Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Usage and Perceived Outcomes of Early Intervention and Early Childhood Programs for Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

This study investigated families of children with autism spectrum disorders using early intervention and early childhood services, as well as the perceived efficacy and developmental outcomes related to the services and service delivery methods. Results indicated that a variety of recommended practices are not being used by families and interventionists and that intensity of engagement is less than suggested. Parents indicated that parent training was the most effective service in contributing to their child's growth. Significant, yet small, correlations were found between several intervention services/service delivery models and developmental outcomes across areas, including social, emotional, and cognitive development. The importance of assessing social validity related to outcomes is addressed, as are potential implications for service providers.
Retention and attrition of Irish as a second language: a longitudinal study of general and communicative proficiency in Irish among second level school leavers and the influence of instructional background, language use and attitude/motivation variables

De overgrote meerderheid van de inwoners van Ierland spreekt Engels, maar de Ierse taal (het Gaelic) wordt aan alle schoolkinderen onderwezen. Ze hebben dat vak vanaf het begin van de basisschool tot het einde van de middelbare school. Verspreid over dertien jaar krijgen ze ongeveer 1450 uur Ierse les. Dit is een van de belangrijkste manieren waarop de overheid de Ierse taal wil bevorderen en behouden. Er is een klein maar groeiend aantal scholen (drie procent) die niet in het Engels, maar in het Iers lesgeven (immersion schools). Promovendus Lelia Murtagh onderzocht hoe het gesteld is met de kennis van het Iers (vooral de spreekvaardigheid) bij scholieren in hun laatste schooljaar en achttien maanden na hun eindexamen. Kunnen zij hun Ierse taalvaardigheid behouden in een grotendeel Engelstalige omgeving? Hoewel de deelnemers aan het onderzoek zelf meenden dat hun mondelinge taalvaardigheid was afgenomen na het verlaten van de school, werd dat werd niet gestaafd door de onderzoekgegevens. Deze toonden aan dat de testresultaten voor de groep in het algemeen niet achteruit waren gegaan in het tussenliggende anderhalve jaar. Verrassend was dat een klein deel zelfs beter scoorde bij de laatste test dan bij de eerste. Hierbij ging het om oud-leerlingen van een immersion school. Deze groep bleef het Iers in veel sociale situaties gebruiken. Bovendien hebben zij een betere toegang tot Iers-sprekende netwerken dan de in het Engels opgeleide scholieren. Bron: RUG nieuws
How Social Class Differences Affect Students' Experience of University

The present paper outlines the experiences reported by students from different social class backgrounds who have recently graduated from university. Students from manual skilled and partly skilled backgrounds were classed as disadvantaged, while students from professional or intermediate backgrounds were classed as advantaged. Data were collected from the same cohort of students on seven occasions across their university career. Students completed questions about their family background, paid employment, financial concerns, participation in recreational activities, perceptions of academic quality and perceptions of social support. Results showed that students from disadvantaged backgrounds were less likely to have parents that attended university, more likely to have been in paid employment, less likely to have participated in non‐academic activities and spent fewer evenings per week socializing compared with students from advantaged backgrounds. Also, there was some evidence of less positive perceptions of social support among disadvantaged students. However, there were no social class differences in ratings of teaching quality and all students reported high levels of financial concern. These findings are discussed in relation to proposed changes to the way higher education is funded in Britain and the implications these changes will have on recruiting students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Awareness among Anganwadi Workers and the Prospect of Child Health and Nutrition: A Study in Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, India

Abstract The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), the nationwide programme of the Government of India offers the most important interventions for addressing the nutrition and health problems and promoting early childhood education among the disadvantaged population of the country. The present study was undertaken with the objective of assessing the awareness among anganwadi workers regarding the health and nutrition services for children (0-6yrs) in ICDS. The sample of the present study was taken from Purmandal block of Jammu . The tools used for study was self devised interview schedule. In the nutrition aspect, the present study revealed that 55 % of anganwadi worker were actually aware of nutritional services provided at anganwadi centres and were able to explain it if asked but none of them was familiar with the energy and protein requirement of the targeted age group and were unaware of the fact as to how many caloric food they are providing to children. In the health perspective it was revealed that 30% of anganwadi workers, who were assessing the nutritional status of child in anganwadi, were not aware of the method applied for assessment. It was found that although anganwadi workers were maintaining monthly weight registers and growth charts records but majority (65%) of them were not aware of the importance of growth chart . The study shows that in spite of the all training of anganwadi workers, their performance as well as awareness in terms of nutrition and health perspective was not satisfactory and hence an utmost need of frequent training as well as on spot training programme was strongly felt.
Parental perspectives on the communication abilities of their daughters with Rett syndrome

Abstract Objective: This study describes, from the perspective of parents, how females with Rett syndrome communicate in everyday life and the barriers and facilitators to successful communication. Methods: Sixteen interviews were conducted with parents with a daughter with Rett syndrome with a pathogenic mutation in the methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 gene. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Transcripts were analysed using directed content analysis. Results: All parents reported their daughters were able to express discomfort and pleasure, and make requests and choices using a variety of modalities including vocalisations, body movements and eye gaze. Parents also reported their daughters understood most of what they said and that the level of functional abilities, such as mobility, and environmental factors, such as characteristics of the communication partner, influenced successful communication. Conclusions: The perspectives of parents are integral to the assessment of communication abilities and have the potential to inform communication interventions for girls and women with Rett syndrome.
Long-term survival in older critically ill patients with acute ischemic stroke*

Objectives: To compare survival in older patients with acute ischemic stroke admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) with those not requiring ICU care and to assess the impact of mechanical ventilation (MV) and percutaneous gastrostomy tubes (PEG) on long-term mortality. Design: Multicentered retrospective cohort study. Setting: Administrative data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services covering 93 metropolitan counties primarily in the eastern half of the United States. Patients: 31,301 patients discharged with acute ischemic stroke in 2000. Interventions: None. Measurements and Main Results: Mortality from the time of index hospitalization up to the end of the follow-up period of 12 months. Information was also gathered on use of mechanical ventilation, percutaneous gastrostomy, sociodemographic variables and a host of comorbid conditions. Of all patients with acute ischemic stroke, 26% required ICU admission. The crude death rate for ICU stroke patients was 21% at 30 days and 40% at 1-yr follow-up. At 30 days, after adjustment of sociodemographic variables and comorbidities, ICU patients had a 29% higher mortality hazard compared with non-ICU patients. MV was associated with a five-fold higher mortality hazard (hazard ratio 5.59, confidence interval [CI] 4.93–6.34). The use of PEG was not associated with mortality at 30 days. By contrast, at 1-yr follow up in 30-day survivors, ICU admission was not associated with mortality hazard (hazard ratio 1.01, 95% CI 0.93–1.09). MV still had a higher risk of death (hazard ratio 1.88, 95% CI 1.57–2.25), and PEG patients had a 2.59-fold greater mortality hazard (95% CI 2.38–2.82). Conclusions: Both short-term and long-term mortality in older patients with acute ischemic stroke admitted to ICUs is lower than previously reported. The need for MV and PEG are markers for poor long-term outcome. Future research should focus on the identification of clinical factors that lead to increased mortality in long-term survivors and efforts to reduce those risks.
Spanish Validation of the California Older Person's Pleasant Events Schedule (COPPES)

The California Older Person's Pleasant Events Schedule (COPPES) measures frequency and enjoyment of pleasurable events. Interviews were conducted with 220 people older than 60 years. Acceptable to excellent internal consistency indices were found for the COPPES global scales and their subscales. Good concurrent and criterion validity indices were also found. Women reported a higher frequency of pleasant activities than did men (total score and domains contemplating and doing), and more women experienced enjoyment in the domain doing. Enjoyment was found to be significantly associated with reduced depressive symptomatology in women. Rumination was significantly associated with lower frequency and enjoyment scores in women. Frequency scores on the relaxing and contemplating domains are associated respectively with lower depressive symptomatology and higher social support for men.
Chemoreceptor plasticity and respiratory acclimation in the zebrafish Danio rerio

SUMMARY The goals of this study were to assess the respiratory consequences of exposing adult zebrafish Danio rerio to chronic changes in water gas composition (hypoxia, hyperoxia or hypercapnia) and to determine if any ensuing effects could be related to morphological changes in branchial chemoreceptors. To accomplish these goals, we first modified and validated an established non-invasive technique for continuous monitoring of breathing frequency and relative breathing amplitude in adult fish. Under normal conditions 20% of zebrafish exhibited an episodic breathing pattern that was composed of breathing and non-breathing (pausing/apneic) periods. The pausing frequency was reduced by acute hypoxia (PwO2<130 mmHg) and increased by acute hyperoxia (PwO2>300 mmHg), but was unaltered by acute hypercapnia. Fish were exposed for 28 days to hyperoxia (PwO2>350 mmHg), or hypoxia (PwO2=30 mmHg) or hypercapnia (PwCO2=9 mmHg). Their responses to acute hypoxia or hypercapnia were then compared to the response of control fish kept for 28 days in normoxic and normocapnic water. In control fish, the ventilatory response to acute hypoxia consisted of an increase in breathing frequency while the response to acute hypercapnia was an increase in relative breathing amplitude. The stimulus promoting the hyperventilation during hypercapnia was increased PwCO2 rather than decreased pH. Exposure to prolonged hyperoxia decreased the capacity of fish to increase breathing frequency during hypoxia and prevented the usual increase in breathing amplitude during acute hypercapnia. In fish previously exposed to hyperoxia, episodic breathing continued during acute hypoxia until PwO2 had fallen below 70 mmHg. In fish chronically exposed to hypoxia, resting breathing frequency was significantly reduced (from 191±12 to 165±16 min–1); however, the ventilatory responses to hypoxia and hypercapnia were unaffected. Long-term exposure of fish to hypercapnic water did not markedly modify the breathing response to acute hypoxia and modestly blunted the response to hypercapnia. To determine whether branchial chemoreceptors were being influenced by long-term acclimation, all four groups of fish were acutely exposed to increasing doses of the O2 chemoreceptor stimulant, sodium cyanide, dissolved in inspired water. Consistent with the blunting of the ventilatory response to hypoxia, the fish pre-exposed to hyperoxia also exhibited a blunted response to NaCN. Pre-exposure to hypoxia was without effect whereas prior exposure to hypercapnia increased the ventilatory responses to cyanide. To assess the impact of acclimation to varying gas levels on branchial O2 chemoreceptors, the numbers of neuroepithelial cells (NECs) of the gill filament were quantified using confocal immunofluorescence microscopy. Consistent with the blunting of reflex ventilatory responses, fish exposed to chronic hyperoxia exhibited a significant decrease in the density of NECs from 36.8±2.8 to 22.7±2.3 filament–1.
Feeling Poor: The Felt Experience Low-Income Lone Mothers

This article describes what it means to feel poor from the perspective of low-income lone mothers. The construct of feeling poor is complex and multifaceted for these mothers, whose common behaviors include self-sacrifice and coping. The authors identify 10 feeling domains for these mothers: feeling deprived, righteous, the need for occupational choice, relatively better positioned than others, the need to manage the appearance of poverty, judged/degraded, guilty, isolated, dependent, and despondent.
Derivation of Pekar's Polarons from a Microscopic Model of Quantum Crystal

A polaron is an electron interacting with a polar crystal, which is able to form a bound state by using the distortions of the crystal induced by its own density of charge. In this paper we consider the case of a very light charged particle which is inserted in a quantum crystal described by reduced Hartree--Fock theory. Due to its small mass, the polaron lives on a much larger scale than the characteristic length of the host crystal. In the limit of very small mass, the macroscopic density of the polaron converges to that of Pekar's nonlinear model, with a possibly anisotropic dielectric matrix. The polaron also exhibits fast microscopic oscillations which contribute to the energy at the same order but whose characteristic length is small compared to the scale of the polaron. These oscillations are described by a simple periodic eigenvalue equation. Our approach also covers multi-polarons composed of several particles, repelling each other via Coulomb forces.
Galectin-1-Mediated Tumor Invasion and Metastasis, Up-Regulated Matrix Metalloproteinase Expression, and Reorganized Actin Cytoskeletons

Galectin-1 (Gal-1) is a β-galactose-binding lectin; its expression level has been reported to correlate with tumor progression. Gal-1 is highly expressed in the invasive front of primary tumors and in the cancer cells of metastatic lesions in the lymph nodes of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma. However, the molecular mechanism of Gal-1 in tumor metastasis is not completely clear. We found that increased Gal-1 expression is closely associated with its high levels of invasion in lung adenocarcinoma and oral squamous cell carcinoma cell lines. Knocking down Gal-1 with small interfering RNA in highly invasive cancer cells reduced their invasion levels. Moreover, the invasion ability of poorly invasive cancer cells was significantly increased after Gal-1 overexpression of Gal-1. Mechanism studies revealed that Gal-1 promoted tumor invasion mainly by up-regulating matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9 and MMP-2 and by reorganizing actin cytoskeleton. Gal-1 enhanced the activation of Cdc42, a small GTPase and member of the Rho family, thus increasing the number and length of filopodia on tumor cells. Furthermore, Gal-1-overexpressing cells had higher metastatic abilities in tail vein metastasis assays in vivo. We conclude that Gal-1 is involved in tumor invasion and metastasis by increasing MMP expression and reorganizing cytoskeletons in oral cancers and lung adenocarcinoma. (Mol Cancer Res 2009;7(3):311–8)
A Radio Flare from GRB 020405: Evidence for a Uniform Medium around a Massive Stellar Progenitor

We present radio observations of GRB 020405 starting 1.2 days after the burst that reveal a rapidly fading "radio flare. " Based on its temporal and spectral properties, we interpret the radio flare as emission from the reverse shock. This scenario rules out a circumburst medium with a radial density profile ρ ∝ r-2 expected around a mass-losing massive star since in that case, the reverse-shock emission decays on the timescale of the burst duration t ~ 102 s. Using published optical and X-ray data, along with the radio data presented here, we further show that a self-consistent model requires collimated ejecta with an opening angle, θj ~ 6° (tj ≈ 0.95 days). As a consequence of the early jet break, the late-time (t > 10 days) emission measured with the Hubble Space Telescope significantly deviates from an extrapolation of the early, ground-based data. This, along with an unusually red spectrum, Fν ∝ ν-3.9, strengthens the case for a supernova that exploded at about the same time as GRB 020405, thus pointing to a massive stellar progenitor for this burst. This is the first clear association of a massive progenitor with a uniform medium, indicating that a ρ ∝ r-2 profile is not a required signature and, in fact, may not be present on the length scales probed by the afterglow in the majority of bursts.
Chilean Adolescents’ and Parents’ Views on Autonomy Development

This study aims to understand Chilean parents’ and adolescents’ conceptions of autonomy and whether they hold different expectations for autonomous behaviors by generation and socioeconomic level. A qualitative approach to data collection was used through separate focus groups of parents and adolescents from different socioeconomic condition. Substantial similarities in parents’ and adolescents’ conceptions of autonomy were found. Both generations conceive autonomy as multidimensional (i.e., self-sufficiency, decision making, and acting responsibly) and as an age-graded process that is achieved in interaction with parents. Participants emphasize the affective quality of the parent–adolescent relationship, particularly trust, for healthy autonomy achievement. Differences by socioeconomic status (SES) were also apparent in that low-middle-SES parents emphasize the self-sufficiency and responsibility component of autonomy, and adolescents grant more authority to parents in regulating adolescents’ behavior compared with their high-middle-SES counterparts
Modeling spatial social complex networks for dynamical processes

The study of social networks --- where people are located, geographically, and how they might be connected to one another --- is a current hot topic of interest, because of its immediate relevance to important applications, from devising efficient immunization techniques for the arrest of epidemics, to the design of better transportation and city planning paradigms, to the understanding of how rumors and opinions spread and take shape over time. We develop a spatial social complex network (SSCN) model that captures not only essential connectivity features of real-life social networks, including a heavy-tailed degree distribution and high clustering, but also the spatial location of individuals, reproducing Zipf's law for the distribution of city populations as well as other observed hallmarks. We then simulate Milgram's Small-World experiment on our SSCN model, obtaining good qualitative agreement with the known results and shedding light on the role played by various network attributes and the strategies used by the players in the game. This demonstrates the potential of the SSCN model for the simulation and study of the many social processes mentioned above, where both connectivity and geography play a role in the dynamics.
Tissue-Specific Transcriptional Targeting of a Replication-Competent Retroviral Vector

ABSTRACT The inability of replication-defective viral vectors to efficiently transduce tumor cells in vivo has prevented the successful application of such vectors in gene therapy of cancer. To address the need for more efficient gene delivery systems, we have developed replication-competent retroviral (RCR) vectors based on murine leukemia virus (MLV). We have previously shown that such vectors are capable of transducing solid tumors in vivo with very high efficiency. While the natural requirement of MLV infection for cell division imparts a certain degree of specificity for tumor cells, additional means for confining RCR vector replication to tumor cells are desirable. Here, we investigated the parameters critical for successful tissue-specific transcriptional control of RCR vector replication by replacing various lengths of the MLV enhancer/promoter with sequences derived either from the highly prostate-specific probasin (PB) promoter or from a more potent synthetic variant of the PB promoter. We assessed the transcriptional specificity of the resulting hybrid long terminal repeats (LTRs) and the cell type specificity and efficiency of replication of vectors containing these LTRs. Incorporation of PB promoter sequences effectively restricted transcription from the LTR to prostate-derived cells and imparted prostate-specific RCR vector replication but required the stronger synthetic promoter and retention of native MLV sequences in the vicinity of the TATA box for optimal replicative efficiency and specificity. Our results have thus identified promoter strength and positioning within the LTR as important determinants for achieving both high transduction efficiency and strict cell type specificity in transcriptionally targeted RCR vectors.
Geology of the Peebles Quadrangle, Adams County, Ohio

The rock sequence exposed in the Peebles quadrangle, Adams Co., Ohio, consists of over 240 m of Ordovician through Mississippian age rocks. These carbonate rocks, shales, and sandstones have been subdivided into 13 formations. Units which have been recently recognized in this area include the Bull Fork Formation (Upper Ordovician), the Preachersville Member of the Drakes Formation (Upper Ordovician), the Drowning Creek Formation (Silurian), and the Three Lick Tongue of the Chagrin Member of the Ohio Shale (Upper Devonian). These strata generally dip 6—8 m per km to the east, but the dip increases to 10—11 m per km in the southeast portion of the quadrangle. The increase in dip is due to the Adams Co. monocline. The monocline is thought to be the result of draping of Paleozoic rocks over a possible basement fault. OHIOJ. SCI. 85 (5): 218-230, 1985
The Relationship between Levels of Self-Esteem, Clinical Variables, Anxiety/Depression and Coping among Patients with Musculoskeletal Pain

The aim of this investigation was to examine the associations between self-esteem (SE), anxiety/depression (i.e. GHQ), pain variables (e.g. complexity), perceived disability, and coping styles, in 651 patients (mean age 45 years, 72% females) seeking care from general practitioners or physiotherapists for musculoskeletal pain. The study design was cross-sectional and data were collected by means of questionnaires during 15 consecutive days. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that SE was lower among female patients, independently of possible confounders. Furthermore, SE was negatively associated with anxiety/depression, and positively associated with pain intensity and active coping. The relationship between SE and pain intensity seems to be influenced by levels of emotional distress. It was concluded that SE is related to female gender, anxiety/depression, pain intensity and active coping style in patients with musculoskeletal disorders.