Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Blatant Discrimination Disappears, But…: The Politics of Everyday Exclusion in Contemporary Japan

Abstract:Focusing on the experience of the Korean minority in Japan (zainichi Koreans), this article demonstrates that exclusionary practices against ethnic minorities persist in everyday life in subtle and covert forms although blatant discrimination against them has significantly disappeared. The article examines the current situation of zainichi Koreans and traces how they have been treated in Japan. On the basis of interviews, it is apparent that exclusionary practices against zainichi Koreans persist in everyday interpersonal interactions. The forms of exclusion are very difficult to remedy by legal/institutional measures, leading to the conclusion that a more fundamental change is needed to solve the problem.
Structural Models of the Relations of Assault Severity, Social Support, Avoidance Coping, Self-Blame, and PTSD Among Sexual Assault Survivors

A number of studies have identified which survivors of sexual assault are more likely to develop symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Most correlates that have been identified have been at the individual level. Insufficient attention has been given to whether survivors' social interactions impact their individual responses to assault and subsequent levels of psychological symptomatology. In this study, a large, diverse sample of community-residing women (N = 636) was surveyed. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationships between assault severity, global support, negative social reactions, avoidance coping, self-blame, traumatic life experiences, and PTSD symptoms. The results suggest that negative social reactions and avoidance coping are the strongest correlates of PTSD symptoms and that the association typically observed between victim self-blame and PTSD symptoms may be partially due to the effect of negative social reactions from others. These reactions may contribute to both self-blame and PTSD. Implications for future research and clinical practice are discussed.
Changes in White Matter Connectivity Following Therapy for Anomia Post stroke

Background. The majority of studies investigating the neural mechanisms underlying treatment-induced recovery in aphasia have focused on the cortical regions associated with language processing. However, the integrity of the white matter connecting these regions may also be crucial to understanding treatment mechanisms. Objective. This study investigated the integrity of the arcuate fasciculus (AF) and uncinate fasciculus (UF) before and after treatment for anomia in people with aphasia. Method. Eight people with aphasia received 12 treatment sessions to improve naming; alternating between phonologically-based and semantic-based tasks, with high angular resolution diffusion imaging conducted pre and post treatment. The mean generalized fractional anisotropy (GFA), a measure of fiber integrity, and number of fibers in the AF and UF were compared pre and post treatment, as well as with a group of 14 healthy older controls. Results. Pre treatment, participants with aphasia had significantly fewer fibers and lower mean GFA in the left AF compared with controls. Post treatment, mean GFA increased in the left AF to be statistically equivalent to controls. Additionally, mean GFA in the left AF pre and post treatment positively correlated with maintenance of the phonologically based treatment. No differences were found in the right AF, or the UF in either hemisphere, between participants with aphasia and controls, and no changes were observed in these tracts following treatment. Conclusions. Anomia treatments may improve the integrity of the white matter connecting cortical language regions. These preliminary results add to the understanding of the mechanisms underlying treatment outcomes in people with aphasia post stroke.
Genome-scale metabolic reconstructions of multiple Escherichia coli strains highlight strain-specific adaptations to nutritional environments

Significance Multiple Escherichia coli genome sequences have recently been made available by advances in DNA sequencing. Analysis of these genomes has demonstrated that the fraction of genes common to all E. coli strains in the species represents a small fraction of the entire E. coli gene pool. This observation raises the question: what is a strain and what is a species? In this study, genome-scale metabolic reconstructions of multiple E. coli strains are used to reconstruct the metabolic network for an entire species and its strain-specific variants. The models are used to determine functional differences between strains and define the E. coli species based on common metabolic capabilities. Individual strains were differentiated based on niche-specific growth capabilities. Genome-scale models (GEMs) of metabolism were constructed for 55 fully sequenced Escherichia coli and Shigella strains. The GEMs enable a systems approach to characterizing the pan and core metabolic capabilities of the E. coli species. The majority of pan metabolic content was found to consist of alternate catabolic pathways for unique nutrient sources. The GEMs were then used to systematically analyze growth capabilities in more than 650 different growth-supporting environments. The results show that unique strain-specific metabolic capabilities correspond to pathotypes and environmental niches. Twelve of the GEMs were used to predict growth on six differentiating nutrients, and the predictions were found to agree with 80% of experimental outcomes. Additionally, GEMs were used to predict strain-specific auxotrophies. Twelve of the strains modeled were predicted to be auxotrophic for vitamins niacin (vitamin B3), thiamin (vitamin B1), or folate (vitamin B9). Six of the strains modeled have lost biosynthetic pathways for essential amino acids methionine, tryptophan, or leucine. Genome-scale analysis of multiple strains of a species can thus be used to define the metabolic essence of a microbial species and delineate growth differences that shed light on the adaptation process to a particular microenvironment.
Los significados de la reconciliación desde las voces de las víctimas

El articulo recoge desde el trabajo de investigacion para la paz, la manifestacion directa de comunidades afectadas por la violencia politica en Colombia y los aportes de analistas de experiencias internacionales de reconciliacion, sobre los significados de la reconciliacion desde las voces de las victimas. Plantea que la reconciliacion no puede seguir siendo considerada solo desde el Estado y los actores armados en procesos de negociacion de conflictos armados internos, sino que necesariamente debe consultar las voces de sus victimas como requisito in dis pensable para el cierre del ciclo de la violencia y la edificacion de las bases de una paz estable y duradera. Desde la perspectiva de las victimas de la violencia, la reconciliacion equivale a derecho a la verdad, superacion de la impunidad y reparacion integral.
Attacking the Bounds of Cognition

Recently internalists have mounted a counter-attack on the attempt to redefine the bounds of cognition. The counter-attack is aimed at a radical project which I call “cognitive integration,” which is the view that internal and external vehicles and processes are integrated into a whole. Cognitive integration can be defended against the internalist counter arguments of Adams and Aizawa (A&A) and Rupert. The disagreement between internalists and integrationists is whether the manipulation of external vehicles constitutes a cognitive process. Integrationists think that they do, typically for reasons to do with the close coordination and causal interplay between internal and external processes. The internalist criticisms of the manipulation thesis fail because they misconstrue the nature of manipulation, ignore the hybrid nature of cognition, and take the manipulation thesis to be dependent upon a weak parity principle.
Customized Prediction of Short Length of Stay Following Elective Cardiac Surgery in Elderly Patients Using a Genetic Algorithm

Objective To develop a customized short LOS (<6 days) prediction model for geriatric patients receiving cardiac surgery, using local data and a computational feature selection algorithm. Design Utilization of a machine learning algorithm in a prospectively collected STS database consisting of patients who received cardiac surgery between January 2002 and June 2011. Setting Urban tertiary-care center. Participants Geriatric patients aged 70 years or older at the time of cardiac surgery. Interventions None. Measurements and Main Results Predefined morbidity and mortality events were collected from the STS database. 23 clinically relevant predictors were investigated for short LOS prediction with a genetic algorithm (GenAlg) in 1426 patients. Due to the absence of an STS model for their particular surgery type, STS risk scores were unavailable for 771 patients. STS prediction achieved an AUC of 0.629 while the GenAlg achieved AUCs of 0.573 (in those with STS scores) and 0.691 (in those without STS scores). Among the patients with STS scores, the GenAlg features significantly associated with shorter LOS were absence of congestive heart failure (CHF) (OR = 0.59, p = 0.04), aortic valve procedure (OR = 1.54, p = 0.04), and shorter cross clamp time (OR = 0.99, p = 0.004). In those without STS prediction, short LOS was significantly correlated with younger age (OR = 0.93, p < 0.001), absence of CHF (OR = 0.53, p = 0.007), no preoperative use of beta blockers (OR = 0.66, p = 0.03), and shorter cross clamp time (OR = 0.99, p < 0.001). Conclusion While the GenAlg-based models did not outperform STS prediction for patients with STS risk scores, our local-data-driven approach reliably predicted short LOS for cardiac surgery types that do not allow STS risk calculation. We advocate that each institution with sufficient observational data should build their own cardiac surgery risk models.
Simultaneous assay of activated platelet count and platelet‐activating capacity by P‐selectin detection using K2‐EDTA‐treated whole blood for antiplatelet agents

It is well recognized that examinations of activated platelets (aPLTs) and platelet‐activating capacity are very important to observe and prevent embolic diseases (events) such as ischemic stroke and myocardial infarction. Previously, we reported an appropriate measurement technique of aPLT for clinical assay. In this paper, we investigated stable conditions for measurement of activating capacity of platelets.
Reverse iontophoresis for noninvasive glucose monitoring: the internal standard concept.

Reverse iontophoresis is used by the GlucoWatch Biographer to noninvasively extract glucose across the skin, allowing a diabetic's glycemia to be evaluated every 10 min over several hours. However, before each use, the device must be calibrated with a blood sample assayed in the conventional way. The objective of this study was to identify an approach by which to avoid this invasive step. The dermal (anodal) side of porcine skin in vitro was bathed in buffered (pH 7.4) solutions containing glucose, at concentrations from 3 to 10 mM, and physiological levels of sodium chloride. Constant current was applied and the cathodal solution contacting the outer skin surface was analyzed periodically for the quantities of Na(+) and glucose extracted by "reverse" electromigration and electroosmosis, respectively. Although the extracted Na(+) flux was invariant, as expected, given the essentially fixed NaCl concentration present in the physiological system, the glucose samples reflected proportionately the subdermal concentration. Equally, the extracted flux ratio (glucose/sodium) varied linearly with the subdermal glucose/sodium concentration ratio; knowing the gradient of this correlation, therefore, means that a measurement of the extraction flux ratio can be used to determine the subdermal glucose concentration (the physiological [Na(+)] being known and fixed). Thus, a refinement of the reverse iontophoresis technology using the simultaneous determination of the extracted fluxes of the analyte of interest (glucose) and of an "internal standard", whose level in the biological system is invariant (Na(+)), may permit a noninvasive sampling methodology free of the need for calibration with a blood sample.
Circuit topology for synchronizing neurons in spontaneously active networks

Spike synchronization underlies information processing and storage in the brain. But how can neurons synchronize in a noisy network? By exploiting a high-speed (500–2,000 fps) multineuron imaging technique and a large-scale synapse mapping method, we directly compared spontaneous activity patterns and anatomical connectivity in hippocampal CA3 networks ex vivo. As compared to unconnected pairs, synaptically coupled neurons shared more common presynaptic neurons, received more correlated excitatory synaptic inputs, and emitted synchronized spikes with approximately 107 times higher probability. Importantly, common presynaptic parents per se synchronized more than unshared upstream neurons. Consistent with this, dynamic-clamp stimulation revealed that common inputs alone could not account for the realistic degree of synchronization unless presynaptic spikes synchronized among common parents. On a macroscopic scale, network activity was coordinated by a power-law scaling of synchronization, which engaged varying sets of densely interwired (thus highly synchronized) neuron groups. Thus, locally coherent activity converges on specific cell assemblies, thereby yielding complex ensemble dynamics. These segmentally synchronized pulse packets may serve as information modules that flow in associatively parallel network channels.
Caveman Politics: Evolutionary Leadership Preferences and Physical Stature†

Objective Following evolutionary psychology, we argue that physical stature matters in preferences regarding political leadership. Particularly, a preference for physically formidable leaders evolved to promote survivability in the violent human ancestral history. Methods We present two studies of original data to assess individual attitudes regarding the association between physical stature and political leadership. Analytical methods include ordered probit regression. Results The findings are consistent with the evolutionary theory presented here. Study 1 indicates that individuals tend to prefer leaders with greater physical stature, while Study 2 indicates that males with greater physical stature are more likely to think of themselves as qualified to be a leader and, through this increased sense of efficacy, they are more likely to demonstrate interest in pursuing a leadership position. Conclusion Consistent with emerging evidence from other research perspectives, political behavior, in this case preferences regarding political leadership, is shaped by both environmental and evolutionary forces.
Product global reach, advertising standardization, and cultural values: an analysis of 2008 Beijing Olympic TV commercials

This study examined the influence of the global reach of the product, multinational vs. domestic, on the degree of standardization of and the use of advertising values in 2008 Beijing Olympic commercials telecasted in China. This study is the first to examine systematically advertising standardization and values within one country in a mega-sporting event context. Overall, the study revealed that multinational product advertisements are more likely to be standardized, and more likely to portray Western-oriented values in their advertisements compared to domestic product advertisements. These findings indicate the importance of considering the global reach of the product in advertising to meet the expectations of the customers, especially during international sporting events such as Olympic Games.
k-means Requires Exponentially Many Iterations Even in the Plane

The k-means algorithm is a well-known method for partitioning n points that lie in the d-dimensional space into k clusters. Its main features are simplicity and speed in practice. Theoretically, however, the best known upper bound on its running time (i.e., nO(kd)) is, in general, exponential in the number of points (when kd=Ω(n/log n)). Recently Arthur and Vassilvitskii (Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Symposium on Computational Geometry, pp. 144–153, 2006) showed a super-polynomial worst-case analysis, improving the best known lower bound from Ω(n) to $2^{\varOmega (\sqrt{n})}$ with a construction in $d=\varOmega (\sqrt{n})$ dimensions. In Arthur and Vassilvitskii (Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Symposium on Computational Geometry, pp. 144–153, 2006), they also conjectured the existence of super-polynomial lower bounds for any d≥2.Our contribution is twofold: we prove this conjecture and we improve the lower bound, by presenting a simple construction in the plane that leads to the exponential lower bound 2Ω(n).
Book Reviews: Bringing College Within Reach: Critical Intervenors in the Schooling of the Poor

C born into poverty lead lives very different from their middle class and affluent counterparts. Although poor schoolchildren possess the talent necessary to improve their life chances, the circumstances created by poverty often overwhelm them and level their aspirations. For many children and their families, poverty is both intractable and virtually inescapable. Avenues for social mobility that were open a generation ago such as semiskilled manual jobs in industry and self-employment no longer provide reliable escape routes out of poverty. Moreover, when manual labor did lead to economic subsistence in past decades, prosperity was typically enjoyed by the second generation—the children of the laborers—at the expense of the workers themselves. Fathers and mothers during this period who wanted their children to have the opportunity to lead lives much less bleak than their own sacrificed a great deal, and while instilling their work ethic in their children, extolled the values of advanced schooling. Thus, for many American families, a "good education" represented the best chance of breaking the cycle of poverty.
Anatomy, Biology and Biomechanics of Patellar Tendon Autograft Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction

Summary: Autologous bone-patellar tendon-bone autograft is a common choice for anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction and from both biologic and biomechanical perspectives is well-suited for this purpose. A centrally harvested, 10 mm wide patellar tendon graft has an estimated initial load-to-failure of 2977 N, and interference screw fixation of associated bone blocks provides initial pull-out strength as high as 640 N. After reconstruction, both intraarticular and extraarticular portions of the graft experience significant changes. The intraarticular portion of the graft undergoes a prolonged histologic, morphologic, and structural evolution known as ligamentization. The extraarticular portion of the graft becomes rapidly incorporated into surrounding bone tunnels over the weeks after implantation. The use of biologics to accelerate this process holds promise. This review summarizes relevant data regarding the anatomy, biology, and biomechanics of the anterior cruciate ligament, patellar tendon, and anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction with autogenous bone-patellar tendon-bone graft.
The cis‐pro touch‐turn: A rare motif preferred at functional sites

A new motif of three‐dimensional (3D) protein structure is described, called the cis‐Pro touch‐turn. In this four‐residue, three‐peptide motif, the central peptide is cis. Residue 2, which precedes the proline, has ϕ, ψ values either in the “prePro region” of the Ramachandran plot near −130°, 75° or in the Lα region near +60°, +60°. The Cα(1)–Cα(4) distance is 4–5 Å and the two flanking peptides lie parallel to one another, making van der Waals contact rather than a hydrogen bond. Apparently, this arrangement is locally unfavorable and therefore rare, usually occurring only if needed for biological function. Of the 12 examples in a 500‐protein database, cis‐Pro touch‐turns are found at the catalytic sites of pectate lyase, Ni‐Fe hydrogenase, glucoamylase, xylanase, and opine dehydrogenase and at the primary binding sites of ribonuclease H, type I DNA polymerase, ribotoxin, and phage gene 3 protein. In each of these protein families, the touch‐turns serve different roles; their functional importance is supported by conservation and mutagenesis data. In analyzing the conservation patterns of these 3D motifs, new methods for in‐depth quality evaluation of the structural bioinformatic data are employed to distinguish between significant exceptions and errors. Proteins 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Torre de Hanói: proposta de utilização do instrumento para sujeitos de 13 a 16 anos

This study proposes a standard application and normative data of Tower of Hanoi (ToH) for Brazilian population. 60 students, age 13 to 16, had participated. They did made trials with 3 and 4 pieces, 5 times each one. The results indicated that it had been learning effect, with the increase of number of movements and time. On the first trial with 4 pieces, it had been a time and movement increase, which was decreasing with the trials, suggesting that repeated application of ToH automatizes the response, and also requires planning, shifting and of new solution searching.
Interactive Video Segmentation via Local Appearance Model

In numerous video segmentation algorithms, shape and color priors from previous frames are propagated to successive frames for processing. One prime issue of the existing algorithms is how priors are modeled and propagated effectively. This paper proposes a novel algorithm for accurate and robust foreground prediction via a local appearance model based on shape and color. In the shape estimation process, instead of performing global matching, a local search mechanism is developed to capture complex motions. In addition, global information is used to facilitate local matching for the final shape estimation. Color cues from multiple frames are used to estimate the foreground (background) pixel distribution in the current image. Furthermore, the contribution of each frame is weighted based on its reliability and discriminative strength. Based on the proposed local appearance model, a graph cut algorithm is used to generate segmentation results. The experimental results show that accurate video segmentation can be obtained by the proposed algorithm with fewer user interactions.
Nanorobots, NEMS, and nanoassembly

Nanorobotics encompasses the design, fabrication, and programming of robots with overall dimensions below a few micrometers, and the programmable assembly of nanoscale objects. Nanorobots are quintessential nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) and raise all the important issues that must be addressed in NEMS design: sensing, actuation, control, communications, power, and interfacing across spatial scales and between the organic/inorganic and biotic/abiotic realms. Nanorobots are expected to have revolutionary applications in such areas as environmental monitoring and health care. This paper begins by discussing nanorobot construction, which is still at an embryonic stage. The emphasis is on nanomachines, an area which has seen a spate of rapid progress over the last few years. Nanoactuators will be essential components of future NEMS. The paper's focus then changes to nanoassembly by manipulation with scanning probe microscopes (SPMs), which is a relatively well established process for prototyping nanosystems. Prototyping of nanodevices and systems is important for design validation, parameter optimization and sensitivity studies. Nanomanipulation also has applications in repair and modification of nanostructures built by other means. High-throughput SPM manipulation may be achieved by using multitip arrays. Experimental results are presented which show that interactive SPM manipulation can be used to accurately and reliably position molecular-sized components. These can then be linked by chemical or physical means to form subassemblies, which in turn can be further manipulated. Applications in building wires, single-electron transistors, and nanowaveguides are presented.