Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vowel Duration and Spectral Balance in Scottish English and Russian

This is a cross-linguistic study into the effect of extrinsic vowel duration conditioning on the realisation of spectral balance (intensity distribution above 0.5 kHz) in Scottish English and Russian. The materials consisted of monosyllabic words containing the vowel /i/ in prominent syllables, with varied right consonantal context in order to trigger extrinsic vowel duration conditioning. Results show, that Scottish females have a higher spectral level (between 2.5–4.5 kHz) in the short /i/ than in the long one, whereas Russian females do not differentiate between the two in spectral balance, and not to the same extent in duration. We present the results and discuss the observed differences in duration and spectral balance with regards to possible confounding effects.
A carboxyl‐terminal cysteine residue is required for palmitic acid binding and biological activity of the ras‐related yeast YPT1 protein.

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae YPT1 gene codes for a ras‐like, guanine nucleotide‐binding protein which is essential for cell viability. The functional significance of two consecutive cysteines at the very carboxyl‐terminal end of this protein and in ypt homologues of other eukaryotic species was examined. YPT1 gene mutations were generated that either led to substitutions by serine or the deletion of one or both C‐terminal cysteines. The consequences of the mutations were checked in cells after replacing the wild type with the mutant genes. It was found that as long as one of the cysteines was retained, the protein was fully functional. The YPT1 protein could be labelled with [3H]palmitic acid that appeared to be bound in an ester linkage. The wild‐type protein was evenly distributed between soluble and membrane‐associated proteins, the palmitoylated form was predominantly in the crude membrane fraction. The mutant protein lacking the C‐terminal cysteines was not palmitoylated and was exclusively found in the soluble fraction. The extension by three residues, ‐Val‐Leu‐Ser, generating a ras‐typical C‐terminal end, did not interfere with the mutant YPT1 protein's function although it resulted in a reduced labelling with palmitic acid.
Herceptin (trastuzamab) in advanced breast cancer.

Herceptin (trastuzamab, Genentech, San Francisco, CA, USA) prolongs survival in metastatic breast cancer patients whose tumours overexpress the HER2/neu protein. Compared with chemotherapy alone, patients receiving chemotherapy and Herceptin have a significantly longer time to progression, a higher response rate and a longer duration of response. These effects are most marked in first-line treatment of metastatic disease. The addition of Herceptin is associated with few additional side-effects, apart from cardiac toxicity in patients concurrently receiving anthracyclines. As such, it seems reasonable for Herceptin to become considered as one of the routine treatment options in metastatic breast cancer. It would therefore be appropriate for HER2 status testing to be incorporated into the assessment of all patients with metastatic disease. The use of this medication will be limited by its cost. Furthermore, data are lacking on appropriate treatments durations in responders.
A journey into the deaf-world

A new language minority has come to the fore in America and around the world. It is the tight-knit society -- some million strong in the United States -- that calls itself, in American Sign Language, the Deaf-World. It has a history, a flourishing culture, and a political agenda. A Journey into the Deaf-World is the compelling story of this much misunderstood minority as it struggles for self-determination. Journey address questions such as these: What is Deaf culture all about? ; How are Deaf children raised and educated and how should they be? ; What do signed language and Deaf culture have to offer the Deaf child -- and hearing people? ; What can we learn from Deaf societies in other lands? ; How does technology help -- and hinder -- Deaf people? ; How to Deaf people integrate into the larger society?
Controlled pre–post, mixed-methods study to determine the effectiveness of a national delirium clinical care standard to improve the diagnosis and care of patients with delirium in Australian hospitals: a protocol

Introduction Delirium, an acute confusional state, affects up to 29% of acute inpatients aged 65 years and over. The Australian Delirium Clinical Care Standard (the Standard) contains evidence-based, multicomponent interventions, to identify and reduce delirium. This study aims to: (1) conduct a controlled, before-and-after study to assess the clinical effectiveness of the Standard to improve diagnosis and treatment of delirium; (2) conduct a cost-effectiveness study of implementing the Standard and (3) evaluate the implementation process. Methods and analysis The study will use a controlled, preimplementation and postimplementation mixed-methods study design, including: medical record reviews, activity-based costing analysis and interviews with staff, patients and their family members. The study population will comprise patients 65 years and over, admitted to surgical, medical and intensive care wards in four intervention hospitals and one control hospital. The primary clinical outcome will be the incidence of delirium. Secondary outcomes include: length of stay, severity and duration of delirium, inhospital mortality rates, readmission rates and use of psychotropic drugs. Cost-effectiveness will be evaluated through activity-based costing analysis and outcome data, and the implementation process appraised through the qualitative results. Ethics and dissemination Ethics approval has been received for two hospitals. Additional hospitals have been identified and ethics applications will be submitted once the tools in the pilot study have been tested. The results will be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals and presented to national and international conferences. Results seminars will provide a quality feedback mechanism for staff and health policy bodies.
Role understanding and effective communication as core competencies for collaborative practice

The ability to work with professionals from other disciplines to deliver collaborative, patient-centred care is considered a critical element of professional practice requiring a specific set of competencies. However, a generally accepted framework for collaborative competencies is missing, which makes consistent preparation of students and staff challenging. Some authors have argued that there is a lack of conceptual clarity of the “active ingredients” of collaboration relating to quality of care and patient outcomes, which may be at the root of the competencies issue. As part of a large Health Canada funded study focused on interprofessional education and collaborative practice, our goal was to understand the competencies for collaborative practice that are considered most relevant by health professionals working at the front line. Interview participants comprised 60 health care providers from various disciplines. Understanding and appreciating professional roles and responsibilities and communicating effectively emerged as the two perceived core competencies for patient-centred collaborative practice. For both competencies there is evidence of a link to positive patient and provider outcomes. We suggest that these two competencies should be the primary focus of student and staff education aimed at increasing collaborative practice skills.
Access Control as a Service for Public Cloud Storage

With the rapid application of service-oriented technologies, service and data outsourcing has become a practical and useful computing paradigm. Combined use of access control and cryptography was proposed by many researchers to protect sensitive information in this outsourcing scenario. However, the rigid combination in existing approaches has difficulty in satisfying the flexibility requirement of access control for diverse applications. In this paper, we propose an access control service for public cloud storage, where authorization is controlled by the data owner, and the PDP (Policy Decision Point) and PEP (Policy Enforcement Point) can be securely delegated. In order to implement the service, an attribute-full proxy re-encryption scheme is presented as its corner stone. The other features of our service are as follows: simple key management without the need of key derivation for users to decrypt cipher texts, composing attributes for accessing resources with subject attributes' having inner structures, and authorization relatively separating from encryption. We also give some proofs and analysis of our implementation.
The Literacy Profile of Greek Precocious Readers: A Follow-Up Study.

The aim of this follow-up study was to examine the progress made by 13 Greek-speaking precocious readers in phonological awareness, reading and spelling from the fourth to sixth grades of primary education, and to compare their progress with that of 11 nonprecocious reader classmates. It was hypothesised that because of the linguistic characteristics of Greek orthography, precocious readers would not have an advantage in phonological awareness, spelling and reading comprehension tasks, but would have an advantage in reading speed. The data analyses showed that by the end of primary education, precocious readers had significantly better performance than their nonprecocious reader classmates in phonological awareness and reading speed tasks, but there was no significant difference between the groups in spelling and reading comprehension tasks. However, phonological awareness differences between the groups did not maintain when spelling achievement was taken into account.
In Vitro and Ex Vivo Inhibition of Human Telomerase by Anti-HIV Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NRTIs) but Not by Non-NRTIs

Telomerase is a specialized reverse transcriptase responsible for the de novo synthesis of telomeric DNA repeats. In addition to its established reverse transcriptase and terminal transferase activities, recent reports have revealed unexpected cellular activities of telomerase, including RNA-dependent RNA polymerization. This telomerase characteristic, distinct from other reverse transcriptases, indicates that clinically relevant reverse transcriptase inhibitors might have unexpected telomerase inhibition profiles. This is particularly important for the newer generation of RT inhibitors designed for anti-HIV therapy, which have reported higher safety margins than older agents. Using an in vitro primer extension assay, we tested the effects of clinically relevant HIV reverse transcriptase inhibitors on cellular telomerase activity. We observed that all commonly used nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), including zidovudine, stavudine, tenofovir, didanosine and abacavir, inhibit telomerase effectively in vitro. Truncated telomere synthesis was consistent with the expected mode of inhibition by all tested NRTIs. Through dose-response experiments, we established relative inhibitory potencies of NRTIs on in vitro telomerase activity as compared to the inhibitory potencies of the corresponding dideoxynucleotide triphosphates. In contrast to NRTIs, the non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) nevirapine and efavirenz did not inhibit the primer extension activity of telomerase, even at millimolar concentrations. Long-term, continuous treatment of human HT29 cells with select NRTIs resulted in an accelerated loss of telomere repeats. All tested NRTIs exhibited the same rank order of inhibitory potencies on telomerase and HIV RT, which, according to published data, were orders-of-magnitude more sensitive than other DNA polymerases, including the susceptible mitochondria-specific DNA polymerase gamma. We concluded that telomerase activity could be inhibited by common NRTIs, including currently recommended RTI agents tenofovir and abacavir, which warrants large-scale clinical and epidemiological investigation of the off-target effects of long-term highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) with these agents.
Hemoptysis as a first symptom of endoleak after thoracic endovascular aortic repair, which caused aortic rupture and required complex management

Thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) has become the most common procedure in the treatment of thoracic aorta aneurysms. However, potential long-term complications of this technique could be life-threatening. Hemoptysis is a common symptom of lung tumor, especially cancer. On the other hand, hemoptysis can also be caused by bronchitis, tuberculosis, mycosis, and trauma. In this case report, we present a patient with hemoptysis and lung tumor suggesting lung cancer, which was a unique symptom of type IA endoleak after TEVAR and led to rupture of the thoracic aneurysm. It was decided to perform next an endovascular procedure due to the severe state of the patient. Next the thoracotomy was performed because drainage of the left pleural cavity was unsuccessful. In the last stage bronchoscopy was needed to remove the thrombus, which occluded the left main bronchi. Successful management has led to the patient's full recovery. Despite justified popularity of endovascular procedures in the treatment of thoracic aorta aneurysms, we should remember about potential long-term complications. Hemoptysis could be a unique symptom of the endoleak after TEVAR and treatment of such complications could be complex and demanding.
How Do Clients Make Empathy Work? / Wie lassen Klientinnen und Klienten Empathie wirksam werden? / ¿Cómo hacen los consultantes para que la empatía sea efectiva?

Abstract Typical views of therapy are therapist-centric. Therapists and their interventions are portrayed as operating on client processes to create change. Some writers on client-centered therapy portray empathy responses as interventions designed to focus clients on feelings, access feelings or experience, deepen processing, and so on. An alternative to therapist-centric perspectives is offered. Clients are seen as active change agents who extract patterns of meaning from the therapy interaction, deduce implications, and use therapist empathy responses for purposes of self-support, validation, exploring experience, testing self-understanding, creating new meaning, and making connection with the therapist.
Shared Task System Description: Frustratingly Hard Compositionality Prediction

We considered a wide range of features for the DiSCo 2011 shared task about compositionality prediction for word pairs, including COALS-based endocentricity scores, compositionality scores based on distributional clusters, statistics about wordnet-induced paraphrases, hyphenation, and the likelihood of long translation equivalents in other languages. Many of the features we considered correlated significantly with human compositionality scores, but in support vector regression experiments we obtained the best results using only COALS-based endocentricity scores. Our system was nevertheless the best performing system in the shared task, and average error reductions over a simple baseline in cross-validation were 13.7% for English and 50.1% for German.
A biophysical observation model for field potentials of networks of leaky integrate-and-fire neurons

We present a biophysical approach for the coupling of neural network activity as resulting from proper dipole currents of cortical pyramidal neurons to the electric field in extracellular fluid. Starting from a reduced three-compartment model of a single pyramidal neuron, we derive an observation model for dendritic dipole currents in extracellular space and thereby for the dendritic field potential (DFP) that contributes to the local field potential (LFP) of a neural population. This work aligns and satisfies the widespread dipole assumption that is motivated by the “open-field” configuration of the DFP around cortical pyramidal cells. Our reduced three-compartment scheme allows to derive networks of leaky integrate-and-fire (LIF) models, which facilitates comparison with existing neural network and observation models. In particular, by means of numerical simulations we compare our approach with an ad hoc model by Mazzoni et al. (2008), and conclude that our biophysically motivated approach yields substantial improvement.
A New Model for Student Support in High-Poverty Urban Elementary Schools

Efforts to support children in schools require addressing not only academic issues, but also out-of-school factors that can affect students’ ability to succeed. This study examined academic achievement of students participating in City Connects, a student support intervention operating in high-poverty elementary schools. The sample included 7,948 kindergarten to fifth-grade students in a large urban district during 1999–2009. School- and student-level treatment effects on report card grades and standardized test scores in elementary through middle school were estimated. Propensity score methods accounted for pre-intervention group differences. City Connects students demonstrated higher report card scores than comparisons and scored higher on middle school English language arts and mathematics tests. This study provides evidence for the value of addressing out-of-school factors that impact student learning.
Tbx1 regulates fibroblast growth factors in the anterior heart field through a reinforcing autoregulatory loop involving forkhead transcription factors

Birth defects, which occur in one out of 20 live births, often affect multiple organs that have common developmental origins. Human and mouse studies indicate that haploinsufficiency of the transcription factor TBX1 disrupts pharyngeal arch development, resulting in the cardiac and craniofacial features associated with microdeletion of 22q11 (del22q11), the most frequent human deletion syndrome. Here, we have generated an allelic series of Tbx1 deficiency that reveals a lower critical threshold for Tbx1 activity in the cardiac outflow tract compared with other pharyngeal arch derivatives, including the palatal bones. Mice hypomorphic for Tbx1 failed to activate expression of the forkhead transcription factor Foxa2 in the pharyngeal mesoderm, which contains cardiac outflow precursors derived from the anterior heart field. We identified a Fox-binding site upstream of Tbx1 that interacted with Foxa2 and was necessary for pharyngeal mesoderm expression of Tbx1, revealing an autoregulatory loop that may explain the increased cardiac sensitivity to Tbx1 dose. Downstream of Tbx1, we found a fibroblast growth factor 8 (Fgf8) enhancer that was dependent on Tbx1 in vivo for regulating expression in the cardiac outflow tract, but not in pharyngeal arches. Consistent with its role in regulating cardiac outflow tract cells Tbx1 gain of function resulted in expansion of the cardiac outflow tract segment derived from the anterior heart field as marked by Fgf10. These findings reveal a Tbx1-dependent transcriptional and signaling network in the cardiac outflow tract that renders mouse cardiovascular development more susceptible than craniofacial development to a reduction in Tbx1 dose, similar to humans with del22q11.
PD-1 pathway inhibitors: changing the landscape of cancer immunotherapy.

BACKGROUND Immunotherapeutic approaches to treating cancer have been evaluated during the last few decades with limited success. An understanding of the checkpoint signaling pathway involving the programmed death 1 (PD-1) receptor and its ligands (PD-L1/2) has clarified the role of these approaches in tumor-induced immune suppression and has been a critical advancement in immunotherapeutic drug development. METHODS A comprehensive literature review was performed to identify the available data on checkpoint inhibitors, with a focus on anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 agents being tested in oncology. The search included Medline, PubMed, the ClinicalTrials.gov registry, and abstracts from the American Society of Clinical Oncology meetings through April 2014. The effectiveness and safety of the available anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 drugs are reviewed. RESULTS Tumors that express PD-L1 can often be aggressive and carry a poor prognosis. The anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 agents have a good safety profile and have resulted in durable responses in a variety of cancers, including melanoma, kidney cancer, and lung cancer, even after stopping treatment. The scope of these agents is being evaluated in various other solid tumors and hematological malignancies, alone or in combination with other therapies, including other checkpoint inhibitors and targeted therapies, as well as cytotoxic chemotherapy. CONCLUSIONS The PD-1/PD-L1 pathway in cancer is implicated in tumors escaping immune destruction and is a promising therapeutic target. The development of anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 agents marks a new era in the treatment of cancer with immunotherapies. Early clinical experience has shown encouraging activity of these agents in a variety of tumors, and further results are eagerly awaited from completed and ongoing studies.
Control design method for time-delay linear differential inclusion systems

This article deals with saturated control design for time-delay linear differential inclusion systems subject to disturbances. Convex hull quadratic Lyapunov functions are used for constructing Lyapunov-Razumikhin functions. A saturated control law is designed to stabilize time-delay linear differential inclusion systems. By the state feedbacks, disturbance rejection with minimal reachable set is achieved. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed design technique is illustrated by a simulation example.
Reducing Peak Demand through Distributed Grid Edge Control

Conventional methods of achieving peak demand reduction for rural cooperatives have allowed 1-2% control during heavy loaded condition without violating customer-side ANSI voltage limits. Distributed grid edge control presents a promising approach for doubling or tripling this benefit by deriving significant value for utilities in the form of voltage support, loss reduction, and peak demand reduction to name a few. Using autonomous dynamic var injection, grid edge devices can flatten the secondary voltage profile at a fixed setpoint. A swarm action of multiple var devices on the system help to flatten the feeder voltage profile and provide additional voltage reduction. Setpoint commands can be dispatched to the installed group of grid edge devices via a central software platform (Grid Edge Management System), which also provides visualization and analytics. Situational awareness is improved by knowing in near real-time the system voltage at many points on the system and having active regulation at those locations.
Clinical proteomics: Promises, challenges and limitations of affinity arrays

After the establishment of DNA/RNA sequencing as a means of clinical diagnosis, the analysis of the proteome is next in line. As a matter of fact, proteome‐based diagnostics is bound to be even more informative, since proteins are directly involved in the actual cellular processes that are responsible for disease. However, the structural variation and the biochemical differences between proteins, the much wider range in concentration and their spatial distribution as well as the fact that protein activity frequently relies on interaction increase the methodological complexity enormously, particularly if an accuracy and robustness is required that is sufficient for clinical utility. Here, we discuss the contribution that protein microarray formats could play towards proteome‐based diagnostics.