Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Organisational Commitment: Buffer of Work Stress? Relationship to Health, Gender and Age

Work stress has been linked to negative health outcomes; however, evidence has shown that organisational commitment can act as a buffer to work stress. This is known as the buffering hypothesis of commitment. It was hypothesised that affective commitment would buffer negative effects of specific work stressors and reduce ill health. A convenience sample of 52 urban bus drivers (44 male and 8 female) completed the ASSET questionnaire (an organisational stress screening tool). Limited evidence to support the buffering hypothesis was found, although high levels of commitment were associated with low levels of psychological ill health. Suggestive gender differences were established, yet there was no effect of age. The results display clear trends and novel defined opportunities for stress interventions.
How Much Do Learners Know about the Factors That Influence Their Listening Comprehension

This article discusses factors which influence learner listening comprehension and examines the extent of awareness of these factors among a group of Chinese ESL learners. Data were collected through small group interviews and learner diaries. Twenty factors were identified and these were categorised under five characteristics: text, listener, speaker, task, and environment. Many of the factors identified were related to text and listener characteristics. Five factors were reported by more than two-thirds of the forty language learners who participated in the study. The factors in order of frequency of mention were: vocabulary, prior knowledge, speech rate, type of input and speaker’s accent. To find out whether the degree of awareness about factors influencing comprehension was in any way linked to listening ability, two groups of learners were compared. A majority of the high-ability listeners reported twelve factors whereas the low-ability group reported only four. While the high-ability listeners were aware of the effects of text characteristics, they also saw listening as an interactive process in which both the listener and the speaker shared a responsibility for meaning construction. The low-ability listeners’ view of listening comprehension, on the other hand, appeared to be predominantly text-oriented.
Human umbilical cord blood‐derived mesenchymal stem cells improve functional recovery through thrombospondin1, pantraxin3, and vascular endothelial growth factor in the ischemic rat brain

Cell therapy is a potential therapeutic method for cerebral ischemia, which remains a serious problem. In the search for more effective therapeutic methods, many kinds of stem cells from various tissues have been developed and tested as candidate therapeutic agents. Among them, human umbilical cord blood (hUCB)‐derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are widely used for cell therapy because of their genetic flexibility. To confirm that they are effective and understand how they affect ischemic neural cells, hUCB‐MSCs were directly administered ipsilaterally into an ischemic zone induced by middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). We found that the neurobehavioral performance of the hUCB‐MSC group was significantly improved compared with that of the vehicle‐injected control group. The infarct was also remarkably smaller in the hUCB‐MSC group. Additionally, hUCB‐MSC transplantation resulted in a greater number of newly generated cells and angiogenic and tissue repair factors and a lower number of inflammatory events in the penumbra zone. To determine why these events occurred, hUCB‐MSCs were assayed under hypoxic and normoxic conditions in vitro. The results showed that hUCB‐MSCs exhibit higher expression levels of thrombospondin1, pantraxin3, and vascular endothelial growth factor under hypoxic conditions than under normoxic conditions. These results were found to be correlated with our in vivo immunofluorescent staining results. On the basis of these findings, we suggest that hUCB‐MSCs may have a beneficial effect on cerebral ischemia, especially through angiogenesis, neurogenesis, and anti‐inflammatory effects, and thus could be used as a therapeutic agent to treat neurological disorders such as cerebral ischemia. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The influences of immune modulation with levamisole and polyoxyethylene-polyoxypropylene copolymers on the immunohematological, serum biochemical parameters and intestinal histocytomorphology of weaned pigs.

The objectives of this study were to investigate whether or not the synthetic compounds, levamisole (LEVA) and polyoxyethylene-polyoxypropylene (POE-POP) copolymers, well-known to act as immunomodulators (IMs) in swine, may positively influence the cellular and humoral immune parameters of weaned pigs, without negatively affecting their hematological (HE), serum biochemistry (SB) and gut histocytological (HC) homeostasis. The pigs from a commercial swine farm were weaned at 26 days of age, randomly divided into 3 groups comprising 20 animals each, and kept in separate pens within the same rearing facility. At the age of 28 days (Day 0 of the experiment), the pigs were treated as follows: (1) control pigs perorally (p.o.) received 10 mL of saline, and the principals were p.o. treated with a single dose of 10 mL of either: (2) LEVA with 2.5 mg/kg body weight of the anthelmintic drug or (3) POE-POP with 2.5 mg/mL of the copolymer preparation. The experiment was conducted over 35 days, and 7 pigs per group were sampled for peripheral blood at 7 day intervals, starting at Day 0 before the treatments for immunohematology and SB analyses. At either Day 0 or Day 35 of the experiment 5 pigs per group were euthanatized and sampled for gut HC. The POE-POPtreated pigs had increased proportions of lymphocytes (P<0.05) at Day 35. These pigs had higher levels of total serum immunoglobulins (P<0.05) at Day 14. The LEVA-treated pigs had decreased proportions of lymphocytes (P<0.05) at Day 14, although their total leukocyte count was similar to that recorded in the controls. None of the tested IMs affected the values of HE parameters, indicating that they did not cause any harmful side effects during the observation period of 5 weeks following the treatments. Minor oscillations in SB parameters were observed, but their values were within the normal range for swine and in accordance with the ages of the pigs. The HC features of gut mucosa in the pigs from the principal groups showed very mild damage and were quite normal for farm pigs exposed to natural infections, indicating that the tested IMs did not induce any additional HC changes. The obtained results imply that immunomodulating treatment with tested IMs was not associated with any adverse effects on the monitored HE, SB and gut HC parameters, and thus, does not suggest any putative impairment in the general health status of weaned pigs throughout the experimental period.
Development and Validation of a Multiplex Real-Time PCR Assay for Simultaneous Genotyping and Human T-Lymphotropic Virus Type 1, 2, and 3 Proviral Load Determination

ABSTRACT The human T-lymphotropic virus (HTLV) proviral load remains the best surrogate marker for disease progression. Real-time PCR techniques have been developed for detection and quantification of cosmopolitan HTLV type 1a (HTLV-1a) and HTLV-2. Since a growing level of diversity in subtypes and genotypes is observed, we developed a multiplex quantitative PCR for simultaneous detection, genotyping, and quantification of proviral loads of HTLV-1, 2, and 3. Our assay uses tax type-specific primers and dually labeled probes and has a dynamic range of 105 to 10 HTLV copies. One hundred sixty-three samples were analyzed, among which all of the different subtypes within each HTLV genotype could be detected. The performance of proviral load determination of our multiplex assay was compared with that of a previously published HTLV-1 singleplex quantitative PCR based on SYBR green detection, developed at a different institute. Linear regression analysis showed a statistically significant (P < 0.0001) and strong (r2 = 0.87) correlation between proviral load values measured with the two distinct real-time PCR assays. In conclusion, our novel assay offers an accurate molecular diagnosis and genotyping, together with the determination of the proviral load of HTLV-infected individuals, in a single amplification reaction. Moreover, our molecular assay could offer an alternative when current available serological assays are insufficient.
A prediction model of survival for patients with bone metastasis from uterine cervical cancer

Objective The aim of the study was to establish a predictive model of survival period after bone metastasis from cervical cancer. Methods A total of 54 patients with bone metastasis from cervical cancer were included in the study. Data at the time of bone metastasis diagnosis, which included presence of extraskeletal metastasis, performance status, history of any previous radiation or chemotherapy, the number of bone metastases, onset period, and treatment were collected. Survival data were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazards model. Results The median survival period after diagnosis of bone metastasis was 22 weeks (5 months). The 26- and 52-week survival rates after bone metastasis were 36.5% and 15.4%, respectively. Cox regression analysis showed that extraskeletal metastasis (hazard ratio [HR], 6.1; 95% CI, 2.2 to 16.6), performance status of 3 to 4 (HR, 7.8; 95% CI, 3.3 to 18.2), previous radiation or chemotherapy (HR, 3.3; 95% CI, 1.4 to 7.8), multiple bone metastases (HR, 1.9; 95% CI, 1.0 to 3.5), and a bone metastasis-free interval of <12 months (HR, 2.5; 95% CI, 1.2 to 5.3) were significantly and independently related to poor survival. A prognostic score was calculated by adding the number of each significant factor. The 26-week survival rates after diagnosis of bone metastasis were 70.1% in the group with a score ≤2, 46.7% in the group with a score of 3, and 12.5% in the group with a score ≥4 (p<0.001). Conclusion This scoring system provided useful prognostic information on survival of patients with bone metastasis of cervical cancer.
Density-based spam detector

The volume of mass unsolicited electronic mail, often known as spam, has recently increased enormously and has become a serious threat to not only the Internet but also to society. This paper proposes a new spam detection method which uses document space density information. Although it requires extensive e-mail traffic to acquire the necessary information, an unsupervised learning engine with a short white list can achieve a 98% recall rate and 100% precision. A direct-mapped cache method contributes handling of over 13,000 e-mails per second. Experimental results, which were conducted using over 50 million actual e-mails of traffic, are also reported in this paper.
Space weather, Earth's neutral upper atmosphere (thermosphere), and spacecraft orbital lifetime/dynamics

Accurate prediction of a spacecraft/satellite orbital lifetime, insertion altitude, reboost requirements, and mission performance is mainly the result of the integrated effect from knowledge of the atmospheric density, space weather (solar/geomagnetic), and timeline of vehicle characteristics. Each of these elements is dependent upon a model developed to provide the inputs necessary for the use of an orbital lifetime prediction program. This paper will address relative influences of these elements with emphasis on solar/geomagnetic activity, atmospheric density, and drag coefficient associated with the model products used to predict orbital lifetime and related spacecraft/satellite design and operational conditions. Issues associated with the potential for improvement of the lifetime prediction model input elements will be discussed with regard to their relative contributions to improving orbital lifetime and performance predictions.
"So cute I could eat it up": : Priming effects of cute products on indulgent consumption

This article examines the extent to which consumers engage in more indulgent consumption when they are exposed to whimsically cute products and explores the process by which such products affect indulgence. Prior research on kindchenschema (baby schema) has found that exposure to cute babies or baby animals leads to more careful behavior (see the study by Sherman, Haidt, and Coan), suggesting restraint. The present research uncovers the opposite: consumers become more indulgent in their behavior after exposure to whimsically cute products. Drawing from research on cognitive priming, kindchenschema, anthropomorphization, indulgence, and regulatory focus, this research posits that exposure to whimsically cute products primes mental representations of fun, increasing consumers' focus on approaching self-rewards and making consumers more likely to choose indulgent options. These effects do not emerge for kindchenschema cute stimuli, since they prime mental representations of vulnerability and caretaking. Four empirical studies provide evidence for the proposed effects and their underlying process.
THE ROLE OF LEARNING IN CHUCK CALL RECOGNITION BY SQUIRREL MONKEYS (SAIMIRI SCIUREUS)

Summary This study explored the role of learning in the development of chuck call recognition in squirrel monkeys. We experimentally exposed subjects of four different age classes, under controlled conditions, to the chuck calls of genetically unrelated individuals of different social afe nities. Using playback experimentation, we tested the hypothesis that subjects at different developmental stages respond preferentially to the chuck calls of genetically unrelated familiar social group companions when compared to those of unfamiliar individuals from outside of the social group. Results demonstrated that adults vocally respond preferentially to the chuck calls of familiar social group members. Subadults behaviorally respond preferentially to the chuck calls of close social associates within their social groups. Juveniles behaviorally responded more strongly to the playback of chuck calls arising from individuals within their colony when compared to the playback of ‘ silence. ’ Infants did not behaviorally or vocally respond preferentially to the chuck calls of close social associates or other social group members. These results demonstrate that learning plays a role in chuck call recognition in squirrel monkeys and may suggest that infants gradually learn to acoustically recognize social companions within their group.
On Claims That Answer the Wrong Questions

Anderson, Reder, and Simon (1996) contested four propositions that they incorrectly called “claims of situated learning. ” This response argues that the important differences between situative and cognitive perspectives are not addressed by discussion of these imputed claims. Instead, there are significant differences in the framing assumptions of the two perspectives. I clarify these differences by inferring questions to which Anderson et al.'s discussion provided answers, by identifying presuppositions of those questions made by Anderson et al., and by stating the different presuppositions and questions that I believe are consistent with the situative perspective. The evidence given by Anderson et al. is compatible with the framing assumptions of situativity; therefore, deciding between the perspectives will involve broader considerations than those presented in their article. These considerations include expectations about which framework offers the better prospect for developing a unified scientific account of activity considered from both social and individual points of view, and which framework supports research that will inform discussions of educational practice more productively. The cognitive perspective takes the theory of individual cognition as its basis and builds toward a broader theory by incrementally developing analyses of additional components that are considered as contexts. The situative perspective takes the theory of social and ecological interaction as its basis and builds toward a more comprehensive theory by developing increasingly detailed analyses of information structures in the contents of people's interactions. While I believe that the situative framework is more promising, the best strategy for the field is for both perspectives to be developed energetically.
The self-determination of college students with and without disabilities

THE SELF-DETERMINATION OF COLLEGE STUDENTS WITH AND WITHOUT DISABILITIES by Elizabeth Gail Rohlfer This paper reports on a research study designed to examine differences in level of total self-determination, autonomy, psychological empowerment, self-realization, and transition service satisfaction between college students with an identified disability and college students without an identified disability. Participants in the non-identified group were matched to the identified group participants on four variables. All participants completed an online questionnaire including a modified version of the Arc’s SelfDetermination Scale and open-ended response questions. Results were analyzed via multivariate analysis of variance and independent sample t-tests. Significant differences were not found between the two groups. The author of this study attempts to explain why non-significant results were obtained and what can be implemented in the future to improve transition services and supports for all students. This paper also examines the limitations of the current study and suggestions for future research. THE SELF-DETERMINATION OF COLLEGE STUDENTS WITH AND WITHOUT DISABILITIES
Gain and Loss of Small RNA Classes—Characterization of Small RNAs in the Parasitic Nematode Family Strongyloididae

Abstract The nematode family Strongyloididae is of particular interest because it contains important parasites of medical and veterinary relevance. In addition, species of this family can form parasitic and free-living generations and it also occupies an interesting phylogenetic position within the nematodes. Nematodes differ in several ways from other taxa with respect to their small noncoding RNAs. Recent comparative studies revealed that there is also considerable variability within the nematodes. However, no Strongyloididae species or close relative was included in these studies. We characterized the small RNAs of two developmental stages of three different Strongyloididae species and compared them with the well-studied free-living nematodes Caenorhabditis elegans and Pristionchus pacificus. Strongyloididae have conserved and taxon-specific microRNAs, many of which are differentially regulated between the two developmental stages. We identified a novel class of around 27-nucleotide-long RNAs starting with 5′G or A, of which a large fraction have the potential to target transposable elements. These RNAs most likely have triphosphates at their 5′ ends and are therefore presumably synthesized by RNA-dependent RNA polymerases. In contrast to C. elegans but similarly to some other nematode taxa, Strongyloididae have no Piwi-interacting RNAs, nor do their genomes encode Argonaute proteins of the Piwi family. Finally, we attempted but failed to detect circulating parasite small RNAs in the blood of hosts.
On the development of metapragmatic awareness abroad: two case studies exploring the role of expert-mediation

This paper examines the resulting qualitative transformation of two students' metapragmatic awareness following a semester abroad in southern France – one of whom had access to a concept-based pragmatics instruction programme (expert-mediation), while the other followed a standard semester programme. The larger study from which these cases are drawn was designed to address the many calls for pedagogical interventions to help students to engage in, interpret, and negotiate the complexities that surround them during study abroad. Through a thematic discourse analysis of pre- and post-programme language awareness interviews, both focal students exhibited development and growth in their metapragmatic awareness but each student's development was markedly different in nature. These case studies show that expert-mediation provided one learner with notably more systematic, reliable, and recontextualisable conceptual knowledge (in comparison to her non-expert-mediated counterpart) through which she could interpret the language use she encountered through everyday interactions abroad. Subsequent theoretical and pedagogical implications are also discussed.
Validating an instrument to assess the motivation of athletics donors.

This paper describes the development of a survey instrument to assess athletics donor motivation. An extensive literature review, followed by interviews with athletics donors, identified 14 dimensions of donor motivation. Expert review and field testing of potential survey items reduced the number of dimensions of athletics donor motivation to 12. The final instrument, Motivation of Athletics Donors (MAD-1), was pilot tested with a sample of donors from 10 NCAA Division I athletics programs. Eleven scales were validated using confirmatory factor analysis, scale reliabilities (Cronbach's alpha), and item-to-total correlations. These results (a) provide the foundation necessary for systematic study of athletics donor behavior utilizing social cognitive theory as the theoretical framework, and (b) support the use of the MAD-1 as a practical instrument for assessing the specific motivations of any particular donor group.
Improved detection of cystic fibrosis mutations in the heterogeneous U.S. population using an expanded, pan-ethnic mutation panel

Purpose: To determine the comparative frequency of 93 CFTR mutations in U.S. individuals with a clinical diagnosis of cystic fibrosis (CF). Methods: A total of 5,840 CF chromosomes from Caucasians, Ashkenazi Jews, Hispanics, African Americans, Native Americans, Asians, and individuals of mixed race were analyzed using a pooled ASO hybridization strategy.Results: Sixty-four mutations provided a sensitivity of 70% to 95% in all ethnic groups except Asians, and at least 81% when the U.S. population was considered as a whole.Conclusions: For population-based carrier screening for CF in the heterogeneous U.S. population, which is characterized by increasing admixture, a pan-ethnic mutation panel of 50 to 70 CFTR mutations may provide a practical test that maximizes sensitivity.
Planning by older mothers for the future care of offspring with serious mental illness.

OBJECTIVE This study examined permanency planning by older mothers for their adult offspring with long-term mental illness, including extent of residential and financial planning, desire for future family care, and perceived need for and use of services to assist with planning. METHODS Mail surveys were completed by 157 mothers (mean age, 67 years) from 41 states who lived with and provided care to adult offspring with serious mental disorders (mean age, 38 years). The offspring were mostly males (76 percent) and had diagnoses primarily of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (60 percent), multiple diagnoses (20 percent), or bipolar disorder (16 percent). RESULTS Only 11 percent of mothers reported definite plans for their offspring's future residence, and many had done little or no planning. Three-quarters of respondents hoped that another family member would assume care, yet only one-quarter thought such arrangements would definitely occur. Two-thirds of the respondents had completed financial plans. Although more than two-thirds expressed the need for services to help with planning, less than one-third had used such services. More than half reported awareness of age-related changes in themselves or their spouse as the primary reason for planning. CONCLUSIONS Older parents of adults with long-term mental illness need professional help with planning for their offspring's future. This assistance should focus on mechanisms such as estate planning to enable case management and other services after parents' death. The involvement of nondisabled siblings in planning should also be encouraged.