Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ATTITUDES TOWARD THE ELDERLY: IDENTIFYING PROBLEMATIC USAGE OF AGEIST AND OVEREXTENDED TERMINOLOGY IN RESEARCH INSTRUCTIONS

Many problems have recently been identified and discussed concerning the assessment of attitudes toward the elderly. One problem is the use of ageist and overextended terminology to describe people in late adulthood, particularly in research studies that have attempted to measure attitudes toward that age segment. The present paper posits that using such stereotypical language during the research process, especially during the data gathering process, creates bias in attitudes toward individuals in late adulthood and affects the accuracy of results obtained from those studies. With that position as a guide, the purpose of this study was to uncover possible differences and effects that stereotypical descriptions of the elderly population may cause by using ageist terminology in any part of the data gathering process, specifically during the instruction and questionnaire phases of the study. Using Polizzi's (April, 2001) refined version of the Aging Semantic Differential on a sample of 142 undergraduate students, it was hypothesized that the two ageist descriptive categories (i.e., "old" and "elderly) would contribute to significantly different attitude scores than the "70-85 years of age" category. This hypothesis was supported when several significant differences were found among the three descriptive categories. A second hypothesis stated that attitude scores would be significantly more positive toward people in the "70-85 years of the age" category than the other two categories. This hypothesis was also supported. The descriptive category known as "old" was the least positively viewed group, while the "70-85 years of age" category was viewed the most positively. It was concluded that ageist language does indeed have an effect on attitude scores. Implications of the findings, as well as recommendations for future research, are cited.
Real-time three-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography: a novel technique to quantify global left ventricular mechanical dyssynchrony.

AIMS left ventricular (LV) mechanical dyssynchrony (LVMD) has emerged as a therapeutic target using cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) in chronic heart failure patients. Current methods used to evaluate LVMD are technically challenging and do not assess all the components of LVMD simultaneously. We analysed real-time 3D speckle tracking (3DST) echocardiography as a novel method to assess LVMD. METHODS AND RESULTS three-dimensional ST was performed in 60 unselected patients (71 ± 9 years old; 39% with ischaemic cardiomyopathy) who were referred to optimize and to control of a CRT device; implanted according to current guidelines (9 added to be excluded from the protocol). Two standardized conditions [right ventricular (RV) versus an optimized biventricular (BiV) pacing modality] were tested. These two pacing modalities lead to two distinct electrical activation patterns. We sought to test the capability of 3DST to distinguish these two patterns. The LV ejection fraction was 24 ± 9 in the RV mode and 29 ± 10% in BiV. By 3DST, we measured global end-systolic LV deformation and dyssynchrony (standard deviation of the time to peak/16 LV-segment). The 3D radial strain increased from 13.8 ± 5.7 in the RV to 15.9 ± 6.5% in theBiV mode, and the dyssynchrony index decreased from 15.1 ± 5.0 to 11.8 ± 4.1%. 3D longitudinal strain increased from -6.9 ± 2.8 in the RV to -7.8 ± 3.2% in the BiV mode, and the dyssynchrony index decreased from 14.2 ± 4.8 to 11.5 ± 5.0% (P < 0.01 for all). The 3D area strain (AS) increased from -15.4 ± 6 in the RV to -18.3 ± 7.0% in the BiV mode, and the dyssynchrony index decreased from 12.2 ± 5.1 to 9.5 ± 4.5% (P < 0.001 for all). CONCLUSION When image quality is optimal, 3DST might offer a new rapid method to quantify global LVMD in CRT candidates. In a comparison of the utility of various 3D strain measurements, the 3D AS appears to be closed to the ideal parameter that we are looking for.
Catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome: a clinical review.

CONTEXT Catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome (CAPS) is a rare life-threatening autoimmune disease characterized by disseminated intravascular thrombosis resulting in multiorgan failure. EVIDENCE ACQUISITIONS Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Google Scholar, PubMed (NLM), LISTA (EBSCO) and Web of Science have been searched. RESULTS CAPS is due to antiphospholipid antibodies directed against a heterogeneous group of proteins that are associated with phospholipids. These autoantibodies activate endothelial cells, platelets, and immune cells, thereby promoting a proinflammatory and prothrombotic phenotype. Furthermore, antiphospholipid antibodies inhibit anticoagulants, impair fibrinolysis, and activate complements. Although CAPS can affect a variety of organs and tissues, the kidneys, lungs, central nervous system, heart, skin, liver, and gastrointestinal tract are most commonly affected. The systemic inflammatory response syndrome, likely to extensive tissue damage, accompanies CAPS. The most frequent renal manifestations are hypertension, proteinuria, hematuria, and acute renal failure.In the majority of patients with CAPS, a precipitating factor such as infection, surgery, or medication can be identified. Antiphospholipid antibodies such as lupus anticoagulant and antibodies against cardiolipin, β2-glycoprotein I, and prothrombin are serological hallmark of CAPS. Laboratory tests often reveal antinuclear antibodies, thrombocytopenia, and anemia. Despite widespread intravascular coagulation, blood films reveal only a small number of schistocytes. In addition, severe thrombocytopenia is uncommon. CONCLUSIONS Histologically, CAPS is characterized by acute thrombotic microangiopathy. CAPS must be distinguished from other forms of thrombotic microangiopathies such as hemolytic-uremic syndrome, thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, disseminated intravascular coagulation, and heparin-induced thrombocyt openia. CAPS is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Therefore, an aggressive multidisciplinary treatment strategy is indicated. Anticoagulation, immunosuppression, plasma exchange, intravenous immunoglobulins, and anti-platelet agents, used in various combinations, have resulted in improved patient outcome.
Taking mothering seriously: the implications for child protection

This paper explores feminist writings on mothering, highlighting recent writings which argue that it is important for children’s well-being that mothers are subjects in their own right and that mothers should not just be looked at in terms of how they impact upon children. It argues that exploring how children impact upon mothers allows a fuller understanding of mothers’ stories today and could be helpful for social work practices where particular children are in danger. It calls for fuller debates within social work generally about the complexities of mothering and offers evidence that such debates are being urgently requested by workers and service users alike.
Word Meaning and Belief

This volume is concerned with aspects of word meaning within the general methodological framework of generative grammar. Its aim is to diagnose linguists' failure to advance satisfactory theories of lexical meaning, then to propose the requirements that such a theory should meet and, drawing on work in philosophy and psychology, to take the first steps toward satisfying these requirements. The author argues that despite the objections of some philsophers, a scientifically respectable theory of word meaning is possible.
Relationships Between Student Characteristics and Changes in Attitudes, Concerns, Anxieties, and Confidence About Teaching During Teacher Preparation

AbstractThis study investigated changes in students’ anxiety, attitude, concerns, and confidence about becoming a teacher during teacher training and whether these changes were related to selected student characteristics. The subjects were three groups of students (N = 581) at three stages of their teacher preparation: beginning their first required education course, just prior to student teaching, and at the end of student teaching. Significant changes in anxiety, concern, attitude, and confidence about teaching were identified. These changes, however, did not follow the consistent or desirable patterns for each measure or for all sample subgroups that developmental theorists such as Fuller suggested. Changes in anxiety and confidence about teaching moved in a consistently positive direction for the total sample but not for all subsamples, attitude toward teaching changed dramatically and inconsistently among the subsamples but showed no overall change for the total sample, and concerns about teaching te.
Host CCL3L1 Gene Copy Number in Relation to HIV-1-Specific CD4+ and CD8+ T-Cell Responses and Viral Load in South African Women

HIV-specific T-cell responses play an important role in control of infection. Because CCL3 has immune modulatory and antiviral activities, we hypothesized that host CCL3 genotype (CCL3L1 gene duplications) would influence the development of effective HIV-specific immune responses. Copy numbers of CCL3L1 were determined for 71 HIV-infected women, and HIV-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses to overlapping peptide pools spanning the HIV-1 subtype C genome were simultaneously measured by an interferon-γ and interleukin-2 whole-blood flow cytometric assay. Host CCL3L1 copy number correlated negatively with viral load (r = −0.239, P = 0.045), as did magnitudes of Gag CD4+ (r = −0.362, P = 0.002) and CD8+ (r = −0.261, P = 0.028) T-cell responses. Patients with a Gag CD4+ response (P = 0.002) or dominant Gag CD8+ (P = 0.006) response had significantly lower viral loads than those whose dominant response targeted another region of the genome, whereas a dominant Nef-specific CD8+ T-cell response was associated with higher HIV viral load. CCL3L1 copy number greater than or equal to the population median of 5 was significantly associated with increased magnitude of CD4+ Gag responses (P = 0.017), and women who had CD4+ and CD8+ Gag-specific responses had significantly lower viral loads (P = 0.004) and higher CCL3L1 copy number (P = 0.015) than those women with only CD8+ Gag-specific responses.
Hierarchies of Adaptive Experts

In this paper we present a neural network architecture that discovers a recursive decomposition of its input space. Based on a generalization of the modular architecture of Jacobs, Jordan, Nowlan, and Hinton (1991), the architecture uses competition among networks to recursively split the input space into nested regions and to learn separate associative mappings within each region. The learning algorithm is shown to perform gradient ascent in a log likelihood function that captures the architecture's hierarchical structure.
Chronically denervated distal nerve stump inhibits peripheral nerve regeneration

Schwann cells (SCs) and peripheral nerve regeneration: SCs are the principal glial cells of the peripheral nervous system (PNS). In a healthy nerve, myelinating SCs wrap around larger caliber motor and sensory axons to form the myelin sheath, whereas non-myelinating SCs envelop and support multiple small diameter sensory axons to form Remak bundles. Moreover, they form a basal lamina which surround each SC-axon unit (Hall, 2005). When a peripheral nerve injury occurs, extensive changes in the differentiation state of both the damaged neurons and the SC distal to the injury site take place. As a response to nerve injury, SC change their function by changing their gene expression: they down-regulate myelin-associated genes (such as myelin protein zero, myelin basic protein, myelin-associated glycoprotein, peripheral myelin protein 22, the Krox-20 transcription factor and periaxin) and up-regulate genes important to support repair and regeneration (such as L1 cell adhesion molecule, neural cell adhesion molecule, p75 neurotrophin receptor p75, and glial fibrillary acidic protein) (Jessen and Mirsky, 2016). They dedifferentiate into immature SC and proliferate, forming columnar structures known as Bands of Büngner that guide axons back to their target organs. These processes, together with the up-regulation of neurotrophic factors and receptors (including glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor, artemin, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, neurotrophin-3, nerve growth factor, vascular endothelial growth factor, erythropoietin, pleiotrophin, p75 and N-cadherin (Jessen and Mirsky, 2016), the phagocytic role of SC to remove axonal and myelin debris and the recruitment of macrophages to help in clearing, create a supportive environment for nerve regeneration (Arthur-Farraj et al., 2012). Moreover, in a recent study, Ronchi et al. (2016) investigated the expression of different neuregulin 1 (NRG1) isoforms (that is one of the most important factors regulating SC activity) in distal rat median nerve samples under regenerating condition and they demonstrated that their expression is specific for distinct and consecutive phases following nerve injury and regeneration. In particular, they showed that soluble isoforms of NRG1 are strongly up-regulated early (few days) after nerve injury, suggesting an active role of this molecules in the response to nerve damage (Ronchi et al., 2016). Finally, when a successful axonal regeneration has occurred, SC regain their contact with axons and redifferentiate again into myelinating (or non-myelinating) cells. Due to this surprising degree of plasticity displayed by SC after nerve injury, these cells are considered key factors in promoting nerve regeneration.
A Forensic Examination of Court Reports

Advice to professionals who conduct forensic evaluations for courts on how to write an effective report has been driven by legal evidentiary principles and best practices in assessment. Surprisingly, little attention has been paid to how salient information is integrated within a report, and how non‐informational aspects of reports (e.g., order and format of information) may impact the fact‐finding process. Experts are required to integrate both qualitative and quantitative information from a variety of different sources, with varying degrees of reliability and validity. Nevertheless, it is assumed that the trier of fact relatively weights and integrates the relevant information contained in a report in order to form a conclusion, and that this conclusion is then itself weighted and integrated with other evidence in order to formulate the final decision in a case. We apply theories and findings from the field of decision science to critically evaluate these assumptions and extend their application to outcomes of empirical studies on forensic reports. By drawing together the findings from these two areas of research, we identify research gaps and provide some recommendations on ways to structure and format expert reports to enhance their appropriate impact on the trier of fact.
Efficient Variability-Aware NBTI and Hot Carrier Circuit Reliability Analysis

This paper discusses an efficient method to analyze the spatial and temporal reliability of analog and digital circuits. First, a SPICE-based reliability simulator with automatic step-size control is proposed. Both hot carrier degradation and negative bias temperature instability are included in the simulator. Next, a method to analyze the interaction between process variability effects and circuit aging is introduced. This method is based on a screening experimental design (DoE) succeeded by a set of regression DoEs, resulting in a good speed-accuracy tradeoff with a nearly linear complexity for all circuits under test. Finally, based on the DoE analysis, a circuit response surface model (RSM) is derived. The RSM is used for further circuit reliability analysis such as circuit weak spot detection and yield calculation as a function of circuit lifetime. The proposed method is validated over a broad range of both analog and digital circuits. Yield simulation time is reduced with up to three orders of magnitude, when compared to standard Monte Carlo-based techniques and while still maintaining simulation accuracy.
Authorisation and Conflict Resolution for Hierarchical Domains

In this paper we generalise the authorisation policy model supported by the Ponder policy language for hierarchically organised domains of managed objects to support subject-based policies and return policies. We describe the authorisation conflicts that can occur and present a strategy to automatically resolve them. In our model each action has four endpoints: the subject call, the subject return, the target call and the target return. Each endpoint can have associated policies which are used to define constraints on which subjects are permitted to call which targets, and what is permitted to be transferred between subjects and targets. Subject-based policies aim to protect the subject from untrusted targets, while target-based policies aim to protect the target from unauthorised subjects. Subject-based policies are defined for and enforced by the subject's PEP, while target-based policies are defined for and enforced by the target's PEP. Although subject-based and target-based policies are separated, they are uniformly specified in our framework.
Gambling using a finite state machine

Sequential gambling schemes in which the amount wagered on the future outcome is determined by a finite state (FS) machine are defined and analyzed. It is assumed that the FS machine determines the fraction of the capital wagered at each time instance i on the outcome at the next time instance, i+1, and that wagers are paid at even odds. The maximal capital achieved by any FS machine is found and its dependence on an empirical entropy measure, H/sup FS/(x), defined as the finite state complexity of x, is shown. A specific gambling scheme is then proposed based on the Lempel-Ziv method for universal compression. The capital gained by this method is found and it is observed that, asymptotically, its exponential growth rate dominates the experimental growth rate achieved by gambling using any FS machine. Furthermore, this specific scheme suggests a class of gambling methods, based on a class of variable-to-variable length lossless compression methods, in which the capital is doubled for every bit compressed. These results emphasize the relation between gambling and data compression. >
Normative Power Europe and the State of Israel: An Illegitimate Eutopia?

This article re-examines the concept of Normative Power. It is viewed here not merely as an abstract concept, but also as part of a complex historical, socio-political and economic context, examined through the prism of non-Europeans, in our case Israelis. By analysing the dominant Israeli approaches towards the EU and its normative apparatus, this article aspires to depict the multifarious and concrete perceptions of Normative Power Europe and to contrast these perceptions with the EU self-perceived and self-portrayed normative view.
Automatic Scoring of Shadowing Speech Based on DNN Posteriors and Their DTW

Shadowing has become a well-known method to improve learners’ overall proﬁciency. Our previous studies realized automatic scoring of shadowing speech using HMM phoneme posteriors, called GOP (Goodness of Pronunciation) and learners’ TOEIC scores were predicted adequately. In this study, we enhance our studies from multiple angles: 1) a much larger amount of shad-owing speech is collected, 2) manual scoring of these utterances is done by two native teachers, 3) DNN posteriors are introduced instead of HMM ones, 4) language-independent shadowing assessment based on posteriors-based DTW (Dynamic Time Warping) is examined. Experiments suggest that, compared to HMM, DNN can improve teacher-machine correlation largely by 0.37 and DTW based on DNN posteriors shows as high correlation as 0.74 even when posterior calculation is done using a different language from the target language of learning.
Innovations in Practice: 'Go-to' Educator Training on the mental health competencies of educators in the secondary school setting: a program evaluation.

BACKGROUND Educators can play an important role in early identification and triage of youth with mental disorders. This paper reports findings of a program evaluation of the 'Go-To' Educator Training in a secondary school setting. METHODS Pre- and posttests were administered. RESULTS Participant mean scores on mental health competencies changed from 12 (40%) (standard deviation [SD] = 4.3) pretraining to 21 (70%) (SD = 3.3) posttraining, t(119) = 25.6, p < . 0001, d = 2.3. Participant attitude mean scores improved from 49.9 (SD = 4.6) pretraining, to 51.5 (SD = 4.2), t(115) = 4.3, p < . 0001, d = 0.36. CONCLUSIONS This training is a useful intervention to help educators identify youth with mental disorders and link them to appropriate services.
Learning in the wild

This paper argues that learning is a natural social process that leads to the construction of meaning, which involves the creation of experiences of coherence, purpose, identity and competence. Learning that yields a coherent social context, a worthy or compelling purpose, a strong, integrated identity and increasing levels of competence results in an experience of meaningful work. Learning as a social process is characterized by the property of capacity. Any given group will have a capacity to learn and it will be difficult for that group to take on a learning challenge that is beyond its present capacity. If a group, for example, is short-handed and is carrying out work that members see as urgent and important, then the group may focus its efforts on maintaining its equilibrium and creating stability and may diminish its capacity to adapt to change by taking on new ideas and approaches. Such a group might also have a diminished capacity to bring newcomers into the community – which is the very thing that it needs to do if it is to overcome the problem of being short-handed. These propositions will be illustrated by a specific example: teams of frontline caregivers in a long-term care facility in Canada.
College Grade Point Average as a Predictor of Adult Success: A Meta-Analytic Review and Some Additional Evidence

The use of college grade point average (GPA) as a predictor of adult achievement has been debated. Prior reviews of this literature have relied on qualitative analysis to determine the usefulness of GPA in predicting future success. Since qualitative reviews are subject to our human information processing limitations, they often fail to provide definitive conclusions. This research uses meta-analytic techniques to review a substantial subset of the published research on this topic. The results generated are mixed. The overall analysis suggests that no relationship exists while subgroup analyses of success in business and success in teaching suggest that significant relationships do exist. Empirical analysis of an additional data set generally supports the finding of the meta-analysis. Three barely significant relationships are found. Based on the relative weakness of these relationships and confidence in the overall meta-analytic results, it is suggested that if a relationship does exist between GPA and job success it is tenuous at best. Since other more significant predictors of success are available, the use of GPA in this capacity is not recommended.