Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stress in Patients Diagnosed With Rheumatoid Arthritis Compared to Chronic Pain

Purpose/Objective: To examine potential differences in cognitions and traitlike factors that relate to stress among individuals diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) compared to those with chronic pain (CP). Research Method/Design: A cross-sectional study was conducted with participants recruited from outpatient rheumatology and CP clinics. Participants completed self-report questionnaires of demographics, disease characteristics, cognitions, and traitlike constructs. Correlates of patient stress were considered using hierarchical multiple regression. Results: Analyses included 445 participants: 226 patients diagnosed with RA and 229 patients diagnosed with CP. In participants with RA, excessive worrying and anxiety sensitivity were independently associated with feeling stressed (p < .001), and 29% of the variance in stress scores was explained after adjusting for age, gender, years of education, and average pain intensity. In participants with CP, fear of relaxation, anxiety sensitivity, and pain catastrophizing were independently associated with feeling stressed (p < .001), and 31% of variance in stress scores was explained after adjusting for age, gender, years of education, and average pain intensity. Comparison of the fit of the model in both groups of patients through use of Fisher’s z test found that the set of variables did similarly well for both patients with RA and those with CP, with no significant difference between R2 values (z = .88, p = .388). Conclusions/Implications: This study establishes cognitions and traitlike factors that are related to reports of stress among patients with RA and CP. These factors should be considered when treating and developing interventions for patients who experience increased feelings of stress.
Robust cepstral features for speaker identification

In this paper we introduce a new set of features that provides improved performance for speaker identification. This feature set is referred to as the adaptive component weighting (ACW) cepstral coefficients. The ACW scheme modifies the linear predictive (LP) spectral components (resonances) so as to emphasize the formant structure by attenuating the broad-bandwidth spectral components. Such components are found to introduce undesired variability in the LP spectra of speech signals due to environmental factors. The ACW cepstral coefficients represent an adaptively weighted version of the LP cepstrum. The adaptation results in deemphasizing the irrelevant variations of the LP cepstral coefficients on a frame-by-frame basis. Experiments are presented using the San Diego portion of the King database. The ACW cepstrum is shown to offer improved speaker identification performance as compared to other common methods of cepstral weighting. <<ETX>>
Diagnostic value of the serum galactomannan and (1, 3)-β-D-glucan assays for invasive pulmonary aspergillosis in non-neutropenic patients.

OBJECTIVE Galactomannan (GM) and (1, 3)-β-D-glucan (BG) are considered useful seromarkers for the diagnosis of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) in patients with neutropenia. However, there is still limited data on these seromarkers for testing non-neutropenic patients who are at the risk of IPA. The aim of this study was to evaluate the value of these two serum antigen assays for the early diagnosis of IPA in patients without neutropenia. METHODS Between January 2011 and December 2012, 97 patients with suspected IPA admitted to the department of respiratory diseases and the respiratory intensive care unit were prospectively monitored. Serum GM and BG assays were performed before the patients received antifungal therapy. RESULTS Patients were classified as proven IPA (n=11), probable IPA (n=16), possible IPA (n=4), or non-IPA (n=66). The most common underlying disease of patients with IPA was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (18.5%), and 22.2% patients with IPA had no known diseases. The sensitivities, specificities, and positive and negative predictive values of the GM and BG assays and at least one positive on both assays were 40.7%/89.4%/61.1%/78.7%, 48.1%/78.8%/48.1%/78.8%, and 70.4%/75.8%/54.3%/86.2%, respectively. CONCLUSION Compared with the testing of neutropenic patients, the serum GM or BG assay alone was less useful for the diagnosis of IPA in non-neutropenic patients. However, at least one positive result of the two serum assays appeared to be useful in the diagnosis of IPA in non-neutropenic patients.
VECCHIO E NUOVO AUTORITARISMO NELL'EUROPA MEDITERRANEA

Introduzione Nel corso degli anni settanta, crisi autoritaria e transizione alla democrazia hanno caratterizzato Portogallo, Spagna e Grecia (O'Donnell, Schmitter e Whitehead 1986). Nello stesso periodo il quarto paese dell'Europa mediterranea, l'Italia, attraversava la sua crisi democratica piò difficile dai tempi dell'instaurazione repubblicana (1945-48), o addirittura dagli anni venti. In Spagna e Portogallo, il fallimento dei regimi autoritari e i relativi processi di democratizzazione erano scaturiti da una combinazione di trasformazioni interne, economiche e sociali, e internazionali (Morlino 1986). In Grecia quel fallimento veniva dal mancato consolidamento del regime militare, insieme all'attivazione di una notevole opposizione al regime e alla crisi di Cipro, cioè ancora da una combinazione di elementi interni ed internazionali. Trasformazioni socio-economiche e conseguente mobilitazione politica di nuovi gruppi e movimenti (lavoratori, giovani, donne) ovvero emergere di nuove domande erano anche alla base della crisi italiana (Farneti 1978; Morlino 1985).
Percepción social sobre el pago por servicios ambientales hidrológicos en la Reserva de la Biósfera Mariposa Monarca

En el presente trabajo se analizan los resultados de un estudio estadisticamente representativo en torno a la percepcion social que tienen los nucleos agrarios que se encuentran al interior de la Reserva de la Biosfera Mariposa Monarca sobre el impacto socioeconomico del Pago por Servicios Ambientales Hidrologicos. Los resultados indican que esta politica ambiental tiene una buena aceptacion de los duenos de los terrenos forestales porque consideran que favorece la provision de los servicios ecosistemicos, a pesar de que no perciban importantes beneficios economicos derivados de su participacion en el programa.
Management of antithrombotic therapy after bleeding in patients with coronary artery disease and/or atrial fibrillation: expert consensus paper of the European Society of Cardiology Working Group on Thrombosis

Bleeding is a frequent complication of the management of patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), especially those presenting with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) or undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), and of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Randomized trials have shown a risk of major bleeding of 1–8% at 30 days in ACS patients,1–5 and of 2–5% per year in patients with AF treated with oral anticoagulants (OACs). 6 Observational studies suggest that bleeding risk is even higher.7 Major bleeding is associated with a subsequent increase in both short- and long-term mortality.7–13 Even minimal bleeding may have prognostic importance because it frequently leads to disruption of antithrombotic therapy.14,15 Several mechanisms have been put forward to explain the relationship between major bleeding and increased mortality ( Figure 1 ). The overlap in risk factors for bleeding and ischaemic events means that patients who are more likely to suffer from bleeding complications of antithrombotic therapy also tend to be at higher risk of thrombotic events.16 Discontinuation of antithrombotic drugs may lead to an increased rate of thrombotic events due to the progressive recovery of platelet function and coagulation activity.17–19 In addition, bleeding may provoke prothrombotic responses beyond those related to discontinuation of antithrombotic drugs.20,21 Clearly, balancing the risks of further bleeding vs. potentially fatal thrombotic events is critical for decisions about if and when to restart antithrombotic therapy after bleeding. Figure 1 Hypothetical mechanisms linking bleeding to thrombotic events and death. Numerous risk factors for bleeding are also risk factors for myocardial infarction, stroke and death (large arrows). VTE, venous thromboembolism. Although several recommendations have been published dealing with the acute management of bleeding in patients treated with antithrombotic drugs,22–24 there is an unmet need for guidance on how to manage antithrombotic therapy after bleeding …
Burden of Informal Caregiving for Stroke Patients

Background: We assessed the objective and subjective burden of caregiving for stroke patients and investigated which characteristics of the patient, the informal caregiver and the objective burden contribute most to subjective burden and to the condition of feeling substantially burdened. Methods: We studied a sample of 151 stroke survivors and their primary informal caregivers. We collected data through patient and caregiver interviews 6 months after stroke. Results: Both the level of subjective burden and the condition of feeling substantially burdened were associated with both caregiver’s and patient’s health-related quality of life, patient’s age, and the number of caregiving tasks performed. Conclusions: These conditions can be used in clinical practice to identify potentially vulnerable caregivers in need of support and at risk of adverse health effects. Monitoring stroke survivors as well as their family caregivers at discharge may help to prevent or alleviate caregiver burden.
The dynamics of emergency transhipment supply chains

Considers the dynamical effect of lateral emergency transhipments within a supply chain. It tests various different strategies for improving customer service via the MIT Beer Game. Four distinct strategies are considered. “Electronic point of sales (EPOS)”, where marketplace information is forwarded to all players throughout the supply chain; “Excel”, where the stock levels in all echelons are controlled by the factory; “Emergency transhipments”, where an express transportation route bypassing an echelon in the supply chain is permitted; “Eliminate”, where an echelon is removed from the supply chain. The Beer Game strategies are also studied via a simulation exercise. Results show that the Excel strategy is flawed, whereas the EPOS strategy has a strong impact on inventory cost, Emergency transhipments has a strong impact on customer service level and Eliminate results in less stock for an improved customer service level. Combinations of the three viable strategies are also tested. This paper concludes that the three strategies can be integrated to significantly improve supply chain performance.
Metric Temporal Logic Translations over the Naturals

We study translations from Metric Temporal Logic (MTL) over the natural numbers to Linear Temporal Logic (LTL). In particular, we present two approaches for translating from MTL to LTL which preserve the EXPSPACE complexity of the satisfiability problem for MTL. Our translations, thus, allow us to utilise LTL provers to solve MTL satisfiability problems.
A vocational rehabilitation intervention for young adults with physical disabilities: participants' perception of beneficial attributes

BACKGROUND Finding and maintaining employment is a major challenge for young adults with physical disabilities and their work participation rate is lower than that of healthy peers. This paper is about a program that supports work participation amongst young adults with chronic physical disabilities. The study aims to explore their experienced barriers and facilitators for finding and maintaining employment after starting this program, the participant-perceived beneficial attributes of the program and participants' recommendations for additional intervention components. METHODS Semi-structured interviews (n = 19) were held with former intervention participations. Interviews were recorded and transcribed ad verbatim. Themes were derived using the phenomenological approach. RESULTS Physical functions and capacities, supervisor's attitude, self-esteem and self-efficacy and openness and assertiveness were experienced barriers and facilitators for finding and maintaining employment. Improvement of self-promoting skills and disclosure skills through job interview-training, increased self-esteem or self-efficacy through peer-support, a suitable job through job placement, improvement of work ability through arrangement of adjusted work conditions and change of supervisor's attitude through education provided to the supervisor were perceived as beneficial attributes of the intervention. Respondents recommended to incorporate assertiveness and openness skills training into future intervention programs. CONCLUSIONS The findings suggest that programs supporting work participation should be designed to provide challenging, real-world experiential opportunities that provide young adults with physical disabilities with new insights, self-efficacy and life skills. Also, such programs should facilitate context centered learning. Former intervention participants, therefore, evaluated job-interview training, sharing learning and social experiences with peers, job placement, arrangement of adjusted work conditions and education as beneficial attributes of the 'At Work' program. In addition, they recommended, to incorporate more training on assertiveness and disclosure. We advise professionals to include these beneficial attributes in similar interventions in other contexts.
Low-Cost and Steady On-Line Retraining of MLP with Guide Data

The decision boundary making (DBM) algorithm was proposed by us to induce compact and high performance machine learning models for implementation in portable/wearable computing devices. To upgrade performance of DBM-initialized models, we may use all observed data to retrain the model, but the computational cost is high. To reduce the cost, we may use the newly observed datum only, but this often degrades the performance of the model. To solve the problem, we propose on-line training algorithm with guide data (OLTA-GD) in this paper. OLTA-GD updates the model using only a few guide data along with the newest datum. The guide data are selected from all available data. Here, guide data selection is a key point. For this purpose, this paper investigates two methods. The first method is random selection, and the second one is cluster center based. In the second method, the cluster centers are obtained using k-means algorithm. Experimental results show that, OLTA-GD can upgrade the models more steadily than backpropagation (BP) algorithm, and the first selection method is better. For the guide data, around 5 data are usually enough to upgrade the performance steadily, and thus the computational cost is basically not increased compared with the BP.
Recent advances in intelligent paradigms fusion and their applications

Over the past decades, computerized intelligent paradigms have attracted much attention from researchers. Advances in intelligent techniques and approaches, which include neural networks, knowledgebased systems, fuzzy logic, evolutionary algorithms, agent-based techniques, case based reasoning etc, have resulted in many successful applications of these innovative systems. Indeed, applicability of intelligent paradigms to many diverse domains have been demonstrated, which include pattern recognition, image and signal processing, control and automation, robotics, data mining, biomedicine, knowledge management, finance and banking. Instead of employing a single intelligent paradigm, one recent trend of research and development is on the fusion of different intelligent paradigms to tackle complex problems. The combination of more than one intelligent techniques can be realized in many forms, either by a modular cooperation of two (or more) intelligent techniques, each with its own identity; or by fusing one technique into another to form an integrated system. The main rationale behind intelligent paradigms fusion is to exploit the advantages of each intelligent technique and, at the same time, to avoid its limitations, for solving a particular problem. In this special issue, a number of articles which address the usefulness of different intelligent paradigms and their fusions are presented. The intelligent paradigms investigated include fuzzy models, evolutionary algorithms, multi-agent systems, neural networks, particle swam optimization techniques, and artificial immune systems. Applications of these systems are demonstrated in various fields, ranging from real estate appraisal, e-learning, sensor networks, to biomedical data analysis. A summary of the articles covered in this special issue is as follows. Fuzzy models have emerged as an effective tool for intelligent data analysis, where the data can be both quantitative and qualitative. In Krol et al., the TakagiSugeno-Kang (TSK) fuzzy model is optimized using evolutionary algorithms. The resulting model is applied to real estate appraisals. Two approaches are examined. The first focuses on learning the rule base while the second deals with learning the rule base and tuning the membership functions simultaneously. The evolutionary algorithms are based on the Pittsburgh approach with real-valued chromosomes comprising the whole rule base or both the rule base and parameters of the membership functions. Applicability of the system is evaluated using a total of 150 real sales transactions made in one of Polish cities. Development in innovative computer technologies has offered many promises in the field of education, especially in distance learning. However, a crucial issue in educational technology is the provision of instructional environments and conditions that comply with different educational goals and learning abilities. In Serce et al., an Adaptive Intelligent Learning Sys-
Evolution of self-organisation in Dictyostelia by adaptation of a non-selective phosphodiesterase and a matrix component for regulated cAMP degradation

Dictyostelium discoideum amoebas coordinate aggregation and morphogenesis by secreting cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) pulses that propagate as waves through fields of cells and multicellular structures. To retrace how this mechanism for self-organisation evolved, we studied the origin of the cAMP phosphodiesterase PdsA and its inhibitor PdiA, which are essential for cAMP wave propagation. D. discoideum and other species that use cAMP to aggregate reside in group 4 of the four major groups of Dictyostelia. We found that groups 1-3 express a non-specific, low affinity orthologue of PdsA, which gained cAMP selectivity and increased 200-fold in affinity in group 4. A low affinity group 3 PdsA only partially restored aggregation of a D. discoideum pdsA-null mutant, but was more effective at restoring fruiting body morphogenesis. Deletion of a group 2 PdsA gene resulted in disruption of fruiting body morphogenesis, but left aggregation unaffected. Together, these results show that groups 1-3 use a low affinity PdsA for morphogenesis that is neither suited nor required for aggregation. PdiA belongs to a family of matrix proteins that are present in all Dictyostelia and consist mainly of cysteine-rich repeats. However, in its current form with several extensively modified repeats, PdiA is only present in group 4. PdiA is essential for initiating spiral cAMP waves, which, by organising large territories, generate the large fruiting structures that characterise group 4. We conclude that efficient cAMP-mediated aggregation in group 4 evolved by recruitment and adaptation of a non-selective phosphodiesterase and a matrix component into a system for regulated cAMP degradation.
Insulin infusion protocol for critical care units.

PURPOSE An insulin infusion protocol for critical care units is described. SUMMARY Evidence that aggressive glycemic control improves outcomes led physicians, nurses, dietitians, and pharmacists at a trauma center to develop an insulin infusion protocol. Before the protocol, elevated blood glucose concentrations were often not treated until they reached 200 mg/dL or higher. Insulin infusions were underutilized and were often not started until capillary blood glucose concentrations were greater than 350 mg/dL for 12 or more hours. When orders for an insulin infusion were written, they did not include directions for dosage adjustment, and the goal blood glucose range varied. A preliminary protocol was drafted allowing adjustments in insulin administration to be based on changes in capillary blood glucose values since the previous blood glucose measurement. The protocol was presented to a multidisciplinary team and further refined. The targeted blood glucose concentration range was 80-130 mg/dL. After the targeted range was achieved for a patient, if the blood glucose level continued to decrease over three consecutive measurements, the infusion rate was decreased by 0.5 or 1 unit/hr, depending on the capillary blood glucose level. Data for the first 30 patients were collected from September 2003 to August 2004. It took 2-36 hours (mean, 12.6 hours) to bring the capillary blood glucose concentration to less than 130 mg/dL. Among 2,845 capillary blood glucose measurements, there were 15 cases of hypoglycemia (0.4%) requiring treatment with 50% dextrose injection. CONCLUSION A multidisciplinary effort resulted in the development of an insulin infusion protocol for use in critical care units.
Integrating Haptic Interaction Into An Existing Virtual Environment Toolkit

There is increasing demand for haptic, or touch-based, interaction in virtual environments. Although many haptic devices come with APIs to enable the development of haptic-based applications, many do not provide the same level of graphical support available in virtual environment or game technology toolkits. This paper will discuss the integration of haptic interaction into an existing virtual environment toolkit. By creating a ﬂexible middleware component, haptic interaction and force feedback for a haptic device can augment sensory experiences in existing virtual environments. A user study was conducted to evaluate the integration of haptics and realistic physics in an example virtual environment.
Local anesthetic failure in endodontics

Many patients fear endodontic procedures due to a concern about pain. Although pain treatment is well managed in many endodontic patients, there exists a group of patients who do not receive adequate local anesthesia. This article reviews the mechanisms of local anesthetic failure and focuses on available evidence for developing effective and efficient approaches in local anesthesia.
Quantifying Aesthetic Preference And Perceived Complexity For Fractal Melodies

PARTICIPANTS RATED THE PERCEIVED complexity and melodiousness of fractal (1/f ) tone sequences with specific ß values. Plotting the mean complexity and melodicity ratings against each other and against ß indicated that: (1) a melody’s spectral power density slope ( ß) can be used as an objective measure of its perceived complexity; (2) ß ≈ 1.50 for optimally preferred melodies; (3) perceived complexity is determined by the distribution of pitch intervals such that optimally preferred melodies have a preponderance of small intervals compared to large ones; (4) the poor quadratic fits found in music-preference studies are due to the use of an independent-subjects design or the stimuli not covering the whole possible range of complexity; (5) ß < 2 for most music stimuli; and (6) ecologically valid melodies only exist over the ß range 0.67 to 2.35, with melodies whose ß values lie outside this range not being perceived as musical due to their extreme complexity or simplicity. Finally, converging experimental and neurophysiological evidence is discussed that suggests that these results are a consequence of the auditory system being optimally tuned to the statistical properties of speech.