropriate. Of 2120 unique references we included 22 publications from 15 different studies in sub-Saharan Africa and the USA. Seven publications from five studies examined a range of intravaginal practices and HIV infection. No specific vaginal practices showed a protective effect against HIV or vaginal infections. Insertion of products for sex was associated with HIV in unadjusted analyses; only one study gave an adjusted estimate, which showed no association (hazard ratio 1.09, 95% confidence interval, CI 0.71, 1.67). HIV incidence was higher in women reporting intravaginal cleansing but confidence intervals were wide and heterogeneity high (adjusted hazard ratio 1.88, 95%CI 0.53, 6.69, I2 83.2%). HIV incidence was higher in women with bacterial vaginosis (adjusted effect 1.57, 95%CI 1.26, 1.94, I2 19.0%) and Trichomonas vaginalis (adjusted effect 1.64, 95%CI 1.28, 2.09, I2 0.0%). Conclusions/Significance A pathway linking intravaginal cleaning practices with vaginal infections that increase susceptibility to HIV infection is plausible but conclusive evidence is lacking. Intravaginal practices do not appear to protect women from vaginal infections or HIV and some might be harmful.
In-Orbit Estimation of the Inertia Matrix and Thruster Parameters of UoSAT-12

This paper describes a Recursive Least Square (RLS) procedure for use in orbit to estimate the inertia matrix (moments and products of inertia parameters) of a satellite. To facilitate this, one attitude axis is disturbed using a reaction wheel whilst the other two axes are controlled to keep their respective angular rates small. Within a fraction of an orbit three components of the inertia matrix can be accurately determined. This procedure is then repeated for the other two axes to obtain all nine elements of the inertia matrix. The procedure is designed to prevent the build up of momentum in the reaction wheels whilst keeping the attitude disturbance to the satellite within acceptable limits. It can also overcome potential errors introduced by unmodeled external disturbance torques and attitude sensor noise. The results of simulations are presented to demonstrate the performance of the technique. The paper also describes an RLS procedure which can be used to estimate the thruster coefficients for thrust levels and alignment of the cold gas thrusters used for attitude control on UoSAT-12. A general on-line method is presented which uses a three axis reaction wheel system to accurately determine the relationship between the commanded and actual torque produced by the thrusters. The calibration algorithm is designed to be robust against external disturbance torques, inertia matrix modelling errors and attitude sensor noise. The results of both simulations and successful in-orbit tests are presented, illustrating the effectiveness of the technique.
Proteomics reveals drastic increase of extracellular matrix proteins collagen and dermatopontin in the aged mdx diaphragm model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a lethal genetic disease of childhood caused by primary abnormalities in the gene coding for the membrane cytoskeletal protein dystrophin. The mdx mouse is an established animal model of various aspects of X-linked muscular dystrophy and is widely used for studying fundamental mechanisms of dystrophinopathy and testing novel therapeutic approaches to treat one of the most frequent gender-specific diseases in humans. In order to determine global changes in the muscle proteome with the progressive deterioration of mdx tissue with age, we have characterized diaphragm muscle from mdx mice at three ages (8-weeks, 12-months and 22-months) using mass spectrometry-based proteomics. Altered expression levels in diaphragm of 8-week vs. 22-month mice were shown to occur in 11 muscle-associated proteins. Aging in the mdx diaphragm seems to be associated with a drastic increase in the extracellular matrix proteins, collagen and dermatopontin, the molecular chaperone αB-crystallin, and the intermediate filament protein vimentin, suggesting increased accumulation of connective tissue, an enhanced cellular stress response and compensatory stabilization of the weakened membrane cytoskeleton. These proteomic findings establish the aged mdx diaphragm as an excellent model system for studying secondary effects of dystrophin deficiency in skeletal muscle tissue.
A PMHFET based MMIC gate mixer for Ka-band applications

A multipurpose MMIC gate mixer has been designed, fabricated and measured. The mixer exhibits a maximum conversion gain of about 0 dB in the frequency range of 32 GHz-38 GHz with an intermediate frequency (IF) of 100 MHz and an IF load of 50 /spl Omega/. With an external IF matching network a conversion gain up to 5 dB can be achieved. The mixer which consists of one pseudomorphic HFET represents state of the art performance. <<ETX>>
Narrative as a tool for the assessment of linguistic and pragmatic impairments

Narrative ability is one of the most interesting and ecologically valid ways in which to measure communicative competence both in normal populations and in clinical groups, since narratives form the basis of many childhood speech acts. Narrative may also prove to be a good tool for distinguishing clinical groups who show overlapping symptoms but who are thought to experience subtly different impairments. This article gives an overview of some of the theoretical reasons for using narrative to assess both linguistic and pragmatic impairments. As part of a preliminary investigation examining possible similarities and differences across groups, five children with severe pragmatic language impairments (PLI) and five with more typical specific language impairments (SLI) completed short picture based narratives using the Bus Story and the Frog Story. These illustrative data are included throughout the paper to highlight features of use to clinicians, particularly with respect to differences in the narratives of children with PLI compared to their peers with SLI. Furthermore, when compared to Tager-Flusberg’s (1995) data from children with autism, SLI narratives seem to be more similar to those of the group with autism than did PLI narratives. Narrative ability was found to relate directly to pragmatic skill but in different ways according to clinical subgroup. Implications for both theory and practice are discussed.
Peppering knowledge sources with SALT: Boosting conceptual content for ontology generation

This paper describes work done to explore the common ground between two different ongoing research projects: the standardization of lexical and terminological resources, and the use of conceptual ontologies for information extraction and data integration. Specifically, this paper explores improving the generation of extraction ontologies through use of a comprehensive terminology database that has been represented in a standardized format for easy tool-based implementation. We show how, via the successful integration of these two distinct efforts, it is possible to leverage large-scale terminological and conceptual information having relationship-rich semantic resources in order to reformulate, match, and merge retrieved information of interest to a user.
On complex network approach for fault detection in power grids

The latest developments in complex network theory have provided a new direction for power system research. Based on this theory a power system can be modeled as a graph with nodes and vertices and further analysis can help in addressing typical problems such as identifying the vulnerable lines and pole fires, and locating faults. This paper reports some of our recent research in this area and discusses some potential areas in power grids where the complex network theory can be used.