Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical comparison of early-onset psoriatic and non-psoriatic oligoarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis.

OBJECTIVES Among the seven subtypes of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), oligoarticular JIA (oJIA) and psoriatic JIA (psJIA) display a predilection for onset in early childhood. We examined whether meaningful differences in clinical phenotype justify the distinction between these conditions. METHODS We performed a chart review to identify children with psoriatic and non-psoriatic oligoarticular-onset JIA. Clinical and demographic features of the two groups of children were compared. RESULTS Of the 390 children included in the study, 303 met the criteria for oJIA and 87 met the criteria for oligoarticular-onset psJIA. Both groups had a peak age of onset at 2-3 years, though psJIA had appreciable incidence into adolescence. Onset before 5 years of age was observed in 215 (71%) and 38 (44%) children respectively (p<0.001). Within this age category, children with psJIA demonstrated similar gender ratio and anti-nuclear antibody status to those with oJIA but exhibited a distinctive clinical pattern, with a tendency to involve the wrists and small joints of the hands and feet. Conversely, among all children presenting with oligoarthritis in early childhood, those with wrist or small joint involvement were more likely to have nail pits, psoriasis, or a family history of psoriasis than those without (p<0.05), supporting the association of this joint pattern with the psoriatic diathesis. CONCLUSIONS Even taking into account age of onset and number of joints, oJIA and psJIA remain clinically distinct, though important demographic overlap remains. These findings support separate diagnostic categories but justify further investigation into the similarities as well as differences among these children.
Matching of double-sided document images to remove interference

The National Archives of Singapore keeps a large volume of historical handwritten documents. One, common problem with the archives is that over the years, ink sipped through the pages of these documents such that characters on the reverse side become visible and interfere with the characters on the front side. This paper addresses this problem and develops a novel algorithm to extract clear textual images from the, interference. We achieve this by mapping images from both sides of a page such that interfering strokes seen on the front side are matched with the strokes originating from the reverse side so as to achieve a cancellation effect. The resultant image a further subjected to an improved Canny edge detection to eliminate remaining background interference. Experimental results have confirmed the validity of our proposed method.
Production of interleukin 10 by islet cells accelerates immune-mediated destruction of beta cells in nonobese diabetic mice

The T helper type 2 (Th2) cell product interleukin 10 (IL-10) inhibits the proliferation and function of Th1 lymphocytes and macrophages (M phi). The nonobese diabetic mouse strain (NOD/Shi) develops a M phi and T cell-dependent autoimmune diabetes that closely resembles human insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). The objective of the present study was to explore the consequences of localized production of IL-10 on diabetes development in NOD/Shi mice. Surprisingly, local production of IL-10 accelerated the onset and increased the prevalence of diabetes, since diabetes developed at 5-10 wk of age in 92% of IL-10 positive I-A beta g7/g7, I-E- mice in first (N2) and second (N3) generation backcrosses between IL-10 transgenic BALB/c mice and (NOD/Shi) mice. None of the IL-10 negative major histocompatibility complex-identical littermates were diabetic at this age. Furthermore, diabetes developed in 33% of I-A beta g7/d, I-E+ N3 mice in the presence of IL-10 before the mice were 10 wk old. Our findings support the notion that IL-10 should not simply be regarded as an immunoinhibitory cytokine, since it possesses powerful, immunostimulatory properties as well. Furthermore, our observations suggest that beta cell destruction in NOD mice may be a Th2-mediated event.
Mutating aspect-oriented models to test cross-cutting concerns

Aspect-oriented (AO) modeling is used to separate normal behaviors of software from specific behaviors that affect many parts of the software. These are called “cross-cutting concerns,” and include things such as interrupt events, exception handling, and security protocols. AO modeling allow developers to model the behaviors of cross-cutting concerns independently of the normal behavior. Aspect-oriented models (AOM) are then transformed into code by “weaving” the aspects (modeling the cross-cutting concerns) into all locations in the code where they are needed. Testing at this level is unnecessarily complicated because the concerns are often repeated in many locations and because the concerns are muddled with the normal code. This paper presents a method to design robustness tests at the abstract, or model, level. The models are mutated with novel operators that specifically target the features of AOM, and tests are designed to kill those mutants. The tests are then run on the implementation level to evaluate the behavior of the woven cross-cutting concerns.
Computational Model of Cognitive Development: Filtering Ambient Speech to Facilitate Word Learning

Infants manage to learn word meanings in very noisy environments. Despite an onslaught of many potentially confusing examples, language acquisition actually becomes more rapid around 18 to 24 months of age. During the same stage of life, a number of cognitive milestones are also reached. A review of developmental psychology and linguistics produces a theory that these parallel progressions may be linked by more than mere coincidence. As part of my master’s degree, I have developed a computational model to investigate language learning. It simulates a child who identifies communicative acts and then follows cues from a caregiver to disambiguate a single-word learning situation. Early results from the model are statistically similar to those observed in previous psychological experiments with actual children.
The Effort Reward Imbalance model and work related stress in 3-5 Star hotels in Zimbabwe

The issue of work related stress is a global problem that is affecting the hospitality industry. This study sought to test the applicability of the effort reward imbalance model as a measure of work related stress in 3 to 5 Star Hotels in Zimbabwe. Quantitative methods and a descriptive questionnaire survey design were employed on a random sample of 233 respondents from four purposively selected 3-5 star hotels. The study yielded 195 usable responses. Data was analysed using SPSS version 20 and Amos 20. From the results of the study it emerged that the ERI model was a fairly good fit for the Zimbabwean hotel employee population. The exploratory factor analysis yielded a four factor solution and confirmatory factor analysis a clear factorial structure similar to the original structure, though factor loadings were less significant. Goodness of fit indices showed there was a fairly good fit of the ERI model. The study concluded that the ERI model was applicable to Zimbabwean hotel employees. Recommendations included remodelling the ERI model by removing certain scale items to ensure the model is a better fit.
Finding Language in the Matter of the Brain: Origins of the Clinical Aphasia Examination

The origins of the aphasia examination can be traced back to the 19th century when physicians and scientists began to understand how higher mental functions such as language could be localized in the brain. Paul Broca, Carl Wernicke, and Hughlings Jackson developed different models of brain function, and each contributed important insights to the study of aphasia. Broca's contributions were influenced by the fundamental question of whether higher mental function could be localized in the brain at all; Wernicke's contributions were influenced by an attempt to unite more mechanistic and physiological principles to a model of higher brain functions; and Jackson's contributions were influenced by British association psychology. In addition to reviewing the origins of the aphasia examination, this article reviews the historical context in which these contributors worked, the factors that affected the reception of their views, and the manner in which their views have affected the aphasia examination and understanding of aphasia today.
Insights into the nature of the transition zone from physically constrained inversion of long-period seismic data

Imposing a thermal and compositional significance to the outcome of the inversion of seismic data facilitates their interpretation. Using long-period seismic waveforms and an inversion approach that includes constraints from mineral physics, we find that lateral variations of temperature can explain a large part of the data in the upper mantle. The additional compositional signature of cratons emerges in the global model as well. Above 300 km, we obtain seismic geotherms that span the range of expected temperatures in various tectonic regions. Absolute velocities and gradients with depth are well constrained by the seismic data throughout the upper mantle, except near discontinuities. The seismic data are consistent with a slower transition zone and an overall faster shallow upper mantle, which is not compatible with a homogenous dry pyrolite composition. A gradual enrichment with depth in a garnet-rich component helps to reduce the observed discrepancies. A hydrated transition zone would help to lower the velocities in the transition zone, but it does not explain the seismic structure above it.
On Relationship between Safety and Liveness of Election Problem in Asynchronous Distributed Systems

A Leader is a Coordinator that supports a set of processes to cooperate a given task. This concept is used in several domains such as distributed systems, parallelism and cooperative support for cooperative work. In completely asynchronous systems, there is no solution for the election problem satisfying both of safety and liveness properties in asynchronous distributed systems. Therefore, to solve the election problem in those systems, one property should be weaker than the other property. If an election algorithm strengthens the safety property in sacrifice of liveness property, it would not nearly progress. But on the contrary, an election algorithm strengthening the liveness property in sacrifice of the safety property would have the high probability of violating the safety property. In this paper, we presents a safety strengthened Leader Election protocol with an unreliable failure detector and analyses it in terms of safety and liveness properties in asynchronous distributed systems.
FPGA Implementation of an LTE Based OFDM Transceiver for 2 x 1 MIMO

In this paper, we present a real-time implementation of 2×1 MIMO system using the Alamouti scheme. The real-time chain is based on the LTE parameters. The testbed is implemented using FieldProgrammable Gate Array (FPGAs) through Xilinx System Generator for DSP. Time-domain synchronization is achieved through a joint maximum likelihood (ML) symbol-time and carrier frequency offset (CFO) estimator through the redundant information contained in the cyclic prefix (CP). Channel estimation uses a pilot scheme similar to the one prosed for LTE. Results show that a complete Alamouti scheme can be efficiently implemented using an FPGA. Key-Words: OFDM; FPGA; Software Defined Radio (SDR), CFO, LTE
Odkrywanie kompetencji komunikacyjnych niemowląt. Skala Wczesnej Komunikacji Społecznej jako przykład narzędzia pomiarowego

The aim of the present analysis is to describe the developmental trajectory of the infant and toddler communicative competencies. Turn-taking, gaze-following, joint attention and pointing gestures are the most important expressions of these competencies that could be measured by the Early Social Communication Scale (ESCS Mundy et al., 2003). We present the results of a research conducted with 358 one-year old children and obtained through the Polish version of this scale (ESCS). The validity and reliability of the Polish version of ESCS proved to be satisfactory. The obtained results were analyzed emphasizing the role of early communicative competencies in the further social, linguistic and cognitive development of a child and indicating the domain of psychological practice where ESCS could be implemented.
Does interprofessional collaboration between care levels improve following the creation of an integrated delivery organisation? The Bidasoa case in the Basque Country

Introduction This article explores the impact of the creation of a new integrated delivery organisation on the evolution of interprofessional collaboration between primary and secondary care levels. In particular, the case of the Bidasoa Integrated Healthcare Organisation is analysed. Theory and methods The evolution of interprofessional collaboration is measured through a validated Spanish questionnaire, with 10 items and a 5-point Likert scale, based on the D'Amour's model of collaboration [20]. The final sample included 146 observations (doctors and nurses). Results The questionnaire identified a significant improvement on the mean scores for interprofessional collaboration of 0.57 points before and after the intervention. A significant improvement was also found in the two dimensions of the measure of interprofessional collaboration used, with the size of the change being higher for the dimension related to the organisational setting (0.63) than for interpersonal relationships (0.47). Conclusions Before and after the creation of the Bidasoa Integrated Healthcare Organisation, an improvement in the perceived degree of interprofessional collaboration between primary and secondary care levels was observed. This finding supports the benefit of a multilevel and multidimensional approach to integration, as in the described Bidasoa case. Discussion Results on the two dimensions of the measure of interprofessional collaboration used seem to point to the longer time required for interpersonal relationships to change compared to the organisational setting.
SYT-SSX fusion genes and prognosis in synovial sarcoma

A case series of 64 synovial sarcomas was characterized for the SYT-SSX fusion transcripts and statistically analysed in order to correlate molecular data with prognosis and morphology. SYT-SSX1 fusion transcript appeared to be an independent, though not reaching statistical significance (P = 0.183), prognostic factor clearly associated with a reduced metastasis-free survival. Regarding the association between transcript type and histologic subtype we found, a borderline P value (P = 0.067) between the SYT-SSX1 transcript and the biphasic subtype which, subsequently expanding the analysis to 70 cases, turned out to be significant. However, we could not confirm the prediction value of the biphasic subtype for the presence of the SYT-SSX1 transcript since in our hands 6 out 33 (18%) biphasic tumours carried the SYT-SSX2 transcript. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer. com
Globalisation , Productivity and Technology Research Paper 2004 / 34 Exporting and Productivity in the United Kingdom

This paper investigates various aspects of the links between exporting and productivity for a large sample of firms in the United Kingdom. We find evidence to support the proposition that sunk costs are important. Self selection takes place, with larger and more productive firms entering export markets, and firms have to become more productive in order to enter. Industry characteristics also affect the likelihood of entry—both industrial and spatial agglomeration are important. When we rely on an unmatched sample of firms we can find some evidence of further productivity improvement after entry, but this disappears when we use a matched sample. Our results suggest that policy should avoid simply subsidizing firms that may self select into export promotion policies and focus instead on reducing information asymmetries and supporting development of clusters.
Transcriptional control of midbrain dopaminergic neuron development

Although loss of midbrain dopaminergic neurons is associated with one of the most common human neurological disorders, Parkinson's disease, little is known about the specification of this neuronal subtype. Hence, the recent identification of major transcriptional determinants regulating the development of these neurons has brought much excitement and encouragement to this field. These new findings will help to elucidate the genetic program that promotes the generation of midbrain dopaminergic neurons. Importantly, these discoveries will also significantly advance efforts to differentiate stem cells into midbrain dopaminergic neurons that can be used for therapeutic use in treating Parkinson's disease.
Theaters of Proof: Visual Evidence and the Law in Call Northside 777

This Article, a collaboration between a law professor specializing in evidence and an English professor who writes about film, analyzes a film of the late 1940s - Call Northside 777 (henceforth Northside), directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Jimmy Stewart - as a study in evidence. We argue that the film, an explicit retelling of an actual Chicago wrongful conviction case, speaks powerfully to the question of what counts as proof and what persuades, both in the courtroom and in our cultural imagination. The film strongly suggests that legal conceptions of what constitutes good evidence may deviate from more broadly-held ideas of legitimate proof. Legal standards of evidence are portrayed as rigid and conservative, too willing to rely on the reliable and too resistant to novel forms of knowledge. The Article explores in detail how Northside sets up a hierarchy of evidence, with eyewitness evidence at the bottom, expert evidence in the middle, and photographic and visual evidence portrayed as the best evidence of all. We show, however, that in the end, Northside's hierarchy depends on a host of simplifications, both of the historical record on which Northside is based, and also of the ways that visual evidence is made and deployed. We also use Northside as a jumping-off point for a broader examination of the relation between films and legal evidence. We analyze the actual use of reenactments and other films as legal evidence in the period contemporaneous with Northside, and we show that for the most part, judges shared the vision set forth in Northside of film as a nearly transparent medium of truth. In addition, we look at Northside as a "reenactment," a hybrid form that lies between drama and documentary, and show that dramatic reenactments and trials have a special relation: they are both, at heart, attempts to capture the past in an authentic and credible fashion. Neither claims to capture the past directly, but both verdicts and reenactments want to be seen as being true to the past in all of the ways that matters. The Article, therefore, suggests an important affinity between the trial and the filmed reenactment: Both are attempts to create believable stories of the past, stories not literally true that nonetheless become substitute depictions for what actually occurred.
Cross-domain representation-learning framework with combination of class-separate and domain-merge objectives

Recently, cross-domain learning has become one of the most important research directions in data mining and machine learning. In multi-domain learning, one problem is that the classification patterns and data distributions are different among domains, which leads to that the knowledge (e.g. classification hyperplane) can not be directly transferred from one domain to another. This paper proposes a framework to combine class-separate objectives (maximize separability among classes) and domain-merge objectives (minimize separability among domains) to achieve cross-domain representation learning. Three special methods called DMCS_CSF, DMCS_FDA and DMCS_PCDML upon this framework are given and the experimental results valid their effectiveness.
Social Rights and Citizenship. Between an inclusionary polity and disciplining policies.

Democracy and Social Rights in the "Two Wests. " Edited by Alice Kessler-Harris and Maurizio Vaudagna. OTTO editore, Torino 2009. Pp. 350. ISBN 978-88-95285-16-0 The relationship between social rights and citizenship is the central topic of Democracy and Social Rights in the "Two Wests" (2009), a collection of essays by historians and social scientists on the development of social rights and the consequences for citizenship in Europe and the United States. It was T.H. Marshall (1950) who intr.
Economic Experiments on Impulsive Urges, Control, and Irrationality

We use an incentivized laboratory experiment to confirm the presence of projection bias in hungry participants. We use a Vickrey (single bid, second price) auction to elicit participants’ willingness to pay for a box of high quality chocolates. Hungry subjects had an average willingness to pay 58% higher than that of not hungry subjects. Hunger was manipulated by randomly assigning subjects to one of two conditions: either they received a pen (hunger) or a pretzel (no hunger).
Serological cross reaction between legionella and campylobacter in the rapid microagglutination test.

AIMS: To investigate the serological cross reaction between legionella and campylobacter using the rapid microagglutination test (RMAT). METHODS: Serum samples from 49 patients with campylobacter infection were tested for legionella antibodies using the indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFAT) and the RMAT. Serum samples that had positive RMAT titres were retested in the presence of a campylobacter immunosorbent. The specificity of the immunosorbent was evaluated with serum from patients with genuine legionella infection (legionella culture or antigen positive, or both). RESULTS: Fourteen (28%) patients with campylobacter infection had positive IFAT titres (> or = 16) and 16 (32%) patients had positive RMAT titres (> or = 8) in one or more serum samples. In addition, serum samples from 11 of 17 patients with campylobacter infection, previously shown to have positive legionella IFAT titres, were also RMAT positive. Sixteen patients had RMAT titres of > or = 32, including seven with titres of > or = 128. RMAT titres from all but one patient were significantly reduced after campylobacter absorption, but serum samples from 48 patients with legionella infection were unaffected. CONCLUSIONS: Serological cross reaction between campylobacter and legionella can occur in the legionella RMAT, as well as the IFAT. This cross reaction can be eliminated in most cases by incorporating a campylobacter immunosorbent in the RMAT.
Performance Analysis of AIMD-Controlled Multimedia Flows in Wireless / IP Networks

In this paper, we develop a novel analytical framework for quantifying the performance of Additive Increase and Multiplicative Decrease (AIMD) flows in hybrid wireless/IP networks. By using token emulation, we obtain the queuing delay distribution, the probability of delay jitter exceeding a threshold, and the packet loss rate of AIMD-controlled multimedia flows, which is a function of the wireless link throughput distribution visible to the transport layer. The wireless link throughput is a function of the wireless link characteristics and the link layer protocol. As an illustration, the specific cases of a Rayleigh fading wireless link with link layer persistent and optimal packet transmission schemes are considered, respectively. Our QoS performance analysis matches well with simulation results, and can offer insights for tuning AIMD protocol parameters to efficiently utilize network resources and to effectively guarantee QoS for time-sensitive multimedia applications over hybrid networks.