Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Measuring early language development in preschool children with autism spectrum disorder using the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (Infant Form)

Parent report data on early language development measured using the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (CDI–Infant Form) was collected on 134 preschool children with autism spectrum disorder. The pattern of development of understanding of phrases, word comprehension and expression, and production of gestures, was compared to the typical pattern. In common with typical development there was considerable variability in language acquisition, although for the group as a whole this was significantly delayed compared to the normal course. In addition, atypical patterns were identified in the emergence of language skills in the sample. Comprehension of words was delayed in comparison to word production, and production of early gestures (involving sharing reference) was delayed relative to production of later gestures (involving use of objects). However, other aspects of language development were similar to that found in typically developing infants, including word comprehension being in advance of word production in absolute terms, gesture production acting as a ‘bridge’ between word comprehension and word production and the broad pattern of acquisition across word categories and word forms. The implications for assessment and intervention with preschool children with autism spectrum disorder are discussed.
Joint toxicity of chlorpyrifos and esfenvalerate to fathead minnows and midge larvae

The joint toxicity of esfenvalerate and chlorpyrifos to the fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas) and the aquatic midge larvae (Chironomus tentans) was determined using comparisons to independent action (IA) and concentration addition (CA) models. Equipotent mixtures of the two insecticides were used for initial testing of both species. A secondary study evaluating the effects of low‐level chlorpyrifos on esfenvalerate toxicity also was performed. For fathead minnows, the equipotent mixture and the low‐level chlorpyrifos exposure resulted in toxicity greater than that predicted by either model. In both studies, however, the observed concentrations causing 50% effect (EC50) were within a factor of two of the values predicted by the CA model. For midges, the observed EC50s were similar to the values predicted by the CA model, whereas the IA model slightly underpredicted toxicity. The observance of toxicity that was not predicted by either of the conceptual models tested likely results from a toxicokinetic interaction occurring between the toxicants.
Evaluation of Prevalence of the Types of Thyroid Disorders Using Ultrasound and Pathology of One Humped Camel in Iran (Camelus dromedarius)

The thyroid gland is the largest classic endocrine organ that effects many organs of the body and plays a significant role in the process of Metabolism in animals. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of thyroid disorders diagnosed by ultrasound and microscopic Lesions of the thyroid during the slaughter of apparently healthy One Humped Camels (Camelus dromedarius) in Iran. Randomly, 520 male camels (With an age range of 4 to 8 years), were studied in 2012 to 2013. The Camels’ thyroid glands were evaluated by sonographic examination. In both longitudinal and transverse view and then tissue sections were provide and stained with H & E and finally examined by light microscopy. The results obtained indicated the following: hyperplastic goiter (21%), degenerative changes (12%), follicular cysts (8%), follicular atrophy (4%), nodular hyperplasia (3%), adenoma (1%), carcinoma (1%) and simple goiter colloid (1%). Ultrasound evaluation of thyroid gland in adenoma and carcinoma showed enlargement and irregular of the gland, decreased echogenicity, and the heterogeneous thyroid parenchyma. Also, in follicular cysts were observed in the enlarged gland with no echo structures of different sizes and decreased echogenicity as a local or general. In nodular hyperplasia, increase echogenicity and heterogeneous parenchymal were seen. These findings suggest the use of sonography and pathology as a screening test in the diagnosis of complications of thyroid disorders. Keywords—One humped camel, pathology, sonography, thyroid gland.
Procalcitonin levels predict bacteremia in patients with community-acquired pneumonia: a prospective cohort trial.

BACKGROUND Guidelines recommend blood culture sampling from hospitalized patients with suspected community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). However, the yield of true-positive results is low. We investigated the benefit of procalcitonin (PCT) on hospital admission to predict blood culture positivity in CAP. METHODS This was a prospective cohort study with a derivation and validation set including 925 patients with CAP who underwent blood culture sampling on hospital admission. RESULTS A total of 73 (7.9%) patients had true bacteremia (43 of 463 in the derivation cohort, 30 of 462 in the validation cohort). The area under the receiver operating characteristics curve of PCT in the derivation and validation cohorts was similar (derivation cohort, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.78-0.89; validation cohort, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.72-0.88). Overall, PCT was a significantly better predictor for blood culture positivity than WBC count, C-reactive protein, and other clinical parameters. In multivariate regression analysis, only antibiotic pretreatment (adjusted odds ratio, 0.25; P < .05) and PCT serum levels (adjusted odds ratio, 3.72; P < .001) were independent predictors. Overall, a PCT cutoff of 0.1 microg/L would enable reduction of the total number of blood cultures by 12.6% and still identify 99% of the positive blood cultures. Similarly, 0.25 microg/L and 0.5 microg/L cutoffs would enable reduction of blood cultures by 37% and 52%, respectively, and still identify 96% and 88%, respectively, of positive blood cultures. CONCLUSIONS Initial PCT level accurately predicted blood culture positivity in patients with CAP. PCT measurement has the potential to reduce the number of drawn blood cultures in the emergency department and to implement a more targeted allocation of limited health-care resources.
A Novel Feature Extraction Method for Hyperspectral Image Classification

In this paper, a novel feature extraction method based on Non-convex Robust Principal Component Analysis (NRPCA) and minimum noise fraction is proposed for hyperspectral image classification. The proposed method consists of following steps. First, the spectral dimension of the hyperspectral image is reduced with averaging-based image fusion. Then, each band of the hyperspectral image which dimension has been reduced are processed with NRPCA technique. Next, minimum noise fraction is performed to reduce low-rank data dimensionality and noise. Finally, SVM as a pixel-wise classifier is used to obtain final classification. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is able to obtain much higher classification accuracy than other methods in hyperspectral image.
Studies on Certain Biological Characteristics of Malleomyces mallei and Malleomyces pseudomallei

The etiological agent of glanders, or farcy, was first isolated in pure culture by Loeffler and Schutz in 1892. The genus Malleomyces includes only two speciesMalleomyces mallei and Malleomyces pseudomalci (Bergey et al., 1939). Very few studies have been conducted with M. mallei in the last 25 years since, by the destruction of infected animals detected through mailein skin tests and serum complement fixation tests, the disease has been almost eradicated in most civilized countries from its natural equine hosts. M. pseudomalli (B. whitmori) was identified by Whitmore (1912) as the etiological agent of melioidosis, a disease of man similar to glanders. The wild rat of southeastern Asia is reported to be the natural host, but natural infection has been found in rats, rabbits, cats, and dogs (Stanton and Fletcher, 1932). The purpose of this paper is to present studies on morphology, cultivation, viability, disinfection, and isolation of the organisms from contaminated specimens. 3tudies on virulence and animal susceptibility are reported in the succeeding paper. Reports of studies on comparative serological reactions, chemotherapy, chemical fractions, pathological changes in infected animals, and six human cases of glanders will be reported elsewhere. Eight strains of M. mallei and two strains of M. pseudomallei were used in the studies reported. The source, date of isolation, and reported virulence of each strain are given in table 1.
Cognitive Function at High Altitude

The effects of altitude on human performance and cognition were evaluated in a field study performed on Mount Denali in Alaska during the summer of 1990. Climbers performed a series of perceptual, cognitive, and sensory-motor tasks before, during, and after climbing the West Buttress route on Denali. Relative to a matched control group that performed the tasks at sea level, the climbers showed deficits of learning and retention in perceptual and memory tasks. Furthermore, climbers performed more slowly on most tasks than did the control group, suggesting long-term deficits that may be attributed to repeated forays to high altitudes
A Comparison of Falls Efficacy among Older United States Adults Living Independently and in Group Dwellings: Health Education Implications

The objective was to examine the relationship between a community based balance measure and perceptions of balance among individuals from different elderly living environments. The research was a cross-sectional between groups comparison design. Data collection was conducted in a community setting, in both older adult group housing facilities and in older adult community centers. Data analysis was conducted on a sample of 74 older adults that included independent and group dwellers. Instruments used to collect information from the older adults were the Berg Balance Scale and the Tinetti Falls Efficacy Scale. Results indicate that significant differences (p < .05) in Falls Efficacy by location were found (t(72) = 2.04, p = . 044). Many group dwelling older adults believe their ability to perform activities of daily living (ADLs) is compromised simply as a result of their living situation. This research indicates that this fear may be unfounded. In the future, we suggest that health educators working with older adults focus their efforts on education designed to increase senior falls efficacy.
The early expression control of Xepsin by nonaxial and planar posteriorizing signals in Xenopus epidermis.

The control mechanism of the anteroposterior axis specification in Xenopus epidermis was studied by comparing the expression of a novel anterior marker, Xepsin, with that of a panepidermal marker, type I keratin. Xepsin mRNA, which encodes a novel Xenopus serine protease, is transcribed zygotically with the expression peak in neurula stages. In normal development, its expression is limited to the anterior and anterior-dorsal portions within epidermis during neurula and tailbud stages, respectively. In UV-irradiated ventralized embryos (dorsoanterior index, DAI 0 and 1), an expression boundary for Xepsin is apparently formed within the epidermis. In contrast, Xepsin expression was observed throughout the epidermis in LiCl-treated dorsalized embryos (DAI 10), as seen from an expression pattern indistinguishable from that of type I keratin. These data suggest that posteriorizing signals which suppress the transcription of Xepsin are present in nonaxial regions and absent in the anterior dorsal mesoderm. That posteriorizing signals were present in nonaxial regions was also supported by a conjugation experiment in which Xepsin expression was suppressed in ectodermal explants conjugated with lateral or ventral marginal zone. Moreover, the partly suppressed expression of Xepsin in the epidermal region of exogastrulae indicates that the signals may travel horizontally within the plane of the epidermis. We also present data showing that both treatment with retinoic acid and the overexpression of a constitutively active form of a retinoic acid receptor caused the suppression of Xepsin mRNA transcription, suggesting that anterior-posterior patterning in the central nervous system and in the epidermis may share common endogenous factors, i.e. , retinoids, in the Xenopus embryo.
Role of a care transition pharmacist in a primary care resource center.

PURPOSE The role of a care transition pharmacist (CTP) in a primary care resource center is described. SUMMARY A CTP role was implemented as part of a primary care resource center team to provide medication therapy management services for patients at high risk for readmission, including patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, with heart failure, or with complex medication regimens and taking more than nine medications. Patients were initially identified upon admission and were seen by the CTP who conducted a medication therapy review, provided patient education, and ensured that any medication-related issues were addressed before discharge. In addition, the CTP followed up with patients by telephone within 72 hours of discharge. CTP interventions included reinforcement of the plan of care (67%), medication-related interventions in which specific issues were addressed (9%), contacting of the physician for treatment plan clarification or care gap (9%), reinforced scheduling of the primary care physician follow-up appointment (8%), and referral of the patient to another caregiver (6%). Patients who received postdischarge follow-up from the CTP were significantly less likely to have an acute care visit within 30 days of discharge compared with patients not contacted by the CTP and had improved Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) scores. CONCLUSION Patients discharged from a community hospital who received a follow-up telephone call from a CTP were less likely to be admitted to the hospital or have an emergency department visit within 30 days of an acute care admission. HCAHPS patient satisfaction scores also improved in medication-related and discharge preparation question domains after CTP services were implemented.
VALVULAR AND STRUCTURAL HEART DISEASES Original Studies Predictors for Permanent Pacing After Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation

Background: Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is a new treatment strategy for patients with symptomatic aortic stenosis who are high risk for traditional surgical aortic valve replacement. The incidence of conduction system abnormalities after the procedure is significant. We examine our experience with CoreValve TAVI focusing on electrocardiographic changes found pre-, peri-, and postintervention. Methods: During 2007–08 we undertook 33 cases utilizing the CoreValve revalving system (CoreValve, Paris, France). Assessment of ECGs, with particular reference to the PR and QRS duration, was made daily during each patient’s hospital stay. Results: Patients were aged 81.7 6 6.7 years and the majority were male (57%). Baseline cardiac rhythm was sinus (n 5 28, 80%); atrial fibrillation (n 5 6, 18%) or ventricular paced (n 5 1, 3%). Following CoreValve implantation, prolongation of both the PR interval and QRS duration was seen. Preprocedural PR interval was 193.5 6 38.7 ms and QRS interval preprocedure was 115.3 6 24.8 ms. PR interval increased after the procedure by 23.5 6 23.9 ms and peaked at day 4 with a mean increase of 66.1 6 72.7 ms. QRS duration increased by a mean of 30.6 6 26.1 ms postprocedure and remained stable thereafter during the remaining hospital stay. The need for PPM insertion was partially predicted by pre-procedural QRS morphology: patients with pre-existing right bundle branch block had an 83% chance of requiring a permanent pacemaker (P < 0.01 OR 28 95%CI 2.4–326.7); those with LBBB had a 33% chance of requiring a pacemaker (P 5 ns OR 2.3 95%CI 0.2–34.9). Patients undergoing the procedure later in our experience showed a decreased incidence of pacing (P 5 0.046 OR 0.36 95% CI 0.07–1.82). Pre-procedural annulus measurements also predicted the requirement for pacing with larger annulus sizes more likely to require a pacemaker (P 5 0.044 OR 3.3 95% CI 0.63–17.6). The requirement for pacing was not predicted by age, baseline PR interval or gender. Requirement for pacing overall was 32% with an additional 13% having had a pacemaker inserted prior to the TAVI. Conclusion: CoreValve insertion was associated with an increase in PR interval and QRS duration. PR interval continued to rise during admission, peaking on Day 4 post procedure, making a prolonged period of monitoring highly desirable. There was a significant requirement for permanent pacing, which was predicted by pre-procedural QRS morphology, annulus measurement, and the learning curve. VC 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Élaboration automatique d’un dictionnaire de cooccurrences grand public

Antidote RX, un logiciel d’aide à la rédaction grand public, comporte un nouveau dictionnaire de 800 000 cooccurrences, élaboré essentiellement automatiquement. Nous l’avons créé par l’analyse syntaxique détaillée d’un vaste corpus et par la sélection automatique des cooccurrences les plus pertinentes à l’aide d’un test statistique, le rapport de vraisemblance. Chaque cooccurrence est illustrée par des exemples de phrases également tirés du corpus automatiquement. Les cooccurrences et les exemples extraits ont été révisés par des linguistes. Nous examinons les choix d’interface que nous avons faits pour présenter ces données complexes à un public non spécialisé. Enfin, nous montrons comment nous avons intégré les cooccurrences au correcteur d’Antidote pour améliorer ses performances.
Circularly-polarized reconfigurable unit-cell for transmitarray applications in Ka-band

In this contribution, we propose a new reconfigurable unit-cell design operating in circular polarization in Ka-band. Two p-i-n diodes are integrated in order to achieve a phase resolution of 1 bit (0°/180° are the possible phase states). An insertion loss of about 1 dB at 29 GHz with a 3-dB relative bandwidth of 14.5% has been numerically demonstrated.
West Nile in the Mediterranean Basin: 1950‐2000

Abstract: Recent West Nile virus (WNV) outbreaks have occurred in the Mediterranean basin. In Algeria in 1994, about 50 human cases of WN encephalitis were suspected, including 8 fatal cases. In Morocco in 1996, 94 equines were affected of which 42 died. In Tunisia in 1997, 173 patients were hospitalized for encephalitis or meningoencephalitis. West Nile serology performed on 129 patients was positive in 111 cases (87%) including 5 fatal cases. In Italy in 1998, 14 horses located in Tuscany were laboratory confirmed for WNV infection; 6 animals died. In Israel in 1998, serum samples from horses suffering from encephalomyelitis had WNV antibodies and virus was isolated from the brain of a stork; in 1999 WNV was identified in commercial geese flocks, and in 2000 hundreds of human cases have been reported. In September 2000, WNV infection was detected in horses located in southern France, close to the Camargue National Park where a WNV outbreak occurred in 1962. By November 30, 76 cases were laboratory confirmed among 131 equines presenting with neurological disorders. No human case has been laboratory confirmed among clinically suspect patients. The virus isolated from a brain biopsy is closely related to the Morocco‐1996 and Italy‐1998 isolates from horses, to the Senegal‐1993 and Kenya‐1998 isolates from mosquitoes, and to the human isolate from Volgograd‐1999. It is distinguishable from the group including the Israel‐1998 and New York‐1999 isolates, as well as the Tunisia‐1997 human isolate.
Designs for diagnosability and reliability in VLSI systems

Novel concepts of designs for diagnosability and reliability are defined and developed. A diagnosable design of VLSI system is presented, in which fault isolation is realized by minimal additional hardware instead of traditional software diagnostic procedures such that the computation space and time for fault isolation are saved. The presented fault-tolerant design uses online fault detection and isolation techniques, yields higher reliability with minimized hardware overhead of no more than 125% as opposed to over 200% in classical redundancy fault-tolerant designs. Using this scheme, the ability to isolate intermittent faults is a significant improvement over existing fault isolation methods because faults could be isolated right after they are detected. <<ETX>>
A new class of efficient and globally convergent conjugate gradient methods in the Dai–Liao family

In this paper, we propose a new conjugate gradient (CG) method which belongs to the CG methods of Dai–Liao family [New conjugacy conditions and related nonlinear conjugate gradient methods, Appl. Math. Optim. 43 (2001), pp. 87–101]. Babaie-Kafaki et al. [Two new conjugate gradient methods based on modified secant equations, J. Comput. Appl. Math. 234 (2010), pp. 1374–1386] made some modifications on the Yabe and Takano's CG approach [Global convergence properties of nonlinear conjugate gradient methods with modified secant condition, Comput. Optim. Appl. 28 (2004), pp. 203–225] and received some appealing results in theory and practice. Here, we introduce an efficient updating rule for the parameters of the Yabe and Takano's CG algorithm. Under some standard assumptions, we establish the global convergence property of the new suggested algorithm on uniformly convex and general functions. Numerical results on some testing problems from CUTEr collection show the priority of the proposed method to some existing CG methods in practice.
Optimisation of primary sludge acidogenic fermentation for biological nutrient removal

Laboratory batch experiments were conducted, at room temperature, to investigate ways of optimising the performance of primary sludge acidogenic fermentation systems, used at four major Johannesburg waste-water treatment plants. Retention time, seeding, solids concentration and mixing were found to be important variables governing volatile fatty acid (VFA) production. At least 75% of the potential VFA yield was reached within 6 d fermentation time. The addition of partially fermented sludge to fresh primary sludge improved the VFA yields after 6 d from between 48 to 170%, using a one-to-three-day-old fermented seed sludge, of 10 to 20% (v/v) the total volume of sludge in the fermenter reactor. A threefold dilution of the primary sludge with primary settled tank effluent, and the absence of mixing in the batch reactor, each showed at least a 70% improvement in the VFA yields. Furthermore, dewatering of fermented sludges with a cationic polyelectrolyte can be applied as a final solid-liquid separation technique with elutriation of the desired adsorbed organics, generated during the digestion process, to the supernatant liquor.
Fabrication and characterization of all hydrogel cantilevers for atomic force microscopy applications

This paper reports a novel method for fabricating hydrogel based microcantilevers by using dynamic mask lithography. A hydrogel, polyethyleneglycol diacrylate (PEGDA), was introduced between two parallel polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) guides then cured with ultra-violet (UV) exposure to intended shape and size defined by the dynamic mask; an image sent from a PC to a liquid crystal display projector. One PDMS guide has an embedded glass piece which serves as a handle for the microcantilever and the other guide is with or without an inverted pyramid tip mold to fabricate tip-integrated or tipless microcantilevers, respectively. After fabricated hydrogel microcantilevers were thoroughly characterized by using a stylus profilometer and an atomic force microscope (AFM), they were employed for both contact and non-contact mode AFM imaging. In case of non-contact mode, the imaging performance of hydrogel AFM cantilevers was comparable to that of commercial silicon AFM cantilevers.