Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investigating the use of traditional and spectral biofeedback approaches to intervention for /r/ misarticulation.

PURPOSE Misarticulation of /r/ is among the most challenging developmental speech errors to remediate. Case studies suggest that visual biofeedback treatment can establish perceptually accurate /r/ in clients who have not responded to traditional treatments. This investigation studied the response of children with persistent /r/ misarticulation to a course of traditional treatment and a course of biofeedback treatment. METHOD Eleven children with /r/ misarticulation completed 10 weeks of individual treatment consisting of 4-6 weeks of traditional treatment followed by 4-6 weeks of biofeedback treatment. Progress was measured by tracking correct /r/ productions within treatment and probing /r/ in words at 3 time points. RESULTS At the group level, there was no difference in independent judges' ratings of /r/ sounds produced by the children before and after traditional treatment. However, /r/ sounds produced after biofeedback treatment were significantly more likely to be rated by the judges as perceptually correct. Eight of the 11 children made measurable gains in the accuracy of isolated /r/ produced within treatment, with 4 showing significant generalization to untreated /r/ in words. CONCLUSION This descriptive study shows that treatment incorporating spectral biofeedback can facilitate accurate /r/ production in children with treatment-resistant errors. A follow-up period using traditional intervention methods may be necessary to encourage generalization.
Laparoscopic vs open partial nephrectomy for T1 renal tumours: evaluation of long‐term oncological and functional outcomes in 340 patients

Whereas open nephron‐sparing surgery (NSS) represents the ‘gold standard’ in the surgical therapy of T1 renal tumours, with the advances in laparoscopic surgery, the refinement of intracorporeal suturing and the availability of haemosealant substances, the laparoscopic approach to NSS is increasingly used. Laparoscopic partial nephrectomy (LPN), however, is currently performed in just a few high‐volume reference centres, and its diffusion has been limited by the steep learning curve. Conversely, robot‐assisted LPN is emerging as a promising procedure, able to tackle the technical difficulties of LPN and leading to a broader diffusion of minimally invasive treatment of small renal masses. Our study provides long‐term follow‐up outcomes concerning surgical and oncological outcomes and a detailed evaluation of the renal function in patients affected by T1 renal cancers who underwent LPN and OPN. We showed that LPN could be safely performed in the therapy of T1 renal cancer, without impairing renal function.
Beyond conventional routing protocols: Opportunistic path selection for IEEE 802.11s mesh networks

IEEE 802.11s provides Hybrid Wireless Mesh Protocol (HWMP) to find out the forwarding path in a mesh network based on mesh peering and MAC layer scheduling information. However, both proactive and reactive modes of HWMP perform poorly for multi-radio mesh network because of inefficient radio selection, time-varying channel conditions and interference among the radios. This paper proposes an improved opportunistic path selection protocol over HWMP for multi-radio support that goes beyond the traditional routing mechanisms, operates either in proactive, reactive or hybrid mode. The efficiency of the proposed scheme is analyzed using simulation results.
Verifying workflows with cancellation regions and OR-joins : an approach based on invariants

The YAWL (Yet Another Workflow Language) workflow language supports the most frequent control-flow patterns found in the current workflow practice. As a result, most workflow languages can be mapped onto YAWL without loss of control-flow details, even languages allowing for advanced constructs such as cancellation regions and OR-joins. At the moment no analysis techniques are available for such languages, because both cancellation regions and OR-joins are “non-local” properties and therefore difficult to verify. Hence, a verification approach for YAWL is desirable, because such an approach could be used for any workflow language that can be mapped onto YAWL. This paper introduces a verification approach for YAWL that abstracts from the actual semantics of the OR-join. This approach is correct (errors reported are really errors), but not necessarily complete (not every error might get reported). This incompleteness is due to the fact that the approach approximates the OR-join semantics. Nevertheless, our approach can be used to successfully detect errors in YAWL models. Moreover, the approach can easily be transferred to other workflow languages allowing for advanced constructs such as cancellations and OR-joins.
The Rho GTPase-activating proteins RGA-3 and RGA-4 are required to set the initial size of PAR domains in Caenorhabditis elegans one-cell embryos

Caenorhabditis elegans embryos establish cortical domains of PAR proteins of reproducible size before asymmetric cell division. The ways in which the size of these domains is set remain unknown. Here we identify the GTPase-activating proteins (GAPs) RGA-3 and RGA-4, which regulate the activity of the small GTPase RHO-1. rga-3/4(RNAi) embryos have a hypercontractile cortex, and the initial relative size of their anterior and posterior PAR domains is altered. Thus, RHO-1 activity appears to control the level of cortical contractility and concomitantly the size of cortical domains. These data support the idea that in C. elegans embryos the initial size of the PAR domains is set by regulating the contractile activity of the acto-myosin cytoskeleton through the activity of RHO-1. RGA-3/4 have functions different from CYK-4, the other known GAP required for the first cell division, showing that different GAPs cooperate to control the activity of the acto-myosin cytoskeleton in the first cell division of C. elegans embryos.
Understanding a Pakistani science teacher’s practice through a life history study

The purpose of the single case life history study was to understand a female science teacher’s conceptions of the nature of science as explicit in her practice. While this paper highlights these understandings, an additional purpose is to give a detailed account of the process of creating a life history account through more than 13 in-depth interviews. It includes a discussion of what the author calls composite observations where the observations of the teacher and the researcher are presented as a single unified story. Also discussed are ethical issues specific to life history created due to the intimacy created by such a study that required the development of a great deal of trust and rapport. Key Words: Life History, Nature of Science, Teaching and Learning in Science, and Single Case Study Science teachers bring together different kinds of knowledge such as science content knowledge, knowledge about science, knowledge of the curriculum, knowledge of the system of education, and most important, pedagogical content knowledge (Shulman, l986, 1987). Connelly and Clandinin (1988) refer to this complex and interconnected array of knowledge as personal practical knowledge. This is not a body of pre-existing knowledge to be brought forth when required. Rather it is transient and situated knowledge which is “experiential, value laden and oriented to practice” (Clandinin, 1986, p. 19). Teachers are involved in making many decisions before, during, and after classroom teaching. The basis on which teachers choose to do one thing rather than another is based on their experiences and what sense they have made of them. Hence, it follows that teachers’ life experiences have a deep and abiding effect on the kind of teachers they become. However, what is important is that it is not only professional experiences but all life experiences whether inside or outside the classroom that influence and shape this decision-making process. Hence, it is important to see teachers’ lives holistically, particularly when offering professional development because when teacher-educators ask teachers to change their practice, in essence they are asking them to change their lives (Louden, 1991). This is the rationale for this particular research study. In this paper you meet Munazza Sheikh, a science teacher who works in Karachi Model Secondary School (KMSS) which is a private, afternoon-shift, English-medium and co-educational school for children from middle-income families in Karachi, Pakistan. All teachers, students, administrators and names of institutions mentioned in this paper are pseudonyms to maintain confidentiality. Munazza has completed her Bachelors of Science and at the time of the study she was engaged in completing her Master’s in Islamic History. She has had no teacher education as it is not a requirement for private schools in Pakistan.
Problems & Prospects Revisited: Bursik’s Mark on Chicago‐Style Criminology

It has been 20 years since Robert J. Bursik Jr. published his seminal article outlining some of the problems and prospects in the social disorganization perspective on crime and delinquency. In this study, we review the content of approximately 200 published articles that cite Bursik’s 1988 piece. These studies are systematically examined in terms of their efforts to overcome the problems and pursue the prospects that Bursik outlined. In addition to content analysis, we survey the authors who cite this work. That is, we gather data from the authors directly to assess the influence of Bursik’s article on their own published work. Our research finds that Bursik’s work played a significant role in the revitalization and expansion of social disorganization theory.
Pathways Linking Education and Work: A Review of Concepts, Research, and Policy Debates

This paper reviews cross-national research and policy debates about pathways between education and work, and draws on this review to reflect on the utility of the pathways concept itself. It identifies three main uses of the concept: to analyse the relative size and role of general education, school-based vocational education and apprenticeship, respectively, in an effective transition system; to examine the relationships and interconnections between pathways; and to consider how pathways can reflect the perspectives and priorities of individual young people and enable them to manage and control their own itineraries. Pathways can be useful as an organizing concept linking policy and research, provided that the metaphor is used with precision and its unintended meanings are avoided.
Crowdsourcing: Student-Driven Learning Using Web 2.0 Technologies in an Introduction to Globalization

This review essay proposes a crowdsourcing platform that takes advantage of technologies that students are already using to generate an exciting classroom, to enrich the student experience, and to encourage a sense of global civic responsibility in a large introductory lecture class. After an introductory lecture on a problem, students choose case studies from a predetermined menu. This kind of “choose their own adventure” generative platform is a fresh, stimulating approach that is innovative and can be adapted for both on-campus and distance learning. In traditional lecture courses, the professor makes all of the decisions for what to study, but this platform can enable students to make those decisions, to gain responsibility and earn ownership, and to get feedback about their choices. Thus, students are not just learning to read what someone else chose but learning how to decide themselves what is a good case, what is a good source, and what makes a good course.
Gender Quotas and Ethnic Minority Representation: Swedish Evidence from a Longitudinal Mixed Methods Study

In this paper, we study the ways in which affirmative action for one political minority, gender quotas, impact on intersectional representation. In a quantitative analysis of detailed panel data from 285 Swedish municipal assemblies, the numerical impact of a zipper placement mandate in Sweden's largest political party, the Social Democratic Party, is analyzed. No evidence that this quota helped, or hindered, the intersectional representation of men or women is found in the short run, but it is found that a weak numerical impact may exist in the long run. A qualitative analysis of party records and interviews with key actors sheds further light on these results. Differences in the norms of representation for women and polyethnic minorities, coupled with weak organizational and practical constraints for formulating policies for the latter, appear to be likely explanations.
Development of an Ultrasonic Airflow Measurement Device for Ducted Air

In this study, an in-duct ultrasonic airflow measurement device has been designed, developed and tested. The airflow measurement results for a small range of airflow velocities and temperatures show that the accuracy was better than 3.5% root mean square (RMS) when it was tested within a round or square duct compared to the in-line Venturi tube airflow meter used for reference. This proof of concept device has provided evidence that with further development it could be a low-cost alternative to pressure differential devices such as the orifice plate airflow meter for monitoring energy efficiency performance and reliability of ventilation systems. The design uses a number of techniques and design choices to provide solutions to lower the implementation cost of the device compared to traditional airflow meters. The design choices that were found to work well are the single sided transducer arrangement for a “V” shaped reflective path and the use of square wave transmitter pulses ending with the necessary 180° phase changed pulse train to suppress transducer ringing. The device is also designed so that it does not have to rely on high-speed analogue to digital converters (ADC) and intensive digital signal processing, so could be implemented using voltage comparators and low-cost microcontrollers.
p53 Mutation in gastric cancer: A genetic model for carcinogenesis is common to gastric and colorectal cancer

Mutation of the p53 tumour‐suppressor gene in exons 5 through 8 was examined in 118 cases of gastric cancer (59 early gastric cancers and 59 advanced gastric cancers) using PCR‐SSCP (polymerase‐chain‐reaction‐single‐strand‐conformation polymorphism) analysis and direct sequencing. In early gastric cancer, mutations were found in 15 of 41 (37%) cases of the cohesive type, i.e., papillary adenocarcinoma, well to moderately differentiated tubular adenocarcinoma, and poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma with solid nests or focal tubular structures, but were not detected in 18 cases of the noncohesive type, i.e., signet‐ring‐cell carcinoma and poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma growing in a scattered manner. In advanced gastric cancer, 25 of 59 (42%) cases of the cohesive type had p53 mutation. No significant association was found between p53 mutation and other histopathological parameters such as macroscopic classification, lymph‐node involvement and depth of tumour invasion. Fifteen of 25 (60%) mutations in the advanced gastric‐cancer group were accompanied by allele loss at the p53 gene locus. Eighty‐three percent of mutations in early gastric cancer and 52% of mutations in advanced gastric cancer showed G:C‐to‐A:T transition, almost exclusively at CpG dinucleotide mutational hot spots, indicating that the spectrum of p53 mutation was similar to that of colorectal cancer. These data suggest that the p53 mutation occurs selectively in gastric cancer of the cohesive type from the intramucosal cancer stage.
Inhibition and Interference in Selective Attention: Some Tests of a Neural Network Model

We describe a neural network system that models selective action—that is, how an organism selectively responds to an object when other objects evoke competing responses. Performance of the model during simulations of various selective action situations reveals a number of interesting patterns of data. Specifically, the model shows a complex relationship between how much a distractor interferes with response to a target and how much inhibition is associated with the distractor. Subsequent experiments with human subjects reveal that the paradoxical behaviour of the model is also observed in human behaviour. We conclude that the similar performance characteristics of the model and human subjects in a variety of situations suggest that the model has captured some of the essential properties of mammalian selective action mechanisms.
IDDQ Outlier Screening through Two-Phase Approach: Clustering-Based Filtering and Estimation-Based Current-Threshold Determination

We propose a novel IDDQ outlier screening flow through a two-phase approach: a clustering-based filtering and an estimation-based current-threshold determination. In the proposed flow, a clustering technique first filters out chips that have high IDDQ current. Then, in the current-threshold determination phase, device-parameters of the unfiltered chips are estimated based on measured IDDQ currents through Bayesian inference. The estimated device-parameters will further be used to determine a statistical leakage current distribution for each test pattern and to calculate a and suitable current-threshold. Numerical experiments using a virtual wafer show that our proposed technique is 14 times more accurate than the neighbor nearest residual (NNR) method and can achieve 80 % of the test escape in the case of small leakage faults whose ratios of leakage fault sizes to the nominal IDDQ current are above 40%.
FGFR4 Prevents Hyperlipidemia and Insulin Resistance but Underlies High-Fat Diet–Induced Fatty Liver

OBJECTIVE—Fibroblast growth factor (FGF) family signaling largely controls cellular homeostasis through short-range intercell paracrine communication. Recently FGF15/19, 21, and 23 have been implicated in endocrine control of metabolic homeostasis. The identity and location of the FGF receptor isotypes that mediate these effects are unclear. The objective was to determine the role of FGFR4, an isotype that has been proposed to mediate an ileal FGF15/19 to hepatocyte FGFR4 axis in cholesterol homeostasis, in metabolic homeostasis in vivo. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—FGFR4−/− mice—mice overexpressing constitutively active hepatic FGFR4—and FGFR4−/− with constitutively active hepatic FGFR4 restored in the liver were subjected to a normal and a chronic high-fat diet sufficient to result in obesity. Systemic and liver-specific metabolic phenotypes were then characterized. RESULTS—FGFR4-deficient mice on a normal diet exhibited features of metabolic syndrome that include increased mass of white adipose tissue, hyperlipidemia, glucose intolerance, and insulin resistance, in addition to hypercholesterolemia. Surprisingly, the FGFR4 deficiency alleviated high-fat diet–induced fatty liver in obese mice, which is also a correlate of metabolic syndrome. Restoration of FGFR4, specifically in hepatocytes of FGFR4-deficient mice, decreased plasma lipid levels and restored the high-fat diet–induced fatty liver but failed to restore glucose tolerance and sensitivity to insulin. CONCLUSIONS—FGFR4 plays essential roles in systemic lipid and glucose homeostasis. FGFR4 activity in hepatocytes that normally serves to prevent systemic hyperlipidemia paradoxically underlies the fatty liver disease associated with chronic high-fat intake and obesity.
Participation of patients 65 years of age or older in cancer clinical trials.

PURPOSE Although 61% of new cases of cancer occur among the elderly, recent studies indicate that the elderly comprise only 25% of participants in cancer clinical trials. Further investigation into the reasons for low elderly participation is warranted. Our objective was to evaluate the participation of the elderly in clinical trials sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and assess the impact of protocol exclusion criteria on elderly participation. PATIENTS AND METHODS We conducted a retrospective analysis using NCI data, analyzing patient and trial characteristics for 59,300 patients enrolled onto 495 NCI-sponsored, cooperative group trials, active from 1997 through 2000. Our main outcome measure was the proportion of elderly patients enrolled onto cancer clinical trials compared with the proportion of incident cancer patients who are elderly. RESULTS Overall, 32% of participants in phase II and III clinical trials were elderly, compared with 61% of patients with incident cancers in the United States who are elderly. The degree of underrepresentation was more pronounced in trials for early-stage cancers than in trials for late-stage cancers (P <.001). Furthermore, protocol exclusion criteria on the basis of organ-system abnormalities and functional status limitations were associated with lower elderly participation. We estimate that if protocol exclusions were relaxed, elderly participation in cancer trials would be 60%. CONCLUSION The elderly are underrepresented in cancer clinical trials relative to their disease burden. Older patients are more likely to have medical histories that make them ineligible for clinical trials because of protocol exclusions. Insurance coverage for clinical trials is one step toward improvement of elderly access to clinical trials. Without a change in study design or requirements, this step may not be sufficient.
Modalities, Modes, and Models in Functional Neuroimaging

In this, the 21st century, human-brain mapping celebrates 21 years of cognitive activation studies. This review looks at imaging neuroscience and key ideas it has pursued; some ideas portend exciting developments, and others have failed gloriously. In terms of achievements, there is much to celebrate, in the sense that it is difficult to imagine modern neuroscience without brain imaging. I will look at recent advances from the perspectives of functional segregation and integration in the brain, paying special attention to approaches that deal with the distributed and integrated nature of neuronal processing and the questions they address.
Experimental Comparison of Two Portable and Real-Time Size Distribution Analyzers for Nano/Submicron Aerosol Measurements

ABSTRACTTwo portable, battery powered particle size distribution analyzers, TSI NanoScan scanning mobility particle sizer (TSI NanoScan SMPS 3910, USA) and Kanomax Portable Aerosol Mobility Spectrometer (Kanomax PAMS 3300, Japan), have been recently introduced to the market. Both are compact and allow researchers to rapidly measure and monitor ambient or indoor ultrafine and nanoparticles in real time. In addition, both instruments apply the SMPS measuring scheme, utilizing a corona charger in place of a radioactive neutralizer, and are integrated with a hand-held condensation particle counter (CPC). In this study, the different designs, flow schemes, and operational settings of both instruments have been summarized based on the information released by the manufacturers and the available published literature. The performance characteristics and monitoring capability of these two portable ultrafine to nanoparticle sizers were investigated and compared to a reference TSI 3936 lab-based SMPS under identical conditions. Reasonable agreement was found between the three instruments in terms of their efficiency in sizing and counting polydispersed particles. Of the two portable analyzers, PAMS was able to provide a higher sizing resolution for monodispersed particle measurements than NanoScan, when operated under the High Mode (higher sheath to aerosol flow ratio).
Why Immigration Controls Are Not Coercive: A Reply to Arash Abizadeh

Abizadeh has argued that because border controls coerce would-be immigrants and invade their autonomy, they are entitled to participate in the democratic institutions that impose those controls. In reply, the author distinguishes between coercion and prevention, shows that prevention need not undermine autonomy, and concludes that although border controls may restrict freedom, they do not give rise to democratic entitlements.