Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
GENDER DIFFERENCES IN OUTCOMES OF WORK-FAMILY CONFLICT: THE CASE OF HONG KONG MANAGERS

Abstract This study evaluated the effects of two types of work-family conflict, namely work interference with family and family interference with work, on several work-related attitudes. In addition, it examined whether such effects were gender-specific. Survey data were obtained from a sample of 772 managers in Hong Kong. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that work interference with family, but not family interference with work, had a significant and negative impact on job satisfaction, subjective career achievement and perceived work pressure. Such effect was also found to be stronger for women than men.
The Attachment Style Interview (ASI): A Support-Based Adult Assessment Tool for Adoption and Fostering Practice

Attachment theory is becoming increasingly influential across health and social care fields in providing explanations of individuals' capacities to achieve effective support, close partner relationships and good parenting of their own and others' offspring. Adoption and fostering services were among the first to use attachment theory to inform evidence-based practice. While it has been used for the assessment of parenting capacity and attachment insecurity in children, there has been little parallel development of standardised assessments for carers, especially in terms of partner relationship, close support figures and ability to access support. This is a critical element in determining suitability for adoption and fostering carer roles and post-placement support. The Attachment Style Interview (ASI — Bifulco et al, 2002a,b) provides such a tool and concurs with requirements identified for carers in DfES Practice Guidance (Department for Education and Skills, 2006). Antonia Bifulco, Catherine Jacobs, Amanda Bunn, Geraldine Thomas and Karen Irving explain the research background to the ASI and describe its growing use in the adoption and fostering assessment process. They also discuss the importance of using evidence-based and standardised assessment tools to maximise effective practice.
Experimental Verification of Role of Ballast Resistors in SiGe Power HBTs

To prevent the dramatic degradation of the device performance of SiGe power heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) and maintain the power efficiency, emitter-ballast resistors and base-ballast resistors have been employed in high power bipolar transistors. The microwave performance of emitter-ballast and base-ballast HBTs has been compared and discussed empirically in the previous work. However, it has not been clearly pointed out that which ballasting scheme should be judiciously employed over the entire useful frequency range and under different operation configurations, in order to extract the maximum RF power performance from power devices. This thesis analyzes the role of ballast resistors in SiGe power HBTs theoretically and experimentally. No-ballast resistors, emitter-ballast resistors and base-ballast resistor in both of common-emitter (CE) and common-base (CB) all have been evaluated separately.
Circadian Rhythms and Metabolic Syndrome: From Experimental Genetics to Human Disease

The incidence of the metabolic syndrome represents a spectrum of disorders that continue to increase across the industrialized world. Both genetic and environmental factors contribute to metabolic syndrome and recent evidence has emerged to suggest that alterations in circadian systems and sleep participate in the pathogenesis of the disease. In this review, we highlight studies at the intersection of clinical medicine and experimental genetics that pinpoint how perturbations of the internal clock system, and sleep, constitute risk factors for disorders including obesity, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, thrombosis and even inflammation. An exciting aspect of the field has been the integration of behavioral and physiological approaches, and the emerging insight into both neural and peripheral tissues in disease pathogenesis. Consideration of the cell and molecular links between disorders of circadian rhythms and sleep with metabolic syndrome has begun to open new opportunities for mechanism-based therapeutics.
Semiparametric estimators of functional measurement error models with unknown error

Summary. We consider functional measurement error models where the measurement error distribution is estimated non‐parametrically. We derive a locally efficient semiparametric estimator but propose not to implement it owing to its numerical complexity. Instead, a plug‐in estimator is proposed, where the measurement error distribution is estimated through non‐parametric kernel methods based on multiple measurements. The root n consistency and asymptotic normality of the plug‐in estimator are derived. Despite the theoretical inefficiency of the plug‐in estimator, simulations demonstrate its near optimal performance. Computational advantages relative to the theoretically efficient estimator make the plug‐in estimator practically appealing. Application of the estimator is illustrated by using the Framingham data example.
Epilepsy in school-aged children: more than just seizures?

Epilepsy is the most common neurological disorder in childhood and can have a significant impact on a child's schooling. Children with epilepsy may have special educational needs due to having learning disability, specific learning difficulties, specific cognitive deficits or having symptoms associated with ASD, ADHD, depression or anxiety. These difficulties are often under-recognised due to the emphasis placed on the management of seizures. The effects of seizures and side-effects of anti-epileptic medications (AEDs) can also influence classroom learning. The significant stigma associated with epilepsy can influence attitudes towards affected children and impact on self-esteem. Interventions to support children with epilepsy should focus on epilepsy management, learning and behavioural interventions and whole-school psychosocial interventions. Epilepsy is a spectrum condition and for some children the effects on schooling will be minimal but for others significant supports will be needed. Therefore, an individualised approach within the school environment and close collaboration between teachers, parents and medical professionals are essential in order to meet the children's needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Sparsity of SVMs that use the epsilon-insensitive loss

In this paper lower and upper bounds for the number of support vectors are derived for support vector machines (SVMs) based on the epsilon-insensitive loss function. It turns out that these bounds are asymptotically tight under mild assumptions on the data generating distribution. Finally, we briefly discuss a trade-off in epsilon between sparsity and accuracy if the SVM is used to estimate the conditional median.
Timing of initial cereal exposure in infancy and risk of islet autoimmunity.

CONTEXT Dietary exposures in infancy have been implicated, albeit inconsistently, in the etiology of type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM). OBJECTIVE To examine the association between cereal exposures in the infant diet and appearance of islet autoimmunity (IA). DESIGN Birth cohort study conducted from 1994 to 2002 with a mean follow-up of 4 years. SETTING Newborn screening for HLA was done at St Joseph's Hospital in Denver, Colo. First-degree relatives of type 1 DM individuals were recruited from the Denver metropolitan area. PARTICIPANTS We enrolled 1183 children at increased type 1 DM risk, defined as either HLA genotype or having a first-degree relative with type 1 DM, at birth and followed them prospectively. We obtained exposure and outcome measures for 76% of enrolled children. Participants had variable lengths of follow-up (9 months to 9 years). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Blood draws for the detection of insulin autoantibody, glutamic acid decarboxylase autoantibody, or IA-2 autoantibody were performed at 9, 15, and 24 months and annually thereafter. Children with IA (n = 34) were defined as those testing positive for at least 1 of the autoantibodies on 2 or more consecutive visits and who tested positive or had diabetes on their most recent visit. RESULTS Children initially exposed to cereals between ages 0 and 3 months (hazard ratio [HR], 4.32; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.0-9.35) and those who were exposed at 7 months or older (HR, 5.36; 95% CI, 2.08-13.8) had increased hazard of IA compared with those who were exposed during the fourth through sixth month, after adjustment for HLA genotype, family history of type 1 DM, ethnicity, and maternal age. In children who were positive for the HLA-DRB1*03/04,DQB8 genotype, adjusted HRs were 5.55 (95% CI, 1.92-16.03) and 12.53 (95% CI, 3.19-49.23) for initial cereal exposure between ages 0 to 3 months and at 7 months or older, respectively. CONCLUSION There may be a window of exposure to cereals in infancy outside which initial exposure increases IA risk in susceptible children.
Multi-scale B-spline level set segmentation based on Gaussian kernel equalization

Images with weak contrast, overlapped noise and texture of the object and background make many PDE based methods disabled. To address these problems, this paper presents a novel combined multi-scale variational framework level set segmentation model. Its level set formulation consists edge-based term, region-based term and shape constraint term. The edge-based term is constructed using a newly defined edge stopping function. The region-based term is derived from parameter-free Gaussian probability density function (pdf) and multiple Gaussian kernel are used to gray equalization. The shape constraint term is used to constrain contour evolution at different scales of image pyramid. For an intrinsic smoothing segmentation contours, the level set function is explicitly represented by B-spline basis functions. Finally, a convolution is used during the energy minimization. Experimental results on synthetic and real images validate the robustness and high accuracy boundaries detection for low contrast, noise and texture images.
Changes in Body Fat Distribution and Fitness Are Associated With Changes in Hemoglobin A1c After 9 Months of Exercise Training

OBJECTIVE To investigate the associations between changes in body composition and fitness after exercise training and changes in hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) in individuals with type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Participants (n = 201) were randomized to aerobic, resistance, or combined training for 9 months. HbA1c, waist circumference, total and trunk fat mass, appendicular fat mass, lean body mass, isokinetic leg muscle strength, peak O2 uptake, and estimated METs were assessed at baseline and follow-up. Change in HbA1c was evaluated across quartiles of change in body composition and fitness. RESULTS Change in HbA1c was associated with changes in body weight (r = 0.13, P = 0.052), waist circumference (r = 0.17, P = 0.013), trunk fat mass (r = 0.19, P = 0.005), and estimated METs (r = −0.16, P = 0.023). There was a trend in change in HbA1c across quartiles of waist circumference (P = 0.011), trunk fat mass (P = 0.020), and estimated METs (P = 0.011). Participants with increased estimated METs and reduced trunk fat mass had greater odds of having reduced HbA1c after training (3.48, 1.46–8.31). Finally, participants with increased estimated METs and reduced waist circumference were 2.81 (1.13–6.98) times more likely to have reduced HbA1c and type 2 diabetes medication use than those without improved fitness and central adiposity. CONCLUSIONS In patients with type 2 diabetes, a reduction in central adiposity and increase in fitness were the most prominent predictors of the change in HbA1c in response to exercise training.
How Do We Hear in the World?: Explorations in Ecological Acoustics

Everyday listening is the experience of hearing events in the world rather than sounds per se. In this article, I explore the acoustic basis of everyday listening as a start toward understanding how sounds near the ear can indicate remote physical events. Information for sound-producing events and their dimensions is investi- gated using physical analyses of events to inform acoustic analyses of the sounds they produce. The result is a variety of algorithms which enable the synthesis of sounds made by basic-level events such as impacts, scraping, and dripping, as well as by more complex events such as bouncing, breaking, spilling, and machinery. These algorithms may serve as instantiated hypotheses about the acoustic infor- mation for events. Analysis and synthesis work together in their development: Just as analyses of the physics and acoustics of sound-producing events may inform synthesis, so listening to the results of synthesis may inform analysis. This raises several issues concerning evaluation, sp.
Countertransference in the treatment of adolescents and its manifestation in the therapist-patient relationship

Abstract Countertransference is a central construct in the clinical literature (Freud, 1910; Gabbard, 2001), yet it has generated very little research to date. The present study used the CCRT method (Luborsky & Crits- Cristoph, 1998) to measure countertransference themes in a sample of 12 therapists, who described relationship episodes with their parents and with two clients. Results showed high repetitiveness of the parent themes in the narratives about the patients for all three components of the CCRT: Wish, Response of Other and Response of Self. A qualitative analysis of the narratives generated four countertransference dynamics: Repeating the parent RO, repairing the parent RO, identification with the patient, and withdrawing. It is suggested that these four dynamics constitute the process which links the origins and triggers with the manifestations and effects in Hayes's (2004) operational model of countertranference.
Screening for activating EGFR mutations in surgically resected nonsmall cell lung cancer

The clinical applicability of screening surgically resected nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumour tissue and serum for activating epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation is unknown. Furthermore, the comparative accuracy of inexpensive EGFR mutation tests, mutant-enriched (ME)-PCR and high-resolution melt (HRM) has not been determined. Lung tumour DNA from 522 surgically resected stage I–IV NSCLC and matched serum DNA from a subset of 64 subjects was analysed for EGFR mutations in exons 19 and 21 using ME-PCR and HRM. Additionally, 97 subjects had previous EGFR DNA sequencing data available for comparison. ME-PCR and HRM detected EGFR mutations in 5% (27 out of 522) of tumour samples. Compared to DNA sequencing, ME-PCR had a sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 99%, while HRM had 100% sensitivity and specificity. Six subjects with EGFR mutation tumours had matched serum, where ME-PCR detected mutations in three samples and HRM in two samples. In the cohort of never-smoker subjects, those with EGFR mutated tumours had worse survival compared with wild-type tumours (30 versus 49 months; p=0.017). ME-PCR and HRM have similar accuracy in detecting EGFR mutations but the prognostic implications of the mutations in resected NSCLC warrants further study.
Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology Computer-generated Radiological Imagery of the Structure of the Spongious Substance in the Postnatal Development of the Tibiotarsal Bones of the Peking Domestic Duck (anas Platyrhynchos Var. Domestica)

The evaluation of the structure of the spongious substance of the tibiotarsal (TT) bones of the domestic duck aged 4 to 8 wk was performed using radiological analysis. The Trabecula program (Czerwiński, 1994) used in the study identified a map of radiological trabeculae and calculated the number, average volume, density, and width of trabeculae. It was stated that the number of trabeculae differed significantly (P ≤ 0.05) variant on age, sex, and a unique fragment of the studied bone. Six-week-old hens whose TT bones were most often exposed to deformities and fractures possessed attenuated bone mass. The number of trabeculae per 1 mm 2 during breeding was the lowest (10.34 and 9.54 mm 2 in the proximal and distal epiphy-ses, respectively). The tibial bones of the 6-wk-old hens also possessed the lowest volume of trabeculae (44.62 and 39.84% for the proximal and distal epiphyses, respectively). Dependant variances between the BW, the number of recognized radiological trabeculae, and the volume, density, and width of trabeculae were calculated using a selected correlation and regression coefficient (r = 0.41; P ≤ 0.05). Results expounded a unique linear relationship between BW and the volume of tra-beculae. Indeed, the larger the BW, the more numerous the trabeculae observed. No significant correlation was determined between the BW and the number of recognized trabeculae nor their density and width. A small number of trabeculae and the lowered density may be the cause of fractures and deformities of the TT bones of the domestic duck.
Approximate zero-one laws and sharpness of the percolation transition in a class of models including 2D Ising percolation

One of the most well-known classical results for site percolation on the square lattice is the equation p_c + p_c^* = 1. In words, this equation means that for all values different from p_c of the parameter p the following holds: Either a.s. there is an infinite open cluster or a.s. there is an infinite closed `star' cluster. This result is closely related to the percolation transition being sharp: Below p_c the size of the open cluster of a given vertex is not only (a.s.) finite, but has a distrubtion with an exponential tail. The analog of this result has been proved by Higuchi in 1993 for two-dimensional Ising percolation, with fixed inverse temparature beta <beta_c, and as parameter the external field h. Using sharp-threshold results (approximate zero-one laws) and a modification of an RSW-like result by Bollobas and Riordan, we show that these results hold for a large class of percolation models where the vertex values can be `nicely' represented (in a sense which will be defined precisely) by i.i. d. random variables. We point out that the ordinary percolation model belongs obviously to this class, and we show that also the above mentionedIsing model belongs to it. We hope that our results improve insight in the Ising percolation model, and will help to show that many other (not yet analyzed) weakly dependent percolation models also belong to the abovementioned class.
Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Enters Cells through Vesicles Incompletely Coated with Clathrin That Depend upon Actin for Internalization

Many viruses that enter cells by clathrin-dependent endocytosis are significantly larger than the dimensions of a typical clathrin-coated vesicle. The mechanisms by which viruses co-opt the clathrin machinery for efficient internalization remain uncertain. Here we examined how clathrin-coated vesicles accommodate vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) during its entry into cells. Using high-resolution imaging of the internalization of single viral particles into cells expressing fluorescent clathrin and adaptor molecules, we show that VSV enters cells through partially clathrin-coated vesicles. We found that on average, virus-containing vesicles contain more clathrin and clathrin adaptor molecules than conventional vesicles, but this increase is insufficient to permit full coating of the vesicle. We further show that virus-containing vesicles depend upon the actin machinery for their internalization. Specifically, we found that components of the actin machinery are recruited to virus-containing vesicles, and chemical inhibition of actin polymerization trapped viral particles in vesicles at the plasma membrane. By analysis of multiple independent virus internalization events, we show that VSV induces the nucleation of clathrin for its uptake, rather than depending upon random capture by formation of a clathrin-coated pit. This work provides new mechanistic insights into the process of virus internalization as well as uptake of unconventional cargo by the clathrin-dependent endocytic machinery.
Systolic Blood Pressure Variability is a Novel Risk Factor for Rebleeding in Acute Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

AbstractRebleeding of an aneurysm is a major cause of morbidity and mortality after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Whereas numerous studies have demonstrated predictors of rebleeding and effect of systolic blood pressure variability (SBPV) on stroke, few data on the association between SBPV and rebleeding.Here, we sought to identify the effect of SBPV on rebleeding in acute aneurysmal SAH.Case–control study.From January 2010 to June 2015, 612 patients with aneurysmal SAH were enrolled in our tertiary care medical center.Main outcome measures: Consecutive patients with acute (<3 days from ictus) aneurismal rebleeding or repair or death were retrospectively included. Antihypertensive therapy based on a predefined standardized protocol was prescribed to lower and maintain SBP between 120 and 160 mm Hg. SBP was measured hourly until a censoring event occurred. SBPV was determined as standard deviation (SD) and successive variation (SV). Binary logistic regression was used to assess the association between SBPV and rebleeding.Rebleeding occurred in 61 (10.0%) of the 612 patients. We identified 47 acute rebleeding as cases and 382 early repair or early death as controls. On binary logistic regression analysis, rebleeding was associated with the SD of SBP (odds ratio [OR], 1.254; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.131–1.391; P < 0.001) and the SV of SBP (OR, 1.131; 95% CI, 1.039–1.231; P = 0.004). No significant difference was seen between rebleeding and mean systolic blood pressure (MSBP). SBPV is associated with increased rates of acute aneurysmal rebleeding. Further prospective research is warranted to confirm that SBP stability prevents acute aneurysm rebleeding.
Towards a parameterizable exoskeleton for training of hand function after stroke

This paper describes the mechanical design, actuation and sensing of an exoskeleton for hand function training after stroke. The frame is 3D-printed in one piece including the joints. Apart from saving assembly time, this enables parametrization of the link sizes in order to adapt it to the patient's hand and reduce joint misalignment. The joint angles are determined using Hall effect sensors. They measure the change of the magnetic field of in the joints integrated magnets achieving an average accuracy of 1.25 °. Tendons attached to the finger tips transmit forces from motors. The armature current, which is proportional to the force transmitting tendons is measured using a shunt and controlled by a custom-made current-limiter circuit. Preliminary experiments with a force/torque-sensor showed high linearity and accuracy with a root mean square error of 0.5937 N in comparison to the corresponding forces derived from the motor torque constant.