Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Percutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation – Electroacupuncture by Another Name? A Comparative Review

Percutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (PENS) is a technique that has been described as a ‘novel analgesic therapy’. A review was performed of the published literature in order to compare PENS with the author's knowledge and experience of the use of EA, specifically with regard to the stimulation parameters, the selection of points, and the reported efficacy. The conclusion of the review is that PENS is neither different in principle nor in practice from EA, and whilst the term accurately reflects the nature of the treatment, there is no substantial justification for referring to PENS as a novel therapy.
A Thin Client Interface to a High Performance Multi-modal Image Analytics System

We describe a platform for performing text and radiology analytics (TARA). We integrate commercially available hardware and middleware components to construct an environment which is well-suited for performing computationally intensive analyses of medical data. The system, termed a "medical analytical platform," adopts a client-server approach for the display and processing of radiology images, utilizing a standard web browser client connected to a web server. All of the computation is carried out on the web server and computationally intensive tasks are carried out on the attached IBM Cell processor. The system is used to store, fetch, align and display radiology images and the analysis of the associated text reports, and allows for real time processing of the images. We describe novel algorithms for displaying slices of 3D images within a web browser, and for displaying and searching down the RadLex tree and an annotation system for discovering drug dosages in the accompanying clinical reports.
Sex Roles and Sex Differences in Adult Spatial Performance

Abstract Several studies have reported that many college students perform inaccurately on Piaget's water-level task and that this is more often true of women than men. In the present study, the relationships between academic interests, sex roles, and performance on Piaget's water-level task were investigated. College students (N = 194) completed a paper-and-pencil water-level task, the Self Directed Search (SDS; a career interest inventory), and the Bem Sex Role Inventory. Results indicated significant sex differences and that performance was associated with academic skills and interests measured by the SDS. Contrary to previous studies, masculine sex roles did not significantly contribute to the explained variance in water-level task performance.
When Do DCD Donors Die?: Outcomes and Implications of DCD at a High-volume, Single-center OPO in the United States

Objective:The objective of this study was to determine the fate of patients who attempted to donate organs after circulatory death (DCD) using a standardized DCD protocol. Background:Successful donation is not always possible after attempted DCD. Methods:Data were collected for all DCD donors between 1/2011 and 9/2014. DCDs were carried out using a uniform protocol at a single-center organ procurement organization. Results:During the timeframe considered, DCD donation was attempted in 169 patients. In 46 patients (27.2%), no organs were recovered because the patients did not die within 2 hours. Successful donation was more likely if withdrawal of support occurred in the operating room versus the intensive care unit (P = 0.006). Time from extubation to death was available for 161/169 donors (95.3%). Of 161 donors, 111 (66.9%) died in under 1 hour. The mean time from withdrawal of support to patient death for unsuccessful donations was 33 hours, 37 minutes (range, 24 minutes–242 hours) versus 29 minutes (range, 5 minutes–2 hours, 4 minutes) for successful donations. Twenty-seven patients who unsuccessfully donated (67.5%) died within 24 hours. Were unsuccessful donations converted to successful donations, as many as 837 abdominal transplants could have been carried out in the United States, during the study period. Conclusions:DCD is an important form of organ donation. A large number of abdominal transplants are not possible due to unsuccessful DCD organ donation. It may be useful to explore DCD donor family satisfaction to identify other options for improving DCD donation.
We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us: The Role of the Faculty in the Internationalization of Higher Education in the Coming Decade

This article argues that the chief challenge for developing and sustaining internationalization in the context of the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century is the engagement of the faculty. It argues that although higher education has been successful in providing mechanisms for student mobility because institutions have not successfully engaged the faculty that mobility is not as sizeable as it should be, but also, in and of itself, will not deliver the learning, discovery, and engagement that we seek through internationalization. To capture the faculty's interest in, and commitment to, internationalization, we need to move beyond the conceptualization of the internationalization or globalization of higher education in terms of how the different aspects of teaching, research, and service functions of the university are becoming more “internationalized” and examine how these activities encourage greater learning and discovery. Our challenge is to convince faculty that their scholarship and teaching will benefit from these efforts by considering the risk and reward structures within our institutions and faculty cultures.
A Maize Thiamine Auxotroph Is Defective in Shoot Meristem Maintenance[C][W][OA]

Mutations in the maize thiamine biosynthesis gene bladekiller1 induce meristem abortion phenotypes that are completely rescued by exogenous thiamine. The data illustrate the essential role of metabolic cofactors during the proliferative growth of the undifferentiated stem cell populations that comprise plant meristems. Plant shoots undergo organogenesis throughout their life cycle via the perpetuation of stem cell pools called shoot apical meristems (SAMs). SAM maintenance requires the coordinated equilibrium between stem cell division and differentiation and is regulated by integrated networks of gene expression, hormonal signaling, and metabolite sensing. Here, we show that the maize (Zea mays) mutant bladekiller1-R (blk1-R) is defective in leaf blade development and meristem maintenance and exhibits a progressive reduction in SAM size that results in premature shoot abortion. Molecular markers for stem cell maintenance and organ initiation reveal that both of these meristematic functions are progressively compromised in blk1-R mutants, especially in the inflorescence and floral meristems. Positional cloning of blk1-R identified a predicted missense mutation in a highly conserved amino acid encoded by thiamine biosynthesis2 (thi2). Consistent with chromosome dosage studies suggesting that blk1-R is a null mutation, biochemical analyses confirm that the wild-type THI2 enzyme copurifies with a thiazole precursor to thiamine, whereas the mutant enzyme does not. Heterologous expression studies confirm that THI2 is targeted to chloroplasts. All blk1-R mutant phenotypes are rescued by exogenous thiamine supplementation, suggesting that blk1-R is a thiamine auxotroph. These results provide insight into the role of metabolic cofactors, such as thiamine, during the proliferation of stem and initial cell populations.
Children's Conceptions of Participation and Influence in Pre-School: A Perspective on Pedagogical Quality

The United Nations Convention and the Swedish curriculum for pre-school clearly state the right of children to express their views in all matters of concern to them. It is imperative, therefore, that an evaluation of the quality of early childhood education includes the voices of children. Without these, an essential part of how children experience quality within various childcare settings as well as an overall understanding of quality in early childhood education is missing. In a study carried out in a small community in Sweden, the quality of various pre-school settings was evaluated both by an external evaluator and by self-evaluations. From the results of the external evaluations, three pre-school units evaluated to be of low quality and three of good quality were selected for in-depth studies. Thirty-nine 5 year-old children from these pre-school units were interviewed about their conceptions of decision-making and how they experienced the opportunities for them to exercise influence in their pre-school setting. The results show that it is vital for the children to participate in decision-making and the meanings given by the children to the concept ‘to decide’, have been grouped into five qualitatively different categories.
Roof-top detection based on structural elements combination

A novel roof-top extraction method for satellite images based on probabilistic topic model is presented. We model roof-top as the connected structural elements. The proposed method contains two major steps: 1) Detect structural elements, different from earlier structure detector, the proposed method automatically learn the types of elements from unlabeled samples; 2) Connect these elements to form roof-top boundary, where the relationships between elements are estimated by hierarchical topic model. This approach belongs to generative method where only a small number of roof-top samples are required. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Improving server utilization using fast virtual machine migration

Live virtual machine (VM) migration is a technique for transferring an active VM from one physical host to another without disrupting the VM. In principle, live VM migration enables dynamic resource requirements to be matched with available physical resources, leading to better performance and reduced energy consumption. However, in practice, the resource consumption and latency of live VM migration reduce these benefits to much less than their potential. We demonstrate how these overheads can be substantially reduced, enabling live VM migration to fulfill its promise. Specifically, we first experimentally study several factors that contribute to the resource consumption and latency of live VM migration, including workload characteristics, the hypervisor and migration configuration, and the available system and network resources. Then, from the insights gained, we propose an alternative remote direct memory access-based migration technique that significantly reduces VM migration overheads. Finally, via simulation and experiments with real system prototypes, we demonstrate that the reduced VM migration overhead results in significant improvements in resource and energy efficiencies, relative to existing migration techniques.
Colorectal endoscopic submucosal dissection: patient selection and special considerations

Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) enables en bloc resection of large complex colorectal superficial neoplastic lesions, resulting in very low rates of local recurrence, high-quality pathologic specimens for accurate histopathologic diagnosis and potentially curative treatment of early adenocarcinoma without resorting to major surgical resection. The safety and efficacy of the technique, which was pioneered in the upper gastrointestinal tract, has been established by the consistently impressive outcomes from expert centers in Japan and some other eastern countries. However, ESD is challenging to perform in the colorectum and there is a significant risk of complications, particularly in the early stages of the learning curve. Early studies from western centers raised concerns about the high complication rates, and the impressive results from Japanese centers were not replicated. As a result, many western endoscopists are skeptical about the role of ESD and few centers have incorporated the technique into their practice. Nevertheless, although the distribution of expertise, referral centers and modes of practice may differ in Japan and western countries, ESD has an important role and can be safely and effectively incorporated into western practice. Key to achieving this is meticulous lesion assessment and selection, appropriate referral to centers with the necessary expertise and experience and application of the appropriate technique individualized to the patient. This review discusses the advantages, risks and benefits of ESD to treat colorectal lesions and the importance of preprocedure lesion assessment and in vivo diagnosis and outlines a pragmatic rationale for appropriate lesion selection as well as the patient, technical and institutional factors that should be considered.
Good response to gefitinib in lung adenocarcinoma of complex epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations with the classical mutation pattern.

BACKGROUND Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations are usually detected in lung adenocarcinoma and are associated with a response to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). However, not all EGFR mutations have similarly high clinical response rates. This study aimed to investigate the clinical characteristics and response to gefitinib in lung adenocarcinoma patients with complex EGFR mutations. MATERIALS AND METHODS Three hundred thirty-nine specimens of lung adenocarcinoma from patients treated with gefitinib were collected for EGFR sequencing. Nineteen patients with complex EGFR mutations were enrolled for the study after excluding three patients with the EGFR T790M mutation, which confers resistance to gefitinib. RESULTS Among the 19 patients, 12 had complex mutations with the classical mutation pattern (L858R or deletion in exon 19). When compared with those without the classical mutation pattern, patients with this mutation pattern had a higher response rate (83% versus 29%), longer progression-free survival duration (median, 12.7 months versus 4.9 months), and longer overall survival time (median, 24.7 months versus 12.3 months) after gefitinib treatment. Comparing patients harboring complex EGFR mutations with a classical mutation pattern with those harboring single classical mutations, there were no statistical differences in the response rate (83% versus 73%), progression-free survival time (median, 12.7 months versus 8.1 months,) or overall survival time (median, 24.7 months versus 16.4 months). CONCLUSION Patients with complex EGFR mutations with the classical mutation pattern had the same response rate, progression-free survival duration, and overall survival time as those with single classical mutations. EGFR TKIs may be the choice of treatment for this type of lung adenocarcinoma.
Preservation of Open Space and the Concept of Value

Abstract. This paper identifies and classifies six major kinds of values which people ascribe to areas of open space (utility, functional, contemplative, aesthetic, recreational, and ecological values), whether the open space is public or private, urban or rural, or large or small. These values are predominantly culturally‐shaped attitudes. They are not mutually exclusive but nonetheless cannot be subsumed under just one notion of value such as trade‐offs and, consequently, models for evaluating open space based on the familiar utility function are inadequate representations of human reasoning. Public policy concerned with preserving open space must incorporate a multidimensional set of noncommensurate values and one paradigm for doing so is discussed.
Assessing the Structural and Psychometric Properties of a New Personality Measure for Use With Military Personnel in the French Armed Forces

We evaluated the measurement properties of a new personality scale for use with military personnel in the French Navy (N = 1,266). Principal components analyses indicated a five-factor structure assessing emotional stability, ascendancy, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Each factor comprised two facets that included 7 items per facet for a total of 70 items. Reliability analyses indicate that the factors and corresponding facets were internally consistent and temporally stable. Validity analyses indicate that the TAMI-P was significantly correlated with comparable measures of personality—correlations ranged from . 53 to . 68 with the Revised NEO Personality Inventory and the Big Five Questionnaire.
Ambient and Microenvironmental Particles and Exhaled Nitric Oxide Before and After a Group Bus Trip

Objectives Airborne particles have been linked to pulmonary oxidative stress and inflammation. Because these effects may be particularly great for traffic-related particles, we examined associations between particle exposures and exhaled nitric oxide (FENO) in a study of 44 senior citizens, which involved repeated trips aboard a diesel bus. Methods Samples of FENO collected before and after the trips were regressed against microenvironmental and ambient particle concentrations using mixed models controlling for subject, day, trip, vitamins, collection device, mold, pollen, room air nitric oxide, apparent temperature, and time to analysis. Although ambient concentrations were collected at a fixed location, continuous group-level personal samples characterized microenvironmental exposures throughout facility and trip periods. Results In pre-trip samples, both microenvironmental and ambient exposures to fine particles were positively associated with FENO. For example, an interquartile increase of 4 μg/m3 in the daily microenvironmental PM2.5 concentration was associated with a 13% [95% confidence interval (CI), 2–24%) increase in FENO. After the trips, however, FENO concentrations were associated pre-dominantly with microenvironmental exposures, with significant associations for concentrations measured throughout the whole day. Associations with exposures during the trip also were strong and statistically significant with a 24% (95% CI, 15–34%) increase in FENO predicted per interquartile increase of 9 μg/m3 in PM2.5. Although pre-trip findings were generally robust, our post-trip findings were sensitive to several influential days. Conclusions Fine particle exposures resulted in increased levels of FENO in elderly adults, suggestive of increased airway inflammation. These associations were best assessed by microenvironmental exposure measurements during periods of high personal particle exposures.
What employees do with their extra free time when work-life balance is improved through a change in roster

This paper examines how workers spend their non-work time when their work schedule is restructured so that they have an extra non-work day per week. Interviews were conducted in a construction project where the roster was changed from a six to a five-day week. Interviews over time were conducted with fourteen staff, starting when the change was about to occur, then at monthly intervals for the following 3 months. Findings indicated that before the change, staff believed they would spend more time with their friends and family, learning new skills, and relaxing. After the change, it seemed staff were likely to spend their ‘extra’ free time relaxing, and with friends and family, but reported less actual time learning new skills.
Transitions into Idleness among White, Black, and Hispanic Youth: Some Determinants and Policy Implications of Weak Labor Force Attachment

Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth are used to assess the determinants of entering inactivity for 1,731 initially active young men. The results indicate that social context variables play a key role in explaining weak labor force attachment among young nonwhite men, but are relatively less important for white youth. Local opportunity structure and individual human capital characteristics are the most important determinants of inactivity for youth as a whole. These findings encourage a social policy solution centered around job creation and training programs which smooth the transition between school and work.
Analysing indirect jump based on critical semantic subtree

Indirect jump has been widely adopted in implementing multi-way branches due to its flexibility of jump targets, which makes it difficult to carry out reverse analysis of binary. To deal with this, the traditional approach is to summarize characteristics how compilers generate instructions, using the corresponding pattern to match and process. However, it is limited to specific platform and compiler, failing to cope with unknown compilation mode. In this paper, an approach independent of platform and compiler is proposed. We focus on the semantic character of switch-case table, the most representative form of indirect jump, and extract relevant elements to the computation of jump targets to get corresponding addresses automatically. Platform and compiler is ignored throughout the whole process. Good generality and practicability of the method has been proved in the test.
An Attentional Theory of Continuity Editing

The intention of most film editing is to create the impression of continuous action (â€œcontinuityâ€) by presenting discontinuous visual information. The techniques used to achieve this, the continuity editing rules, are well established yet there exists no understanding of their cognitive foundations. This thesis attempts to correct this oversight by proposing that â€œcontinuityâ€ is actually what perceptual and developmental psychologists refer to as existence constancy (Michotte, 1955): â€œthe experience that objects persist through space and time despite the fact that their presence in the visual field may be discontinuousâ€ (Butterworth, 1991). The main conclusion of this thesis is that continuity editing ensures existence constancy by creating conditions under which a) the visual disruption created by the cut does not capture attention, b) existence constancy is assumed, and c) expectations associated with existence constancy are accommodated after the cut. Continuity editing rules are shown to identify natural periods of attention withdrawal that can be used to hide cuts. A reaction time study shows that one such period, a saccadic eye movement, occurs when an object is occluded by the screen edge. This occlusion has the potential to create existence constancy across the cut. After the cut, the object only has to appear when and where it is expected for it to be perceived as continuing to exist. This spatiotemporal information is stored in a visual index (Pylyshyn, 1989). Changes to the objectâ€™s features (stored in an object file ; Kahneman, Treisman, & Gibbs, 1992), such as those caused by the cut, will go unnoticed. A duration estimation study shows that these spatiotemporal expectations distort due to the attention withdrawal. Continuity editing rules show evidence of accommodating these distortions to create perceived continuity from discontinuous visual information. The outcome of this thesis is a scientific understanding of filmic continuity. This permits filmmakers greater awareness of the perceptual consequences of their editing decisions. It also informs cognitive scientists of the potential of film as an analogue for real-world perception that exposes the assumptions, limitations, and constraints imposed upon our perception of reality. Full Text