Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Can classification systems help the sexual therapist?

The Association moves from strength to strength with the development of approving four-year training courses for sexual and relationship therapists, to providing accredited therapist and accredited supervisor status. However de® nitive these guidelines attempt to be, there will always be variance away from the ideal position. There is, however, one area where the Association has, to date, remained reserved in making comment and that is on classi® cation systems of sexual dysfunction. While many of the approved training courses have recommended reading lists which describe one or more variations of the cycle of sexual response initially proposed by Masters and Johnson and subsequently modi® ed, there does appear to be less emphasis on either of the current classi® cation systems listed by either the World Health Organisation (the International Classi® cation of Diseases and Related Health Problems Version 10) or the American Psychiatric Association (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders VI). While each of these classi® cation systems has its limitations, including a perception of medical causation of disorder, as clinicians we have struggled to ® nd a more satisfactory way of recording such `dysfunction’ . In day-to-day practice there may seem limited value in establishing the exact nature of dysfunction, at least as far as a classi® cation system is concerned. However, few practising clinicians would be so bold as to state that it is unimportant to understand, whether as a clear-cut diagnosis or as a formulation and description of circumstances, what condition it is that individuals or couples are presenting with to us as clinicians at our clinics. Without some formal classi® cation, we can be unclear about the nature of the problems that are presenting to the clinician or the clinic; therefore estimation and planning for delivery of clinical services can be, at best, inexact. When auditing the outcome of the treatment or therapeutic options, it is necessary to try and consider a group of subjects with a similar condition at any particular time. More importantly, when research is being carried out looking at outcomes of speci® c interventions, it is necessary that operational criteria and de® nitions be robust enough to satisfy criteria for publication in peer-reviewed journals. Without the latter, there will remain a paucity of data to argue the case for the provision (or introduction) of such clinical services, particularly within a government-funded health service. The development of an international consensus on de® nitions and classi® cations of the hitherto neglected area of female sexual
The effect of free-electron laser pulse structure on mid-infrared soft-tissue ablation: biological effects

Previous studies have shown that changing the pulse structure of the free electron laser (FEL) from 1 to 200 ps and thus reducing the peak irradiance of the micropulse by 200 times had little or no effect on both the ablation threshold radiant exposure and the ablated crater depth for a defined radiant exposure. This study focuses on the ablation mechanism at 6.1 and 6.45 µm with an emphasis on the role of the FEL pulse structure. Three different experiments were performed to gain insight into this mechanism. The first was an analysis of the ablation plume dynamics observed for a 1 ps micropulse compared with a 200 ps micropulse as seen through bright-field analysis. Negligible differences are seen in the size, but not the dynamics of ablation, as a result of this imaging. The second experiment was a histological analysis of corneal and dermal tissue to determine whether there is less thermal damage associated with one micropulse duration versus another. No significant difference was seen in the extent of thermal damage on either canine cornea or mouse dermis for the micropulse durations studied at either wavelength. The final set of experiments involved the use of mass spectrometry to determine whether amide bond breakage could occur in the proteins present in tissue as a result of direct absorptions of mid-infrared light into the amide I and amide II absorption bands. This analysis showed that there was no amide bond breakage due to irradiation at 6.45 µm on protein.
Sensory innervation of periodontal ligament of rat molars consists of unencapsulated Ruffini‐like mechanoreceptors and free nerve endings

The trigeminal ganglion (TG) of adult rats was injected with 3H‐amino acids to label periodontal receptors by axonal transport; 20–24 hours after injection, samples of molar ligament were prepared for autoradiography and electron microscopy. Four types of neurites labeled from TG were found in the avascular ligament fiber regions: (1) large, complex, Ruffini‐like endings, lacking a capsule, but with finger extensions touching ligament collagen; (2) smaller Ruffini‐like endings, lacking a capsule and neural fingers; (3) free bundles of unmyelinated axons; and (4) free, small, myelinated axons. The vascular channels plus associated loose connective tissue that perforate the ligament contained labeled preterminal ensheathed axons, small Ruffini endings, and free unmyelinated or small myelinated axons. The incidence of labeled endings was about 5 × greater next to the lower third of the root than in the upper two‐thirds or beneath the root The TG myelinated axons (diameter range 2–15 μm) entered the ligament in sheathed nerve bundles; these branched to form numerous small preterminal axons that were surrounded by a periaxonal fluid space and a perineurial sheath. Terminal axons branched from nodes of Ranvier, left the preterminal chamber, and followed an extended branching course through the collagen fibers. Large, complex Ruffini‐like endings had numerous mitochondria and were partially covered by special lamellar Schwann cells and complex basal lamina; vesicles and multivesicular bodies were found near exposed regions of the receptor. Smaller Ruffini‐like endings lacked neural fingers and had a simpler structure and less elaborate Schwann cells. The structure of Ruffini‐like endings was highly varied; thus a structural continuum may exist from the largest, most complex to the smallest, simplest Ruffini‐like receptor. The TG unmyelinated axons entered the ligament in ensheathed bundles; they then branched into free bundles that were found in the avascular ligament or near blood vessels. No encapsulated receptors were found.
The organization of turns at formal talk in the classroom

Abstract Beginning with a consideration of some commonsense and professional conceptions of what a formal situation might comprise, this paper goes on to ask the question: where along a linear array which has its poles in exemplars of formal and informal speech-exchange systems, can classroom talk be placed? Its answer is given in part in the form of rules for the taking of turns in classrooms, these being modifications of those, already established in the literature, for natural conversation. These rules allow for and require that formal classroom situations be constructed so as to involve differential participation rights for parties to the talk depending on their membership of the social identity-class ‘student/teacher’. The analyses which follow examine some of the applications and violations of these rules found in audio and video recordings of naturally occurring classroom talk (and transcripts thereof) for their orderliness as orientations to these rules. It is argued that the rules provide a systematic basis for the ‘feelings’ of ‘formality’ that researchers and participants have of such situations and that a decision as to the ‘formality’ or otherwise of a social situation can be predicated on the degree of pre-allocation involved in the organization of turns at talk in the situation. (Configuration and distance in interaction, conversational analysis, turn-taking systems, classroom language, sociology of education; British and Australian English).
Morphometry and subpopulation structure of Holstein bull spermatozoa: variations in ejaculates and cryopreservation straws

Sperm quality is evaluated for the calculation of sperm dosage in artificial reproductive programs. The most common parameter used is motility, but morphology has a higher potential as a predictor of genetic quality. Morphometry calculations from CASA-Morph technology improve morphological evaluation and allow mathematical approaches to the problem. Semen from 28 Holstein bulls was collected by artificial vagina, and several ejaculates were studied. After general evaluation, samples were diluted, packaged in 0.25 ml straws, and stored in liquid nitrogen. Two straws per sample were thawed, and slides were processed and stained with Diff-Quik. Samples were analyzed by a CASA-Morph system for eight morphometric parameters. In addition to the "classical" statistical approach, based on variance analysis (revealing differences between animals, ejaculates, and straws), principal component (PC) analysis showed that the variables were grouped into PC1, related to size, and PC2 to shape. Subpopulation structure analysis showed four groups, namely, big, small, short, and narrow from their dominant characteristics, representing 31.0%, 27.3%, 24.1%, and 17.7% of the total population, respectively. The distributions varied between animals and ejaculates, but between straws, there were no differences in only four animals. This modern approach of considering an ejaculate sperm population as divided into subpopulations reflecting quantifiable parameters generated by CASA-Morph systems technology opens a new view on sperm function. This is the first study applying this approach to evaluate different ejaculates and straws from the same individual. More work must be done to improve seminal dose calculations in assisted reproductive programs.
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Duty cycling in opportunistic networks: intercontact times and energy-delay tradeoff

—Portable mobile devices like smartphones and tablets are the enablers for communications in mobile ad hoc networks. In order to optimise their energy usage, one of the most popular techniques is to implement a duty cycling policy, which periodically puts the user device in a energy saving mode (e.g., Bluetooth inquiry scan phase or turning off the WiFi interface) for a certain amount of time. Clearly, this strategy increases the battery lifetime, but it also has the net effect of reducing the number of usable contacts for delivering messages, increasing intercontact times and delays. In order to understand the effect of duty cycling in opportunistic networks, in this paper we propose a general model for deriving the pairwise intercontact times modiﬁed by a duty cycling policy. Then, we specialise this model when the original intercontact times are exponential (an assumption popular in the literature), and we show that, in this case, the intercontact times measured after duty cycling are, approximately, again exponential, but with a rate proportional to the inverse of the duty cycle. Once we have the distribution of the intercontact times after duty cycling, we use it for analysing how duty cycling affects the delay of message forwarding and the network lifetime.
The CMT4B disease-causing proteins MTMR2 and MTMR13/SBF2 regulate AKT signalling

Charcot‐Marie‐Tooth disease type 4B is caused by mutations in the genes encoding either the lipid phosphatase myotubularin‐related protein‐2 (MTMR2) or its regulatory binding partner MTMR13/SBF2. Mtmr2 dephosphorylates PI‐3‐P and PI‐3,5‐P2 to form phosphatidylinositol and PI‐5‐P, respectively, while Mtmr13/Sbf2 is an enzymatically inactive member of the myotubularin protein family. We have found altered levels of the critical signalling protein AKT in mouse mutants for Mtmr2 and Mtmr13/Sbf2. Thus, we analysed the influence of Mtmr2 and Mtmr13/Sbf2 on signalling processes. We found that overexpression of Mtmr2 prevents the degradation of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and leads to sustained Akt activation whereas Erk activation is not affected. Mtmr13/Sbf2 counteracts the blockage of EGFR degradation without affecting prolonged Akt activation. Our data indicate that Mtmr2 and Mtmr13/Sbf2 play critical roles in the sorting and modulation of cellular signalling which are likely to be disturbed in CMT4B.
Comparative study on convolutive BSS algorithms for an app-based assistance system scenario

The requirements of a modern workplace as well as of socially integrated and autonomous aging demands a high quality of acoustic communication on the basis of interpersonal voice communication, perception and localization of warning signals, and generally acoustic information exchange. Increased listening effort results in a reduction of the concentration ability and performance with the final consequence of uncertainty and social retreat. A smartphone app-based hearing assistance system has been evolved that makes everyday acoustic scenarios more transparent by providing the opportunity to choose and focus on the preferred sound source which is enabled by the separation of actual signals in the existing acoustic situation into their respective signal sound sources. The main component of this assistance system is the blind source separation algorithm. This algorithm has to comply with several conditions regarding the compatibility with the system architecture, application problems and its separation ability. In this paper, a comparative study of four state-of-the-art Convolutive Blind Source Separation (C-BSS) algorithms is done on test audio files captured in four categories of acoustically challenging situations. This study does the comparison on the grounds of separation robustness and run-time efficiency. The best performing algorithm is further used as the separation technique in our hearing assistance system. The technical limitations of the state-of-the-art mobile systems for such an app and the possible alternates are suggested in this paper.
Caloric Restriction Chronically Impairs Metabolic Programming in Mice

Although obesity rates are rapidly rising, caloric restriction remains one of the few safe therapies. Here we tested the hypothesis that obesity-associated disorders are caused by increased adipose tissue as opposed to excess dietary lipids. Fat mass (FM) of lean C57B6 mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD; FMC mice) was “clamped” to match the FM of mice maintained on a low-fat diet (standard diet [SD] mice). FMC mice displayed improved glucose and insulin tolerance as compared with ad libitum HFD mice (P < 0.001) or SD mice (P < 0.05). These improvements were associated with fewer signs of inflammation, consistent with the less-impaired metabolism. In follow-up studies, diet-induced obese mice were food restricted for 5 weeks to achieve FM levels identical with those of age-matched SD mice. Previously, obese mice exhibited improved glucose and insulin tolerance but showed markedly increased fasting-induced hyperphagia (P < 0.001). When mice were given ad libitum access to the HFD, the hyperphagia of these mice led to accelerated body weight gain as compared with otherwise matched controls without a history of obesity. These results suggest that although caloric restriction on a HFD provides metabolic benefits, maintaining those benefits may require lifelong continuation, at least in individuals with a history of obesity.
Commercial Banking Crises in Kenya: Causes and Remedies

Many Financial institutions that collapsed in Kenya since 1986 failed due to non performing loans. This study investigated the causes of non performing loans, the actions that bank mangers have taken to mitigate that problem and the level of success of such actions. Using a sample of 30 managers selected from the ten largest banks the study found that national economic downturn was perceived as the most important external factor. Customer failure to disclose vital information during the loan application process was considered to be the main customer specific factor. The study further found that Lack of an aggressive debt collection policy was perceived as the main bank specific factor, contributing to the non performing debt problem in
Curriculum-Based Measurement and Standards-Based Mathematics

This purpose of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of a curriculum-based measure of word problem solving (CBM-WPS) as an indicator of performance and progress in a sample of 136 third-grade students at risk for mathematics difficulties (MDs) instructed in a standards-based mathematics curriculum. Students completed the CBM-WPS measure every 2 weeks across 12 school weeks. Results indicated that the CBM-WPS measure was reliable and significantly correlated with measures of arithmetic WPS, number combinations fluency, and a standardized test of mathematics achievement. Results of growth modeling indicated that students showed significant growth on the CBM-WPS measure, with an average increase of 0.33 problems correct per week. Additional analyses revealed that students identified as high at-risk demonstrated similar growth as students identified as low at-risk. Furthermore, the CBM-WPS growth slopes were a significant predictor of students’ spring performance on a standardized test of mathematics achievement, demonstrating their predictive validity. Implications for practice and future research for assessing mathematics skill development are discussed.
DISCOVER: a feature-based discriminative method for motif search in complex genomes

Motivation: Identifying transcription factor binding sites (TFBSs) encoding complex regulatory signals in metazoan genomes remains a challenging problem in computational genomics. Due to degeneracy of nucleotide content among binding site instances or motifs, and intricate ‘grammatical organization’ of motifs within cis-regulatory modules (CRMs), extant pattern matching-based in silico motif search methods often suffer from impractically high false positive rates, especially in the context of analyzing large genomic datasets, and noisy position weight matrices which characterize binding sites. Here, we try to address this problem by using a framework to maximally utilize the information content of the genomic DNA in the region of query, taking cues from values of various biologically meaningful genetic and epigenetic factors in the query region such as clade-specific evolutionary parameters, presence/absence of nearby coding regions, etc. We present a new method for TFBS prediction in metazoan genomes that utilizes both the CRM architecture of sequences and a variety of features of individual motifs. Our proposed approach is based on a discriminative probabilistic model known as conditional random fields that explicitly optimizes the predictive probability of motif presence in large sequences, based on the joint effect of all such features. Results: This model overcomes weaknesses in earlier methods based on less effective statistical formalisms that are sensitive to spurious signals in the data. We evaluate our method on both simulated CRMs and real Drosophila sequences in comparison with a wide spectrum of existing models, and outperform the state of the art by 22% in F1 score. Availability and Implementation: The code is publicly available at http://www.sailing. cs.cmu. edu/discover.html. Contact: epxing@cs.cmu. edu Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Battered Women as Coerced Victim-Perpetrators

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to explore the role of abuse as a coercive technique leading to illegal behavior on the part of victims. Two hundred and fifty-one victim-perpetrators were evaluated for types of abuse and their experience relating to fear and participation in illegal activities. Victims report that violent, coercive behaviors and threats on the part of abusers are related to the victims' perpetrating crimes. Threats to harm their children and pets are described by victims as important in their decision to obey the abusers' orders and commit crimes. Past harm to pets, children, and other family members, as well as threats to harm immediately preceding the illegal act, are described as important by the victims who are identified as victim-perpetrators. Other documenting information, such as police reports and hospital records, are utilized in this exploration. Societal and clinical implications are discussed.
Effects of team tenure and leadership in self‐managing teams

Purpose – This study seeks to identify the relationship between leader behaviour and the effectiveness of the members of a self‐managing team (SMT) in terms of perceived individual performance and emotional exhaustion. In particular, it aims to examine the moderating role of individual team tenure.Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire study was conducted involving 154 team members of 21 SMTs. Two leadership dimensions were measured, plus team tenure and effectiveness (in terms of perceived individual performance and emotional exhaustion) of the individuals involved.Findings – Team members with a short team tenure reported higher levels of individual performance when their team leader demonstrated directive behaviour. Conversely, these relatively new team members reported lower levels of individual performance and experienced greater emotional exhaustion when their team leader adopted coaching behaviour. For team members with longer team tenure, however, individual performance was greater and emoti.
Scaling Up Robust MDPs using Function Approximation

We consider large-scale Markov decision processes (MDPs) with parameter uncertainty, under the robust MDP paradigm. Previous studies showed that robust MDPs, based on a minimax approach to handling uncertainty, can be solved using dynamic programming for small to medium sized problems. However, due to the "curse of dimensionality", MDPs that model real-life problems are typically prohibitively large for such approaches. In this work we employ a reinforcement learning approach to tackle this planning problem: we develop a robust approximate dynamic programming method based on a projected fixed point equation to approximately solve large scale robust MDPs. We show that the proposed method provably succeeds under certain technical conditions, and demonstrate its effectiveness through simulation of an option pricing problem. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to scale up the robust MDP paradigm.