Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
One Pre-Service Program's Dispositional Efforts Revealed

This case study examined the pre-service teacher’s dispositional development in one small, undergraduate preparation program. The author conducted personal interviews with four former students and two faculty members, and analyzed and triangulated the data with archived artifacts. The study revealed four distinct expressions for dispositional development in the pre-service program: an early and sustained focus on dispositions, modeling by faculty, as well as embedded coursework and multiple practice contexts, with particular emphasis on clinical experience contexts. The four expressions functioned in tandem to foster dispositional development in the pre-service teacher. The research revealed that because the dispositional focus was embedded and integrated throughout the program, the pre-service teacher appeared to carry the dispositional awareness into the first professional teaching position. This conclusion validated the increasing burden and responsibility for pre-service programs to prepare highly qualified teachers with dispositions or heart for career longevity. Of particular significance, faculty and student participants acknowledged the unique link between the program’s dispositions and the college’s faith-based approach. The study affirmed the pre-service program’s efforts to implement a dispositional focus with recommendations to compare programs of similar size, as well as conduct follow up interviews with participants in a longitudinal study to trace the program’s dispositional efforts.
Fast algorithm for bandstructure calculation in silicon nanowires using supercell approach

Energy bandstructure in silicon nanowires with [100] crystal orientation is calculated using the Tight-Binding (TB) model with supercell approach. Numerical methods are designed according to the physical model to reach an optimal computational performance. Computation results show that the bandstructures of silicon nanowires deviate from that of bulk silicon. The efficiency and accuracy of the TB algorithm are analysed and compared to its counterpart the Density Functional Theory (DFT). Test examples show that TB delivers a good accuracy while far superior over DFT in terms of computational cost.
Trends in acute myocardial infarction treatment between 1998 and 2007 in a Belgian area (Charleroi)

Background/objectives: To describe the evolution of the therapeutic practices over 10 years of follow-up of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in Charleroi and to analyse the factors influencing the choice of treatments and the mortality of these patients. Methods: The Charleroi register of ischaemic cardiopathies is the oldest register of infarctions in the French-speaking community of Belgium and is one of the very rare registers that allows identifying tendencies over 25 years. Analyses presented hereafter relate only patients in the 25–69-year age range over time from 1998 to 2007. The data were analysed in five periods of 2 years. Treatment evolutions over time were analysed using chi-squared tests for trend and logistic regression analyses identify factors influencing the type of treatment. Results: The present study shows a marked increase in the utilization of percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) between 1998–1999 and 2006–2007. The use of thrombolytic agents on approximately one-third of the patients treated remained fairly stable between 1998 and 2007. A lower proportion of patients with a history of AMI received thrombolytic agents. Thrombolysis seems beneficial for men and without effect for women. The use of β-blockers continued to increase until the 2000–2001 period and remained fairly stable for the two following periods. 42% of patients were administered three medications (angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, antiplatelet drugs, and β-blockers). Association of PTCA with antiplatelet drugs, β-blockers, and thrombolysis was observed for 58.7, 50.6, and 25.7%, respectively. These associations were still observed after adjustment for gender, age, and comorbidity. The factors associated with fatality were specifically old-aged patients, antecedents of diabetes, hypercholesterolaemia and oral antiplatelet drugs, and β-blockers therapies and PTCA. Conclusions: The evolution of the therapeutic data on AMI in this register confirms the use and the efficacy of thrombolytic therapy. PTCA becomes the main coronary reperfusion treatment with less risk of bleeding. Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors were without effect on mortality.
Maize yield response to a phosphorus-solubilizing microbial inoculant in field trials

SUMMARY Findings from multi-year, multi-site field trial experiments measuring maize yield response to inoculation with the phosphorus-solubilizing fungus, Penicillium bilaiae Chalabuda are presented. The main objective was to evaluate representative data on crop response to the inoculant across a broad set of different soil, agronomic management and climate conditions. A statistical analysis of crop yield response and its variability was conducted to guide further implementation of a stratified trial and sampling plan. Field trials, analysed in the present study, were conducted across the major maize producing agricultural cropland of the United States (2005–11) comprising 92 small (with sampling replication) and 369 large (without replication) trials. The multi-plot design enabled both a determination of how sampling area affects the estimation of maize yield and yield variance and an estimation of the ability of inoculation with P. bilaiae to increase maize yield. Inoculation increased maize yield in 66 of the 92 small and 295 of the 369 large field trials (within the small plots, yield increased significantly at the 95% confidence level, by 0·17 ± 0·044 t/ha or 1·8%, while in the larger plots, yield increases were higher and less variable (i.e., 0·33 ± 0·026 t/ha or 3·5%). There was considerable inter-annual variability in maize yield response attributed to inoculation compared to the un-inoculated control, with yield increases varying from 0·7 ± 0·75 up to 3·7 ± 0·73%. No significant correlation between yield response and soil acidity (i.e., pH) was detected, and it appears that pH reduction (through organic acid or proton efflux) was unlikely to be the primary pathway for better phosphorus availability measured as increased yield. Seed treatment and granular or dribble band formulations of the inoculant were found to be equally effective. Inoculation was most effective at increasing maize yield in fields that had low or very low soil phosphorus status for both small and large plots. At higher levels of soil phosphorus, yield in the large plots increased more with inoculation than in the small plots, which could be explained by phosphorus fertilization histories for the different field locations, as well as transient (e.g., rainfall) and topographic effects.
POINT CONFIGURATIONS, CREMONA TRANSFORMATIONS AND THE ELLIPTIC DIFFERENCE PAINLEVE EQUATION

A theoretical foundation for a generalization of the elliptic difference Painlev\'e equation to higher dimensions is provided in the framework of birational Weyl group action on the space of point configurations in general position in a projective space. By introducing an elliptic parametrization of point configurations, a realization of the Weyl group is proposed as a group of Cremona transformations containing elliptic functions in the coefficients. For this elliptic Cremona system, a theory of $\tau$-functions is developed to translate it into a system of bilinear equations of Hirota-Miwa type for the $\tau$-functions on the lattice.
Aberrant c‐myc RNAs of Burkitt's lymphoma cells have longer half‐lives.

BL67 and BL18 are Burkitt's lymphoma cell lines with t(8;14) translocations (the breakpoint is in the first exon and first intron, respectively) in which the mu‐heavy chain switch region is fused to the c‐myc gene in head to head orientation. In both cell lines only aberrant c‐myc RNAs are found. BL67 cells contain two c‐myc RNA species of 2.4 and 3.5 kb. The 2.4‐kb RNA is initiated at several cryptic promoters in the first intron. The 3.5‐kb RNA is transcribed from the immunoglobulin heavy chain anti‐sense strand across the breakpoint of the translocation into the first exon of the c‐myc gene and is then normally spliced using the physiological splice donor and acceptor sites of the c‐myc gene. BL18 contains c‐myc RNA of 2.4 kb initiated at cryptic promoters in the first intron and additional RNAs of 0.90 kb and 0.74 kb transcribed from the dual c‐myc promoters on the reciprocal fragment of the translocation. The cytoplasmic turnover of these RNAs differs significantly from that of the normal c‐myc message. The 3.5‐kb RNA of BL67 cells and the 0.90‐kb and 0.74‐kb RNAs of BL18 cells, which are both hybrid molecules consisting of c‐myc and immunoglobulin sequences, have a half‐life of several hours in contrast to the normal c‐myc message with a half‐life of 15 min. The aberrant 2.4‐kb c‐myc RNAs of BL67 and BL18 cells are also more stable than the normal c‐myc message and disappear with a half‐life of 50 min.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Pedagogies of praxis : course-based action research in the social sciences

About the Authors. Introduction. 1 Food for More Than Thought: Course-Based Action Research on Corner Stores in Chicago (Howard Rosing). 2 Participatory Action Research and the University Classroom (Beth Skilken Catlett and Irene Clare Beck). 3 Healthy Wednesdays in Our Hood: An Exploration of an Anthropological Service-Learning With Premeds (Sam Beck). 4 Youth Take Charge: Social Action in a University-Community Partnership (Joan Arches). 5 Practicing Active Learning: Introducing Urban Geography and Engaging Community in Pilsen, Chicago (Winifred Curran, Euan Hague, and Harpreet Gill). 6 Paradoxes of Praxis: Community-Based Learning at a Community-Based University (Daniel Block and Mark J. Bouman). 7 Action Research in a Visual Anthropology Class: Lessons, Frustrations, and Achievements (S. Elizabeth Bird, Jess Paul Ambiee, and James Kuzin). 8 Collaborative Action Research at Interchange: A U.K. Model (David Hall and Irene Hall). 9 Checks and Balances: The Aftermath of Course-Based Action Research (Nila Ginger Hofman). Index.
Picking the best DAISY

Local image descriptors that are highly discriminative, computational efficient, and with low storage footprint have long been a dream goal of computer vision research. In this paper, we focus on learning such descriptors, which make use of the DAISY configuration and are simple to compute both sparsely and densely. We develop a new training set of match/non-match image patches which improves on previous work. We test a wide variety of gradient and steerable filter based configurations and optimize over all parameters to obtain low matching errors for the descriptors. We further explore robust normalization, dimension reduction and dynamic range reduction to increase the discriminative power and yet reduce the storage requirement of the learned descriptors. All these enable us to obtain highly efficient local descriptors: e.g, 13.2% error at 13 bytes storage per descriptor, compared with 26.1% error at 128 bytes for SIFT.
Sensitivity and distensibility of the rectum and sigmoid colon in patients with irritable bowel syndrome.

BACKGROUND Hyperalgesia to visceral stimuli is a biological marker of the irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Abnormal pain processing is probably of most importance, but biomechanical abnormalities of the gut wall may also contribute to the findings. In the current study, we investigated the sensation of the gut to electrical stimuli as well as the distensibility of the rectum and sigmoid colon in IBS patients and a control group. METHODS Nine patients with IBS and 11 controls entered the study. The pain threshold to electrical stimuli at the rectosigmoid junction was determined with bipolar electrodes integrated on the biopsy forceps for the endoscope. Subsequently, controlled distensions of the sigmoid colon and rectum were performed with a balloon integrated on a probe for impedance planimetry, providing the possibility to measure the cross-sectional area (CSA), wall tension and strain to different pressures together with the sensation ratings. RESULTS The pain detection thresholds to electrical stimuli at the rectosigmoid junction were 12.5 (range 7-39) mA in controls and 7.5 (range 0.75-12) mA in IBS patients (P = 0.03). The calculated pressures at the pain detection threshold in the sigmoid colon were lower in the IBS patients (31.5 (range 5-58) versus 5 cm (range 5-25) water; P = 0.03), otherwise no differences were seen in sensation rating to the different distension pressures. The CSA was slightly higher in controls to the different pressures, whereas no differences between the groups were seen in strain and tension of the rectum and sigmoid colon. CONCLUSION The visceral hypersensitivity in IBS seems to be related to alterations in the nervous system rather than biomechanical parameters such as the tension and strain of the gut wall. Treatment of pain in IBS should therefore be based on drugs with documented action on the nociceptive pathways in the central nervous system.
The phonetic description of voice quality

The importance of an individual's voice in everyday social interaction can scarcely be overestimated. It is an essential element in the listener's analysis of the speaker's physical, psychological and social characteristics. Differences in voice quality reflect different habitual adjustments, or settings, of the vocal apparatus. Individual consonant and vowel segments can be thought of as momentary actions superimposed on these settings and voice quality, as the characteristic sound of a speaker's voice, thus pervades and to a certain extent determines the phonetic character of these linguistic segments. This volume sets out a phonetic description of voice quality, which has largely been neglected in other studies. Dr Laver's integrative approach is a major advance in general phonetic theory and his standardisation of descriptive terminology for the voice will be welcomed by those working in the fields of speech therapy, speech pathology, social psychology and communications engineering, as well as by students and specialists in speech science, phonetics and phonology.
Automatic registration of PP and PS images using dynamic image warping

The registration of PP and PS images is a process of correlating corresponding seismic reflections in the two images. We use dynamic image warping to automatically estimate a smooth field of vertical shifts. In warping the PS-image with this shift field, we move reflections in the PS-image to match these in the PP-image. The shift field can also be used to compute the Vp/Vs ratio. Examples for both synthetic and real data show the effectiveness of this method for seismic image registration.
Rendering the implicit explicit: political advertisements, partisan cues, race, and white public opinion in the 2012 presidential election

In The Race Card (2001), Tali Mendelberg claims that once the racial content of an implicit racial appeal has been exposed the appeal loses its ability to mobilize voters. In this paper, we investigate this claim by employing a survey experiment embedded in Amazon's Mechanical Turk in which respondents view Mitt Romney's “Right Choice” television ad on welfare and then read a short op-ed. The op-ed, written by a fictitious member of Congress whose partisanship was systematically varied, argues that the Romney ad (1) is racist or (2) has no racial undertones. In line with Mendelberg's predictions, we find that – regardless of the partisanship of the elite in question – exposure to an op-ed that denounces the Romney welfare advertisement as racist leads white Democrats and Republicans to more strongly perceive the advertisement as racist and express greater opposition to Romney's campaign. Our findings contribute to the literatures on racial priming and partisan motivated reasoning, and also make a strong case for further evaluating the influence of political leadership on racial attitudes.
Sox17 haploinsufficiency results in perinatal biliary atresia and hepatitis in C57BL/6 background mice

Congenital biliary atresia is an incurable disease of newborn infants, of unknown genetic causes, that results in congenital deformation of the gallbladder and biliary duct system. Here, we show that during mouse organogenesis, insufficient SOX17 expression in the gallbladder and bile duct epithelia results in congenital biliary atresia and subsequent acute ‘embryonic hepatitis’, leading to perinatal death in ~95% of the Sox17 heterozygote neonates in C57BL/6 (B6) background mice. During gallbladder and bile duct development, Sox17 was expressed at the distal edge of the gallbladder primordium. In the Sox17+/− B6 embryos, gallbladder epithelia were hypoplastic, and some were detached from the luminal wall, leading to bile duct stenosis or atresia. The shredding of the gallbladder epithelia is probably caused by cell-autonomous defects in proliferation and maintenance of the Sox17+/− gallbladder/bile duct epithelia. Our results suggest that Sox17 plays a dosage-dependent function in the morphogenesis and maturation of gallbladder and bile duct epithelia during the late-organogenic stages, highlighting a novel entry point to the understanding of the etiology and pathogenesis of human congenital biliary atresia.
Role of Endothelium‐Derived Bradykinin in the Control of Vascular Tone

We have investigated the effects of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors on intracellular Ca2+ levels in human cultured endothelial cells and on endothelial autacoid formation in endothelium-intact bovine coronary arteries and in isolated perfused rabbit and rat hearts. Incubation of cultured endothelial cells with ramiprilat (0.3 μM) caused a maintained increase in resting intracellular Ca2+ This effect was long-lasting, accompanied by an increased formation of both nitric oxide (NO) and prostacyclin (PGI2), and was abolished by the specific B2-kinin receptor antagonist Hoe 140. Ramiprilat also significantly enhanced the increase in intracellular Ca2+ elicited by bradykinin (3 nM). In endothelium-intact bovine coronary arteries, moexiprilat (0.3 μM), like bradykinin (30 μM), caused a nearly twofold increase in the vascular cGMP content which was abolished by both NG-nitro-L-arginine (30 μM) and removal of the endothelium. The functional consequences of this ACE inhibitor-induced increase in vascular cGMP content were reflected by a distinct relaxation of the coronary segments pre-constricted with prostaglandin F2α. In the isolated perfused rabbit heart, ramiprilat (0.3 μM) affected neither resting vascular tone nor endothelial autacoid release; however, the vasodilation and release of PGI2 in response to exogenously applied bradykinin (10 nM) were significantly enhanced by ramiprilat. This effect was also seen using moexiprilat (0.1 μM) in the isolated perfused rat heart. Although these findings suggest that endothelium-derived bradykinin is not involved in the control of resting vascular tone in the coronary microcirculation of the rabbit and the rat, there appears to be significant ACE activity to modulate bradykinin-induced endothelial autacoid formation. Taken together, our results suggest that native as well as cultured endothelial cells are able to generate vasoactive kinins. The release of these kinins then leads, in an autocrine and paracrine manner, to a sustained stimulation of endothelial NO and PGI2 formation, provided that kinin degradation is prevented by ACE inhibition. There appear, however, to be differences in the kinin-producing capacity of endothelial cells from different vascular regions.
Induced Decompositions of Highly Dense Graphs

Given two graphs F and G, an induced F‐decomposition of G is a partition of E(G) into induced subgraphs isomorphic to F. Bondy and Szwarcfiter [J. Graph Theory, DOI: 10.1002/jgt.21654] defined the value ex*(n,F) as the maximum number of edges in a graph of order n admitting an induced F‐decomposition and determined the value of ex*(n,F) for some graphs (and families of graphs). In this article, we prove that ex*(n,F)=n2−o(n2) is valid for all graphs F. We also present tighter asymptotic bounds for some of the small graphs for which the exact value of ex* remains unknown. The proofs are based on the heavy use of various classes of Kneser graphs and hypergraphs.
Firm reputation and horizontal integration

We study effects of horizontal integration on firm reputation. In an environment where customers observe only imperfect signals about firms' effort/quality choices, firms cannot maintain reputations of high quality and earn quality premium forever. Even when firms are choosing high quality/effort, there is always a possibility that a bad signal is observed. In this case, firms must give up their quality premium, at least temporarily, as punishment. A firm's integration decision is based on the extent to which integration attenuates this necessary cost of maintaining a good reputation. Horizontal integration leads to a larger market base for the merged firm and may allow better monitoring of the firm's choices, hence improving the punishment scheme for deviations. On the other hand, it gives the merged firm more room for sophisticated derivations. We characterize the optimal level of integration and provide sufficient conditions under which nonintegration dominates integration. We show that the optimal size of the firm is smaller when (1) trades are more frequent and information is disseminated more rapidly; or (2) the deviation gain is smaller than the honesty benefit; or (3) customer information about firm choices is more precise.
New Tools for Investigating the Comparative Biology of Caenorhabditis briggsae and C. elegans

Comparative studies of Caenorhabditis briggsae and C. elegans have provided insights into gene function and developmental control in both organisms. C. elegans is a well developed model organism with a variety of molecular and genetic tools to study gene functions. In contrast, there are only very limited tools available for its closest relative, C. briggsae. To take advantage of the full potential of this comparative approach, we have developed several genetic and molecular tools to facilitate functional analysis in C. briggsae. First, we designed and implemented an SNP-based oligonucleotide microarray for rapid mapping of genetic mutants in C. briggsae. Second, we generated a mutagenized frozen library to permit the isolation of targeted deletions and used the library to recover a deletion mutant of cbr-unc-119 for use as a transgenic marker. Third, we used the cbr-unc-119 mutant in ballistic transformation and generated fluorescently labeled strains that allow automated lineaging and cellular resolution expression analysis. Finally, we demonstrated the potential of automated lineaging by profiling expression of egl-5, hlh-1, and pha-4 at cellular resolution and by detailed phenotyping of the perturbations on the Wnt signaling pathway. These additions to the experimental toolkit for C. briggsae should greatly increase its utility in comparative studies with C. elegans. With the emerging sequence of nematode species more closely related to C. briggsae, these tools may open novel avenues of experimentation in C. briggsae itself.