Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The role of secondary education in explaining competitiveness

The literature establishes that education drives economic performance, but the extent that education is associated with a country's competitiveness is empirically untested. Our study analyses Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data from 63 countries to ascertain education's role in explaining the competitiveness of a country. Strong correlations were found for reading and science (each 53% shared variance) and mathematics (50%). Educational achievement explains 54% of Competitiveness. Regional differences were found with East Asia performing strongly both academically and in competitiveness, ahead of Europe, the rest of Asia, and South/Central America. Anglo-Saxon countries rank second academically behind East Asia, but in terms of competitiveness, the Anglo-Saxon cluster ranks first. We show that Anglo-Saxon countries' leadership in education and competitiveness have been challenged by East Asia. Our diachronic analysis shows that together with Competitive Industrial Performance, the cultural dimensions of Uncertainty Avoidance, Long-term Orientation and Indulgence Restraint, Education contributes to improvements in Competitiveness. The strength of East Asia in educational achievement will have implications for the region's future competitiveness compared to Anglo-Saxon and European countries. Our empirical findings support theoretical arguments for education's role in driving competitiveness. For education policy, the study emphasizes the importance of investments in reading, science and mathematics education.
Examining the Communication of Personal Commitment: An Actor-Partner Interdependence Model Analysis

This study assessed how individuals' personal commitment relates to their own and their partners' communication of commitment using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM; Kashy & Kenny, 2000). Premarital couples (N = 65) completed a questionnaire and a conversation task. Raters then evaluated the clarity (i.e., intensity, explicitness, repetition) of communication during conversations on commitment-indicative topics (Knapp, 1989; Knapp & Taylor, 1994). Results suggested females' personal commitment is associated with clear communication of their own and their partners' commitment during conversation about future rewards, as well as their partner's commitment during conversation about family and friends. Males' personal commitment is associated with clear communication of their own commitment during conversation about affection and caring. Evidence for the link between personal commitment and the communication of commitment was shown, along with the suggested importance of mutual influence affecting couples' personal commitment.
ALTERATION OF THE RESPONSE OF PLATELETS TO SURFACE STIMULI BY PYRAZOLE COMPOUNDS

Sulfinpyrazone and phenylbutazone block the aggregating action of collagen, antigen-antibody complexes, and gamma globulin-coated surfaces on blood platelets. These drugs do not block the action of ADP or thrombin. Inhibition of surface-induced aggregation appears to be the result of a decreased response of the platelets to surface stimuli, giving rise to diminished release of platelet constituents, such as ADP and serotonin. The intravenous infusion of these drugs produced results similar to those found in the in vitro experiments. Administration of phenylbutazone in doses sufficient to produce marked suppression of the platelet-collagen reaction impaired hemostatic plug formation at the ends of transected mesenteric vessels in rabbits. Since platelet function is considered a factor influencing platelet survival, the effect of phenylbutazone on platelet survival was examined. It was found that phenylbutazone prolonged platelet survival to more than twice the normal time and reduced platelet turnover by nearly 50%. These studies show that drugs which suppress platelet response to surface stimuli alter platelet function in vivo.
Herbal Medicine for the Treatment of Vascular Dementia: An Overview of Scientific Evidence

Dementia is a leading cause of mental and physical disability. Vascular dementia (VaD) is the second most common cause of dementia after Alzheimer's disease (AD) constituting 10–15% of the dementia population. Currently there are no approved pharmaceutical options for VaD and the conventional anti-AD therapies provide only modest, short-term relief of symptoms associated with VaD. Herbal medicines have been used for the management of dementia-like symptoms for centuries and may provide viable therapies for VaD due to their multicomponent and multitarget approach. This review is designed to provide an updated overview on the current status of herbal medicine research, with an emphasis on Chinese herbal medicine, for the treatment of VaD or dementia. A case study is also provided to demonstrate the development process of a novel standardized complex herbal formulation for VaD. The article reveals some preliminary evidence to support the use of single and complex herbal preparations for VaD and dementia. Multiple issues in relation to clinical and preclinical research have been identified and future research directions are discussed.
Turbine Control strategies for wind farm power optimization

In recent decades there has been increasing interest in green energies, of which wind energy is the most important one. In order to improve the competitiveness of the wind power plants, there are ongoing researches to decrease cost per energy unit and increase the efficiency of wind turbines and wind farms. One way of achieving these goals is to optimize the power generated by a wind farm. One optimization method is to choose appropriate operating points for the individual wind turbines in the farm. We have made three models of a wind farm based on three difference control strategies. Basically, the control strategies determine the steady state operating points of the wind turbines. Except the control strategies of the individual wind turbines, the wind farm models are similar. Each model consists of a row of 5MW reference wind turbines. In the models we are able to optimize the generated power by changing the power reference of the individual wind turbines. We use the optimization setup to compare power production of the wind farm models. This paper shows that for the most frequent wind velocities (below and around the rated values), the generated powers of the wind farms are different. This means that choosing an appropriate control strategy for the individual wind turbines will result in an increased power production of the wind farm.
Taking a Language Stance

Linguists tend to view language in terms of forms and their use. For historical reasons, speaking and listening are often ascribed to knowledge of a language system. Language behavior is seen as the production and processing of forms. Others contrast language to man-made codes (see Kravchenko, 2007; Love, 2004). Instead of focusing on forms, language can be conceived of as action and, as such, both dynamic and symbolic (Rączaszek-Leonardi, 2009). History places us in a meshwork where public resources of language, among other things, contribute to games, mashing beans, and watching television. Speaking-while-hearing draws on cultural products (e.g., axes, social roles, pictures, and wordings). As we collaborate, we orient to wordings or repeated (and systematized) aspects of vocalizations that, within our community, carry historically derived information. Pursuing this view, it is argued that hearing “words” is like seeing “things” in pictures. This is described as taking a language stance. To defend the position, it is argued that, first, we learn to hear wordings and, later, to use “what we hear” as ways of constraining our actions. Far from depending on individual knowledge, orienting to wordings makes language irreducibly collective.
Association of platelet count and serological markers of dengue infection- importance of NS1 antigen.

INTRODUCTION Dengue is an acute viral infection with potential fatal complications. Specific antibody detection has been the mainstay of diagnosis which is prone for both false positive and false negative reactions. The newer parameter NS1 appears to be highly specific and reliable for diagnosis of dengue infection from the first day of fever. Platelet count is the only accessory test for diagnosis of dengue infection in the peripheral laboratories. Therefore, we tried to evaluate the association of platelet counts against NS1 and IgM/IgG in dengue infections. MATERIALS AND METHODS Serum samples from clinically suspected dengue cases were tested for NS1, IgM and IgG by immunochromatography-based test. Platelet counts were obtained for all positive cases and 150 dengue seronegative cases of fever that served as controls. Test results of dengue-specific parameters were compared against platelet counts. The proportions obtained were compared by Standard error of the difference between the proportions (SEP test). RESULTS Of 2104 samples tested, 320 were positive for one or more dengue parameters. Of the 320, 95 were positive for NS1 only, 161 showed IgM only while 9 showed IgG only. More than one marker was detected in the remaining 55 samples. Thrombocytopenia was more consistently associated whenever NS1 was detected compared to antibody detection (P value <0.001). CONCLUSIONS Inclusion of NS1 in the diagnosis of dengue increases the detection rate significantly. In cases of fever, thrombocytopenia is more consistently found in dengue positive rather than dengue negative subjects. It correlates well when NS1 and IgM are detected simultaneously.
Association study in three different populations between the GPR88 gene and major psychoses

GPR88, coding for a G protein‐coupled orphan receptor that is highly represented in the striatum, is a strong functional candidate gene for neuropsychiatric disorders and is located at 1p22‐p21, a chromosomal region that we have previously linked to bipolar disorder (BD) in the Sardinian population. In order to ascertain the relevance of GPR88 as a risk factor for psychiatric diseases, we performed a genetic association analysis between GPR88 and BD in a sample of triads (patient and both parents) recruited in the Sardinian and the Palestinian population as well as between GPR88 and schizophrenia (SZ) in triads from the Xhosa population in South Africa. We found a positive association between GPR88 and BD in the Sardinian and Palestinian triads. Moreover, we found a positive association between GPR88 and SZ in triads from the Xhosa population in South Africa. When these results were corrected for multiple testing, the association between GPR88 and BD was maintained in the Palestinian population. Thus, these results suggest that GPR88 deserves consideration as a candidate gene for psychiatric diseases and requires to be further investigated in other populations.
Service-Learning and Philanthropy: Implications for Course Design

Developing good citizens is an historic role for higher education (Sullivan & Rosin, 2008) and the emergence of service-learning as a pedagogical strategy has heightened attention to the intentional educational objectives to be addressed in higher education. This article examines the role of service-learning in developing philanthropic values and behaviors in students that can influence their postgraduate years through careers, civic activities, and family life. Unlike other forms of community-based education (e.g., cooperative education, internship), service-learning extends beyond “serving to learn,” to “learning to serve” (see Chang, this issue) through being involved in community activities (e.g., advocacy, community organizing, volunteering). Two of the explicit dimensions of preparing civic-minded graduates are increasing knowledge of the nonprofit sector and volunteer opportunities and increasing commitment to be involved in the community, both of which can be achieved through service-learning (Steinberg, Hatcher, & Bringle, 2011).
Women's gift-fish and sociality in the Torres Strait, Australia

This paper argues that women's everyday practice of sharing fish at Warraber Island (Torres Strait) can be understood as a form of moral transaction. Gift-fish are shown to be ‘socially entangled’, a fundamental mode of expressing kin relatedness as well as providing an indication of the current state of such relations. Fish distribution is portrayed locally as both an instance of generosity and of obligation, demonstrating a person's desire to engage in socially valued behaviour or correct their past failings. Importantly, I suggest that fish-giving (and receiving) has a distinctly generational character, carrying different emphases across one's life-span. The paper reflects on the tensions involved in strategic efforts by women to reconcile their limited capacity to meet expectations from a wide range of kin and neighbours, while affirming idealised visions of communally shared moral values.
Managing Disruptions to Critical Interdependent Infrastructures in the Context of the 2001 World Trade Center Attack

Critical infrastructure systems provide services that are essential to both the economy and wellbeing of nations and their citizens. As documented in a recent report to the U.S. Congress (U.S. General Accounting Office, 2001), it is of vital importance that these services not be degraded, whether by willful acts such as terrorism or by natural or random events such as earthquakes, design flaws or human error. Yet infrastructure systems and the organizations that manage them are now recognized as components of highly-coupled systems that increasingly rely on one another in order to deliver key services. In, addition, as complex, interconnected systems, they are vulnerable to disruptive events that propagate from system to system.
A Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic Model for Capreomycin

ABSTRACT The emergence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) has led to a renewed interest in the use of second-line antibiotic agents. Unfortunately, there are currently dearths of information, data, and computational models that can be used to help design rational regimens for administration of these drugs. To help fill this knowledge gap, an exploratory physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model, supported by targeted experimental data, was developed to predict the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) of the second-line agent capreomycin, a cyclic peptide antibiotic often grouped with the aminoglycoside antibiotics. To account for interindividual variability, Bayesian inference and Monte Carlo methods were used for model calibration, validation, and testing. Along with the predictive PBPK model, the first for an antituberculosis agent, this study provides estimates of various key pharmacokinetic parameter distributions and supports a hypothesized mechanism for capreomycin transport into the kidney.
Predicted Outcome Value of E-mail Communication: Factors that Foster Professional Relational Development between Students and Teachers

Using predicted outcome value theory as a guide, this study investigated the link between e-mail correspondence as a form of computer mediated extra class communication and how it may shape students’ desire to foster student–teacher relational development. The findings revealed that when students believe their teacher e-mails the class frequently, when students view e-mails from their teachers as being immediate, when students e-mail teachers for procedural/clarification reasons, and when students do not e-mail teachers simply as a means of efficiency, then these factors increase students’ likelihood to value developing a student–teacher relationship. The important role of e-mail in the escalation or termination of professional relational development among students and teachers is discussed.
Contraception, Copulation Domination, and the Theoretical Barrenness of Sex Education Literature

Early in the 20th century the American campaign for sex education represented an effort to destroy related social phenomena--venereal disease and prostitution. Sex education advocates of that time sought to encourage premarital and extramarital chastity. To do so they rejected the view of male sexuality which held that periodic ejaculation of semen is necessary to health. A different but also instrumentalist kind of sex education was proposed by advocates of the psychoanalytic tradition. Wilhelm Reich believed that repressing childrens pursuit of sexual gratification produced authoritarian personalities who were susceptible to fascist political appeals. These advocates maintained that sex education had to be an instrument for enabling people to live the kind of self-directed lives for which they were suited by nature but from which they were prohibited by repressive forces. For Reich sex education of the proper sort should be a vehicle for generating self-regulating individuals. Contemporary sex education advocates share with those of previous decades a tendency to view sex as something fixed and conceptually unproblematical. Their literature suggests they are unaware of many issues surrounding the nature of sexuality. Currently sex education is most often enlisted to deal with the high rate of adolescent pregnancy. Once it is acknowledged that the definition of sex depends upon social and cultural factors human sexual practices can be recognized as changeable. By failing to consider sexual activity as anything but copulation sex education literature and programs reinforce both the tendency to think of sex in those limited terms and the survival of oppressive political practices and structures as well.
A review and reformulation of social information-processing mechanisms in children's social adjustment.

Research on the relation between social information processing and social adjustment in childhood is reviewed and interpreted within the framework of a reformulated model of human performance and social exchange. This reformulation proves to assimilate almost all previous studies and is a useful heuristic device for organizing the field. The review suggests that overwhelming evidence supports the empirical relation between characteristic processing styles and children's social adjustment, with some aspects of processing (e.g., hostile attributional biases, intention cue detection accuracy, response access patterns, and evaluation of response outcomes) likely to be causal of behaviors that lead to social status and other aspects (e.g., perceived self-competence) likely to be responsive to peer status
Direct-to-Consumer Genome-Wide Scans: Astrologicogenomics or Simple Scams?

it. The risks of harm are still significant and the societal benefits, though predicted, are not yet well established. But it does suggest that individuals should consider networksharing of their genetic information not just for personal benefit or for “fun” but also because doing so can benefit others. It also suggests that as the risks of harm diminish and the benefits to others increase, we all may have a moral duty to take ourselves out of the genetic closet.2
Intergenerational Educational Mobility in Denmark

In light of the Danish government's goal of 95% of every cohort achieving higher education by 2015, we investigate educational mobility in Denmark. Following 800,000 Danes and their parents, we found that children of parents with only basic education had a three-times-higher risk of achieving only basic education, compared with the children of well-educated parents. These social differences in educational achievements were found despite free education and generous governmental grants and loans. We found general upgrading of a population's educational level to be a tardy process which implies breaking the bonds of negative social inheritance to increase intergenerational social mobility in the society; thus, the government's 95% goal is unlikely to be achieved by 2015.
Sociocognitive Analysis of Group Decision Making among Consumers

A sociocognitive perspective is developed to further the understanding of the relation between cognitive and social processes. The approach combines social network analysis with a cognitive network perspective to enable the researcher to study how social structure influences cognitive structure and how shared cognitive structure influences choice. This perspective is applied to how a group (with several subgroups) makes a consumer decision with consequences for the entire group. The results show that social structure influences cognitive structure, that shared knowledge is related to choice, and that the sociocognitive perspective provides new insights to prior literature on group decision making and the relation between group membership and brand choice. Copyright 1990 by the University of Chicago.
What Works: Using Curriculum and Pedagogy to Increase Girls' Interest and Participation in Science

This article identifies instructional strategies, curricula, and organizational structures in the research literature that have been successful in encouraging girls' participation and achievement in science: science instruction in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten, relevant curricula that address girls' interests and provide opportunities for genuine inquiry and tinkering experiences, greater emphasis on physical science and the use of computers, integration of reading and writing in science, attention to how groups are formed in classrooms, activities that build self-efficacy, appropriate role models, messages that science is for everyone, and student-centered teaching. Special attention is given to the needs of children in preschool and kindergarten. In addition, research on the impact of single-sex classrooms and grouping is reviewed, along with the use of children's fictional literature to teach science. Implications derived from research literature include changes in what is taught, how it is taught, how teachers are prepared, and how these changes are paid for.
Return handling: an exploratory study with nine retailer warehouses

Already for a long time retailers have taken back products. In this paper we explore the factors contributing to the decision of combining vs separating inbound and outbound flows during the return handling process. We do so through a comparative analysis of the operations in nine retailer warehouses, which can be divided into three groups: food retailers, non‐food store chains and mail order companies. We identify both aggravating factors and facilitating actions for return handling. Furthermore, we bring about recommendations for practice. At the end we put forward propositions that are useful in feeding studies on return handling efficiency. In particular, we conjecture over the impact that return volume and product diversity have on the decision for combining vs separating the reverse and forward flows.
Knowledge Management Enabler Factors and Firm Performance: An Empirical Research of the Greek Medium and Large Firms

Knowledge has become one of the most important driving forces for business success. Knowledge management helps organizations to find, select, organise, distribute, and transfer vital information. Through a successful knowledge management (KM) organizations improve their effectiveness and gain competitive advantage. The development of KM has led to the need of identifying its critical success factors. This study identifies and discusses the critical success factors or enablers that determine the KM effectiveness within organizations, which in turn influence the total performance of the firm. Based on existing frameworks and models, this study outlines the five most important factors that are believed to be critical for an effective KM implementation. This paper also investigates the effect of knowledge management effectiveness on firm performance. The proposed research model is tested via an online survey sent to 280 medium and large sized enterprises, randomly selected, all over Greece; from those only 109 answered the questionnaire correctly. The results of the study will help organizations to understand the impact that different enablers have on the KM successful implementation and how the effectiveness of KM affect firm performance.