Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Overrepresentation of the COL3A1 AA genotype in Polish skiers with anterior cruciate ligament injury

Although various intrinsic and extrinsic risk factors for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture have been identified, the exact aetiology of the injury is not yet fully understood. Type III collagen is an important factor in the repair of connective tissue, and certain gene polymorphisms may impair the tensile strength. The aim of this study was to examine the association of the COL3A1 rs1800255 polymorphism with ACL rupture in Polish male recreational skiers. A total of 321 male Polish recreational skiers were recruited for this study; 138 had surgically diagnosed primary ACL ruptures (ACL-injured group) and 183 were apparently healthy male skiers (control group – CON) who had no self-reported history of ligament or tendon injury. Both groups had a comparable level of exposure to ACL injury. Genomic DNA was extracted from the oral epithelial cells. All samples were genotyped on a real-time polymerase chain reaction instrument. The genotype distribution in the ACL-injured group was significantly different than in CON (respectively: AA=10.1 vs 2.2%, AG=22.5 vs 36.1, GG=67.4 vs 61.8%; p=0.0087). The AA vs AG+GG genotype of COL3A1 (odds ratio (OR)=5.05; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.62-15.71, p=0.003) was significantly overrepresented in the ACL-injured group compared with CON. The frequency of the A allele was higher in the ACL-injured group (21.4%) compared with CON (20.2%), but the difference was not statistically significant (p=0.72). This study revealed an association between the COL3A1 rs1800255 polymorphism and ACL ruptures in Polish skiers.
Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education

We report an analysis of whether a psychology placement provides significant benefit to graduates’ careers. Destination of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey data six months post-graduation suggested that placement programme graduates across the university are significantly more likely to be (1) in work and (2) in graduate-level jobs. For psychology, the association between graduates’ placement status and employment status at the same time was not significant overall. However, when analyses were split by degree classification obtained, it was shown that amongst those graduates with 2.1 degrees reporting themselves as working, more placement vs. non-placement programme graduates had obtained graduate-level jobs (63% vs. 33%). In 2.2 classified graduates there was no significant association. This pattern persisted in the data from a survey of psychology alumni (from 18 months to six and a half years post-graduation). Psychology placement programme alumni were also more satisfied with their careers. Although placement graduates earned marginally more, this difference did not reach statistical significance. This study was therefore able to show some measurable and persistent effects of a psychology placement year, although whether the benefits can be claimed to outweigh the costs is inconclusive. Limitations and implications of the study are discussed.
Combination of Multiple Speech Transcription Methods for Vocabulary Independent Search

Today, most systems use large vocabulary continuous speech recognition tools to produce word transcripts which have indexed transcripts and query terms retrieved from the index. However, query terms that are not part of the recognizer’s vocabulary cannot be retrieved, thereby affecting the recall of the search. Such terms can be retrieved using phonetic search methods. Phonetic transcripts can be generated by expanding the word transcripts into phones using the baseforms in the dictionary. In addition, advanced systems can provide phonetic transcripts using sub-word based language models. However, these phonetic transcripts suffer from inaccuracy and do not provide a good alternative to word transcripts. We demonstrate how to retrieve information from speech data by presenting a novel approach for vocabulary independent retrieval combining search on transcripts that are produced according to different word and sub-word decoding methods. We present two different algorithms: the first is based on the Threshold Algorithm (TA); the second uses a Boolean retrieval model on inverted indices. The value of this combination is demonstrated on data from NIST 2006 Spoken Term Detection evaluation.
Gene network inference by fusing data from diverse distributions

Motivation: Markov networks are undirected graphical models that are widely used to infer relations between genes from experimental data. Their state-of-the-art inference procedures assume the data arise from a Gaussian distribution. High-throughput omics data, such as that from next generation sequencing, often violates this assumption. Furthermore, when collected data arise from multiple related but otherwise nonidentical distributions, their underlying networks are likely to have common features. New principled statistical approaches are needed that can deal with different data distributions and jointly consider collections of datasets. Results: We present FuseNet, a Markov network formulation that infers networks from a collection of nonidentically distributed datasets. Our approach is computationally efficient and general: given any number of distributions from an exponential family, FuseNet represents model parameters through shared latent factors that define neighborhoods of network nodes. In a simulation study, we demonstrate good predictive performance of FuseNet in comparison to several popular graphical models. We show its effectiveness in an application to breast cancer RNA-sequencing and somatic mutation data, a novel application of graphical models. Fusion of datasets offers substantial gains relative to inference of separate networks for each dataset. Our results demonstrate that network inference methods for non-Gaussian data can help in accurate modeling of the data generated by emergent high-throughput technologies. Availability and implementation: Source code is at https://github.com/marinkaz/fusenet. Contact: blaz.zupan@fri.uni-lj.si Supplementary information: Supplementary information is available at Bioinformatics online.
Helping till it hurts? A multimethod study of compassion fatigue, burnout, and self-care in clinicians working with trauma survivors.

There is burgeoning interest in secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue, and self-care in the helping professions. This multimethod study focused on therapists' stress and coping in their work with trauma survivors, identifying factors related to resilience and burnout. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 20 clinicians subscribing to a systems perspective, and 104 clinicians were administered a questionnaire inquiring about their caseloads, trauma history, coping styles, emotional self-awareness, work stress, compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, and burnout. Interview data demonstrated that therapists detect job stress through bodily symptoms, mood changes, sleep disturbances, becoming easily distracted, and increased difficulty concentrating. Self-care strategies included processing with peers/supervisor, spirituality, exercise, and spending time with family. In the quantitative study, social support, work hours, and internal locus of control accounted for 41% of the variance in .
Gender differences in scientific knowledge and attitudes toward science: a comparative study of four Anglo-American nations

Despite a lack of empirical verification, research analysts and populist commentators have long assumed that a key factor in explaining anti-scientific attitudes among women is their greater disinterest and ignorance of scientific developments. Using nationally representative Anglo-American data from the 1993 International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) Environment Survey, the results of this analysis question that assumption. Women in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and New Zealand are indeed less knowledgeable and hold less favorable attitudes toward science than men. However, in all but the United States, these gender differences in scientific attitudes are due to male-female disparities in educational background and religious belief, not to variations in scientific knowledge. Thus, in Canada, Great Britain and New Zealand, it is not gender per se but rather differences in social background that explain citizens' views. A somewhat different pattern emerges in the United States. Here, it is differences in levels of scientific knowledge and not demographic background, including gender, which explains public variation in attitudes toward science. The implications of these findings for both research analysts and policy makers are briefly discussed.
The Myth of Social Investing

L'investissement social egalement qualifie d'ethique ou socialement responsable, est cense contribuer au financement d'entreprises respectant des engagements ethiques ou sociaux. Le present article tente de mettre en evidence les faiblesses methodologiques de l'elaboration des criteres utilises en particulier par Kinder, Lydenberg et Domini pour definir l'investissement social
Polarization evolution in a strongly magnetized vacuum: QED effect and polarized X-ray emission from magnetized neutron stars

X-ray photons emitted from the surface or atmosphere of a magnetized neutron star are highly polarized. However, the observed polarization may be modified due to photon propagation through the star's magnetosphere. For photon frequencies much larger than the typical radio frequency, vacuum birefringence due to strong-field quantum electrodynamics (QED) dominates over the plasma effect. We study the evolution of photon polarization in the magnetized QED vacuum of a neutron star magnetosphere, paying particular attention to the propagation effect across the quasi-tangential (QT) point, where the photon momentum is nearly aligned with the magnetic field. In agreement with previous studies, we find that in most regions of the magnetosphere, the photon polarization modes are decoupled due to vacuum birefringence, and therefore a large net linear polarization can be expected when the radiation escapes the magnetosphere. However, we show that the X-ray polarization may change significantly when the photon passes through the QT region. When averaging over a finite emission area, the net effect of QT propagation is to reduce the degree of linear polarization; the reduction factor depends on the photon energy, magnetic field strength, geometry, rotation phase and the emission area, and can be more than a factor of 2. We derive the general conditions under which the QT propagation effect is important, and provide an easy-to-use prescription to account for the QT effect for most practical calculations of X-ray polarization signals from magnetic neutron stars. For a neutron star with a dipole magnetic field, the QT effect can be important for emission from the polar cap for certain magnetic field and energy ranges, and is negligible for emission from the entire stellar surface.
Multicasting in a WDM-upgraded Resilient Packet Ring

The recently approved IEEE 802.17 Resilient Packet Ring (RPR) network deteriorates under multicast traffic to legacy ring technologies that do not support spatial reuse. We extend our multicast approach with spatial reuse from a currently single-channel RPR to WDM-upgraded multichannel RPR networks, where each node can transmit packets on all wavelengths and receive on one wavelength, and analyze their multicast capacity. Our analysis provides a convenient method for evaluating the multicast and reception capacities of WDM-upgraded RPR networks for a wide range of uniform unicast, multicast, and broadcast traffic scenarios.
A Mensuração da variável “Estado de Espírito” na população Portuguesa

Neste artigo, apos a apresentacao de uma revisao critica e sumariada das operacionalizacoes do conceito “estado de espirito” (mood) oferecidas na literatura de investigacao psicologica, sao oferecidas algumas propostas de operacionalizacao do construto na lingua portuguesa. E assim apresentada uma escala de avaliacao do estado de espirito construida com base na metodologia proposta por Likert, numa versao de 29 itens e numa versao reduzida de 4 itens; um conjunto de diferenciais semânticos com estudo das suas caracteristicas psicometricas ao longo de 4 estudos diferentes; bem como o estudo da validade concorrente destas duas medidas em comparacao com a utilizacao de um simples “termometro avaliativo” do estado de espirito.
Open invitation

Simultaneously lacking some fundamental data about the role of digital games in culture, while being faced with the challenge of games' near global presence, cultural game studies is in need of collaborative research efforts. This article discusses some starting points for cultural and social-psychological study of games and digital play, while inviting participation into an international, comparative research project.
Resilience in Families Caring for a Family Member Diagnosed with Dementia

The aim of this study was to identify and explore factors associated with family resilience in families caring for a demented family member. A mixed-methods approach was utilized to collect data from a convenience sample of spouses acting as primary caregivers of patients and living in the Cape Metropolitan area of the Western Cape, South Africa. The sample was comprised of families in which a spouse (n = 44) was caring for a partner with dementia. The quantitative data analysis was conducted using analyses of variance, Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficients, and a best-subsets multiple regression analysis. Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic content analysis. It was found that social support, positive communication patterns, acceptance, optimism, family hardiness, family connectedness, and the effective management of symptoms facilitated the resilience process in these families. In addition to expanding the current literature regarding family resilience, the findings of this study could be used to develop interventions tailored to the needs of these families caring for dementia patients to create a family environment that enhances adjustment and adaptation.
Degree-of-freedom analysis for sequential machines targeting BIST quality and gate area

This paper reports the design of BIST structures for sequential machines. Testability of an FSM is limited due to the fact that some machine states remain unreachable and some act as a sink under any input sequence. The proposed scheme provides uniform mobility, referred to as degree of freedom, among the machine states in test mode by enhancing the reachability and emitability of the states. Uniform mobility of states ensures higher fault efficiency in a BIST structure. A graph based approach is introduced for state code assignment to minimize gate area. Experimental results on benchmark circuits establish that the proposed scheme does improve the BIST quality simultaneously reducing the gate area of the synthesized machine.
Developing a database of behavioural medicine interventions.

OBJECTIVE To describe the development of the Cochrane Behavioral Medicine Field database of interventions and its contribution to the knowledge base of this field. METHODS A list of behavioural medicine interventions was solicited from content experts. The resulting list of index terms was used to generate a comprehensive search strategy to retrieve relevant records, and a thesaurus of terms with which to index them. The records are included in a register. A subset of records have been coded for study design, health condition, intervention, study participants, setting and provider and made available in a public online database. RESULTS The Cochrane Behavioral Medicine Field database consists of over 3500 records of systematic reviews, meta-analyses and randomized controlled trials for public educational use. CONCLUSIONS The register provides a comprehensive listing of studies relating to behavioural medicine interventions. The public online database enables easy access to the evidence base and provides enhanced details of the studies included on it. These databases are a valuable resource for the behavioural medicine community. Other fields are encouraged to duplicate these methods in the design of content-specific databases.
Motivation: The Road to Successful Learning

This research has the aim of highlighting the importance of motivation in the process of learning English as a foreign language. For that purpose, some factors that affect motivation are described, using as a starting point the answers obtained from a questionnaire given to students in their fourth year of compulsory secondary education. The main conclusions of the research show the fundamental role of factors such as the teacher, the four skills, students’ interests and daily habits, among others. Finally, some guidelines for a teaching methodology are proposed with the intention of future development. Esta investigacion nace con el objetivo de resaltar la importancia de la motivacion en el proceso de aprender ingles como lengua extranjera basandose en los resultados obtenidos en un cuestionario para alumnos de cuarto curso de Educacion Secundaria Obligatoria. Las principales conclusiones de la investigacion muestran el papel fundamental que juegan algunos de los factores que afectan a la motivacion como el profesor, las cuatro destrezas, los intereses y habitos de estudio de los alumnos, etc. En la parte final de la investigacion se describe una serie de pautas para desarrollar una propuesta metodologica que tenga en cuenta los resultados de este estudio.
Variants in DNA double‐strand break repair and DNA damage‐response genes and susceptibility to lung and head and neck cancers

Cigarette smoking is the major risk factor for lung cancer, and together with alcohol for head and neck (HN) cancer. These genotoxics produced DNA damage and particularly double‐strand breaks (DSB) that are removed by various repair pathways. To understand the initiation of these cancers, we performed a genotype analysis to correlate some variants in specific genes in a case‐control study of lung and HN cancers. In a discovery phase, we sequenced DNA samples of 32 healthy Caucasians to describe genetic variants in 30 genes involved in the repair of DSB and in DNA damage response. 625 variants were detected on 29 out of the 30 genes successfully screened by sequencing exons, parts of introns and flanking regions. These included 470 non‐exonic variants, from which 33 insertions/deletions, and 155 exonic alterations, corresponding to 59 non synonymous polymorphisms. 223 of these variants were not previously described. In total, 379 variants were successfully genotyped in a case‐control study restricted to smokers including 151 lung cases, 251 HN cases, and 172 controls. To account for multiple testing, we associated to each p‐value a proportion of false positives (q‐value). Haplotype‐analysis suggested potential associations (p < 0.05) between lung cancer and 2 genes (RECQL4 and RAD52), which came with q‐value of 8%, and between HN cancer and 1 gene (DNA‐PK) but with q‐value of 56%. The 3 genes are key players for regulating the efficiency of DSB repair. Large‐scale studies are needed to show if any of these 3 variants are truly associated with an increased risk of cancer. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Targeting IGF1R pathway in cancer with microRNAs: How close are we?

ABSTRACT Cancer of the head and neck are the most common cancers in India and account for 30% of all cancers. At molecular level, it could be attributed to the overexpression of growth factors like IGF1-R, EGFR, VEGF-R and deregulation of cell cycle regulators and tumor suppressors. IGF1-R is an emerging target in head and neck cancer treatment, because of its reported role in tumor development, progression and metastasis. IGF1R targeted agents are in advanced stages of clinical development. Nevertheless, these agents suffer from several disadvantages including acquired resistance and toxic side effects. Hence there is a need for developing newer agents targeting not only the receptor but also its downstream signaling. miRNAs are considered as master regulators of gene expression of multiple genes and has been widely reported to be a promising therapeutic strategy. This review discusses the present status of research in both these arenas and emphasizes the role of miRNA as a promising agent for biologic therapy.
Novel films for drug delivery via the buccal mucosa using model soluble and insoluble drugs

Bioadhesive buccal films are innovative dosage forms with the ability to adhere to the mucosal surface and subsequently hydrate to release and deliver drugs across the buccal membrane. This study aims to formulate and characterize stable carrageenan (CAR) based buccal films with desirable drug loading capacity. The films were prepared using CAR, poloxamer (POL) 407, various grades of PEG (plasticizer) and loaded with paracetamol (PM) and indomethacin (IND) as model soluble and insoluble drugs, respectively. The films were characterized by texture analysis, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), DSC, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), and in vitro drug release studies. Optimized films were obtained from aqueous gels comprising 2.5% w/w κ-CAR 911, 4% w/w POL 407 and 6% w/w (PM) and 6.5% w/w (IND) of PEG 600 with maximum drug loading of 1.6% w/w and 0.8 % w/w for PM and IND, respectively. TGA showed residual water content of approximately 5% of films dry weight. DSC revealed a Tg at 22.25 and 30.77°C for PM and IND, respectively, implying the presence of amorphous forms of both drugs which was confirmed by XRPD. Drug dissolution profiles in simulated saliva showed cumulative percent release of up to 45 and 57% of PM and IND, respectively, within 40 min of contact with dissolution medium simulating saliva.
Accelerating the Calibration of Stochastic Volatility Models

Option valuation models keep advancing toward greater versatility and realism, by introducing more-flexible stochastic processes and more-complex payoff structures. Allowing stochastically time-varying volatility and jumps in the returns process, the volatility process, or both greatly broadens the range of asset price behavior that can be incorporated in the pricing model. One of the key mathematical tools for solving more-complicated models is the use of characteristic functions and related transform methods. But these tools require computing integrals in the complex domain, which is complicated and has some potential pitfalls. Several different numerical solution techniques are used, including direct integration with an approach such as Gaussian quadrature, the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), or fractional FFT. In this article, Kilin reviews these methods and proposes a computational enhancement to the basic Gaussian quadrature approach that speeds it up substantially by storing intermediate results and reusing the saved values rather than recomputing them each time. In the direct comparison reported here, the modified quadrature approach was around 30 times faster than FFT and 15 times faster than fractional FFT.