Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Developmental classroom observation as a component of monitoring and evaluating the work of subject departments in secondary schools

Abstract The formal observation of teachers at work in the classroom has not been a common practice in many schools in the past. However, there are growing pressures for this to take place both in relation to the sharing of good practice between colleagues and as one source of evidence for the assessment of the performance of teachers. The objectives of this small-scale research are to investigate the perceptions of some secondary school teachers about classroom observation as an aspect of departmental monitoring and evaluation, and to work with them in order to devise a developmental approach which is suitable for situations where formal observation has not taken place to any great extent before. As a result of partner observation in one school involving the researcher as «outside partner’ and teachers as ‘inside partners’ an approach to classroom observation is being developed as a means of raising confidence and getting the process started.
Initial nonadherence, primary failure and therapeutic success of metformin monotherapy in clinical practice

Abstract Objective: To document the extent to which drug naïve patients with diabetes continued newly initiated metformin monotherapy, and who subsequently experienced primary failure or therapeutic success. Research design and methods: Using an observational longitudinal cohort design, we identified all 3116 type 2 diabetes patients who initiated metformin monotherapy as their first-ever anti-hyperglycemic drug in 2004–2006. We defined initial nonadherence as having occurred in the first 6 months if a patient (1) received only a single metformin dispense, (2) received less than a 90 day supply, or (3) switched to a second anti-hyperglycemic agent. Among those patients who continued metformin monotherapy for at least 6 months, we determined the proportion attaining A1C < 7% by examining A1Cs recorded prior to adding a second anti-hyperglycemic agent or December 31, 2008, whichever occurred first. We identified factors associated with achieving A1C < 7% with logistic regression. Results: Initial nonadherence occurred in 518 (16.6%) of the 3116 patients studied. Of those who continued metformin for at least 6 months, a majority (71.7% overall) achieved an A1C < 7%, even when pre-metformin A1C was high (59.6% among those with A1C > 9%). Initiating metformin within 3 months of diagnosis increased the probability of success nearly three-fold compared to initiating after 12–23 months (OR 2.85, 95% CI 2.04–3.98). Independent of duration, lower A1C at initiation increased the probability of success. Conclusions: Initiating metformin immediately at diagnosis and while A1C is still low substantially increases the probability of attaining glycemic success. Our findings support the current guidelines recommending metformin therapy as soon as type 2 diabetes is diagnosed. This study was limited by its observational design, the inability to assess reasons for metformin nonadherence, and the highly automated study setting.
Questioning success: Dispossession and the criminal entrepreneur in urban India

Conceptual divisions between the formal and informal sector are a marked feature of studies of Indian neoliberal dispossession, which juxtapose the experiences of an insecure informal workforce with their counterparts in an increasingly privileged and hegemonic formal sector. I suggest that dispossession be conceptually extended to areas of formal, urban India that experience economic liberalisation as a loss of job security and engage with the ideology of the enterprising individual in critical ways. Amid the casualisation of industrial labour and assumptions of endemic corruption, workers in one of India’s largest private corporations argue that the success of the neoliberal entrepreneur relies upon the use of criminality and corruption. In this environment, entrepreneurs are regarded in a politically critical manner, inviting a re-examination of the extent to which the ideology of the enterprising individual has been internalised in India’s urban centres.
Changes in sexual function and gonadal axis hormones after switching to aripiprazole in male schizophrenia patients: a prospective pilot study

Antipsychotic-induced sexual dysfunction is a common problem in patients with schizophrenia. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of switching to aripiprazole on sexual dysfunction and the hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal axis in male patients with schizophrenia. In this prospective, open-label study, the participants were 10 male schizophrenia patients treated with atypical antipsychotics, risperidone, amisulpride, and olanzapine. Before and after switching to aripiprazole, they were assessed on the Arizona Sexual Experience Scale, and hormonal levels were measured. Our results showed a significant improvement in the severity of sexual dysfunction, especially in ‘ease of sexual arousal’ and ‘penile erection,’ as measured by the Arizona Sexual Experience Scale total scores after switching to aripiprazole (&khgr;2=12.45 and P=0.002). The serum prolactin level decreased significantly after switching to aripiprazole (&khgr;2=11.14 and P=0.004), but the changes in the total testosterone level were not significant (&khgr;2=4.75 and P=0.93). Our results suggest that sexual dysfunction in schizophrenia patients seems to improve after switching to aripiprazole from other atypical antipsychotics (risperiodone, amisulpride, or olanzapine). This may be associated with a change in dopamine and serotonin transmissions and a decrease in the serum prolactin concentration.
Learning Adaptive Navigation Strategies for Resource-constrained Systems

The majority of navigation algorithms for mobile robots assume that the robots possess enough computational or memory resources to carry out the necessary calculations. Especially small and lightweight devices, however, are resource-constrained and have only restricted capabilities. In this paper, we present a reinforcement learning approach for mobile robots that considers the imposed constraints on their sensing capabilities and computational resources, so that they can reliably and efficiently fulfill their navigation tasks. Our technique learns a policy that optimally trades off the speed of the robot and the uncertainty in the observations imposed by its movements. It furthermore enables the robot to learn an efficient landmark selection strategy to compactly model the environment. We describe extensive simulated and real-world experiments carried out with both wheeled and humanoid robots which demonstrate that our learned navigation policies significantly outperform strategies using advanced and manually optimized heuristics.
Modular Structure of Peptide Synthetases Revealed by Dissection of the Multifunctional Enzyme GrsA (*)

Analysis of the primary structure of peptide synthetases involved in non-ribosomal synthesis of peptide antibiotics revealed a highly conserved and ordered domain structure. These functional units, which are about 1000 amino acids in length, are believed to be essential for amino acid activation and thioester formation. To delineate the minimal extension of such a domain, we have amplified and cloned truncated fragments of the grsA gene, encoding the 1098-amino acid multifunctional gramicidin S synthetase 1, GrsA. The overexpressed His6-tagged GrsA derivatives were affinity-purified, and the catalytic properties of the deletion mutants were examined by biochemical studies including ATPdependent amino acid activation, carboxyl thioester formation, and the ability to racemize the covalently bound phenylalanine from L- to the D-isomer. These studies revealed a core fragment (PheAT-His) that comprises the first 656 amino acid residues of GrsA, which restored all activities of the native protein, except racemization of phenylalanine. A further deletion of about 100 amino acids at the C-terminal end of the GrsA core fragment (PheAT-His), including the putative thioester binding motif LGGHSL, produced a 556-amino acid fragment (PheA-His) that shows a phenylalanine-dependent aminoacyl adenylation, but almost no thioester formation. A 291-amino acid deletion at the C terminus of the native GrsA, that contains a putative racemization site resulted in complete loss of racemization ability (PheATS-His). However, it retained the functions of specific amino acid activation and thioester formation. The results presented defined biochemically the minimum size of a peptide synthetase domain and revealed the locations of the functional modules involved in substrate recognition and ATP-dependent activation as well as in thioester formation and racemization.
The Medical Research Council and treatments for tuberculosis before streptomycin

Despite being set up in 1913 using a fund specifically earmarked for tuberculosis, the Medical Research Committee (renamed the Medical Research Council [MRC] in 1919) prioritised other areas of medical research. From 1920, the MRC did have three subcommittees concerned with tuberculosis: the Tuberculin Committee, the Bacteriology Committee and the Occupational Phthisis (pulmonary tuberculosis) Committee (AS MacNalty, a medical officer in the Ministry of Health, was the secretary of all of them). However, none of these committees was primarily concerned with investigating the effects of the treatments in vogue in the 1920s and 1930s – sanatorium treatment, tuberculin, sanocrysin and artificial pneumothorax. The Council did provide some financial assistance to physicians researching treatments in institutional settings, but did little itself to evaluate the effects of these treatments.
Being human or being a citizen? Rethinking human rights and citizenship education in the light of Agamben and Merleau-Ponty

This paper argues against a trend of human rights education, where human rights are taught in the form of citizenship education. In my view, citizenship education and human rights education cannot be taken as replaceable for each other. Underpinning the idea of citizenship is a distinction between ‘politically qualified’ and ‘politically unqualified’ persons. This distinction implies a violation of human rights in the name of social solidarity and security. This paper will argue that citizenship education could imply discrimination/exclusion although it claims to promote solidarity and human rights. Furthermore, the qualification of having rights is not dependent on citizenship but simply in human life itself. Three educational implications are discussed. Firstly, human rights and citizenship education cannot be seen as equivalents. Secondly, educators should be alert to the dangers of possible exclusion implied in citizenship education. Finally, this paper proposes different suggestions for human rights and citizenship education separately.
Including children with selective mutism in mainstream schools and kindergartens: problems and possibilities

There is little research on inclusion of children with selective mutism in school/kindergarten. Moreover, few studies have tried to understand selectively mute children’s interactions in the natural surroundings of their home and school/kindergarten. Five children meeting the DSM‐IV criteria for selective mutism were video‐observed in social interactions in kindergarten/school and at home. Their parents and the staff in kindergarten/school took part in semi‐structured interviews. Themes arising from the data were: (1) assessment by the school/kindergarten; (2) interactions in the classroom/kindergarten: inadvertent maintenance of mute behaviour; (3) interactions in the classroom/kindergarten: overcoming selective mutism; (4) school/kindergarten contacts with parents; and (5) tensions in cooperation between home and kindergarten/school. Kindergartens/schools that succeeded in including children with selective mutism found that the child started to speak after a year with encouragement and gentle support from adults and other children. In those cases where the children maintained their selectively mute behaviour, teachers and other children either accepted their refusal to speak and their exclusion of themselves, or selectively reinforced the maladaptive behaviour.
Becoming Journalists

This study discusses data from the most extensive survey of journalism students conducted in Britain, and similar data from Spanish journalism students, collected as they commence their studies in journalism. It shows that significant differences exist between these countries in students' motivations to be journalists, including `public service' motives, and in their views on the social roles of news media. Yet, British and Spanish students exhibit similar views on journalism ethics. To consider effects of `professionalization', students' responses are compared with those of experienced journalists previously surveyed in both countries. The findings suggest that distinct, national journalistic `cultures' have influenced students before they arrive at university.
Forest Protection and the Rights of Cocoa Farmers in Western Ghana

The history of illegal farming activities in certain forest reserves in the Western Region of Ghana demonstrates the magnitude of the problems facing conservationists, administrators and forestry personnel i n developing countries. The objective of this article is to explore briefly some of those problems and to reflect on the value of a human rights approach to environmental protection in the light of events in Western Ghana. First, the article presents evidence of the scale of illegal farming i n some forest reserves in the Western Region, before discussing the various initiatives taken since the 1960s to reserve and protect forest land in this Region. The administrative, legal and political obstacles to their success are highlighted as is the role played by competing interest groups. The implications of this analysis for the concept of environmental rights is then briefly discussed and alternative proposals for tackling this problem suggested.
Agents in object‐oriented software engineering

Software engineers of multi‐agent systems (MASs) are faced with different concerns such as autonomy, adaptation, interaction, collaboration, learning, and mobility, which are essentially different from classical concerns addressed in object‐oriented software engineering. MAS developers, however, have relied mostly on object‐oriented design techniques and programming languages, such as Java. This often leads to a poor separation of MAS concerns and in turn to the production of MASs that are difficult to maintain and reuse. This paper discusses software engineering approaches for MASs, and presents a new method for integrating agents into object‐oriented software engineering from an early stage of design. The proposed approach encourages the separate handling of MAS concerns, and provides a disciplined scheme for their composition. Our proposal explores the benefits of aspect‐oriented software development for the incorporation of agents into object‐oriented systems. We also illustrate our aspect‐oriented approach through the Portalware multi‐agent system, a Web‐based environment for the development of e‐commerce portals. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Prospective Cohort Analysis of Disability Reduction With Lumbar Spinal Fusion Surgery in Community Practice

Study Design Prospective cohort study of lumbar spinal fusion. Objective To examine the functional changes subsequent to lumbar spinal fusion in a total procedure audit in a community spinal surgery practice. Summary of Background Data Several randomized controlled trials have demonstrated efficacy of spinal fusion procedures across diagnoses, but demonstrating effectiveness in community practice has been more difficult. Hospital database studies demonstrate incidence, reoperation rates, and complications of spinal fusions, yet cannot demonstrate outcomes consistently. The challenge is to demonstrate functional benefits from spinal fusion in a community setting. Methods Over a 5-year period all patients in a community practice who underwent lumbar spinal fusion procedures with additional pedicle screw stabilization for degenerative, spondylolytic and spondylolisthetic conditions, were evaluated with application of the Modified Rowland 23 point Questionnaire of Disability preoperatively, and at 1-year postoperative assessment. Statistical analysis was performed. Results A median 10-point improvement in the Modified Roland Questionnaire score was achieved across 160 patients, and the improvement was highly statistically significant for the major diagnoses—degenerative spondylolisthesis, discogenic low back pain, and spondylolysis and isthmic spondylolisthesis. Greater reduction of disability was seen in primary procedures when compared with revision surgery, and in noncompensation patients when compared with compensation patients, although in neither case was the difference statistically significant. Conclusions This study has demonstrated that consistent functional improvements can be achieved across a total population of lumbar spinal fusions in a nonacademic setting. It also demonstrated that use of prospective cohort analysis techniques, with adequate follow up, and minimal increased costs to patients and practice, is a sustainable prospective audit technique.
Policy measures on strengthening and developing capabilities for national tobacco control in Thailand.

OBJECTIVE To assess the situation and report on a national capacity plan for tobacco control under the National Strategic Plan for Tobacco Control (NSPTC) 2010-2014. MATERIAL AND METHOD Systematic documentary review and analysis were managed by the working group. The results were discussed and provided recommendations by the sub-committee on developing the NSPTC 2010-2014. Seven meetings were organized from March 2009-January 2010. Eventually, the NSPCT 2010-2014 was approved by the National Committee for Tobacco Control, chaired by the Minister of Public Health on 22 April 2010. RESULTS The major result of the present study was brought to the National Capacity in Tobacco Control Plan under the NSPTC 2010-2014. The purpose of the plan is to strengthen and develop national tobacco control capacity before 2011. Seven strategic areas for National Tobacco Control Capacity have been proposed. They are, 1) tobacco control policy and leadership development, 2) developing an organizational structure and management systems, 3) developing surveillance, monitoring and evaluation systems, 4)formulate measures to support research and knowledge management, 5) capacity building and network expansion for tobacco control in various sectors, 6) capacity building and expansion of a collaborative network for tobacco control at regional levels and 7) improving and strengthening tobacco control laws. In addition, the indicators, key players and support partners were addressed. CONCLUSION Although the strength of the strategic plan on National Capacity in Tobacco Control is participatory planning process and result in the integrated and comprehensive capacity in tobacco control plan, but some concerns should be considers. They are infrastructure, evidence and networking and leadership.
Two Kdo-Heptose Regions Identified in Hafnia alvei 32 Lipopolysaccharide: the Complete Core Structure and Serological Screening of Different Hafnia O Serotypes

ABSTRACT Hafnia alvei, a gram-negative bacterium, is an opportunistic pathogen associated with mixed hospital infections, bacteremia, septicemia, and respiratory diseases. Various 3-deoxy-d-manno-oct-2-ulosonic acid (Kdo)-containing fragments different from known structures of core oligosaccharides were previously found among fractions obtained by mild acid hydrolysis of some H. alvei lipopolysaccharides (LPSs). However, the positions of these segments in the LPS structure were not known. Analysis of de-N,O-acylated LPS by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and mass spectrometry allowed the determination of the location of a Kdo-containing trisaccharide in the structure of H. alvei PCM 32 LPS. It was established that the trisaccharide {l-α-d-Hepp-(1→4)-[α-d-Galp6OAc-(1→7)]-α-Kdop-(2→} is an integral part of the outer-core oligosaccharide of H. alvei 32 LPS. The very labile ketosidic linkage between →4,7)-α-Kdop and →2)-Glcp in the core oligosaccharide was identified. Screening for this Kdo-containing trisaccharide was performed on the group of 37 O serotypes of H. alvei LPSs using monospecific antibodies recognizing the structure. It was established that this trisaccharide is a characteristic component of the outer-core oligosaccharides of H. alvei 2, 32, 600, 1192, 1206, and 1211 LPSs. The weaker cross-reactions with LPSs of strains 974, 1188, 1198, 1204, and 1214 suggest the presence of similar structures in these LPSs, as well. Thus, we have identified new examples of endotoxins among those elucidated so far. This type of core oligosaccharide deviates from the classical scheme by the presence of the structural Kdo-containing motif in the outer-core region.
Machine Analysis of Facial Behaviour: Naturalistic and Dynamic Behaviour

This article introduces recent advances in the machine analysis of facial expressions. It describes the problem space, surveys the problem domain and examines the state of the art. Two recent research topics are discussed with particular attention: analysis of facial dynamics and analysis of naturalistic (spontaneously displayed) facial behaviour. Scientific and engineering challenges in the field in general, and in these specific subproblem areas in particular, are discussed and recommendations for accomplishing a better facial expression measurement technology are outlined. 1. INTRODUCTION A widely accepted prediction is that computing will move to the background, weaving itself into the fabric of our everyday living and projecting the human user into the foreground. To realize this goal, next-generation computing (a.k.a. pervasive computing , ambient intelligence and human computing) will need to develop human-centred user interfaces that respond readily to naturally occurring, multimodal, human communication (Pantic et al. 2008). These interfaces will need the capacity to perceive and understand intentions and emotions as communicated by social and affective signals. Motivated by this vision of the future, automated analysis of non-verbal behaviour , and especially of facial behaviour, has attracted increasing attention in computer vision, pattern recognition and human– computer interaction (Pantic & To wit, facial expression is one of the most cogent, naturally preeminent means for human beings to communicate emotions, to clarify and stress what is said, and to signal comprehension, disagreement and intentions, in brief, to regulate interactions with the environment and other persons in the vicinity (Ambady & Rosenthal 1992; Ekman & Rosenberg 2005). Automatic analysis of facial expressions therefore forms the essence of numerous next-generation computing tools, including affective computing technologies (proactive and affective user interfaces), learner-adaptive tutoring systems, patient-profiled personal wellness technologies, etc. This article introduces recent advances in the machine analysis of facial expressions. It describes the problem space, surveys the problem domain and examines the state of the art. Two recent research topics will receive particular attention: analysis of