Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Early Preparation of Experimentally Elicited Minimal Responses

In both human-human and human-machine conversation, an important task for the participants is to identify the moment the other participant finishes speaking, giving them the possibility of taking over the turn in talk. In an RT experiment, consistent evidence was found for an intermediate stage in the planning and articulation of elicited minimal responses in the shape of early larynx and glottal movements in laryngograph recordings. Using a simple Response Time model, it is estimated that this intermediate stage occurs at approximately 2/3 of the integration-time needed for the articulation of a response. Impoverished intonation only stimuli were still adequate to elicit minimal responses, but a longer integration-time was required to initiate a response.
Identifying the Root Causes of Wait States in Large-Scale Parallel Applications

Driven by growing application requirements and accelerated by current trends in microprocessor design, the number of processor cores on modern supercomputers is increasing from generation to generation. However, load or communication imbalance prevents many codes from taking advantage of the available parallelism, as delays of single processes may spread wait states across the entire machine. Moreover, when employing complex point-to-point communication patterns, wait states may propagate along far-reaching cause-effect chains that are hard to track manually and that complicate an assessment of the actual costs of an imbalance. Building on earlier work by Meira Jr. et al., we present a scalable approach that identifies program wait states and attributes their costs in terms of resource waste to their original cause. By replaying event traces in parallel both in forward and backward direction, we can identify the processes and call paths responsible for the most severe imbalances even for runs with tens of thousands of processes.
Tumor necrosis factor-inducing activities of Cryptococcus neoformans components

Cryptococcus neoformans-induced tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) production may lead to increased human immunodeficiency virus replication in patients with AIDS. In order to identify cryptococcal components that are predominantly responsible for stimulating TNF production, various concentrations of glucuronoxylomannan (GXM), galactoxylomannan (GalXM), mannoproteins (MP), and alpha(1-3) [corrected] glucan were added to whole-blood cultures. All of the cryptococcal components tested, as well as whole heat-killed cryptococci, were capable of inducing TNF-alpha release in a dose-dependent manner. MP were significantly more potent than any of the other cryptococcal components tested or heat-killed cryptococci in stimulating TNF-alpha production (P < 0.05). GXM, in contrast, was significantly less potent in this activity than either GalXM or MP (P < 0.05). As little as 0.5 microg of MP per ml was sufficient to produce moderate but significant elevations of TNF-alpha release. Maximal MP-induced TNF-alpha levels were similar to those induced by Salmonella enteritidis lipopolysaccharide, our positive control. Further experiments using isolated leukocytes suggested that monocytes were the cell population mainly responsible for TNF-alpha production, although the participation of other cell types could not be excluded. The presence of complement-sufficient plasma was a necessary requirement for TNF-alpha induction by GXM, GalXM, and low doses of MP. High MP concentrations (100 microg/ml) were also capable of stimulating TNF-alpha production in the absence of plasma. These data indicate that soluble products released by C. neoformans are capable of inducing TNF-alpha secretion in human leukocytes. This may be clinically relevant, since high concentrations of such products are frequently found in the body fluids of AIDS patients infected with C. neoformans.
Effect of staff turnover on staffing: A closer look at registered nurses, licensed vocational nurses, and certified nursing assistants.

PURPOSE We examined the effects of facility and market-level characteristics on staffing levels and turnover rates for direct care staff, and we examined the effect of staff turnover on staffing levels. DESIGN AND METHODS We analyzed cross-sectional data from 1,014 Texas nursing homes. Data were from the 2002 Texas Nursing Facility Medicaid Cost Report and the Area Resource File for 2003. After examining factors associated with staff turnover, we tested the significance and impact of staff turnover on staffing levels for registered nurses (RNs), licensed vocational nurses (LVNs) and certified nursing assistants (CNAs). RESULTS All three staff types showed strong dependency on resources, such as reimbursement rates and facility payor mix. The ratio of contracted to employed nursing staff as well as RN turnover increased LVN turnover rates. CNA turnover was reduced by higher administrative expenditures and higher CNA wages. Turnover rates significantly reduced staffing levels for RNs and CNAs. LVN staffing levels were not affected by LVN turnover but were influenced by market factors such as availability of LVNs in the county and women in the labor force. IMPLICATIONS Staffing levels are not always associated with staff turnover. We conclude that staff turnover is a predictor of RN and CNA staffing levels but that LVN staffing levels are associated with market factors rather than turnover. Therefore, it is important to focus on management initiatives that help reduce CNA and RN turnover and ultimately result in higher nurse staffing levels in nursing homes.
Endocytosis of Prion Protein Is Required for ERK1/2 Signaling Induced by Stress-Inducible Protein 1

The secreted cochaperone STI1 triggers activation of protein kinase A (PKA) and ERK1/2 signaling by interacting with the cellular prion (PrPC) at the cell surface, resulting in neuroprotection and increased neuritogenesis. Here, we investigated whether STI1 triggers PrPC trafficking and tested whether this process controls PrPC-dependent signaling. We found that STI1, but not a STI1 mutant unable to bind PrPC, induced PrPC endocytosis. STI1-induced signaling did not occur in cells devoid of endogenous PrPC; however, heterologous expression of PrPC reconstituted both PKA and ERK1/2 activation. In contrast, a PrPC mutant lacking endocytic activity was unable to promote ERK1/2 activation induced by STI1, whereas it reconstituted PKA activity in the same condition, suggesting a key role of endocytosis in the former process. The activation of ERK1/2 by STI1 was transient and appeared to depend on the interaction of the two proteins at the cell surface or shortly after internalization. Moreover, inhibition of dynamin activity by expression of a dominant-negative mutant caused the accumulation and colocalization of these proteins at the plasma membrane, suggesting that both proteins use a dynamin-dependent internalization pathway. These results show that PrPC endocytosis is a necessary step to modulate STI1-dependent ERK1/2 signaling involved in neuritogenesis.
Surgical treatment of the inferior turbinate: new techniques

Purpose of reviewNasal obstruction causing airway resistance is often a result of structural abnormalities. Frequently, turbinate reduction procedures have been used after failure of medical management to address enlarged inferior turbinates, which potentially cause functional narrowing at the nasal valve. Controversy still exists as to the best or most appropriate method for surgical reduction of the inferior turbinate. The multitude of approaches available to the rhinologist is a testament to the lack of a single established method. Recent findingsThis paper highlights recently published literature regarding current popular and cutting-edge techniques. There is a trend toward less invasive techniques that can potentially be performed in the clinic setting, rather than in the operating room. In addition, surgical turbinate intervention demonstrates benefit in controlling symptoms of allergic rhinitis other than nasal obstruction. SummarySurgical reduction of the inferior turbinate can be performed using a variety of techniques. When analyzing different methods, emphasis on efficacy, function preservation, and avoidance of complications is paramount.
NARRATIVE PRACTICES FOR COUNSELLING IN EDUCATIONAL CONTEXTS

Educational contexts have their own peculiar characteristics, such as that of being multi-professional contexts with a wide range of end users. Counsellors working with educational staff must take these specifics into account. In addition, counselling should be a process that, starting out from the “core issue” that led to the decision to initiate the counselling intervention, aims to promote the professional development of educational staff. In this sense, counsellors should design their interventions to encourage meta-reflection on the context, and should themselves adopt a reflective approach. On the basis of these key assumptions, this paper reflects on narrative practices as a resource for counselling in educational contexts, especially the practice of self-writing which also has the potential to act as a reflective tool for counsellors themselves.
Attitudes and behaviors related to distracted driving in college students: a need for interventions in adolescence

Abstract Objective One of the biggest contributors to distracted driving among young people in the United States is technology. The objective of this study was to describe distracted driving behaviors among college students, with a specific focus on attitudes towards and use of social media. Methods With written permission, a survey was adapted from the Distracted Driving Public Opinion Poll distributed by the National Safety Council. The survey comprised 43 questions assessing attitudes and behaviors. A total of 411 students enrolled in a personal health course were invited to complete the survey. In total 324 surveys were completed, resulting in a response rate of 79%. Results Among students with a driver’s license, 95.2% reported engaging in distracted driving behaviors. The use of social media while driving was common, with 30.7% reporting that they glance at, read, or post to social media while driving, most commonly on Snapchat or Instagram. It was common for students to make or answer phone calls (72.0%), review or send text messages (54.6%), or glance at or read automatic notifications (43.3%). Almost all students (91.5%) reported that they believed a hands-free solution is safer than holding the phone while driving, but only 67.9% reported that they usually used a hands-free device. Students in a health major and students who drive in urban areas were more likely to engage in distracted driving behaviors. Conclusions These findings suggest a need for interventions, particularly those which target adolescents in an attempt to deter these behaviors as they transition into adulthood.
Clinical Terminology: Why Is it so Hard?

Abstract Despite years of work, no re-usable clinical terminology has yet been demonstrated in widespread use. This paper puts forward ten reasons why developing such terminologies is hard. All stem from underestimating the change entailed in using terminology in software for ‘patient centred’ systems rather than for its traditional functions of statistical and financial reporting. Firstly, the increase in scale and complexity are enormous. Secondly, the resulting scale exceeds what can be managed manually with the rigour required by software, but building appropriate rigorous representations on the necessary scale is, in itself, a hard problem. Thirdly, ‘clinical pragmatics’ – practical data entry, presentation and retrieval for clinical tasks – must be taken into account, so that the intrinsic differences between the needs of users and the needs of software are addressed. This implies that validation of clinical terminologies must include validation in use as implemented in software.
A Naturally Occurring Single-Residue Mutation in the Translocator Domain of Neisseria meningitidis NhhA Affects Trimerization, Surface Localization, and Adhesive Capabilities

ABSTRACT Neisseria meningitidis NhhA (Neisseria hia/hsf homologue A) is an oligomeric outer membrane protein belonging to the family of trimeric autotransporter adhesins. NhhA mediates the interaction of N. meningitidis with human epithelial cells and components of the extracellular matrix. The recombinant protein is able to induce bactericidal antibodies and hence has also been considered a potential vaccine candidate. In this study, we analyzed the production of NhhA in a large panel of N. meningitidis strains belonging to different serogroups and clonal complexes. We found that trimeric NhhA was produced at different levels by the various strains tested. In some strains belonging to the clonal complex ST41/44, the protein is detectable only as a monomer. Sequencing of the nhhA gene and generation of complementing strains in different genetic backgrounds have proved that a single mutation (Gly to Asp) in the translocator domain affected both trimerization and surface localization of NhhA. In vitro infection assays showed that this mutation impairs meningococcal NhhA-mediated adhesion, suggesting that strains carrying the mutation may rely on different strategies or molecules to mediate interaction with host cells. Finally, we demonstrated that N. meningitidis ST41/44 strains producing the mutated form did not induce killing mediated by NhhA-specific bactericidal antibodies. Our data help to elucidate the secretion mechanisms of trimeric autotransporters and to understand the contribution of NhhA in the evolutionary process of host-Neisseria interactions. Also, they might have important implications for the evaluation of NhhA as a vaccine candidate.
Tradeoffs in cloud and peer-assisted content delivery systems

With the proliferation of cloud services, cloud-based systems can become a cost-effective means of on-demand content delivery. In order to make best use of the available cloud bandwidth and storage resources, content distributors need to have a good understanding of the tradeoffs between various system design choices. In this work we consider a peer-assisted content delivery system that aims to provide guaranteed average download rate to its customers. We show that bandwidth demand peaks for contents with moderate popularity, and identify these contents as candidates for cloud-based service. We then consider dynamic content bundling (inflation) and cross-swarm seeding, which were recently proposed to improve download performance, and evaluate their impact on the optimal choice of cloud service use. We find that much of the benefits from peer seeding can be achieved with careful torrent inflation, and that hybrid policies that combine bundling and peer seeding often reduce the delivery costs by 20% relative to only using seeding. Furthermore, all these peer-assisted policies reduce the number of files that would need to be pushed to the cloud. Finally, we show that careful system design is needed if locality is an important criterion when choosing cloud-based service provisioning.
The Business Value of Information Technology in Corporations

IMP I/S INTERCORPORATE MEASUREMENT PROGRAM SPECIAL REPORT THE BUSINESS VALUE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN CORPORATIONS Center for Research on Information Technology and Organizations (CRITO) Graduate School of Management University of California, Irvine and CSC Index Research and Advisory Services Cambridge, Massachusetts September, 1994 Kenneth L. Kraemer Vijay Gurbaxani John Mooney Graduate School of Management Debora Dunkle Center for Research on Information Technology and Organizations (CRITO) University of California, Irvine Nicholas Vitalari Vice President CSCIndex Research and Advisory Services © by CRITO and CSC Consulting
The Nature of Entrustment: Intimacy, Exchange, and the Sacred in Africa

This groundbreaking book addresses issues of the keenest interest to anthropologists, specialists on Africa, and those concerned with international aid and development. Drawing on extensive research among the Luo people in western Kenya and abroad over many years, Parker Shipton provides an insightful general ethnography. In particular, he focuses closely on nonmonetary forms of exchange and entrustment, moving beyond anthropology's traditional understanding of gifts, loans, and reciprocity. He proposes a new view of the social and symbolic dimensions of economy over the full life course, including transfers between generations. He shows why the enduring cultural values and aspirations of East African people--and others around the world--complicate issues of credit, debt, and compensation. The book examines how the Luo assess obligations to intimates and strangers, including the dead and the not-yet-born. Borrowing, lending, and serial passing along have ritual, religious, and emotional dimensions no less than economic ones, Shipton shows, and insight into these connections demands a broad rethinking of all international aid plans and programs.
Preschool ADHD Diagnosis and Stimulant Use Before and After the 2011 AAP Practice Guideline

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the change in the diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and prescribing of stimulants to children 4 to 5 years old after release of the 2011 American Academy of Pediatrics guideline. METHODS: Electronic health record data were extracted from 63 primary care practices. We included preventive visits from children 48 to 72 months old receiving care from January 2008 to July 2014. We compared rates of ADHD diagnosis and stimulant prescribing before and after guideline release using logistic regression with a spline and clustering by practice. Patterns of change (increase, decrease, no change) were described for each practice. RESULTS: Among 87 067 children with 118 957 visits before the guideline and 56 814 with 92 601 visits after the guideline, children had an ADHD diagnosis at 0.7% (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.7% to 0.8%) of visits before and 0.9% (95% CI, 0.8% to 0.9%) after guideline release and had stimulant prescriptions at 0.4% (95% CI, 0.4% to 0.4%) of visits in both periods. A significantly increasing preguideline trend in ADHD diagnosis ended after guideline release. The rate of stimulant medication use remained constant before and after guideline release. Patterns of change from before to after the guideline varied significantly across practices. CONCLUSIONS: Release of the 2011 guideline that addressed ADHD in preschoolers was associated with the end of an increasing rate of diagnosis, and the rate of prescribing stimulants remained constant. These are reassuring results given that a standardized approach to diagnosis was recommended and stimulant treatment is not first-line therapy for this age group.
F-transform in view of trend extraction

In the analysis of time series, it is important to decompose the original values into trend, cycle, seasonal component, and noise. In this paper, we provide a theoretical justification of the fact that the F-transform can be used for this purpose. We formulate “natural” requirements on the trend extraction procedure and then show that the inverse F-transform fulfils all of them.
Blind Speaker Clustering

A novel approach to performing speaker clustering in telephone conversations is presented in this paper. The method is based on a simple observation that the distance between populations of feature vectors extracted from different speakers is greater than a preset threshold. This observation is incorporated into the clustering problem by the formulation of a constrained optimization problem. A modified c-means algorithm is designed to solve the optimization problem. Another key aspect in speaker clustering is to determine the number of clusters, which is either assumed or expected as an input in traditional methods. The proposed method does not require such information; instead, the number of clusters is automatically determined from the data. The performance of the proposed algorithm with the Hellinger, Bhattacharyya, Mahalanobis and the generalized likelihood ratio distance measures is evaluated and compared. The approach, employing the Hellinger distance, resulted in an average cluster purity value of 0.85 from experiments performed using the switchboard telephone conversation al speech database. The result indicates a 9% relative improvement in the average cluster purity as compared to the best performing agglomerative clustering system
Creating and maintaining student diversity: strategies and challenges for school leaders

The purpose of this paper was to explore how school leaders can create and maintain student diversity in charter schools. Based on a case study of two racially balanced schools in New York City, this study identifies three strategies that the schools’ leaders took to create more student diversity: (1) develop curriculum-centred missions, (2) implement targeted student recruitment and (3) more inclusively interpret state charter enrolment guidelines. This paper also documents the challenges they faced in maintaining diversity over time. As exceptions to the racial segregation so prevalent in many urban charter schools, these schools highlight successful leadership approaches for creating more diverse student compositions in other schools.
Improving smart grid security using smart cards

The rapid changes in the electrical grid demand a smarter information infrastructure. The C-DAX project proposes a secure integrated communication and information infrastructure for future power distribution networks. Securing such an infrastructure is a difficult task since it has a flexible and distributed nature. The use of smart cards is an industry-proven solution for the difficult tasks of key distribution, key storage, and secure cryptographic algorithm execution. In this thesis we investigate to what extent the security functionalities in the C-DAX solution can be moved to a smart card, given its performance and throughput constraints. Moving parts of the security tasks to a smart card requires both a performance evaluation of smart cards and an analysis of the security implications. We implemented and analyzed different C-DAX security functionalities on a smart card. We propose a secure smart card installation method, including the design and evaluation of an activation protocol. In addition, we carried out an extensive benchmark of the smart card performance. The results show that our implementation can successfully be applied in within the C-DAX infrastructure.
Subdural Recording of Bereitschaftspotential Is Useful for Functional Mapping of the Epileptogenic Motor Area:

Summary: A 26‐year‐old man with intractable focal motor seizure beginning with tonic contraction of the left orbicularis oculi muscle had prolonged EEG monitoring with subdural grid electrodes placed over the right perirolandic cortex. Electrical stimulation of the cortex with implanted subdural electrodes showed a relatively low threshold for afterdischarges (ADS) but could not disclose the motor area for the left upper face where or near where the epileptogenic area was expected to be present. Bereitschaftspotential recorded from the subdural electrodes in association with self‐paced voluntary blink (eyelid closing) disclosed the motor area specifically related to voluntary movements of the left upper face, which was most likely buried in the sulcus. This observation suggests that recording of Bereitschaftspotential from subdural electrodes is useful for mapping the motor cortex, especially in patients with focal motor seizure with low threshold for ADS to electric stimuli.