Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Redundant men: constraints on identity change

In this article the constraints on identity change for a group of working class men experiencing long-term unemployment in the UK is examined. Despite their lack of access to paid employment, these men continued to construct their gender identity around the breadwinner persona. The theoretical framework employed concepts from both Connell and Bourdieu. Based on discourse analysed data collected from a series of four loosely structured group discussions, it is argued here that these men had (i) less access to capital generally and (ii) reduced access to ‘useful’ types of capital resources. In other words, these groups of men have fewer resources to hand in constructing masculine identities that reflect the changing structural and ideological demands of the current social-historical period. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Challenges of university adjustment in the UK: a study of East Asian Master’s degree students

This paper reports on the adjustment of East Asian Master’s level students who came to study at a campus-based university in the UK during 2004–05. International students face challenges in respect to language proficiency, academic expectations and social participation. In this longitudinal study the experiences of a group of students from East Asian countries were surveyed, with a sample of eight students from five countries tracked through regular interviews. The paper describes the level of satisfaction that students experienced and the challenges they faced. It was found that students largely enjoyed their sojourn and achieved satisfactory levels of academic success. They encountered ‘culture bumps’ rather than culture shock. Adjustment was facilitated by adequate preparation, appropriate academic attainment and satisfying levels of social participation with other international students. It is suggested that these students were experiencing an ‘international postgraduate student culture’ rather than integration into local culture.
Immunoreactivity of Intact Virions of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 (HIV-1) Reveals the Existence of Fewer HIV-1 Immunotypes than Genotypes

ABSTRACT In order to protect against organisms that exhibit significant genetic variation, polyvalent vaccines are needed. Given the extreme variability of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), it is probable that a polyvalent vaccine will also be needed for protection from this virus. However, to understand how to construct a polyvalent vaccine, serotypes or immunotypes of HIV must be identified. In the present study, we have examined the immunologic relatedness of intact, native HIV-1 primary isolates of group M, clades A to H, with human monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) directed at epitopes in the V3, C5, and gp41 cluster I regions of the envelope glycoproteins, since these regions are well exposed on the virion surface. Multivariate analysis of the binding data revealed three immunotypes of HIV-1 and five MAb groups useful for immunotyping of the viruses. The analysis revealed that there are fewer immunotypes than genotypes of HIV and that clustering of the isolates did not correlate with either genotypes, coreceptor usage (CCR5 and CXCR4), or geographic origin of the isolates. Further analysis revealed distinct MAb groups that bound preferentially to HIV-1 isolates belonging to particular immunotypes or that bound to all three immunotypes; this demonstrates that viral immunotypes identified by mathematical analysis are indeed defined by their immunologic characteristics. In summary, these results indicate (i) that HIV-1 immunotypes can be defined, (ii) that constellations of epitopes that are conserved among isolates belonging to each individual HIV-1 immunotype exist and that these distinguish each of the immunotypes, and (iii) that there are also epitopes that are routinely shared by all immunotypes.
Protein misfolding cyclic amplification induces the conversion of recombinant prion protein to PrP oligomers causing neuronal apoptosis

The formation of neurotoxic prion protein (PrP) oligomers is thought to be a key step in the development of prion diseases. Recently, it was determined that the sonication and shaking of recombinant PrP can convert PrP monomers into β‐state oligomers. Herein, we demonstrate that β‐state oligomeric PrP can be generated through protein misfolding cyclic amplification from recombinant full‐length hamster, human, rabbit, and mutated rabbit PrP, and that these oligomers can be used for subsequent research into the mechanisms of PrP‐induced neurotoxicity. We have characterized protein misfolding cyclic amplification‐induced monomer‐to‐oligomer conversion of PrP from three species using western blotting, circular dichroism, size‐exclusion chromatography, and resistance to proteinase K (PK) digestion. We have further shown that all of the resulting β‐oligomers are toxic to primary mouse cortical neurons independent of the presence of PrPC in the neurons, whereas the corresponding monomeric PrP were not toxic. In addition, we found that this toxicity is the result of oligomer‐induced apoptosis via regulation of Bcl‐2, Bax, and caspase‐3 in both wild‐type and PrP−/− cortical neurons. It is our hope that these results may contribute to our understanding of prion transformation within the brain. We found that β‐state oligomeric PrPs can be generated through protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA) from recombinant full‐length hamster, human, rabbit, and mutated rabbit PrP. β‐oligomers are toxic to primary mouse cortical neurons independent of the presence of PrPC in the neurons, while the corresponding monomeric PrPs were not toxic. This toxicity is the result of oligomers‐induced apoptosis via regulation of Bcl‐2, Bax, and caspase‐3. These results may contribute to our understanding of prion transformation within the brain.
Exploring the professional socialisation of teachers in further education: a case study

Abstract An ethnographic case study focusing on the experiences of one trainee further education teacher is reported. Following the principles of naturalistic enquiry, participant observation and reflexive interviews were used to construct data about the student teacher's experience of the untaught components of the professional training programme, namely her involvement and interactions in the placement college. Some of her coursework was also available for analysis. The data were analysed in terms of four categories (the control and management of students, the facilitating of learning, teaching-related administration and ways of passing on professional knowledge and experience). The student teacher's professional development and her relationships with ‘significant others’ are discussed briefly in terms of two key themes, identification and separation. There is a brief attempt to describe some of the possible implications of studies such as this for the further education teacher training curriculum and f.
Hydrogen peroxide increases gap junctional communication and induces astrocyte toxicity: Regulation by brain macrophages

Cultured astrocytes are highly coupled by gap junction channels mainly constituted by connexin 43. We have previously shown that gap junctional communication (GJC) represents a functional property of astrocytes that is a target for their interaction with other brain cell types, including neurons and brain macrophages. In pathological situations, neurons as well as brain macrophages produce superoxide ions leading to the formation of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) that can be cytotoxic. We report here that 10‐min exposure to 100 μM H2O2 increases GJC in astrocytes. Moreover, 30‐min exposure to 100 μM H2O2 induces, 24 h later, an astrocyte cell death by both apoptosis and necrosis. This H2O2‐induced astrocyte cell death is not affected when gap junctions are inhibited by several uncoupling agents, including 18α‐glycyrrhetinic acid, halothane, heptanol, and endothelin‐1, indicating that the proportion of cell death is not related to the level of GJC. The effect of H2O2 on gap junction channels does not result from the production of free radicals but is rather linked to modification of the redox equilibrium in astrocytes. Indeed, an oxidative agent reproduces the H2O2‐evoked response while reducing agents prevent the effect of H2O2. Finally, when astrocytes are cocultured with brain macrophages, the effects of H2O2 on both GJC and toxicity are not observed, revealing a new protective role of brain macrophages during oxidative stress. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Examining the Efficacy of an Intervention to Improve Fluency and Reading Comprehension in Spanish Children with Reading Disabilities

The main goal of the present study was to examine the efficacy of a multi‐component programme to improve reading fluency and text comprehension in Spanish children with reading disabilities (RD). Special needs teachers were trained in the application of the programme, which included repeated reading plus phonological awareness training and grapheme–phoneme decoding training. Instruction was delivered one to one. Participants were 22 students with RD, aged 10–13, distributed in two groups: one with 12 children who received the intervention (experimental group), and the other with 10 children who received no intervention (comparison group). The effects of the training programme were evaluated using gains in scores on word and pseudo‐word reading and text reading fluency, as well as on a text comprehension test. Results of analyses of covariance comparing the two groups with age as a covariate showed that children who participated in the intervention obtained statistically significant gains on the reading measures used, with the exception of text comprehension. Results are discussed with regard to effective interventions for students with reading disabilities. Reflections on the study's limitations provide a basis for recommending future lines of research.
Relationships between Bases of Power and Work Reactions: The Mediational Role of Procedural Justice

Though research has addressed relationships between social power bases and several work-related variables, processes that may underlie such relationships have generally not been examined. The present study considered relationships between bases of social power and subordinates’ affective work reactions, hypothesizing that procedural justice would mediate such relationships. Two samples, one drawn from two service-oriented companies and one collected from a hospital, were used to test a mediational model reflecting this hypothesis. Using theoretically grounded measures of social power and procedural justice, support was found for full mediation effects in connection with subordinates’ affective work reactions. Implications regarding the development of social power bases are discussed.
Social Competencies and Difficulties of Gifted Children Compared to Nongifted Peers

This study, conducted in Israel, examined the social and emotional difficulties of gifted children, in comparison with nongifted children. The gifted children were further compared in two educational settings: segregated classes and pull-out programs. The 974 participants were from the fifth to twelfth grades. The dependent variables included loneliness, social competence, empathy, and self-concept. The results indicated that gifted children score higher on need fulfillment, empathy, academic self-concept, and lack of emotional anxiety and lower on self-disclosure and physical self-concept. Few differences were found between the two settings for gifted children. The conclusion is that gifted children differ from nongifted children only on some of the social–emotional variables examined, mainly for the better.
Unsupervised Text Normalization Using Distributed Representations of Words and Phrases

Text normalization techniques that use rule-based normalization or string similarity based on static dictionaries are typically unable to capture domain-specific abbreviations (custy, cx! customer) and shorthands (5ever, 7ever! forever) used in informal texts. In this work, we exploit the property that noisy and canonical forms of a particular word share similar context in a large noisy text collection (millions or billions of social media feeds from Twitter, Facebook, etc.). We learn distributed representations of words to capture the notion of contextual similarity and subsequently learn normalization lexicons from these representations in a completely unsupervised manner. We experiment with linear and non-linear distributed representations obtained from log-linear models and neural networks, respectively. We apply our framework for normalizing customer care notes and Twitter. We also extend our approach to learn phrase normalization lexicons (g2g! got to go) by training distributed representations over compound words. Our approach outperforms Microsoft Word, Aspell and a manually compiled urban dictionary from the Web and achieves state-of-the-art results on a publicly available Twitter dataset.
Life Satisfaction Reports of Adolescents with Learning Disabilities and Normally Achieving Adolescents

Reports of life satisfaction, as measured by the Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS; Huebner, 1994b) of 80 adolescents diagnosed with a learning disability (LD) were compared to the reports of a matched sample of 80 normally achieving (NA) adolescents. The results provide preliminary psycho-metric support for the use of the MSLSS with adolescents with LD in research contexts. Contrary to studies of other groups of students with mild disabilities, comparisons of mean levels of overall life satisfaction and satisfaction in five specific domains (family, friends, school, self, and living environment) revealed no differences between adolescent students with LD and NA adolescents. Both groups of students reported positive overall and domain-specific life satisfaction levels. Implications for future research and delivery of services to adolescents with LD were discussed.
Early, late or very late?: Timing acquisition and bilingualism

Research on child bilingualism accounts for differences in the course and the outcomes of monolingual and different types of bilingual language acquisition primarily from two perspectives: age of onset of exposure to the language(s) and the role of the input (Genesee, Paradis, & Crago, 2004; Meisel, 2009; Unsworth et al., 2014). Some findings suggest that early successive bilingual children may pattern similarly to simultaneous bilingual children, passing through different trajectories from child L2 learners due to a later age of onset in the latter group. Studies on bilingual development have also shown that input quantity in bilingual acquisition is considerably reduced, i.e., in each of their two languages, bilingual children are likely exposed to much less input than their monolingual peers (Paradis & Genesee, 1996; Unsworth, 2013b). At the same time, simultaneous bilingual children develop and attain competence in the two languages, sometimes without even an attested age delay compared to monolingual children (Paradis, Genesee & Crago, 2011). The implication is that even half of the input suffices for early language development, at least with respect to ‘core’ aspects of language, in whatever way ‘core’ is defined.My aim in this article is to consider how an additional, linguistic variable interacts with age of onset and input in bilingual development, namely, the timing in L1 development of the phenomena examined in bilingual children’s performance. Specifically, I will consider timing differences attested in the monolingual development of features and structures, distinguishing between early, late or ‘very late’ acquired phenomena. I will then argue that this three-way distinction reflects differences in the role of narrow syntax: early phenomena are core, parametric and narrowly syntactic, in contrast to late and very late phenomena, which involve syntax-external or even language-external resources too. I explore the consequences of these timing differences in monolingual development for bilingual development. I will review some findings from early (V2 in Germanic, grammatical gender in Greek), late (passives) and very late (grammatical gender in Dutch) phenomena in the bilingual literature and argue that early phenomena can differentiate between simultaneous and (early) successive bilingualism with an advantage for the former group, while the other two reveal similarly (high or low) performance across bilingual groups, differentiating them from monolinguals. The paper proposes that questions about the role of age of onset and language input in early bilingual development can only be meaningfully addressed when the properties and timing of the phenomena under investigation are taken into account.
Integrating Addictions-Based Approaches in the Treatment of Adolescent Sexual Offenders

A segment of the population of adolescents who sexually abuse can be classified with a pattern that may be called compulsive or “addictive. ” This article will first explore the use of an “addictions view” in conceptualizing sexually offending behavior in certain adolescents, and will help to demonstrate that such a view is not at odds with current practices in treatment of sexually abusive youth. Focus is then shifted to examining how modifications of approaches typically used with chemically addicted populations may be integrated into existing sex offense specific treatment regimes. Finally, sixteen treatment strategies will be explored that may be used with the target population, and which may also have value with other categories of sexual offenders as well.
Herding and Contrarian Behavior in Financial Markets: An Internet Experiment

We report results of an internet experiment designed to test the theory of informational cascades in financial markets (Avery and Zemsky, AER, 1998). More than 6000 subjects, including a subsample of 267 consultants from an international consulting firm, participated in the experiment. As predicted by theory, we find that the presence of a flexible market price prevents herding. However, the presence of contrarian behavior, which can (partly) be rationalized via error models, distorts prices, and even after 20 decisions convergence to the fundamental value is rare. We also study the effects of transaction costs and the expectations of subjects with respect to future prices. Finally, we report some interesting differences with respect to subjects’ fields of study.
The social and economic burden of frontotemporal degeneration

Objective: To quantify the socioeconomic burden of frontotemporal degeneration (FTD) compared to previously published data for Alzheimer disease (AD). Methods: A 250-item internet survey was administered to primary caregivers of patients with behavioral-variant FTD (bvFTD), primary progressive aphasia, FTD with motor neuron disease, corticobasal syndrome, or progressive supranuclear palsy. The survey included validated scales for disease staging, behavior, activities of daily living, caregiver burden, and health economics, as well as investigator-designed questions to capture patient and caregiver experience with FTD. Results: The entire survey was completed by 674 of 956 respondents (70.5%). Direct costs (2016 US dollars) equaled $47,916 and indirect costs $71,737, for a total annual per-patient cost of $119,654, nearly 2 times higher than reported costs for AD. Patients ≥65 years of age, with later stages of disease, and with bvFTD correlated with higher direct costs, while patients <65 years of age and men were associated with higher indirect costs. An FTD diagnosis produced a mean decrease in household income from $75,000 to $99,000 12 months before diagnosis to $50,000 to $59,999 12 months after diagnosis, resulting from lost days of work and early departure from the workforce. Conclusions: The economic burden of FTD is substantial. Counting productivity-related costs, per-patient costs for FTD appear to be greater than per-patient costs reported for AD. There is a need for biomarkers for accurate and timely diagnosis, effective treatments, and services to reduce this socioeconomic burden.
The Effect of Preincisional Periportal Infiltration With Ropivacaine in Pain Relief After Laparoscopic Procedures: A Prospective, Randomized Controlled Trial

Background and Objectives: It is essential to minimize pain after laparoscopic surgery. This study examined the effect of wound infiltration by a long-acting local anesthetic. Methods: This prospective, randomized study includes 190 laparoscopic procedures carried out by the same surgeon. The patients were randomly allocated into 2 groups. The control group comprised 75 cases of laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) and 20 cases of laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair (LIHR) without the use of a local anesthetic; only saline was used. The study group comprised 75 cases of LC and 20 cases of LIHR with preincisional periportal infiltration with 20 mL of ropivacaine (10 mg/mL). The postoperative pain scores at 3, 6, 12, and 24 hours determined with a visual analogue scale (VAS), nausea, and the kind and amount of analgesic drugs were assessed. Results: In the study group in 41% of LC cases and 85% of LIHR cases, no analgesia was required at all; likewise, in the control group in 20% of LC cases and 44% of LIHR cases, no analgesia was required. The difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). In the remainder, pain at 3 and 6 hours and total analgesic requirements in the study group were less than that in the control group (P<0.05). The postoperative nausea and shoulder pain remained statistically unchanged (P>0.05). Conclusions: It seems that wound infiltration with ropivacaine in laparoscopy provides satisfactory postoperative analgesia, diminishing or reducing the need for opioids.
Can priming a healthy eating goal cause depleted consumers to prefer healthier snacks

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine whether priming words related to a healthy eating goal can facilitate self-control among depleted people. Design/methodology/approach – A between-subject experimental design was employed, and participants were randomly assigned to conditions. Findings – Consistent with prior research, this research finds that depletion hurts self-control, and that priming words related to a healthy eating goal facilitates it. What is novel is that if people engage in an initial task that requires self-control (that is, if people are depleted), priming health-related words has no positive influence on self-control. Practical implications – Priming health-related words has no impact on preference when consumers are depleted; implying that marketers of healthy food products should place their product at the beginning of a consumer shopping experience, when resources are most available. In other words, the decision to associate a brand with health-related claims must be strate.