Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identity as Burden or Benefit? Youth, Historical Narrative, and the Legacy of Political Conflict

Scholars across a range of disciplines have increasingly argued that the intractability of political conflicts is rooted in the proliferation of competing historical narratives. These collective narratives construct the basis of a sense of shared collective identity. Narrative and identity are thus increasingly conceptualized as fundamental to the maintenance and reproduction of political conflict. In this paper, I explore two underlying conceptions of identity that have emerged in the literature on youth and political conflict. One conception views identity as a burden for youth, suggesting that youth perceive the need to internalize a master narrative of collective identity that provides a sense of security and solidarity in the midst of existential uncertainty. Though psychologically beneficial, this internalization is problematic in the reproductive role it assumes in the larger conflict. An alternative conception views identity as a benefit in its ability to serve as a tool for social and political change, particularly for low-status groups. I review theory and research that adopt these varying conceptions and suggest that identity must be conceptualized as both burden and benefit for youth in conflict settings.
Estimation of left ventricular filling pressures by speckle tracking echocardiography in patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy.

AIMS the ratio of early diastolic transmitral flow velocity (E) to early diastolic mitral annular velocity (E(a)) is frequently used to predict an increase in left ventricular filling pressure (LVFP). However, this approach has several limitations. The aim of this study was to test whether additional information is gained by new echocardiographic indexes utilizing strain and strain rate (SR) derived from 2-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography (2D-STE) for the estimation of LVFP. METHODS AND RESULTS fifty-one patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDC) underwent pulsed-wave tissue Doppler echocardiography and 2D-STE performed simultaneously with right heart catheterization. Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed that circumferential strain and the SR during late diastolic LV filling (0.956 and 0.951, both P = 0.001), E/circumferential SR at early diastolic LV filling (0.949, P = 0.001), and E/circumferential strain at the time of peak E-wave (0.948, P = 0.001) had greater area under the curve than the E/E(a) ratio (0.911, P = 0.001) for the prediction of pulmonary capillary wedge pressure > 12 mmHg. CONCLUSION when compared with the E/E(a) ratio, several 2D-STE-derived parameters better estimated the increase in LVFP in patients with IDC.
A GABAA Receptor Mutation Linked to Human Epilepsy (γ2R43Q) Impairs Cell Surface Expression of αβγ Receptors*

A mutation in the γ2 subunit of the γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) type A receptor (GABAR), which changes an arginine to a glutamine at position 43 (R43Q), is linked to familial idiopathic epilepsies. We used radioligand binding, immunoblotting, and immunofluorescence techniques to examine the properties of wild-type α1β2γ2 and mutant α1β2γ2R43Q GABARs expressed in HEK 293 cells. The γ2R43Q mutation had no affect on the binding affinity of the benzodiazepine flunitrazepam. However, in cells expressing α1β2γ2R43Q GABARs, the number of binding sites for [3H]flunitrazepam relative to wild-type receptors was decreased 75%. Using surface protein biotinylation, affinity purification, and immunoblotting, we demonstrated that expression of cell surface α1β2γ2R43Q GABARs was decreased. Surface immunostaining of HEK 293 cells expressing α1β2γ2R43Q GABARs confirmed that surface expression of the γ2R43Q subunit was reduced. These data demonstrate that the γ2R43Q mutation impairs expression of cell surface GABARs. A deficit in surface GABAR expression would reduce synaptic inhibition and result in neuronal hyperexcitability, which could explain why families possessing the γ2R43Q subunit have epilepsy.
Lower Bounds for Shortest Path and Related Problems

We present the rst lower bounds for shortest path problems (including euclidean shortest path) in three dimensions, and for some constrained motion planning problems in two and three dimensions. Our proofs are based a technique called free path encoding and use homotopy equivalence classes of paths to encode state. We rst apply the method to the shortest path problem in three dimensions. The problem is to nd the shortest path under an L metric (e.g. a euclidean metric) between two points amid polyhedral obstacles. Although this problem has been extensively studied, there were no previously known lower bounds. We show that there may be exponentially many shortest path classes in single-source multiple-destination problems, and that the single-source single-destination problem is NP-hard. We use a similar proof technique to show that two dimensional dynamic motion planning with bounded velocity is NP-hard. Finally we extend the technique to compliant motion planning with uncertainty in control. Speci cally, we consider a point in 3 dimensions which is commanded to move in a straight line, but whose actual motion may di er from the commanded motion, possibly involving sliding against obstacles. Given that the point initially lies in some start region, the problem of nding a sequence of commanded velocities which is guaranteed to move the point to the goal is shown to be non-deterministic exponential time hard, making it the rst provably intractable problem in robotics. Acknowledgements. John Canny was supported by an IBM fellowship. The research by John Reif was sponsored in part by the NSF under contract NSF{DCR{ 85{03251 and the OÆce of Naval Research under OÆce of Naval Research contracts N00014{81{K{0494 and N00014{80{C{0647 and in part by the Advanced Research Projects Agency under OÆce of Naval Research contracts N00014{80{C{0505 and N00014{82{K{0334; it was subsequently supported by National Science Foundation Grants CCF{0432038, CCF{0432047, ITR 0326157, EIA{0218376, EIA{0218359, and EIA{0086015. A preliminary version of this paper appeared as J. Canny and J.H. Reif, New Lower Bound Techniques for Robot Motion Planning Problems. 28th Annual IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, Los Angeles, CA, October 1987, pp. 49-60.
Employee Job Performance in Britain and the United States

This paper examines the determinants of employee job performance in the U.S. and Britain. We use two nationally representative data sets (the 1991 General Social Survey and the 1992 Employment in Britain survey) that contain comparable indicators of job performance and of motivation, ability and task characteristics. American employees were more likely to report higher levels of performance quantity and (especially) quality. Most of our explanatory variables affected the two dimensions of performance in similar ways in the two countries. Both quality and quantity performance were more strongly affected by income in the U.S. Quality of performance was more strongly related to the size of the workplace in Britain. Quantity of performance was more strongly related to the importançe placed on promotion and to task significance among American workers.
The Americans with Disabilities Act and Information Technology Access

Advances in information technology have created new employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and other pieces of federal legislation have mandated the provision of reasonable accommodations, including assistive technology, to all individuals who might benefit from them. This article reviews the requirements of relevant legislation, describes various ways in which assistive technology can be used as a reasonable accommodation in employment settings, provides a case study from the Microsoft corporation, and discusses guidelines for the design, implementation, and evaluation of reasonable accommodations.
Replica Symmetry Breaking Instability in the 2D XY Model in a Random Field.

We study the 2D vortex-free XY model in a random field, a model for randomly pinned flux lines in a plane. We construct controlled RG recursion relations which allow for replica symmetry breaking (RSB). The fixed point previously found by Cardy and Ostlund in the glass phase $T<T_c$ is {\it unstable} to RSB. The susceptibility $\chi$ associated to infinitesimal RSB perturbation in the high-temperature phase is found to diverge as $\chi \propto (T-T_c)^{-\gamma}$ when $T \rightarrow T_c^{+}$. This provides analytical evidence that RSB occurs in finite dimensional models. The physical consequences for the glass phase are discussed.
Experiential Training: Connecting School Counselors‐in‐Training, English as a Second Language (ESL) Teachers, and ESL Students

English as a second language (ESL) students present challenges to counselors who are unaccustomed to working with students who speak limited English. A field experience prepared school counselors-in-training to develop cultural sensitivity while working with ESL teachers and students. The counselors suggested that early experiential learning fostered multicultural sensitivity and refined counseling skills. Los estudiantes de ingles como segunda lengua (ESL) presentan desafios para aquellos consejeros que no estan acostrumbrados a trabajar con estudiantes con un nivel de ingles limitado. Una experiencia practica de campo preparo a los consejeros escolares en formacion para que desarrollaran una sensibilidad cultural mientras trabajaban con profesores y alumnos de ESL. Los consejeros indicaron que el aprendizaje experiencial en fase temprana fomento su sensibilidad multicultural y perfecciono sus habilidades en consejeria.
EXTENDING RT-MINIX WITH FAULT TOLERANCE CAPABILITIES

The MINIX operating system was extended with real-time services, ranging from A/D drivers to new scheduling algorithms and statistics collection. A testbed was constructed to tests several sensor replication techniques in order to implement and verify several robust sensing algorithms. As a result, new services enhancing fault tolerance for replicated sensors were also provided within the kernel. The resulting OS offers new features such as real-time task management (for both periodic or aperiodic tasks), clock resolution handling, and sensor replication manipulation. Index TermsFault tolerance, Operating Systems, Real-time Systems, Sensing Algorithms, Sensor Replication.
Myringostapediopexy: Is it a Natural Type III Tympanoplasty?

Introduction Natural myringostapediopexy is an infrequent abnormality, and studies about resulting hearing loss are scarce. In several cases, natural myringostapediopexy may function as a Type III tympanoplasty. Objective This study evaluated conductive hearing loss in myringostapediopexy. Materials and Methods This cross-sectional comparative study included a historical and current sample of 46 patients, one with bilateral myringostapediopexy, at a total of 47 ears. All underwent pure tone and speech audiometry and were divided according to age into a pediatric (younger than 18 yr) and an adult group. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) 10.0 was used for statistical analysis, and the level of significance was set at p lower than 0.05. Results Patient distribution according to sex was similar (53.2% male), and 57.4% were adults. Mean conductive hearing loss in ears with myringostapediopexy ranged from 14.13 to 21.28 dB according to the frequency assessed. Pure tone average was 18.46 dB. A conductive hearing loss equal to or lower than 25 dB at all frequencies was found in 53% of the patients. The 2,000 and 3,000 Hz frequencies had the greatest prevalence of clinically nonsignificant conductive hearing loss (87% and 91%). Sensorineural hearing loss was found in 14 patients (30%), all adults, and 43% of the cases were mild. The comparison according to age did not reveal any significant differences in conductive hearing loss at any of the frequencies. Conclusion Most patients with natural myringostapediopexy included in the study had clinically irrelevant conductive hearing loss. There were no differences in conduction loss between children and adults. The reconstruction of the ossicular chain and tympanoplasty, for purely functional reasons, are not justified in these cases, particularly not for patients with mixed hearing loss.
Investigating the Level of End-User Development and Involvement Among Time-Based Competitors

As global markets and technology change, time-based competitors create product development and manufacturing practices that reduce response time and enhance customization capabilities. These practices require an information-rich internal environment that is capable of flexible resource deployment and direct and continuous feedback. To build this environment, time-based competitors are developing end-user capabilities and involving them in information systems (IS) activities. Data collected from 265 manufacturers were used to determine if firms with high levels of time-based product development and time-based manufacturing practices also have high levels of end-user involvement in IS-related activities, end-user training effectiveness, and end-user computing skills. The results of this study support that contention.
Control of LTI systems subject to unanticipated extreme perturbations using self-tuning 3-term switching controllers

In the design of conventional control systems for a multivariable system, using robust/adaptive control techniques, the motivation is to design a controller which "works satisfactorily" in the presence of plant uncertainty. Unfortunately, however, if large unanticipated structural changes subsequently occur in the system, severe limitations in practical performance may occur, since such conventional control schemes usually do not have the ability to control systems which are subject to unplanned extreme changes. Moreover, for the realistic situation when control input constraints exist, few results for continuous time multivariable systems are available. In this paper, a new class of self-tuning proportional-integral-derivative switching controllers, which is an extension of the self-tuning integral controller of Miller and Davison, is described, and has the property that it is robust to unplanned extreme changes in the plant and satisfies any feasible control signal input constraints. Results of this self-tuning controller when applied to an experimental multivariable system also are described.
Improving Naive Bayes with Online Feature Selection for Quick Adaptation to Evolving Feature Usefulness

The definition of what makes an article interesting varies from user to user and continually evolves even for a single user. As a result, for news recommendation systems, useless document features can not be determined a priori and all features are usually considered for interestingness classification. Consequently, the presence of currently useless features degrades classification performance [1], particularly over the initial set of news articles being classified. The initial set of document is critical for a user when considering which particular news recommendation system to adopt. To address these problems, we introduce an improved version of the naive Bayes classifier with online feature selection. We use correlation to determine the utility of each feature and take advantage of the conditional independence assumption used by naive Bayes for online feature selection and classification. The augmented naive Bayes classifier performs 28% better than the traditional naive Bayes classifier in recommending news articles from the Yahoo! RSS feeds.
v 2 c – A Verilog to C Translator ?

We present v2c, a tool for translating Verilog to C. The tool accepts synthesizable Verilog as input and generates a word-level C program as an output, which we call the software netlist. The generated program is cycle-accurate and bit precise. The translation is based on the synthesis semantics of Verilog. There are several use cases for v2c, ranging from hardware property verification, coverification to simulation and equivalence checking. This paper gives details of the translation and demonstrates the utility of the tool.
Ordered Conformational Changes in Damaged DNA Induced by Nucleotide Excision Repair Factors*

In response to genotoxic attacks, cells activate sophisticated DNA repair pathways such as nucleotide excision repair (NER), which consists of damage removal via dual incision and DNA resynthesis. Using permanganate footprinting as well as highly purified factors, we show that NER is a dynamic process that takes place in a number of successive steps during which the DNA is remodeled around the lesion in response to the various NER factors. XPC/HR23B first recognizes the damaged structure and initiates the opening of the helix from position -3 to +6. TFIIH is then recruited and, in the presence of ATP, extends the opening from position -6 to +6; it also displaces XPC downstream from the lesion, thereby providing the topological structure for recruiting XPA and RPA, which will enlarge the opening. Once targeted by XPG, the damaged DNA is further melted from position -19 to +8. XPG and XPF/ERCC1 endonucleases then cut the damaged DNA at the limit of the opened structure that was previously “labeled” by the positioning of XPC/HR23B and TFIIH.
Analyzing and resolving anomalies in firewall security policies based on propositional logic

Firewalls are essential components in network security solutions. In order to implement correct security policy, the anomalies in firewall rules should be analyzed carefully, especially in enterprise network. In this paper, we present a new formal framework for analysis and resolution of anomalies in firewall rules. First of all, a formal model based on propositional logic is presented to specify rules. Then we specify all anomalies that identified in the latest researches based on our model. Current studies for analysis of anomalies are based on one to one rule anomalies, but we identify total version of anomalies based on one to many relationship of rules. Furthermore we have designed and implemented a tool based on theorem proving for verification of the specified anomalies. In addition, we present two algorithms for resolving anomalies in a rule database based on our formal model. These algorithms minimize the number of rules without changing the policy. Experimental results indicate that our algorithms for discovery single and total anomalies run in 2–3 seconds for a very large firewall with thousands of rules.
Angular gyrus syndrome revisited: Acalculia, finger agnosia, right-left disorientation and semantic aphasia

Angular gyrus (Gerstmann) syndrome is classically described as finger agnosia, right-left disorientation, agraphia and acalculia in association to lesions in the left angular gyrus. Aphasia is not typically described as part of this syndrome. Here we report a 58 year old right-handed male, with an ischemic lesion to the left angular gyrus, who developed sudden loss of speech expression and comprehension, and slowly recovered over the following few weeks. After several months he showed significant improvement on his language skills with understanding logic-grammatical relationships, comparison adverbs (e.g. bigger-smaller, younger-older etc., place adverbs (e.g. over-below, on-beneath etc. and time adverbs (e.g. before-after). These language deficits are compatible with a semantic aphasia. Writing difficulties are minimal. In addition, he has important impairments in finger agnosia, right-left discrimination, and in understanding numbers, using numerical concepts, and performing arithmetical operations. We propose that left angular gyrus syndrome should be restated to include acalculia, finger agnosia, right left disorientation and semantic aphasia. A single underlying deficit can account for the simultaneous presentation of these four clinical signs. only mild word-finding difficulties, but with substantial difficulties in
Joint channel and frequency offset estimation using sigma point Kalman filter for an OFDMA uplink system

In uplink transmissions of a coded orthogonal frequency division multiple access (C-OFDMA) system, a frequency synchronization has to be addressed. Few papers deal with this issue. Expectation - maximization (EM) approaches have been proposed but initialization strategies must be considered because the EM may converge to a local extremum. Here we propose a joint estimation of the channel and the carrier frequency offset (CFO) based on a sigma point Kalman filter. When considering an OFDMA uplink system over a Rayleigh fading channel, simulation results confirm that the proposed algorithm corresponds to a good compromise between CFO and channel estimation, bit error rate and computational cost. Since our approach has a lower computational complexity, the power consumption is lower, which is a great advantage in a wireless system.
Suicidal Behavior Among Low-Income African American Women: A Comparison of First-Time and Repeat Suicide Attempters

This investigation ascertained dimensions of a suicide attempt and psychological and historical risk factors that differentiate low-income, female, African American suicide attempters as a function of having made a single, first-time attempt versus multiple attempts. Two groups were compared: first time attempters (n= 135) and repeat attempters (n= 139). Participants were recruited from a large, urban hospital following a suicide attempt (i.e., index suicide attempt). Sociodemographic characteristics, details of the index attempt (i.e., the attempt that prompted entry into the study), psychological functioning, hopelessness, substance abuse, and trauma history were assessed. The two groups were largely similar across sociodemographic characteristics. Multivariate analyses of variance were used to test hypotheses. Relative to first-time attempters, the attempts of repeat attempters involved higher levels of intent, planning, and perceived lethality and were associated with more psychological distress, hopelessness, substance abuse, and childhood trauma. Research and clinical implications of the findings are discussed.
CD4+ cells recovery in HIV positive patients with severe immunosuppression at HAART initiation at Centre Medico-Social Cor-Unum, Kigali

Introduction Up to 30% of HIV infected patients who are receiving HAART do not exhibit a marked increase in the CD4+ T cell count. There is still a concern that immune recovery may not be complete once CD4+ T cells have decreased below 200 cells/μl. The objective is to assess CD4+ cell recovery in HIV+ patients with CD4 count below 200 cells/μl) at HAART initiation. Methods This was a retrospective cohort study among 110 HIV+ patients with initial CD4 count < 200 cells/μl. Baseline Age, sex, CD4 count and viral load were extracted from the patient’s database. After12 months of HAART; CD4 count was done using flow cytometry and viremia by COBAS AmpliPrep/COBAS TaqMan HIV-1 test v 2.0 technology. Results The mean age of the respondents was 35 years; males being 57% and females were 43%. The mean CD4 count before HAART was 110.18 cells/μl whereas at 12 months of HAART; this was 305.01 cells/μl. Though some patients did not achieve a CD4 count of more than 200 cells/μl or a drop in viral load; there was a significant recovery of CD4+ cells (P value=0.000) and viremia following HAART (P value=0.001). Participants aged 18-30 years were likely to have less than 200 cells/μl CD4 count (46.4%) [OR=4.33; 95%CI: 1.29-14.59; P=0.018] than participants aged above 40 years (16.7%). Conclusion HAART was associated with viremia suppression but many patients failed to achieve a CD4 count >200 cells/μl. HAART before severe immunosuppression is a key factor for immune restoration among HIV+ patients.