Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Factors Influencing Elementary and High-School Aged Cochlear Implant Users.

Teaching a child with a profound sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) of 90 dB HL or greater to use spoken communication as their primary mode of communication represents a significant clinical challenge. When profound SNHL occurs within the early years of life, children are deprived of critical auditory stimulation during time periods associated with substantial development of the neural architecture of the auditory system. Auditory system development appears to be associated not only with laying the foundation for processing speech signals to form language constructs but also with laying the foundation for producing speech signals that are understood by other listeners who interact with the speaker with a SNHL (Kent, Weismer, Kent, & Rosenbek, 1989; Tobey et al., 2000). Exactly how auditory feedback influences the development of intelligible speech in children with profound SNHL remains elusive in the detail of how it stimulates and refines spoken output—yet, the diminished or absent auditory information during early formative years results in a wide array of poor spoken outputs. Spoken outputs from children with profound SNHL range from utterances understood by familiar and unfamiliar listeners to communications enhanced by sign systems--such as Signing Exact English or Cued Speech--or languages such as American Sign Language (Tobey & Geers, 1995). The challenge of providing spoken communication to children with profound SNHL continues to command clinical attention since the majority of SNHL children have normal hearing families who desire their children to participate in their “family communities” (Geers & Brenner, 2003).
Privacy in context-aware mobile crowdsourcing systems

Mobile crowd-sourcing can become as a strategy to perform time-sensitive urban tasks (such as municipal monitoring and last mile logistics) by effectively coordinating smartphone users. The success of the mobile crowd-sourcing platform depends mainly on its effectiveness in engaging crowd-workers, and recent studies have shown that compared to the pull-based approach, which relies on crowd-workers to browse and commit to tasks they would want to perform, the push-based approach can take into consideration of worker's daily routine, and generate highly effective recommendations. As a result, workers waste less time on detours, plan more in advance, and require much less planning effort. However, the push-based systems are not without drawbacks. The major concern is the potential privacy invasion that could result from the disclosure of individual's mobility traces to the crowd-sourcing platform. In this paper, we first demonstrate specific threats of continuous sharing of users locations in such push-based crowd-sourcing platforms. We then propose a simple yet effective location perturbation technique that obfuscates certain user locations to achieve privacy guarantees while not affecting the quality of the recommendations the system generates.We use the mobility traces data we obtained from our urban campus to show the trade-offs between privacy guarantees and the quality of the recommendations associated with the proposed solution. We show that obfuscating even 75% of the individual trajectories will affect the user to make another extra 1.8 minutes of detour while gaining 62.5% more uncertainty of his location traces.
Ensemble Online Classifier Based on the One-Class Base Classifiers for Mining Data Streams

The problem addressed in this study concerns mining data streams with concept drift. The goal of the article is to propose and validate a new approach to mining data streams with concept-drift using the ensemble classifier constructed from the one-class base classifiers. It is assumed that base classifiers of the proposed ensemble are induced from incoming chunks of the data stream. Each chunk consists of prototypes and information about whether the class prediction of these instances, carried-out at earlier steps, has been correct. Each data chunk can be updated by using the instance selection technique when new data arrive. When a new data chunk is formed, the ensemble model is also updated on the basis of weights assigned to each one-class classifier. In this article, two well-known instance-based learning algorithms—the CNN and the ENN—have been adopted to solve the one-class classification problems and, consequently, update the proposed classifier ensemble. The proposed approaches have been validated experimentally, and the computational experiment results are shown and discussed. The experiment results prove that the proposed approach using the ensemble classifier constructed from the one-class base classifiers with instance selection for chunk updating can outperform well-known approaches for data streams with concept drift.
Eficiencia técnica en las cooperativas de crédito españolas: una aproximación al impacto de la crisis

RESUMEN Este trabajo pretende estimar la eficiencia técnica en la actividad bancaria de las cooperativas de crédito españolas durante el periodo 2005–2013, así como sus principales determinantes, haciendo especial hincapié en el posible impacto de la crisis. Nuestros hallazgos muestran que la eficiencia de estas entidades disminuye durante los años 2008–2010 en relación con el periodo anterior a la crisis (2005–2007), aunque recupera los niveles previos a la misma en la segunda recesión (2011–2013). Además, mientras la concentración urbana, el tamaño y el riesgo financiero de las cooperativas de crédito influyen positivamente sobre su eficiencia técnica, la situación de crisis tiene un efecto negativo. Finalmente, su localización regional también es un determinante significativo.
Life Stress Measures and Reported Frequency of Sleep Disorders

Scales to assess nightmare recall frequency and recalled frequency of insomnia-related disorders (sleep onset, sleep-maintenance problems, unrefreshing sleep, and restless sleep) were administered, together with the Social Readjustment Rating Scale of Holmes and Rahe to 170 part-time undergraduate students (mean age 27.4 yr., 97 men, 73 women), and together with the Life Events Inventory of Tennant and Andrews to another sample of 91 part-time undergraduates (mean age 26 yr., 53 men, 37 women). The time span for which life events and sleep disorders were to be assessed was the previous 6 mo. Pearson rs suggested that the relationships of different types of scores for life events (scores for change, for distress, for amount of control over events, weighted and unweighted scores for negative and positive events) to reports of sleep disorders were mostly weak (the largest coefficient was .29) and nonsignificant. Of all life events measures, negative life events listed on the Readjustment Scale were the most closely associated with reports of sleep disorders; all 14 coefficients involving negative events were significant and in the clinically expected direction. Further research is needed to examine whether the size of correlations between events and sleep disorders is related to factors such as readiness to recall and report negative personal experiences.
ESC guidelines on the management of stable coronary artery disease — addenda The Task Force on the management of stable coronary artery disease of the European Society of Cardiology

Authors/Task Force Members: Gilles Montalescot* (Chairperson) (France), Udo Sechtem* (Chairperson) (Germany), Stephan Achenbach (Germany), Felicita Andreotti (Italy), Chris Arden (UK), Andrzej Budaj (Poland), Raffaele Bugiardini (Italy), Filippo Crea (Italy), Thomas Cuisset (France), Carlo Di Mario (UK), J. Rafael Ferreira (Portugal), Bernard J. Gersh (USA), Anselm K. Gitt (Germany), Jean-Sebastien Hulot (France), Nikolaus Marx (Germany), Lionel H. Opie (South Africa), Matthias Pfisterer (Switzerland), Eva Prescott (Denmark), Frank Ruschitzka (Switzerland), Manel Sabaté (Spain), Roxy Senior (UK), David Paul Taggart (UK), Ernst E. van der Wall (Netherlands), and Christiaan J.M. Vrints (Belgium).
Self-controlled learning benefits: exploring contributions of self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation via path analysis

ABSTRACT Research has shown learning advantages for self-controlled practice contexts relative to yoked (i.e., experimenter-imposed) contexts; yet, explanations for this phenomenon remain relatively untested. We examined, via path analysis, whether self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation are important constructs for explaining self-controlled learning benefits. The path model was created using theory-based and empirically supported relationships to examine causal links between these psychological constructs and physical performance. We hypothesised that self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation would have greater predictive power for learning under self-controlled compared to yoked conditions. Participants learned double-mini trampoline progressions, and measures of physical performance, self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation were collected over two practice days and a delayed retention day. The self-controlled group (M = 2.04, SD = .98) completed significantly more skill progressions in retention than their yoked counterparts (M = 1.3, SD = .65). The path model displayed adequate fit, and similar significant path coefficients were found for both groups wherein each variable was predominantly predicted by its preceding time point (e.g., self-efficacy time 1 predicts self-efficacy time 2). Interestingly, the model was not moderated by group; thus, failing to support the hypothesis that self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation have greater predictive power for learning under self-controlled relative to yoked conditions.
Vascular endothelial growth factor 165 (VEGF(165)) activities are inhibited by carboxymethyl benzylamide dextran that competes for heparin binding to VEGF(165) and VEGF(165).KDR Complexes.

We have previously shown that carboxymethyl dextran benzylamide (CMDB7), a heparin-like molecule, inhibits the growth of tumors xenografted in nude mice, angiogenesis, and metastasis by altering the binding of angiogenic growth factors, including platelet-derived growth factor, transforming growth factor beta, and fibroblast growth factor 2, to their specific receptors. In this study, we explore the effect of CMDB7 on the most specific angiogenic growth factor, vascular endothelial growth factor 165 (VEGF(165)). We demonstrate here that CMDB7 inhibits the mitogenic effect of VEGF(165) on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUV-ECs) by preventing the VEGF(165)-induced VEGF receptor-2 (KDR) autophosphorylation and consequently a specific intracellular signaling. In competition experiments, the binding of (125)I-VEGF(165) to HUV-ECs is inhibited by CMDB7 with an IC(50) of 2 microm. Accordingly, CMDB7 inhibits the cross-linking of (125)I-VEGF(165) to the surface of HUV-ECs, causing the disappearance of both labeled complexes, 170-180 and 240-250 kDa. We show that CMDB7 increases the electrophoretic mobility of VEGF(165), thus evidencing formation of a stable complex with this factor. Moreover, CMDB7 reduces the (125)I-VEGF(165) binding to coated heparin-albumin and prevents a heparin-induced increase in iodinated VEGF(165) binding to soluble (125)I-KDR-Fc chimera. Concerning KDR, CMDB7 has no effect on (125)I-KDR-Fc electrophoretic migration and does not affect labeled KDR-Fc binding to coated heparin-albumin. In the presence of VEGF(165), (125)I-KDR-Fc binding to heparin is enhanced, and under these conditions, CMDB7 interferes with KDR binding. These data indicate that CMDB7 effectively inhibits the VEGF(165) activities by interfering with heparin binding to VEGF(165) and VEGF(165). KDR complexes but not by direct interactions with KDR.
A novel technique to arrest unbalanced magnetic pull due to conical motion in three phase induction motor using feedforward control

All rotating electrical machines have air gap between their stator and rotor, the length of which is usually kept very small, to facilitate a better flux path. However this aggravates problem of unbalance magnetic pull (UMP) due to rotor eccentricity which in course of time may lead to rotor-stator rub contact. This paper discusses a numerical technique of determining UMP in a three phase induction motor with rotor static eccentricity. A multi-slice method is also detailed whereby the cumbersome task of 3D finite element (FE) analysis can be simplified, while handling conical motion of rotor. FE analysis is utilised to determine the UMP developed under various static eccentricity conditions, the values of which are further used to design a feedforward controller to minimize conical rotor eccentricity of the rotor. The proposed control scheme can be implemented by incorporating Active Magnetic Bearings (AMB) for the machine. The control scheme of a three phase induction motor with a PID and feedforward controllers along with AMB is detailed in the paper.
Go with the flow: GEF-H1 mediated shear stress mechanotransduction in neutrophils

ABSTRACT Neutrophils in circulation experience significant shear forces due to blood flow when they tether to the vascular endothelium. Biochemical and biophysical responses of neutrophils to the physical force of flowing blood modulate their behavior and promote tissue recruitment under pro-inflammatory conditions. Neutrophil mechanotransduction responses occur through mechanisms that are not yet fully understood. In our recent work, we showed that GEF-H1, a RhoA specific guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF), is required to maintain neutrophil motility and migration in response to shear stress. GEF-H1 re-localizes to flottilin-rich uropods in neutrophils in response to fluid shear stress and promotes spreading and crawling on activated endothelial cells. GEF-H1 drives cellular contractility through myosin light chain (MLC) phosphorylation downstream of the Rho-ROCK signaling axis. We propose that GEF-H1-dependent cell spreading and crawling in shear stress-dependent neutrophil recruitment from the vasculature are due to the specific localization of Rho-induced contractility in the uropod.
A System for the Analysis of Dermoscopy Images Using Weak Annotations

This paper proposes a two-step approach for the analysis of dermoscopy images. In the first step, we detected dermoscopic criteria (structures and colors), which are used by dermatologists in their medical analysis. In the second step, this information is used to automatically diagnose skin cancer. The extraction of dermoscopic criteria from skin lesions is a challenging task because the amount of detailed annotated images is scarce. We solve this task by using a probabilistic model (topic model) learned from weakly annotated data. This approach overcomes the need for completely annotated datasets, only requiring text labels. The second step uses the detected criteria to train a Random Forest classifier. The system achieves a good classification score: sensitivity of 85.8% and a specificity of 71.1%. Nonetheless, the main advantage of this system with respect to others is its ability to justify the decision based on medical criteria.
Efeitos da emissão dos efluentes domésticos na proliferação de Aeromonas Spp em águas de superfície e pescado do estuário do Rio Bacanga, São Luís - MA

MARTINS, Andre Gustavo Lima de Almeida. Efeitos da emissao dos efluentes domesticos na proliferacao de Aeromonas Spp em aguas de superficie e pescado do estuario do Rio Bacanga, Sao Luis - MA. 2005. 95 f. Dissertacao (Mestrado em Ciencias Marinhas Tropicais) - Instituto de Ciencias do Mar, Universidade Federal do Ceara, Fortaleza, 2005.
RSI-CB: A Large-Scale Remote Sensing Image Classification Benchmark Using Crowdsourced Data

Image classification is a fundamental task in remote sensing image processing. In recent years, deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) have experienced significant breakthroughs in natural image recognition. The remote sensing field, however, is still lacking a large-scale benchmark similar to ImageNet. In this paper, we propose a remote sensing image classification benchmark (RSI-CB) based on massive, scalable, and diverse crowdsourced data. Using crowdsourced data, such as Open Street Map (OSM) data, ground objects in remote sensing images can be annotated effectively using points of interest, vector data from OSM, or other crowdsourced data. These annotated images can, then, be used in remote sensing image classification tasks. Based on this method, we construct a worldwide large-scale benchmark for remote sensing image classification. This benchmark has large-scale geographical distribution and large total image number. It contains six categories with 35 sub-classes of more than 24,000 images of size 256×256 pixels. This classification system of ground objects is defined according to the national standard of land-use classification in China and is inspired by the hierarchy mechanism of ImageNet. Finally, we conduct numerous experiments to compare RSI-CB with the SAT-4, SAT-6, and UC-Merced data sets. The experiments show that RSI-CB is more suitable as a benchmark for remote sensing image classification tasks than other benchmarks in the big data era and has many potential applications.
Partial purification and some properties of a cellulase from Helix pomatia.

The properties of cellulases from Helix pomatia have been studied by many workers, including Seilliere (1906), Karrer, Schubert & Wehrli (1925), Karrer & Schubert (1926, 1928) and de Stevens (1955). Cellulolytic enzymes have also been found in other invertebrates, such as Teredo (Greenfield, 1955) and Ctenolep8ima lineata (Lasker & Giese, 1956), and in a wide range ofmicro-organisms which include some rumen Protozoa (Hungate, 1942) and bacteria (Halliwell, 1957 a, b). Many fungi, for example A8pergillus oryzae (Gillespie & Woods, 1953) andMyrothecium verrucaria (Saunders, Siu & Genest, 1948; Whitaker, 1953; Miller & Blum, 1956; Grimes, Duncan & Hoppert, 1957), have also been shown to produce cellulases. Although twofold purifications of H. pomatia (de Stevens, 1955) and Teredo (Greenfield, 1955) cellulases have been reported, only the cellulase from M. verrucaria has been purified to give an electrophoretically homogeneous protein (Whitaker, 1953). The properties of this enzyme have been extensively studied; its molecular weight is 63 000 + 15 000 (Whitaker, 1952; Basu & Whitaker, 1953; Whitaker, Colvin & Cook, 1954). The enzyme attacks many P-1:4-linked glucosans in an essentially random manner (Whitaker, 1954a, b, 1956 a, b, 1957; Whitaker & Merler, 1956), although there are deviations from this mode of attack with soluble oligosaccharides. The purified enzyme also attacks wheat-straw xylan (Adams, 1952). The present work was undertaken to purify cellulase from H. pomatia, often a more readily available source than a fungal-culture filtrate, and to compare its properties with those of the enzyme from M. verrucaria.
Clinical and genetic characteristics of congenital hypothyroidism due to mutations in the thyroid peroxidase (TPO) gene in Israelis

Objectives Iodide organification defect (IOD) is characterized by a reduced ability of the thyroid gland to retain iodide and results in hypothyroidism. Mutations in the thyroid peroxidase (TPO) gene are a frequent cause of IOD. While TPO mutations have been identified in various populations, none have been reported in Israeli patients with IOD. The objectives of this study were to characterize the molecular basis of IOD in an Israeli Arab‐Muslim population and to analyse the clinical, neurological and imaging data of patients with TPO mutations followed for up to 29 years.
Diffuse Optical Monitoring of the Neoadjuvant Breast Cancer Therapy

Recent advances in the use of diffuse optical techniques for monitoring the hemodynamic, metabolic, and physiological signatures of the neoadjuvant breast cancer therapy effectiveness is critically reviewed. An extensive discussion of the state-of-the-art diffuse optical mammography is presented alongside a discussion of the current approaches to breast cancer therapies. Overall, the diffuse optics field is growing rapidly with a great deal of promise to fill an important niche in the current approaches to monitor, predict, and personalize neoadjuvant breast cancer therapies.
Use of laboratory-based surveillance data to estimate the number of people chronically infected with hepatitis B living in Scotland

SUMMARY It is paramount to understand the epidemiology of chronic hepatitis B to inform national policies on vaccination and screening/testing as well as cost-effectiveness studies. However, information on the national (Scottish) prevalence of chronic hepatitis B by ethnic group is lacking. To estimate the number of people with chronic hepatitis B in Scotland in 2009 by ethnicity, gender and age, the test data from virology laboratories in the four largest cities in Scotland were combined with estimates of the ethnic distribution of the Scottish population. Ethnicity in both the test data and the Scottish population was derived using a name-based ethnicity classification software (OnoMAP; Publicprofiler Ltd, UK). For 2009, we estimated 8720 [95% confidence interval (CI) 7490–10 230] people aged ⩾15 years were living with chronic hepatitis B infection in Scotland. This corresponds to 0·2% (95% CI 0·17–0·24) of the Scottish population aged ⩾15 years. Although East and South Asians make up a small proportion of the Scottish population, they make up 44% of the infected population. In addition, 75% of those infected were aged 15–44 years with almost 60% male. This study quantifies for the first time on a national level the burden of chronic hepatitis B infection by ethnicity, gender and age. It confirms the importance of promoting and targeting ethnic minority groups for hepatitis B testing.
ErbB receptor signalling regulates dendrite formation in mouse cerebellar granule cells in vivo

The formation of morphologically and functionally mature dendrites is a key event in neuronal maturation and the establishment of functional neuronal networks, but the signals that regulate mammalian dendritic development remain poorly understood. Here we show that the erbB receptor signalling pathway, which modulates expression of several neurotransmitter receptors, also regulates dendritic development of cerebellar granule cells in the intact cerebellum. These results suggest that neuregulin–erbB signalling may control a program of postsynaptic development, from initiating dendrite morphogenesis to the formation and maturation of the postsynaptic apparatus.
Development, Displacement and Rehabilitation: An Action Anthropological Study on Kovvada Reservoir in West Godavari Agency of Andhra Pradesh, India

This paper discusses the issue of tribal development, displacement, rehabilitation and resettlement policies, and implementation in the agency (scheduled / tribal) areas of the West Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh State, India. This study is based on action anthropological approach, conducted among the displaced tribal communities i.e. Konda Reddis and Nayakapods of this region, under the 'Kovvada Reservoir' Project. These groups are traditionally shifting cultivators and popularly known as the Primitive Tribal Groups (PTGs) in the government records. This paper also focuses on the issues of tribal displacement and land alienation due to construction of the Kovvada reservoir, without proper rehabilitation and resettlement, although there are well defined guidelines, procedures and norms for the rehabilitation of Project Affected Persons (PAPs). It is necessary to begin with, to provide an overview of the issues in tribal development and policies related to displacement and rehabilitation in the Indian context as a background to the Kovvada Reservoir Project, the subject of this study.