Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of Abnormal Synergy Patterns Poststroke: Relationship of the Fugl-Meyer Assessment to Hemiparetic Locomotion

Background. Assessment of poststroke motor impairment has historically focused on the ability to move within and outside of abnormal synergistic motor patterns and is typically quantified by the Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA). However, it is unclear if the voluntary, isolated movement tasks of the FMA are appropriate for evaluating walking task-specific motor control requirements because walking is cyclical and involves considerable sensorimotor integration. Objective. The purpose of this study is to test whether the motor impairment measured by the FMA is indicative of motor dysfunction during walking in poststroke adults. Methods. Thirty-four individuals with chronic poststroke hemiparesis and 17 healthy controls walked for 60 seconds on an instrumented treadmill while recording electromyographic activity (EMG) from 8 lower extremity muscles. EMG recordings were also obtained during the FMA for those with hemiparesis to examine muscle activation patterns. Each participant was examined with a battery of walking-specific clinical and biomechanical assessment tools and stratified based on the FMA synergy (FMS) score. To further quantify muscle activation patterns during walking, a nonnegative matrix factorization (NNMF) determined the number of independent modules required to describe 90% of the total variance in the EMG patterns. Results. Stratification poorly differentiated motor activation across FMA tasks as well as EMG patterns during walking. While FMS correlated with 2 of 6 walking assessments, the number of EMG modules significantly correlated with all 6 walking performance measures. Conclusions. Voluntary, discrete activities as performed in the FMA may be inadequate to capture the complex motor behavior in walking. Conversely, walking-specific evaluations such as NNMF appear more appropriate.
STRATEGIC PLANNING, MACRO-ENVIRONMENTAL FORCES AND PERFORMANCE OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS IN NIGERIA

This study examines the influence of macro-environmental forces on the relationship between strategic planning and performance of non-governmental organizations in Nigeria. Nigeria is featured amongst the 10 countries with the highest number of INGOs (Murdie & Kakietek, 2012). The primary motivation for this study therefore is predicated by the face validity and the notable absence of similar research in Nigeria, regarding the relationships between strategic planning, micro-environmental forces and performance of the numerous NGOs in an otherwise complex and dynamic environment. This study is premised upon the resource based view (RBV) theory, the dynamic capabilities theory and the design school. The specific research objectives were to determine the relationship between strategic planning and performance of the NGOs in Nigeria and the influence of the macro-environment on this relationship. The research philosophy in this study was based upon the fundamental positivism approach. A proportionate stratified random sampling technique based on the Zikmund formula was used and yielded a final sample size of 70 (to cater for the anticipated non-response level) from a population frame of 667 NGOs (Dillman, 2000). A web-based survey questionnaire approach (Qualtrics) was administered and duly completed by the respondents with a 68.57% response rate. Descriptive statistics, correlation and parametric statistical (simple linear and multiple regression) techniques were used to systematically analyze the data. The influence of strategic planning on organization performance was statistically significant (R2=0.264, F=16.504, β= 0.504, t= 4.126, p<0.05). The macro-environmental forces in this study exist as a moderating factor. The findings of this study have a number of implications for theory, practice and policy. This study addresses a previously existing gap by examining the NGO sector in Nigeria and contributes immensely to the NGO realm regarding strategic planning and performance. Research has in the area of strategic planning, largely concentrated in developed countries, and this is an epic examination with no previous study traced, that makes a distinct focus on the NGOs in Nigeria. Despite the study limitations encountered, the quality of the study was not compromised. This study considered only NGOs and it is recommended that future researchers should consider carrying out similar studies using different performance measures under different economic sectors to assess any response variations or engage an expanded sample size or study a specific core-sector of the NGOs in Nigeria.
“Infectious Supercarelessness” in Discussing Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

Many bacterial pathogens are exhibiting resistance to increasing numbers of antibiotics making it much more challenging to treat the infections caused by these microbes. In many reports in the media and perhaps even in discussions among physicians and biomedical scientists, these bacteria are frequently referred to as “bugs” with the prefix “super” appended. This terminology has a high potential to elicit unjustified inferences and fails to highlight the broader evolutionary context. Understanding the full range of biological and evolutionary factors that influence the spread and outcomes of infections is critical to formulating effective individual therapies and public health interventions. Therefore, more accurate terminology should be used to refer these multidrug-resistant bacteria.
Change in identity and self-concept: a new theoretical approach to recovery following a stroke

Objective: To determine whether respondents reported a change in identity following stroke. Design: A cross-sectional comparison study of perceived changes in the self-concept of stroke respondents and matched hospital volunteers. A questionnaire was administered to stroke respondents in their own homes and to hospital volunteers in their work setting. Participants: Twenty-six first-time stroke survivors who had no severe communication, cognitive or perceptual difficulties or previous physical disability, and who had returned home from hospital up to two years previously. The comparison group were 26 hospital volunteers matched for age, gender and the time from which past self-concept was considered. Main outcome measures: Included the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Frenchay Activity Index and the Head Injury Semantic Differential Scale to assess past and present self-concept. Results: Overall, individuals described themselves in more negative terms than prior to their stroke. They saw themselves as less interested, capable and independent, (p < 0.001) and less in control, satisfied and active (p < 0.05). They still saw themselves as friendly, calm, caring, hopeful and talkative. The overall self-concept of the comparison group remained positive and stable over a comparable time period. Conclusions: The stroke respondents reported a negative sense of self, reduced social activity and psychological morbidity despite inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation. Individuals following stroke may settle for a restricted future because of their expectations of life with a disability. Clinicians need to be aware of the meaning of the stroke within the life of each individual.
Unique versus Redundant Functions of Neuroligin Genes in Shaping Excitatory and Inhibitory Synapse Properties

Neuroligins are evolutionarily conserved postsynaptic cell adhesion molecules that interact with presynaptic neurexins. Neurons express multiple neuroligin isoforms that are targeted to specific synapses, but their synaptic functions and mechanistic redundancy are not completely understood. Overexpression or RNAi-mediated knockdown of neuroligins, respectively, causes a dramatic increase or decrease in synapse density, whereas genetic deletions of neuroligins impair synapse function with only minor effects on synapse numbers, raising fundamental questions about the overall physiological role of neuroligins. Here, we have systematically analyzed the effects of conditional genetic deletions of all major neuroligin isoforms (i.e., NL1, NL2, and NL3), either individually or in combinations, in cultured mouse hippocampal and cortical neurons. We found that conditional genetic deletions of neuroligins caused no change or only a small change in synapses numbers, but strongly impaired synapse function. This impairment was isoform specific, suggesting that neuroligins are not functionally redundant. Sparse neuroligin deletions produced phenotypes comparable to those of global deletions, indicating that neuroligins function in a cell-autonomous manner. Mechanistically, neuroligin deletions decreased the synaptic levels of neurotransmitter receptors and had no effect on presynaptic release probabilities. Overexpression of neuroligin-1 in control or neuroligin-deficient neurons increased synaptic transmission and synapse density but not spine numbers, suggesting that these effects reflect a gain-of-function mechanism; whereas overexpression of neuroligin-3, which, like neuroligin-1 is also targeted to excitatory synapses, had no comparable effect. Our data demonstrate that neuroligins are required for the physiological organization of neurotransmitter receptors in postsynaptic specializations and suggest that they do not play a major role in synapse formation. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Human neuroligin genes have been associated with autism, but the cellular functions of different neuroligins and their molecular mechanisms remain incompletely understood. Here, we performed comparative analyses in cultured mouse neurons of all major neuroligin isoforms, either individually or in combinations, using conditional knockouts. We found that neuroligin deletions did not affect synapse numbers but differentially impaired excitatory or inhibitory synaptic functions in an isoform-specific manner. These impairments were due, at least in part, to a decrease in synaptic distribution of neurotransmitter receptors upon deletion of neuroligins. Conversely, the overexpression of neuroligin-1 increased synapse numbers but not spine numbers. Our results suggest that various neuroligin isoforms perform unique postsynaptic functions in organizing synapses but are not essential for synapse formation or maintenance.
The relationship among concha bullosa, septal deviation and chronic rhinosinusitis Büllöz konka, septum deviasyonu ve kronik rinosinüzit aras›ndaki iliflki

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence and types of both concha bullosa and nasal septal deviation and determine their potential relationships with maxillary rhinosinusitis. Methods: Patients admitted to the outpatient clinic of the otorhinolaryngology department with symptoms of rhinosinusitis between January 2009 and April 2010, were retrospectively enrolled in the study. Paranasal sinus computed tomography scans were reviewed for the presence, side and type of concha bullosa, and nasal septal deviation along with rhinosinusitis. Results: Totally 162 patients (324 sides) were studied. Concha bullosa and nasal septal deviation incidences were 42.6% and 46.9%, respectively. The relationship between nasal septal deviation and the presence of concha bullosa was not statistically significant (p=0.06). A total of 45.1% of patients had evidence of maxillary rhinosinusitis. The involvement of the other sinuses was frontal in 28 (17.3%), ethmoid in 48 (29.6%) and sphenoid in 26 (16%) patients. When the location of sinus involvement was taken into consideration, the maxillary rhinosinusitis was more frequently involved in cases with concha bullosa (p=0.04). There was a relationship between right concha bullosa (p=0.013), left concha bullosa (p=0.034), presence of reverse curvature (p=0.043), obliteration of osteomeatal complex (p=0.0008) and rhinosinusitis. There was a relationship between the degree and type of concha bullosa and rhinosinusitis (p=0.030). Rhinosinusitis was detected more frequently (55.5%) in cases with extensive type concha bullosa. Conclusion: Concha bullosa is a frequently encountered variation and leads to susceptibility to rhinosinusitis. For this reason, preoperative and premedicative computed tomography scan is important for the sinus, especially extensive type concha bullosa.
Vers la conception des matériaux amortissants : une apporche micromécanique

Ce travail presente la modelisation du comportement amortissant macroscopique des materiaux composites viscoelastiques particulaires dans la domaine frequentielle quasi-statique a partir d une methode micromecanique auto-coherent (AC). Le travail de cette these a deux objectives principales. Le premier objective consiste de la derivation et developpement d une modele multi-echelle (micro macro) robuste du comportement dans la domaine quasi-statique. A cet effet le modele auto-coherent introduit par Cherkaoui et al [J. Eng. Mater. Technol. 116, 274-278 (1994)] est etendu au domaine quasi-statique grâce au principe de correspondance elastique viscoelastique et des considerations sur l energie de deformation. Le modele est generalise en appliquant une formulation par tenseurs de concentration des deformations diluees et valide par comparaison avec les donnees experimentales statiques et acoustiques bien que les modeles etablis. Notamment, une forte correspondance est observee entre les mesures acoustiques de l indice d affaiblissement acoustique et predictions employant le modele AC du a un polymere contenant des micro-inclusions enrobees submerge dans l eau. Le deuxieme objective de ce travail est une etude du modele AC comme utile dans une strategie de la conception des materiaux a forte absorption d energie acoustique. Le sujet est aborde avec une etude de cas du comportement amortissant d une structure multi-echelle en forme d une plaque sandwich sollicite en vibration. La modelisation consiste en une hierarchie des modeles. Les etudes parametriques sur le comportement a l echelle de la structure et d element structurelle rendre les informations importantes sur la conception des materiaux constituants des plaques sandwiches. Finalement, le travail emploie le modele AC afin de quantifier et discuter l influence les effets de la composition micro-structurelle des materiaux constituants sur le comportement structurelle de la plaque sandwiche. Pour conclure, les resultats importants et contributions des ce travail sont resumes et les perspectives sont presentes.
Surface plasmonwaveguide mode hybridization and lasing in sub-wavelength microdisks at 1.3µm

Hybridization of surface plasmon and waveguide modes, in sub-wavelength quantum well microdisks with a varying diameter top metal contact, is simulated and experimentally verified. Lasing is achieved in weakly hybridized optically pumped sub-wavelength disks at λ = 1. 3µm.
Contrasting perspectives – practitioner’s viewpoint on personalised marketing communication

The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into personalisation from a practitioner’s perspective to bridge the practitioner-academia gap and steer the research agenda. A wide scope of research has investigated personalisation from a consumer perspective. The current study aims at bridging the consumer and practitioner perspective by entering into a dialogue about the practical application of personalisation. It takes the personalisation process model by Vesanen and Raulas (2006) as the starting point. Lead by the exploratory character of the study, semi-structured expert interviews were conducted with marketers, market researchers and online privacy specialists. The results showcase how practitioners view the issues present in consumer research. First, they are overly positive about personalisation. Second, they are aware of constraining factors; findings showcase best practices to mitigate them. Finally, practitioners are aware of controversies surrounding personalisation and thus engage in ethical discussions on personalisation. This study shows that practitioners have somewhat different believes about the utility and appreciation of personalised marketing practices than consumers. It also shows awareness of some of the key concerns of consumers, and that such awareness translates into organisational and technological solutions that can even go beyond what is currently mandated by law. Six insights into personalised marketing as well as expectations for the future of the phenomenon are discussed to steer the research agenda. Insights into the practice of personalisation contribute to a shared understanding of this phenomenon between involved actors, such as marketers, advertisers, and consumer representatives. In addition, implications for lawmakers are discussed, suggesting that the implementation of privacy laws needs more clarity and that actions aiming at improving consumer knowledge are needed. The paper contributes to the literature first, by drafting a descriptive map of personalisation from a practitioners’ perspective and contrasting it with the perspective stemming from consumer research and, second, by offering insights into the current developments and direct implications for practice and future research.
A Reconfigurable Filtering Antenna With Integrated Bandpass Filters for UWB/WLAN Applications

This communication presents a new reconfigurable filtering monopole antenna design with three switchable states for UWB/WLAN applications. The antenna has three independent ports for ultra-wideband state, 2.4 GHz WLAN narrowband state, and 5.8 GHz WLAN narrowband state, respectively. The narrowband state at 2.4 GHz is produced by a first-order microstrip filter using an open-loop resonator, and the narrowband state around 5.8 GHz is obtained by involving a third-order hairpin bandpass filter in the RF path. Frequency reconfiguration is achieved by RF path selection using dc controlled p-i-n diodes. As a result, narrowband filtering responses at desired frequency bands can be achieved. One antenna prototype is simulated, fabricated, and measured. Measured reflection coefficients and radiation patterns demonstrate that the proposed reconfigurable filtering antenna is an eligible candidate for future multifunctional systems incorporating both UWB and WLAN systems.
Incremental parallel and distributed systems

Incremental computation strives for efficient successive runs of applications by reexecuting only those parts of the computation that are affected by a given input change instead of recomputing everything from scratch. To realize the benefits of incremental computation, researchers and practitioners are developing new systems where the application programmer can provide an efficient update mechanism for changing application data. Unfortunately, most of the existing solutions are limiting because they not only depart from existing programming models, but also require programmers to devise an incremental update mechanism (or a dynamic algorithm) on a per-application basis. In this thesis, we present incremental parallel and distributed systems that enable existing real-world applications to automatically benefit from efficient incremental updates. Our approach neither requires departure from current models of programming, nor the design and implementation of dynamic algorithms. To achieve these goals, we have designed and built the following incremental systems: (i) Incoop — a system for incremental MapReduce computation; (ii) Shredder — a GPU-accelerated system for incremental storage; (iii) Slider — a stream processing platform for incremental slidingwindow analytics; and (iv) iThreads — a threading library for parallel incremental computation. Our experience with these systems shows that significant performance can be achieved for existing applications without requiring any additional effort from programmers.
An intelligent Analysis of a City Crime Data Using Data Mining

There had been an enormous increase in the crime in the recent past. The concern about national security has increased significantly since the 26/11 attacks at Mumbai, India. However, information and technology overload hinders the effective analysis of criminal and terrorist activities. Crime deterrence has become an upheaval task. The cops in their role to catch criminals are required to remain convincingly ahead in the eternal race between law breakers and law enforcers. Data mining applied in the context of law enforcement and intelligence analysis holds the promise of alleviating such problem. In this paper we use a clustering/classify based model to anticipate crime trends. The data mining techniques are used to analyze the city crime data from Police Department. The results of this data mining could potentially be used to lessen and even prevent crime for the forth coming years.
N-Cadherin and Cx43α1 Gap Junctions Modulates Mouse Neural Crest Cell Motility via Distinct Pathways

Our previous studies showed an essential role for connexin 43 or α1 connexin (Cx43α1) gap junctions in the modulation of neural crest cell motility. Cx43α1 gap junctions and N-cadherin containing adherens junctions are expressed in migrating cardiac neural crest cells. Analysis of the N-cadherin knockout (KO) mouse model revealed that N-cadherin is essential for gap junction mediated dye coupling but not for expression of Cx43α1 gap junctions in neural crest cells. Time lapse videomicroscopy and motion analysis showed that the motility of N-cadherin KO neural crest cells were altered, but the motility changes differed compared to Cx43α1 KO neural crest cells. These observations suggest that the role of N-cadherin in cell motility is not simply mediated via the modulation of Cx43α1 mediated cell-cell communication. This was confirmed by a parallel analysis of wnt-1 deficient neural crest cells, which also showed a reduction in dye coupling, and yet no change in cell motility. Analysis of p 120 catenin (p 120ctn), an Amardillo family protein known to play a role in cell motility, showed that it is colocalized with N-cadherin and Cx43α1 in migrating neural crest cells. This subcellular distribution was altered in the N-cadherin and Cx43α1 KO neural crest cells. Given these results, we propose that N-cadherin and Cx43α1 may modulate neural crest cell motility by engaging in a dynamic cross-talk with the cell's locomotory apparatus through p120ctn signaling.
Characterization of benzimidazole and other oxidative and conjugative metabolites of brimonidine in vitro and in rats in vivo using on-line H/D exchange LC-MS/MS and stable-isotope tracer techniques

The characterization of brimonidine metabolites presents some challenges since brimonidine and its metabolites generate few structurally informative fragment ions in the LC-MS/MS spectra. The objective of the current study is to use on-line hydrogen/deuterium (H/D) exchange LC-MS/MS and stable-isotope tracer techniques to further characterize unknown brimonidine metabolites in vitro and in vivo. Brimonidine and D4-brimonidine were co-incubated in rat and human microsomes and rabbit aldehyde oxidase in vitro. In addition, the urine was collected from rats co-administered orally with brimonidine and D4-brimonidine. The hepatic microsomal and urinary metabolites were then characterized by H/D LC-MS/MS system. In addition to previously characterized 2-oxobrimonidine, 3-oxobrimonidine and 2,3-dioxobrimonidine, the results show that oxidation occurs at quinoxaline ring producing oxo-hydroxybrimonidine and hydroxyquinoxaline metabolites. The hydroxyquinoxaline metabolite was only observed in microsomal incubations with hydroxylation at the 7- or 8- position. The dehydro-hydroxybrimonidine metabolites were characterized as 2-oxo or 3-oxo -4′, 5′-dehydrobrimonidine. A novel metabolite ((4-bromo-1H-benzoimidazol-5-yl)-imidazolidin-2-ylidene-amine) of benzimidazole derivative of brimonidine in rats in vivo was identified and confirmed with reference standard. In conclusion, on-line H/D exchange LC-MS/MS and stable-isotope tracer techniques are useful for the characterization of brimonidine metabolites.