Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predictive value of ADAMTS-13 on concealed chronic renal failure in COPD patients

Background Impaired renal function is often neglected in COPD patients. Considering that COPD patients usually have an ongoing prothrombotic state and systemic inflammation status, we investigated the association among them and explored the predictive value of a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with a thrombospondin type 1 motif, member 13 (ADAMTS-13), on concealed chronic renal failure (CRF) in COPD patients. Methods COPD patients were recruited from the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University between January 2015 and December 2016. Control was selected from contemporaneous hospitalized patients without COPD and matched by age and gender at a ratio of 1:1. Estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was calculated by using the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration formula, and all subjects were categorized as having normal renal function (eGFR ≥60 mL min−1 1.73 m−2) and having concealed CRF (normal serum creatinine while eGFR <60 mL min−1 1.73 m−2). Independent correlates of concealed CRF were investigated by logistic regression analysis, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to determine the predictive value of ADAMTS-13. Results In total, 106 COPD and 106 non-COPD patients were finally recruited, and the incidences of concealed CRF were 19.81% and 7.55%, respectively. ADAMTS-13 (odds ratio [OR] =0.858, 95% CI =0.795–0.926), D-dimer (OR =1.095, 95% CI =1.027–1.169), and C-reactive protein (OR =1.252, 95% CI =1.058–1.480) were significantly associated with concealed CRF. Sensitivity and specificity at an ADAMTS-13 cutoff of 318.72 ng/mL were 100% and 81.2%, respectively. The area under the ROC curve was 0.959. Conclusion Prothrombotic state and systemic inflammation status might contribute to explaining the high incidence of concealed CRF in COPD, and plasma ADAMTS-13 levels may serve as a strong predictor.
The Political Perspective of Corporate Social Responsibility: A Critical Research Agenda

ABSTRACT: I here advance a critical research agenda for the political perspective of corporate social responsibility (Political CSR). I argue that whilst the ‘Political’ CSR literature is notable for both its conceptual novelty and practical importance, its development has been hamstrung by four ambiguities, conflations and/or oversights. More positively, I argue that ‘Political’ CSR should be conceived as one potential form of globalization, and not as a consequence of ‘globalization’; that contemporary Western MNCs should be presumed to engage in CSR for instrumental reasons; that ‘Political’ CSR should be associated with a corresponding ‘political’ model of corporate governance; and that both a ‘Rawlsian’ and ‘Habermasian’ perspective of Political CSR are different from ‘Political’ CSR. In concluding, I use these four critiques to identify a number of areas within which increasingly robust and sophisticated positive and normative theories of Political CSR are required.
A critical review of career research and assistance through the cultural lens: towards cultural praxis of athletes' careers

In this review article, a content area of athlete career in sport psychology is analyzed through the cultural lens: that is, through paradigmatic perspectives of cross-cultural psychology, cultural psychology, and cultural studies. Based on previous review papers, but mainly on the chapters of the anthology Athletes' Careers across Cultures, we identified three dominant (North American, Australian, and European) and two emerging (Asian and South American) cultural discourses in the career topic. These discourses are characterized by research foci, theoretical frameworks, and career assistance programs in action. Our critical analysis of career research and assistance around the world further indicates a need for more contextualized and culturally competent career projects, which blend theory/research, applied work, and lived culture into cultural praxis. To satisfy this need, a new paradigm termed cultural praxis of athletes' careers is suggested. In conclusion, we emphasize the importance of review papers in negotiating emerging terminology, values, principles, and approaches underlying the career topic, and share some ideas for future reviews in career research and assistance.
The Attitudes of Senior Public Servants in Australia and New Zealand: Administrative Reform and Technocratic Consequence?

This article is in the tradition of comparative international research conducted over recent years into changing political-bureaucratic role relations. Its focus is the attitudinal orientation held toward various dimensions of their work by senior public servants in Canberra and Wellington. In particular, it is concerned to gauge officials' tolerance for pluralistic politics, their programmatic commitment, democratic sensibilities, and identification with conventions of ministerial responsibility. The study draws on and develops into four the two categories of public servants identified by Robert D. Putnam during the early 1970s in Western Europe. The information generated may be used as a baseline for future surveys of a similar type, which could identify changing patterns of distribution among the four basic categories: Political Bureaucrats, Classical Bureaucrats, Traditional Bureaucrats, and Technocrats. The present survey shows some significant differences between senior public servants in the two cities. In particular, those in Canberra are less programmatically committed than their Wellington counterparts, and considerably more “elitist” in their attitudes to popular involvement in policymaking. In both capitals officials are proactively rather than reactively orientated, a finding that may run counter to reformers' beliefs in the predominance of “Sir Humphrey Applebys. ” The article goes on to relate the survey findings to major public sector changes that have taken place in both cities since the data for this article was collected. It speculates that, especially in New Zealand (but perhaps less so in Australia), these changes will see the emergence of more strongly technocratic attitudes among top public officials. Such attitudes may not sit easily with expectations that senior public servants be both politically accountable and managerially orientated. Finally, the four categories used in this study are related to the “images” of political-bureaucratic role relations developed in other comparative research.
The Political System Matters: Social Psychology and Voting Behavior in Sweden and the United States

Acknowledgements 1. Social psychological processes in political context 2. Subjective ideology: left-right and liberal-conservative 3. Partisan political issues 4. Mass attitude systems 5. Parties, leaders and candidates 6. Ideology and proximity voting 7. The preference-expectation link and voting behaviour 8. From intention to behaviour in election campaigns 9. Prior behaviour, recalled behaviour and the prediction of subsequent voting behaviour 10. Political systems, cognitive-affective processes, and voting behaviour Notes References Indexes.
Taxonomy and structure of the Polish personality lexicon

We identified 1839 person‐descriptive adjectives from a Polish dictionary, and 10 judges classified those adjectives into five descriptive categories. Two hundred ninety adjectives (16 per cent) were classified by most judges as ‘Dispositions’ (i.e. relatively stable personality traits and abilities). We examined the structure of those 290 adjectives in self‐ratings from 350 respondents. In the five‐factor solution, two dimensions closely resembled Big Five Conscientiousness and Agreeableness, and two others represented rotated variants of Extraversion and Emotional Stability. The fifth factor was dominated by Intellect, containing little Imagination and no Unconventionality content. A six‐factor solution closely resembled the cross‐language HEXACO structure (but with ‘Intellect’ rather than ‘Openness to Experience’). Analyses of 369 peer ratings revealed five‐ and six‐factor solutions nearly identical to those of self‐ratings. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A review of modern insulin analogue pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profiles in type 2 diabetes: improvements and limitations

Insulin analogues have been engineered to enhance desired molecular properties without altering immunogenicity. The majority of insulin pharmacology studies are conducted in healthy volunteers and patients with type 1 diabetes. At present, there are more patients with type 2 than type 1 diabetes receiving insulin treatment. As the responsibility for initiating insulin therapy in these patients continues to shift to primary care, it will be important for general practitioners to understand the different pharmacological properties of insulin preparations in patients with type 2 diabetes, so that treatment can be adapted to meet patients' physiological and lifestyle requirements. The purpose of this review is to summarize pharmacological studies of insulin analogues in patients with type 2 diabetes. Faster onset of action of rapid acting insulin analogues has improved postprandial glycaemic control. Biphasic insulin analogues are associated with a lower incidence of nocturnal hypoglycaemia compared with human biphasic preparations and allow for intensification from once to twice or thrice daily dosing. More predictable glycaemic‐lowering profiles of the insulin analogues have also led to reductions in nocturnal hypoglycaemia, particularly comparing long‐acting insulin analogues with protaminated human insulin. Enhancing insulin self‐association and reversible binding with albumin has led to further reductions in variability. However, improvements can still be made. Effective once daily clinical dosing of long‐acting insulin analogues is not possible in all patients. In addition, the protaminated component of biphasic insulin analogues do not provide the duration of action or profile for physiological basal insulin replacement and neither insulin glargine nor insulin detemir are suitable for mixing with other insulin analogues as this would substantially alter their pharmacokinetic properties. Enhancing the pharmacological predictability and extending the duration of action could simplify insulin titration and further reduce the incidence of hypoglycaemia.
Absenteeism, turnover intention and inequity in the employment relationship

In this field study a preliminary social exchange model was proposed that related perceived inequity in the employment relationship to subsequent absenteeism and turnover intention. From an equity perspective, it was hypothesized that absenteeism and turnover intention are indirectly related to perceived inequity in the exchange relationship with the organization, mediated by feelings of resentment and poor organizational commitment. By employing covariance structure modelling, the model was tested among mental health care professionals (N = 90). The results demonstrated that the relationship between perceived inequity and turnover intention was fully mediated by poor organizational commitment, which was, in turn, partially triggered by feelings of resentment that were associated with perceived inequity. In contrast, there was a strong direct link between inequity in the employment relationship and absenteeism, not mediated by resentment and poor organizational commitment. It was concluded that absenteeis.
Scenic preferences concerning clear‐fell areas in Finland

Abstract Altogether 152 respondents rank‐ordered 31 photographs that presented clear felling areas in near‐distance view. In addition, the respondents evaluated 19 scenic features of eight slides by a checklist. They were also allowed to describe freely the feelings these slides evoked. Small clear‐fell areas that had a lot of undergrowth and solitary trees were preferred. Large clear‐fell areas with soil preparation and lop‐and‐top were considered ugliest. Environmentalists, forestry personnel, and residents of the Helsinki region rank‐ordered the photographs in similar ways. However, forestry personnel were more averse to scenes which appeared unmanaged, e.g. grass and shrub vegetation. They also demonstrated a more positive attitude to visible forest management measures like soil preparation and lop‐and‐top. Felling areas were perceived to be beautiful or ugly depending on their implementation. Clear fellings appeared to be assessed both on a scenic or emotional basis, and on ecological and other objec.
School choice in Chile: Is it class or the classroom?

Skeptics of school choice are concerned that parents, especially low-income ones, will not choose schools based on sound academic reasoning. Many fear that, given choice, parents will sort themselves into different schools along class lines. How-ever, most surveys find that parents of all socioeconomic groups cite academic aspects as important when choosing a school. Moreover, almost no parents refer to the social composition of the student body. Many advocates of choice hold up these results as proof that choice will produce desirable outcomes. However, these results may not be reliable because they may simply be verbal responses to survey items rather than indicators of actual behavior. In this research, we report on the search behavior of parents in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago, Chile, examining how they construct their school choice sets and comparing this to what they say they are seeking in choosing schools. The data indicate that parental decisions are influenced by demographics. Based on this evidence, we argue that unfettered choice may reduce the pressure on schools to improve their performance and could potentially increase stratification. © 2006 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management
A psychometric comparison of internet and non-internet sex offenders from a community treatment sample

Abstract This paper compares psychometric test assessments of 39 men convicted of internet sex offences with 39 convicted of contact offences against a specific victim. Higher rates of socially desirable responding were identified in the internet group, as well as higher rates of emotional loneliness and under assertiveness, although the latter two findings were not statistically significant. This group also achieved lower scores measuring external locus of control, which might reflect their generally higher levels of education and employment (identified from research carried out in tandem with this work). The internet group achieved lower scores on sexualized attitudes towards children, emotional congruence with children and empathy distortions with regard to victims of child abuse. Hence, although they exhibited the kinds of general personality problems exhibited by other sex offenders, they did not support attitudes that explicitly endorse or condone the sexual abuse of children. This paper presents some hypotheses about these results and identifies further research necessary to develop understanding about this new kind of sexually abusive behaviour.
Overexpression of fragile X gene (FMR‐1) transcripts increases cAMP production in neural cells

Fragile X syndrome results from amplification of an unstable trinucleotide (CGG) repeat in the first exon of FMR‐1, the “fragile X gene. ” This mutation silences the gene, resulting in loss of expression of the FMR proteins (FMRP), a series of RNA‐binding proteins generated by alternative splicing of FMR‐1 transcripts. We have shown that cAMP production is diminished in cells from patients with fragile X syndrome. To establish a direct relationship between FMR‐1 expression and cAMP metabolism, FMRP isoforms 1 and 7 were overexpressed in the neurotumor hybrid cell line HN2. Cyclic AMP production in clonal HN2 lines overexpressing FMRP was significantly higher than in nonoverexpressing control lines and increased with increasing total FMR‐1 mRNA on Northern blots and FMRP signal on Western blots. These data support a role for FMRP in the regulation of cAMP signal transduction by increasing intracellular cAMP, perhaps through a mechanism involving binding and enhanced translation of mRNA(s) for cAMP cascade proteins. Diminished cAMP production in the absence of FMR‐1 may provide one neurochemical mechanism through which FMR‐1 influences cognitive function.
Modern prostate brachytherapy. Prostate specific antigen results in 219 patients with up to 12 years of observed follow-up.

BACKGROUND The purported lack of long term modern prostate brachytherapy outcome data continues to lead many physicians to recommend other, more traditional treatments. This concern for long term results has encouraged the authors to supplement their earlier 10-year follow-up of patients receiving brachytherapy; in the process, an additional 77 patients (> 50%) were added to the original cohort, and the follow-up time was increased by 2 years. METHODS Between January 1987 and September 1989, 229 patients with T1-T3 prostate carcinoma underwent transperineal prostate brachytherapy using iodine-125 (I-125). No patient received adjuvant hormone therapy. The median Gleason sum was 5 (range, 2-10). Of these patients, 147 were determined to have a high probability of organ-confined disease and were treated solely with an I-125 implant. The remaining 82 patients were determined to be at increased risk for extracapsular disease and received pelvic external beam radiation in addition to brachytherapy. All patients were followed continuously. Failure was defined as a positive biopsy, radiographic evidence of metastases, or three consecutive rises in prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels as defined by the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) consensus article. RESULTS Excluding deaths from intercurrent disease, the median follow-up was 122 months (range, 18-144 months). Fourteen patients were excluded from analysis due to insufficient follow-up. Adopting the ASTRO definition of failure resulted in minimal change in survival when compared with the authors' previous study, which used a PSA level > 0.5 ng/mL as the failure point. Observed 10-year disease free survival (DFS) for the entire cohort was 70%. In the brachytherapy only group, the observed 10-year DFS was 66%, whereas those patients treated with the addition of external pelvic radiation achieved a DFS of 79%. None of the patients who were followed for the full 12 years failed between Years 10 and 12. Only 25% of the failures observed occurred > 5 years after treatment, thus confirming the durability of brachytherapy. CONCLUSIONS Prostate brachytherapy provides excellent long term disease control with few late failures reported in the authors' program. The addition of external beam radiation appears to confer survival advantages in selected patients. Using the ASTRO failure criteria for long term follow-up resulted in no significant difference compared with using a PSA failure point of 0.5 ng/mL.
Foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism

Part 1 The individual and social nature of bilingualism: bilingualism - definitions and distinctions the measurement of bilingualism languages in society language revival and reversal the development of bilingualism second language acquisition theories of second language acquisition bilingualism and intelligence bilingualism and thinking cognitive theories of bilingualism and the curriculum. Part 2 Bilingual education and bilingual classrooms: types of bilingual education the effectiveness of bilingual education minority language learning, underachievement and biliteracy second language learning Canadian immersion classrooms a model and a framework of bilingual education the politics of bilingualism multiculturalism and anti-racism.
Measurements and Analysis of a Major Adult Video Portal

Today, the Internet is a large multimedia delivery infrastructure, with websites such as YouTube appearing at the top of most measurement studies. However, most traffic studies have ignored an important domain: adult multimedia distribution. Whereas, traditionally, such services were provided primarily via bespoke websites, recently these have converged towards what is known as “Porn 2.0”. These services allow users to upload, view, rate, and comment on videos for free (much like YouTube). Despite their scale, we still lack even a basic understanding of their operation. This article addresses this gap by performing a large-scale study of one of the most popular Porn 2.0 websites: YouPorn. Our measurements reveal a global delivery infrastructure that we have repeatedly crawled to collect statistics (on 183k videos). We use this data to characterise the corpus, as well as to inspect popularity trends and how they relate to other features, for example, categories and ratings. To explore our discoveries further, we use a small-scale user study, highlighting key system implications.
Parent–child interaction and children’s number learning

Two groups of Chinese four‐year‐olds and their parents’ interaction in joint activities were analyzed and compared. The children in Group 1 were high scorers in written number skills and the children in Group 2 were low scorers. Eighty‐five dyads participated in four separate 15‐minute joint activities such as book reading, mathematical worksheets, blank paper and blocks. A mini‐questionnaire was also administered. The results indicated that a wide variety of mathematics and interactive strategies were involved in the activities, that there was no difference in the frequency of mathematical events occurring in the activities between the two groups, that more parents in Group 1 used several more positive strategies than the parents in Group 2, that more children in Group 2 had trouble remaining engaged in the activity, and that the frequency and the quality of parent–child joint activities at home, such as book reading and mathematical worksheets, were possible contributors to children’s development of mathematics.
Work Aspiration of Women: False Leads and New Starts

Aspiration can scarcely be studied apart from the nexus of motivation that forms it. "Motivation," a particular state of affairs, is a function of two elements: Expectancy and Value. Expectancy can be as specific as the individual's subjective sense of probability that a certain event will occur, or it may include more definitive information in a broader sense. Value can be viewed cognitively, as the positive or negative incentive value a particular event has for an individual, or behaviorally, in terms of an organism's tendency to approach or avoid a given state of affairs. Aspiration as a psychological event is but one outcome of expectancy and value. Other outcomes include such molar behaviors as choice and effort.
Hyperekplexia phenotype due to compound heterozygosity for GLRA1 gene mutations

Hyperekplexia (MIM 149400), or startle disease, is a neurological disorder characterized by generalized stiffness during the neonatal period, excessive startle reflexes, and generalized stiffness related to the startle response. Linkage analysis mapped a major gene for this disorder to chromosome 5q33‐35. Subsequently, mutations in the GLRA1 gene, encoding the α1 subunit of the glycine receptor, were found in hyperekplexia families with an autosomal dominant or recessive inheritance pattern. In the present study, we describe the genetic analysis of the GLRA1 gene of a family consisting of 2 children with hyperekplexia, 2 nonaffected children, and their healthy nonconsanguineous parents. Although the pedigree suggested the presence of a recessive mutation, haplotype construction showed that the 2 affected children shared the same haplotype combination in which the maternal haplotype differed from the paternal haplotype, suggesting the presence of compound heterozygosity. Mutation analysis revealed different missense mutations on the two haplotypes, changing an arginine to a histidine at amino acid positions 252 and 392, respectively. It is interesting that the hyperekplexia phenotype was only seen in individuals compound heterozygous for the two mutations, whereas family members carrying either one of the two mutations had no clinical signs.