Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A User Centric Visual Analytics Framework for News Discussions

Visual Analytics has achieved a lot of attention for its abilities to support exploratory knowledge discovery in large data sets. In this work-in-progress paper, we develop a Visual Analytics framework for user comments in the domain of online journalism. First, we examine how journalists’ needs can be mapped to a visual interactive interface to make sense of user comments. We further investigate how different classes of Machine Learning algorithms like supervised and unsupervised learning can be integrated into Visual Analytics to enable a more user centric analysis. Due to the variety of Machine Learning approaches, we expect that different forms of integration will be needed. Our goal is to place the domain experts (e.g. journalists) in the loop to improve analytical reasoning.
Effect of therapeutic ultrasound intensity on subcutaneous tissue temperature and ulnar nerve conduction velocity.

: Twenty subjects completed 5 min. periods of sonation, at each of six US intensities, over the ulnar nerve in the proximal forearm. All posttreatment NCV's differed significantly from the respective pretreatment velocities. The immediate posttreatment NCV associated with placebo US was significantly (p less than 0.01) less than that observed immediately pretreatment (2.81 m/s), while the five clinical US intensities produced significantly increased immediate posttreatment velocities: 0.5 w/cm2 (2.23 m/s) at (p less than 0.05), and 1.0 w/cm2 (2.78 m/s), 1.5 w/cm2 (3.15 m/s), 2.0 w/cm2 (4.47 m/s) and 2.5 w/cm2 (2.97 m/s) at (p less than 0.01). The posttreatment velocities associated with the five clinical intensities were all significantly greater (p less than 0.01) than that associated with placebo US. Subcutaneous tissue temperatures were directly related to the intensity of US. Not until US intensity had reached 1.5 w/cm2 did the heating effect of US negate the cooling effect of the US transmission gel, to produce significantly increased subcutaneous tissue temperatures after 5 min. sonation. The decreased ulnar motor NCV's associated with placebo US are attributed to the cooling effect of the US transmission gel. The increased ulnar motor NCV's associated with the clinical intensities of US are attributed to the deep heating effect of US. The breakdown of this linear relationship at 2.5 w/cm2 intensity suggests that at this point heating on the nerve and/or the mechanical effects of US were of sufficient magnitude so as to limit the increase in conduction velocity. Sonation over an area of approximately 4.5 times the soundhead for 5 min., along the proximal forearm, at clinical intensities did not have a bipositive effect on motor NCV.
Incentive Contract Design for the Water-Rail-Road Intermodal Transportation with Travel Time Uncertainty: A Stackelberg Game Approach

In the management of intermodal transportation, incentive contract design problem has significant impacts on the benefit of a multimodal transport operator (MTO). In this paper, we analyze a typical water-rail-road (WRR) intermodal transportation that is composed of three serial transportation stages: water, rail and road. In particular, the entire transportation process is planned, organized, and funded by an MTO that outsources the transportation task at each stage to independent carriers (subcontracts). Due to the variability of transportation conditions, the travel time of each transportation stage depending on the respective carrier’s effort level is unknown (asymmetric information) and characterized as an uncertain variable via the experts’ estimations. Considering the decentralized decision-making process, we interpret the incentive contract design problem for the WRR intermodal transportation as a Stackelberg game in which the risk-neutral MTO serves as the leader and the risk-averse carriers serve as the followers. Within the framework of uncertainty theory, we formulate an uncertain bi-level programming model for the incentive contract design problem under expectation and entropy decision criteria. Subsequently, we provide the analytical results of the proposed model and analyze the optimal time-based incentive contracts by developing a hybrid solution method which combines a decomposition approach and an iterative algorithm. Finally, we give a simulation example to investigate the impact of asymmetric information on the optimal time-based incentive contracts and to identify the value of information for WRR intermodal transportation.
Trajectoires addictives et vécu homosexuel

Problematique et objectifLes hommes gais et bisexuels consomment davantage de drogues que leurs pairs heterosexuels. Cependant, peu d’etudes ont analyse les liens entre l’ensemble des dimensions du vecu homosexuel et la consommation problematique de drogues. L’objectif de cette etude est de decrire et de comprendre les interrelations entre certaines dimensions du vecu homosexuel et les trajectoires de consommation de substances psychoactives (SPA) chez les hommes gais et bisexuels.MethodologieUne etude qualitative reposant sur une perspective interactionniste symbolique a ete effectuee. Des entrevues semi-dirigees ont ete menees aupres de 35 hommes gais/bisexuels, ayant une consommation problematique de SPA, âges de 18 ans et plus, nes au Canada et habitant le grand Montreal. Une analyse thematique a ete effectuee.ResultatsLes trajectoires addictives et le vecu homosexuel chez les hommes gais et bisexuels s’entrecroisent a differents moments. En effet, les difficultes relatives a l’acceptation de l’orientation sexuelle, le rejet et la stigmatisation, la rencontre des pairs, les relations affectives et sexuelles et la socialisation dans le milieu gai modulent, de facon bidirectionnelle, l’initiation a la consommation de substances ainsi que les variations de celle-ci.DiscussionLes resultats montrent la necessite de favoriser un environnement social favorable au developpement de l’identite relative a l’orientation sexuelle. En termes de prevention de la consommation problematique de SPA et de la prise en charge des personnes vivant ces problemes, il est necessaire d’integrer les differentes dimensions du vecu homosexuel.
a human–robot interaction testbed to study linguistic features of speech

In this paper we present a novel dual robot testbed called DualKeepon for carrying out pairwise comparisons of linguistic features of speech in human-robot interactions. Our solution, using a modiﬁed version of the MyKeepon robotic toy developed by Beat-bots, is a portable open-source system for researchers to set up experiments quickly, and in an intuitive way. We provide an online tutorial with all required materials to replicate the system. We present two human-robot interaction studies to demonstrate the testbed. The ﬁrst study investigates the perception of robots using ﬁlled pauses. The second study investigates how social roles, realized by diﬀerent prosodic and lexical speaking proﬁles, aﬀect trust. Results show that the proposed testbed is a helpful tool for linguistic studies. In addition to the basic setup, advanced users of the system have the ability to connect the system to diﬀerent robot platforms i.e. NAO, Pepper.
The Future of Madre de Dios

Madre de Dios in Peru is one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth, and it is a central piece for connecting protected areas within the Vilcabamba–Amboro Conservation Corridor. As revealed with satellite imagery, the exceptional landscape of Madre de Dios is threatened by unplanned development along the Interoceanic Highway, which bisects the region from north to south. Land-use changes in the last 25 years have reduced landscape connectivity and degraded the ecosystem services on which Madre de Dios’s inhabitants rely. The Smithsonian Center for Conservation and Sustainability developed a new tool to help Madre de Dios’s stakeholders define a common vision for the future of their region: the Smithsonian Working Landscape Simulator. The Future of Madre de Dios presents the framework and implementation of this participatory, holistic, and quantitative tool. The study contemplates four scenarios of future changes for the region: current trends, expansion of alluvial gold mining, land planning, and landscape conservation. The land-cover changes expected under each scenario until 2040 are modelled, and the resulting landscapes are evaluated for 15 indicators of success, covering economic prosperity, human well-being, and environmental integrity. This book illustrates the results from these analyses and presents recommendations that will contribute to the promotion of sustainable development in Madre de Dios.
Il rischio cardiovascolare nel paziente con trapianto renale

Il trapianto renale migliora sia la quantita che la qua-lita di vita del paziente con malattie renali. Tuttavia ilrischio cardiovascolare (CV) dopo il trapianto renalerimane alto. E da verificare se un controllo ottimale dellaPressione Arteriosa e del Colesterolo, insieme a una tera-pia immunosoppressiva quanto piu personalizzata, riduca-no gli eventi CV. Rimane ancora da studiare il ruolo deifattori di rischio emergenti.
Dispositivo Não Invasivo para Monitoramento do Ambiente do Sono

Os distúrbios do sono são problemas recorrentes na sociedade e tem ganhado atenção nos últimos anos, sobretudo quando consideradas as mudanças impostas pelas Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação (TIC) por permitirem o desenvolvimento de soluções direcionadas à avaliação do sono. Esses distúrbios geralmente estão associados à alguma condição clı́nica e ge- ralmente o diagnóstico é obtido por meio da da polissonografia laboratorial, no entanto, essa é uma técnica dispendiosa e que pode ser inconveniente aos pacientes. Diante disso, vale destacar a importância do ambiente do sono no contexto do diagnóstico, já que as variáveis associadas a ele desempenham um importante papel na qualidade do sono. Nesse sentido, apresenta-se neste ar- tigo, o desenvolvimento de um dispositivo não invasivo e de baixo custo para monitoramento do ambiente de sono, concebido sob o Design Science Research Methodology, com objetivo de auxiliar no tratamento dos distúrbios do sono.
Learned Spatio-Temporal Texture Descriptors for RGB-D Human Action Recognition

Due to the recent arrival of Kinect, action recognition with depth images has attracted researchers’ wide attentions and various descriptors have been proposed, where Local Binary Patterns (LBP) texture descriptors possess the properties of appearance invariance. However, the LBP and its variants are most artiﬁcially-designed, demanding engineers’ strong prior knowledge and not discriminative enough for recognition tasks. To this end, this paper develops compact spatio-temporal texture descriptors, i.e. 3D-compact LBP(3D-CLBP) and local depth patterns (3D-CLDP), for color and depth videos in the light of compact binary face descriptor learning in face recognition. Extensive experiments performed on three standard datasets, 3D Online Action, MSR Action Pairs and MSR Daily Activity 3D, demonstrate that our method is superior to most comparative methods in respects of performance and can capture spatial-temporal texture cues in videos.
Experience with Cinacalcet for Secondary Hyperparathyroidism in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease Stage III and IV

Dysequilibrium in calcium and phosphate metabolism with development of secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPT) is common in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) stage III and IV. Dietary phosphate restrictions and calcium based oral phosphate binders have not been effective in all subjects with SHPT, and soft tissue and vascular calcifications with an increased risk of cardiovascular death related are known consequences. Treatment with the calcimimetic Cinacalcet (Cc) has contributed to a better calcium and phosphate control in patients given hemodialysis treatment. In this retrospective study we present our experience with Cc given to ten (one year) or five (two years) patients with CKD stage III and IV and SHPT not suitable for surgery. With conventional therapy target levels of intact parathyroid hormon (iPTH) are seldomly reached the reason why an iPTH value < 300 ng/l was considered acceptable. Levels of iPTH decreased significantly after 3 months of Cc treatment and remained at the lower level. Plasma ionized-Ca (Ca) concentrations decreased initially but remained above 1.00 mmol/l in all but one patient. Phophate (P) levels increased to 1.41 ± 0.09 mmol/l (mean ± SE) leaving the Ca × P product unchanged. While patients with high iPTH needed high Cc doses up to 90 mg/day, some of the patients required very low doses 4.5–20 mg/day in order to achieve a decrease in iPTH levels. Only one patient reported gastric pain needing dose reduction and other adverse effects were not found. No changes in QT-time were observed. We experienced that Cc treatment was promising to control SHPT and stabilized the Ca-P balance in patients with CKD stage III and IV. Dosing may be challenging and laboratory values should be controlled often (monthly) as these patients may have variable response to Cc treatment. Due to the minimal knowledge about its effect on morbidity and mortality in the predialytic population further controlled studies are needed to confirm its efficacy and safety.
The Complexities of Care: Nursing Reconsidered

Sioban Nelson and Suzanne Gordon have put together a collection of articles about the triumphs and challenges of nursing in the early 21st century entitled The complexities of care: Nursing reconsidered. Its contributions are drawn from Australia, the UK and the USA; yet, as they say, the problems in nursing and health care that are discussed are likely to be all too familiar, throughout the industrialized world. The book’s focus is on nursing discourses and their powerful impact on nurses and nursing – the collection develops an account of nurses being drawn into representations of themselves and their work that eventually misled them, undermining the resources nursing can command, and undermining nurses’ capacities and confi dence, too. This analysis is long overdue. This is a very good book, and I will set out here only a few of the reasons that I think so. First, and probably most importantly, it is a ‘good read’, very accessible and engaging. Writing for nurses, as this book commendably does, requires this immediate appeal; I’d say that this book has got just right the mix of everyday and scholarly language, for instance. The contributors speak with the authority of having ‘been there’ where nurses are, and that, too, will be very appealing to nurse readers. Although not all the authors are nurses, their positioning in relation to health care and nursing makes what they have to say entirely persuasive. However, what commands my own attention and wins my admiration is that this book takes a really courageous stance in addressing topics that nurses have held to be too sacred to challenge. Reading Chapter 3 almost takes my breath away: it tells the painful story of an editor of the American Journal of Nursing being ‘harangued, debased and threatened’ by nurse readers; a torrent of mail and abuse was unleashed on her for publishing a poem that disturbed the imaginary of the angelic nurse. Nelson and Gordon offer a challenge to health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine Copyright © 2009 SAGE Publications (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC) DOI: 10.1177/1363459308099687 Vol 13(2): 255 –268
Opioid receptor imaging in man

The existence of opioid receptors (OR) had long been suspected, but their demonstration in nervous tissue and the discovery of their natural ligands did not come until the 1970’s. By 1985, the study of brain OR was possible in vivo using Positron Emission Tomography (PET), thanks to technical advances in imaging and radiochemistry. Since then, multiple PET studies contributed to clarify the physiology and pathology of human endogenous opioid system in several conditions and pathologies. Thus, activation studies in tonic experimental pain have demonstrated opioid system activation in multiple opioid receptor bearing sites such as the amygdala, the ventrolateral thalamus, the insular cortex and hypothalamus, the anterior cingulate gyrus and the prefrontal cortex. Such activation is negatively correlated with the intensity of pain perception. Activation studies have also demonstrated sex-dependent and COMT (cathecol-O-methyltransferase)-dependent differences in the magnitude and direction of the activation of endogenous opioid systems. Endogenous opioid secretion is very likely to occur as a reaction to acute or chronic nociceptive pain, and PET studies have demonstrated a decrease in the J. Maarrawi (*) · L. Garcia-Larrea (*) Inserm U879, integration centrale de la douleur chez l’homme, 59, boulevard Pinel, F-69003 Lyon, France e-mail : joseph.maarrawi@usj.edu. lb, Luis.Larrea@univ-lyon1.fr J. Maarrawi Laboratoire de physiologie (neurosciences), universite Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth, BP 1107, 2180 Beyrouth, Liban Douleur analg. (2009) 22:248-260 DOI 10.1007/s11724-009-0167-y
Purging e alte dosi di chemioterapia con reinfusione di cellule staminali autologhe in linfomi non Hodgkin follicolari resistenti/refrattari

In the era of monoclonal antibodies the role of autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) in the management of follicular lymphoma (FL) is still debated. To evaluate the safety and efficacy of myeloablative therapy with rescue of purged or unpurged harvests in FL pts. At our institution form 1997 to 2007 28 pts with refractory/resistant FL were eligible for ASCT. Before high dose therapy they received 2-3 cycles of CHOP-like regimen (ACOD), followed by Cyclophosphamide 4g/mq to mobilize the stem cells (SC). After SC collection the pts underwent 3 cycles of subcutaneous Cladribine at a daily dose of 0,14-0,10 mg/Kg for Day 1-5 every 3-4 weeks. The conditioning regimen was based on Mitoxantrone 60mg/mq + Melphalan 180 mg/mq, followed by SC re-infusion 24-hours later and G-CSF starting 24 hours after re-infusion. In 19 pts the SC underwent purging: in 10 harvests the CD34+ were selected by immunomagnetic beads, while in the other 9 pts, only Rituximab was used as “purging in vivo” agent. The remaining 9 pts received unpurged SC. Before ASCT 11 pts were in complete response (CR), 9 in partial response (PR) and 2 in stable disease. Two pts were not eligible for ASCT because of progressive disease (PD). The remaining 25 pts were eligible for ASCT. The engraftment was at a median of 11 days for leucocytes and 14 days for platelets (>20.000/mmc), with a delay of one day in the pts, who received purged SC. Grade 3-4 mucositis was described in 8 pts. During aplasia a 48% infection rate was reported, without differences between pts with purged or unpurged SC. One patient in CR presented myelodysplastic syndrome at 18 months from ASCT. After ASCT 22 pts were in CR, 2 in PR and one patient were not valuable, because died before response assessment. Nine pts in CR showed PD at a median time of 14 months from ASCT. With a median follow up of 5 years (range 2 months -10 years), 22 pts are alive and 11 (44%) in CR. Ten pts died, 5 for progressive disease and 5 for treatment-related causes; in particular 7 of them received in-vitro purged SC. Conclusions: Our chemotherapy regimen, which included the purine analogue Cladribine in the induction phase, seems safe and feasible. The high rate of CR reported and the sustained freedom from progression up to now, makes such modality of treatment a valid option principally in relapsing FL patients. In our experience, the addition of a monoclonal antibody as part of treatment confirms its role “in vivo purging” without observing an increased incidence of infection.
Progestogens for Prevention of Preterm Birth

Review Form First Author, Year: ____________________________ Endnote Reference ID #: __________ Abstractor Initials: ___ ___ ___or Initials: ___ ___ ___ Primary Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria 1. Original research (exclude reviews, editorials, commentaries, letters to editor, etc.) Yes No Cannot Determine 2. Study size ≥ 20 pregnant women Record N if study size < 20 subjects enrolled: ____ Yes No Cannot
Mentoring and Leadership Development in the Officer Corps of the United States Air Force

Abstract : Mentoring is a relatively long-term relationship between an older and a younger adult where the senior member of the relationship plays a major role in shaping and molding the younger member in his or her professional career. Previous research in the private sector indicated that a majority of the senior executives of major United States corporations had mentors who helped them in their careers. This research surveyed the students at College to determine the prevalence of mentoring among high potential officers in the Air Force and to determine the effects of mentoring on them. This investigation found that approximately half of the respondents had experienced the mentoring phenomenon and that those who had mentors were, on average, slightly better educated than their unmentored counterparts. Mentored officers were also more likely to be promoted ahead of their contemporaries, were more highly satisfied with their career progress, and were more satisfied with their jobs. Significantly, mentoring appears to be an informal leadership development tool which is prevalent to the same degree in every major command. The most important roles played by the mentor, in the eyes of the protege, are those of role model and teacher. On the other hand, a significant percentage of the survey respondents who did not have mentors perceived mentoring as a being primarily a vehicle by which an officer receives a 'free ride' to the top, sponsored and protected by the mentor.
A Method for Detecting Dynamic Mutation of Complex Systems Using Improved Information Entropy

In this study, a nonlinear analysis method called improved information entropy (IIE) is proposed on the basis of constructing a special probability mass function for the normalized analysis of Shannon entropy for a time series. The definition is directly applied to several typical time series, and the characteristic of IIE is analyzed. This method can distinguish different kinds of signals and reflects the complexity of one-dimensional time series of high sensitivity to the changes in signal. Thus, the method is applied to the fault diagnosis of a rolling bearing. Experimental results show that the method can effectively extract the sensitive characteristics of the bearing running state and has fast operation time and minimal parameter requirements.
Understanding the challenges of English Language Learners and increasing college-going culture: Suggestions for school counselors

English language learners (ELLs) represent a growing population in the U.S. K– 12 system. Research has shown that these students face many challenges that affect their trajectory to college. The challenges include, but are not limited to, issues related to academics, socioeconomic status, parental involvement, and socio-emotional strains. This article explores the many obstacles ELLs face that affect their college/career access and attainment and provides suggestions for school counselors working with ELLs to increase their college-going culture.
Relationship of hunger, use of a shopping list and obesity to food purchases.

: Shopping with a list and shopping after a meal are two commonly employed behavioral weight loss guidelines designed to reduce food purchases and therefore food consumption. A survey of 596 female shoppers, which analyzed purchases on the basis of caloric value, failed to support either of these guidelines. Analysis of kilocalories (kcal) purchased indicated that overweight shoppers purchased more total kcal, with a greater percentage of their kcal coming from fat and correspondingly lower percentage of kcal coming from carbohydrates.