Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Long-Term Care Workforce Crisis: Dementia-Care Training Influences on Job Satisfaction and Career Commitment

The present study compares changes in job satisfaction and career commitment among Alzheimer's care staff participating in a two-phase, state-level training collaborative to improve dementia care. Results reveal an increase in extrinsic job satisfaction and a decrease in career commitment. Findings could be related to the effects of both the training interventions and the time lag in data collection. Decreases in career identity depended on whether participants showed a deeper involvement in aging concerns with respect to future employment. Implications for the implementation of future interventions for direct-care staff within a context of organizational and systems-based change are discussed.
Putting victims in prison

ABSTRACT A substantial body of research exists regarding legitimacy in prisons. However, little is known still about victims' perceptions of the Prison Service, and whether appreciating crime in terms of ‘harm’ encourages offenders to accept the legitimacy of their sentence. A multi-method study has examined whether participation in two restorative initiatives at Magilligan prison in Northern Ireland can enhance perceptions of legitimacy for the Prison Service. The study found that victims' perceptions of procedural fairness relied upon opportunities to express themselves and positive interactions with prison officers. Personal relationships, trust and support, developed through co-facilitating the Victim Impact Programme, encouraged those perceptions. Offenders reported participation in the programme, challenged neutralisation strategies, improved their accountability and sensitivity to victims' plight, fostered perceptions of the legitimacy of their sentence, and encouraged positive engagement with prison regimes. The evidence presented provides a strong argument for promoting the active participation of victims within custodial settings.
Management of dyslipidaemia

Dyslipidaemia is a preferable term to hyperlipidaemia because it includes risk factors such as a decreased concentration of high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol as well as qualitative changes in low density lipoprotein (LDL), notably the presence of small, dense LDL particles. Both abnormalities, together with raised triglycerides, are features of the metabolic syndrome, increasingly recognised as a harbinger of coronary heart disease (CHD). The simplest classification of dyslipidaemia defines the lipid phenotype as hypercholesterolaemia, hypertriglyceridaemia, or mixed hyperlipidaemia (MHL). Each can result from dysfunctional mutations of dominantly expressed genes encoding receptors, enzymes or transfer proteins involved in lipoprotein metabolism, usually indicated by a familial pattern of inheritance. More often, however, dyslipidaemia reflects the interaction between weaker genetic influences and environmental factors such as diet and a sedentary existence. In these situations the adoption of changes in lifestyle is the first line of treatment whereas monogenically determined dyslipidaemias, such as familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH), usually require lipid regulating drug treatment. Management of dyslipidaemia forms an important part of strategies for preventing cardiovascular disease. Most of the current guidelines reflect the results of the five major statin trials published between 1994 and 1998. Overall, statins reduced the risk of CHD by 31% and total mortality by 21%, benefit being equally evident in men and women below and above the age of 65.1 In addition to a decreased incidence of CHD, a significant decrease in the frequency of strokes was apparent in some of the trials. A meta-analysis of those using simvastatin, lovastatin or pravastatin, involving almost 10 000 patients, showed a 27% decrease in the risk of stroke,2 possibly reflecting a statin induced improvement in cerebrovascular endothelial function. ### UK guidelines The joint recommendations of the British Cardiac and Hypertension Societies and the British Hyperlipidaemia and Diabetic Associations, published in 1998,3 advised estimating …
Memorability, Word Frequency and Negative Recognition*

Brown (1976) has provided an analysis of the effect of the memorability of an item on the confidence with which it is accepted or rejected in a test of recognition or recall. When the subject has no clear recollection of the inclusion of an item in an input list, he is assumed to evaluate its memorability in the context of the experiment before he decides whether to accept or reject it. If the judged memorability is high, the absence of a clear recollection is stronger evidence against the item than if it is low. A specific prediction is that memorable distractors in a recognition test will be more confidently rejected than non-memorable ones. This prediction was tested and confirmed in three experiments in which recognition was tested by 4-category rating. Except in Experiment I, items memorable to individual subjects were identified by administering a questionnaire. For example, in Experiment III forenames of immediate family were assumed to have high memorability. This experiment also included word frequency as a variable. Low-frequency distractors were rejected significantly more firmly than high-frequency distractors: extraction of memorable names enhanced this effect. The relationship of memorability to word frequency is discussed.
Australian Occupational Therapy Academics' Attitudes to Collective Bargaining

This article presents the results of an investigation of the attitudes of Australian occupational therapy academics toward collective bargaining for themselves and clinical therapists. Data were collected using a mailed survey instrument which included scales measuring attitudes to collective bargaining and collecting demographic data. In general, Australian occupational therapy academics are supportive in principle, of collective bargaining for both them­ selves and clinical therapists to achieve a range of outcomes. However, in practice, less than 50 percent are members of a union and less than 25 percent are involved in any way beyond basic membership. Industrial relations and, therefore, unions have begun to play an increasingly important role in health services. This is due to an increasing dissatisfaction with working conditions due to the rationalization of health services [1]. Also con­ tributing to the increased need for representation to employers is what Brocket termed the socialization of health professionals into bureaucracies and away from more independent, autonomous practice [2]. The salaried professional requires collective bargaining with other employees to ensure that the professional's good will is not exploited by employers. The occupational therapy literature has called for occupational therapists to become more involved in lobbying, challenging decision makers, and power broking to secure the future of the profession within an increasingly tight financial •This research was supported by a grant from the Occupational Therapists' Vocational Branch of the N S W Public Service Association.
Pain relief after Arthroscopic Knee Surgery: A comparison of intra-articular ropivacaine, fentanyl, and dexmedetomidine: A prospective, double-blinded, randomized controlled study

Background: Postoperative pain is very common distressing symptom after any surgical procedure. Different drugs in different routes have been used for controlling post-arthroscopic pain. No one proved to be ideal. We have compared the analgesic effect of ropivacaine, fentanyl, and dexmedetomidine when administered through the intra-articular route in arthroscopic knee surgery. Materials and Methods: From March 2008 to July 2010, 99 patients undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery were randomly assigned into three groups (A,B,C) in a prospective double-blinded fashion. Group A received 10 ml of 0.75% ropivacaine, where Group B received 50 μg fentanyl, and Group C received 100 μg of dexmedetomidine through the intra-articular route at the end of procedure. Pain assessed using visual analog scale and diclofenac sodium given as rescue analgesia when VAS >4. Time of first analgesia request and total rescue analgesic used in 24 hours were calculated. Results: Demographic profiles are quite comparable among the groups. Time for requirement of first postoperative rescue analgesia in Group A was 380.61 ± 22.973 min, in Group B was 326.82 ± 17.131 min and in Group C was 244.09 ± 20.096 minutes. Total rescue analgesia requirement was less in Group A (1.394 ± 0.496) compared to Group B (1.758 ± 0.435) and Group C (2.546 ± 0.546). Group A had higher mean VAS score at 6th and 24th postoperative hours. No side effects found among the groups. Conclusion: Therefore, it suggests that intra-articular ropivacaine gives better postoperative pain relief, with increased time of first analgesic request and decreased need of total postoperative analgesia compared to fentanyl and dexmedetomidine.
THE ACCURATE ESTIMATION OF ARTICULATORY SYNTHESISER PARAMETERS THROUGH REDUCING THE DEGREE OF SATURATION IN A NURAL NETWORK HIDDEN LAYER

A new method is proposed to correctly estimate the parameters of an articulatory speech synthesiser using a MLP neural network. This is achieved through modifying the statistical characteristic of the acoustic input pattern vectors in order to prevent the activation level of the hidden nodes from approaching saturation. The technique results in considerably faster neural learning and a more accurate estimation of the articulatory synthesiser parameters.
Cross-cultural comparison between academic and lay views of healthy ageing: a literature review

ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to specify the concept of ‘healthy ageing’ from both western and non-western cultural perspectives, and to compare the views of academics and lay older people. Thirty-four published peer-reviewed full papers in English and Chinese (traditional characters) were identified using electronic database searches. The key components of their definitions of healthy ageing were extracted and categorised into 12 domains. The results show that, in general, lay definitions (as described in 11 studies) included more domains (independency, family, adaptation, financial security, personal growth, and spirituality) and more diversity in the healthy ageing concept than academic views (which tend to focus more on physical and mental health and social functioning in later life). Certain domains were valued differently across cultures. As shown in previous studies, the findings affirm that healthy ageing is a multi-dimensional and complex concept and that there are substantial differences in different cultures. Moreover, we found that there are pronounced variations in the conceptualisation of healthy ageing as between academic and older lay people. Generally, older lay people perceive healthy ageing more broadly than the maintenance of physical, mental and social functioning. We suggest that academic researchers should integrate the more holistic perspectives of older lay people and cultural diversity into the classical ‘physical–mental–social’ healthy ageing concept.
Anti‐envelope antibody responses in individuals at high risk of hepatitis C virus who resist infection

Injection drug users uninfected by hepatitis C virus (HCV) despite likely repeated exposure through high‐risk behaviour are well documented. Factors preventing infection in these individuals are incompletely understood. Here, we looked for anti‐HCV‐envelope antibody responses in a cohort of repeatedly exposed but uninfected subjects. Forty‐two hepatitis C diagnostic antibody‐ and RNA‐negative injection drug users at high risk of exposure were studied and findings compared to healthy controls and cases with chronic HCV infection. Purified IgGs from sera were tested by ELISA for binding to genotype 1a and 3a envelope glycoproteins E1E2 with further testing for IgG and IgM reactivity against soluble E2. Virus‐neutralizing activity was assessed using an HCV pseudoparticle system. Uninfected subjects demonstrated significantly greater IgG and IgM reactivities to envelope glycoproteins than healthy controls with IgG from 6 individuals additionally showing significant neutralization. This study is the first to describe humoral immunological responses targeting the HCV envelope, important for viral neutralization, in exposed uninfected individuals. A subset of these cases also had evidence of viral neutralization via anti‐envelope antibodies. In addition to confirming viral exposure, the presence of specific anti‐envelope antibodies may be a factor that helps these individuals resist HCV infection.
Systematic risk‐taking

This article describes systematic risk‐taking, a strategy designed to develop skills and increase self‐esteem, confidence and courage in gifted youth. The six steps of systematic risk‐taking include understanding the benefits; initial self‐assessment of risk‐taking categories; identifying personal needs; determining a risk to take; taking the risk; and processing the experience. Examples are included to illustrate the benefits.
Electrolocation-based underwater obstacle avoidance using wide-field integration methods

Weakly electric fish are capable of efficiently performing obstacle avoidance in dark and navigationally challenging aquatic environments using electrosensory information. This sensory modality enables extraction of relevant proximity information about surrounding obstacles by interpretation of perturbations induced to the fish’s self-generated electric field. In this paper, reflexive obstacle avoidance is demonstrated by extracting relative proximity information using spatial decompositions of the perturbation signal, also called an electric image. Electrostatics equations were formulated for mathematically expressing electric images due to a straight tunnel to the electric field generated with a planar electro-sensor model. These equations were further used to design a wide-field integration based static output feedback controller. The controller was implemented in quasi-static simulations for environments with complicated geometries modelled using finite element methods to demonstrate sense and avoid behaviours. The simulation results were confirmed by performing experiments using a computer operated gantry system in environments lined with either conductive or non-conductive objects acting as global stimuli to the field of the electro-sensor. The proposed approach is computationally inexpensive and readily implementable, making underwater autonomous navigation in real-time feasible.
A visual feedback design on matrix space for a liquid sloshing experiment

In this paper, we discuss a new visual feedback system that does not use visual feature extraction. First, every image of a sloshing system is modeled not as a vector on coordinate space but as a vector on matrix space. Second, the sloshing system is identified by executing an existing modeling methodologies on the same matrix space. Finally, the identified model is converted into a linear port-Hamiltonian system and the horizontal surface is stabilized theoretically and experimentally.
A general approach for the analysis of the input power quality in matrix converters

In this paper a general approach based on a linearized analysis is employed in order to determine the matrix converter performance in terms of input current quality. Considering input disturbances such as voltage unbalance and voltage distortion it is possible, by this method, to evaluate analytically the input current harmonic content. It is emphasised that the input current frequency spectrum is affected by the input current modulation law employed. By using appropriate modulation techniques it is possible to compensate or reduce the input current harmonic content. Some numerical results are given to confirm the analytical solutions.
An 80-mV-to-1.8-V Conversion-Range Low-Energy Level Shifter for Extremely Low-Voltage VLSIs

We present a low-power and low-energy level shifter (LS) circuit that can convert extremely low-voltage input into high-voltage output. The proposed LS consists of a pre-amplifier (pre-AMP) and an output latch. The pre-AMP employs a logic error correction circuit, which generates an operating current for the pre-AMP only when the logic levels of the input and output do not correspond. The pre-AMP generates complementary amplified signals, and the latch converts them into full-swing outputs. Measurement results demonstrated that the proposed LS fabricated in 0.18- $\mu \text{m}$ CMOS technology was able to convert an extremely low-voltage input of 80 mV into a high-voltage output of 1.8 V. The energy of the proposed LS was 0.35 pJ, when the low supply voltage, high supply voltage, and input pulse frequency were 0.4 V, 1.8 V, and 10 kHz, respectively. The static power dissipation without input was 0.12 nW.
Cielab color parameters and their relationship to soil characteristics in Mediterranean red soils

CIELAB color parameters L*, C* ab , h ab and in aggregate surface, aggregate core, and crushed soil samples from 19 Mediterranean red soils were studied. The relationship between these color parameters and other soil characteristics was examined. Color parameters in aggregate samples were significantly different (ANOVA) from those in crushed samples although, according to a factor analysis, the color parameters in these two soil sample types were related. This factor analysis also showed h ab (hue-angle) and L* (lightness) in aggregates to be master variables for two factors, which accounted for 77.2% of the total variance in color parameters. The pedoenvironmental variables-soil horizon, altitude, slope, vegetation, and soil moisture regime-were sources of variation (ANOVA) in soil color parameters. Texture, organic carbon content, cation exchange capacity, and mineralogical composition in fine earth and clay fraction were the analytical characteristics correlated most strongly with soil color. CIELAB color parameters L* and h ab (which, as Munsell value and hue, represent the color perception attributes lightness and hue) in soil aggregate samples were shown to be very useful for defining and characterizing color in Mediterranean red soils because of their relationship with the soil characteristics studied.
Counting and recounting happiness and culture: On happiness surveys and prudential ethnobiography.

The analysis of numerical data from happiness surveys has caught the attention of governments, corporations, and public media. It is questionable, however, whether the humanistic and empathetic aspirations of happiness scholarship can be well served by numerical reductionism unless this is more effectively complemented by ethnobiographical approaches which explore how self-ratings emerge from cultural contexts and self-narratives. Happiness is imagined, generated, and expressed both through quantification and through stories. In scholarship, as in everyday life, we count and recount our blessings. This somewhat neglected distinction between numerical and narrative representations of happiness applies to conceptual, experiential, and methodological issues. It may help us to understand the social construction of happiness in cultural contexts, in conjunction with other distinctions such as those between affective and cognitive appraisals, and between hedonic and eudaimonic versions of the good life. There are potential synergies between psychometric and ethnobiographical approaches which could help us to recover some of the core humanistic values of the ‘happiness lens’, namely: empathy (respect for subjectivity) ; positivity (attention to goodness) ; holism; a lifespan perspective; and consequentialist transparency (making progressive intentions and causal theories explicit). Anthropology has good potential to help strengthen these values, particularly by using ethnobiography to help us understand what numerical representations of happiness mean.
SPATIAL TEXTURE ERROR CONCEALMENT FOR OBJECT-BASED IMAGE AND VIDEO CODING

In this paper, an original texture error concealment technique to be used for object-based image and video applications in error-prone environments is proposed. This technique, which assumes that the texture is block-based, addresses the specific problems of texture concealment in object-based coding systems such as those based on the MPEG-4 standard. For that, the closest available blocks to each side are used to estimate the lost texture data in the corrupted area. Two different approaches are compared: one based on the linear interpolation of the available data and another based on the weighted median.
The omega subunit of the RNA polymerase core directs transcription efficiency in cyanobacteria

The eubacterial RNA polymerase core, a transcription machinery performing DNA-dependent RNA polymerization, consists of two α subunits and β, β′ and ω subunits. An additional σ subunit is recruited for promoter recognition and transcription initiation. Cyanobacteria, a group of eubacteria characterized by oxygenic photosynthesis, have a unique composition of the RNA polymerase (RNAP) core due to splitting of the β′ subunit to N-terminal γ and C-terminal β′ subunits. The physiological roles of the small ω subunit of RNAP, encoded by the rpoZ gene, are not yet completely understood in any bacteria. We found that although ω is non-essential in cyanobacteria, it has a major impact on the overall gene expression pattern. In ΔrpoZ strain, recruitment of the primary σ factor into the RNAP holoenzyme is inefficient, which causes downregulation of highly expressed genes and upregulation of many low-expression genes. Especially, genes encoding proteins of photosynthetic carbon concentrating and carbon fixing complexes were down, and the ΔrpoZ mutant showed low light-saturated photosynthetic activity and accumulated photoprotective carotenoids and α-tocopherol. The results indicate that the ω subunit facilitates the association of the primary σ factor with the RNAP core, thereby allowing efficient transcription of highly expressed genes.
Is the Structure of Affect Similar for Younger and Older Children? Cross-Sectional Differences in Negative and Positive Affectivity

Although studies investigating the validity of positive affectivity and negative affectivity in children have been supportive, investigations of changes in the structure of affect across childhood have demonstrated mixed results. The current study used confirmatory factor analytic techniques to test one-factor, two-factor correlated, and two-factor uncorrelated models of positive affectivity and negative affectivity in two developmentally distinct populations of children (third and sixth grade). Both two-factor models provided an acceptable fit to the data from older and younger children. Based on these results and previous research, the structure of affect appears to be similar across age groups. However, evidence for increased differentiation remains. Limitations of the study include the cross-sectional design and a predominantly rural, White sample.
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Globalization and Monetary Policy Institute Globalization and Inflation in Europe

What is the impact of import competition from other low-wage countries (LWCs) on inflationary pressure in Western Europe? This paper seeks to understand whether labor-intensive exports from emerging Europe, Asia, and other global regions have a uniform impact on producer prices in Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. In a panel covering 110 (4-digit) NACE industries from 1995 to 2008, IV estimates predict that LWC import competition is associated with strong price effects. More specifically, when Chinese exporters capture 1% of European market share, producer prices decrease about 2%. In contrast, no effect is present for import competition from low-wage countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The views in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Swiss National Bank, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas or the Federal Reserve System.