Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intra-session test–retest reliability of the Timed “Up & Go” Test when performed by patients with hip fractures

Abstract The aim of this study was to assess the reliability of the Timed “Up & Go” Test (TUG) when performed three times in one session by elderly hip fracture patients. Ninety-two patients in the orthogeriatric unit aged ≥ 65 years old were asked to perform the TUG three times at hospital discharge. Relative and absolute reliability was examined using intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs) and standard error of measurement (SEM), respectively. The smallest detectable change on an individual level (SDCind) was calculated. Thirty-seven patients completed three trials and were included in the reliability analysis. For each trial, mean performance time became shorter. For TUG trial 2–3 both ICC 1.1 and 3.1 were 0.96 [95% confidence interval (CI) ICC 1.1: 0.78–0.94 and ICC 3.1: 0.92–0.98], indicating no learning effect between these trials. For TUG trial 1–2, ICC 3.1 (0.90, 95% CI: 0.82–0.95) was larger than ICC 1.1 (0.88, 95% CI: 0.78–0.94), indicating a learning effect. The 1.96*SEM was ± 10.22 seconds from TUG trial 1–2 and ± 5.32 seconds from trial 2–3. SDCind was 14.5 seconds and 7.5 seconds for TUG trials 1–2 and 2–3, respectively. In conclusion, in this small study, TUG scores had high intra-session test–retest reliability when three trials were conducted. Only 40.2% of the patients managed to complete all trials. Performing the test twice may be sufficient to provide a reliable TUG measurement in our patient group.
Yield and Accuracy of Urgent Combined Carotid/Transcranial Ultrasound Testing in Acute Cerebral Ischemia

Background and Purpose— We routinely perform an urgent bedside neurovascular ultrasound examination (NVUE) with carotid/vertebral duplex and transcranial Doppler (TCD) in patients with acute cerebral ischemia. We aimed to determine the yield and accuracy of NVUE to identify lesions amenable for interventional treatment (LAITs). Methods— NVUE was performed with portable carotid duplex and TCD using standardized fast-track (<15 minutes) insonation protocols. Digital subtraction angiography (DSA) was the gold standard for identifying LAIT. These lesions were defined as proximal intra- or extracranial occlusions, near-occlusions, ≥50% stenoses or thrombus in the symptomatic artery. Results— One hundred and fifty patients (70 women, mean age 66±15 years) underwent NVUE at median 128 minutes after symptom onset. Fifty-four patients (36%) received intravenous or intra-arterial thrombolysis (median National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score 14, range 4 to 29; 81% had NIHSS ≥10 points). NVUE demonstrated LAITs in 98% of patients eligible for thrombolysis, 76% of acute stroke patients ineligible for thrombolysis (n=63), and 42% in patients with transient ischemic attack (n=33), P<0.001. Urgent DSA was performed in 30 patients on average 230 minutes after NVUE. Compared with DSA, NVUE predicted LAIT presence with 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity, although individual accuracy parameters for TCD and carotid duplex specific to occlusion location ranged 75% to 96% because of the presence of tandem lesions and 10% rate of no temporal windows. Conclusions— Bedside neurovascular ultrasound examination, combining carotid/vertebral duplex with TCD yields a substantial proportion of LAITs in excellent agreement with urgent DSA.
THE INDIVIDUAL EMPLOYEE IN THE CONTEXT OF EMPLOYER ASCENDANCY: NEW-OLD ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

Through the 1930s, the notion of an inequality of bargaining power between employer and employee provided a rationale for collective bargaining, partly on macroeconomic grounds. More recent economic thinking suggests that in nonunion employment situations, employers will have monopsonistic power, and various aspects of labor-market performance since the 1980s suggest monopsony is present in the workplace. With unions in decline, employer ascendancy in determining wages and conditions of work increasingly provides a rationale for regulating the employment relationship. In the context of employer ascendancy, employee preferences will be underweighted in the employment relationship. Legislative proposals, enactments, and litigation are being considered to re-balance the relationship. The inequality of bargaining power between employees who do not possess full freedom of association or actual liberty of contract and employers who are organized in the corporate or other forms of ownership association substantially burdens and affects the flow of commerce, and tends to aggravate recurrent business depressions, by depressing wage rates and the purchasing power of wage earners in industry and by preventing the stabilization of competitive wage rates and working conditions within and between industries (Preamble to the Wagner Act [1]).
Effects of Association Instruction on Fourth Graders' Poetic Creativity in Taiwan

In this study, we used a quasi-experimental pretest–posttest mixed design to assess the effect of association instruction on students' poetic creativity. Creativity was judged using the consensual assessment technique. A total of 64 fourth-grade students from two intact classes participated in the study. One class was assigned to the experimental group (n = 34) and the other to the control group (n = 30). Weekly for 5 weeks, the experimental group received 30 minutes of instruction in forming associations, and then each student composed a Chinese free verse based on a given association theme. The control group received traditional writing lectures prior to composing Chinese free verses. Three groups of judges assessed the completed poems (a total of 320 poems), evaluating their creativity on 14 dimensions. The judges included three expert teachers with at least 10 years of teaching experience in Chinese, three teachers who had won awards in nationwide Chinese writing contests, and three professors of children's literature; the overall inter-rater reliability was . 85. The experimental group showed greater creativity compared to the control group in number association (d = 1.09), picture association (d = 0.62), and free association (d = 1.07). This article also discusses how to select judges, assessment criteria for children's poetic creativity, and techniques for association instruction to enhance children's poetic creativity.
Quality Control of Photosystem II

Photosystem II is vulnerable to light damage. The reaction center-binding D1 protein is impaired during excessive illumination and is degraded and removed from photosystem II. Using isolated spinach thylakoids, we investigated the relationship between light-induced unstacking of thylakoids and damage to the D1 protein. Under light stress, thylakoids were expected to become unstacked so that the photodamaged photosystem II complexes in the grana and the proteases could move on the thylakoids for repair. Excessive light induced irreversible unstacking of thylakoids. By comparing the effects of light stress on stacked and unstacked thylakoids, photoinhibition of photosystem II was found to be more prominent in stacked thylakoids than in unstacked thylakoids. In accordance with this finding, EPR spin trapping measurements demonstrated higher production of hydroxyl radicals in stacked thylakoids than in unstacked thylakoids. We propose that unstacking of thylakoids has a crucial role in avoiding further damage to the D1 protein and facilitating degradation of the photodamaged D1 protein under light stress.
Un diálogo de pensares: Dos paradigmas para la práctica y la investigación en el trabajo social en el mundo hispanoparlante

En este articulo se explicaran los principios de los paradigmas principales de practica e investigacion en el trabajo social del mundo anglosajon; se presentaran reflexiones sobre estos paradigmas vis-a-vis la realidad cultural y linguistica hispanoparlante y se sugeriran alternativas paradigmaticas para la practica y la investigacion en el trabajo social en las comunidades de habla castellana.
A Model of School Learning

This job is inherently difficult because behavior is complex and has a multiplicity of causes. To deal with it, educational psychologists have evolved a number of concepts which they find useful in classifying the phenomena of behavior. Textbooks in the field are commonly organized around such concepts as maturation, individual differences, learning, thinking, motivation, and social development. These are useful categories, but because they overlap or refer to different levels of organization in the subject matter, it is difficult to build them into an integrated account of the process of school learning. What is needed is a schematic design or conceptual model of factors affecting success in school learning and of the way they interact. Such a model should use a very small number of simplifying concepts, conceptually independent of one another and referring to phenomena at the same level of discourse. It should suggest new and interesting research questions and aid in the solution of practical educational problems. With the aid of such a framework, the often conflicting results of different research studies might be seen to fall into a unified pattern.
Borna Disease Virus Matrix Protein Is an Integral Component of the Viral Ribonucleoprotein Complex That Does Not Interfere with Polymerase Activity

ABSTRACT We have recently shown that the matrix protein M of Borna disease virus (BDV) copurifies with the affinity-purified nucleoprotein (N) from BDV-infected cells, suggesting that M is an integral component of the viral ribonucleoprotein complex (RNP). However, further studies were hampered by the lack of appropriate tools. Here we generated an M-specific rabbit polyclonal antiserum to investigate the intracellular distribution of M as well as its colocalization with other viral proteins in BDV-infected cells. Immunofluorescence analysis revealed that M is located both in the cytoplasm and in nuclear punctate structures typical for BDV infection. Colocalization studies indicated an association of M with nucleocapsid proteins in these nuclear punctate structures. In situ hybridization analysis revealed that M also colocalizes with the viral genome, implying that M associates directly with viral RNPs. Biochemical studies demonstrated that M binds specifically to the phosphoprotein P but not to N. Binding of M to P involves the N terminus of P and is independent of the ability of P to oligomerize. Surprisingly, despite P-M complex formation, BDV polymerase activity was not inhibited but rather slightly elevated by M, as revealed in a minireplicon assay. Thus, unlike M proteins of other negative-strand RNA viruses, BDV-M seems to be an integral component of the RNPs without interfering with the viral polymerase activity. We propose that this unique feature of BDV-M is a prerequisite for the establishment of BDV persistence.
Assistive and Therapeutic Effects of Amplification for Auditory Processing Disorder

Abstract Studies of the effects of amplification with remote microphone hearing aids for children with auditory processing disorder or dyslexia consistently show therapeutic as well as assistive benefits from the amplification. The immediate assistive benefits include improved attention, learning, behavior and participation in class, and improved self-esteem and psychosocial development. The long-term therapeutic benefits include improvements in cortical auditory evoked potential amplitudes to tone stimuli, auditory brainstem responses to speech stimuli, frequency discrimination, binaural temporal resolution, frequency pattern recognition, auditory working memory, core language, phonological awareness, and speech perception in spatially separated noise. Amplification appears to treat a wide range of auditory skills simultaneously, facilitating neuroplastic change while also providing access to the auditory world. Expert intervention to engage the support of teachers is a critical element in achieving successful outcomes. Children treated with remote microphone hearing aids may not require long-term amplification.
Is suicide assessment harmful to participants? Findings from a randomized controlled trial

There is considerable debate on whether suicide assessment carries an iatrogenic risk for participants/patients. A double-blind randomized controlled trial (registration: R000022314) tested the emotional impact of suicide assessment on participants (n = 259) randomly assigned to experimental (n = 122) or control conditions (n = 137). The experimental condition included the Suicidal Affect-Behavior-Cognition Scale and intensive death-related questions, the control condition a quality of life scale. Both included measures of depression, social support and loneliness. Affective states were assessed immediately before and after testing, and research biases minimized. Post-test debriefing interviews collected qualitative reactions. Experimental participants ranged from nonsuicidal to highly suicidal. Between-groups ANCOVAs and repeated measures ANOVAs showed no differences by study condition, and no pre-post-test affect changes for either condition or suicidal participants (P > 0.10), supporting the null hypothesis of no iatrogenic effects. However, depressive participants in both conditions showed significant decreases in positive affect (P < 0.05). Smallest real difference (SRD) scores approximated clinically meaningful differences and showed 20% of participants had a significant positive survey reaction, 24% a negative reaction, with the rest neutral. Linear regressions revealed depressive symptoms and perceived family support, but not suicidality or other factors, predicted negative affect changes, which was supported by qualitative findings. Social desirability bias was also found in qualitative survey responses. No evidence of iatrogenic effects of suicide assessment were found. Recommendations are made to counter possible negative assessment effects on depressive participants/patients, and nurses and other caregivers are encouraged to talk to patients about suicidal symptoms.
Social Capital as Collateral: Banking on the Poor

Group-based micro finance is a field in which the place of social capital in development has been given a central focus. The formation of micro group is based on tapping into the information that group members have about each other, thus relying on social capital. Group-based micro finance has also been explained as a means of creating social capital. This article, drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's conception of social capital, in contrast to the widely accepted notion of it, critically examines the link between social capital and group-based micro finance. It argues that group-based MF is not favored by the marginalized poor, and it serves as a mechanism in the production and reproduction of social conflict and inequality.
Comparative Genomics and Transcriptional Analysis of Prophages Identified in the Genomes of Lactobacillus gasseri, Lactobacillus salivarius, and Lactobacillus casei

ABSTRACT Lactobacillus gasseri ATCC 33323, Lactobacillus salivarius subsp. salivarius UCC 118, and Lactobacillus casei ATCC 334 contain one (LgaI), four (Sal1, Sal2, Sal3, Sal4), and one (Lca1) distinguishable prophage sequences, respectively. Sequence analysis revealed that LgaI, Lca1, Sal1, and Sal2 prophages belong to the group of Sfi11-like pac site and cos site Siphoviridae, respectively. Phylogenetic investigation of these newly described prophage sequences revealed that they have not followed an evolutionary development similar to that of their bacterial hosts and that they show a high degree of diversity, even within a species. The attachment sites were determined for all these prophage elements; LgaI as well as Sal1 integrates in tRNA genes, while prophage Sal2 integrates in a predicted arginino-succinate lyase-encoding gene. In contrast, Lca1 and the Sal3 and Sal4 prophage remnants are integrated in noncoding regions in the L. casei ATCC 334 and L. salivarius UCC 118 genomes. Northern analysis showed that large parts of the prophage genomes are transcriptionally silent and that transcription is limited to genome segments located near the attachment site. Finally, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis followed by Southern blot hybridization with specific prophage probes indicates that these prophage sequences are narrowly distributed within lactobacilli.
The effect of evaporation on the evolution of close-in giant planets

We include the effect of evaporation in our evolutionary calculations of close-in giant planets, based on a recent model for thermal evaporation taking into account the XUV flux of the parent star (Lammer et al. 2003). Our analysis leads to the existence of a critical mass for a given orbital distance mcrit(a) below which the evaporation timescale becomes shorter than the thermal timescale of the planet. For planets with initial masses below mcrit, evaporation leads to a rapid expansion of the outer layers and of the total planetary radius, speeding up the evaporation process. Consequently, the planet does not survive as long as estimated by a simple application of mass loss rates without following consistently its evolution. We find out that the transit planet HD 209458b might be in such a dramatic phase, although with an extremely small probability. As a consequence, we predict that, after a certain time, only planets above a value mcrit(a) should be present at an orbital distance a of a star. For planets with initial masses above mcrit, evaporation does not affect the evolution of the radius with time.
Single Molecules Observed by Near-Field Scanning Optical Microscopy

Individual carbocyanine dye molecules in a sub-monolayer spread have been imaged with near-field scanning optical microscopy. Molecules can be repeatedly detected and spatially localized (to ∼λ/50 where λ is the wavelength of light) with a sensitivity of at least 0.005 molecules/(Hz)1/2 and the orientation of each molecular dipole can be determined. This information is exploited to map the electric field distribution in the near-field aperture with molecular spatial resolution.
Processing Facilitation Strategies in OV and VO Languages: A Corpus Study

The present corpus study aimed to examine whether Basque (OV) resorts more often than Spanish (VO) to certain grammatical operations, in order to minimize the number of arguments to be processed before the verb. Ueno & Polinsky (2009) argue that VO/OV languages use certain grammatical resources with different frequencies in order to facilitate real-time processing. They observe that both OV and VO languages in their sample (Japanese, Turkish and Spanish) have a similar frequency of use of subject pro-drop; however, they find that OV languages (Japanese, Turkish) use more intransitive sentences than VO languages (English, Spanish), and conclude this is an OV-specific strategy to facilitate processing. We conducted a comparative corpus study of Spanish (VO) and Basque (OV). Results show (a) that the frequency of use of subject pro-drop is higher in Basque than in Spanish; and (b) Basque does not use more intransitive sentences than Spanish; both languages have a similar frequency of intransitive sentences. Based on these findings, we conclude that the frequency of use of grammatical resources to facilitate the processing does not depend on a single typological trait (VO/OV) but it is modulated by the concurrence of other grammatical features.
Common CCR5-del32 Frameshift Mutation Associated With Serum Levels of Inflammatory Markers and Cardiovascular Disease Risk in the Bruneck Population

Background and Purpose— Atherosclerosis is a progressive inflammatory disease and can develop in large arteries such as carotid and femoral arteries or medium-sized muscular arteries of the heart. Previous predominantly experimental studies suggested an important role of chemokines in the development of atherosclerosis. The main aim of this study was to examine potential effect of the CCR5-del32 mutation on systemic inflammation, intima-media thickness in carotid and femoral arteries, and on the indices of cardiovascular disease. Methods— In the present study, we have examined the association of a common functional 32-bp frameshift deletion mutation in a chemokine receptor (CCR5) in relation to inflammation and atherosclerosis. CCR5 is a G protein-coupled receptor involved in inflammatory response and regulation of leukocytes activation and migration. Genetic screening of this mutation was carried out on a well-known and previously described cohort of Bruneck (n=826) using polymerase chain reaction. Results— Screening was successful in 810 subjects of whom 7 were homozygous, 102 were heterozygous, and 701 were normal. The mutation was associated with significantly lower levels of C-reactive protein in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, CCR5-del32 was associated with a significantly lower carotid intima-media thickness in the common carotid artery (del32/del32, 837±8 &mgr;m; wt/del32, 909±21 &mgr;m; wt/wt, 958±8 &mgr;m; P=0.007 after multivariable adjustment). Furthermore, incident cardiovascular disease (1995 to 2005) was markedly reduced in del32 homozygotes and heterozygotes subjects compared with wild-type homozygotes (del32/del32=0%, wt/del32=7.8%, wt/wt=14.8%, P=0.020). Findings equally applied to coronary artery and cerebrovascular disease. Conclusions— The chemokine receptor CCR5-del32 frameshift mutation is associated with low levels of C-reactive protein, decreased intima-media thickness, and cardiovascular disease risk. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the chemokine receptor CCR5 is involved in the mediation of low-grade systemic inflammation and may play a role in human atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease.
Optimal rate list decoding of folded algebraic-geometric codes over constant-sized alphabets

We construct a new list-decodable family of asymptotically good algebraic-geometric (AG) codes over fixed alphabets. The function fields underlying these codes are constructed using class field theory, specifically Drinfeld modules of rank 1, and designed to have an automorphism of large order that is used to "fold" the AG code. This generalizes earlier work by the first author on folded AG codes based on cyclotomic function fields. The recent linear-algebraic approach to list decoding can be applied to our new codes, and crucially, we use the Chebotarev density theorem to establish a polynomial upper bound on the list-size for list decoding up to an error fraction approaching 1 -- R where R is the rate. The list decoding can be performed in polynomial time given polynomial amount of pre-processed information about the function field. Our construction yields algebraic codes over constant-sized alphabets that can be list decoded up to the Singleton bound --- specifically, for any desired rate R e (0, 1) and constant e > 0, we get codes over an alphabet size (1/e)O(1/e2) that can be list decoded up to error fraction 1 -- R -- e confining close-by messages to a subspace with NO(1/e2) elements. Previous results for list decoding up to error-fraction 1 -- R -- e over constant-sized alphabets were either based on concatenation or involved taking a carefully chosen subcode of algebraic-geometric codes. In contrast, our result shows that these folded algebraic-geometric codes themselves have the claimed list decoding property. Further, our methods to get function fields with the properties needed for constructing and decoding the code might be of independent algebraic interest.