Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of an Item Bank for a Computerized Adaptive Test of Activity in Children With Cerebral Palsy

Background: Contemporary clinical assessments of activity are needed across the age span for children with cerebral palsy (CP). Computerized adaptive testing (CAT) has the potential to efficiently administer items for children across wide age spans and functional levels. Objective: The objective of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of a new item bank and simulated computerized adaptive test to assess activity level abilities in children with CP. Design: This was a cross-sectional item calibration study. Methods: The convenience sample consisted of 308 children and youth with CP, aged 2 to 20 years (X=10.7, SD=4.0), recruited from 4 pediatric hospitals. We collected parent-report data on an initial set of 45 activity items. Using an Item Response Theory (IRT) approach, we compared estimated scores from the activity item bank with concurrent instruments, examined discriminate validity, and developed computer simulations of a CAT algorithm with multiple stop rules to evaluate scale coverage, score agreement with CAT algorithms, and discriminant and concurrent validity. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis supported scale unidimensionality, local item dependence, and invariance. Scores from the computer simulations of the prototype CATs with varying stop rules were consistent with scores from the full item bank (r=.93–.98). The activity summary scores discriminated across levels of upper-extremity and gross motor severity and were correlated with the Pediatric Outcomes Data Collection Instrument (PODCI) physical function and sports subscale (r=.86), the Functional Independence Measure for Children (Wee-FIM) (r=.79), and the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory–Cerebral Palsy version (r=.74). Limitations: The sample size was small for such IRT item banks and CAT development studies. Another limitation was oversampling of children with CP at higher functioning levels. Conclusions: The new activity item bank appears to have promise for use in a CAT application for the assessment of activity abilities in children with CP across a wide age range and different levels of motor severity.
Effects of question repetition on the eyewitness testimony of children and adults.

This study examined witnesses' answers to repeated questions about a novel event, both within and across interviews. Ss in 4 age groups (4-, 6-, and 8-year-olds and adults; N=133) individually witnessed an ambiguous incident. Some Ss were interviewed immediately and 1 week later; others were interviewed only once, 1 week later
The Association Between Circulating Lipoprotein(a) and Type 2 Diabetes: Is It Causal?

Epidemiological evidence supports a direct and causal association between lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] levels and coronary risk, but the nature of the association between Lp(a) levels and risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) is unclear. In this study, we assessed the association of Lp(a) levels with risk of incident T2D and tested whether Lp(a) levels are causally linked to T2D. We analyzed data on 18,490 participants from the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer (EPIC)-Norfolk cohort that included adults aged 40–79 years at baseline 1993–1997. During an average 10 years of follow-up, 593 participants developed incident T2D. Cox regression models were used to estimate the association between Lp(a) levels and T2D. In Mendelian randomization analyses, based on EPIC-Norfolk combined with DIAbetes Genetics Replication And Meta-analysis data involving a total of 10,088 diabetes case participants and 68,346 control participants, we used a genetic variant (rs10455872) as an instrument to test whether the association between Lp(a) levels and T2D is causal. In adjusted analyses, there was an inverse association between Lp(a) levels and T2D: hazard ratio was 0.63 (95% CI 0.49–0.81; P trend = 0.003) comparing the top versus bottom quintile of Lp(a). In EPIC-Norfolk, a 1-SD increase in logLp(a) was associated with a lower risk of T2D (odds ratio [OR] 0.88 [95% CI: 0.80–0.95]). However, in Mendelian randomization analyses, a 1-SD increase in logLp(a) due to rs10455872, which explained 26.8% of the variability in Lp(a) levels, was not associated with risk of T2D (OR 1.03 [0.96–1.10]; P = 0.41). These prospective findings demonstrate a strong inverse association of Lp(a) levels with risk of T2D. However, a genetic variant that elevated Lp(a) levels was not associated with risk of T2D, suggesting that elevated Lp(a) levels are not causally associated with a lower risk of T2D.
A tactile shape display using RC servomotors

Tactile displays are used to convey small-scale force and shape information to the tip of the finger. In this paper, we present a 6/spl times/6 tactile shape display that uses commercial radio-controlled (RC) servomotors to actuate an array of mechanical pins. The display has a maximum pin deflection of 2 mm along with a resolution of 4 bits. Pin spacing is 2 mm with a pin diameter of 1 mm. The display can accurately represent frequencies up to 25 Hz for small amplitudes and the slew rate is limited at 38 mm/sec for larger amplitudes.
Prevalence, Virulence Genes and Antimicrobial Resistance Profiles of Salmonella Serovars from Retail Beef in Selangor, Malaysia

The aim of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of Salmonella spp. , Salmonella Enteritidis and Salmonella Typhimurium in retail beef from different retail markets of Selangor area, as well as, to assess their pathogenic potential and antimicrobial resistance. A total of 240 retail beef meat samples (chuck = 60; rib = 60; round = 60; sirloin = 60) were randomly collected. The multiplex polymerase chain reaction (mPCR) in combination with the most probable number (MPN) method was employed to detect Salmonella spp. , S. Enteritidis and S. Typhimurium in the meat samples. The prevalence of Salmonella spp. , S. Enteritidis and S. Typhimurium in 240 beef meat samples were 7.50, 1.25, and 0.83%, respectively. The microbial loads of total Salmonella was found in the range of <3 to 15 MPN/g. Eight different serovars of Salmonella were identified among the 23 isolates, and S. Agona was the predominant serovar (26.09%). Interestingly, all the Salmonella isolates were resistant to penicillin, erythromycin and vancomycin, but the sensitivity was observed for tetracycline, gentamicin and amoxicillin/clavulanic acid. All 23 isolates were resistant to at least three antibiotics. Two S. Typhimurium isolates (8.70%) exhibited the highest multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) index value of 0.56 which shown resistance to nine antibiotics. PCR analysis of virulence genes showed that all Salmonella isolates (100%) were positive for the invA gene. Meanwhile, pefA was only identified in S. Enteritidis and S. Typhimurium. The findings in this study indicate that retail beef products tested were widely contaminated with multi-drug resistant (MDR) Salmonella and various virulence genes are present among the isolated Salmonella serovars.
Infant vision screening predicts failures on motor and cognitive tests up to school age

In a population-based infant vision screening programme, 5295 infants were screened and those with significant refractive errors were followed up. To assess the relationship between the development of vision and other domains, we report a longitudinal study comparing infants with significant hyperopia, identified at age 9 months (‘hyperopes’) with infants with normal refractions (‘controls’). Children are included who completed at each age a broad set of visual, cognitive, motor and language measures taken over a series of follow-up visits up to age 5.5 years. Hyperopes performed significantly worse than controls on the Atkinson Battery of Child Development for Examining Functional Vision at 14 months and 3.5 years and the Henderson Movement Assessment Battery for Children at 3.5 and 5.5 years. The Griffiths Child Development Scales, MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory and British Picture Vocabulary Scales showed no significant differences. Exclusion of those infants who became amblyopic and strabismic did not substantially alter these results, suggesting that the differences between groups were not a consequence of these disorders. These results indicate that early hyperopia is associated with a range of developmental deficits that persist at least to age 5.5 years. These effects are concentrated in visuocognitive and visuomotor domains rather than the linguistic domain.
Strongly Convex Programming for Principal Component Pursuit

In this paper, we address strongly convex programming for princi- pal component pursuit with reduced linear measurements, which decomposes a superposition of a low-rank matrix and a sparse matrix from a small set of linear measurements. We first provide sufficient conditions under which the strongly convex models lead to the exact low-rank and sparse matrix recov- ery; Second, we also give suggestions on how to choose suitable parameters in practical algorithms.
Noisy Uyghur Text Normalization

Uyghur is the second largest and most actively used social media language in China. However, a non-negligible part of Uyghur text appearing in social media is unsystematically written with the Latin alphabet, and it continues to increase in size. Uyghur text in this format is incomprehensible and ambiguous even to native Uyghur speakers. In addition, Uyghur texts in this form lack the potential for any kind of advancement for the NLP tasks related to the Uyghur language. Restoring and preventing noisy Uyghur text written with unsystematic Latin alphabets will be essential to the protection of Uyghur language and improving the accuracy of Uyghur NLP tasks. To this purpose, in this work we propose and compare the noisy channel model and the neural encoder-decoder model as normalizing methods.
Endocrine-Mediated Effects of Genistein on Pups Born to Dams Fed a Phytoestrogen-Enriched Diet

Dietary phytoestrogens are well known to have potential hormonal effects owing to their interaction with estrogen receptors [1]. Abnormalities in reproductive health due to a high intake of phytoestrogens have been reported in several women [2,3]. Interestingly, genistein–a type of phytoestrogen–is known to have estrogenic properties, and various hormonal effects of this compound have been reported in women [4-8]. In toxicity studies, endocrine-mediated effects have been reported in rat pups of dams treated with genistein during the gestational and/or lactational periods [9-13], but these studies used soy-free or low-phytoestrogen diets. Women ingest dietary phytoestrogens since their infancy, and some of them take genistein as a supplement in their adulthood. Therefore, this study was performed to examine whether endocrine-mediated effects by genistein appeared in pups born to dams maintained on a diet containing phytoestrogens from early stages of their life.
Realization of IEEE 802.21 services and preauthentication framework

Providing users of multi-interface devices the ability to roam between different access networks is becoming a key requirement for service providers. The availability of multiple mobile broadband access technologies together with increasing use of real time multimedia applications is creating strong demand for handover solutions that can seamlessly and securely transfer user sessions across different access technologies. In this paper, we discuss how the IEEE 802.21 standard and its services address the challenges of seamless mobility for multi-interface devices. We focus on a proof-of-concept implementation that integrates IEEE 802.21 services and a pre-authentication framework, realizing different possible usage scenarios to optimize handover performance. We describe the implementation of two handover scenarios using the 802.21 Services: the first one is initiated by the mobile node and the second one is initiated by the operator network. We compare the two scenarios and discuss their respective benefits. Finally, we describe the implementation challenges and lessons learned through this exercise.
A COMPARISON OF SYLLABLE LENGTH CONDITIONING AMONG LANGUAGES

La comparaison de la duree des syllabes en anglais, allemand, espagnol et francais est presentee en 18 tableaux et une figure. Ces tableaux montrent que 1'effet de l'accent et de la place de la syllabe dans le groupe de sens varie considerablement d'une langue a l'autre, tandis que Teffet du type de syllabe (ouverte/fermee) a un rapport semblable dans toutes leslangues. Parmi les trois langues aintensite et a place d'accent variables, les differences de duree entre syllabes accentuees et syllabes inaccentuees sont le plus etendues en anglais, le moins en espagnol, et allemand est intermediaire. On peut en dire autant des differences de duree entre syllabes finales et non-finales. II existe une correlation entre les variations d'intensite vocalique et les variations de duree syllabique en anglais, en allemand et en espagnol, mais pas en francais, oula voyelle d'une syllabe finale (accentuee) est en moyenne legerement moins intense que celle d'une syllabe non-finale (inaccentuee). Dans les trois langues oü la place de Taccent varie, les syllabes inaccentuees sont en moyenne aussi longues — mais moins fortes — que les syllabes accentuees non-finales.
Ivory-tower or market-oriented enterprise: the role of higher education institutions in shaping graduate employability in the domain of science

This article researches higher education (HE) managers’ perception of graduate professional success and higher education institutions’ (HEI) activity aimed at enhancing graduate employability. The issue is worth examining not only because of growing relative unemployment rates among HE graduates but also because it is a part of a heated discussion on the contemporary evolution of HEIs. We analysed 36 semi-structured interviews with representatives of HEIs offering studies in the field of science in six countries (Austria, Germany, Italy, Poland, Slovenia and Turkey). Our analysis showed that there are three approaches observed, depending to a large extent on the balance between different HE stakeholders within subdomains (triple-helix theory). Our results support the hypothesis of diversification of HEIs’ models varying from the traditional ivory-tower-type university (with a dominating role of academic oligarchy) to the market-oriented educational enterprise (where the business sector is a key driver of change).
Assessing the Navigational Effects of Click Biases and Link Insertion on the Web

Websites have an inherent interest in steering user navigation in order to, for example, increase sales of specific products or categories, or to guide users towards specific information. In general, website administrators can use the following two strategies to influence their visitors' navigation behavior. First, they can introduce click biases to reinforce specific links on their website by changing their visual appearance, for example, by locating them on the top of the page. Second, they can utilize link insertion to generate new paths for users to navigate over. In this paper, we present a novel approach for measuring the potential effects of these two strategies on user navigation. Our results suggest that, depending on the pages for which we want to increase user visits, optimal link modification strategies vary. Moreover, simple topological measures can be used as proxies for assessing the impact of the intended changes on the navigation of users, even before these changes are implemented.
Optimization of transistors for very high frequency dc-dc converters

This document presents a method to optimize integrated LDMOS transistors for use in very high frequency (VHF, 30-300 MHz) dc-dc converters. A transistor model valid at VHF switching frequencies is developed. Device parameters are related to layout geometry and the resulting layout vs. loss tradeoffs are illustrated. A method of finding an optimal layout for a given converter application is developed and experimentally verified in a 50 MHz converter, resulting in a 35% reduction in power loss over an un-optimized device. It is further demonstrated that hot-carrier limits on device safe operating area may be relaxed under soft switching, yielding significant further loss reduction. A device fabricated with 20-V design rules is validated at 35-V, offering reduced parasitic resistance and capacitance. Compared to the original design, loss is up to 75% lower in the example application.
Biotinylation in the hyperthermophile Aquifex aeolicus Isolation of a cross-linked BPL : BCCP complex

Biotin protein ligase (BPL) catalyses the biotinylation of the biotin carboxyl carrier protein (BCCP) subunit of acetyl CoA carboxylase and this post-translational modification of a single lysine residue is exceptionally specific. The exact details of the protein–protein interactions involved are unclear as a BPL:BCCP complex has not yet been isolated. Moreover, detailed information is lacking on the composition, biosynthesis and role of fatty acids in hyperthermophilic organisms. We have cloned, overexpressed and purified recombinantBPLand the biotinyl domainofBCCP (BCCPD67) from the extreme hyperthermophile Aquifex aeolicus. In vitro assays have demonstrated that BPL catalyses biotinylation of lysine 117 on BCCPD67 at temperatures of up to 70 C.Limited proteolysis of BPLwith trypsin and chymotrypsin revealed a single protease-sensitive site located 44 residues from theN-terminus. This site is adjacent to the predicted substrate-binding site and proteolysis of BPL is significantly reduced in the presence of MgATP and biotin.Chemical crosslinkingwith 1-ethyl-3-(dimethylaminopropyl)-carbodiimide (EDC) allowed the isolation of a BPL:apo-BCCPD67 complex. Furthermore, this complex was also formed between BPL and a BCCPD67 mutant lacking the lysine residue (BCCPD67 K117L) however, complex formation was considerably reduced using holoBCCPD67. These observations provide evidence that addition of the biotin prosthetic group reduces the ability of BCCPD67 to heterodimerize with BPL, and emphasizes that a network of interactions between residues on both proteins mediates protein recognition.
Crossing the Threshold: Municipal Waste Policy and Household Waste Generation

This paper connects research on home-based consumption with research on waste policy and governance. We argue that, in order to meet the enhanced goals of waste reduction specified in Waste Strategy for England 2007, UK municipal waste policy needs a far closer engagement with the household, the primary unit of consumption. Opening-up the ‘black box’ of the household, we show why the potential for achieving enhanced rates of materials diversion through recycling is limited in certain neighbourhoods. We demonstrate the potential for furthering waste reduction through the intensification of existing practices with the ‘arts of transience’, and by engaging with the lumpiness of household-waste generation. The paper considers the policy implications of these findings and offers a number of suggestions as to how such insights might be taken up within UK municipal waste policy.
Object level image saliency by hierarchical segmentation

Conventional saliency detection approaches are human fixation detection and single dominant region detection. However, real-world photographs usually consist of multiple dominant regions. We propose a saliency detection method with the aim to highlight objects as a whole and distinguish objects with different saliency levels. It combines the bottom-up approach and top-down approach via two nested levels of hierarchical segmentations - the coarse level objects and fine level details. We first calculate a preliminary saliency on the fine patches with a random walk model. Then a location cue and an object-level cue are fused to refine the preliminary saliency to emphasize the objects against the background. At last, the object-level saliency map is synthesized via a heat diffusion process restricted by the coarse level patches to enhance object saliency and distinguish saliency between different objects. Extensive evaluation on a publicly available database verifies that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art algorithms.
Platelet-derived endothelial cell growth factor in human colon cancer angiogenesis: role of infiltrating cells.

BACKGROUND Development of new blood vessels is essential for tumor growth and metastasis and depends on the production of angiogenic factors by tumor and/or infiltrating cells. We previously showed that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression and vessel count correlate with metastasis in human colon cancer. Although most tumors with high vessel counts express high levels of VEGF, some do not. Recently, platelet-derived endothelial cell growth factor (PD-ECGF), another potent angiogenic factor, has been reported to be expressed in colon cancer. PURPOSE In this study, we examined the role of PD-ECGF in colon cancer angiogenesis and whether PD-ECGF is derived from the tumor or infiltrating cells. METHODS Immunostaining for PD-ECGF was performed on 96 colon cancer specimens, some of which were previously stained for VEGF and factor VIII, a marker that is specific for endothelial cells. Double staining was done by using antibodies to PD-ECGF and to CD68 (macrophage specific) or CD3 (lymphocyte specific) to confirm which infiltrating cells produce PD-ECGF. Northern blot analysis for PD-ECGF messenger RNA (mRNA) was performed on four colon cancer specimens and corresponding normal colon mucosae (same patients) and four human colon cancer cell lines (KM12SM, SW620, HT29, and NCI-H508) to determine whether colon cancer epithelium expresses PD-ECGF. RESULTS Immunohistochemical analysis demonstrated that PD-ECGF was expressed in infiltrating cells in most of the colon cancer specimens (80 [83%] of 96) but rarely in tumor epithelium (five [5%] of 96). Double staining demonstrated that infiltrating cells staining positive for both PD-ECGF and CD68 were more predominant than those staining positive for both PD-ECGF and CD3. The intensity of staining for PD-ECGF in infiltrating cells correlated with vessel counts (Spearman's rank correlation coefficient (R) = . 29; P = . 004), but did not correlate with the intensity of VEGF staining (R = .176, P = .086) or metastasis (Mann-Whitney U test, P = .253). PD-ECGF staining intensity was higher in specimens with a high vessel count (> 50 at high magnification) and low VEGF-staining intensity (< or = 2+) than in specimens with a high vessel count (again, > 50) and high VEGF-staining intensity (3+). Northern blot analysis revealed that colon cancer specimens and normal mucosae expressed relatively high levels of PD-ECGF mRNA, whereas PD-ECGF mRNA transcripts were not detectable in colon cancer cell lines. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS PD-ECGF expression in human colon cancer specimens is associated with vessel count and may be responsible for tumor vascularity in those tumors with low VEGF expression. Infiltrating cells expressing PD-ECGF may contribute to angiogenesis, thus providing an additional mechanism for tumor neovascularization.