Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Program evaluation of an inclusion program at an overnight summer camp

This dissertation documents the process of planning and conducting an evaluation of a program designed to include children with disabilities in a residential summer camp. The Summer Camp Inclusion Program (SCIP) served children ages 8-16 who carried diagnoses of developmental, physical, and/or cognitive disabilities, and who lived and participated in activities with typically functioning same-age peers over 4 and 8 week camp sessions. The program aimed to serve its participants by enhancing their social skills, increasing their rates of friendship and social interactions, and building their independence in activities of daily living. The program evaluation was planned and conducted using the framework created and developed by Maher (2012). The purpose of the program evaluation was to provide the client, the director of special needs programming at the summer camp, with information about SCIP that would be helpful in understanding how the program was being implemented and identifying its strengths and areas in need of improvement. The evaluation also sought to determine the reactions to SCIP of various stakeholders, including program participants’ parents, camp staff members, and typically developing camper peers of the program participants. Six program evaluation questions were delineated in order to gather this information, and were answered using data obtained from parent and staff member questionnaires and interviews with program personnel. The program evaluation was conducted during the summer 2010 implementation of SCIP. Results of the program evaluation indicated that program participants benefited socially from the opportunity to be incorporated into the camp program, and to a lesser degree gained independence in their daily activities. Both staff members and campers in the camp at large benefited from their involvement in the
Interaction of Propofol and Sevoflurane on Loss of Consciousness and Movement to Skin Incision during General Anesthesia

Background:Loss of consciousness (LOC) and immobility to surgical incision seem to be mediated at different levels of the central nervous system. Pharmacologic studies of hypnotic agents have previously focused on combinations of either volatile or intravenous anesthetics. This study examined the combination of inhaled sevoflurane and intravenous propofol at these two clinically relevant anesthetic end points. Methods:Thirty-six elective surgical patients were initially enrolled. Conditions approximating steady state were obtained for sevoflurane and target-controlled propofol infusions. Patients were sequentially evaluated for LOC (loud voice plus mild prodding) and immobility to surgical incision. The study was designed using the Dixon up–down method. Results:The observed propofol effect target with 50% response plus sevoflurane (0.46% end-tidal concentration) was 1.2 &mgr;g/ml (95% confidence interval, 1.1–1.3 &mgr;g/ml). It was not significantly different from that predicted (1.5 &mgr;g/ml; 95% confidence interval, 1.2–1.7 &mgr;g/ml) by simple additivity. The effective plasma concentration of propofol that suppressed movement to skin incision in 50% of patients was 5.4 &mgr;g/ml (95% confidence interval, 4.8–6.0 &mgr;g/ml) plus sevoflurane (0.86%) and was not significantly different from that predicted by additivity (5.4 &mgr;g/ml; 95% confidence interval, 4.8–5.9 &mgr;g/ml). Both analyses had adequate power (90%) to detect a significant change (±19 to 25%) from predicted value. Repeated-measures analysis of variance identified a Bispectral Index value of 70 as the break point between those who responded at LOC or did not. Conclusions:Propofol and sevoflurane interact in a simple additive manner to produce LOC and immobility to surgical incision, suggesting a common mechanism or a single site of action. These clinical observations are consistent with a single site of interaction at the &ggr;-aminobutyric acid type A receptor.
Communication skills teaching, learning and assessment

Summary. This paper outlines an introductory course in teaching communication skills to medical students in a preclinical context. The aims of the course, its content and teaching methods are described. Novel features include the active participation of selected patients in teaching and assessment, and the use of a form of role‐play named ‘listening triads’. The main focus of the paper is assessment, and results are recorded, relating to a class of 114 second‐year students during the academic session 1983–84. Assessment of the students' learning was measured by Modified Essay Question (MEQ); students' problems face‐to‐face with patients were identified by patients, students, and by staff members observing interactions. Problems of fitting these educational assessments into a traditional academic ‘certifying’ type of assessment remain unresolved at present. This course was found to be acceptable by the preclinical students, and their lack of clinical knowledge did not appear to interfere with their learning. They were enthusiastic about the supervised contact with patients, which appeared to contribute significantly to the way the course was received.
Rapid suppression of hematopoiesis by standard or pegylated interferon-alpha.

BACKGROUND & AIMS Treatment of chronic hepatitis C with interferon (IFN)-alpha often has hematotoxic effects. We evaluated the effects of acute vs. chronic and standard vs. pegylated IFN-alpha on hematopoiesis. METHODS We studied hematopoiesis in 46 patients with chronic hepatitis C receiving single high-dose IN-Falpha2b followed by daily dose standard or weekly pegylated IFN before combination antiviral therapy. RESULTS Single high-dose therapy resulted in a significant drop in hemoglobin (HB), leukocytes, and platelet count. Although platelets, stimulated by a significant increase in thrombopoietin (TPO), and leukocytes recovered quickly, HB remained below baseline for 7 days. Daily standard or weekly pegylated IFN-alpha leads to a more pronounced drop in all 3 lineages with concomitant increases in TPO and erythropoietin (EPO). No difference was observed between standard and pegylated IFN, except for HB, which fell more during pegylated IFN therapy. Consecutive combination antiviral therapy aggravated the anemia but not the drop in leukocytes or thrombocytes. CONCLUSIONS The drop in all 3 hematopoietic lineages through IFN-alpha treatment, high-dose standard, standard daily dose, or pegylated, is caused by a combination of bone marrow inhibition and probably some other rapid acting mechanisms. Hematopoietic growth factors are increased as a consequence but cannot overcome the bone marrow suppression.
A Non-manipulable Meeting Scheduling System

In this paper we present three scheduling mechanisms that are manipulation-proof for closed systems. The amount of information that each user must encode in the mechanism increases with the complexity of the mechanism. On the other hand, the more complex the mechanism is, the more it maintains the privacy of the users. The first mechanism is a centralized, calendar-oriented one. It is the least computationally complex of the three, but does not maintain user privacy. The second is a distributed meeting-oriented mechanism that maintains user privacy, but at the cost of greater computational complexity. The third mechanism, while being the most complex, maintains user privacy (for the most part) and allows users to have the greatest influence on the resulting schedule.
Inhibitory effects of fruit juices on cytochrome P450 3A (CYP3A) activity

There have been very limited reports on the effects of commercial fruit juices on human cytochrome P450 3A (CYP3A) activity. Therefore, the inhibitory effects of readily available commercial fruit juices on midazolam 1`-hydroxylase activity, a marker of CYP3A, were evaluated in pooled human liver microsomes. The fruit juices investigated were black raspberry, black mulberry, plum and wild grape. White grapefruit, pomegranate and orange juice were used as positive and negative controls. The black mulberry juice showed the most potent inhibition of CYP3A except for grapefruit juice. The inhibition depended on the amount of a fruit juice added to the incubation mixture. The inhibitory potential of human CYP3A was in the order: grapefruit > black mulberry > wild grape > pomegranate > black raspberry. The IC 50 values of all fruit juices tested were reduced after preincubation with microsomes in the presence of NADPH generating system, suggesting that a mechanism based inhibitory component was present in these fruit juices as in the case of grapefruit. The results suggest that like grapefruit juice, commercial fruit juices also have the potential to inhibit
Authentication with RIPEMD-160 and Other Alternatives: A Hardware Design Perspective

Taking into consideration the rapid evolution of communication standards that include message authentication and integrity verification, it is realized that constructions like MAC and HMAC, are widely used in the most popular cryptographic schemes since provision of a way to check the integrity of information transmitted over or stored in an unreliable medium is a prime necessity in the world of open computing and communications. MACs are used so as to protect both a message's integrity as well as its authenticity, by allowing verifiers (who also possess the secret key) to detect any changes to the message content. In every modern cryptographic scheme that is used to secure a crucial application that calls for security, a keyed-hash message authentication code, or HMAC, is incorporated. Beyond HMAC, a block cipher algorithm is also incorporated (i.e like AES), thus resulting to the whole security scheme. The proposed hardware design invokes a number of optimizing techniques like pipeline, evaluation-based partial unrolling, certain algorithmic transformations in space and time and computational re-ordering, leading to a highthroughput and low-power design for the whole HMAC construction. Finally, a new algorithm, CMAC, for producing message authenticating codes (MACs) which was recently proposed by NIST, is also described. The proposed security scheme incorporates a FIPS approved and a secure block cipher algorithm (that might have already been deployed in the security scheme) and was standardized by NIST in May, 2005. This work concludes with an efficient hardware implementation of the CMAC standard.
A corpus linguistics study of SMS text messaging

This thesis reports a study using a corpus of text messages in English (CorTxt) to explore linguistic features which define texting as a language variety. It focuses on how the language of texting, Txt, is shaped by texters actively fulfilling interpersonal goals. The thesis starts with an overview of the literature on texting, which indicates the need for thorough linguistic investigation of Txt based on a large dataset. It then places texting within the tradition of research into the speech-writing continuum, which highlights limitations of focusing on mode at the expense of other user-variables. The thesis also argues the need for inductive investigation alongside the quantitative corpus-based frameworks that dominate the field. A number of studies are then reported which explore the unconventional nature of Txt. Firstly, drawing on the argument that respelling constitutes a meaning-making resource, spelling variants are retrieved using word-frequency lists and categorised according to form and function. Secondly, identification of everyday creativity in CorTxt challenges studies focusing solely on spelling as a creative resource, and suggests that creativity plays an important role in texting because of, rather than despite, physical constraints. Thirdly, word frequency analysis suggests that the distinct order of the most frequent words in CorTxt can be explained with reference to the frequent phrases in which they occur. Finally, application of a spoken grammar model reveals similarities and differences between spoken and texted interaction. The distinct strands of investigation highlight, on the one hand, the extent to which texting differs from speech and, on the other, the role of user agency, awareness and choice in shaping Txt. The argument is made that this can be explained through performativity and, in particular, the observation that texters perform brevity, speech-like informality and group deviance in construing identities through Txt.
Natural Language Processing in LISP - an introduction to computational linguistics

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Receptores 5-HT1A: de la biología molecular a la clínica neuropsiquiátrica

: Among the multiple serotonin receptors identified to date, the 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)1A subtype is among the best known because selective ligands have been available for more than 15 years. Radioactive derivatives of these ligands make it possible to demonstrate the presence of 5-HT1A binding sites mainly in the limbic areas and in the raphe nuclei in the brain, where they correspond to post-synaptic receptors and pre-synaptic autoreceptors respectively. On stimulation of 5-HT1A autoreceptors, they regulate serotonin release in the distal regions of the neuron by inhibitory firing activity. In this way, they help to maintain the serotonin in the terminal regions at physiological levels, which favors correct neuronal functioning. This review article summarizes key data on localization, study technique, molecular biology, signal transduction, differential functional properties of pre-synaptic versus post-synaptic 5-HT1A receptors, and behavioral effects and clinical correlates of their activation, especially cognitive and emotional responses. Mention is made about the role of these receptors in the neurogenesis process of certain brain areas and of the possible clinical and therapeutic implications of these processes.
Genetic analysis of the metabolome exemplified using a rice population

Significance Although plant metabolites are critical for both plant and human nutrition, the genetic control of the plant metabolome remains largely unknown. Here, a genetic analysis of the rice metabolome resulted in the identification of hundreds of metabolic quantitative trait loci with both high resolution and large effects. We observed distinct and overlapping accumulation patterns of metabolites and complex genetic regulation of metabolism in different tissues. Twenty-four candidate genes, mainly those underlying phenolics, were assigned and the corresponding pathways were reconstructed in rice. This study demonstrated a powerful tool and provided a vast amount of high-quality data for understanding the genetic and biochemical basis of the metabolome. It is also valuable for crop genetic improvement through metabolomics-assisted breeding. Plant metabolites are crucial for both plant life and human nutrition. Despite recent advance in metabolomics, the genetic control of plant metabolome remains largely unknown. Here, we performed a genetic analysis of the rice metabolome that provided over 2,800 highly resolved metabolic quantitative trait loci for 900 metabolites. Distinct and overlapping accumulation patterns of metabolites were observed and complex genetic regulation of metabolism was revealed in two different tissues. We associated 24 candidate genes to various metabolic quantitative trait loci by data mining, including ones regulating important morphological traits and biological processes. The corresponding pathways were reconstructed by updating in vivo functions of previously identified and newly assigned genes. This study demonstrated a powerful tool and provided a vast amount of high-quality data for understanding the plasticity of plant metabolome, which may help bridge the gap between the genome and phenome.
Schooling, Cognitive Skills, and the Latin American Growth Puzzle

Economic development in Latin America has trailed most other world regions over the past four decades despite its relatively high initial development and school attainment levels. This puzzle can be resolved by considering the actual learning as expressed in tests of cognitive skills, on which Latin American countries consistently perform at the bottom. In growth models estimated across world regions, these low levels of cognitive skills can account for the poor growth performance of Latin America. Given the limitations of worldwide tests in discriminating performance at low levels, we also introduce measures from two regional tests designed to measure performance for all Latin American countries with internationally comparable income data. Our growth analysis using these data confirms the significant effects of cognitive skills on intra-regional variations. Splicing the new regional tests into the worldwide tests, we also confirm this effect in extended worldwide regressions, although it appears somewhat smaller in the regional Latin American data than in the worldwide data.
Rab8 promotes polarized membrane transport through reorganization of actin and microtubules in fibroblasts

Rab8 is a small Ras-like GTPase that regulates polarized membrane transport to the basolateral membrane in epithelial cells and to the dendrites in neurons. It has recently been demonstrated that fibroblasts sort newly synthesized proteins into two different pathways for delivery to the cell surface that are equivalent to the apical and the basolateral post-Golgi routes in epithelial cells (Yoshimori, T., P. Keller, M.G. Roth, and K. Simons. 1996. J. Cell Biol. 133:247-256). To determine the role of Rab8 in fibroblasts, we used both transient expression systems and stable cell lines expressing mutant or wild-type (wt) Rab8. A dramatic change in cell morphology occurred in BHK cells expressing both the wt Rab8 and the activated form of the GTPase, the Rab8Q67L mutant. These cells formed processes as a result of a reorganization of both their actin filaments and microtubules. Newly synthesized vesicular stomatitis virus G glycoprotein, a basolateral marker protein in MDCK cells, was preferentially delivered into these cell outgrowths. Based on these findings, we propose that Rab8 provides a link between the machinery responsible for the formation of cell protrusions and polarized biosynthetic membrane traffic.
Preferential Induction of IL-10 in APC Correlates with a Switch from Th1 to Th2 Response Following Infection with a Low Pathogenic Variant of Theiler’s Virus1

Theiler’s murine encephalomyelitis virus induces immune-mediated demyelination in susceptible mice after intracerebral inoculation. A naturally occurring, low pathogenic Theiler’s murine encephalomyelitis virus variant showed a single amino acid change within a predominant Th epitope from lysine to arginine at position 244 of VP1. This substitution is the only one present in the entire viral capsid proteins. In this paper, we demonstrate that the majority of T cells specific for VP1233–250 and VP274–86 from wild-type virus-infected mice are Th1 type and these VP1-specific cells poorly recognize the variant VP1 epitope (VP1K244R) containing the substituted arginine. In contrast, the Th2-type T cell population specific for these epitopes predominates in variant virus-infected mice. Immunization with UV-inactivated virus or VP1 epitope peptides could not duplicate the preferential Th1/Th2 responses following viral infection. Interestingly, the major APC populations, such as dendritic cells and macrophages, produce IL-12 on exposure to the pathogenic wild-type virus, whereas they preferentially produce IL-10 in response to the low pathogenic variant virus. Thus, such a spontaneous mutant virus may have a profoundly different capability to induce Th-type responses via selective production of cytokines involved in T cell differentiation and the consequent pathogenicity of virally induced immune-mediated inflammatory diseases.
Pattern formation in miniature: the female gametophyte of flowering plants

Plant reproduction involves gamete production by a haploid generation, the gametophyte. For flowering plants, a defining characteristic in the evolution from the ‘naked-seed’ plants, or gymnosperms, is a reduced female gametophyte, comprising just seven cells of four different types – a microcosm of pattern formation and gamete specification about which only little is known. However, several genes involved in the differentiation, fertilization and post-fertilization functions of the female gametophyte have been identified and, recently, the morphogenic activity of the plant hormone auxin has been found to mediate patterning and egg cell specification. This article reviews recent progress in understanding the pattern formation, maternal effects and evolution of this essential unit of plant reproduction.
What Should Be Done with Equity Theory? New Approaches to the Study of Fairness in Social Relationships.

AUTHOR Leventhal, Gerald S. TITLE What Should Be Done with Equity Theory? New Approaches to the Study of Fairness in Social Relationships. SPONS AGENCY National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C. PUB DATE Sep 76 GRANT GS-3171 NOTE 52p. ;,To appear as a chapter in Gezgen, K.O. , Ed., And Others, "Social Exchange Theory," John Wiley, 1977 AVAILABLE FROM Dr. Gerald S. Leventhal, Department of Psychology, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan 48202 (free)
Knowledge systems for sustainable development

The challenge of meeting human development needs while protecting the earth's life support systems confronts scientists, technologists, policy makers, and communities from local to global levels. Many believe that science and technology (S&T) must play a more central role in sustainable development, yet little systematic scholarship exists on how to create institutions that effectively harness S&T for sustainability. This study suggests that efforts to mobilize S&T for sustainability are more likely to be effective when they manage boundaries between knowledge and action in ways that simultaneously enhance the salience, credibility, and legitimacy of the information they produce. Effective systems apply a variety of institutional mechanisms that facilitate communication, translation and mediation across boundaries.
Automatic diagnosis of pathological voices

Spasmodic dysphonia (SD) is a voice disorder characterized by voice breaks. Muscle tension dysphonia (MTD) is a form of voice misuse characterized by excessive muscular effort. While the first pathology is not a psychological condition and has a neurological origin, the last one does not include a neurological disorder and is correctable with voice therapy. Patients with SD are often not identified for treatment. These two pathologies are only correctly differentiated by experts. The importance of a correct diagnosis is directly related with the application of the suitable treatment. Our goal is to provide voice pathologists with a new tool to confirm their diagnosis. In the present work, we present a preliminary approach to this problem, building an automatic classifier using acoustical measurements on registered sustained vowels /a/ and pattern recognition tools based on neural networks. As long as we know, there are not previous published works in automatic classification of these two pathologies. However, there are works on automatic classification between normal and pathological voices. Our results overcome the best reported classification between pathological and normal voices, and have a good discrimination between SD and MTD.