Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Do Lesbian Couples Make Better Parents than Heterosexual Couples

There is no unanimity among child and family scholars and mental health practitioners on what family form, family processes, or environmental influences engender optimal child development. One of the currently controversies is if lesbian parents make better parents than their heterosexual counterparts. Is there any validity to the claim that lesbian parents may bemore involved in child activities, are better listeners, less critical and judgmental, and more are flexible on gender identity and sexual orientation issues than heterosexual parents? The author challenges this conclusion and considers it too early for researchers to claim the null hypothesis: that there are no differences on a variety of psychosocial outcomes between children reared by homosexual parents and children reared by heterosexual parents. The data, to date, is ambiguous and has many research limitations includingsmall, non-random samples, lack of longitudinal data, and the inescapable bias that most researchers on lesbigay parenting are self-identified homosexuals.
Personal experience with narrated events modulates functional connectivity within visual and motor systems during story comprehension

Past experience of everyday life activities, which forms the basis of our knowledge about the world, greatly affects how we understand stories. Yet, little is known about how this influence is instantiated in the human brain. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate how past experience facilitates functional connectivity during the comprehension of stories rich in perceptual and motor details. We found that comprehenders' past experience with the scenes and actions described in the narratives selectively modulated functional connectivity between lower‐ and higher‐level areas within the neural systems for visual and motor processing, respectively. These intramodal interactions may play an important role in integrating personal knowledge about a narrated situation with an evolving discourse representation. This study provides empirical evidence consistent with the idea that regions related to visual and motor processing are involved in the reenactment of experience as proposed by theories of embodied cognition. Hum Brain Mapp 36:1494–1505, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Independent colonization of multiple urban centres by a formerly forest specialist bird species

Urban areas are expanding rapidly, but a few native species have successfully colonized them. The processes underlying such colonization events are poorly understood. Using the blackbird Turdus merula, a former forest specialist that is now one of the most common urban birds in its range, we provide the first assessment of two contrasting urban colonization models. First, that urbanization occurred independently. Second, that following initial urbanization, urban-adapted individuals colonized other urban areas in a leapfrog manner. Previous analyses of spatial patterns in the timing of blackbird urbanization, and experimental introductions of urban and rural blackbirds to uncolonized cities, suggest that the leapfrog model is likely to apply. We found that, across the western Palaearctic, urban blackbird populations contain less genetic diversity than rural ones, urban populations are more strongly differentiated from each other than from rural populations and assignment tests support a rural source population for most urban individuals. In combination, these results provide much stronger support for the independent urbanization model than the leapfrog one. If the former model predominates, colonization of multiple urban centres will be particularly difficult when urbanization requires genetic adaptations, having implications for urban species diversity.
Financing Policy, Basis Risk, and Corporate Hedging: Evidence from Oil and Gas Producers

This paper studies the hedging policies of oil and gas producers between 1992 and 1994. My evidence shows that the extent of hedging is related to financing costs. In particular, companies with greater financial leverage manage price risks more extensively.My evidence also shows that the likelihood of hedging is related to economies of scale in hedging costs and to the basis risk associated with hedging instruments. Larger companies and companies whose production is located primarily in regions where prices have a high correlation with the prices on which exchange-traded derivatives are based are more likely to manage risks. Copyright The American Finance Association 2000.
Bilingual Education Within the Context of English-Only Policies: Three Districts' Responses to Question 2 in Massachusetts

This article describes three medium-sized districts'responses to the successful passage of an English-only ballot initiative in Massachusetts. Through interviews with bilingual directors and document analysis the study found that programmatic changes as a result of the new law were primarily limited to elementary-level transitional bilingual education programs. Key leaders'detailed knowledge of the law and commitment to bilingual education, and the local context, influenced how the state-mandated policy was translated into practice.
Do older patients find multi-compartment medication devices easy to use and which are the easiest?

BACKGROUND multi-compartment medication devices (MMDs) are widely used, primarily by older people, to aid correct-medication taking. Several MMD types are available yet little is known about the ease with which patients with varying functional ability use these devices and whether some types are easier than others. Such knowledge would assist healthcare practitioners in advising patients on a suitable choice of device. OBJECTIVE this study investigates the ease with which patients with differing functional ability use three types of MMD. METHOD participants were recruited from an older person's medical ward. Demographic and medication information, cognitive function, visual acuity and manual dexterity were recorded. The Venalink®, Nomad Clear® and Dosett® MMDs were tested. Participants rated each MMD according to text readability, ease of opening, ease of medication removal, transportability and overall rating. These ratings were compared between MMDs for all patients and for subgroups with differing functional abilities. RESULTS the MMDs were trialled by 50 patients; the majority rated text readability well but rated MMDs poorly according to the other criteria. Cognitively impaired participants may encounter difficulties in opening and removing medication from Venalink® and Nomad®. The Dosett® consistently rated better across all criteria. Transportability was the most influential criterion for overall MMD usability. CONCLUSION the poor patient rating of MMDs which are widely used in practice is of concern. Some MMDs may be difficult to open and access, especially for patients with cognitive impairment. This offers some guidance to health professionals in advising patients on MMD choice however, overall MMD rating appears dominated by transportability.
Improved Stabilization Method for Networked Control Systems

This paper investigates the controller design problem for networked control systems (NCSs). By considering the relationship between the network-reduced delay and its upper bound, an improved stability criterion for networked closed-loop system is proposed without ignoring any terms in the derivative of Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional. As a result, a state feedback controller design method is established using a modified cone complementary linearisation (CCL) algorithm with a new stopping condition. A numerical example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness and the benefits of the proposed method.
Limit Cycle Bifurcations by Perturbing a Hamiltonian System with a Cuspidal Loop of Order m

This paper is concerned with the expansion of the first-order Melnikov function for general Hamiltonian systems with a cuspidal loop having order m. Some criteria and formulas are derived, which can be used to obtain first-order coefficients in the expansion. In particular, we deduce the first-order coefficients for the case m = 3 and give the corresponding conditions of existing several limit cycles. As an application, we study a Lienard system of type (n, 9) and prove that it can have 14 limit cycles near a cuspidal loop of order 3 for n = 8.
School leadership and capacity building in Kazakhstan

The article examines the scope for initiative and independent action that lies with school principals in Kazakhstan, with a particular focus on capacity-building approaches. The study is situated within a large collaborative project between three institutions: the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education, Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education and Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools (NIS). A mixed-methods research design was used to collect data in 20 schools and 11 other educational organizations in six different geographical locations in Kazakhstan. The findings suggest that capacity-building strategies are necessary if innovations are to be implemented across all schools. The article outlines the challenges involved in making school reform effective and draws on the ‘capital framework’. The conclusion considers the implications for practitioners and policy-makers, and outlines an agenda for further research.
Pathways to Collaboration Understanding the Role of Values and System-Related Factors in

iv CalSWEC Preface v About the Authors vii Acknowledgements x Introduction xiv Curriculum Overview xvi CalSWEC Curriculum Competencies xxiv Section I: Relationships Between Child Welfare and Substance Abuse Instructional Guide Learning Objectives Public Child Welfare Competencies Agenda and Suggestions for Instructors Materials Needed Relationships Between Child Welfare and Substance Abuse Prevalence of Parental Substance Use, Abuse, and Dependence Prevalence of Substance Abuse in Child Welfare Involved Families Intervention and Treatment Timing Issues and the Evolving Policy Landscape Handouts 1. Find Someone Who. 2. Activity I-2: Discussion Questions 1 2 2 2 3 4 5 5 11 15 17 25 26 27 Section II: Impact of Values, Beliefs, and Expectations in Practice Instructional Guide Learning Objectives Public Child Welfare Competencies Agenda and Suggestions for Instructors Materials Needed Impact of Values, Beliefs, and Expectations in Practice Social Worker Expectations, Beliefs, and Values: Avoiding Bias in Practice Social Worker Attitudes and Values in Practice with Individuals with Substance Abuse Problems 28 29 29 29 30 31 32 32 36
Identification of biological pathways regulated by PGRN and GRN peptide treatments using transcriptome analysis

Mutations in progranulin (PGRN) have been linked to two neurodegenerative disorders, heterozygote mutations with frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) and homozygote mutations with neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (NCL). Human PGRN is 593aa secreted growth factor, made up of seven and a half repeats of a highly conserved granulin motif that is cleaved to produce the granulin peptides A–G and paragranulin. While it is thought that PGRN protects against neurodegeneration through its role in inflammation and tissue repair, the role of PGRN and granulins in the nervous system is currently unclear. To better understand this, we prepared recombinant PGRN, granulin A‐F and paragranulin, and used these to treat differentiated neuronal SH‐SY5Y cells. Using RNA sequencing and bioinformatics techniques we investigated the functional effects of PGRN and the individual granulins upon the transcriptome. For PGRN treatment we show that the main effect of short‐duration treatments is the down‐regulation of transcripts, supporting that signalling pathway induction appears to be dominant effect. Gene ontology analysis, however, also supports the regulation of biological processes such as the spliceosome and proteasome in response to PGRN treatment, as well as the lysosomal pathway constituents such as CHMP1A, further supporting the role of PGRN in lysosomal function. We also show that the response to granulin treatments involves the regulation of numerous non‐coding RNA's, and the granulins cluster into groups of similar activity on the basis of expression profile with paragranulin and PGRN having similar expression profiles, while granulins B, D, E and G appear more similar.
Persistence of High Income Inequality and Banking Crises: 1980-2010

Differently from Atkinson and Morelli (2011) who detect no clear link between increases in income inequality and systemic banking crises, we show that a large majority of crises occurred between 1982 and 2008 have been preceded by persistently high levels of income inequality. Such association is robust when considering Gini values for incomes after-tax as well as before-tax and transfers. Moreover, we investigate the pattern of income inequality levels before and after a group of banking crises and the relative levels of income inequality in a large sample of OECD countries that did not experience banking crises between 1980 and 2010.
Children's Beliefs about Long‐Term Retention

In 2 experiments, we examined pre-school, grade 1, and grade 3 children's metamemory about long-term retention. Specifically, we examined beliefs about the type of information most likely to be forgotten and beliefs about the impact of suggestions and retroactive interference on memory. Children made and explained paired-comparison judgments concerning the differential forgetting of peripheral versus central information, whether misinformation effects would arise from suggestions by others, and whether retroactive interference would arise from experiencing two similar events. The major findings were that (a) most children believed that events central to a story would be retained better than peripheral details; (b) in preschool and first grade, children believed that memory was invulnerable to suggestion (from a parent or a sibling), but in third grade, children believed suggestion could adversely affect memory; (c) most preschoolers believed that retroactive interference effects would not occur, whereas most first and third graders acknowledged that they would; (d) older children believed that both suggestibility and interference were less likely given a retention interval of several months compared to 1 day; and (e) in explaining their beliefs, children assigned sensory-behavioral factors a major causal role in determining what would be remembered over the long term. These results are discussed in terms of the development of beliefs about memory and the mind in general.
Mammalian Cytochrome P450-Dependent Metabolism of Polychlorinated Dibenzo-p-dioxins and Coplanar Polychlorinated Biphenyls

Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and coplanar polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) contribute to dioxin toxicity in humans and wildlife after bioaccumulation through the food chain from the environment. The authors examined human and rat cytochrome P450 (CYP)-dependent metabolism of PCDDs and PCBs. A number of human CYP isoforms belonging to the CYP1 and CYP2 families showed remarkable activities toward low-chlorinated PCDDs. In particular, human CYP1A1, CYP1A2, and CYP1B1 showed high activities toward monoCDDs, diCDDs, and triCDDs but no detectable activity toward 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (2,3,7,8-tetraCDD). Large amino acids located at putative substrate-recognition sites and the F-G loop in rat CYP1A1 contributed to the successful metabolism of 2,3,7,8-tetraCDD. Rat, but not human, CYP1A1 metabolized 3,3',4,4',5-pentachlorobiphenyl (CB126) to two hydroxylated metabolites. These metabolites are probably less toxic than is CB126, due to their higher solubility. Homology models of human and rat CYP1A1s and CB126 docking studies indicated that two amino acid differences in the CB126-binding cavity were important for CB126 metabolism. In this review, the importance of CYPs in the metabolism of dioxins and PCBs in mammals and the species-based differences between humans and rats are described. In addition, the authors reveal the molecular mechanism behind the binding modes of dioxins and PCBs in the heme pocket of CYPs.
Legal Compliance in Street‐Level Bureaucracy: A Study of UK Housing Officers

Street‐level bureaucratic theory is now at a fairly mature stage. The focus on street‐level bureaucrats as ultimate policymakers is now as familiar as it is important. Likewise, the parallel sociolegal study of the implementation of public law in public organizations has demonstrated the inevitable gap between law‐in‐the‐books and law‐in‐action. Yet, the success of these advances comes at the potential cost of us losing sight of the importance of law itself. This article analyzes some empirical data on the decision making about one legal concept — vulnerability in UK homelessness law. Our analysis offers two main contributions. First, we argue that, when it comes to the implementation of law, the legal abilities and propensities of the bureaucrats must be taken into account. Bureaucrats' abilities to understand legal materials make a difference to the likelihood of legal compliance. Second, we must also pay attention to the character of the legal provisions. Where a provision is simple, it is more likely to facilitate legal knowledge and demands nothing of bureaucrats in terms of legal competence. Where the provision is also inoffensive and liveable, it is less likely to act as an impediment to legal conscientiousness.
Experiencing New Technology: Exploring Pre-Service Teachers' Perceptions and Reflections upon the Affordances of Social Media.

This paper analyses pre-service teachers' perceptions of the affordances of new technology after experiencing two social media tools embedded into their coursework. This sociological ethnographic study builds upon previously gathered data that highlighted that 72% of pre-service teachers in the Masters of Teaching degree use personal mobile devices. Personal technology use was high, and the previous survey demonstrated that participants held a positive outlook for technology use in their future classrooms. However, these pre-service teachers had difficulty in articulating an educational vision for this technology. This study draws upon data from 120, second year Masters of Teaching pre-service teachers. Our focus, as academic staff, was to provide opportunities for all pre-service teachers to meaningfully experience the possibilities for learning spaces offered by new technologies. We scaffolded learning opportunities for pre-service teachers into lectures and workshops focusing on two social media tools: 'Edmodo' and 'Twitter'. Participants were surveyed prior to their experiences, and their written reflections on the affordances of 'Edmodo' and 'Twitter' at the end of the semester were also coded. Personal mobile device use in this group increased, with more than 80% having a smart phone, and also at least one other personal mobile device (i-Pod, Laptop, i-Pad). Data displays a shift in pre-service teachers perceptions of future use of these technologies within their own classrooms. Their reflections on 'Edmodo' and 'Twitter' show a refined ability to identify the possibilities of both tools, with many respondents providing a new and favorable vision for using of at least one of these in their future primary classroom practices. This study also outlines for us 'where to next' for pre-service teacher preparation for teaching 21st century skills.
A survey of teachers' read‐aloud practices in middle schools

Abstract Two university researchers conducted a survey of middle school teachers’ read‐aloud practices at a large state conference for middle level educators. Results of this survey provide a beginning step toward evaluating the ways in which middle school teachers use read‐alouds in the classroom. This paper shares the results of the survey and offers insight into the extent and nature of teacher read‐aloud practices in middle grades.
Morphometric quantitation of stroma in human benign prostatic hyperplasia.

OBJECTIVES Human benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) consists of three major histologic components: stroma, epithelium, and luminal space. For the relief of bladder outlet obstruction caused by BPH, quantitation of the histologic composition of BPH may aid in selecting treatment. To investigate variation between patients in the stromal percentage of BPH, we performed quantitative morphometry on specimens from patients with clinically significant bladder outlet obstruction obtained by three procedures: open prostatectomy, transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP), and prostate needle biopsy (PNB) just prior to TURP. METHODS Ten specimens obtained by each surgical procedure were analyzed. Specimens were stained with antibody to muscle-specific actin to mark the stroma; quantitation of stroma was accomplished by computer image analysis. RESULTS The percentage of stroma in all BPH cases ranged from 49.9% to 76.7% (mean, 65.4%, SD = 7.4). No significant difference was observed when comparing samples obtained by the three procedures (p = 0.70). Smooth muscle stromal composition was also quantified in PNB specimens. For these samples, a significant inverse relationship was found between the percentage stroma in the biopsy and the percentage of stroma composed of smooth muscle (r2 = 0.49; p = 0.021). CONCLUSIONS The data demonstrated that the largest component of BPH was stroma, which comprised approximately 50% to 75% of the total hyperplastic tissue. The mean and range of stromal percentage were similar whether investigating large tissue samples from open prostatectomies or small samples from needle biopsies. PNB data indicated that an increased percentage of stroma may be due to increased nonmuscular elements in the stroma.
Which behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia are the most problematic? Variability by prevalence, intensity, distress ratings, and associations with caregiver depressive symptoms

Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) impact well‐being for persons with dementia (PWD) and caregivers. Identifying the most problematic symptoms is vital in targeting interventions and allocating resources. The current study highlights inconsistencies in the “most problematic” symptoms when identified via prevalence, intensity, caregiver distress, or associations with caregiver depressive symptoms.