Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Minimally invasive coronary bypass: a dissenting opinion.

Minimally invasive techniques for coronary surgery are gaining increased attention, but not without debate. We recognize that in criticizing a new technique, it is necessary to have not only a firm opinion but also a willingness to be wrong; our purpose is to stimulate discussion and debate. Of course, it is difficult to argue against attempts to minimize the invasiveness of any procedure, but it is well to recall that the most obvious successes of minimally invasive surgery have involved technically simple operations, such as arthroscopy or cholecystectomy, which involve a minimum of precision and almost no sewing. The circumstances are different, however, when one attempts to apply the same theory and strategy to physiologically and technically complex cardiac operations. The remarkable success of conventional CABG is due to the application of a standardized operation in a wide variety of settings to large numbers of patients with advanced disease by a vast cadre of trained, experienced surgeons who can offer the public an operation that is safe, effective, durable, reproducible, complete, versatile, and teachable and that, over time, offers cost savings because of the low incidence of complications and repeat revascularizations. (Randomized studies such as the RITA trial,1 which compare CABG with angioplasty, show higher initial costs for surgery but convergence of costs within 2 to 3 years because of the infrequency of repeat revascularizations in the surgical cohort.) These excellent outcomes after surgery depend on a number of critical components: uncompromising selection of the best sites for coronary anastomoses; careful management of unexpected circumstances, such as intramyocardial vessels; use of properly chosen, optimum conduits of exact length; avoidance of trauma to conduits and native coronary vessels; provision of optimum conditions for microvascular anastomoses; and performance of complete, multivessel revascularization. These maneuvers require adequate exposure, which remains a basic …
Predicting unseen triphones with senones

In large-vocabulary speech recognition, there are always new triphones that are not covered in the training data. These unseen triphones are usually represented by corresponding diphones or context-independent monophones. It is proposed that decision-tree-based senones be used to generate needed senonic baseforms for unseen triphones. A decision tree is built for each individual Markov state of each phone, and the leaves of the trees constitute the senone codebook. A Markov state of any triphone traverses the corresponding tree until it reaches a leaf to find the senone it is to be associated with. The DARPA 5000-word peaker-independent Wall Street Journal dictation task is used to evaluate the proposed method. The word error rate is reduced by more than 10% when unseen triphones are modeled by the decision-tree-based senones. <<ETX>>
Adapting the Bayley Scales of infant and toddler development in Ethiopia: evaluation of reliability and validity

Abstract Background There is a need for valid and reliable observational measures of early child development in low‐income and middle‐income country settings. Methods The aims of the study were to adapt the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (Bayley III) for a rural Ethiopian setting and evaluate reliability and validity. The study was carried out between January 2008 and January 2009 in the Butajira demographic surveillance site, south central Ethiopia. The Bayley III was adapted to be socioculturally appropriate for a rural Ethiopian context. Nurses and high school graduates were trained in administration of the measure for 10 days. Inter‐rater reliability was evaluated (n = 60). Content, construct and convergent validity was then examined on a population‐based cohort of children at the ages of 30 (n = 440) and 42 months (n = 456). Mokken scale analysis was used to determine the scalability of items in unidimensional, hierarchical sub‐scales. The mean score was compared by age of child and by stunting status (less than −2 z scores below the standard height‐for‐age). Results The intra‐class correlations between raters were above 0.90 for all sub‐scales of the child development measure. Some scale items were not contextually relevant and showed poor scalability. However, the majority of items scaled onto the existing sub‐scales of the international measure to form adequate‐to‐strong hierarchical scales with good internal consistency (Cronbach's α above 0.70 except for gross motor and expressive language sub‐scales). Item‐scale coefficients were good. The mean score of all sub‐scales was significantly higher in the older group of children (33.02 higher total score; P < 0.001) and in the children who were stunted (total Bayley score 2.58 (95% confidence interval 0.07 to 5.10) points lower at 30 months and 3.87 (1.94 to 5.81) points lower at 42 months. Conclusions An adapted version of an international, observational measure of child development was found to be reliable, valid and feasible in a rural Ethiopian setting.
Volunteerism Research

I use a volunteer process model to organize a review of recent research on volunteerism, focusing mainly on journal articles reporting survey research results. Scholars from several different disciplines and countries have contributed to a body of work that is becoming more theoretically sophisticated and methodologically rigorous. The first stage of the process model—antecedents of volunteering—continues to attract the most attention but more and more scholars are paying attention to the third stage, the consequences of volunteering, particularly with respect to health benefits. The middle stage—the experience of volunteering—remains somewhat neglected, particularly the influence of the social context of volunteer work on the volunteer’s satisfaction and commitment.
A Policy Driven Semantic Approach to Data Usage Management

As the amount of information available on the web has increased, several privacy and security issues around the use of such information have arisen. Government (and private) entities are able to gather and analyze data from several disparate sources with ease. This ability to do large scale analytics of publicly accessible data leads to significant privacy concerns, especially when done by governments. The converse is also true, with concerns about data being shared by individuals and organizations to the web and the cloud. Our work develops a semantically rich, policy driven approach to address the privacy, security and usage concerns around such data.
Mesenchymal stem cells promote formation of colorectal tumors in mice.

BACKGROUND & AIMS Tumor-initiating cells are a subset of tumor cells with the ability to form new tumors; however, they account for less than 0.001% of the cells in colorectal or other types of tumors. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) integrate into the colorectal tumor stroma; we investigated their involvement in tumor initiation. METHODS Human colorectal cancer cells, MSCs, and a mixture of both cell types were injected subcutaneously into immunodeficient mice. We compared the ability of each injection to form tumors and investigated the signaling pathway involved in tumor initiation. RESULTS A small number (≤ 10) of unsorted, CD133⁻, CD166⁻, epithelial cell adhesion molecule⁻(EpCAM⁻), or CD133⁻/CD166⁻/EpCAM⁻ colorectal cancer cells, when mixed with otherwise nontumorigenic MSCs, formed tumors in mice. Secretion of interleukin (IL)-6 by MSCs increased the expression of CD133 and activation of Janus kinase 2-signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) in the cancer cells, and promoted sphere and tumor formation. An antibody against IL-6 or lentiviral-mediated transduction of an interfering RNA against IL-6 in MSCs or STAT3 in cancer cells prevented the ability of MSCs to promote sphere formation and tumor initiation. CONCLUSIONS IL-6, secreted by MSCs, signals through STAT3 to increase the numbers of colorectal tumor-initiating cells and promote tumor formation. Reagents developed to disrupt this process might be developed to treat patients with colorectal cancer.
Requirements on RDF Constraint Formulation and Validation

For many RDF applications, the formulation of constraints and the automatic validation of data according to these constraints is a much sought-after feature. In 2013, the W3C invited experts from industry, government and academia to the RDF Validation Workshop, where first use cases have been presented and discussed. In collaboration with the W3C, a working group on RDF Application Profiles (RDF-AP) is currently established in the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative that follows up on this workshop and addresses among others RDF constraint formulation and validation. In this paper, we present a database of requirements obtained from various sources, including the use cases presented at the workshop as well as in the RDF-AP WG. The database, which is openly available and extendible, is used to evaluate and compare several existing approaches for constraint formulation and validation. We present a classification and analysis of the requirements, show that none of the approaches satisfy all requirements and aim at laying the ground for future work, as well as fostering discussions how to close existing gaps.
Feature set enhancement via hierarchical clustering for microarray classification

A new method for gene expression classification is proposed in this paper. In a first step, the original feature set is enriched by including new features, called metagenes, produced via hierarchical clustering. In a second step, a reliable classifier is built from a wrapper feature selection process. The selection relies on two criteria: the classical classification error rate and a new reliability measure. As a result, a classifier with good predictive ability using as few features as possible to reduce the risk of overfitting is obtained. This method has been tested on three public cancer datasets: leukemia, lymphoma and colon. The proposed method has obtained interesting classification results and the experiments have confirmed the utility of both metagenes and feature ranking criterion to improve the final classifier.
A Study of Approaches for Object Recognition

Object recognition is an important part of computer vision because it is closely related to the success of many computer vision applications. A number of object recognition algorithms and systems have been proposed for a long time in order to address this problem. Yet, there still lacks a general and comprehensive solution. Recently, both model-based object recognition approach and view-based object recognition approach have demonstrated good performance on a variety of object recognition problems. In this paper, the most representative papers of each approach are first reviewed. After that, some possible extensions to the recently proposed view-based approach is proposed and discussed in the paper.
Young people's intended civic and political participation: does education matter?

Citizenship education was introduced as a statutory subject in England in September 2002 with the aim of promoting civic and political engagement. However, whilst education is undoubtedly a powerful socialisation force, it is not the only factor that is likely to influence young people's civic and political participation. Political science theories regarding adult participation highlight the role of variables such as socio-economic background, political efficacy, individuals’ assessments of the costs and benefits of participation and interest in politics. The questions therefore arise as to how much citizenship education can influence young people's participation above and beyond these other factors and whether this is more likely if a school adopts a particular approach to the subject's delivery. To answer these questions, this paper draws on data from the nine-year Citizenship Education Longitudinal Study (CELS), and more particularly from its 2004–05 survey of 13,646 English students aged 13–14. Structural equation modelling is used to examine students’ intentions to participate and ascertain the relative contribution that education and other factors make to young people's intentions to participate.
A survey of clinical psychologists on treating lesbian, gay, and bisexual clients.

Should the average psychologist receive specific training on lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) concerns? On the basis of a random sample of practicing psychologists, LGB clients are present in most caseloads. Respondents rated the most important therapeutic issues with LGB clients and identified training that would improve their work with LGB clients (including the topics of coming out, estrangement from family, support system development, and internalized homophobia). In addition, participants reported on the types of training that they are getting (most frequently reading articles, supervision, and continuing education). The implications for training programs and private practitioners are considered.
Language Analysis in the Context of the Asylum Process: Procedures, Validity, and Consequences

In 1993, the language section of the Swedish Migration Board initiated the production of documents they called "language analyses" to aid in the processing of asylum seekers. Today, 11 years later, 2 privately owned companies in Stockholm produce these documents. These companies have produced language analyses not only for the Swedish Migration board, but also for the Department of Immigration, Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs in Australia, the Immigration Authority in Austria, the National Police Departments in Denmark and Finland, the Home Office in Great Britain, the Ministry of Justice in the Netherlands, the Migration Authority in Norway, the National Board for Refugees in Switzerland and the Refugee Status Branch in New Zealand. There are also government departments in other European countries (including Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands) that produce language analyses. Very little information about Language Analysis in the Asylum Process (LAAP) is readily available to the public. Questions concerning how it is done, how it is used, what its purpose is, the consequences of its use, and, finally and perhaps most important, how successful it is in fulfilling the requirements of those who make use of it have not yet been fully answered. The aim of this article is to shed as much light as currently available resources permit on these questions. It also argues that research into this field is essential to answer the questions more fully, and thereby allow governments and police authorities to make informed decisions about their use of such documents in the asylum process.
Superiority of liquid crystalline cubic nanocarriers as hormonal transdermal vehicle: comparative human skin permeation-supported evidence

ABSTRACT Objectives: The aim of this investigation was to explore the feasibility of various nanocarriers to enhance progesterone penetration via the human abdominal skin. Methods: Four progesterone-loaded nanocarriers; cubosomes, nanoliposomes, nanoemulsions and nanomicelles were formulated and characterized regarding particle size, zeta potential, % drug encapsulation and in vitro release. Structural elucidation of each nanoplatform was performed using transmission electron microscopy. Ex vivo skin permeation, deposition ability and histopathological examination were evaluated using Franz diffusion cells. Results: Each nanocarrier was fabricated with a negative surface, nanometric size (≤ 270 nm), narrow size distribution and reasonable encapsulation efficiency. In vitro progesterone release showed a sustained release pattern for 24 h following a non-Fickian transport diffusion mechanism. All nanocarriers exhibited higher transdermal flux relative to free progesterone. Cubosomes revealed a higher skin penetration with transdermal steady flux of 48.57. 10–2 ± 0.7 µg/cm2 h. Nanoliposomes offered a higher percentage of skin progesterone deposition compared to other nanocarriers. Based on the histopathological examination, cubosomes and nanoliposomes were found to be biocompatible for transdermal application. Confocal laser scanning microscopy confirmed the ability of fluoro-labeled cubosomes to penetrate through the whole skin layers. Conclusion: The elaborated cubosomes proved to be a promising non-invasive nanocarrier for transdermal hormonal delivery.
Three-Dimensional Movement Trajectories in Fitts' Task: Implications for Control

According to Fitts (1954), movement time (MT) is a function of the combined effects of movement amplitude and target width (index of difficulty). Aiming movements with the same index of difficulty and MT may have different planning and control processes depending on the specific combination of movement amplitude and target size. Trajectories were evaluated for a broad range of amplitudes and target sizes. A three-dimensional motion recording system (WATSMART) monitored the position of a stylus during aiming movements. MT results replicated Fitts’ Law. Analysis of the resultant velocity profiles indicated the following significant effects: As amplitude of movement increased, so did the time to peak resultant velocity; peak resultant velocity increased slightly with target size, and to a greater extent with increases in the amplitude of movement; the time after peak resultant velocity was a function of both amplitude and target size. Resultant velocity profiles were normalized in the time domain to look for scalar relation in the trajectory shape. This revealed that: the resultant velocity profiles were not symmetrical; the proportion of time spent prior to and after peak speed was sensitive to target size only, i.e. as target size decreased, the profiles became more skewed to the right, indicating a longer decelerative phase; for a given target size, a family of curves might be defined and scaled on movement amplitude. These results suggest that a generalized program (base trajectory representation) exists for a given target width and is parameterized or scaled according to the amplitude of movement.
Improved photoelectrochemical performance of GaN nanopillar photoanodes

In this work, we report on the photoelectrochemical (PEC) investigation of n-GaN nanopillar (NP) photoanodes fabricated using metal organic chemical vapour deposition and the top-down approach. Substantial improvement in photocurrents is observed for GaN NP photoanodes compared to their planar counterparts. The role of carrier concentration and NP dimensions on the PEC performance of NP photoanodes is further elucidated. Photocurrent density is almost doubled for doped NP photoanodes whereas no improvement is noticed for undoped NP photoanodes. While the diameter of GaN NP is found to influence the onset potential, carrier concentration is found to affect both the onset and overpotential of the electrodes. Optical and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy characterisations are utilised to further explain the PEC results of NP photoanodes. Finally, improvement in the photostability of NP photoanodes with the addition of NiO as a co-catalyst is investigated.
The Impact of Anticipated Consequences, Respondent Group, and Strength of Affirmative Action Plan on Affirmative Action Attitudes

Two experiments found that affirmative action attitudes varied with the respondent's racioethnic group, strength of affirmative action plan (AAP), anticipated consequences of the AAP, and interactions of racioethnic group with the other variables. AAP strength had a monotonic negative effect on attitudes for some groups, but an inverse-U effect for others. Attitudes were most strongly associated with the anticipated impact of the AAP on company performance; they were also related to the expected effects on collective self-interest, target group representation, and target group stigmatization. The positive relation between the anticipated impact on company performance and support for the AAP was stronger among Whites than U.S.-born Hispanics; the negative relation between anticipated stigmatization and AAP support was stronger among Whites than African-Americans. The effect of AAP strength on attitudes was partially mediated by the anticipated consequences among Whites and African-Americans, but not among Hispanics and Asians.
Mechanism of sodium channel NaV1.9 potentiation by G-protein signaling

Tetrodotoxin (TTX)-resistant voltage-gated Na (NaV) channels have been implicated in nociception. In particular, NaV1.9 contributes to expression of persistent Na current in small diameter, nociceptive sensory neurons in dorsal root ganglia and is required for inflammatory pain sensation. Using ND7/23 cells stably expressing human NaV1.9, we elucidated the biophysical mechanisms responsible for potentiation of channel activity by G-protein signaling to better understand the response to inflammatory mediators. Heterologous NaV1.9 expression evoked TTX-resistant Na current with peak activation at −40 mV with extensive overlap in voltage dependence of activation and inactivation. Inactivation kinetics were slow and incomplete, giving rise to large persistent Na currents. Single-channel recording demonstrated long openings and correspondingly high open probability (Po) accounting for the large persistent current amplitude. Channels exposed to intracellular GTPγS, a proxy for G-protein signaling, exhibited twofold greater current density, slowing of inactivation, and a depolarizing shift in voltage dependence of inactivation but no change in activation voltage dependence. At the single-channel level, intracellular GTPγS had no effect on single-channel amplitude but caused an increased mean open time and greater Po compared with recordings made in the absence of GTPγS. We conclude that G-protein activation potentiates human NaV1.9 activity by increasing channel open probability and mean open time, causing the larger peak and persistent current, respectively. Our results advance our understanding about the mechanism of NaV1.9 potentiation by G-protein signaling during inflammation and provide a cellular platform useful for the discovery of NaV1.9 modulators with potential utility in treating inflammatory pain.
A Conceptual Framework for Addressing Psychological Process in the Development of the Terrorist

A conceptual framework is presented for addressing psychological issues in the development of the terrorist. In particular, the authors suggest that viewing terrorism as a process may lead not only to better conceptual development in analyses of the terrorist, but may also lead to the development of more practical and efficient counterterrorism initiatives. Additionally, viewing terrorism in this way may finally lead to the formation of a clear and unambiguous position for psychology within an interdisciplinary approach to analyses of both terrorism and the terrorist.