Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A students’ take on student–staff partnerships: experiences and preferences

Abstract Students do not always feel that their ideas for improving educational quality are taken seriously. Student–staff partnerships may help take this feeling away. In such partnerships, students equally collaborate with staff and participate in shared decision-making and implementation processes for improving education. However, empirical research has hitherto paid scant attention to the question of how students experience such student–staff collaborations, whether they are willing to participate in these partnerships and, if so, under which circumstances. We therefore conducted an explanatory mixed-methods study, for which we administered a student–staff partnership questionnaire to 87 students and held four focus groups. In the students’ view, students can provide a unique perspective on educational improvement. Yet, they did not consider their collaborations with staff as full partnerships, because their role remained restricted to giving advice and they were not involved in the implementation process. Although students felt respected by staff, they expressed a wish to be informed of what happened with their suggestions, and to be seen as equal partners while appreciating the difference in students and staff members’ roles. Additionally, students pointed to a need for clear and well-communicated role descriptions. We conclude that to render student–staff partnerships effective, students should be empowered more.
Identification of a Solanum pennellii Chromosome 4 Fruit Flavor and Nutritional Quality-Associated Metabolite QTL

A major resource for tomato quality improvement and gene discovery is the collection of introgression lines (ILs) of cultivated Solanum lycopersicum that contain different, defined chromosomal segments derived from the wild tomato relative, S. pennellii. Among these lines, IL4-4, in which the bottom of S. lycopersicum (cv. M82) chromosome 4 is replaced by the corresponding S. pennellii segment, is altered in many primary and secondary metabolites, including many related to fruit flavor and nutritional quality. Here, we provide a comprehensive profile of IL4-4 ripe fruit metabolites, the transcriptome and fine mapping of sub-ILs. Remarkably, out of 327 quantified metabolites, 185 were significantly changed in IL4-4 fruit, compared to the control. These altered metabolites include volatile organic compounds, primary and secondary metabolites. Partial least squares enhanced discriminant analysis of the metabolite levels among sub-ILs indicated that a genome region encompassing 20 putative open reading frames is responsible for most of the metabolic changes in IL4-4 fruit. This work provides comprehensive insights into IL4-4 fruit biochemistry, identifying a small region of the genome that has major effects on a large and diverse set of metabolites.
Analysis of Patient Narratives in Disease Blogs on the Internet: An Exploratory Study of Social Pharmacovigilance

Background Although several reports have suggested that patient-generated data from Internet sources could be used to improve drug safety and pharmacovigilance, few studies have identified such data sources in Japan. We introduce a unique Japanese data source: tōbyōki, which translates literally as “an account of a struggle with disease. ” Objective The objective of this study was to evaluate the basic characteristics of the TOBYO database, a collection of tōbyōki blogs on the Internet, and discuss potential applications for pharmacovigilance. Methods We analyzed the overall gender and age distribution of the patient-generated TOBYO database and compared this with other external databases generated by health care professionals. For detailed analysis, we prepared separate datasets for blogs written by patients with depression and blogs written by patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), because these conditions were expected to entail subjective patient symptoms such as discomfort, insomnia, and pain. Frequently appearing medical terms were counted, and their variations were compared with those in an external adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting database. Frequently appearing words regarding patients with depression and patients with RA were visualized using word clouds and word cooccurrence networks. Results As of June 4, 2016, the TOBYO database comprised 54,010 blogs representing 1405 disorders. Overall, more entries were written by female bloggers (68.8%) than by male bloggers (30.8%). The most frequently observed disorders were breast cancer (4983 blogs), depression (3556), infertility (2430), RA (1118), and panic disorder (1090). Comparison of medical terms observed in tōbyōki blogs with those in an external ADR reporting database showed that subjective and symptomatic events and general terms tended to be frequently observed in tōbyōki blogs (eg, anxiety, headache, and pain), whereas events using more technical medical terms (eg, syndrome and abnormal laboratory test result) tended to be observed frequently in the ADR database. We also confirmed the feasibility of using visualization techniques to obtain insights from unstructured text-based tōbyōki blog data. Word clouds described the characteristics of each disorder, such as “sleeping” and “anxiety” in depression and “pain” and “painful” in RA. Conclusions Pharmacovigilance should maintain a strong focus on patients’ actual experiences, concerns, and outcomes, and this approach can be expected to uncover hidden adverse event signals earlier and to help us understand adverse events in a patient-centered way. Patient-generated tōbyōki blogs in the TOBYO database showed unique characteristics that were different from the data in existing sources generated by health care professionals. Analysis of tōbyōki blogs would add value to the assessment of disorders with a high prevalence in women, psychiatric disorders in which subjective symptoms have important clinical meaning, refractory disorders, and other chronic disorders.
Comparison of Empirical Success Rates of Global vs. Partitioned Fixed-Priority and EDF Scheduling for Hard Real Time TR-050601

Improvements in schedulability tests for global fixed-priority and EDF scheduling in a homogeneous multiprocessor (symmetric multiprocessing) environment have shown that the worst-case guaranteed achievable utilization levels for global EDF scheduling equals what can be achieved with partitioned scheduling, and both ways of applying EDF scheduling out-perform fixed-priority scheduling, for sets of independent periodic or sporadic hard-deadline tasks with deadline equal to period. However, less is known about the comparative performance of the partitioned vs. global and EDF vs. fixed-priority approaches in the average and without the restriction that deadline equal period, and particular which of the known combinations of a scheduling algorithm and a sucient a priori test of schedulability is more likely to succeed in verifiably scheduling a set of tasks to meet all deadlines. This paper compares the performance of several such combinations on a variety of pseudo-randomly chosen sets of sporadic tasks.
Coping with Workplace Violence against General Practitioners and Nurses in Heilongjiang Province, China: Social Supports and Prevention Strategies

The study’s objectives were to: 1) use social support theory to examine factors influencing healthcare workers’ opinions about workplace violence (WPV) prevention strategies, and 2) to determine the types of support that general practitioners (GPs) and general nurses sought and expected to use after WPV exposure. A cross-sectional survey was used to assess a sample of 448 GPs and 412 general nurses from 90 township hospitals located in Heilongjiang province, China. Results revealed that workers exposed to physical, psychological or both WPV types had a strong opinion about the necessity of improving diagnosis/treatment competence, developing violence prevention guidelines and plans, using protective equipment, and reinforcing staff by providing back-up support. The last two strategies were also selected by tertiary hospital workers in our previous study. In addition, workers with high anxiety selected the following prevention strategies as most effective: improving doctor-patient communication skills; installing cameras on wards; keeping work areas bright; improvements in violence reporting, statistics, and interventions; security patrols in the key departments; reinforcing staff; and correcting inaccurate media perspectives and reports. The last four strategies were also selected by tertiary hospital workers. All respondents expected to receive organisational and social support. In conclusion, these prevention strategies should be tailored to the different requirements of specific populations. Furthermore, it is necessary for organisations, the public, and policymakers to provide powerful support in WPV prevention.
Slicing procedures in layered manufacturing: a review

Layered manufacturing (LM) or rapid prototyping is a process in which a part is produced using layer‐by‐layer addition of the material. In LM, slicing of the CAD model of a part to be produced is one of the important steps. Slicing of CAD model with a very small slice thickness leads to large build time. At the same time if large slice thickness is chosen, the surface finish is very bad due to staircasing. These two contradicting issues namely reduction in build time and better surface quality have been a major concern in laminated manufacturing. This contradiction has led to the development of number of slicing procedures. The present paper reviews various slicing approaches developed for tessellated as well as actual CAD models.
Frequency of median mononeuropathy in patients with mild diabetic neuropathy in the early diabetes intervention trial (EDIT)

We used electrophysiologic criteria to identify median mononeuropathy (MM) of the nondominant wrist among 414 patients enrolled in a multicenter study of patients with mild diabetic neuropathy, according to consensus recommendations. Patients with absent sural or peroneal responses or greater than mild symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome were ineligible. Ninety‐five of 414 participants (23%) fulfilled criteria for MM, independent of diabetes type. Patients with MM had a longer duration of diabetes than remaining patients, independent of age, and patients with MM and type II diabetes were more likely to be female (34% vs. 19%; P = 0.008), shorter (165.7 vs. 172.7 cm; P = 0.001), and have a higher body mass index (32.5 vs. 29.1; P = 0.0008) than remaining type II patients. Sural or peroneal conduction abnormalities did not influence the frequency of MM. These results suggest that patients with diabetic neuropathy require special consideration with regard to the evaluation of suspected carpal tunnel syndrome. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Microsatellite instability and 8p allelic imbalance in stage B2 and C colorectal cancers.

BACKGROUND Microsatellite instability (MSI) and allelic imbalance involving chromosome arms 5q, 8p, 17p, and 18q are genetic alterations commonly found in colorectal cancer. We investigated whether the presence or absence of these genetic alterations would allow stratification of patients with Astler-Coller stage B2 or C colorectal cancer into favorable and unfavorable prognostic groups. METHODS Tumors from 508 patients were evaluated for MSI and allelic imbalance by use of 11 microsatellite markers located on chromosome arms 5q, 8p, 15q, 17p, and 18q. Genetic alterations involving each of these markers were examined for associations with survival and disease recurrence. All P values are two-sided. RESULTS In univariate analyses, high MSI (MSI-H), i.e., MSI at 30% or more of the loci examined, was associated with improved survival (P =.02) and time to recurrence (P =.01). The group of patients whose tumors exhibited allelic imbalance at chromosome 8p had decreased survival (P =.02) and time to recurrence (P =.004). No statistically significant associations with survival or time to recurrence were observed for markers on chromosome arms 5q, 15q, 17p, or 18q. In multivariate analyses, MSI-H was an independent predictor of improved survival (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.51; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.31-0.82; P =.006) and time to recurrence (HR = 0.42; 95% CI = 0.24-0.74; P =.003), and 8p allelic imbalance was an independent predictor of decreased survival (HR = 1.89; 95% CI = 1.25-2.83; P =. 002) and time to recurrence (HR = 2.07; 95% CI = 1.32-3.25; P =.002). CONCLUSIONS Patients whose tumors exhibited MSI-H had a favorable prognosis, whereas those with 8p allelic imbalance had a poor prognosis; both alterations served as independent prognostic factors. To our knowledge, this is the first report of an association between 8p allelic imbalance and survival in patients with colorectal cancer.
Consistency of Encoding in Monkey Visual Cortex

Are different kinds of stimuli (for example, different classes of geometric images or naturalistic images) encoded differently by visual cortex, or are the principles of encoding the same for all stimuli? We examine two response properties: (1) the range of spike counts that can be elicited from a neuron in epochs representative of short periods of fixation (up to 400 msec), and (2) the relation between mean and variance of spike counts elicited by different stimuli, that together characterize the information processing capabilities of a neuron using the spike count code. In monkey primary visual cortex (V1) complex cells, we examine responses elicited by static stimuli of four kinds (photographic images, bars, gratings, and Walsh patterns); in area TE of inferior temporal cortex, we examine responses elicited by static stimuli in the sample, nonmatch, and match phases of a delayed match-to-sample task. In each area, the ranges of mean spike counts and the relation between mean and variance of spike counts elicited are sufficiently similar across experimental conditions that information transmission is unaffected by the differences across stimulus set or behavioral conditions [although in 10 of 27 (37%) of the V1 neurons there are statistically significant but small differences, the median difference in transmitted information for these neurons was 0.9%]. Encoding therefore appears to be consistent across experimental conditions for neurons in both V1 and TE, and downstream neurons could decode all incoming signals using a single set of rules.
Oxidative modification and electrochemical inactivation of Escherichia coli upon cold atmospheric pressure plasma exposure

Cold atmospheric pressure plasmas (CAPPs) are known to have bactericidal effects but the mechanism of their interaction with microorganisms remains poorly understood. In this study the bacteria Escherichia coli were used as a model and were exposed to CAPPs. Different gas compositions, helium with or without adjunctions of nitrogen or oxygen, were used. Our results indicated that CAPP induced bacterial death at decontamination levels depend on the duration, post-treatment storage and the gas mixture composition used for the treatment. The plasma containing O2 in the feeding gas was the most aggressive and showed faster bactericidal effects. Structural modifications of treated bacteria were observed, especially significant was membrane leakage and morphological changes. Oxidative stress caused by plasma treatment led to significant damage of E. coli. Biochemical analyses of bacterial macromolecules indicated massive intracellular protein oxidation. However, reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) are not the only actors involved in E. coli’s death, electrical field and charged particles could play a significant role especially for He-O2 CAPP.
Selection and retention of talent

Selecting and retaining talented employees has become one of the key challenges for local and global companies and finding the right talent in a pool of interested applicants is an ongoing challenge. After a decision has been taken on who to hire, the next aim is to retain that talent within the organisation. With employees being considered as valuable resources that play a vital role in a company's competitive advantage, human resource departments now play a key role in finding and keeping the best and the brightest. The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into recruitment and retention practices among Icelandic organisations. A qualitative study was carried out, with interviews conducted with ten individuals working in human resources in Iceland. The results indicate that among these individuals, emphasis was placed on developing employees from within and, as a result, on internal recruitment. In relation to retention, measuring job satisfaction and the role of managers were also found to be key variables. The results further emphasise the importance of having qualified managers who can conduct regular performance reviews and identify key talent.
The Effect of Creative Thinking Instruction on Seventh and Eighth Graders and the Relationship of Creative Thinking to IQ and Reading Achievement

The purpose of this study was to determine if the creative thinking skills of seventh and eighth grade students could be strengthened through classroom activities designed to stimulate fluency, flexibility, and originality. Also sought were the correlations between creativity scores and IQ, and between creativity scores and reading comprehension. This study can be considered a replication of Hicks's 1979 research, though applied to older children. The subjects were seventh and eighth graders attending an urban fringe parochial school. They composed a racially integrated reading class grouped according to reading level and content area teachers' recommendations, rather than according to proficiency in specific reading skills or IQ scores. The effect of a treatment period of eight weeks, with twenty minutes three times weekly, was evaluated by a pretest and posttest using the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT). A correlated t test was used to test this study's hypotheses. The finding of this study indicated that the fluency and flexibility skills of seventh and eighth grade students were not enhanced by an eight week treatment program. There was a statistically significant difference in the preand posttest means for originality. The correlations between IQ and the creativity variables ranged from no important relationships upward to those approaching a weak relationship. No significant relationship was found between total reading com ~ehension and the creativity variables. A weak relationship was found between reading and IQ scores.
ASYMPTOTIC STABILITY OF DELAY DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS VIA FIXED POINT THEORY AND APPLICATIONS

Nonlinear delay differential equations have been widely used to study the dynamics in biology, but the stability of such equations are challenging. In this paper, new criteria are established for the asymptotic stability of some nonlinear delay differential equations with finite delay via fixed point theory. The techniques involve both the contractive mapping principle and Schauder’s fixed point theorem. The criteria are then applied to obtain the stability of some well known models in physiology and ecology.
Clinicopathological significance of claudin 4 expression in gastric carcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background The prognostic significance of claudin 4 (CLDN4) in patients with gastric cancer (GC) is controversial. This meta-analysis aims to assess the correlation between CLDN4 expression and clinicopathological characteristics and assess the prognostic significance of CLDN4 in GC. Methods We searched the PubMed and Embase databases. We performed the meta-analysis with odds ratio (OR), hazard ratio (HR), and 95% confidence interval (CI) as effect values. Results Fourteen studies containing 2,106 patients with GC were analyzed. The overall analysis showed that CLDN4 expression was associated with increasing pT category, tumor size, and lymph node metastasis in patients with GC (pT3–T4 vs pT1–T2: OR =1.56, 95% CI =1.13–2.16; P<0.01; large tumor size vs small tumor size: OR =1.64, 95% CI =1.15–2.34; P<0.01; positive lymph node metastasis vs negative lymph node metastasis: OR =1.49, 95% CI =1.12–1.97; P<0.01). CLDN4 expression was associated with histological differentiation (differentiated type vs undifferentiated type: OR =2.90, 95% CI =1.32–6.37; P=0.01; Lauren intestinal type vs diffuse type: OR =3.51, 95% CI =1.48–8.28; P<0.01). CLDN4 expression was also strongly associated with sex and age. This meta-analysis found no significant association between CLDN4 expression and prognosis for overall survival in patients with GC (HR =0.74, 95% CI =0.43–1.27; P=0.28). Conclusion Present study indicates that aberrant CLDN4 expression plays an important role in the clinicopathological characteristics of GC.
Real-time quantification and classification of consistency anomalies in multi-tier architectures

While online transaction processing applications heavily rely on the transactional properties provided by the underlying infrastructure, they often choose to not use the highest isolation level, i.e., serializability, because of the potential performance implications of costly strict two-phase locking concurrency control. Instead, modern transaction systems, consisting of an application server tier and a database tier, offer several levels of isolation providing a trade-off between performance and consistency. While it is fairly well known how to identify the anomalies that are possible under a certain level of isolation, it is much more difficult to quantify the amount of anomalies that occur during run-time of a given application. In this paper, we address this issue and present a new approach to detect, in realtime, consistency anomalies for arbitrary multi-tier applications. As the application is running, our tool detect anomalies online indicating exactly the transactions and data items involved. Furthermore, we classify the detected anomalies into patterns showing the business methods involved as well as their occurrence frequency. We use the RUBiS benchmark to show how the introduction of a new transaction type can have a dramatic effect on the number of anomalies for certain isolation levels, and how our tool can quickly detect such problem transactions. Therefore, our system can help designers to either choose an isolation level where the anomalies do not occur or to change the transaction design to avoid the anomalies.