Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Implementation Structures: A New Unit of Administrative Analysis

This article argues that a multiorganizational unit of analysis, an implementation structure, should be used when describing and evaluating the implementation and administration of programmes. Programmes are implemented by clusters of parts of public and private organizations. An implementation structure is the administrative entity which programme implementors use for accomplishing objectives within programmes. An organizationally rooted analy sis is therefore inadequate to rationalize the activities surrounding programme imple mentation. This article defines implementation structures and argues the advantage of using a multiorganizational analytic perspective over the perspective of single organizations.
Preventing violence in relationships: Interventions across the life span.

New directions in preventing interpersonal violence, Paul A. Schewe school-based child sexual abuse prevention, Sandy Wurtele reconceptualizing child sexual abuse as a public health concern, Keith Kaufman, Michelle Barber, Heather Mosher, and Megan Carter interventions for child victims of peer aggression, Heidi Gazelle and Gary Ladd dating violence education - prevention and early intervention strategies, Sarah Avery-Leaf and Michelle Cascardi guidelines for developing rape prevention and risk reduction interventions, Paul A. Schewe rape avoidance - self-protection strategies for women, Sarah Ullman fostering men's responsibility for preventing sexual assault, Alan Berkowitz recent therapeutic advances in the prevention of domestic violence, Sabina Low, Natalie Monarch, Scott Hartman, and Howard Markman violence and the elderly - issues for prevention, Deborah Henderson, Jeffrey Buchanan, and Jane E. Fisher evaluating prevention programs - the challenges and benefits of measuring outcomes.
A Content Analysis of Risk Management Disclosures in Canadian Annual Reports

Abstract This research paper examines risk information disclosures in Canadian annual reports to provide insights into the current risk disclosure environment, its characteristics, and the analytical usefulness of the information disclosed to the firm's stakeholders. Following a content analysis, the authors describe and then analyze in greater detail the subject matter of risk disclosures of TSE 300 Canadian companies by summarizing and classifying disclosed risk-related information. Results show a high degree of risk disclosure intensity reflecting both mandatory and voluntary risk management disclosures. However, the analytical power of such disclosures, as captured by the risk assessment analysis, appears to lack uniformity, clarity, and quantification, thus potentially limiting their usefulness. The authors conclude that more formalized and comprehensive risk disclosures might be desirable in the future to effectively reduce information asymmetries between management and stakeholders. Resume La presente etude analyse les divulgations d'informations sur le risque dans les rapports annuels canadiens. Elle se propose de jeter une lumiere sur l'environnement actuel de divulgation des risques, ses caracteristiques, et l'utilite analytique des informations divulguees pour les acteurs de l'industrie canadienne. Grâce a la methode de l'analyse du contenu, les auteurs decrivent puis analysent de faĉon plus detaillee le contenu actuel des divulgations d'informations sur le risque des entreprises du TSE 300. Ils y parviennent en synthetisant et en categorisant les informations divulguees. Les resultats montrent que les divulgations se font a une frequence assez elevee, consecutive aux divulgations obligatoires et volontaires de gestion des risques. Cependant, vu la maniere dont l'analyse d'evaluation des risques divulgue ces informations, leur pouvoir analytique semble manquer d'homogeneite, de clarte, et de quantification, ce qui limite potentiellement leur utilite. Les auteurs concluent qu'a l'avenir, les divulgations de risques gagneraient a etre plus formalisees et plus completes. Ceci permettrait de reduire l'asymetrie des informations entre les gestionnaires des risques et les investisseurs.
A Universal Preemptive Therapy for Cytomegalovirus Infections in Children After Live-Donor Liver Transplantation

Background. Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection remains the most common and critical viral infection that occurs after liver transplantation (LT). The current set of guidelines recommends prophylaxis over a preemptive therapy for pediatric LT; however, the data regarding the optimal approach after LT in children are limited. Methods. We conducted a universal preemptive therapy for CMV infection in 113 children (median: 16 months) after live-donor LT at the largest pediatric LT center in Japan between November 2005 and August 2009. CMV-pp65 antigenemia was monitored weekly regardless of the subjects' CMV serostatus after LT, and ganciclovir therapy was initiated when CMV-pp65 antigenemia was positive. Results. The overall success rate of LT was 91.7%. CMV-pp65 antigenemia became positive in 37 (33%) recipients, and the positivity with their CMV serostatus was as follows: donor (D)+/recipient (R)−: 62%, D+/R+: 36%, D−/R+: 11%, and D−/R−: 8%. Among the D+/R− (n=29) and D+/R+ (n=44) recipients, 38% (n=11) and 64% (n=28) recipients were able to avoid the use of ganciclovir, respectively. Human CMV disease was documented in six (5%) recipients, and they were successfully treated with ganciclovir without any sequelae. Conclusions. A universal preemptive therapy for CMV infection after live-donor LT was successful for reducing the use of antiviral agents and for controlling CMV infection and disease in children.
Profiles of Organizational Culture and Effective Schools

ABSTRACT This study intends to investigate how school organizational culture is related to important organizational characteristics and observe how the profiles of strong culture‐effective schools are different from those of weak culture‐ineffective schools in terms of organizational variables (such as principal's leadership, organizational structure, and teachers’ social interactions), teachers’ job attitudes, and school effectiveness criteria. It is a cross‐sectional survey research involving 54 randomly sampled Hong Kong secondary schools and 588 teachers. The unit of analysis is the school. Organizational ideology index was found to be substantially correlated with schools’ perceived organizational effectiveness. Among the 10 measures of these organizational variables, teachers’ esprit and principal's charismatic leadership can contribute substantially to the prediction of school's strength of organizational culture. The organizational profile of perceived strong culture‐effective schools is contrasti.
Monetary Policy and the Dangers of Deflation:Lessons from Japan

This paper investigates how monetary policy can help to avoid the liquidity trap by studying the experience of Japan. First, I analyze how the Bank of Japan conducted interest rate policy over the 1990s as the economy entered a deflationary slump. I use a new method of estimating the policy rule with a time-varying inflation target and a time-varying natural rate of interest. The estimation strategy reveals that the Bank’s implicit inflation target declined to about 1% in the 1990s from about 2.5% in the 1980s. I also find that the policy rule respects the Taylor principle and is forward looking. Such a Taylor rule does not depart from what was perceived as current best practice. It thus seems that the problem arose because of a series of adverse shocks and not because of an extraordinary monetary policy mistake. Next, I investigate whether an alternative monetary policy rule could have avoided the liquidity trap despite these shocks. I find that targeting a higher rate of inflation of 2-3% would not have provided much protection against hitting the zero bound on nominal interest rates. Similarly, a policy of responding more aggressively to the inflation gap while keeping the low inflation target would have provided little improvement in economic performance. The economy also still enters the trap under a nonlinear policy rule that commits the central bank to keeping interest rates at zero even after the economy begins to recover. However, I find that a rule that combined both (i) a higher inflation target of about 3%, and (ii) a more aggressive response to the inflation gap would have improved the economy’s performance and avoided the zero bound.
Sport, substance use and satisfaction with life: What relationship?

Abstract Regular sports practice offers many benefits to health at any stage of human development and, particularly in adolescence, determines the gain from enduring habits of practice until adulthood (Lopes, Maia, Oliveira, Seabra, & Garganta, 2003; Perkins, Jacobs, Barber, & Eccles, 2004; Scheerder et al., 2006). Among these benefits, we can find prevention and control of risk behaviour such as consumption of tobacco and alcohol; and its contribution to healthy growth not only physical but also psychological (Cavill, Kahlmeier, & Racioppi, 2006). The main objectives of this study were: i) review, by gender and age, the level of sport, the consumption of tobacco and alcohol and the satisfaction with life of students of the third cycle of basic education who attend schools of Continental Portugal; ii) check the relationship between sport and other variables described in this population. The instruments used were the “Inventory of Health-related Behaviors of Adolescents” (Corte-Real, Balaguer, & Fonseca, 2004) and “Scale of Satisfaction with Life”, translated and adapted version of the Satisfaction with Life Scale-SWLS (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985). The sample consisted of 5,624 adolescents (53% female and 47% male) aged between 12 and 17 years ( =14.33; σ= 1.359). The main results drawn were as follows: i) low levels of regular sports practice, especially in women, with a tendency to decrease with age; ii) consumption of tobacco significantly similar between genders, increasing with age; iii) significant alcohol consumption, especially in males, increasing with age; iv) consumption of tobacco very similar in the three levels of sports practice; v) high consumption of alcohol in young people with higher sports practice; vi) young people with higher sports practice had a higher degree of satisfaction with life. These results point clearly to the urgent need for measures at home and school, to support young people in the choice of a healthier lifestyle, including the acquisition of a more active lifestyle. The results also suggest that the full potential of sport, to promote behaviour which protects health and healthy lifestyles, might not always be used, so it is crucial for all physical education professionals and coaches to use, continuously and correctly, this "tool", the sports practice, to promote healthy habits and lifestyles.
Eye state detection in facial image based on linear prediction error of wavelet coefficients

Eye state detection in facial image is a significant issue in face recognition, human-computer interface and driver fatigue monitoring system. In this paper, we first located the eye region in the upper area of the face region with AbaBoost algorithm. The linear predictor error distribution of wavelet coefficients was proposed as the statistics model to distinguish the eye states. We collected statistics (mean, variance, skewness, and kurtosis) of the prediction error distribution as eye state features. Build on these eye state features and support machine vector (SVM) with radial basis function (RBF) kernel a non-linear classifier is obtained by training samples of eye images. Experiment results with the classifier demonstrated that our method is an effective eye state detection approach which can satisfy various situations.
Curriculum choice and success in the first two grades of secondary education: students, classes, or schools?

The major aim of educational effectiveness research is to examine and explain school, class, and teacher differences with respect to relevant educational criteria. Until now, in the large majority of studies, language and mathematics scores were used as a criterion. In the present study, the educational track students choose at the start of secondary education (at the age of 12) and their success in the chosen curriculum are examined in relation to primary school and classes (Grades 1 to 6). Two-level models show that students had higher aims in secondary education if they had attended primary Catholic schools and/or primary schools with high average curriculum advice. The latter schools were also highly effective with respect to achievement, and their students had a high socioeconomic status and background. Multilevel models with a cross-classified structure showed no direct long-term effects of primary schools and classes.
The Hemagglutinin of Canine Distemper Virus Determines Tropism and Cytopathogenicity

ABSTRACT Canine distemper virus (CDV) and measles virus (MV) cause severe illnesses in their respective hosts. The viruses display a characteristic cytopathic effect by forming syncytia in susceptible cells. For CDV, the proficiency of syncytium formation varies among different strains and correlates with the degree of viral attenuation. In this study, we examined the determinants for the differential fusogenicity of the wild-type CDV isolate 5804Han89 (CDV5804), the small- and large-plaque-forming variants of the CDV vaccine strain Onderstepoort (CDVOS and CDVOL, respectively), and the MV vaccine strain Edmonston B (MVEdm). The cotransfection of different combinations of fusion (F) and hemagglutinin (H) genes in Vero cells indicated that the H protein is the main determinant of fusion efficiency. To verify the significance of this observation in the viral context, a reverse genetic system to generate recombinant CDVs was established. This system is based on a plasmid containing the full-length antigenomic sequence of CDVOS. The coding regions of the H proteins of all CDV strains and MVEdm were introduced into the CDV and MV genetic backgrounds, and recombinant viruses rCDV-H5804, rCDV-HOL, rCDV-HEdm, rMV-H5804, rMV-HOL, and rMV-HOS were recovered. Thus, the H proteins of the two morbilliviruses are interchangeable and fully functional in a heterologous complex. This is in contrast with the glycoproteins of other members of the familyParamyxoviridae, which do not function efficiently with heterologous partners. The fusogenicity, growth characteristics, and tropism of the recombinant viruses were examined and compared with those of the parental strains. All these characteristics were found to be predominantly mediated by the H protein regardless of the viral backbone used.
Fecal Viral Load and Norovirus-associated Gastroenteritis

We report the median cDNA viral load of norovirus genogroup II is >100-fold higher than that of genogroup I in the fecal specimens of patients with norovirus-associated gastroenteritis. We speculate that increased cDNA viral load accounts for the higher transmissibility of genogroup II strains through the fecal-oral route.
GABA-induced relaxation of porcine retinal arterioles in vitro depends on inhibition from the perivascular retina and is mediated by GABAC receptors.

PURPOSE To study the dependence of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-induced relaxation of retinal arterioles on the glutamate agonist N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA), adenosine triphosphate (ATP), prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), and adenosine, and to characterize the type and location of GABA-receptor(s) mediating GABA-induced relaxation of retinal arterioles. METHODS Porcine retinal arterioles were mounted in a wire myograph, and the effects of agonists and antagonists to NMDA, ATP, PGE2, and adenosine on GABA-induced relaxation were studied. Additionally, experiments were conducted to study relaxation induced by agonists to specific GABA receptors, and GABA-induced relaxation in the presence of specific GABA antagonists. Finally, immunohistochemistry was performed to identify the location of GABA(C) receptors in the porcine retina. RESULTS GABA induced vasorelaxation during blocking of the glutamate NMDA receptor, PGE2 receptor, and ATP synthesis degradation, but not during blocking of the adenosine receptor or by agonists to any of these compounds. The vasorelaxing effect of GABA could be elicited by a specific GABA(C) agonist, but not by specific GABA(A) or GABA(B) agonists, and could be blocked by a specific GABA(C) antagonist, but not by specific GABA(A) or GABA(B) antagonists. GABA(C) receptor subunits could be identified in the ganglion cell layer, and at the border between the outer plexiform and inner nuclear layers. CONCLUSIONS GABA-induced relaxation of porcine retinal vessels is mediated by the GABA(C) receptor in the perivascular retinal tissue, and depends on blocking of the glutamate NMDA receptor, prostaglandin E2 receptor, or ATP degradation.
Understanding individual differences in response to Self-Practice and Self-Reflection (SP/SR) during CBT training

Abstract Self-Practice/Self-Reflection (SP/SR) has been developed as a self-experiential training strategy to enhance CBT therapists’ skills. SP/SR gives therapists an experience of CBT through practising CBT techniques on themselves, and reflecting on the experience and its implications for clinical practice. Many practitioners report significant professional and personal gains from SP/SR; however, there is considerable individual variation. This study examined individual experiences of SP/SR in order to develop a better understanding of idiosyncratic variations in participants’ approaches to SP/SR, and to inform the design and implementation of future SP/SR programmes. A single-case design was employed to examine the experiences of four trainee cognitive-behaviour therapists who were undertaking SP/SR as part of their professional training in CBT. Quantitative data from self-ratings of skill, and qualitative data from participants’ reflections and attributions following completion of SP/SR were examined. Both the participants, and two additional reviewers were consulted in the interpretation of the results. The impact of SP/SR appeared specific to each participant, reflecting different ways that participants engaged with SP/SR materials. The study suggests that for optimal development, engagement of the personal self and therapist self may be required.
Improving the Quality of Linked Data Using Statistical Distributions

Linked Data on the Web is either created from structured data sources (such as relational databases), from semi-structured sources (such as Wikipedia), or from unstructured sources (such as text). In the latter two cases, the generated Linked Data will likely be noisy and incomplete. In this paper, we present two algorithms that exploit statistical distributions of properties and types for enhancing the quality of incomplete and noisy Linked Data sets: SDType adds missing type statements, and SDValidate identifies faulty statements. Neither of the algorithms uses external knowledge, i.e., they operate only on the data itself. We evaluate the algorithms on the DBpedia and NELL knowledge bases, showing that they are both accurate as well as scalable. Both algorithms have been used for building the DBpedia 3.9 release: With SDType, 3.4 million missing type statements have been added, while using SDValidate, 13,000 erroneous RDF statements have been removed from the knowledge base.
Research on Terrorism and Countering Terrorism

Social and behavioral research on terrorism has expanded dramatically. However, theoretical work that incorporates terrorism and collection of valid data on it has lagged behind theoretical work on other criminological subjects. Theorizing has been dominated by deterrence perspectives. Threats of severe consequence for terrorist acts in general show little promise, but there is evidence that increasing the certainty of consequences works in some situations. Research on terrorism will be improved if it moves beyond deterrence to include concepts drawn from legitimacy, strain, and situational perspectives. Limitations of traditional criminology data sources for studying terrorism have encouraged the development of open‐source‐event databases. The most comprehensive, created by combining the Global Terrorism Database with RAND‐MIPT data, documents more than 77,000 terrorist incidents from 1970 to 2006. Attacks peaked in the early 1990s and then declined substantially until 9/11. They have since substantially increased. The regional concentration of terrorism has moved from Western Europe in the 1970s, to Latin America in the 1980s, to the Middle East and Persian Gulf in the twenty‐first century. Despite the enormous resources devoted to countering terrorism, surprisingly little empirical information is available on which strategies are most effective.
Requirements for an Infrastructure to Support Activity-Based Computing in Global Software Development

Global Software Development (GSD) has become an established paradigm of developing software. One of the most important prerequisites of successfully supporting GSD projects is the provision of appropriate tooling support. Researchers and practitioners have developed several dozens of tools to support the GSD paradigm. However, there has been an increased realization that the most commonly used desktop metaphor underpinning existing tools has several limitations in terms of supporting communication, coordination, collaboration and awareness among distributed team members. We propose to leverage the Activity-Based Computing (ABC) paradigm that has been successfully applied to support collaboration and mobility in healthcare environments. We are exploring the viability of leveraging the ABC paradigm for addressing many of the limitations of the existing GSD tools. This paper identifies the requirements that an ABC based infrastructure needs to fulfill to support GSD practitioners. We have extensively reviewed the literature reporting requirements for designing GSD tools and have categorized them in two distinct groups: system quality requirements and system requirements for computer-mediated teamwork. We have analyzed the identified requirements with respect to the ABC principles using a scenario to demonstrate how the requirements reported in the literature and the ABC principles can provide a synergistic foundation for guiding the development of an infrastructure enabling GSD tools to take advantage of the ABC paradigm. We expect these requirements to be used not only by us to develop an infrastructure but also by others to develop or modify GSD tools.
Computer game playing in adolescence: prevalence and demographic indicators

Computer game playing is a popular activity among adolescents yet there have been no systematic studies in the U.K. on its prevalence and its demographics. A questionnaire study was undertaken with 387 adolescents (12–16 years of age) to establish the time spent playing computer games, who they first started playing with, the reasons why they first started and why they play now and negative consequences of play. Results revealed that for many adolescents, home computer game playing can take up considerable time with 7% of the sample playing for at least 30 hours a week. Although there were no differences between males and females in who played computer games, it was established that males were found to play significantly more regularly than females.