Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effect of Hand Dominance on Functional Outcome Following Single Row Rotator Cuff Repair

Introduction: Rotator cuff tears are a common cause of shoulder disability and pain. Excellent outcomes can be obtained with surgical treatment although this outcome is affected by several factors. We sought to investigate the effect of hand dominance on subjective functional outcome post rotator cuff repair. Methods: All patients who had rotator cuff repair over a calendar year were identified and followed up at 3 years post operatively. Patients were consented for inclusion in the study and demographic data, hand dominance and functional outcome data was collected. L’insalata shoulder questionnaire was used for outcome data collection. SPSS version 22 was used for statistical analysis where appropriate. Results: 144 patients were included in this study. Mean age was 63 +/- 10.1 years in the dominant side group and 62 +/- 8.6 years in the non-dominant group. 92 patients had dominant side surgery and 52 had non-dominant side surgery. There was a statistically significant correlation between dominant hand and operated side (P=0.005). The mean overall outcome score was marginally higher in the dominant surgery group with a mean of 89.8 +/- 14.2 compared with a mean of 87.4 +/- 17.5 in the non-dominant group. Multi-variate linear regression analysis revealed this difference to be non-significant (p = 0.4). Conclusion: No difference was found in the functional outcome of rotator cuff repair between dominant and non-dominant side surgery. This information will help in counselling patients who are concerned about the potential impact of rotator cuff repair on the function of their dominant hand.
Correspondence between electron binding energy and chemisorption reactivity of iron clusters.

Mise en evidence, par des essais dans un reacteur a ecoulement rapide, d'une forte correlation entre la reactivite des agregats de fer et le seuil d'ionisation de l'agregat: les agregats a seuil bas fixent l'hydrogene moleculaire et les vitesses relatives de cette reaction suivent les variations d'energie de liaison electronique de l'agregat
NegP and negated constituent movement in the history of English

Three types of negated constituent movement during the history of English – NegV1, Negative Inversion and Negative Movement – are linked to the role of NegP in the syntax of English up to the early Modern period, building on proposals made by Haegeman (1995), van Kemenade (2000) and Zeijlstra (2004). NegP is analysed as involving the presence of a Neg Operator, null in languages with a head negator. A high NegP licensed NegV1 in Old and early Middle English, the optionality of a Neg Operator in NegP triggered Negative Movement in Late Middle English until NegP was lost, and the loss of NegP in Early Modern English permitted Negative Inversion. The absence of NegP is proposed for the earliest attested stages of English as well as of other Indo-European languages, as a way of accounting for a stage where NegV1 and Negative Concord were absent.
[Pathologic study of diabetic cardiomyopathy].

OBJECTIVE To study the histopathologic features, differential diagnosis and pathogenesis of diabetic cardiomyopathy. METHODS The clinicopathologic features of 40 autopsy cases of diabetes mellitus were studied. The hearts from another 40 cases of non-diabetic elderly deceased were used for comparison. RESULTS In the 40 cases of diabetes studied, 36 cases (90.0%) showed microscopic myocardial cell death. Focal interstitial fibrosis was observed in 37 cases (92.5%). On the other hand, similar myocardial cell death and patchy interstitial fibrosis was seen in 8 cases (20.0%) and 9 cases (22.5%) of non-diabetic hearts, respectively. The difference between the two groups was statistically significant (P < 0.01). The mural thickness of intramyocardial blood vessels was significantly increased in diabetic group (20.6 microm +/- 4.2 microm) than in non-diabetic group (7.2 microm +/- 5.2 microm), P < 0.01. The myocardial changes in diabetic group however were similar to those in non-diabetic group with systemic hypertension. CONCLUSIONS Pathologic diagnosis of diabetic cardiomyopathy relies on detailed histologic examination of heart tissue and clinical correlation of a long history of diabetes mellitus. Exclusion of other possible etiologies is also essential. The myocardial cell death observed may be due to the ischemic effect induced by diabetic microangiopathy in cardiac muscle.
Enhancement of inferior temporal neurons during visual discrimination.

1. Previous results have shown that spatially directed attention enhances the stimulus-elicited responses of neurons in some areas of the brain. In the inferior temporal (IT) cortex, however, directing attention toward a stimulus mildly inhibits the responses of the neurons. Inferior temporal cortex is involved in pattern discrimination, but not spatial localization. If enhancement signifies that a neuron is participating in the function for which that part of cortex is responsible, then pattern discrimination, not spatial attention, should enhance responses of IT neurons. The influence of pattern discrimination behavior on the responses of IT neurons was therefore compared with previously reported suppressive influences of both spatial attention and the fixation point. 2. Single IT neurons were recorded from two monkeys while they performed each of five tasks. One task required the monkey to make a pattern discrimination between a bar and a square of light. In the other four tasks the same bar of light appeared, but the focus of spatial attention could differ, and the fixation point could be present or absent. Either attention to (without discrimination of) the bar stimulus or the presence of the fixation point attenuated responses slightly. These two suppressive influences produced a greater attenuation when both were present. 3. The visual conditions and motor requirements when the bar stimulus appeared in the discrimination task were identical to those of the trials in the stimulus attention task. However, one-half of the responsive neurons showed significantly stronger responses to the bar stimulus when it appeared in the discrimination task than when it appeared in the stimulus attention task. For most of these neurons, discrimination just overcame the combined effect of the two suppressive influences. For six other neurons, the response strength was significantly greater during the discrimination task than during any other task. 4. The monkeys achieved an overall correct performance rate of 90% in both the discrimination and stimulus attention tasks. To achieve this performance in the discrimination task they adopted a strategy in which they performed one trial type, bar stimulus attention trials, perfectly (100%) and the other trial type, pattern trials, relatively poorly (84% correct). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
The Factored Policy Gradient planner ( IPC-06 Version )

We present the Factored Policy Gradient (FPG) planner: a probabilistic temporal planner designed to scale to large planning domains by applying two significant approximations. Firstly, we use a “direct” policy search in the sense that we attempt to directly optimise a parameterised plan using gradient ascent. Secondly, the policy is factored into a per action mapping from a partial observation to the probabilility of executing, reflecting how desirable each action is. These two approximations — plus memory use that is independent of the number of states — allow us to scale to significantly larger planning domains than were previously feasible. Unlike other probabilistic temporal planners, FPG can attempt to optimisebothmakespan and the probability of reaching the goal. The version of FPG used in the IPC-06 competition optimises the makespan only, and turns off concurrent planning.
Fetal neural tube defects in pregnant women previously submitted to bariatric surgery: more attention to a new emerging entity

Department of Pediatric Surgery, IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo Foundation and University of Pavia, Italy Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Pavia, IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo Foundation, Italy Department of Public Health, Neurosciences, Experimental and Forensics Medicine-Section of Human Nutrition, University of Pavia, Italy Department of Neurosurgery, IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo Foundation, Pavia, Italy Clinic of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo Foundation and University of Pavia, Italy Department of Neuradiology, IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo Foundation Pavia, Italy Department of Internal Medicine University of Pavia and Department of Pediatrics, IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo Foundation Pavia, Italy *Correspondence to: Gloria Pelizzo. E-mail: g.pelizzo@smatteo.pv. it
Experimental models of developmental programming: consequences of exposure to an energy rich diet during development

Studies in both humans and experimental animals addressing the ‘Fetal Origins of Adult Disease’ hypothesis have established a relationship between an adverse intrauterine environment and offspring disease in adult life. This phenomenon, termed ‘fetal programming’ describes a process whereby a stimulus in utero establishes a permanent response in the fetus leading to enhanced susceptibility to later disease. However, the environment, during periods of developmental plasticity in postnatal life, can also ‘programme’ function. Thus, the terms ‘developmental programming’ and the ‘Developmental Origins of Adult Health and Disease’ are preferentially utilized. The ‘Thrifty Phenotype’ hypothesis explained the association between insufficient in utero nutrition and the later development of Type 2 diabetes. Most recently the ‘Predictive Adaptive Response’ hypothesis proposes that the degree of mismatch between the pre‐ and postnatal environments is an important determinant of subsequent disease. Epidemiological studies have indicated that fetal growth restriction correlates with later disease, implying that fetal nutritional deprivation is a strong programming stimulus. This prompted the development of experimental animal models using controlled maternal calorie, protein or macronutrient deficiency during key periods of gestation. However, in many societies, maternal and postnatal nutrition are either sufficient or excessive. Here, we examine findings from a range of nutritional studies examining maternal and/or postnatal nutritional excess. There is supportive evidence from a limited number of studies to test the ‘Predictive Adaptive Response’ hypothesis. These suggest that maternal over‐nutrition is deleterious to the health of offspring and can result in a phenotype of the offspring that is characteristic of metabolic syndrome.
SLA-Driven Semantically-Enhanced Dynamic Resource Allocator for Virtualized Service Providers

In order to be profitable, service providers must be able to undertake complex management tasks such as provisioning, deployment, execution and adaptation in an autonomic way. This paper introduces a framework, the semantically-enhanced resource allocator (SERA), aimed to facilitate service provider management, reducing costs and at the same time fulfilling the QoS agreed with the customers. The SERA assigns resources depending on the information given by service providers according to its business goals and on the resource requirements of the tasks. Tasks and resources are semantically described and these descriptions are used to infer the resource assignments. Virtualization is used to provide a full-customized and isolated virtual environment for each task. In addition, the system supports fine-grain dynamic resource distribution among these virtual environments based on SLAs. The required adaptation is implemented using agents, guarantying to each task enough resources to meet the agreed performance goals.
The ethics of tax evasion: a study of Turkish opinion

The vast majority of articles that have been written about tax evasion have been written from the perspective of public finance. They discuss technical aspects of tax evasion and the primary and secondary effects that tax evasion has on an economy. In many cases there is also a discussion about how to prevent or minimize tax evasion. Very few articles discuss ethical aspects of tax evasion. Thus, there is a need for further research which the present study is intended to partially address. As part of this study a survey instrument was developed based on the issues that have been discussed and the arguments that have been made in the tax evasion ethics literature over the last 500 years. Similar survey instruments were used to test sample populations in Bosnia, Romania and Guatemala. The survey was also distributed to professors of international business. The present study reports on the findings of a survey that was distributed to business students at universities in Turkey. The survey instrument consisted of 18 statements that reflect the three views on the ethics of tax evasion that have emerged over the centuries. Participants were asked to rate the extent of their agreement with each statement by placing a number from 1 to 7 in the space provided. Scores were compared to determine whether the responses were significantly different by state.
The Dynamics of Ethnic Competition and Conflict

This study of ethnic violence in the United States from 1877 to 1914 reveals that not all ethnic groups were equally likely to be victims of violence; the author seeks the reasons for this historical record. Earlier theories of race and ethnic conflict often assumed that ethnic conflict is primarily a function of poverty or deprivation but Olzak suggests that conflict can equally arise during times of economic growth. She explains this by arguing that conflict erupts when racially ordered systems break down, in other words when different ethnic groups find themselves competing for key resources such as jobs and houses. 'This analysis of the causes of urban racial and ethnic strife in large American cities at the turn of the century is a tour de force. It is bound to become an important empirical and theoretical reference for social scientists and historians alike. ' -William Julius Wilson, University of Chicago
Impact of Ownership on Newspaper Quality

This study of journalists' perceptions of local news coverage by independent and group-owned newspapers shows that journalists hold generally positive opinions about their publications' local news coverage. Journalists at independent papers more often rated their papers' commitment to quality local coverage as excellent and were more likely to strongly agree that their newspapers provided an appropriate amount of local coverage.
The relation of utterance length to grammatical complexity in normal and language-disordered groups

ABSTRACT Mean length of utterance (MLU) in morphemes was examined as a predictor of the grammatical complexity of natural language corpora of normal preschoolers and of children and adolescents with delayed language, Fragile X syndrome, Down syndrome, and autism. The Index of Productive Syntax (IPSyn) served as the measure of syntactic and morphological proficiency. For all groups, a strong curvilinear association between measures was found across the MLU range from 1.0 to about 4.5. Correlations were weaker when MLU exceeded 3.0 than during earlier stages of language development, however, confirming previous suggestions that MLU becomes less closely associated with grammatical development as linguistic proficiency increases. For the language-disordered groups, moreover, the curves relating the two measures differed from the curves for the normal preschoolers because MLU frequently overestimated actual IPSyn scores. The results are discussed with respect to the use of MLU in conjunction with other measures of syntactic complexity in the study of atypical language development.
Social Distance from Persons with AIDS

This study investigated the extent to which social distancing from people with AlDS is the result of underlying attitudes concerning sexual orientation and sexual behavior. College students were asked to react to scenarios describing people with AlDS whose sex, sexual orientation and mode of contracting AIDS varied. The results show that respondents were less tolerant of people with AIDS if they were homosexual or if they had acquired AIDS through a sexual encounter than if thc were heterosexual or had acquired AIDS through a blood transfusion and women were more tolerant than men.
Retroviral DNA Integration

The integration of a DNA copy of the viral RNA genome into host chromatin is the defining step of retroviral replication. This enzymatic process is catalyzed by the virus-encoded integrase protein, which is conserved among retroviruses and LTR-retrotransposons. Retroviral integration proceeds via two integrase activities: 3′-processing of the viral DNA ends, followed by the strand transfer of the processed ends into host cell chromosomal DNA. Herein we review the molecular mechanism of retroviral DNA integration, with an emphasis on reaction chemistries and architectures of the nucleoprotein complexes involved. We additionally discuss the latest advances on anti-integrase drug development for the treatment of AIDS and the utility of integrating retroviral vectors in gene therapy applications.
Giving Nolfi a Fair Fight A Comparison of Emergent Modularity and Elman Recurrent Networks

During the last few years, using neural networks as robot controllers has received heavy attention in robotics research. Searching for a network based controller capable of accomplishing a particular tasks has proven time consuming. Genetic algorithms are often applied to find these neural networks. In this paper we explore how well genetic algorithms can find controllers for a trash removal task given various network architectures. We repeat and expand on the work done by Nolfi in Using emergent modularity to develop control systems for mobile robots, comparing his emergent modularity network with both two-layer feed forward and Elman architectures. While we encountered a number of technical difficulties, we were able to verify some of Nolfi’s findings: the emergent modularity architecture quickly converges to a solution, and the two-layer architecture spends the first 75 generations stuck using an ineffective strategy. Interestingly the Elman network, which was absent from Nolfi’s original experiment, proves far more effective than Nolfi’s modular architecture in the long run.
LazyJ: Seamless Lazy Evaluation in Java

LazyJ is a backward-compatible extension of the Java programming language that allows programmers to seamlessly tap into the power and expressiveness of lazy evaluation. It does so by extending Java’s type system with lazy types. A variable of type lazy T (where T is any Java type) can hold a thunk which when evaluated will yield a value of type T . The existence of coercions between non-lazy and lazy types eliminates the need for explicit delay and force operations. In this paper, we introduce LazyJ with several motivating examples and formalize the semantics of the language with Feather-weight LazyJ, an extension of Featherweight Java. We also describe our implementation, which is built on top of the Polyglot extensible compiler framework.
Multimodal decoding and congruent sensory information enhance reaching performance in subjects with cervical spinal cord injury

Cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) paralyzes muscles of the hand and arm, making it difficult to perform activities of daily living. Restoring the ability to reach can dramatically improve quality of life for people with cervical SCI. Any reaching system requires a user interface to decode parameters of an intended reach, such as trajectory and target. A challenge in developing such decoders is that often few physiological signals related to the intended reach remain under voluntary control, especially in patients with high cervical injuries. Furthermore, the decoding problem changes when the user is controlling the motion of their limb, as opposed to an external device. The purpose of this study was to investigate the benefits of combining disparate signal sources to control reach in people with a range of impairments, and to consider the effect of two feedback approaches. Subjects with cervical SCI performed robot-assisted reaching, controlling trajectories with either shoulder electromyograms (EMGs) or EMGs combined with gaze. We then evaluated how reaching performance was influenced by task-related sensory feedback, testing the EMG-only decoder in two conditions. The first involved moving the arm with the robot, providing congruent sensory feedback through their remaining sense of proprioception. In the second, the subjects moved the robot without the arm attached, as in applications that control external devices. We found that the multimodal-decoding algorithm worked well for all subjects, enabling them to perform straight, accurate reaches. The inclusion of gaze information, used to estimate target location, was especially important for the most impaired subjects. In the absence of gaze information, congruent sensory feedback improved performance. These results highlight the importance of proprioceptive feedback, and suggest that multi-modal decoders are likely to be most beneficial for highly impaired subjects and in tasks where such feedback is unavailable.
Statistical Zero-Knowledge Arguments for NP Using Approximable-Preimage-Size One-Way Functions

A statistical zero knowledge argument for NP is a cryptographic primitive that allows a polynomial-time prover to convince another polynomial-time verier of the validity of an NP statement. It is guaranteed that even an innitely powerful verier does not learn any additional information but the validity of the claim. Naor et al. [NOVY98] showed how to implement such a protocol using any one-way permutation. We achieve such a protocol using any approximable-preimage-size one-way function. These are one-way functions with the additional feature that there is a feasible way to approximate the number of preimages of a given output. A special case is regular one-way functions where each output has the same number of preimages. Our result is achieved by showing that a variant of the computationally-binding bit-commitment protocol of Naor et al. can be implemented using a any one-way functions with \sucien tly dense" output distribution. We construct such functions from approximable-preimage-size oneway functions using \hashing techniques" inspired by Hastad et al. [HILL98].
Context adaptive deep neural networks for fast acoustic model adaptation in noisy conditions

Deep neural network (DNN) based acoustic models have greatly improved the performance of automatic speech recognition (ASR) for various tasks. Further performance improvements have been reported when making DNNs aware of the acoustic context (e.g. speaker or environment) for example by adding auxiliary features to the input, such as noise estimates or speaker i-vectors. We have recently proposed a context adaptive DNN (CA-DNN), which is another approach to exploit the acoustic context information within a DNN. A CA-DNN is a DNN that has one or several factorized layers, i.e. layers that use a different set of parameters to process each acoustic context class. The output of a factorized layer is obtained by the weighted sum over the contribution of the different context classes, given weights over the context classes. In our previous work, the class weights were computed independently of the recognizer. In this paper, we extend our previous work by introducing the joint training of the CA-DNN parameters and the class weights computation. Consequently, the class weights and the associated class definitions can be optimized for ASR. We report experimental results on the AURORA4 noisy speech recognition task showing the potential of our approach for fast unsupervised adaptation.