Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
School-based social skills training for preschool-age children with autism spectrum disorder

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder display impairments in social interactions and communication that appear at early ages and result in short- and long-term negative outcomes. As such, there is a need for effective social skills training programs for young children with autism spectrum disorder—particularly interventions capable of being delivered in educational settings. The study evaluated the effects of the Superheroes Social Skills program on accurate demonstration of social skills in young children with autism spectrum disorder. Two preschool-age children with autism spectrum disorder participated in a weekly social skills intervention. A multiple probe design across skills was used to determine the effects of the intervention. Both participants demonstrated substantial improvements in skill accuracy. Social skills checklists also indicated improvements in social functioning over baseline levels.
Modeling T‐ and B‐cell growth and differentiation

Summary: The control of T‐ and B‐cell proliferation following antigen stimulation lies at the heart of the adaptive immune response. The outcome of a response depends on the number of cells that are activated to go into cycle, the rates at which the cells divide and die, and the number of division cycles the cells undergo. Each of these processes may be under independent control, and the precise outcome of T‐ or B‐cell responses to antigen will depend on how the signals controlling the different events are integrated. In this article, the way different mathematical models in combination with data from carboxyfluorescein diacetate succinamidyl ester (CFSE) experiments can be used to investigate the mechanisms controlling T‐ and B‐cell proliferation is reviewed.
Dietary factors and colorectal polyps: a case-control study.

In the case-control study we compared dietary habits among 108 patients with small (< or = 5 mm, n = 26), medium (5-9 mm, n = 48) or large (> or = 10 mm, n = 34) colorectal polyps with 35 healthy age- and gender-matched controls. A food record by weighing during 5 consecutive days was performed. The intake of fat was significantly higher among the patients, in contrast to a significantly lower intake of carbohydrate, dietary fibre and iron, compared with controls. The intake of vitamin C and calcium was shown to be lower among the patients, but this was significant only for women. There was a tendency among the patients to consume a lower-antioxidant, fibre and cereal fibre diet, and a calcium-rich and more cholesterol-rich diet with increasing size of polyps. The patients with the smallest polyps tended to consume less starch. Our results are too preliminary to draw conclusions with regard to the influence of nutritional factors on the size and growth of polyps. However, our risk factors for the presence of polyps are in agreement with previous studies. Further studies taking into account the size of the polyp are needed to corroborate our findings.
Instrumental and visual evaluation of color change in Iranian honey samples under different illuminants.

Color appearance could be an important factor to choose the honey. There are some factors such as changes in light conditions that could affect color appearance and consequently, customer’s decision to order. At the present study, the color appearance of 13 kinds of Iranian honey samples with different color was specified and raced under varying conditions of illumination and observer’s judgment. The color parameters in the CIE1976 color system, haze values and color in constancy index according to CMCCON02 algorithm were determined in order that the color appearance of the samples could be instrumentally assessed. The results showed that most of the samples are in the range of yellow shades with the wavelength of maximum absorption equal to 400nm. From the average amount of measured haze, it was deduced that the samples are not high transparency. In addition, for the samples with a lower intensity or chroma of color, it was obtained the higher color constancy value compared to those with the higher color chroma. The visual judgments of the samples showed that most of Iranian honey samples are distinguishable in to five main color groups. In respect of color preference, the samples with a higher chroma of color which also possess a higher color in constancy index were more preferred by the observers.
Open WGM Dielectric Resonator Technique for Characterization of nL-Volume Liquids

In this paper we develop a new approach for the fingerprint detection and analysis of biochemical (lossy) liquids of pico- to nanoliter volumes. We investigated dielectric resonators excited in so-called whispering-gallery-modes with local in homogeneities in the form of a liquid droplet. The droplet position is achieved to be independent on the azimuthal coordinate due to nearly-running wave excitation in the resonant structure by distributed coupling from dielectric image waveguides. The liquid droplet causes a small perturbation of the electromagnetic field distribution with a measurable change of the resonator Q-factor and resonant frequency.
Prevalence and Associated Risk Factors of Eimeria in Sheep of Punjab, Pakistan

A cross-sectional study was carried out to determine the prevalence, species characterization and associated risk factors with Eimeria (E.) in sheep of district Toba Tek Singh from April, 2009 to March, 2010. Of the total 486 faecal samples examined for Eimeria, 209 (43%) were found infected with five species of Eimeria. Amongst the identified species of Eimeria, E. ovinoidalis was the commonest one (48.32%), followed in order by E. ahsata, E. intricata, E. parva and E. faurei with prevalence of 45.45, 28.71, 24.40 and 19.14 percent respectively. Peak prevalence was observed in August. Wet season (rainy and post-rainy) was found to be favourable for Eimeria infection. Lambs had significantly higher prevalence (P<0.05) of Eimeria than adults. Similarly higher prevalence of Eimeria was observed in female as compared to male. Among management and husbandry practices; watering system, housing system, floor type and herd size strongly influenced the prevalence of Eimeria. Coccidiosis was more prevalent in closed housing system, non-cemented floor type, pond watered animals and larger herds (P<0.05) as compared to open housing system, partially cemented floor type, tap watered animals and smaller herds respectively. Feeding system, breed and body condition of animals were not found as risk factors (P>0.05) influencing prevalence of Eimeria. Keywords—Eimeria, Pakistan Prevalence, Sheep
Instrumental Role of Helicobacter pylori γ-Glutamyl Transpeptidase in VacA-Dependent Vacuolation in Gastric Epithelial Cells

Helicobacter pylori causes cellular vacuolation in host cells, a cytotoxic event attributed to vacuolating cytotoxin (VacA) and the presence of permeant weak bases such as ammonia. We report here the role of γ-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT), a constitutively expressed secretory enzyme of H. pylori, in potentiating VacA-dependent vacuolation formation in H. pylori-infected AGS and primary gastric cells. The enhancement is brought about by GGT hydrolysing glutamine present in the extracellular medium, thereby releasing ammonia which accentuates the VacA-induced vacuolation. The events of vacuolation in H. pylori wild type (WT)- and Δggt-infected AGS cells were first captured and visualized by real-time phase-contrast microscopy where WT was observed to induce more vacuoles than Δggt. By using semi-quantitative neutral red uptake assay, we next showed that Δggt induced significantly less vacuolation in AGS and primary gastric epithelial cells as compared to the parental strain (P<0.05) indicating that GGT potentiates the vacuolating effect of VacA. Notably, vacuolation induced by WT was significantly reduced in the absence of GGT substrate, glutamine (P<0.05) or in the presence of a competitive GGT inhibitor, serine-borate complex. Furthermore, the vacuolating ability of Δggt was markedly restored when co-incubated with purified recombinant GGT (rGGT), although rGGT itself did not induce vacuolation independently. Similarly, the addition of exogenous ammonium chloride as a source of ammonia also rescued the ability of Δggt to induce vacuolation. Additionally, we also show that monoclonal antibodies against GGT effectively inhibited GGT activity and successfully suppressed H. pylori-induced vacuolation. Collectively, our results clearly demonstrate that generation of ammonia by GGT through glutamine hydrolysis is responsible for enhancing VacA-dependent vacuolation. Our findings provide a new perspective on GGT as an important virulence factor and a promising target in the management of H. pylori-associated gastric diseases.
VecShare: A Framework for Sharing Word Representation Vectors

Many Natural Language Processing (NLP) models rely on distributed vector representations of words. Because the process of training word vectors can require large amounts of data and computation, NLP researchers and practitioners often utilize pre-trained embeddings downloaded from the Web. However, finding the best embeddings for a given task is difficult, and can be computationally prohibitive. We present a framework, called VecShare, that makes it easy to share and retrieve word embeddings on the Web. The framework leverages a public data-sharing infrastructure to host embedding sets, and provides automated mechanisms for retrieving the embeddings most similar to a given corpus. We perform an experimental evaluation of VecShare’s similarity strategies, and show that they are effective at efficiently retrieving embeddings that boost accuracy in a document classification task. Finally, we provide an open-source Python library for using the VecShare framework.
Identifying Critical Source Areas

and Agriculture (NIFA) and Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) to evaluate the effects of agricultural conservation practices on spatial patterns and trends in water quality at the watershed scale. In some projects, participants also investigated how social and economic factors influence implementation and maintenance of practices. The 13 projects were conducted from 2004 to 2011 as part of the overall Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP). The NIFA-CEAP projects were mainly retrospective; most conservation practices and water quality monitoring efforts were implemented through programs that occurred before the NIFACEAP projects began. By synthesizing the results of all these NIFA-CEAP projects, we explore lessons learned about identifying a watershed’s critical source areas in order to prioritize conservation practice implementation for better protection of water quality and lower costs. NIFA Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) Watershed Assessment Studies
How Large-Scale Training Samples Effect Face Detector? An Empirical Analysis

Recent development in the field of face detection highlights the benefits from large scale training samples, which can be cheaply collected through internet. However, these large training sets are usually constructed in a rather arbitrary manner. In this paper, we empirically investigate the fundamental question of how the training set effects the performance of a given state of the art face detector. In particular, we construct a very large training set containing over 340K face images and study the effect of five common factors of variations (i.e., lighting, expression, blurring, contrast change and noise) which may change face appearance largely. Our results show that noise factor has the most significant influence on the performance of the detector while others (e.g., lighting, expression) are of much less importance. Based on these, we propose a new method to construct an effective training set with much small size for face detection, without significantly reducing the performance.
What Is the Optimum Fluoride Concentration Needed for the Remineralization Process?

In vitro experiments could demonstrate that only negligible amounts of fluoride are necessary to promote remineralization of incipient caries lesions. From the clinical point of view, there is evidence that only under certain circumstances is a stabilization of the surface zone of an incipient caries lesion the true mechanism of action of topically applied fluorides. However, an optimum universally valid fluoride concentration needed for this process cannot be defined.
Analysis of ambulance transports and diversions among US emergency departments.

E nurses are concerned about ambulance diversion. This common operating procedure for many emergency departments occurs in response to department overcrowding caused by a high volume of patients or a backlog of admissions. This study reviews the volume of emergency department (ED) ambulance arrivals and transfers. Estimates are calculated for the frequency of and reasons for ambulance diversion. Then, using ambulance transfer data, the probability of an ED being in diversion status is applied to arrive at the estimated number of patients for whom care is delayed because of ambulance diversion status. Using 2003 data, the authors report that 14.2% of all ED patients arrived by ambulance. Of that number, 39% are seniors, 68% are triaged as emergency or urgent, and 37% are admitted. In addition, of the hospital ED’s that practice ambulance diversion, an estimated 3% of the operating time is spent in this status, resulting in 1 ambulance diverted per minute, nationally. This study is the
La planification des espaces maritimes en France métropolitaine : un enjeu majeur pour la mise en œuvre de la Gestion Intégrée de la Mer et du Littoral.

La representation que la societe se fait de l'espace maritime a evolue au cours des siecles passant de l'idee de " solitudes oceaniques " a celle de " mers pleines ". En effet, aux activites " traditionnelles " deja existantes (peche professionnelle, navigation, etc.), se superposent l'intensification de certaines pratiques (extraction de granulats marins, navigation de plaisance, etc.), mais aussi de nouvelles activites, jusque la purement terrestres ou cotieres, amenees a se developper vers le large (energies marines renouvelables, aquaculture offshore, etc.). Face a ces enjeux de developpement, la necessite de conserver le milieu marin favorise egalement la multiplication d'aires marines protegees (parc naturels marins, sites Natura 2000 en mer, etc.). On assiste donc a une augmentation des demandes d'espaces en mer a laquelle les disponibilites reelles ne peuvent repondre sans une gestion integree permettant la cohabitation entre l'ensemble des activites maritimes. Mais les particularites de l'espace maritime necessitent une approche specifique. La Gestion Integree des Zones Cotiere (GIZC) est aujourd'hui une demarche reconnue a l'echelle internationale en reponse a ces enjeux. Mais ses applications sont trop souvent encore au stade experimental et les retours d'experiences montrent qu'elles se sont limitees a la frange littoral terrestre ou a des espaces maritimes fermes. C'est dans ce contexte qu'apparait utile la Planification Spatiale Maritime (PSM), permettant d'etendre en mer les principes de la GIZC. Apres avoir etudie le sens de la PSM notamment au travers l'analyse d'experiences a l'echelle internationale, cette these s'attache a evaluer la position francaise vis-a-vis de la PSM dans le contexte de construction de sa strategie de Gestion Integree de la Mer et du Littoral (GIML). Les aspects theoriques de la PSM sont confrontes avec les realites du terrain a differentes echelles et plus particulierement a celle du bassin maritime de Lorient. Cette demarche permet d'identifier les elements cles et les enjeux de la mise en œuvre de la PSM dans le contexte francais metropolitain.
The Account of Caesarea by the Piacenza Pilgrim and the Recent Archaeological Discovery of the Octagonal Church in Caesarea Maritima

Abstract This article presents a case in which information derived from a written historical source, which is considered distorted, may be clarified by archaeological discoveries, and archaeological enigmas may be explained by the historical text. Hitherto, the description of Caesarea Maritima by the Piacenza Pilgrim (c. 570 AD) has been considered as a distorted report, combining and confusing two cities in the Holy Land named Caesarea: Caesarea Philippi (known today as Banias) and Caesarea Maritima. In the 1990s K. G. Holum excavated in Caesarea Maritima an octagon church which he identified as a martyrium. He proposed several suggestions for the identification of the saint to whom it was dedicated. A synthesis between the archaeological findings and the Piacenza Pilgrim's written description of Caesarea clarifies the text (erroneously evaluated as distorted), allowing us to propose a new identification of the saint to whom the martyrium at Caesarea Maritima was dedicated.
MUC‐1 Epithelial Tumor Mucin‐Based Immunity and Cancer Vaccines

Many obstacles still stand in the way to eliciting an effective immune response against cancer, even though several antigens and antigenic peptides have been identified as potential tumor targets. All of them, including the MUC-1 mucin, share the caveat of being normal cellular proteins. Unlike all the others, however, MUC-1 expressed on tumors can still be considered a truly tumor-specific antigen. Its expression on normal cells is hidden from the immune system, and its aberrant glycosylation on tumors creates new epitopes recognized by the immune system. Moreover, all other tumor targets identified so far are MHC-restricted peptides that can only be recognized by patients who carry a specific HLA type, or on tumors which continue to express particular HLA alleles. MUC-1 is powerfully different. Recognized as a native molecule independent of MHC, it is a universal immunogen and a universal target, and if made effectively immunogenic, it would be expected to elicit immune responses in all patients, and against numerous MUC-1 expressing human tumors. It may, in fact, be the extraordinary solution to an extraordinary problem of cancer immunity and immunotherapy.
Comparison of manual and automated nucleic acid extraction from whole‐blood samples

Nucleic acid extraction and purification from whole blood is a routine application in many laboratories. Automation of this procedure promises standardized sample treatment, a low error rate, and avoidance of contamination. The performance of the BioRobot M48 (Qiagen) and the manual QIAmp® DNA Blood Mini Kit (Qiagen) was compared for the extraction of DNA from whole blood. The concentration and purity of the extracted DNAs were determined by spectrophotometry. Analytical sensitivity was assessed by common PCR and genotyping techniques. The quantity and quality of the generated DNAs were slightly higher using the manual extraction method. The results of downstream applications were comparable to each other. Amplification of high‐molecular‐weight PCR fragments, genotyping by restriction digest, and pyrosequencing were successful for all samples. No cross‐contamination could be detected. While automated DNA extraction requires significantly less hands‐on time, it is slightly more expensive than the manual extraction method. J. Clin. Lab. Anal. 21:244–248, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Continuing education and quality improvement in primary health care.

Since 1990 the Institute of Health Studies of the Department of Health and Social Security (Barcelona, Spain) has been developing a continuing education plan in quality improvement (QI) in order to introduce QI activities in health services. The plan consists of a series of training-oriented actions in public primary health care services. The goal of the plan is to facilitate the implementation of QI projects and programmes in order to introduce these activities into the routine practice of health care services and to obtain information on the impact of continuing education in QI. In the introduction of QI principles and methods into organizations, analysis of the existing situation usually reveals a variety of needs to be taken into consideration in developing actions to pursue quality [1,2]. These include: (i) the need to know and understand the principles and techniques of QI in which frequently all levels and professionals of the organization should be involved; (ii) the need to facilitate and assist professionals to develop Ql-related initiatives; and (iii) the need to obtain a commitment to these initiatives on the part of the organization's governing bodies. In order to meet these conditions, QI plans must be endowed with strategic elements in response to these needs and different actions; including continuing education, advising, and recognition of the progress derived from these initiatives should be appropriately articulated [3-5].
Spontaneous regression of optic gliomas: thirteen cases documented by serial neuroimaging.

OBJECTIVE To demonstrate spontaneous regression of large, clinically symptomatic optic pathway gliomas in patients with and without neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF-1). METHODS Patient cases were collected through surveys at 2 consecutive annual meetings of the North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society (NANOS) and through requests on the NANOSNET Internet listserv. Serial documentation of tumor signal and size, using magnetic resonance imaging in 11 patients and computed tomography in 2 patients, was used to evaluate clinically symptomatic optic pathway gliomas. All tumors met radiologic criteria for the diagnosis of glioma and 4 patients had biopsy confirmation of their tumors. In 3 patients, some attempt at therapy had been made many years before regression occurred. In one of these, radiation treatment had been given 19 years before tumor regression, while in another, chemotherapy had been administered 5 years before signal changes in the tumor. In the third patient, minimal surgical debulking was performed 1 year before the tumor began to shrink. RESULTS Spontaneous tumor shrinkage was noted in 12 patients. Eight patients did not have NF-1. In an additional patient without NF-1, a signal change within the tumor without associated shrinkage was detected. Tumor regression was associated with improvement in visual function in 10 of 13 patients, stability of function in 1, and deterioration in 2. CONCLUSIONS Large, clinically symptomatic optic gliomas may undergo spontaneous regression. Regression was seen in patients with and without NF-1. Regression may manifest either as an overall shrinkage in tumor size, or as a signal change on magnetic resonance imaging. A variable degree of improvement in visual function may accompany regression. The possibility of spontaneous regression of an optic glioma should be considered in the planning of treatment of patients with these tumors.