Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exercise-Induced Bronchospasm and Allergy

Sport is an essential part of childhood, with precious and acknowledged positive health effects but the impact of exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) significantly reduces participation in physical activity. It is important to recognize EIB, differentiating EIB with or without asthma if the transient narrowing of the airways after exercise is associated with asthmatic symptoms or not, in the way to select the most appropriate treatment among the many treatment options available today. Therapy is prescribed based on symptoms severity but diagnosis of EIB is established by changes in lung function provoked by exercise evaluating by direct and indirect tests. Sometimes, in younger children it is difficult to obtain the registration of difference between the preexercise forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1) value and the lowest FEV1 value recorded within 30 min after exercise, defined as the gold standard, but interrupter resistance, in association with spirometry, has been showed to be a valid alternative in preschool age. Atopy is the main risk factor, as demonstrated by epidemiologic data showing that among the estimated pediatric population with EIB up to 40% of them have allergic rhinitis and 30% of these patients may develop adult asthma, according with atopic march. Adopting the right treatment and prevention, selecting sports with no marked hyperventilation and excessive cooling of the airways, children with EIB can be able to take part in physical activity like all others.
Magnesium sulphate as a technique of hypotensive anaesthesia.

BACKGROUND This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was designed to assess the effect of perioperatively administered i.v. magnesium sulphate as a technique of hypotensive anaesthesia. METHODS Sixty patients (25 female) undergoing functional endoscopic sinus surgery were included in two parallel groups. The magnesium group received magnesium sulphate 40 mg kg(-1) i.v. as a bolus before induction of anaesthesia and 15 mg kg(-1) h(-1) by continuous i.v. infusion during the operation. The same volume of isotonic solution was administered to the control group. Intraoperative bleeding was evaluated using a quality scale. RESULTS In the magnesium group, there was a reduction in surgical time [68.1 (15.6) min vs 88.1 (10.7) min], although the anaesthetic time was 10 min longer and thus presuming a prolongation in anaesthetic emergence. There was a significant reduction of blood loss [165 (19) ml vs 257 (21) ml]. The anaesthetic requirements (fentanyl, vercuronium and sevoflurane), mean arterial blood pressure (P<0.005) and heart rate (P<0.005) were also significantly reduced. CONCLUSION Magnesium sulphate led to a reduction in arterial pressure, heart rate, blood loss and duration of surgery. Furthermore, magnesium infusion alters anaesthetic dose requirements and emergence time.
Does don't know mean no? Analysis of 'don't know' responses in dichotomous choice contingent valuation questions

The ‘don't know’ response option in contingent valuation dichotomous choice questions is analysed using data from both willingness to pay and willingness to accept studies. An empirical analysis is conducted to determine whether respondents are stating a response similar to yes or no responses or a middle response. It is found that don't know responses are similar to no responses in the willingness to pay study. In the willingness to accept study, it is found that the ‘don't know’ responses are similar to a middle response. It is further suggested that researchers consider calculating ambivalence bounds when a don't know response is a middle response.
MLSLib: A Lip Sync Library for Multi Agents and Languages

This article presents MLSLib, a software library for human gure animation with lip syncing. The library enables us to easily use multiple TTS systems and multiple lip motion generators, and switch them arbitrarily. It also helps use of multiple speaking agents, possibly with di erent TTS systems and lip motion generators. The MLSLib is composed of three modules: LSSAgent, TTSManager, and FCPManager; The LSSAgent module provides uni ed simple APIs per single agent, independent of TTS systems and lip motion generators. The TTSManager and FCPManager manage TTS systems and lip motion generators, respectively. Both modules support standard sets of phonetic alphabets per language, and thus users are freed from TTS-dependent implementation of lip motion generators. Applications to multi-lingual agents and LOD in lip syncing are also presented.
The case for diglossia: Describing the emergence of two grammars in the early acquisition of metropolitan French*

ABSTRACT This article supports the diglossic approach to variation in metropolitan French by delving into the subject from the point of view of acquisition. Drawing on naturalistic data from 37 native French children between the ages of 2;3 and 4;0, the investigation exemplifies the existence of two cognate, but distinct grammars in the mind/brain of these children. The distinction between Spontaneous French (G1, all children) and Normed French (G2, 4 children by age 4) hinges upon two crucial characteristics, i.e. the morpho-syntactic status of nominative clitics and the emergence of the negative particle ne. Accusative clitics with imperatives and past-participle agreement are also examined in order to gain a comprehensive picture of the two grammars. Finally, the emergence of ne is interpreted as a trigger forcing a speaker to move from G1 to G2 due to the total unavailability of ne in G1.
Student Leadership Programming Model Revisited.

Roberts and Ullom (1989) theorized that leadership programs should consist of training, education, and development programs. Their model has gained widespread acceptance since its inception, but has not evolved to reflect contemporary conceptualizations of leadership. This paper demonstrates a new conceptualization of the model updated for modern process-oriented leadership, the student leadership programming matrix. The new model casts program styles against individual and group functions, thereby creating a more holistic perspective of the leadership phenomenon. The model is also explored in relation to assessment, campus culture, and sample programs.
Design, synthesis and anticonvulsant activity of some new 5,7-dibromoisatin semicarbazone derivatives

A series of 5,7-dibromoisatin semicarbazones have been synthesized in good yield, involving aryl urea and aryl semicarbazide formation. The structures of the synthesized compounds were confirmed on the basis of their spectral data. All the compounds were evaluated for anticonvulsant and CNS depressant activities. Anticonvulsant activity was determined after intraperitoneal (i.p.) administration to mice by maximal electroshock (MES) induced seizure method and minimal motor impairment was determined by rotarod test. A computational study was carried out for prediction of pharmacokinetic properties and making them potentially promising agents for the treatment of epilepsy. Compounds (Z)-1-(5,7-dibromo-2-oxoindolin-3-ylidene)-4-(4-chlorophenyl)semicarbazide (DH-05), (Z)-1-(5,7-dibromo-2-oxoindolin-3-ylidene)-4-(3-chloro-4-fluorophenyl)semicarbazide (DH-11) and (Z)-1-(5,7-dibromo-1-methyl-2-oxoindolin-3-ylidene)-4-(3-chloro-4-fluorophenyl)semicarbazide (DH-12) exhibited prominent anticonvulsant effect in the series with little or no neurotoxicity and little CNS depressant effect as compared to standard drug.
The Molecular Perspective: p53 Tumor Suppressor

Guardian of the Cell. ” It is not essential for life—mice that are deficient in this protein are born seemingly normal—but it is essential in its role of protecting an organism from rogue cells. p53 guards two gates: a gate to life and a gate to death. Sensing damage to DNA, p53 can initiate two processes to isolate the damaged cell and prevent its uncontrolled growth. It can halt cell division, freezing the cell at the G1 checkpoint of the cellular cycle. The cell is unable to reproduce, and its damaged genome is safely isolated. p53 can also initiate a more permanent solution: programmed cell death, or apoptosis. p53 tumor suppressor acts as transcriptional activator, controlling the expression of a variety of genes important in cell cycle regulation and apoptosis. p53, composed of four identical subunits, binds to a specific site on the DNA, and interacts with transcription interaction factors, leading to the initiation of transcription by RNA polymerase II. p53 itself is present at extremely low levels in most cells, and has a life span of mere minutes. These low levels allow the action of p53 to be genetically controlled. Levels may be raised quickly by synthesis of more p53, and high levels are quickly reduced when synthesis abates. The induction of p53 has a hair-trigger: even a single double-stranded break of the DNA has been predicted to be enough. As one might expect, disruption of a process with such an important function will have dire consequences. Approximately half of all cases of human cancer may be attributed to a defective p53 protein. Most of these are caused by missense mutations in the p53 gene, changing The Molecular Perspective: p53 Tumor Suppressor
Tocilizumab and steroid boli for treatment‐resistant anterior necrotizing scleritis

(95% CI, 1.314–31.834) in PEX and PEX glaucoma, respectively. But Bonferroni-corrected p value was 0.192 and 0.216, respectively. Other SNPs were not associated with PEX syndrome (p > 0.05). The rs2151532 SNP which is closer to CTGF than rs928501 (linkage disequilibrium r = 0.046) was also associated with disease in total patients, especially associated with PEX glaucoma (p = 0.002, Bonferroni-corrected p = 0.024). Additional haplotype analyses were performed using significant SNPs and neighbouring SNPs (rs9399005-rs2151532-rs928501rs7768619). Haplotype ‘G-C-C-C’ was more frequent in cases (7.5%) than in controls (2.6%) (p = 0.040). Another haplotype ‘A-T-C-T’ also showed similar pattern (3.0% in cases and 0.5% in controls) (p = 0.069). The result showed no significant association after Bonferroni’s correction. There is limitation of small sample size in this study. Nevertheless, functional data of the ENCODE project provide diverse biochemical evidence that near the region of rs928501 are enriched protein binding, DNase I hypersensitivity and histone modification sites (http://www.regulomedb.org). Further expression quantitative loci analysis is essential to prove that the SNPs associated with PEX have an effect on the gene expression level of CTFG. Our findings might support the differentially expressed CTGF in PEX samples in previous studies and suggest the genetic basis of CTGF for the pathogenesis of PEX.
The effects of prior exposure to erotic and nonerotic stimuli on the rape index

This study examined the effects of prior exposure to videotapes of erotic and nonerotic activities, on the subsequent sexual arousal of 75 nonoffender males. Prior exposure to explicit videotapes depicting rape significantly enhanced subsequent arousal to forced sex but had no impact on arousal to consenting sex. Prior exposure to explicit and nonexplicit consenting sex videotapes did not produce subsequent arousal patterns that significantly differed from that produced by prior exposure to a nonerotic videotape.
Collation Strategy Based on Heuristics Chart for Myanmar Language

Collation of Myanmar words is fundamental tasks in searching Unicode base data in database. Name collation entail in government employee profile, digital library, online library catalogue, bibliographic retrieval system, electronic yellow pages, terrorist information database, immigration control, museum and historical archive department in our country. Effectual name collation strategy has necessitated to the all embracing research in the vicinity of name search system. Consequently, we propose a new collation algorithm for Myanmar language. This collation algorithm is based on heuristic chart or table. This method foremost slices the syllables of names and then collates them according to the traditional standard Myanmar language spelling book order. Propose heuristic chart can work well not only for syllable segmentation but also for collation of words. This algorithm can collate Myanmar names as well as Myanmar words with complex syllable structure such as Pali loan styles, subscript styles and kinzi styles. The experimental results show the high accuracy rate of slicing complex structure, subscript forms, and kinzi forms of Myanmar words in addition to collation.
The ties of loyalty

The consideration of how societies hold together and function as one with the coexistence of potentially conflicting ideas and commitments remains a topic of crucial importance. This paper advocates a renewed interest in the subject of loyalty as one of the bonds tying us together in society. It acknowledges that the nature of loyalty has often been seen as problematic, particularly where ties to some affect our abilities to make moral judgements. It purports that the area of conflicting loyalties needs greater philosophical attention within our understanding of the moral life. Using two literary exemplars, Antigone and Lord of the Flies, the paper explores how loyalties play a fundamental part in our psyche and our social lives. With this in mind, it suggests that greater consideration should be paid to how schools should support children in coping with competing loyalties and with making judgements required by loyalty claims.
Ecosystem, QoE and pricing of end to end differentiated services

End-to-End (E2E) differentiated services refer to content and application services delivered over Internet with differentiated grade of quality of service (QoS) involving multiple network and ecosystem actors. Such services represent a prospective way to assure QoS required by demanding customers, who cannot be satisfied with QoS delivered by the usual best effort Internet connectivity. This paper focuses on the service differentiation aspect. Using portfolio theory from finance, it develops an optimization model designed for selection of portfolio of such content and application services with varying degrees of QoS by risk adverse service provider under uncertainty about demand, generated by market of heterogeneous users. The model includes decisions about service offer, quality of services, pricing and network capacity expansion. QoS is here used as an objective measure of quality of experience (QoE) for services with E2E performance determining the user satisfaction degree. The risk/profit tradeoff is computed using the industry specific risk measure, which is the fraction of demand not satisfied under the required QoS. We present numerical analysis of the model and the results of the case study shows that introduction of E2E differentiated services can bring substantial benefits to ISP and demanding users, while preserving the quality of basic services.
Creating GUI-based DSL formal tools

In this paper we propose a rigorous methodology to create GUI-based DSLs formal tools. From a formal specification of a DSL we extract a metamodel and create a user-friendly (GUI) front-end. Then we use a code synthesizer to create a formally verified back-end. At the end we link both parts using a wrapper solution. We aim at providing a productive and trustworthy development methodology to safety critical industries.
Face likelihood functions for visual tracking in intelligent spaces

The Viola and Jones face detectors and Particle Filters are great algorithms for face detections and target tracking. However Viola outputs a binary result, while Particle Filters work with probabilistic inputs. This is the reason why there are not so many works that combine both algorithms. A probabilistic model or likelihood functions to transform Viola and Jones output to probabilistic data are needed to allow linking both methods. In this work we explore some Viola and Jones based likelihood functions presented in literature, and propose new strategies. We also extend the evaluation of the likelihood functions in position, scale and pose. One of our proposed functions shows better characteristics to be used in intelligent spaces in three dimensional face tracking applications.
A general approach to the generation of biorthogonal bases of compactly-supported wavelets

Biorthogonal bases of compactly-supported wavelets are characterized by the FIR perfect-reconstruction filterbanks to which they correspond. We develop explicit representations of all such filterbanks, allowing us to generate every possible biorthogonal compactly-supported wavelet basis. For these filterbanks, the product /spl Hscr/(z)=H(z)H/spl tilde/(z) of the two lowpass filters must have N/spl ges/2 zeros at z=-1. There are N+1 minimal-length filterbanks for each N. The filterbanks associated with standard orthogonal and symmetric biorthogonal wavelet bases are found as a special case by using appropriate factorizations of symmetric /spl Hscr/(z) with even N; other filterbanks lead to novel biorthogonal bases.
Judgments of Sentence Grammatically with Differentiation and Enrichment Strategies

30 students rated the relative grammaticality of isolated sentences twice, with sentences presented repeatedly between the two judgments. Subjects were asked to adopt either a differentiation or an enrichment strategy during a repetition phase. The former strategy involved differentiation by structurally analyzing the sentences, while the latter involved enrichment by supplying situational contexts for the sentences. Analysis showed an interaction between a strategy adopted and the time of judgments such that the subjects instructed to adopt a differentiation strategy tended to use a more stringent criterion on judgments after than before repetition, whereas the subjects asked to adopt an enrichment strategy showed a slight tendency to use a more lenient criterion. These findings indicated that these two types of mental processes are involved in part in the change in criterion for judgments of grammaticality as shown in previous studies.
Crowdsourcing support system for disaster surveillance and response

Experiences with past major disasters tell us that people with wireless devices and social network services can be effective mobile human sensors. Eye-witness reports taken at right locations can provide invaluable information and enable a disaster surveillance system to mend blind regions in sensor coverage. In this work, we develop a system, named CROSS, that supports crowdsourcing disaster surveillance data collection by volunteers exploring threatened areas. CROSS first broadcasts a volunteer request to the crowd via social network(s), such as Facebook, Twitter and so on. It then plans exploration routes for the volunteers responded to the request based on their locations.
Reward Structures in the Public High School

This study examines the relationship between eight categories of rewards available to teachers in high schools and teacher behaviors of absenteeism, recruitment and retention. Findings emphasize the importance of intrinsic motivators in professional organizations and suggest basic differences in motivational patterns between profes sional and production oriented organizations. Dennis W. Spuck is an Assistant Professor of Educational Administration at the Uni versity of Wisconsin-Madison.
A framework for analyzing the small-signal dynamic performance of unbalanced power systems

The effect of load and system unbalance is often neglected in the analysis of the small-signal dynamics of power systems, due to the lack of a specialized tool. The main reason for it is the fact that it is not possible to clearly define a steady-state equilibrium point for the power system under unbalanced conditions, since the generators rotor speed oscillate at twice the fundamental frequency of the system due to the effect of the negative sequence torque that appears under these conditions. In other words, the equilibrium conditions of this model are non-stationary, even in Park's 0dq reference frame. Without a well-defined stationary equilibrium point, it is not possible to linearize the system around it, and thus the existing tools for small-signal stability analysis cannot be applied in this case without large simplifying approximations, which can introduce a significant amount of error if the degree of imbalance in the system is high. This work presents a framework that can overcome this problem, therefore allowing the small-signal stability analysis of power systems under unbalanced operating conditions. This framework consists in simulating small perturbations using a nonlinear power system model and then using a modal estimation technique (based on a rotational invariance approach) to extract the modal characteristics of the simulated signals. The results of the application of the defined framework are presented in a case study, at the end of the paper, comprising an equivalent model of a distribution system with a synchronous generator directly connected to it. From these results, it is possible to conclude that the proposed framework indeed enables the small-signal stability analysis of unbalanced power systems without the approximations needed to apply the traditional tools based on linearized models.
Scheduling and planning the outbound baggage process at international airports

The scheduling of outbound baggage at international airports is a challenging tasks in the airport industry. The issue is to control the incoming baggage flow in order to balance the workload over the system. The resource consumption of the different activities, which have to be scheduled, are depending on the arrival process of the baggage. Because of high complexity we suggest a decomposition heuristic to tackle this problem.
Reshuffling of Aspergillus fumigatus Cell Wall Components Chitin and β-Glucan under the Influence of Caspofungin or Nikkomycin Z Alone or in Combination

ABSTRACT Chitin and β-glucan are major cell wall components of Aspergillus spp. We investigated the antifungal activity of chitin synthesis inhibitors nikkomycin Z, polyoxin D, flufenoxuron, lufenuron, and teflubenzuron, alone and combined with the β-glucan synthesis inhibitor caspofungin. Only nikkomycin Z and caspofungin were found to act synergistically. The nikkomycin Z-induced chitin decrease corresponded with a β-glucan increase, while with the caspofungin-induced β-glucan decrease, an increase in chitin was found. This could explain the synergistic activity of this combination of drugs.
Chromatic numbers of quadrangulations on closed surfaces

It has been shown that every quadrangulation on any nonspherical orientable closed surface with a sufficiently large representativity has chromatic number at most 3. In this paper, we show that a quadrangulation G on a nonorientable closed surface Nk has chromatic number at least 4 if G has a cycle of odd length which cuts open Nk into an orientable surface. Moreover, we characterize the quadrangulations on the torus and the Klein bottle with chromatic number exactly 3. By our characterization, we prove that every quadrangulation on the torus with representativity at least 9 has chromatic number at most 3, and that a quadrangulation on the Klein bottle with representativity at least 7 has chromatic number at most 3 if a cycle cutting open the Klein bottle into an annulus has even length. As an application of our theory, we prove that every nonorientable closed surface Nk admits an eulerian triangulation with chromatic number at least 5 which has arbitrarily large representativity. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 37: 100–114, 2001