Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Life after sport?Examining the transfer of life skills following withdrawal from sport

Researchers have found convincing data to suggest sport is a suitable environment for adolescents to develop intrapersonal and interpersonal life skills. However, as of yet, there is little evidence suggesting that young females transfer skills learnt in sport into other life domains, and whether females adolescents are able to retain the suggested life skills once they have withdrawn from sport. I sought to extend the literature on transferable skills from sport to other life domains by considering female adolescent perspectives after they have withdrawn from sport. My research was driven by three primary questions; Do the perceived benefits associated with sport continue after withdrawal? Are the perceived benefits associated with sport participation transferable across life domains? Do different sport environments cause diverse life skills to develop? Ten females aged 15 and 16 years old voluntarily attended formal semi structured interviews. Via inductive thematic analysis, three global themes emerged: 1) how skills are developed through sport 2) potential transferable skills and outcomes and 3) prevention of transferable skills. Through a qualitative methodological approach my results suggested experiential learning to be the most productive way of life skills development, and that in order for female youths to gain a range of life skills, the type, and environment of sport should vary, in particular female adolescents should be exposed to some form of competitive sport as the environment was reported by the girls to be the most conducive to life skills development, retention, and transfer. Ideas for future research conclude the study, such as, researchers may choose to explore a longer gap between participation and withdrawal, a more extensive break between the two may result in more reflection, and possible realisation of iii more life skills. Researchers could also investigate an equivalent approach with male adolescents to establish any comparisons between genders.
Prevalence and Concentration of Verotoxigenic Escherichia coli O157:H7 in Adult Sheep at Slaughter from Italy

A 1‐year study on the animal‐level prevalence and concentration of Escherichia coli O157 in adult sheep at slaughter was performed, to collect qualitative and quantitative information on the diffusion of the pathogen in adult sheep from Italy. A total 533 samples were collected, with a similar distribution in the four seasons. For prevalence estimates, a simple random sampling technique was used. An immuno‐magnetic separation technique was used for sample screening, with enumeration of the pathogen in positive samples, along with molecular and serological identification of isolates. An overall prevalence of 7.1% (38/533, 95% CI 4.9–9.3%) was observed for fully virulent E. coli O157. A wide interval of VTEC O157 per gram was observed (<100 to 6 × 105 CFU g−1), with 28.9% (11/38) of positive samples ≥1 × 103 CFU g−1, set as the threshold for those animals defined ‘active shedders’ for the purpose of the study. Eight per cent (3/38) of animals shed >1 × 104 g−1 VTEC O157, which represents >96% of the total VTEC O157 bacteria cultured from all animals tested. The prevalence estimate of active shedders was therefore 2.1% (95% CI 0.9–3.3%). Most (34/38, 89.5%) of the positive animals were found in summer (July–September). Prevalence and concentrations of virulent VTEC O157 obtained in this study contribute to the demonstration that adult sheep represent a relevant source of environmental contamination from virulent VTEC O157, as well as a source of VTEC O157 contamination for food of ovine origin (meat and dairy products), especially during warm months.
Towards an optimal stochastic alternating direction method of multipliers

We study regularized stochastic convex optimization subject to linear equality constraints. This class of problems was recently also studied by Ouyang et al. (2013) and Suzuki (2013); both introduced similar stochastic alternating direction method of multipliers (SADMM) algorithms. However, the analysis of both papers led to suboptimal convergence rates. This paper presents two new SADMM methods: (i) the first attains the minimax optimal rate of O(1/k) for nonsmooth strongly-convex stochastic problems; while (ii) the second progresses towards an optimalrate by exhibiting an O(1/k2) rate for the smooth part. We present several experiments with our new methods; the results indicate improved performance over competing ADMM methods.
Verbal, Physical, and Injurious Aggression Among Intimate Couples Over Time

This study uses a large, longitudinal national data set to examine sociological, feminist, and psychological perspectives to assess the level of intimate couple aggression and change in dyad aggression over time. The first multivariate analysis evaluates factors associated with the type of couple aggression (none, verbal, physical, or injurious), and the other analyzes predictors of change in severity of aggression that couples experience over time. Demographic variables, social integration, dependency, and psychological health measures are used to examine level of aggression and change over time. Sociological, feminist, and psychological perspectives are all supported to some degree by the results of this study, and we suggest a synthesis of these perspectives to explain the dynamics of couple aggression.
Peer Acceptance and Friendship: An Investigation of their Relation to Self-Esteem

The present study examined the relationship between peer relations and self-esteem. Specifically, this study investigated how peer acceptance and friendship were related to self-esteem in an adolescent population. Five hundred and forty-two ninth-grade students were classified by sociometric group and presence or absence of reciprocal friendships. Results indicate no significant difference in self-esteem scores across sociometric groups. However, subjects with at least I reciprocal friend had higher self-esteem scores than subjects without a reciprocal friend. Furthermore, there did not appear to be a cumulative effect of number of friendships on self-esteem scores. The importance of friendship to the development of self-esteem is discussed, as are the implications for intervention programs such as social skills training for children who may lack a close friendship. The authors indicate a need for further study of the relationship between peer relations and the correlates of self-esteem.
Temporal Differences-Based Policy Iteration and Applications in Neuro-Dynamic Programming

We introduce a new policy iteration method for dynamic programming problems with discounted and undiscounted cost. The method is based on the notion of temporal differences, and is primarily geared to the case of large and complex problems where the use of approximations is essential. We develop the theory of the method without approximation, we describe how to embed it within a neuro-dynamic programming/reinforcement learning context where feature-based approximation architectures are used, we relate it to TD(λ) methods, and we illustrate its use in the training of a tetris playing program. 1 Supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant DDM-8903385 and Grant CCR9103804. Thanks are due to John Tsitsiklis for several helpful discussions and to Dimitris Papaioannou, who assisted with some of the experiments. 2 Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, M. I. T. , Cambridge, Mass. , 02139. 3 Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, M. I. T. , Cambridge, Mass. , 02139. 1
Low-dose tissue plasminogen activator in the treatment of a massive pulmonary thromboembolism in a colon cancer patient treated with bevacizumab: A case report

The current study describes the fibrinolytic treatment of a patient exhibiting an acute massive pulmonary thromboembolism, who was also receiving a bevacizumab-based combination regimen for metastatic colon cancer. The administration of bevacizumab has been associated with an increased risk of venous thromboembolic events and bleeding in cancer patients. However, there is insufficient data regarding the safety and activity of thrombolytic agents in cancer patients receiving bevacizumab-based therapy. In the present case, despite the increased risk of bleeding, low-dose and prolonged tissue plasminogen activator infusion was effectively and reliably applied to treat a massive pulmonary embolism, which resulted in hemodynamic instability in the patient.
Control of Autophagosome Axonal Retrograde Flux by Presynaptic Activity Unveiled Using Botulinum Neurotoxin Type A

Botulinum neurotoxin type A (BoNT/A) is a highly potent neurotoxin that elicits flaccid paralysis by enzymatic cleavage of the exocytic machinery component SNAP25 in motor nerve terminals. However, recent evidence suggests that the neurotoxic activity of BoNT/A is not restricted to the periphery, but also reaches the CNS after retrograde axonal transport. Because BoNT/A is internalized in recycling synaptic vesicles, it is unclear which compartment facilitates this transport. Using live-cell confocal and single-molecule imaging of rat hippocampal neurons cultured in microfluidic devices, we show that the activity-dependent uptake of the binding domain of the BoNT/A heavy chain (BoNT/A-Hc) is followed by a delayed increase in retrograde axonal transport of BoNT/A-Hc carriers. Consistent with a role of presynaptic activity in initiating transport of the active toxin, activity-dependent uptake of BoNT/A in the terminal led to a significant increase in SNAP25 cleavage detected in the soma chamber compared with nonstimulated neurons. Surprisingly, most endocytosed BoNT/A-Hc was incorporated into LC3-positive autophagosomes generated in the nerve terminals, which then underwent retrograde transport to the cell soma, where they fused with lysosomes both in vitro and in vivo. Blocking autophagosome formation or acidification with wortmannin or bafilomycin A1, respectively, inhibited the activity-dependent retrograde trafficking of BoNT/A-Hc. Our data demonstrate that both the presynaptic formation of autophagosomes and the initiation of their retrograde trafficking are tightly regulated by presynaptic activity.
Medicinal plants and natural products in amelioration of arsenic toxicity: a short review

Abstract Context: Chronic arsenic toxicity (arsenicosis) is considered a serious public health menace worldwide, as there is no specific, safe, and efficacious therapeutic management of arsenicosis. Objectives: To collate the studies on medicinal plants and natural products with arsenic toxicity ameliorative effect, active pre-clinically and/or clinically. Methods: Literature survey was carried out by using Google, Scholar Google and Pub-Med. Only the scientific journal articles found on the internet for last two decades were considered. Minerals and semi-synthetic or synthetic analogs of natural products were excluded. Results: Literature study revealed that 34 medicinal plants and 14 natural products exhibited significant protection from arsenic toxicity, mostly in preclinical trials and a few in clinical studies. Conclusion: This research could lead to development of a potentially useful agent in clinical management of arsenicosis in humans.
Valuing Skill Differences

This article reports effects of perceived skill dissimilarity and perceived skill complementarity on dyadic helping behavior using a cross-lagged panel study. Specifically, the authors hypothesize that perceived skill dissimilarity is negatively related, whereas perceived skill complementarity is positively related, to self-rated and peer-rated dyadic helping behavior in teams. The authors compare the effects of both perceptions in a sample of 301 unilateral work relationships within 20 student research teams. The study shows that perceived skill dissimilarity is unrelated to self-rated and peer-rated dyadic helping behavior whereas perceived skill complementarity is positively related to both self-rated and peer-rated dyadic helping behavior.
On the Influence of Ignored Stimuli: Generalization and Application of Distractor-Response Binding

In selection tasks where target stimuli are accompanied by distractors, responses to target stimuli, target stimuli and the distractor stimuli can be encoded together as one episode in memory. Subsequent repetition of any aspect of such an episode can lead to the retrieval of the whole episode including the response. Thus, repeating a distractor can retrieve responses given to previous targets; this mechanism was labeled distractor-response binding and has been evidenced in several visual setups. Three experiments of the present thesis implemented a priming paradigm with an identification task to generalize this mechanism to auditory and tactile stimuli as well as to stimulus concepts. In four more experiments the possible effect of distractor-response binding on drivers’ reactions was investigated. The same paradigm was implemented using more complex stimuli, foot responses, go/no-go responses, and a dual task setup with head-up and head-down displays. The results indicate that distractor-response binding effects occur with auditory and tactile stimuli and that the process is mediated by a conceptual representation of the distractor stimuli. Distractor-response binding effects also revealed for stimuli, responses, and framework conditions likely to occur in a driving situation. It can be concluded that the effect of distractor-response binding needs to be taken into account for the design of local danger warnings in driver assistance systems.
Regulation of the Ligand-dependent Activation of the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor by Calmodulin*

Background: The EGFR binds calmodulin (CaM). Results: CaM antagonists, CaM down-regulation in conditional CaM-KO cells, chelation of Ca2+, and mutagenesis of the CaM-binding domain inhibit EGFR activation. Conclusion: The Ca2+/CaM complex is a positive regulator of the EGFR. Significance: This is the first work with a multi-approach strategy demonstrating that CaM directly regulates the EGFR in living cells. Calmodulin (CaM) is the major component of calcium signaling pathways mediating the action of various effectors. Transient increases in the intracellular calcium level triggered by a variety of stimuli lead to the formation of Ca2+/CaM complexes, which interact with and activate target proteins. In the present study the role of Ca2+/CaM in the regulation of the ligand-dependent activation of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) has been examined in living cells. We show that addition of different cell permeable CaM antagonists to cultured cells or loading cells with a Ca2+ chelator inhibited ligand-dependent EGFR auto(trans)phosphorylation. This occurred also in the presence of inhibitors of protein kinase C, CaM-dependent protein kinase II and calcineurin, which are known Ca2+- and/or Ca2+/CaM-dependent EGFR regulators, pointing to a direct effect of Ca2+/CaM on the receptor. Furthermore, we demonstrate that down-regulation of CaM in conditional CaM knock out cells stably transfected with the human EGFR decreased its ligand-dependent phosphorylation. Substitution of six basic amino acid residues within the CaM-binding domain (CaM-BD) of the EGFR by alanine resulted in a decreased phosphorylation of the receptor and of its downstream substrate phospholipase Cγ1. These results support the hypothesis that Ca2+/CaM regulates the EGFR activity by directly interacting with the CaM-BD of the receptor located at its cytosolic juxtamembrane region.
Thrombolysis in Acute Ischemic Stroke: A Simulation Study to Improve Pre- and in-Hospital Delays in Community Hospitals

Background Various studies demonstrate better patient outcome and higher thrombolysis rates achieved by centralized stroke care compared to decentralized care, i.e. community hospitals. It remains largely unclear how to improve thrombolysis rate in decentralized care. The aim of this simulation study was to assess the impact of previously identified success factors in a central model on thrombolysis rates and patient outcome when implemented for a decentral model. Methods Based on a prospectively collected dataset of 1084 ischemic stroke patients, simulation was used to replicate current practice and estimate the effect of re-organizing decentralized stroke care to resemble a centralized model. Factors simulated included symptom onset call to help, emergency medical services transportation, and in-hospital diagnostic workup delays. Primary outcome was proportion of patients treated with thrombolysis; secondary endpoints were good functional outcome at 90 days, Onset-Treatment-Time (OTT), and OTT intervals, respectively. Results Combining all factors might increase thrombolysis rate by 7.9%, of which 6.6% ascribed to pre-hospital and 1.3% to in-hospital factors. Good functional outcome increased by 11.4%, 8.7% ascribed to pre-hospital and 2.7% to in-hospital factors. The OTT decreased 17 minutes, 7 minutes ascribed to pre-hospital and 10 minutes to in-hospital factors. An increase was observed in the proportion thrombolyzed within 1.5 hours; increasing by 14.1%, of which 5.6% ascribed to pre-hospital and 8.5% to in-hospital factors. Conclusions Simulation technique may target opportunities for improving thrombolysis rates in acute stroke. Pre-hospital factors proved to be the most promising for improving thrombolysis rates in an implementation study.
VALVULAR AND STRUCTURAL HEART DISEASES Original Studies Outcome in TAVI Patients with Symptomatic Aortic Stenosis not Fulfilling PARTNER Study Inclusion Criteria

Background: Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has rapidly evolved to the standard-of-care for inoperable patients with severe, symptomatic aortic valve stenosis, and to an alternative treatment option for high-risk patients. However, the randomized PARTNER trial excluded patients with conditions frequently encountered in daily clinical practice. Methods: From 2006 to 2011, 467 high-risk patients, who underwent transfemoral TAVI (Edwards Sapien n 5 166; Medtronic CoreValve n 5 301) at two German centers were divided into a “PARTNER-like” (n 5 227) and a “Real-World" cohort (n 5 240), based on the original PARTNER trial inand exclusion criteria. Differences in 30-day and 2-year mortality and morbidity were assessed. Results: Mean age of patients was 80 6 8 years with a logistic EuroSCORE of 22 6 16%. The most frequent exclusion criteria were previous PCI (15.4%), prior valve surgery (13.7%), chronic renal failure (12.0%), and severe mitral regurgitation (10.8%). Despite significant differences in baseline data, estimated perioperative mortality in terms of STS and logistic EuroScore was identical between both groups. However, patients in the “Real-World” cohort had a non-significant trend towards a higher 30-day mortality (10.0% vs. 6.7%, P 5 0.088) and a significantly higher 2-year mortality (23.3% vs. 14.5%, P 5 0.016) compared with patients of the “PARTNER-like” cohort. Conclusion: Patients meeting PARTNER study exclusion criteria had an acceptable outcome at 30 days and 2 years, however, with significant differences to “PARTNER-like” patients. Still, our results indicate that also real-life patients with relevant comorbidities, who would have been excluded from the randomized PARTNER trials, benefit from TAVI with acceptable shortand long-term outcome. VC 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Molecular Study of the Prevalence of CTX-M1, CTX-M2, CTXM3in Pseudomonas aeruginosa Isolated from Clinical Samples inTabriz Town, Iran

Background: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the most common pathogen causing nosocomial infections. One of the reasons for the drug resistance in the Pseudomonas aeroginosa strains is the production of Extended-Spectrum Beta-lactamases enzymes. This study aimed to determine the antibiotic resistance and the frequency of the Extended-Spectrum Betalactamases enzymes (CTX-M1, CTX-M2, CTX-M3) in the Pseudomonas aeroginosa strains isolated in the hospitals of Tabriz Town. Methods: The Pseudomonas aeroginosa strains were collected from different samples of patients admitted to hospitals and medical centers in Tabriz Town during the period from 26th December, 2014 to 25th December 2015. After identifying the phenotypic and genotypic identity (16Sr RNA) and performing antibiogram test, the phenotype of ESBLs in the bacterium of Pseudomonas aeruginosa was evaluated by double-disk synergy method. Then the bacterial DNA was extracted, studied and evaluated by PCR method and using special primers for the frequency of genes. Results: 110 Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains were identified from 1500 clinical specimens collected from the hospitals and medical centers in Tabriz Town that their highest resistance was related to the antibiotics of Amikacin (81.81%), Nalidixic acid (89.09%) and Ceftriaxone (75.45%) and the lowest one was related to the antibiotics of Tetracycline (44.54%) and Gentamicin (50.09%). The highest gene frequencies of ESBLs are related to the genes of CTX-M1 (27.27%), CTX-M2 (23.63%) and CTX-M3 (9.09%), respectively. Conclusion: The genes studied in this research were all on the chromosomes of the bacterium of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. So, investigating the genes of ESBL such as CTX-M1 which has the maximum frequency in the clinical specimens of Pseudomonas aeruginosa seems necessary.
Parental involvement in children's education 2007

The views expressed in this report are the authors' and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department for Children, Schools and Families. Executive Summary Background BMRB Social Research were commissioned by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) to conduct a survey of parents and carers of children, in order to examine parental involvement in children's education. The then Department for Education and Skills (DfES) commissioned previous surveys in 2001 and 2004. The main objective of the 2007 survey was to investigate the extent and variety of parents' involvement in their children's schooling (including comparing data with the 2001 and 2004 surveys).
Teaching the pragmatics of negotiation in New Zealand English

The role of naturalistic recorded samples as models in English-language teaching has been debated in recent literature. Various compromises have been suggested between authentic data, collected in natural settings, and the scripted dialogues found in many textbooks. Although there is now agreement that the explicit teaching of pragmatics is desirable and effective, there has been little research into teaching pragmatic norms. The action research study outlined in this article explored the use of naturalistic semiscripted models to teach the pragmatics of negotiation in a New Zealand tertiary institution. It sought to discover to what extent semi-scripted naturalistic models are useful and which classroom activities are most effective in teaching this feature of spoken language. The findings suggest that, for the majority of the students in this context, naturalistic semi-scripted models are effective learning tools that help the students to reflect on differences and similarities in pragmatic norms between the target language and their first languages.
Sustained kilowatt lasing in a free-electron laser with same-cell energy recovery

Jefferson Laboratory's kW-level infrared free-electron laser utilizes a superconducting accelerator that recovers about 75% of the electron-beam power. In achieving first lasing, the accelerator operated "straight ahead" to deliver 38-MeV, 1.1-mA cw current for lasing near 5 &mgr;m. The waste beam was sent directly to a dump while producing stable operation at up to 311 W. Utilizing the recirculation loop to send the electron beam back to the linac for energy recovery, the machine has now recovered cw average currents up to 5 mA, and has lased cw with up to 1720 W output at 3.1 &mgr;m.