Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Deaf Families with Children Who Have Cochlear Implants: Perspectives and Beliefs on Bilingualism in American Sign Language and English

DEAF FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN WHO HAVE COCHLEAR IMPLANTS: PERSPECTIVES AND BELIEFS ON BILINGUALISM IN AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE AND ENGLISH Julie C. Mitchiner, Ph.D. George Mason University, 2012 Dissertation Chair: Dr. Sylvia Y. Sánchez This study examines Deaf parents with children who have cochlear implants on their beliefs and perspectives of bilingualism in America n Sign Language and English using complementary mixed methods through surveys and fol low-up interviews. Seventeen families participated in the survey and eight famil ies continued their participation in semi-formal follow-up interviews. Findings show a m jority of the Deaf families in the study exhibit positive beliefs and perspectives tow ards using both English and ASL for their children with cochlear implants and set high expectations for their children to become equally fluent in both languages, including E lish. However, American Sign Language is perceived to be essential for effective communication among families as well as for developing a strong identity as a Deaf person and a foundation for learning English. Parents’ beliefs and perspectives towards both languages may stem from their own experiences being Deaf and being bilingual. The y value both languages as part of their children’s lives for social, academic, and co gnitive gains. Most of the families used ASL with their children s i ce birth and continued to use ASL after their children have received cochlear implant s. Several families have added the use of spoken language at home to support their childre n’s spoken language development after implantation. Parents expressed some challen ges and solutions to maintain bilingualism with their children. Ensuring that the ir children have sufficient exposure to both languages was the most common challenge expres sed by the families. Finding the right educational placement for their child was als o difficult for many families. Families sought different ways to support their children’s l anguage development through technology, speech therapy services, and interactin g w th spoken language models. Parents with deaf children who have cochlear implan ts, regardless if they are hearing or deaf, may benefit from learning about the advantage s as well as the challenges of maintaining bilingualism in sign and spoken languag es and being part of both the deaf and hearing communities.
Retinal ganglion cells projecting to the accessory optic system in optokinetic blind albinotic rats are direction‐selective

The optokinetic deficits in albinotic rats and ferrets are caused by the loss of direction selectivity in the accessory optic system (AOS). However, the underlying mechanisms for this loss are still not clear. Here we tested the hypothesis that, in albino rats, the retinal input to the AOS lacks direction selectivity and, as a consequence, neurons in the AOS are direction non‐selective. We investigated ON‐center direction‐selective retinal ganglion cells, the major input to the AOS, in pigmented Long Evans and albino Wistar rats using extracellular in vitro patch‐clamp techniques. To visualise putative AOS‐projecting direction‐selective ganglion cells, we retrogradely labeled them by injection of the infrared‐sensitive dye indocyanine green into the medial terminal nucleus of the AOS. The present study is the first to present physiological evidence for retinal ON‐center direction‐selective ganglion cells in rat. Our results show that, in albinotic and pigmented rats, ON‐center retinal ganglion cells projecting to the AOS are similarly direction‐selective, suggesting that the optokinetic deficit must be caused by the abolition of direction selectivity in the AOS itself.
Teams as technology: strengths, weaknesses, and trade-offs in cognitive task performance

Purpose – This paper aims to assert that teams are a technology used to achieve task goals or social objectives that cannot be accomplished by individuals alone. Much current work in organizations is knowledge based, so it is important to know when to apply teams as a technology and how teams can be effectively utilized for cognitive task performance. This paper describes a number of strengths, weaknesses and trade-offs that accompany teams performing cognitive tasks. Design/methodology/approach – Research comparing team performance to that of similarly treated individuals indicates that teams on average exceed the performance of individuals on cognitive tasks; however, teams rarely match the performance of their best member. Findings – Based on analysis of this research, a set of strengths of teams are highlighted: information pooling, error correction, meta-knowledge, reliability and information sharing. Two weaknesses of team performance on cognitive tasks are also identified: slow to action and coordi.
Data mining on text

Data mining technology is giving us the ability to extract meaningful patterns from large quantities of structured data. Information retrieval systems have made large quantities of textual data available. Extracting meaningful patterns from this data is difficult. Current tools for mining structured data are inappropriate for free text. We outline problems involved in Knowledge Discovery in Text, and present an architecture for extracting patterns that hold across multiple documents. The capabilities that such a system could provide are illustrated.
‘Sidestepping the Embryo’. The Cultural Meaning and Political Uses of Ethical Stem Cells

Abstract : In many countries, stem cell research is embroiled in heated ethical and political debates because the most valued stem cell types are human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) taken from a few-days old human embryo which is destroyed during the harvesting procedure. ‘Ethical stem cells’ is the label commonly used to denote an array of cellular reprogramming techniques, biological artifacts, and somatic stem cells which make it possible to obtain pluripotent stem cells while avoiding the use of human embryos. This paper, by focusing on the Italian case, analyzes the cultural meaning and the political uses of these bio-objects which incorporate in their ontology the social and ethical quandaries raised by stem cell research in order to sidestep them. The debate on ethical stem cells shows a new way to deal with ethical commitments in biosciences and throws light on the process of regulatory ordering and normativity production in regard to biotechnological innovations. Keywords : ethical stem cells, human embryo, bioethics, biotechnologies, Italy.
Clinical aspects of acquired aphasia and dysarthria in childhood

For the last decade, it has been a common clinical belief that the prognosis of acquired childhood aphasia is good. However, our own clinical experiences were rather conflicting on this point. As a consequence, we re-examined all the children (15) with an acquired aphasia who in a period from 1969-1972 were hospitalized in the University Hospital Rotterdam-Dijkzigt. On re-examination 7 children failed to show complete recovery (VanDongen and Loonen, 1977). One year later Woods and Teuber published an outstanding study entitled "Changing patterns of childhood aphasia", in which they also contradicted the expectation of a good recovery of acquired childhood aphasia. In addition, they criticized the view supported by the earlier literature that "childhood aphasias differ in kind from adult aphasia being predominantly motor or non-fluent". The research carried out after 1977 on the classification and the recovery of the different speech disturbances is subject of this thesis.
A Technicity of Attention: How Software 'Makes Sense'

In this essay, I develop an understanding of a technicity of attention in social networking sites. I argue that these sites treat attention not as a property of human cognition exclusively, but rather as a sociotechnical construct that emerges out of the governmental power of software. I take the Facebook platform as a case in point, and analyse key components of the Facebook infrastructure, including its Open Graph protocol, and its ranking and aggregation algorithms, as specific implementations of an attention economy. Here I understand an attention economy in the sense of organising and managing attention within a localised context. My aim is to take a step back from the prolific, anxiety-ridden discourses of attention and the media which have emerged as part of the so-called ‘neurological turn’ (see Carr, 2012; Wolf, 2007). 1 In contrast, this essay focuses on the specific algorithmic and ‘protocological’ mechanisms of Facebook as a proactive means of enabling, shaping and inducing attention, in conjunction with users.
The Cytocaud: A Hair Cell Pathology in the Waltzing Guinea Pig

The waltzing guinea pig displays severe inner ear dysfunction that involves both an auditory and a vestibular manifestation. The aim of this study was to characterize a pathological tail-like extension of the vestibular hair cells, the cytocaud. Our data suggest that nearly all type I hair cells in the waltzing guinea pig have cytocauds, which appear as membrane-bound tails containing mitochondria and cytoplasm that proceed in a basal direction toward the basement membrane. The extensions either attach to the basement membrane or penetrate it, and further proceed into the extracellular matrix. A core made of a thick and long (30 µm) actin-rich structure supports the slender long process. The actin core has cross-links that are periodically placed along the length of the cytocaud. Our data suggest that the cytocauds in vestibular hair cells of the waltzing guinea pig are highly organized structures associated with a failure to detach from the basement membrane.
A cross-layer framework for wireless LAN QoS support

The IEEE 802.11x based wireless LAN technologies are leading the indoor Internet distribution in education, business and home environments. They are usually deployed as wireless extension of a broadband access to the network (i.e. DSL, cable modem, etc). These technologies are based on CSMA/CA media access with a positive MAC layer acknowledgement and a retransmission mechanism that aids noisy channel propagation condition and eventual undetected collisions. While TCP traffic benefits from a layer 2 retransmission policy the multimedia traffic experiences large delays and jitter resulting in a poor user experience. We satisfy the emerging user need of a MAC layer Quality of Service (QoS) support by taking advantage from layers 4-7 information. We believe the concepts and the architectural design presented are suitable to enhance QoS support in wireless technologies.
Effects of Reynolds Number on the Energy Conversion and Near-Wake Dynamics of a High Solidity Vertical-Axis Cross-Flow Turbine

Experiments were performed with a large laboratory-scale high solidity cross-flow turbine to investigate Reynolds number effects on performance and wake characteristics and to establish scale thresholds for physical and numerical modeling of individual devices and arrays. It was demonstrated that the performance of the cross-flow turbine becomes essentially R e -independent at a Reynolds number based on the rotor diameter R e D ≈ 10 6 or an approximate average Reynolds number based on the blade chord length R e c ≈ 2 × 10 5 . A simple model that calculates the peak torque coefficient from static foil data and cross-flow turbine kinematics was shown to be a reasonable predictor for Reynolds number dependence of an actual cross-flow turbine operating under dynamic conditions. Mean velocity and turbulence measurements in the near-wake showed subtle differences over the range of R e investigated. However, when transport terms for the streamwise momentum and mean kinetic energy were calculated, a similar R e threshold was revealed. These results imply that physical model studies of cross-flow turbines should achieve R e D ∼ 10 6 to properly approximate both the performance and wake dynamics of full-scale devices and arrays.
Two Swedish Speechdat databases - some experiences and results

The objective of the EU-funded SpeechDat project was to create large-scale speech databases for voice-driven teleservices. This paper deals with the design of two such Swedish resources: 5000 speakers over the fixed telephone network, and 1000 over the mobile network. It also reports on experiences from speaker recruitment and presents statistics on speaker distribution. Results regarding orthographic labelling of pronunciation, pronunciation errors and non-speech events are also included.
Cytologic differential diagnosis of follicular lymphoma grades 1 and 2 from reactive follicular hyperplasia: Cytologic features of fine‐needle aspiration smears with Pap stain and fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis to detect t(14;18)(q32;q21) chromosomal translocation

Fine‐needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is a well‐established technique for diagnosis of malignant lymphoma (ML). Generally, Giemsa but not Pap stain is used in FNAC. However, cytologic features obtained from Pap stain are also valuable. Very few studies on the cytologic characteristics of ML, as determined by Pap stain, are available. It is easier to observe nuclear irregularity and to identify nucleoli in ML cells by Pap stain than by Giemsa stain. Here, we applied Pap stain for cytomorphologic differential diagnosis of follicular lymphoma (FL) from reactive follicular hyperplasia (RFH).
Temperature‐dependent, neurotrophic factor‐elicited, neuronal differentiation in adrenal chromaffin cell line immortalized with temperature‐sensitive SV40 T‐antigen

We established adrenal medullary cell lines from transgenic mice expressing an oncogene, the temperature‐sensitive simian virus 40 large T‐antigen, under the control of the tyrosine hydroxylase promoter. A clonal cell line, named tsAM5D, conditionally grew at a permissive temperature of 33°C and exhibited the dopaminergic chromaffin cell phenotype as exemplified by the expression pattern of mRNA for catecholamine‐synthesizing enzymes and secretory vesicle‐associated proteins. tsAM5D cells proliferated at the permissive temperature in response to basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF). At a non‐permissive temperature of 39°C, bFGF and CNTF acted synergistically to differentiate tsAM5D cells into neuron‐like cells. In addition, tsAM5D cells caused to differentiate by bFGF plus CNTF at 39°C became dependent solely on nerve growth factor for their survival and showed markedly enhanced neurite outgrowth. In the presence of bFGF and CNTF, the morphological change induced by the temperature shift was associated with up‐regulated expression of neuronal marker genes including neuron‐specific enolase, growth‐associated protein‐43, microtubule‐associated protein 2, neurofilament, and p75 neurotrophin receptor, indicating that the cells underwent neuronal differentiation. Thus, we demonstrated that tsAM5D cells could proliferate at permissive 33°C, and also had the capacity to terminally differentiate into neuron‐like cells in response to bFGF and CNTF when the oncogene was inactivated by shifting the temperature to non‐permissive 39°C. These results suggest that tsAM5D cells should be a good tool to allow a detailed study of mechanisms regulating neuronal differentiation.
RECONCEPTUALISING TEACHER EDUCATION IN THE AFRICAN CONTEXT

The concern about teacher quality in many parts of Africa and the role teacher education should play in its improvement is becoming an important subject in education development on the continent. This has partly resulted from increasing evidence that despite gains in basic school enrolment, as a result of developing countries implementing Education For All (EFA) initiatives, gains in student achievement have been more difficult to attain.
Spatial structuring of bacterial communities within individual Ginkgo biloba trees.

Plant-associated microorganisms affect the health of their hosts in diverse ways, yet the distribution of these organisms within individual plants remains poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap, we assessed the spatial variability in bacterial community diversity and composition found on and in aboveground tissues of individual Ginkgo biloba trees. We sampled bacterial communities from > 100 locations per tree, including leaf, branch and trunk samples and used high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene to determine the diversity and composition of these communities. Bacterial community structure differed strongly between bark and leaf samples, with bark samples harbouring much greater bacterial diversity and a community composition distinct from leaves. Within sample types, we observed clear spatial patterns in bacterial diversity and community composition that corresponded to the samples' proximity to the exterior of the tree. The composition of the bacterial communities found on trees is highly variable, but this variability is predictable and dependent on sampling location. Moreover, this work highlights the importance of carefully considering plant spatial structure when characterizing the microbial communities associated with plants and their impacts on plant hosts.
Broadband Data Transport Protocol Designed for Ethernet Services in Metro Ethernet Networks

The metro Ethernet network (MEN) expands the advantages of Ethernet to cover areas wider than LAN. Ethernet Services were created to provide multiple services to this carrier-grade network that is rapidly growing popularity in North America [21], Europe [22], and Asia [23]. Techniques to police the network layer for MENs are very mature; but the transport layer relies on different flavors of TCP that do not get the most of Ethernet services. We propose a transport layer protocol that can replace previous versions of TCP to better suit metro Ethernet service policies, such as those established for specified service level agreements (SLAs). Ethernet service's traffic and performance parameters include committed information rate (CIR), excess information rate (EIR), and guaranteed packet loss rate. The purpose of this transport protocol is to integrate these parameters, which are applied at the networking layer, into the proposed transport protocol to make a smarter controller.
Neurogenesis and gliogenesis after focal brain ischemia. Modulation by enriched environment and exercise

New neurons are formed from dividing neural stem cells in restricted areas in the adult mammalian brain: the dentate gyrus of the hippocampal formation (DG) and the forebrain subventricular zone (SVZ). New glia also form constitutively and seem to be important for neuronal function. This thesis investigated the effects of experimental stroke, postischemic environmental enrichment (EE) and voluntary exercise (VE) on neurogenesis and gliogenesis in the adult rat brain. A neocortical infarct was induced by distal ligation of the middle cerebral artery and rats were subsequently housed in standard environment, EE (larger cages and animal groups, introduction of novel objects) or in cages with running wheels. Sensorimotor functions were tested on a rotating rod and with the limb placement test. Bromodeoxyuridine was administered during the first postischemic week and the animals were sacrificed 1 or 5 weeks postsurgery. Cell proliferation, differentiation and survival were studied with immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopy. Cortical ischemia was found to increase proliferation of neural stem cells, neural progenitors and neuronal precursors in the SVZ and the DG. Migrating neuroblasts were recruited to the infarct from the SVZ but did not survive into maturity. VE attenuated the lesion-induced activation of the SVZ. In contrast, EE had enhancing effects on the SVZ. DG cell proliferation was increased after cortical ischemia without further effects by EE or VE. The majority of newborn cells in the DG became mature neurons but new astroglia were not similarly increased in standard housed stroke rats. EE increased DG astrogliogenesis and thus normalized the astrogliogenesis-to-neurogenesis ratio. In the postischemic neocortex, EE increased newborn reactive astroglia and also newborn NG2 positive polydendrocytes, often found closely apposed to neurons and exhibiting brain-derived neurotrophic factor immunoreactivity. Stroke EE rats had the best scores in behavior tests among lesioned rats. In conclusion, neocortical stroke activated the adult neurogenic niches. Isolated exercise activity early poststroke attenuated the lesion-induced SVZ activation. EE enhanced cell genesis in diverse regions of the postischemic brain which might be of importance for function improvement. Future efforts need to be focussed on providing the necessary instructive cues to promote functional neuronal replacement after stroke.
Quantitative Falls Risk Assessment Using the Timed Up and Go Test

Falls are a major problem in older adults worldwide with an estimated 30% of elderly adults over 65 years of age falling each year. The direct and indirect societal costs associated with falls are enormous. A system that could provide an accurate automated assessment of falls risk prior to falling would allow timely intervention and ease the burden on overstretched healthcare systems worldwide. An objective method for assessing falls risk using body-worn kinematic sensors is reported. The gait and balance of 349 community-dwelling elderly adults was assessed using body-worn sensors while each patient performed the “timed up and go” (TUG) test. Patients were also evaluated using the Berg balance scale (BBS). Of the 44 reported parameters derived from body-worn kinematic sensors, 29 provided significant discrimination between patients with a history of falls and those without. Cross-validated estimates of retrospective falls prediction performance using logistic regression models yielded a mean sensitivity of 77.3% and a mean specificity of 75.9%. This compares favorably to the cross-validated performance of logistic regression models based on the time taken to complete the TUG test (manually timed TUG) and the Berg balance score. These models yielded mean sensitivities of 58.0% and 57.8%, respectively, and mean specificities of 64.8% and 64.2%, respectively. Results suggest that this method offers an improvement over two standard falls risk assessments (TUG and BBS) and may have potential for use in supervised assessment of falls risk as part of a longitudinal monitoring protocol.