Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Three-year follow up of primary health care workers trained in identification of blind and visual impaired children in Malawi *

Background: Control of blindness in children is one of the priorities of VISION 2020. Early detection of children needing eye services is essential to achieve maximum visual recovery. Even though training primary (community) Health care workers (PHC) should play an important role in early identification of children, it is not known how many of these workers leave after being trained, and whether those who remain continuing identifying children in the long term. The objectives of the study were to determine the attrition of primary health workers over a 3-year period after training, and to assess their knowledge and skills on cataract in children in southern Malawi. Methods: This was a cohort study that followed primary health care workers (health surveillance assistants) over a 3-year period from 2008 to 2011 and reassessed their attrition rates, knowledge and skills on cataract in children. Results: Among the 59 HSAs that were originally trained in 2008, 54 (92%) were interviewed and were found to be still working in the health sector. Knowledge regarding cataract blindness in children remained constant over the 3-year period, however, only two HSAs had reported identifying and referring children. Conclusion: Despite attrition among primary health care workers being low, only a few actually identify cataract children in the communities after being trained. Other innovative ways are needed to identify prevalent and incident cases in Malawi, as the use of HSAs is unlikely to be successful in addressing blindness in children.
THE INFLUENCE OF FAR-ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION ON THE PROPERTIES OF MOLECULAR CLOUDS IN THE 30 DOR REGION OF THE LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUD

We present a complete 12CO J = 1 → 0 map of the prominent molecular ridge in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) obtained with the 22 m ATNF Mopra Telescope. The region stretches southward by ∼2° (or 1.7 kpc) from 30 Doradus, the most vigorous star-forming region in the Local Group. The location of this molecular ridge is unique insofar as it allows us to study the properties of molecular gas as a function of the ambient radiation field in a low-metallicity environment. We find that the physical properties of CO-emitting clumps within the molecular ridge do not vary with the strength of the far-ultraviolet radiation field. Since the peak CO brightness of the clumps shows no correlation with the radiation field strength, the observed constant value for CO-to-H2 conversion factor along the ridge seems to require an increase in the kinetic temperature of the molecular gas that is offset by a decrease in the angular filling factor of the CO emission. We find that the difference between the CO-to-H2 conversion factor in the molecular ridge and the outer Milky Way is smaller than has been reported by previous studies of the CO emission: applying the same cloud identification and analysis methods to our CO observations of the LMC molecular ridge and CO data from the outer Galaxy survey by Dame et al., we find that the average CO-to-H2 conversion factor in the molecular ridge is XCO ≃ (3.9 ± 2.5) × 1020 cm−2 (K km s−1)−1, approximately twice the value that we determine for the outer Galaxy clouds. The mass spectrum and the scaling relations between the properties of the CO clumps in the molecular ridge are similar, but not identical, to those that have been established for Galactic molecular clouds.
The Computation of the Informational Status of Discourse Entities

During language production, processes of information structuring constitute a relevant part. These processes are regarded as a mapping from a conceptual structure to a perspective semantic structure. I will focus on one aspect of i n f o r m a t i o n s t ruc tu r ing , n a m e l y the ve rba l i za t i on o f the cu r r en t menta l representation of entities. For this verbalization, the informational status of the entities is used. This property is expressed by different means in different languages. My approach constitutes a cognit ively oriented and highly contextdependen t mode l for compu t ing the informational status embedded in a concept-tospeech model of language production. The processes are illustrated by examples taken from the implementation.
Increasing Molecular Dynamics Simulation Rates with an 8-Fold Increase in Electrical Power Efficiency

Electrical power efficiency is a primary concern in designing modern HPC systems. Common strategies to improve CPU power efficiency rely on increased parallelism within a processor that is enabled both by an increase in the vector capabilities within the core and also the number of cores within a processor. Although many-core processors have been available for some time, achieving power-efficient performance has been challenging due to the offload model. Here, we evaluate performance of the molecular dynamics code LAMMPS on two new Intel® processors including the second generation many-core Intel® Xeon Phi™ processor that is available as a bootable CPU. We describe our approach to measure power consumption out-of-band and software optimizations necessary to achieve energy efficiency. We analyze benefits from Intel® Advanced Vector Extensions 512 instructions and demonstrate increased simulations rates with over 9X the CPU+DRAM power efficiency when compared to the unoptimized code on previous generation processors.
Annotation of the Protein Coding Regions of the Equine Genome

Current gene annotation of the horse genome is largely derived from in silico predictions and cross-species alignments. Only a small number of genes are annotated based on equine EST and mRNA sequences. To expand the number of equine genes annotated from equine experimental evidence, we sequenced mRNA from a pool of forty-three different tissues. From these, we derived the structures of 68,594 transcripts. In addition, we identified 301,829 positions with SNPs or small indels within these transcripts relative to EquCab2. Interestingly, 780 variants extend the open reading frame of the transcript and appear to be small errors in the equine reference genome, since they are also identified as homozygous variants by genomic DNA resequencing of the reference horse. Taken together, we provide a resource of equine mRNA structures and protein coding variants that will enhance equine and cross-species transcriptional and genomic comparisons.
Wideband channel modeling within a shopping mall in UHF band

Wideband channel characteristics associated with UHF wave propagation within a shopping mall in urban areas are presented in this paper. Impulse responses, decay rate of multipath components as well as the root-mean-square (RMS) delay spread obtained from wideband sounding are studied for both the same level propagation and the inter-level propagation. Due to the enclosed structure of the shopping mall, multipath components are mainly resulted from multiple reflections within the building and therefore they decay linearly for both test scenarios. Moreover, the delay spread value obtained from the measurements is within 100 ns, therefore, the usable bandwidth is sufficient for video communication.
Impairment of executive ability following a social category prime

Previous research has found evidence for a behavioural assimilation effect (Bargh, Chen, & Burrows, 1996) where the priming of a social category leads participants to behave in line with the stereotypes or associated traits of that social category. The current study investigated the effect of priming psychology students with the category "neuropsychological patient" on their subsequent executive function abilities. Fifty-nine participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions; participants received a neuropsychological patient prime, a beach scene prime or no prime. Following the prime, participants completed the Tower of Hanoi task, which is frequently used to assess executive function among those with neuropsychological disorders. As predicted, participants in the neuropsychological patient prime condition showed behavioural assimilation, performing significantly worse on the Tower of Hanoi task than participants in either control condition. We discuss the implications of observing behavioral assimilation effects in this new domain.
Distinct Neural Substrates of Duration-Based and Beat-Based Auditory Timing

Research on interval timing strongly implicates the cerebellum and the basal ganglia as part of the timing network of the brain. Here we tested the hypothesis that the brain uses differential timing mechanisms and networks—specifically, that the cerebellum subserves the perception of the absolute duration of time intervals, whereas the basal ganglia mediate perception of time intervals relative to a regular beat. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment, we asked human subjects to judge the difference in duration of two successive time intervals as a function of the preceding context of an irregular sequence of clicks (where the task relies on encoding the absolute duration of time intervals) or a regular sequence of clicks (where the regular beat provides an extra cue for relative timing). We found significant activations in an olivocerebellar network comprising the inferior olive, vermis, and deep cerebellar nuclei including the dentate nucleus during absolute, duration-based timing and a striato-thalamo-cortical network comprising the putamen, caudate nucleus, thalamus, supplementary motor area, premotor cortex, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during relative, beat-based timing. Our results support two distinct timing mechanisms and underlying subsystems: first, a network comprising the inferior olive and the cerebellum that acts as a precision clock to mediate absolute, duration-based timing, and second, a distinct network for relative, beat-based timing incorporating a striato-thalamo-cortical network.
Decadal trends in marine reserves reveal differential rates of change in direct and indirect effects

Decadal-scale observations of marine reserves suggest that indirect effects on taxa that occur through cascading trophic interactions take longer to develop than direct effects on target species. Combining and analyzing a unique set of long-term time series of ecologic data in and out of fisheries closures from disparate regions, we found that the time to initial detection of direct effects on target species (±SE) was 5.13 ± 1.9 years, whereas initial detection of indirect effects on other taxa, which were often trait mediated, took significantly longer (13.1 ± 2.0 years). Most target species showed initial direct effects, but their trajectories over time were highly variable. Many target species continued to increase, some leveled off, and others decreased. Decreases were due to natural fluctuations, fishing impacts from outside reserves, or indirect effects from target species at higher trophic levels. The average duration of stable periods for direct effects was 6.2 ± 1.2 years, even in studies of more than 15 years. For indirect effects, stable periods averaged 9.1 ± 1.6 years, although this was not significantly different from direct effects. Populations of directly targeted species were more stable in reserves than in fished areas, suggesting increased ecologic resilience. This is an important benefit of marine reserves with respect to their function as a tool for conservation and restoration.
Designing Ubiquitous Computing Technologies to Motivate Fitness and Health

Physical inactivity in the western world is leading to a range of serious health problems and many health organizations are attempting to address this through new ways of motivating people to have more active lifestyles. This paper suggests using ubiquitous computing technologies to motivate fitness and health. We describe an initial qualitative study of exercise motivation among active individuals as well as an activity tracker that motivates exercise through social involvement. Finally, a research strategy is outlined in terms of technology development and evaluation studies.
Bringing user experience to healthcare improvement: the concepts, methods and practices of experience-based design

This book is about the value of the customer's service experience in improving the quality of services in all respects, from technical quality to interactive quality. The authors explore the so-called experience-based design (EBD), especially its underlying concepts, methods and practices, as a basic tool for developing customer focused health care services. The " experience " is defined as " how well people understand it (in this case: the services), how they feel about it when they are using it, how well it serves its purpose and how well it fits into the context in which they are using it. " In the EBD view, users are considered co-designers of the services as they join and even integrate in the whole service improvement and innovation process. The authors indicate that this is a remarkably more powerful approach than what is meant in patient-led services. In EBD, the 'co' in co-design suggests that patients play a more active and significant role as designers of their own services alongside service providers , while such partnership and shared leadership is lacking in 'patient-led' services. The book is divided into three parts about exploring the concepts, methods and practices of EBD, respectively. Central in the exploration of the concept is the consideration that health care service design should aim for: Performance (P), or how efficiently and effectively the core activity does the job of treating the patient, Engineering (E), how safely the activity is charged, and Aesthetics (A), how the whole interface/interaction between patient and service is fashioned and managed. According to the authors, every design process should possess all three elements in different manifestations and combinations. This formula is the constant guide in the rest of the book. The methods section pictures the basic disciplinary principles that underpin the EBD approach, the notion of pattern-based design and a variety of methods for diagnosing user experiences and intervening in service practice to improve patient experiences. The final part addresses service practice, starting with a case study showing how experience mapping works out as a basis for new design principles, to be formulated by collaborating patients and staff members. Finally, the authors emphasise the importance of evaluation and reflection of the changes as brought out by an EBD intervention. The authors show great enthusiasm for the EBD approach, emphasising the importance and impact of the patient role for service improvement. They elaborate in detail about …
EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE FOR SYMPATRIC ECOLOGICAL DIVERSIFICATION DUE TO FREQUENCY‐DEPENDENT COMPETITION IN ESCHERICHIA COLI

Abstract We investigate adaptive diversification in experimental Escherichia coli populations grown in serial batch cultures on a mixture of glucose and acetate. All 12 experimental lines were started from the same genetically uniform ancestral strain but became highly polymorphic for colony size after 1000 generations. Five populations were clearly dimorphic and thus serve as a model for an adaptive lineage split. We analyzed the ecological basis for this dimorphism by studying bacterial growth curves. All strains exhibit diauxie, that is, sequential growth on the two resources. Thus, they exhibit phenotypic plasticity, using mostly glucose when glucose is abundant, then switching to acetate when glucose concentration is low. However, the coexisting strains differ in their diauxie pattern, with one cluster in the dimorphic populations growing better in the glucose phase, and the other cluster having a much shorter lag when switching to the acetate phase. Using invasion experiments, we show that the dimorphism of these two ecological types is maintained by frequency‐dependent selection. Using a mathematical model for the adaptive dynamics of diauxie behavior, we show that evolutionary branching in diauxie behavior is a plausible theoretical scenario. Our results support the hypothesis that, in our experiments, adaptive diversification from a genetically uniform ancestor occurred due to frequency‐dependent ecological interactions. Our results have implications for understanding the evolution of cross‐feeding polymorphism in microorganisms, as well as adaptive speciation due to frequency‐dependent selection on phenotypic plasticity.
A Genetic Algorithm to Discover Flexible Motifs with Support

Finding repeated patterns or motifs in a time series is an important unsupervised task that has still a number of open issues, starting by the definition of motif. In this paper, we revise the notion of motif support, characterizing it as the number of patterns or repetitions that define a motif. We then propose GENMOTIF, a genetic algorithm to discover motifs with support which, at the same time, is flexible enough to accommodate other motif specifications and task characteristics. GENMOTIF is an anytime algorithm that easily adapts to many situations: searching in a range of segment lengths, applying uniform scaling, dealing with multiple dimensions, using different similarity and grouping criteria, etc. GENMOTIF is also parameter-friendly: it has only two intuitive parameters which, if set within reasonable bounds, do not substantially affect its performance. We demonstrate the value of our approach in a number of synthetic and real-world settings, considering traffic volume measurements, accelerometer signals, and telephone call records.
Benthic foraminiferal assemblages from the Ombrone and Tiber deltas (Central Tyrrhenian Sea) : a premiminary comparison

Les assemblages de foraminiferes benthiques des deltas de l'Ombrone et du Tibre (Mer Tyrrhenienne centrale) : comparaison preliminaire. Dans ce travail on a reporte les donnees preliminaires d'une recherche concernant les associations a foraminiferes benthiques des deltas des fleuves Ombrone et Tibre (Mer Tyrrhenienne centrale). Les dix echantillons choisis pour representer les zones etudiees ont ete preleves a des profondeurs comprises entre 11-154 m pour le delta de l'Ombrone et entre 10-150 m pour le delta du Tibre. ; On a reconnu trois associations principales a foraminiferes benthiques se referant a la variation de la profondeur et aux caracteristiques sedimentaires du fond. ; Seulement les associations plus profondes sont semblables dans les deux deltas tandis que celles de l'habitat cotier indiquent, pour le delta de l'Ombrone, des conditions de stress ecologique. En effet sont abondantes les especes infaunales qui s'adaptent aux milieux peu oxygenes et avec beaucoup de matiere organique. La presence de ces especes qui vivent generalement sur les fonds plus profonds, peut s'expliquer par de longues periodes de circulation limitee des eaux due a la position geographique du delta de l'Ombrone. D'autres details (l'energie de la mer et les vents) confirment les differentes situations des deux deltas.
From transaction to transformation: information and communication technology, professional development and the formation of communities of practice

Abstract Using the concept of ‘layers of community’, this paper describes and explains the ways in which teams of teachers, teacher educators and researchers worked together on the research project InterActive Education: teaching and learning in the information age. The focus is on the development and dissemination of professional knowledge as it relates to teaching and learning that incorporates information and communications technology (ICT) as a tool. Drawing on a range of data, we illustrate how ‘micro-’, ‘meso-’ and ‘macro’-communities inter-connect to create the settings for improved professional growth. The purpose is to challenge the linearity embedded in much of the professional development processes associated with ICT and to re-model the relationship between practice and research.
Finding compact communities in large graphs

This article presents an efficient hierarchical clustering algorithm that solves the problem of core community detection. It is a variant of the standard community detection problem in which we are particularly interested in the connected core of communities. To provide a solution to this problem, we question standard definitions on communities and provide alternatives. We propose a function called compactness, designed to assess the quality of a solution to this problem. Our algorithm is based on a graph traversal algorithm, the LexDFS. The time complexity of our method is in O(n × log (n)). Experiments show that our algorithm creates highly compact clusters.
Prevalence of Anemia in Chronic Kidney Disease in the United States

Anemia is one of the many complications of chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, the current prevalence of anemia in CKD patients in the United States is not known. Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) in 2007–2008 and 2009–2010 were used to determine the prevalence of anemia in subjects with CKD. The analysis was limited to adults aged >18 who participated in both the interview and exam components of the survey. Three outcomes were assessed: the prevalence of CKD, the prevalence of anemia in subjects with CKD, and the self-reported treatment of anemia. CKD was classified into 5 stages based on the glomerular filtration rate and evidence of kidney damage, in accordance with the guidelines of the National Kidney Foundation. Anemia was defined as serum hemoglobin levels ≤12 g/dL in women and ≤13 g/dL in men. We found that an estimated 14.0% of the US adult population had CKD in 2007–2010. Anemia was twice as prevalent in people with CKD (15.4%) as in the general population (7.6%). The prevalence of anemia increased with stage of CKD, from 8.4% at stage 1 to 53.4% at stage 5. A total of 22.8% of CKD patients with anemia reported being treated for anemia within the previous 3 months–14.6% of patients at CKD stages 1–2 and 26.4% of patients at stages 3–4. These results update our knowledge of the prevalence and treatment of anemia in CKD in the United States.
Recent developments in statistical prediction of seasonal Atlantic basin tropical cyclone activity

Abstract Statistical forecasts of Atlantic basin seasonal hurricane activity have been issued since 1984 by theTropical Meteorology Project at Colorado State University (CSU) headed by William Gray. Since these initial forecasts were developed, considerable improvements in data and statistical techniques have led to improved amounts of skill in both hindcasting and forecasting of seasonal Atlantic basin hurricane activity by CSU as well as other forecast groups including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Tropical Storm Risk. Statistical seasonal forecasts derive their skill from atmospheric and oceanic parameters that span the globe. Recent developments in statistical prediction include the development of shorter-period forecasts for the individual months of August, September and October and the issuing of landfall predictions or probabilities. Individual forecast groups generally utilize large-scale atmospheric wind and circulation patterns to issue their landfall forecasts. In addition, landfall probabilities down to the county level for all coastal counties from Brownsville, Texas to Eastport, Maine have recently been made available online. Several forecasting groups are nowissuing seasonal forecasts for the Atlantic basin, and it is to be expected that the skill of these forecasts will continue to improve with additional access to improved data and modelling capabilities.