Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bilingualism and language use in the Nupe settlement in lbadan

L'A. examine le bilinguisme nupe-yorouba dans la colonie nupe de Ibadan. Il montre que la competence en yorouba est negativement correlee avec l'âge, dans le sens ou les adolescents sont de meilleurs bilingues que les adultes. Il s'agit d'autre part d'un cas de maintient de la langue, ou le nupe domine dans le contexte familial et ou le yorouba est employe partout ailleurs, ceci n'etant pas particulier a un groupe d'âge. De plus, en termes d'attitudes, on a un cas de double engagement, a la fois pour le nupe et le yorouba, ou le nupe est prefere pour des raisons affectives alors que le yorouba est prefere pour des raisons d'utilite
Unsupervised Emotion Detection from Text Using Semantic and Syntactic Relations

Emotion detection from text is a relatively new classification task. This paper proposes a novel unsupervised context-based approach to detecting emotion from text at the sentence level. The proposed methodology does not depend on any existing manually crafted affect lexicons such as Word Net-Affect, thereby rendering our model flexible enough to classify sentences beyond Ekman's model of six basic emotions. Our method computes an emotion vector for each potential affect bearing word based on the semantic relatedness between words and various emotion concepts. The scores are then fine tuned using the syntactic dependencies within the sentence structure. Extensive evaluation on various data sets shows that our framework is a more generic and practical solution to the emotion classification problem and yields significantly more accurate results than recent unsupervised approaches.
A Novel Antibody against Human Properdin Inhibits the Alternative Complement System and Specifically Detects Properdin from Blood Samples

The complement system is an essential part of the innate immune system by acting as a first line of defense which is stabilized by properdin, the sole known positive regulator of the alternative complement pathway. Dysregulation of complement can promote a diversity of human inflammatory diseases which are treated by complement inhibitors. Here, we generated a novel blocking monoclonal antibody (mAb) against properdin and devised a new diagnostic assay for this important complement regulator. Mouse mAb 1340 specifically detected native properdin from human samples with high avidity. MAb 1340 inhibited specifically the alternative complement mediated cell lysis within a concentration range of 1–10 µg/mL. Thus, in vitro anti-properdin mAb 1340 was up to fifteen times more efficient in blocking the complement system as compared to anti-C5 or anti-Ba antibodies. Computer-assisted modelling suggested a three-dimensional binding epitope in a properdin-C3(H2O)-clusterin complex to be responsible for the inhibition. Recovery of properdin in a newly established sandwich ELISA using mAb 1340 was determined at 80–125% for blood sample dilutions above 1∶50. Reproducibility assays showed a variation below 25% at dilutions less than 1∶1,000. Systemic properdin concentrations of healthy controls and patients with age-related macular degeneration or rheumatic diseases were all in the range of 13–30 µg/mL and did not reveal significant differences. These initial results encourage further investigation into the functional role of properdin in the development, progression and treatment of diseases related to the alternative complement pathway. Thus, mAb 1340 represents a potent properdin inhibitor suitable for further research to understand the exact mechanisms how properdin activates the complement C3-convertase and to determine quantitative levels of properdin in biological samples.
The cost-effectiveness of methadone maintenance.

BACKGROUND Although methadone maintenance is effective in reducing injection drug use, needle sharing, and the overall mortality associated with opiate abuse, many health plans offer little or no access to methadone, and many methadone providers do not comply with treatment guidelines regarding dose, duration of treatment, or provision of ancillary services. Moral and political judgments have helped shape the U.S. treatment system. Evaluations of methadone cost-effectiveness may play a role in changing public policy. METHOD Cost-effectiveness analysis is used to compare a change, or changes, in treatment to that of current standard care. The cost of treatment and its effect on outcomes are used to find the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio, and determine whether the change(s) should be adopted. The literature on methadone maintenance is reviewed from an economic perspective, focusing on five policy questions: (1) whether methadone should be a health care benefit; (2) what level of ancillary services is optimal; (3) what methadone dose is appropriate; (4) what length of treatment is appropriate; and (5) whether contingency contracts should be employed. RESULTS Expanded access to methadone maintenance has an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of less than $11,000 per Quality-Adjusted Life Year. This is more cost-effective than many widely used medical therapies, a finding that strongly supports the inclusion of methadone in the formulary of health care plans.Ancillary services have been shown to be an effective part of methadone maintenance therapy, especially during the beginning of a treatment episode, but there is not enough information available to tell whether the optimal amount of services is being used. There is extensive evidence that many treatment programs dispense inadequate doses of methadone. The cost of additional drugs is very small compared to the benefits of an adequate dose. Many methadone programs limit treatment to 6 months or less, but such short episodes are not likely to be cost-effective. The medical model of methadone maintenance may increase the cost-effectiveness of the treatment for long-term patients. Programs that reward patients for negative urinalysis have proven effective at reducing illicit drug use, but their cost-effectiveness will need to be demonstrated before they are widely adopted. CONCLUSIONS Cost-effectiveness researchers need to measure substance abuse outcomes in terms of Quality-Adjusted Life Years, as this will make their findings more relevant to the development of treatment policy. It will allow different substance abuse treatments to be compared to each other and to medical care interventions.
Enhanced Hydrolytic Stability of Dental Composites by Use of Fluoroalkyltrimethoxysilanes

The hydrolytic stability of a group of experimental composite materials was evaluated. Seven distinct composites were formed by the mixing of a resin monomer mixture with silica filler that had been pre-treated with one of 7 different ethanol solutions. In one case, the filler was treated with an ethanol solution that contained only 3-methacryloyloxypropyltrimethoxysilane. In 5 cases, it was treated with solution containing a mixture of 3-methacryloyloxypropyltrimethoxysilane and one of the following hydrophobic fluoroalkyltrimethoxysilanes: trifluoropropyl-, nonafluorohexyl-, tridecafluorooctyl-, heptadecafluorodecyl-, and henicosafluorododecyl-trimethoxysilane. The tensile strength, after being immersed in water for 1800 days, of 2 of the experimental composites, whose pre-treatment regimen had included a fluoroalkyltrimethoxysilane, was significantly higher than that of the composite whose pre-treatment regimen had not included a fluoroalkyltrimethoxysilane. Moreover, there was no significant difference between the tensile strength of fresh samples of these 2 composites and the tensile strength of identically produced samples that had remained under water for 1800 days or that had been subjected to 30,000 cycles of thermal stress.
Dual-input high gain DC-DC converter based on the Cockcroft-Walton multiplier

Recent advancements in renewable energy has created a need for both high step-up and high efficiency dc-dc converters. These needs have typically been addressed with converters using high frequency transformers to achieve the desired gain. The transformer design, however, is challenging. This paper presents a high step-up current fed converter based on the classical Cockcroft-Walton (CW) multiplier. The capacitor ladder allows for high voltage gains without the need of a transformer. The cascaded structure limits the voltage stresses in the converter stages, even for high gains. The converter (unlike traditional CW multipliers) allows the output voltage to be efficiently controlled. In addition, the converter supports multiple input operation without modifying the topology. This makes the converter especially suitable for PV applications where high gain, high efficiency, small converter size and MPPT are required. Design equations and possible control algorithms are presented in this paper. The converter operation was verified using digital simulation and a 450 W prototype converter.
Generalized Entropy with Clustering and Quantum Entangled States

We first show how a new definition of entropy, which is intuitively very simple, as a divergence in cluster-size space, leads to a generalized form that is nonextensive for correlated units, but coincides exactly with the conventional one for completely independent units. We comment on the relevance of such an approach for variable-size microsystems such as in a liquid. We then indicate how the entanglement and purity of a two-unit compound state can depend on their entanglement with the environment. We consider entropies of Tsallis, which is used in many different real- life contexts, and also our new generalization, which takes into account correlated clustering in a more transparent way, and is just as amenable mathematically as that of Tsallis, and show how both purity and entangle- ment can appear naturally together in a measure of mutual information in such a generalized picture of the entropy, with values differing from the Shannon type of entropy. This opens up the possibility of using such an entropy in a quantum context for relevant systems, where interactions between microsystems makes clustering and correlations a non-ignorable characteristic.
Building a Bridge or Digging a Pipeline? Clinical Data Mining in Evidence-Informed Knowledge Building

Challenging the “bridge metaphor” theme of this conference, this article contends that current practice–research integration strategies are more like research-to-practice “pipelines. ” The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the potential of clinical data-mining studies conducted by practitioners, practitioner-oriented PhD students, and methodologically pluralist researchers to promoting a truly collaborative, two-way traffic in evidence-informed knowledge building.
Media Framing of Terrorism: Implications for Public Opinion, Civil Liberties, and Counterterrorism Policies

Abstract This study presents experimental findings on the impact of media framing of the 2005 London bombings. A total of 371 American participants were exposed to one of two frames to test their effect on public attitudes towards civil liberties and Muslims, and support for counterterrorism policies. Results show that the “domestic homegrown” frame produces greater increases in fear than the “international” frame. This leads to greater support for restricting civil liberties of Muslims and, under certain circumstances, general feelings of negativity toward Muslims. The study also finds support for the hydraulic effect of framing in that the domestic homegrown frame suppresses party identification in attitude formation.
Toward a Unifying Social Cognitive Theory of Career and Academic Interest, Choice, and Performance

Abstract This article presents a social cognitive framework for understanding three intricately linked aspects of career development: (a) the formation and elaboration of career-relevant interests, (b) selection of academic and career choice options, and (c) performance and persistence in educational and occupational pursuits. The framework, derived primarily from Bandura′s (1986) general social cognitive theory, emphasizes the means by which individuals exercise personal agency in the career development process, as well as extra-personal factors that enhance or constrain agency. In particular, we focus on self-efficacy, expected outcome, and goal mechanisms and how they may interrelate with other person (e.g., gender), contextual (e.g., support system), and experiential/learning factors. Twelve sets of propositions are offered to organize existing findings and guide future research on the theory. We also present a meta-analysis of relevant findings and suggest specific directions for future empirical and theory-extension activity.
Avian Reservoirs of the Agent of Human Granulocytic Ehrlichiosis?

To the Editor: Human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE), first described in 1994 (1), is the second-most common tick-borne disease in the United States; Lyme disease is the most prevalent. Both diseases are transmitted by blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis Say) that are abundant in southern New York state (2). Factors that influence the risk for infection, particularly the role of wildlife in transmitting the etiologic agent, Anaplasma (formerly Ehrlichia) phagocytophilum (3,4), to vector ticks are not well understood. In the absence of transovarial transmission (5,6), acquisition of A. phagocytophilum by its vector must result either from feeding on the blood of reservoir-competent hosts or by cofeeding of uninfected ticks in close proximity to infected ticks (7).
Do stimulus–response bindings survive a task switch?

Experiencing a single stimulus–response cooccurrence leads to the creation of a binding between the codes of stimulus and response features: an event file. Here we investigate whether event files survive a switch to and from another task (ABBA) or whether task switching involves a suppression of stimulus-response bindings. Participants switched between responding to the colour or the identity of coloured letters, and the mapping of stimuli to response keys varied from trial to trial. Results show that responses were faster if the stimulus in trial matched the stimulus in trial n–3, but only if the stimulus–response mapping was repeated. This suggests that stimulus codes were still bound to the codes of the response they accompanied 3 trials earlier and 2 task switches ago. Thus, an event file can survive one or more task switches and, thus, may represent a first step towards a more enduring memory trace.
Usefulness of sural nerve biopsy in the genomic era

The value of peripheral nerve biopsy is now sometimes questioned due to the high complication rate and the recent development of noninvasive molecular techniques for diagnosis of hereditary neuropathy. However, the disorders that can be diagnosed by genetic analysis are limited and sural nerve biopsy is still a powerful tool for making a correct diagnosis of peripheral neuropathy. Histological evaluation of the sural nerve has long focused on changes of the two major components of peripheral nerves, axons and myelin, as well as on the detection of diagnostic changes such as amyloid deposits, sarcoid tubercles, and vasculitis. In addition to these components, the sural nerve biopsy specimen contains various important cells, including perineurial cells, mast cells, endothelial cells, pericytes, and lymphocytes. Among these cells, the endothelial cells and pericytes form the blood‐nerve barrier (BNB) and investigation of these cells can reveal important information, especially in inflammatory neuropathies. To better understand the biological basis of BNB, we established rat and human immortal cell lines from the endothelial cells and pericytes of endoneurial microvessels. Characterization of these cell lines is now underway at our laboratory. These BNB cell lines should provide useful information concerning the pathophysiology of peripheral neuropathy, and we should obtain a new perspective for the investigation of nerve biopsy specimens after understanding the molecular background of the BNB.
Deep Neural Networks with Inexact Matching for Person Re-Identification

Person Re-Identification is the task of matching images of a person across multiple camera views. Almost all prior approaches address this challenge by attempting to learn the possible transformations that relate the different views of a person from a training corpora. Then, they utilize these transformation patterns for matching a query image to those in a gallery image bank at test time. This necessitates learning good feature representations of the images and having a robust feature matching technique. Deep learning approaches, such as Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), simultaneously do both and have shown great promise recently. In this work, we propose two CNN-based architectures for Person Re-Identification. In the first, given a pair of images, we extract feature maps from these images via multiple stages of convolution and pooling. A novel inexact matching technique then matches pixels in the first representation with those of the second. Furthermore, we search across a wider region in the second representation for matching. Our novel matching technique allows us to tackle the challenges posed by large viewpoint variations, illumination changes or partial occlusions. Our approach shows a promising performance and requires only about half the parameters as a current state-of-the-art technique. Nonetheless, it also suffers from false matches at times. In order to mitigate this issue, we propose a fused architecture that combines our inexact matching pipeline with a state-of-the-art exact matching technique. We observe substantial gains with the fused model over the current state-of-the-art on multiple challenging datasets of varying sizes, with gains of up to about 21%.
Unbiased proteomic analysis of proteins interacting with the HIV-1 5′LTR sequence: role of the transcription factor Meis

To depict the largest picture of a core promoter interactome, we developed a one-step DNA-affinity capture method coupled with an improved mass spectrometry analysis process focused on the identification of low abundance proteins. As a proof of concept, this method was developed through the analysis of 230 bp contained in the 5′long terminal repeat (LTR) of the human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1). Beside many expected interactions, many new transcriptional regulators were identified, either transcription factors (TFs) or co-regulators, which interact directly or indirectly with the HIV-1 5′LTR. Among them, the homeodomain-containing TF myeloid ectopic viral integration site was confirmed to functionally interact with a specific binding site in the HIV-1 5′LTR and to act as a transcriptional repressor, probably through recruitment of the repressive Sin3A complex. This powerful and validated DNA-affinity approach could also be used as an efficient screening tool to identify a large set of proteins that physically interact, directly or indirectly, with a DNA sequence of interest. Combined with an in silico analysis of the DNA sequence of interest, this approach provides a powerful approach to select the interacting candidates to validate functionally by classical approaches.
Exploring the effects of intragroup conflict and past performance feedback on team effectiveness

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test a model of the effects of intragroup conflict (relationship conflict, task conflict and process conflict), past performance feedback and perceptions of team decision‐making effectiveness on team performance and affective responses.Design/methodology/approach – A sample of 183 individuals, working in 47 different teams, participated in this study. All the teams were involved in a national management challenge for a five‐week period. Three questionnaires were sent directly to team members by e‐mail at different times of the challenge period to collect data concerning demographic data (questionnaire 1), perceptions of team functioning (questionnaire 2) and perceptions of team decision‐making effectiveness as well as the affective responses (questionnaire 3). The level of analysis in this study was the group. Thus, all individual survey responses were aggregated to the team level for statistical analysis.Findings – Results showed a full mediation effect of percep.
Management of CBD stones in patients having laparoscopic cholecystectomy in a private setting in Australia

Laparoscopic bile duct exploration at the time of laparoscopic cholecystectomy has been promoted as being equally successful as endoscopic bile duct clearance. Further, if successful it offers the possibility of reducing the number of interventions required and therefore reducing overall costs. However, there is little in the literature that describe current treatment patterns in the Australian environment.
Selenium, selenoproteins and selenometabolites in mother and baby at time of birth

Complete List of Authors: Santos, Cristina; Hospital de Riotinto, Laboratory of Clinical Analysis Garcia-Fuentes, Eduardo; Hospital Regional Universitario, UGC Endocrinology & Nutrition Callejón-Leblic, Belén; Universidad de Huelva Facultad de Ciencias Experimentales, Department of Chemistry and Materials Science García-Barrera, Tamara; Universidad de Huelva Facultad de Ciencias Experimentales, Department of Chemistry and Materials Science Gómez-Ariza, José Luís; Universidad de Huelva Facultad de Ciencias Experimentales, Department of Chemistry and Materials Science Rayman, Margaret; University of Surrey, Fac. of Health and Medical Sciences Velasco, Ines; Hospital de Riotinto, Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology
The Relationship Between Codependency and Borderline and Dependent Personality Traits

Abstract This study explored the relationship between the concept of codependency, a term originating in the field of addictions, and DSM-IV (APA, 1994) descriptions of dependent and borderline personality disorders. Seventy-five undergraduates (16 men and 59 women) were administered the Potter-Efron Codependency Scale (Potter-Efron & Potter-Efron, 1989), the borderline and the dependent scales of the MCMI-II (Millon, 1987), and the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS, Weissman, 1979). Pearson Product Moment correlations were computed and revealed a significant positive correlation between codependent and borderline traits and a significant but weaker correlation between codependent and dependent traits. Codependent and borderline personality traits were also similarly correlated on specific cognitive schema assessed by the DAS. These findings are one of only a few first empirical tests of the relationship between borderline personality disorder, dependent personality disorder and codependency, possibly indicating that codependency may be a combination of disorders already extant in the DSM-IV.
The Sociolinguistic Basis of Managing Rapport When Overcoming Buying Objections

Rapport has two important facets: enjoyable interactions and personal connection. Increasing levels of rapport builds a deeper sense of loyalty in customers and inspires a greater amount of information disclosure. Although the influence of nonverbal behaviors (e.g., how body orientation matches while interacting) on rapport has been recognized and subject to some empirical validation, the influence of verbal behavior (e.g., what is said rather than how) has not been explored within the sales literature. Nevertheless, verbal choices in communication can play a critical role in a sales representative's ability to establish rapport. The authors identify verbal strategies for managing rapport in such situations by discussing two aspects of sociolinguistic theory, speech acts and rapport management, to explain how sales representatives'verbal communication influences rapport with customers. After applying this theory in an indepth analysis of an actual sales interaction, the authors conclude by offering normative guidelines for sales representatives and suggesting ways in which future research might build on our theoretical framework.