Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The palmo-mental reflex in vibroacoustic disease.

BACKGROUND Vibroacoustic disease (VAD), is a multisystemic nosological entity, caused by occupational exposure to large pressure amplitude (> or = 90 dB SPL) and low frequency (< or = 500 Hz) (LPALF) noise. The most common neurological finding in patients with VAD is the palmomental reflex (PMR). The aim of this study is to evaluate the frequency and characteristics of this primitive reflex in a population of VAD patients. METHODS Sixty individuals, occupationally exposed to LPALF noise underwent a neurological examination. In each one, unilateral contraction of the chin muscles was triggered through the stimulation of the thenar eminence. When a response habituation was observed, or when there was no response except previously existing skin retraction and small dimples, an EMG was performed. All these subjects also received brain MRI and measurement of endogenous evoked potentials. RESULTS Thirty individuals presented unilateral or bilateral PMR; 26 of these presented changes in the brain MRI. EMG measurement evidenced continuous contraction of the chin muscles, without visible PMR, triggered by the stimulation of the thenar eminence. CONCLUSION PMR is present in 50% of the patients with VAD. In the VAD patients, the frequency of abnormal chin muscle activity is higher than the frequency of PMR and represents a loss of the cortical control over the brainstem structures.
GP practice variation in hospitalisation rates: a study of partnership health-enrolled patients.

AIM This project aims to provide information to support the planning and implementation of strategies to reduce hospitalisation. It examines variations in hospital discharge rates between practice populations and the use of special general practice access funding. METHODS Practice enrolment data for 345 254 patients enrolled with 102 Partnership Health Primary Health Organisation (PHO) general practices were sent to New Zealand Health Information Service. Data linked to the patient National Health Index (NHI) relating to hospital discharges were attached to the practice enrolment data for the two years ending June 2007 and returned to the researchers with the NHI numbers encrypted. Total discharges were 127426. The data were analysed for rates of hospital discharges for different population groups and by general practice. RESULTS There is a substantial variation in hospital discharge rates between general practices, but this is only partly accounted for by practice population characteristics. Furthermore while there is a strong social gradient in European admissions, this is much less true for Maori. There was also a wide variation between practices in the uptake of High Use Health Cards, special funding for frequent attenders at general practices and 'Care Plus' funding for patients with chronic conditions. Practice deprivation, ethnicity and age only explained a minor part of this variation. DISCUSSION The high rate of unexplained practice variation in chronic care management and hospitalisation rates, especially for Maori, is of concern. Further investigation of the causes of such variability is needed as afirst step in reducing hospitalisation.
Approximation and optimality necessary conditions in relaxed stochastic control problems

We consider a control problem where the state variable is a solution of a stochastic differential equation (SDE) in which the control enters both the drift and the diffusion coefficient. We study the relaxed problem for which admissible controls are measure-valued processes and the state variable is governed by an SDE driven by an orthogonal martingale measure. Under some mild conditions on the coefficients and pathwise uniqueness, we prove that every diffusion process associated to a relaxed control is a strong limit of a sequence of diffusion processes associated to strict controls. As a consequence, we show that the strict and the relaxed control problems have the same value function and that an optimal relaxed control exists. Moreover we derive a maximum principle of the Pontriagin type, extending the well-known Peng stochastic maximum principle to the class of measure-valued controls.
Ethical views, attitudes and reactions of Romanian medical students to the dissecting room.

AIM Our objective was to evaluate the attitudes and views of first year medical students towards cadaver dissection in anatomy learning and discuss various findings in relation with ethical problems). MATERIAL AND METHOD The study was conducted at the "Iuliu Hat ieganu" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, during the academic year 2012-2013 at the end of the second semester. There were 121 first year medical students included. We developed a questionnaire to asses among other, the degree of fear, anxiety and stress in the dissection room, methods of coping, ethical aspects of dissection and hand it to the students. RESULTS 34.7% of students experienced different levels of fear on exposure to the dissection room practical sessions. Many students experienced anxiety in reaction to dissection. In the first semester most students reported physical and behavioral reaction towards certain stimuli, with a decrease in the second semester. Recurring visual images of cadavers, reported by 57% of students in the first semester, dropped to 44.6% in the second semester. Students used most frequently the "rationalization and emotional detachment" as a coping method. CONCLUSIONS Anatomists, most often the firsts who need to be aware of emotional and ethical issues, need to explain in detail the steps necessary for dissection and that dissection is performed with the respect of legislation, ethics and human rights.
Feasibility studies of kinematics problems in the case of a class of redundant manipulators

Summary Lately, there have been numerous applications of computer algebra to special functions used in the various field of science and engineering. In this paper, we consider an efficient algorithm which generates velocity Jacobians for any class of general serial link manipulators in a compact form throughout the effective use of frame transformations. Compared with conventional techniques, a marked improvement of that capability is found in computer algebra applications to one class of a seven-joint manipulator. Together with finding of explicit solutions for joint rates, closed form arm solutions for the desired position of the hand are presented by relating the rotational motion of the elbow to a geometry problem.
Natural Language Input for In-Car Spoken Dialog Systems: How Natural is Natural?

Recent spoken dialog systems are moving away from command and control towards a more intuitive and natural style of interaction. In order to choose an appropriate system design which allows the system to deal with naturally spoken user input, a definition of what exactly constitutes naturalness in user input is important. In this paper, we examine how different user groups naturally speak to an automotive spoken dialog system (SDS). We conduct a user study in which we collect freely spoken user utterances for a wide range of use cases in German. By means of a comparative study of the utterances from the study with interpersonal utterances, we provide criteria what constitutes naturalness in the user input of an state-of-the-art automotive SDS.
TEMPORAL REASONING WITH THE MODAL LOGIC Z

This article presents a formal theory of concurrent actions that handles the qualification, ramification, and frame problems. The theory is capable of temporal explanation, i.e., reasoning forward and backward. The approach uses the modal logic Z to extend the work of Lifschitz and Rabinov on miracle‐based temporal reasoning. The advantages of miracles for describing unknown actions are augmented with the ability to handle concurrent actions that can provide for the most economical explanation of state changes. For temporal explanation problems restricted to finite domains, it has a worst‐case exponential decision procedure. The theory is as general as first‐order logic in what it can express as preconditions and consequences of actions.
Oral contraceptives and benign tumors of the liver.

The prevalence of benign tumors of the liver in users of oral contraceptives (OCs) has increased to the point that they must be considered in the differential diagnosis of a variety of symptoms in women at risk. It is important to distinguish hepatic adenoma from focal nodular hyperplasia because the former may be complicated by severe hemorrhage and is clearly linked to prolonged OC use. The annual incidence of hepatic adenoma has been estimated at 3.4 cases/100,000 OC users. Focal nodular hyperplasia generally appears as a single nodule (78%) measuring less than 5 cm in diameter (84%). On cut section there is a characteristic central, stellate, fibrous core that radiates to the periphery of the lesion, dividing the tumor into a number of nodules. Proliferating bile ducts and inflammatory cells are often seen in the fibrous areas. Hepatic adenoma is easily distinguished by gross and microscopic inspection. It usually appears as a single (71%), large (36% larger than 10 cm), fleshy tumor without any internal structure. The absence of bile ducts is noteworthy. Data show strong association between OCs and the development of hepatic adenoma but no association with focal nodular hyperplasia. If women use OCs for more than 6 years, hepatic adenoma is 25 times more likely to develop than in nonusers. Patients with hepatic adenoma usually present with life-threatening hemorrhage as the initial manifestation of the tumor. Hormonal factors are very important in the pathogenesis and clinical presentation of hepatic adenoma; hemorrhage frequently occurs in association with menstruation. By contrast, patients with focal nodular hyperplasia generally have no symptoms and the prognosis is excellent. Use of OCs should be stopped in all patients who may have hepatic tumors because tumor regression usually occurs after withdrawal of the drug. Evidence indicates that synthetic estrogens do not cause tumors directly but can enhance the growth of neoplastic cells.
Upper Lid Blepharoplasty in Patients with LASIK

Purpose: To investigate the changes in tear secretion and tear film stability after upper lid blepharoplasty in patients that had previously undergone excimer laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK). Methods: We performed carbon dioxide (CO2) laser upper lid blepharoplasty to 18 eyes of 9 patients that had undergone bilateral LASIK at least 18 months before the surgery. Six women and 3 men aged 35 to 52 were included in this group. An additional control group of 18 eyes of similar age patients with no history of LASIK, contact lens usage or dry eye symptoms were studied. We studied the Schirmer tear test values without anesthesia at 5 minutes in both groups before and after the upper lid blepharoplasty procedure. Tear break-up time values were also measured before and 4 weeks after (CO2) laser upper lid blepharoplasty. The Schirmer tear test and tear break-up time values were analyzed statistically using the independent t-test. Results: The mean Schirmer tear test value was 19.07 ± 4.03 mm in both eyes of the patients who had undergone LASIK and upper lid blepharoplasty, and it was 21.07 ± 7.03 mm in the eyes of the control group that only had (CO2) laser upper lid blepharoplasty. The mean tear break-up time value was 21.0 ± 3.55 seconds in the eyes that had LASİK treatment, and it was 21.27 ± 6.79 seconds in the eyes of the control group. There was no statistical difference between the two groups. Conclusion: Because LASIK and blepharoplasty both may cause dry eye symptoms, the possible cumulative effect of these surgeries is a serious consideration. However, dry eye symptoms after LASIK is usually temporary, and we may perform upper lid blepharoplasty to these patients after a certain time interval by closely monitoring their preoperative and postoperative tear function.
Wat bepaalt de kosten van ERP-implementatie

De kernvraag in het hier beschreven onderzoek luidt ‘welke factoren bepalen de kosten van Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)-implementatie. Een uitgebreid literatuuronderzoek laat zien dat de theorie vooralsnog geen bevredigend antwoord geeft. Met behulp van de schaars beschikbare literatuur over ERP-implementatiekosten en de uitgebreidere literatuur over software-ontwikkelkosten en implementatiekosten van standaardsoftware, is een ‘theoretisch’ antwoord gegeven op deze kernvraag. Het antwoord is vergeleken met gegevens over ERP-implementatiekosten die verkregen zijn bij twee grote ondernemingen. Het resultaat kan worden gezien als een eerste aanzet tot een generiek toepasbare lijst van kostenbepalende factoren bij ERP-implementatie.
The Identification, Conservation, and Management of Estuarine and Marine Nurseries for Fish and Invertebrates

Michael W. Beck, Kenneth L. Heck, Jr., Kenneth W. Able, Daniel L. Childers, David B. Eggleston, Bronwyn M. Gillanders, Benjamin Halpern, Cynthia G. Hays, Kaho Hoshino, Thomas J. Minello, Robert J. Orth, Peter F. Sheridan and Michael P. Weinstein
Injection laryngoplasty using hyaluronic acid for Chinese patients with unilateral vocal fold paralysis - an acoustic, durational and perceptual study

The study evaluated the surgical efficacy of injection laryngoplasty (IL) with respect to perceptual voice-related quality of life (QOL), acoustic and aerodynamic measurements in patients with unilateral vocal fold paralysis (UVFP). In a longitudinal and prospective clinical cohort study, 14 patients with UVFP who received injection laryngoplasty with hyaluronic acid (Restylane) were examined preoperatively, 1 week, 1 month, and 3 months postoperatively. The patients’ voice was evaluated by self-perception questionnaire (Voice Handicap Index, VHI) and objectively acoustical as well as durational measurements. Patients’ performance in Cantonese lexical tone production was also evaluated in terms of percent correct identification. Results of VHI showed significant improvement in vocal quality immediately after injection. IL yielded a significant decrease in percent jitter and shimmer in dB, and a significant increase in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Whereas discernible increment in the duration of maximum phonation time (MPT) was elicited, the procedure significantly improved UVFP patients’ ability to produce HL, HR and LR tones. The improvement observed in all vocal and QOL parameters was maintained for at least 3 months after injection. Results of this paper showed that the treatment effect of IL was immediate and sustainable. The study provides objective evidence for the application of IL on Cantonesespeaking patients with UVFP.
Automated, multiplex assay for high-frequency microsatellite instability in colorectal cancer.

PURPOSE In a series of hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) patients, we evaluated the sensitivities of the individual microsatellites recommended by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) consensus workshop for detection of high-frequency microsatellite instability (MSI-H). On the basis of this evaluation, we developed a three-marker assay that assigns microsatellite instability (MSI) in a multiplex polymerase chain reaction. METHODS Individual marker sensitivity was assessed in 18 HNPCC tumors. Multiplex and NCI assays were then assessed in a series of 120 patients with early-onset colon cancer. RESULTS The sensitivity of microsatellite markers BAT25, BAT26, D2S123, D5S346, and D17S250 for ASI in HNPCC cancers was 100%, 94%, 72%, 50%, and 50%, respectively. The three most accurate markers were combined and optimized in a multiplex assay that assigned MSI-H whenever at least two of three markers revealed ASI. In early-onset colon cancers, the prevalence of MSI-H determined by the multiplex assay and by the NCI assay was 16% and 23%, respectively. The additional MSI-H tumors and patients with MSI-H identified by the NCI assay lacked the traits characteristic of MSI-H seen in tumors and patients identified by the multiplex assay: retention of heterozygosity (NCI additional 22% v multiplex 84%; P =.003), characteristic tumor morphology (0% v 64%; P =.006), and 5-year cancer survival rate (44% v 100%; P =.0003). CONCLUSION The multiplex assay identifies colon cancers with MSI-H by assessing three highly accurate microsatellite markers. This assay identifies a smaller MSI-H cohort with more homogeneous clinical features and is superior as a marker of favorable prognosis. It merits prospective evaluation as a marker of prognosis and as a screening test for HNPCC.
A Feasibility Study of Using Light Fidelity With Multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles For Indoor Collaborative And Cooperative Networking

This paper evaluates the feasibility of using light fidelity with multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for indoor collaborative and cooperative networking. A number of works have presentedchallenges for wireless networking with multiple UAVs such as bandwidth efficiency, security and environment amongst others. Due to this fact, there is a need to secure information and data in UAV ad hoc network (FANETs) using a secure transmission medium that guarantees bandwidth efficiency such as the light fidelity (Li-Fi). Li-Fi enables data transmission using visible light through a light emitting diode (LED) and is chosen as against wireless fidelity (Wi- Fi) because it is more ideal for high density wireless data coverage in confined areas, better at addressing radio interference related issues and provides better bandwidth, efficiency, availability and security. Thus, using Light Fidelity as a means of communication necessitates the need to develop a Link Velocity Based Connectivity Algorithm (LVCA) that governs communication between the UAVs and the Li-Fi transmitter and receiver circuits for collaborative and cooperative networking.
A new current-mode differential low noise amplifier

This paper presents a technique using current-mode approach for a CMOS differential low noise amplifier design, simulated with a TSMC 0.18 ¿m RF CMOS process, working at 1.2 V supply. A comparison with conventional voltage-mode LNA shows that this LNA has advantages of low voltage, low power consumption and simple structure. Simulation results demonstrate that at 2.4 GHz, the noise figure is only 1.47 dB, transconductance gain is 12.63 dB, S11 is -26.47 dB, S22 is -23.64 dB. With voltage of 1.2 V, the power consumption is 6.49 mW.
Multiple-Camera-Based Gesture Recognition by MDA Method

In the present day, human-computer interaction is more important. This study proposes a new ideal for hand recognition model by combining VICON and multiple discriminant analysis (MDA). After building and testing, this model showed the recognition rates are 98.60% (by train set) and 82.64% (by test set) respectively. The average recognition rate is 90.62%. Besides, this research discussion the effect of subjects and eigen vectors on recognition rate of model.
Localization in large scale wireless sensor networks

Wireless Sensor Networks facilitate monitoring physical environments with improved accuracy. Localization has been a major challenge in such networks because without finding the position of the sensor that is reporting sensed data, the reported data will not be useful. In this paper, we survey some of the existing localization techniques and propose a new algorithm for large scale networks that minimizes both localization error and power consumption. We also evaluate the performance of these algorithms using the network simulator (NS-2) measuring several metrics such as energy and localization error while varying a number of simulation parameters such as the number of sensors, the area size, etc. Results show that significant enhancement is obtained with the proposed algorithm.
XX Encuentro de Especialistas Latinoamericanos en Relaciones de Trabajo. Grupo Bolonia-Castilla La Mancha-Turín 03 al 05 de Noviembre de 2011, Florianópolis, Brasil

Diversos son los organismos internacionales que han impulsado iniciativas para el establecimiento de normas relacionadas con la no discriminación por sexo, raza y color en el mercado laboral. Así, destacan el Convenio sobre la Eliminación de Todas las Formas de Discriminación Contra la Mujer (CEDAW), adoptado en 1979 por la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas, y la Declaración y el Programa de Acción de Durban, adoptados en 2001 en la Conferencia Mundial contra el Racismo, la Discriminación Racial, la Xenofobia y otras Formas Conexas de Intolerancia. Igualmente, la OIT ha promovido normas internacionales del trabajo referidas a hombres y mujeres, las cuales son instrumentos fundamentales para asegurar los derechos femeninos en la dimensión laboral. Existen algunas normas que están más directamente relacionadas con las mujeres entre las que resaltan los convenios y recomendaciones dirigidos a la protección de la maternidad: Convenio No 3 sobre la Protección de la Maternidad, 1919 (ratificado por Venezuela el 20/11/1944); Convenio No 183 sobre la Protección de la Maternidad (revisado), 2000. En cuanto a género, Convenio No 41 (revisado) sobre el Trabajo Nocturno (mujeres), 1934 (ratificado por Venezuela el 20/11/1944) y Convenio No 45 sobre el Trabajo Subterráneo (mujeres), 1935 (ratificado por Venezuela el 20/11/1944). También están vigentes
The Nanti reality status system: Implications for the typological validity of the realis/irrealis contrast

Abstract This article describes the reality status system of Nanti (Arawak) and argues that it constitutes an instance of a canonical reality status system. The relevance of such a system is examined in the light of literature that casts doubt on the typological validity of reality status as crosslinguistic grammatical category. It is shown that reality status is an obligatory inflectional category in Nanti, and that the distribution of realis and irrealis marking across Nanti construction types hews closely to expectations based on notional understandings of “realis” and “irrealis” categories grounded in a contrast between “realized” and “un-realized” situations. It is also shown that the Nanti reality status system does not exhibit evidence of being based, either synchronically or diachronically, on semantically narrower notions that could account for the distribution of reality status marking in the language, without recourse to the more generalized notions of realized and unrealized events. It is suggested that the Nanti reality status system might serve as a suitable canonical system around which a canonical typology of reality status might be built.