Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Postmodernism and philosophy

This is the end Postmodernist thinking has typically reacted with suspicion to the notion of origins. As first cause or foundation, an origin - a transcendental ground to which all subsequent phenomena must pay obeisance - resurrects the deity that the “death of God” supposedly vanquished. This resistance to origins is matched by a much messier obsession with “ends. ” Postmodernist endings are not so neat as the term suggests, however. They are thorny and recalcitrant, at the very least placing certain practices or instruments of thought off-limits; at most, the latter are rendered fallacious, untenable, “no longer possible. ” An abiding example of this temper is the seemingly suicidal declamation of the end of philosophy. Where philosophy has engaged directly with postmodernism – let us call the result, for the moment, post-Nietzschean continental philosophy – it has produced a kind of thinking that cleaves to the shadow of its own mortality, compulsively rehearsing its own demise. But unlike other postmodernist annulments – the “ends” of authorial presence and ideology, for example – philosophy’s reprieve was granted in the same breath as its death sentence was pronounced. Which is to say, accompanying the termination was the possibility of renewal, ways of finding new uses for philosophical thinking. In fixating upon the conditions of its own abolition, then, philosophy turned those conditions into a kind of negative capability.
Role of Anxiety in the Pathophysiology of Irritable Bowel Syndrome: Importance of the Amygdala

A common characteristic of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is that symptoms, including abdominal pain and abnormal bowel habits, are often triggered or exacerbated during periods of stress and anxiety. However, the impact of anxiety and affective disorders on the gastrointestinal (GI) tract is poorly understood and may in part explain the lack of effective therapeutic approaches to treat IBS. The amygdala is an important structure for regulating anxiety with the central nucleus of the amygdala facilitating the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the autonomic nervous system in response to stress. Moreover, chronic stress enhances function of the amygdala and promotes neural plasticity throughout the amygdaloid complex. This review outlines the latest findings obtained from human studies and animal models related to the role of the emotional brain in the regulation of enteric function, specifically how increasing the gain of the amygdala to induce anxiety-like behavior using corticosterone or chronic stress increases responsiveness to both visceral and somatic stimuli in rodents. A focus of the review is the relative importance of mineralocorticoid receptor and glucocorticoid receptor-mediated mechanisms within the amygdala in the regulation of anxiety and nociceptive behaviors that are characteristic features of IBS. This review also discusses several outstanding questions important for future research on the role of the amygdala in the generation of abnormal GI function that may lead to potential targets for new therapies to treat functional bowel disorders such as IBS.
**title** Asp Conference Series, Vol. **volume**, **publication Year** **editors** Disc Instabilities in Soft X–ray Transients

I briefly review the theory of soft X–ray transient systems. Irradiation of the accretion disc faces by the central X–ray source determines both the occurrence and the nature of the outbursts, in particular forcing these to be long viscous events and producing exponential decays at short orbital periods. Soft X–ray transients constitute the majority of LMXBs, persistent systems being largely confined to a subset of neutron–star LMXBs with periods P ∼ < 2 d. It appears that LMXBs very frequently contain nuclear–evolved companions, even at short orbital periods. In long–period transients (P ∼ > 20 d) the outburst recurrence times must become extremely long (∼ > 1500 yr). The outbursts are highly super–Eddington, markedly reducing the accretion efficiency. Spinup of a neutron–star primary to millisecond periods probably cannot occur for orbital periods ∼ > 200 d, in agreement with observations of binary pulsars.
Information Markets for Social Participation in Public Policy Design and Implementation

In this paper we propose a research agenda on the use of information markets as tools to collect, aggregate and analyze citizens’ opinions, expectations and preferences from social media in order to support public policy design and implementation. We argue that markets are institutional settings able to efficiently allocate scarce resources, aggregate and disseminate information into prices and accommodate hedging against various types of risks. We discuss various types of information markets, as well as address the participation of both human and computational agents in such markets.
esearch and Professional Briefs iet and Physical Activity Patterns of chool-Aged Children

h s i s n s c s c o u c o h s BSTRACT hildhood provides an opportunity for establishing ealthful lifestyle habits, yet little is known about diet nd physical activity patterns of elementary school-aged hildren. A cohort of 35 boys and girls in grades 3 through (mean age 9.5 years) was studied during the course of he 2004-2005 school year, providing seasonal assessents of diet and physical activity. Objectively measured ata included height, weight, and pedometer step counts. ubjective data included seasonal 3-day diet diaries, a ood frequency questionnaire, and a physical activity uestionnaire. Participants were white, well-nourished, nd within the healthy range for body mass index for age. nly three students (9%) were overweight and another hree were “at risk” for overweight. Food intake patterns ell far below MyPyramid guidelines for average daily ervings of fruits and vegetables. High intakes of satuated fat (average of 12% of calories) and sodium were oted, along with inadequate fiber intakes. Snacks, deserts, and entrees that contributed most to calorie and aturated fat intake were identified. Self-reported physial activity appears in line with recommendations, but tep counts fall short, particularly for girls and during inter months. These findings identify targets for behavoral and environmental interventions to reduce childood obesity risks. Additional research involving more iverse populations is warranted. Am Diet Assoc. 2009;109:145-151.
The role of gender in housing for individuals with severe mental illness: a qualitative study of the Canadian service context

Objective This study was undertaken to examine the role of gender as it relates to access to housing among individuals with severe mental illness (SMI) in Canada. Design An exploratory, qualitative approach was used to assess the perspectives of Canadian housing experts. The focus of inquiry was on the role of gender and associated intersections (eg, ethnicity) in pathways to housing access and housing needs for individuals with SMI. Setting A purposeful sampling strategy was undertaken to access respondents across all Canadian geographic regions, with diversity across settings (urban and rural) and service sectors (hospital based and community based). Participants –29 individuals (6 men and 23 women) considered to be experts in a housing service context as it pertains to SMI were recruited. On average, participants had worked for 15 years in services that specialised in the support and delivery of housing services to people with SMI. Measures Semistructured interviews with participants focused on the role gender plays in access to housing in their specific context. Barriers and facilitators were examined as were intersections with other relevant factors, such as ethnicity, poverty and parenthood. Quantitative ratings of housing accessibility as a function of gender were also collected. Results Participants across geographic contexts described a lack of shelter facilities for women, leading to a reliance on exploitative circumstances. Other findings included a compounding of discrimination for ethnic minority women, the unique resource problems faced in rural contexts, and the difficulties that attend access to shelter and housing for parents with SMI. Conclusions These findings suggest that, along with a generally poor availability of housing stock for individuals with SMI, access problems are compounded by a lack of attention to the unique needs and illness trajectories that attend gender.
Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma in human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients. A study of epidemiologic risk factors, human papillomavirus, and p53 expression.

OBJECTIVE To examine risk factors for the development of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in a group of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients, including evaluation and detection of epidemiologic risk factors of human papillomavirus (HPV) and p53 expression. DESIGN Case-control study during a 3-year period. SETTING Dermatologic referral center. PATIENTS Thirty-three HIV-infected patients who had 97 SCCs were compared with 24 HIV-infected patients who had 70 basal cell carcinomas (BCCs). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Age, skin type, amount of sun exposure, actinic damage, family history of skin cancer and history of smoking and warts. Specimens of SCC and BCC were examined for HPV using polymerase chain reaction. Presence of p53 was examined using immunohistochemical analysis. Specimens from tumor-free, non-sun-exposed areas from these same patients were used as controls. RESULTS Risk factors for the development of both types of carcinoma included fair skin type and excessive sun exposure (> 6 h/d during the previous 10 years). The HIV-infected patients with SCCs tended to have outdoor occupations. The location of SCCs favored the head and neck; BCCs were located on the trunk. Patients with SCCs had later-stage HIV disease than did patients with BCCs. Half of the patients with SCC had a history of genital or nongenital warts. Seventy-one percent (17/24) had a smoking history. No statistical difference existed between patients with SCCs and BCCs for history of smoking or warts. Human papillomavirus was not found in most of our SCC, BCC, or control specimens. However, 92% (22/24) of the SCC specimens and 90% (18/20) of the BCC specimens stained for p53. Control specimens from non-sun-exposed skin of HIV-infected patients did not stain for p53. Epidermal staining was present in 95% (17/20) of tissue adjacent to SCCs and 47% (7/15) of tissue adjacent to BCCs. A significantly positive correlation existed between the amount of sun exposure and the amount of p53 staining seen in adjacent epidermal tissue (r = 0.07; P = .01). CONCLUSIONS Risk factors for the development of SCCs and BCCs in HIV-infected patients are similar: fair skin type and excessive sun exposure. Our study does not support that HPV is an oncogenic factor in the development of these cutaneous tumors but provides evidence that p53 overexpression may play a role.
OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE OF NMR SPECTROMETRISTS TO STATIC AND RADIOFREQUENCY FIELDS

Abstract Occupational exposure to static and radiofrequency fields emitted by nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers was assessed through systematic field metering during operation of 19 devices in nine research centers. Whereas no measurable levels of radiofrequency radiation were registered outside the spectrometers, significant exposure to static field was detected, with maximum values recorded at the user's hand (B = 683.00 mT) and head‐thorax (B = 135.70 mT) during spectrometer manipulation. All values were well below the exposure limits set by the European standard for workers protection against the effects of acute field exposure only. As for potential effects of chronic exposure, waiting for more complete knowledge, adoption of technical and operational strategies for exposure minimizing is advisable. In this respect, the data revealed that compared with standard magnetic shielding, ultrashield technology allows a 20‐65‐fold reduction of the field strength received by the operator.
To Befriend Or Not? A Model of Friend Request Acceptance on Facebook

Accepting friend requests from strangers in Facebook-like online social networks is known to be a risky behavior. Still, empirical evidence suggests that Facebook users often accept such requests with high rate. As a first step towards technology support of users in their decisions about friend requests for, we investigate why users accept such requests. We conducted two studies of users’ befriending behavior on Facebook. Based on 20 interviews with active Facebook users, we developed a friend request acceptance model that explains how various factors influence user acceptance behavior. To test and refine our model, we also conducted a confirmatory study with 397 participants using Amazon Mechanical Turk. We found that four factors significantly impact the receiver’s decision, namely, knowing the requester’s in real world, having common hobbies or interests, having mutual friends, and the closeness of mutual friends. Based on our findings, we offer design guidelines for improving the usability of the corresponding user interfaces.
Cyclosporine-associated neurotoxicity. The need for a better guide for immunosuppressive therapy.

Heart transplantation has become the most effective treatment of end-stage heart failure in selected patients. More than 30 000 heart transplantations have been performed worldwide since its introduction in 1967, with a current 1-year survival rate of ≈85% and 5-year survival rate of 70%. 1 Besides the enormous survival advantage associated with heart transplantation compared with all other therapies, it also usually is associated with the restoration of a nearly normal age-predicted functional capacity. In this issue of Circulation , Grimm and colleagues2 document with the use of P300-evoked potentials that patients with end-stage heart failure awaiting transplantations also have impaired cortical function, a finding that reaffirms that of previous reports using psychometric tests.3 These abnormalities also were totally normalized within 4 months of transplantation, which is consistent with the hypothesis of decreased cerebral perfusion as the cause of the impairment. These patients underwent repeated testing 12 months after transplantation. The results showed that the mean evoked potentials had declined to levels similar to those before transplantation, although none of the patients were thought to have any clinically detectable neurological symptoms. This suggests that evoked potentials are more sensitive than more traditional psychometric tests, which also were abnormal before transplantation, improved 4 months after transplantation, but did not change 12 months after transplantation. Using multiple regression analysis, Grimm et al found that the cumulative dose of cyclosporine was the only significant variable associated with the changes in cortical function. Cyclosporine has been used as the primary immunosuppressive agent in heart transplantation for 15 years. Its introduction was associated with a significant improvement in survival, which led to a significant increase in the number of patients undergoing heart transplantation. Its use also has been associated with a decrease in the incidence and severity of rejection. However, the dosage of cyclosporine …
Dips and ceilings: understanding and supporting transitions to expertise in user interfaces

Interface guidelines encourage designers to include shortcut mechanisms that enable high levels of expert performance, but prior research has demonstrated that few users switch to using them. To help understand how interfaces can better support a transition to expert performance we develop a framework of the interface and human factors influencing expertise development. We then present a system called Blur that addresses three main problems in promoting the transition: prompting an initial switch to expert techniques, minimising the performance dip arising from the switch, and enabling a high performance ceiling. Blur observes the user's interaction with unaltered desktop applications and uses calm notification to support learning and promote awareness of an alternative hot command interface. An empirical study validates Blur's design, showing that users make an early and sustained switch to hot commands, and that doing so improves their performance and satisfaction.
The Role of NeuroEndocrine System in Stress Mediation and Health Maintenance Maheswar Satpathy

Human beings do have several stresses, and the scientific study of stress has been taken care of by several disciplines in the past decades. But, especially when the whole body and mind is looked upon, then ‘Neuro-Psycho-Endocrinology’ appears to be a promising area of research. Squire et al. (2003) observed that stress is an internal cue that disrupts the homeostatic status of the animal. The neuroenodocrine system involved in mediating the stress response is the brain-pituitary adrenal axis. The findings of Euler (1946, 1956); Selye’s (1950) pioneering work on the pituitaryadrenal cortical system and the General Adaptation Syndrome form the basis of today’s psychoendocrine stress research. The hypothalamic hormone controlling this axis is corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH), produced in highest levels in the medial parvicellular part of the paraventricular nucleus (mp PVN). Hamburg & Kessler (1976) highlighted the importance of the neuroenodocrine functions in the regulation and the stress mediation. They observed mainly on CNS regulation of endocrine function, especially the effects of psychological stress on adrenocortical functions. The Role of Neuro-Endocrine System .
ePUMA embedded parallel DSP processor with Unique Memory Access

Computing unto 100GOPS without cooling is essential for high-end embedded systems and much required by markets. A novel master-slave multi-SIMD architecture and its kernel (template) based parallel programming flow is thus introduced as a parallel signal processing platform, ePUMA, embedded Parallel DSP processor with Unique Memory Access. It is an on chip multi-DSP-processor (CMP) targeting to predictable signal processing for communications and multimedia. The essential technologies are to separate the processing of control stream from parallel computing, and to separate parallel data access from parallel arithmetic computing kernels. By separations, the computation and data access can be orthogonal both in hardware and in programs. Orthogonal operations can therefore be executed in parallel and the run time cost of data access can be minimized. Benchmark shows that the computing performance therefore reaches about 80% of the hardware limit. Less than 40% of the hardware limit can be reached by normal processors. The unique SIMD memory subsystem architecture offers programmable conflict free parallel data accesses. Programming flow and tools are also developed to support coding on the unique hardware architecture. A prototype on FPGA shows especially high performance over silicon cost.
Moving from Logical Sharing of Guest OS to Physical Sharing of Deduplication on Virtual Machine

Current OSes include many logical sharing techniques (shared library, symbolic link, etc.) on memory and storage. Unfortunately they cause security and management problems which come from the dynamic management of logical sharing; e.g., search path replacement attack, GOT (Global Offset Table) overwrite attack, Dependency Hell, etc. This paper proposes that self-contained binaries eliminate the problems caused by logical sharing. The memory and storage overheads caused by self-contained binaries are mitigated by physical sharing (memory and disk deduplication). The effect of deduplication was investigated on the KVM virtual machine with KSM (Kernel Samepage Merging) and LBCAS (Loopback Content Addressable Storage).
Phantom-based evaluation of isotropic reconstruction of 4-D MRI volumes using super-resolution

This article investigates the feasibility of isotropic super-resolution reconstruction on 4-D (3-D + time) thoracic MRI data. 4-D MRI sequences generally have high temporal resolution to characterize dynamic phenomena but poor spatial resolution, creating highly anisotropic voxels elongated in the slice-select dimension. Isotropic post-acquisition reconstruction can be obtained using super-resolution algorithms. A new MRI compatible phantom design that simulates lung tumour motion is introduced to evaluate the feasibility and performance of the proposed super-resolution algorithm in the context of 4-D MRI. Several orthogonal low-resolution acquisitions of the phantom are performed through time using a fast true 3-D gradient echo based sequence. The acquired volumes are then registered and combined using a total-variation based regularizer super-resolution algorithm to obtain the high-resolution volume. The quality of the reconstruction is evaluated by measuring the mutual information between the reconstructed volume and a direct isotropic 3-D acquisition. Subjective and objective evaluations show the superiority of our approach compared to the averaging method. This article also discusses the influence of various parameters such as the number of low-resolution scans used and the influence of automatic motion estimation versus known displacement.
Comparison of Functional and Anatomical Results of Colles Fracture Treated By Percutaneous K-Wire Fixation and Plaster Cast: A Randomized Prospective Study

Introduction: Although Colles fracture are is the most common fracture treated by an orthopedic surgeon still various controversies remain regarding best method of treatment. There are numerous studies regarding optimal management of these fractures with variable results and conclusions. Closed reduction followed by plaster cast application and percutaneous pinning are the two standard methods of treatment but there are few studies which compare results both objectively and subjectively. Materials and methods: Sixty four cases of Colles fractures were included in the study. Thirty two patients underwent closed reduction and percutaneous two crossed wire fixation followed by below elbow cast application under nerve block or general anaesthesia (group A). Thirty two every alternate patient underwent closed reduction and below elbow cast application under nerve block or anaesthesia (group B). Radiological and functional evaluation of results was done at three and six months and compared between two groups. Conclusion: Closed reduction and Percutaneous k-wire fixation combined with plaster cast immobilization is better method than the conventional plaster cast immobilizationin restoration of pre injury anatomical alignment in the management of Colles fracture. Anatomical reduction has not much of role in determining the functional outcome which is statistically significant in our study.
Plasmon dispersion in layered transition-metal dichalcogenides

Motivated by recent experiments, we perform a microscopic analysis of the dynamical charge response of layered transition-metal dichalcogenides that display a low-temperature charge-density wave (CDW) order. In agreement with measurements, our parameter-free results show a negative in-plane plasmon dispersion that switches to positive slope upon electron (or hole) doping. This finding is explained by the peculiar behavior of the intraband transitions, which are partially suppressed under doping, and it is not linked to the CDW order. Finally, in the direction perpendicular to the layers, we predict the reappearance around the Bragg reflections of the spectra of the first Brillouin zone, a clear effect of the crystal local-field impact. Our results give a general picture of the collective excitations in these materials suggesting a simpler reinterpretation of the experiments.