Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A study on the inclusion of deafblind young people in mainstream schools: key findings and implications for research and practice

This article, written by Leda Kamenopoulou of Roehampton University, reports a research project on deafblindness and inclusion in education. Deafblindness is a rare and therefore significantly under-explored disability. Even less systematic research has focused on deafblind young people enrolled in mainstream schools. The study presented here used a multiple case study and mixed methods design to explore the social inclusion and participation of four deafblind pupils in mainstream placements. Interviews were conducted with the pupils, their parents and selected teachers regarding their peer interactions and relationships. Semi-structured observations of peer interactions during school breaks were also conducted to complement interview data, but due to space constraints, these are not discussed here. Findings from the interviews suggest that the young people were socially present in their schools, but all faced certain issues in terms of being fully included. Both barriers to and facilitators of social inclusion and participation are discussed with reference to implications for research and practice.
Inferring friendship network structure by using mobile phone data

Data collected from mobile phones have the potential to provide insight into the relational dynamics of individuals. This paper compares observational data from mobile phones with standard self-report survey data. We find that the information from these two data sources is overlapping but distinct. For example, self-reports of physical proximity deviate from mobile phone records depending on the recency and salience of the interactions. We also demonstrate that it is possible to accurately infer 95% of friendships based on the observational data alone, where friend dyads demonstrate distinctive temporal and spatial patterns in their physical proximity and calling patterns. These behavioral patterns, in turn, allow the prediction of individual-level outcomes such as job satisfaction.
Dopaminergic D2 receptor activation modulates FGF‐2 gene expression in rat prefrontal cortex and hippocampus

We have investigated the role of dopaminergic receptors in modulation of basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF‐2) expression in rat prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, two brain regions important for cognition. We found that FGF‐2 expression is upregulated by quinpirole, a D2 agonist, in prefrontal cortex and to a lesser extent in hippocampus. This modulation was specific for dopamine D2 receptors because no effect was observed when the dopamine D1 and D3 agonists, SKF38393 and 7‐OH‐DPAT, respectively, were administered. Our findings show that activation of dopaminergic D2 receptors modulates FGF‐2 expression in rat prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. Our data highlight the complex modulation of FGF‐2 expression in limbic areas pointing to this trophic molecule as a putative target of drugs used against acute and chronic neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Estimating Unknown Sparsity in Compressed Sensing

In the theory of compressed sensing (CS), the sparsity ||x||_0 of the unknown signal x\in\R^p is commonly assumed to be a known parameter. However, it is typically unknown in practice. Due to the fact that many aspects of CS depend on knowing ||x||_0, it is important to estimate this parameter in a data-driven way. A second practical concern is that ||x||_0 is a highly unstable function of x. In particular, for real signals with entries not exactly equal to 0, the value ||x||_0=p is not a useful description of the effective number of coordinates. In this paper, we propose to estimate a stable measure of sparsity s(x):=||x||_1^2/||x||_2^2, which is a sharp lower bound on ||x||_0. Our estimation procedure uses only a small number of linear measurements, does not rely on any sparsity assumptions, and requires very little computation. A confidence interval for s(x) is provided, and its width is shown to have no dependence on the signal dimension p. Moreover, this result extends naturally to the matrix recovery setting, where a soft version of matrix rank can be estimated with analogous guarantees. Finally, we show that the use of randomized measurements is essential to estimating s(x). This is accomplished by proving that the minimax risk for estimating s(x) with deterministic measurements is large when n<<p.
Toxigenic Clostridium difficile PCR Ribotypes from Wastewater Treatment Plants in Southern Switzerland

ABSTRACT The occurrence of Clostridium difficile in nine wastewater treatment plants in the Ticino Canton (southern Switzerland) was investigated. The samples were collected from raw sewage influents and from treated effluents. Forty-seven out of 55 characterized C. difficile strains belonged to 13 different reference PCR ribotypes (009, 010, 014, 015, 039, 052, 053, 066, 070, 078, 101, 106, and 117), whereas 8 strains did not match any of those available in our libraries. The most frequently isolated ribotype (40%) was 078, isolated from six wastewater treatment plants, whereas ribotype 066, a toxigenic emerging ribotype isolated from patients admitted to hospitals in Europe and Switzerland, was isolated from the outgoing effluent of one plant. The majority of the isolates (85%) were toxigenic. Forty-nine percent of them produced toxin A, toxin B, and the binary toxin (toxigenic profile A+ B+ CDT+), whereas 51% showed the profile A+ B+ CDT−. Interestingly, eight ribotypes (010, 014, 015, 039, 066, 078, 101, and 106) were among the riboprofiles isolated from symptomatic patients admitted to the hospitals of the Ticino Canton in 2010. Despite the limitation of sampling, this study highlights that toxigenic ribotypes of C. difficile involved in human infections may occur in both incoming and outgoing biological wastewater treatment plants. Such a finding raises concern about the possible contamination of water bodies that receive wastewater treatment plant effluents and about the safe reuse of treated wastewater.
Who Struggles Most in Making a Career Choice and Why? Findings From a Cross-Sectional Survey of Australian High-School Students

This article reports findings from an empirical study examining the influence of student background and educational experiences on the development of career choice capability. Secondary school students attending Years 9–12 (N = 706) in New South Wales, Australia, were invited to participate in an online survey that sought to examine factors influencing their readiness to make a career choice. The survey included questions relating to student demographics, parental occupation, attitudes to school and to learning, career aspirations, and students’ knowledge of the further education or skills required to achieve their desired goal. We found no significant differences in the proportions of students who were ‘uncertain’ of their future career aspirations with respect to their individual characteristics, such as age and gender. There were, however, significant differences in relation to students’ family background, and their perceptions associated with their own academic abilities and self-efficacy.
Milliseconds of Sensory Input Abruptly Modulate the Dynamics of Cortical States for Seconds

Spontaneous internal activity plays a major role in higher brain functions. The question of how it modulates sensory evoked activity and behavior has been explored in anesthetized rodents, cats, monkeys and in behaving human subjects. However, the complementary question of how a brief sensory input modulates the internally generated activity in vivo remains unresolved, and high-resolution mapping of these bidirectional interactions was never performed. Integrating complementary methodologies, at population and single cells levels, we explored this question. Voltage-sensitive dye imaging of population activity in anesthetized rats' somatosensory cortex revealed that spontaneous up-states were largely diminished for ~2 s, even after a single weak whisker deflection. This effect was maximal at the stimulated barrel but spread across several cortical areas. A higher velocity whisker deflection evoked activity at ~15Hz. Two-photon calcium imaging activity and cell-attached recordings confirmed the VSD results and revealed that for several seconds most single cells decreased their firing, but a small number increased firing. Comparing single deflection with long train stimulation, we found a dominant effect of the first population spike. We suggest that, at the onset of a sensory input, some internal messages are silenced to prevent overloading of the processing of relevant incoming sensory information.
Characterization of phospholipases C β and γ and their possible roles in Chaetopterus egg activation

Intracellular calcium release from the endoplasmic reticulum is a hallmark at egg activation of both vertebrates and invertebrates. This fertilization‐associated calcium release results from generation of the second messenger inositol 1,4,5‐trisphosphate (IP3) by one or more phospholipases C (PLC). We characterized Chaetopterus PLCβ and γ by reverse transcription/degenerate oligonucleotide primed PCR and rapid amplification of cDNA end PCR. Phylogenetic analyses suggested that the deduced PLCβ protein shared the greatest homology with mammalian PLCβ4; the deduced PLCγ protein shared the greatest homology with starfish PLCγ and diverged from mammalian PLCγ before mammalian the PLCγ1 and γ2 isoforms diverged. Western blot analyses with specific anti‐PLCβ and γ antibodies, respectively, revealed that 135 and 150 kDa proteins were expressed in eggs. The general PLC antagonist U‐73122 blocked fertilization‐induced egg activation; however, the inactive analog, U‐73343, had no effect on egg activation. We further tested whether egg activation was G protein‐PLCβ and/or protein tyrosine kinase‐PLCγ dependent. Cholera and pertussis toxins, well‐known effectors of G proteins, had no effect on egg activation; while two antagonists of PTK, genistein and tyrphostin B42, inhibited both fertilization‐induced and artificial egg activation. Taken together, our studies suggested that PLC activity from eggs contributes to Chaetopterus egg activation and PLCγ might play an important role during this biological process. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 76: 460–470, 2009. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Sensitivity of the Human Circadian System to Short-Wavelength (420-nm) Light

The circadian and neurobehavioral effects of light are primarily mediated by a retinal ganglion cell photoreceptor in the mammalian eye containing the photopigment melanopsin. Nine action spectrum studies using rodents, monkeys, and humans for these responses indicate peak sensitivities in the blue region of the visible spectrum ranging from 459 to 484 nm, with some disagreement in short-wavelength sensitivity of the spectrum. The aim of this work was to quantify the sensitivity of human volunteers to monochromatic 420-nm light for plasma melatonin suppression. Adult female (n = 14) and male (n = 12) subjects participated in 2 studies, each employing a within-subjects design. In a fluence-response study, subjects (n = 8) were tested with 8 light irradiances at 420 nm ranging over a 4-log unit photon density range of 1010 to 1014 photons/cm 2/sec and 1 dark exposure control night. In the other study, subjects (n = 18) completed an experiment comparing melatonin suppression with equal photon doses (1.21 × 1013 photons/cm2/sec) of 420 nm and 460 nm monochromatic light and a dark exposure control night. The first study demonstrated a clear fluence-response relationship between 420-nm light and melatonin suppression (p < 0.001) with a half-saturation constant of 2.74 × 1011 photons/cm2/sec. The second study showed that 460-nm light is significantly stronger than 420-nm light for suppressing melatonin (p < 0.04). Together, the results clarify the visible short-wavelength sensitivity of the human melatonin suppression action spectrum. This basic physiological finding may be useful for optimizing lighting for therapeutic and other applications.
COMPARISON OF THE STANFORD-BINET INTELLIGENCE SCALE- FORM L-M AND THE STANFORD-BINET INTELLIGENCE SCALE FOURTH EDITION

Summary. -Composite standard age scores and the four Area standard age scores of the Standard-Binet Fourth Edition (SBIV) were each compared to the Stanford-Binet Form L-M IQs of 30 ll-yr. -old public school children. The Pearson correlation of the total scores was . 72, while the correlations of the SBIV Area scores and Form L-M IQs ranged from . 81 (Verbal Reasoning vs LM), . 72 (Quantitarive Reasoning vs L-M), . 47 (Short-term Memory vs LM) to . 40 (Absuact/Visual Reasoning vs L-M). Classification by IQ suggested that both tests tend to categorize individuals similarly, and no sex biases were obtained.
A Comparison of Pneumonia Caused by Gentamicin, Methicillin-Resistant and Gentamicin, Methicillin-Sensitive Staphylococcus aureus: Epidemiologic and Clinical Studies

Abstract We investigated an outbreak of nosocomial pneumonia due to gentamicin, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (GMRSA). We compared the predisposing factors for pneunomia due to GMRSA to those for pneumonia due to gentamicin, methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (GMSSA). Seventeen of 29 patients with staphylococcal pneumonia were infected with GMRSA. Risk factors and associated diseases which selected for infection with GMRSA as opposed to GMSSA included prior antibiotic therapy for a prolonged period of time (p = 0.0001), number of risk factors per patient (p = 0.0001), days hospitalized prior to diagnosis of pneumonia (p = 0.002) and number of associated diseases per patient (p = 0.002). Despite the epidemiologic differences between GMSSA and GMRSA pneumonia, there were no differences in the clinical presentation, course of illness, complications, response to appropriate therapy or outcome between the two groups. Survival was adversely affected by age only among the GMSSA patients (p = 0.02) and by the number of associated diseases (p = 0.005).
Effects of phlorizin on diabetic retinopathy according to isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification–based proteomics in db/db mice

Purpose Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a leading cause of vision loss in working-age people. To retard the development and progression of retina lesions, effective therapeutic strategies directed toward key molecular targets are desired. Phlorizin is effective in treating diabetic complications, but little is known about functional protein changes that may mediate its actions. The aim of this study was to identify retinal proteomic alterations in db/db mice treated with phlorizin. Methods We used C57BLKS/J db/db mice as a type 2 diabetic animal model, while C57BLKS/J db/m mice were selected as the control. Phlorizin (20 mg/kg bodyweight /d) was administrated to db/db mice for ten weeks. Serum fasting blood glucose and advanced glycation end products were determined. Meanwhile, retina cell apoptosis was determined with terminal transferase dUTP nick end labeling. Isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification and subsequent liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) were used to identify and profile retinal proteins among control, untreated diabetic, and phlorizin-treated db/db mice. The expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein was measured in retinas using western blotting analysis. Results Phlorizin treatment significantly reduced fasting blood glucose and levels of advanced glycation end products (p<0.05) and remarkably inhibited retina cell apoptosis and the expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein in the retinas of db/db mice. In addition, we identified 1,636 proteins from retina tissue in total, of which 348 proteins were differentially expressed in db/db mice compared with the controls. Only 60 proteins in the retinas of the db/db mice were found to be differentially changed following phlorizin treatment, including 33 proteins that were downregulated and 27 proteins that were upregulated. Most of these differentially changed proteins were involved in oxidative stress, apoptosis, energy metabolism, and signaling transduction. Conclusions Our study revealed the expression of proteins differentially changed after phlorizin therapy. These proteins are most likely to participate in the development and recovery of DR. Our findings help expand understanding of the mechanism underlying the onset and progression of DR, and provide novel targets for evaluating the effects of phlorizin therapy.
School Visits to Natural History Museums: Teaching or Enriching?.

This article describes a 3-year study of school visits to four natural history museums and addresses the research agenda with regard to out-of-school learning. More specifically, the findings focus on the process of learning in museums. Comprehensive data collection allowed for an analysis of patterns of guided visits, the way the scientific content was conveyed to students, and the extent and types of social interactions thus enabled. Observations of 42 guided visits (grades 3–11) indicates that the main visitation pattern consisted of guide-centered and task-oriented activity. Analysis of questions asked by museum guides reveals that most of these questions required mainly lower-order thinking skills. A common questioning pattern was to ask rhetorical questions as a means of carrying on the lecture. Detailed analysis of the scientific vocabulary used by the guides indicates that they used much scientific jargon, with limited explanation. There was only limited social mediation provided by teachers and museum guides. A minority of teachers were involved in the activities or in helping the guide to clarify or in helping the students to understand the explanations. The overall data indicate limited opportunities for meaningful learning, suggesting that the museums should shift from the traditional knowledge-transmission model of teaching to a more socioculturally contextualized model. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 747–769, 2007
A Variable Length Coding Framework for Cost Function Reduction in Non-Volatile Memory Systems

Variable length coding for Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) technologies is a promising method to improve memory capacity and system performance through compressing memory blocks. However, compression techniques used to improve capacity or bandwidth utilization do not take into consideration the asymmetric costs of writing 1's and 0's in NVMs. Taking into account this asymmetry, we propose a variable length encoding framework that reduces the cost of writing data into NVM. Our experimental results on 12 workloads of the SPEC CPU2006 benchmark suite show that, when the cost asymmetry is 1:2, the proposed framework is capable of reducing the NVM programming cost by up to 24% more than leading compression approaches and by 12.5% more than the flip-and-write approach which selects between the data and its complement based on the programming cost.
A Kuhnian perspective on asset pricing theory

This article argues that the field of asset pricing theory is undergoing a scientific revolution in Kuhnian terms. The orthodox view is one of determinate change in causal processes and inherent stability whereby financial markets, left unfettered, allocate nearly perfectly society's scare capital. However, decades of mounting anomalous evidence against the implications of stable causal processes perpetuated by conventional models based on efficient markets and the rational expectations hypothesis have paved the way for alternative avenues of research. Although various approaches are being developed, the imperfect knowledge economics (IKE) class of models has emerged as a potential new paradigm in the field of macro-finance. By stopping short of fixing in advance the specification of individual forecasting behavior and the causal process, the IKE class of models has been able to reconcile many of the puzzles found within the literature on asset price behavior and risk.
Nike’s Communication with Black Audiences

An increase in the size and resources of the Black consumer market has prompted many organizations to increase their understanding of the challenges of devising marketing communications to appeal to Black consumers. The influence of culture on communication strategies aimed at ethnic groups has long been realized by marketers and advertising professionals. However, what remains a challenge is the means of adapting an effective (yet nonoffensive) culturally-based approach of marketing communication. Given the salience of sport to Blacks, this is a challenge that sport organizations should also address as they devise ways of advertising and communicating sport products and services to Black consumers. This article will employ the tenets of symbolic interactionism, to analyze Nike’s advertisements as vehicles to communicate with Black audiences.
Mindfulness Group Work: Preventing Stress and Increasing Self-Compassion Among Helping Professionals in Training

This study examined the effects a 6-week mindfulness group had on 31 college students who were intending to enter helping professions (e.g., nursing, social work, counseling, psychology, and teaching). Group activities included meditation, yoga, a body scan exercise, and qi gong. The group members completed the Perceived Stress Scale, the Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale, and the Self-Compassion Scale at pre-pre, pre, post, and follow-up intervals. Perceived stress significantly decreased, and mindfulness and self-compassion significantly increased in response to the group. Group members' comments on their experience are reported. Implications for future research and practice are explored.
The HEX1 Gene of Fusarium graminearum Is Required for Fungal Asexual Reproduction and Pathogenesis and for Efficient Viral RNA Accumulation of Fusarium graminearum Virus 1

ABSTRACT The accumulation of viral RNA depends on many host cellular factors. The hexagonal peroxisome (Hex1) protein is a fungal protein that is highly expressed when the DK21 strain of Fusarium graminearum virus 1 (FgV1) infects its host, and Hex1 affects the accumulation of FgV1 RNA. The Hex1 protein is the major constituent of the Woronin body (WB), which is a peroxisome-derived electron-dense core organelle that seals the septal pore in response to hyphal wounding. To clarify the role of Hex1 and the WB in the relationship between FgV1 and Fusarium graminearum, we generated targeted gene deletion and overexpression mutants. Although neither HEX1 gene deletion nor overexpression substantially affected vegetative growth, both changes reduced the production of asexual spores and reduced virulence on wheat spikelets in the absence of FgV1 infection. However, the vegetative growth of deletion and overexpression mutants was increased and decreased, respectively, upon FgV1 infection compared to that of an FgV1-infected wild-type isolate. Viral RNA accumulation was significantly decreased in deletion mutants but was significantly increased in overexpression mutants compared to the viral RNA accumulation in the virus-infected wild-type control. Overall, these data indicate that the HEX1 gene plays a direct role in the asexual reproduction and virulence of F. graminearum and facilitates viral RNA accumulation in the FgV1-infected host fungus.