Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Work-based research degrees: systematic cultivation through a University–industry network space

The purpose of this paper is to expound on an innovative approach to cultivating work-based Doctorates and Masters of Philosophy degrees, which involves close collaboration between industry organisations and a tertiary institution. This paper also reports on an examination of the programme's structural ability to help develop the learning capability of the candidates involved. This network model inspires and facilitates these work-based candidates’ research actions and builds individual (and organisational) knowledge while enhancing their learning capability. The primary considerations for higher education practice revolve around work-based research degrees being actively and fittingly supported by all direct stakeholders and the management of those stakeholder relationships. This approach to fostering work-based research degrees provides tertiary institutions pragmatic avenues to be more relevant to and valued by industry, while facilitating the development of highly educated and skilled industry-based scholars.
Does Immigration Erode the Multicultural Welfare State? A Cross-National Multilevel Analysis in 19 OECD Member States

This article examines the effects of immigration-generated ethnic diversity on welfare attitudes across 19 OECD countries. Many scholars have documented that cultural heterogeneity is negatively associated with public support for redistributive government, the evidence for which is still open to question. This article specifically focuses on the mediating effects of multiculturalism and explores whether the impact of immigration differs in the context of strong multiculturalism. The multilevel analysis of ISSP survey data shows that there is no consistent negative link between ethnic diversity and public support for social welfare policies. The results also reveal that the interaction between immigration and multiculturalism has a negative effect on popular support, but that the negative relationship disappears when the generosity of social security policies is taken into account. This research concludes that the claimed detrimental effects of ethnic plurality and multiculturalism are not strongly supported in the context of OECD member states.
GB virus C infection and survival in the Amsterdam Cohort Study.

eterious effect that the loss of GBV-C infection without the accompanying development of GBV-C envelope protein–2 antibodies has on survival, which was observed by others [4, 6]. This again confirms that persistent GBV-C infection is beneficial. Van der Bij et al. are to be commended for examining the effect that GBV-C acquisition has after HIV-1 seroconversion; previous studies have not included enough patients who had acquired the infection after seroconversion to allow for evaluation of this issue. Again, however, Van der Bij et al. show in table 3 that there is a statistically significant beneficial effect of GBV-C acquisition on the HR of first CD4 cell count ! 200 cells/mL (HR, 0.34, 0.33, and 0.52), AIDS (HR, 0.56, 0.74, and 0.79), and death (HR, 0.35, 0.53, and 0.44) in models 1, 2, and 3, respectively, and progression from AIDS to death in model 1 (HR, 0.56). In summary, contrary to Van der Bij et al.’s interpretation, the ACS does show that persistent GBV-C infection has a beneficial effect on HIV-1 disease progression—in accordance with the results of other studies—when the effect is not adjusted for causal variables associated with GBV-C infection, which is statistically invalid [2]. The results of Van der Bij et al.’s study also confirm previous findings regarding the deleterious effect that the loss of GBV-C infection has, and it is the first study to show that GBV-C acquisition has a statistically significant benefit after HIV1 seroconversion has occurred.
MINIMAL SETS OF VISIBILITY

Let S be a set in an n-dimensional Euclidean space, En. The following concept was used by Horn and Valentine [21 in their study of L sets, and it provides the basis of this investigation. DEFINITION 1. A set VCS is a set of visibility in S if, given any point p ES, there exists a point qE V such that the closed segment pqCS. NOTATION. Given a point xES, let V(x) denote a continuum' of visibility in S which contains x. The notation Vi(x) will also be used. DEFINITION 2. The set V(x) is a minimal continuum of visibility in S relative to x if, for any other continuum of visibility Vi(x), we have NlX) ? T V(x). A corresponding definition holds if we replace the word "continuum" by the words "compact convex set. " It is our purpose to investigate sets for which V(x) is unique for each xES. The most interesting result is contained in Theorem 2. The corresponding theory in which maximal convex sets are considered has been developed by Strauss and Valentine [3]. The two theories are decidedly different, and this difference is explained at the end of this article.
The social-interactional context of maternal speech to infants: an explanation for the event-bound nature of early word use?

Eight mother-infant pairs were videotaped in a longitudinal study. Analysis of relations between maternal speech and the contiguous nonverbal context revealed that the pattern of close correspondence between conversational topic and context, which had emerged at nine months, persisted at sixteen months, with the majority of changes in topic being in response to an action carried out by the child. A large proportion of maternal utterances continued to refer to objects and activities which were at the child's focus of attention; although, at sixteen months, mothers less often accompanied comments on the child's activity with supporting actions of their own. These findings are discussed in the light of studies of early lexical development.
Relationships in Analogy Items: a Semantic Component of a Psychometric Task

The verbal analogy item has played a major role in the measurement of intelligence. Despite numerous correlational studies, however, neither the nature of intelligence nor the nature of the cognitive strategies and semantic structures that govern analogy test performance is well understood. These doubts arise from the apparent inappropriateness of correlational data for studying cognitive processes and structures, and the dearth of experimental research on the analogy item as a cognitive task. As a first step to investigate the analogy item as a cognitive task, the current study attempted to identify a semantic structure of relationships that individuals use to comprehend the completed analogy. A latent partition analysis of subjects' categorizations of keyed analogy items, grouped according to relational similarity, yielded eight latent types of relationships which generalized across subjects and items. Implications of the results for test development and test validity are discussed, and the content of the latent categories are compared to the semantic cognitive structures postulated by major theorists on intelligence.
Communication, Computability And Common Interest Games

Abstract This paper provides a theory of equilibrium selection for one-shot, two-player, finite-action, strategic-form Common Interest games. A single round of costless unlimited preplay communication is allowed. Players are restricted to using strategies that are computable in the sense of Church's Thesis. The equilibrium notion used involves perturbations that are themselves computable. The only equilibrium payoff vector that survives these strategic restrictions and the computable perturbations is the unique Pareto-efficient one. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: C72, C79.
Sex and relationship education: bridging the gap between research and practice

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to briefly outline the current debate on the delivery of sex education in the UK. The paper presents a brief summary of the recently published literature and details how the research papers in this special issue add to the current body of evidence.Design/methodology/approach – This special issue introduces five new articles, including both original studies and reviews of the current literature. In response to a call for papers, five abstracts were selected and each author or group of authors invited to submit a fully developed paper, which was then subjected to blind peer review by two independent experts.Findings – The brief summary of the recently published literature details how the research papers in this special issue add to the current body of evidence.Originality/value – The dissemination of research evidence helps to ensure that practice is continually informed by emerging evidence and it is hoped that the publication of this special issue may contribute to t.
Is the JAK2V617F mutation detectable in healthy volunteers?

The World Health Organization (WHO) has added detection of the JAK2 tyrosine kinase mutation, JAK2 V617F, in the diagnostic work up for myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), especially for polycythemia vera (PV) and essential thrombocythemia (ET). The rational use of this new marker requires the determination of accurate thresholds of clinical significance and thus implies clarification of the presence or not of JAK2 V617F in healthy individuals. The aim of this study was to determine JAK2 V617F mutation levels in healthy subjects with no clinical or biological signs indicative of MPN. Results in 198 healthy subjects indicate that a very accurate quantification of JAK2 V617F is feasible when the analysis is performed with a highly sensitive and reliable RQ-PCR assay, and that the JAK2 V617F mutation may be detectable in very rare cases of healthy volunteers with no clinical symptoms of MPNs or blood disorder, but only at levels around the analytical threshold of the assay (0.035%) and far below the commonly accepted positivity cutoff (1%).
Social Anxiety and Marital Adjustment.

The relationship between interpersonal competence and marital adjustment was reviewed. It was hypothesized that social anxiety would be negatively related to marital adjustment. A sample of 179 intact married couples completed questionnaire measures of both concepts. Data were analyzed at both the individual and the couple levels of analysis. The basic hypothesis that social anxiety is negatively related to marital adjustment was supported, but social anxiety was primarily related to marital adjustment of self and not to that of spouse. Implications of these findings for the practitioner are discussed.
Murine Responses to Immunization with Pertussis Toxin and Bovine Serum Albumin: I. Mortality Observed after Bovine Albumin Challenge is Due To an Anaphylactic Reaction

ABSTRACT. : It has been suggested that pertussis toxin (Ptx) is involved in the pathogenesis of the adverse neurologic reactions that can occur in infants and children after pertussis immunization. One group of investigators has recently reported that a clinical syndrome with pathological features very similar to post-pertussis vaccination encephalopathy can be induced in specific strains of mice after their immunization with bovine serum albumin (BSA) and Ptx. The aim of this investigation was to further characterize the immunologic mechanisms operative in this murine model. Studies were undertaken to determine whether the role played by Ptx in this condition required the A-protomer of the toxin to enter a cell and ADPribosylate a nucleotide binding protein (a Class I activity) or was dependent upon the binding of the B-oligomer of the toxin to the surface of target cells (a Class II activity). The results of our experiments have established that the disease induced by coimmunizing mice with Ptx and BSA is due to an immediate type hypersensitivity reaction rather than an encephalopathy and that the mechanism of action of Ptx in this system seems to be dependent upon a Class II activity of the toxin and independent of its ADP-ribosyl transferase activity.
Microbial Shifts in the Intestinal Microbiota of Salmonella Infected Chickens in Response to Enrofloxacin

Fluoroquinolones (FQs) are important antibiotics used for treatment of Salmonella infection in poultry in many countries. However, oral administration of fluoroquinolones may affect the composition and abundance of a number of bacterial taxa in the chicken intestine. Using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, the microbial shifts in the gut of Salmonella infected chickens in response to enrofloxacin treatments at different dosages (0, 0.1, 4, and 100 mg/kg b.w.) were quantitatively evaluated. The results showed that the shedding levels of Salmonella were significantly reduced in the high dosage group as demonstrated by both the culturing method and 16S rRNA sequencing method. The average values of diversity indices were higher in the control group than in the three medicated groups. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) analysis results showed that the microbial community of high dosage group was clearly separated from the other three groups. In total, 25 genera were significantly enriched (including 6 abundant genera: Lactococcus, Bacillus, Burkholderia, Pseudomonas, Rhizobium, and Acinetobacter) and 23 genera were significantly reduced in the medicated groups than in the control group for the treatment period, but these bacterial taxa recovered to normal levels after therapy withdrawal. Additionally, 5 genera were significantly reduced in both treatment and withdrawal periods (e.g., Blautia and Anaerotruncus) and 23 genera (e.g., Enterobacter and Clostridium) were significantly decreased only in the withdrawal period, indicating that these genera might be the potential targets for the fluoroquinolones antimicrobial effects. Specially, Enterococcus was significantly reduced under high dosage of enrofloxacin treatment, while significantly enriched in the withdrawal period, which was presumably due to the resistance selection. Predicted microbial functions associated with genetic information processing were significantly decreased in the high dosage group. Overall, enrofloxacin at a dosage of 100 mg/kg b.w. significantly altered the microbial community membership and structure, and microbial functions in the chicken intestine during the medication. This study fully investigates the chicken intestinal microbiota in response to enrofloxacin treatment and identifies potential targets against which the fluoroquinolones may have potent antimicrobial effects. These results provide insights into the effects of the usage of enrofloxacin on chicken and will aid in the prudent and rational use of antibiotics in poultry industry.
F^2 - New Technique for Recognition of User Emotional States in Spoken Dialogue Systems

In this paper we propose a new technique to enhance emotion recognition by combining in different ways what we call emotion predictions . The technique is called F 2 as the combination is based on a double fusion process. The input to the first fusion phase is the output of a number of classifiers which deal with different types of information regarding each sentence uttered by the user. The output of this process is the input to the second fusion stage, which provides as output the most likely emotional category. Experiments have been carried out using a pre-viously-developed spoken dialogue system designed for the fast food domain. Results obtained considering three and two emotional categories show that our technique outperforms the standard single fusion technique by 2.25% and 3.35% absolute, respectively.
Competing Ideologies of Russia's Civil Society

Many analysts and public opinion makers in the West conflate the notions of Russia’s non-systemic liberal opposition and the country’s civil society. Indeed, despite garnering the support of a minority of Russia’s population, non-systemic liberal opposition represents a well-organized civic group with a clearly articulated agenda and the ability to take action. Yet, does Russia’s civil society end there? A closer look at the country’s politics shows that Russia has a substantial conservative-traditionalist faction that has also developed agenda for action and formulated opinions. This group is anti-liberal rather than illiberal ideologically and pro-strong state/pro a geopolitically independent Russia rather than pro-Kremlin politically. The interaction between liberal and conservative civic groups represents the battle of meanings, ideas, and ethics, and ultimately determines the future trajectory of Russia’s evolution. Thus, the analysis of Russia’s civil society must represent a rather more nuanced picture than a mere study of the liberal non-systemic opposition. This article will examine the complexity of Russia’s civil society scene with reference to the interplay between the liberal opposition and conservative majority factions. The paper will argue that such complexity stems from ideological value pluralism that falls far beyond the boundaries of the liberal consensus, often skewing our understanding of political practice in Russia.
Differences in Men's and Women's ESL Writing at the Junior College Level: Consequences for Research on Feedback

This study examines men's and women's ESL writing and their handling of written assignments at the junior college (CEGEP) level in Quebec. A series of men's and women's compositions were assessed for linguistic accuracy, readability, and conformity to assignment guidelines. While the expectation was that the women, who generally outperform men in terms of ESL marks at all levels of public schooling in Quebec, would produce linguistically superior compositions, findings showed the men's and women's texts to be of comparable linguistic quality. Further investigation suggested that the superior marks received by the women were attributable to a combination of the way they handled writing assignments and an inherent bias in the evaluation grid. The women's essays showed much higher levels of adherence to guidelines than the men's, and the evaluation grid richly rewarded this adherence. These findings suggest that a serious validity problem may be affecting some forms of ESL assessment.
Children with bilateral cochlear implants identify emotion in speech and music

Abstract Objectives This study examined the ability of prelingually deaf children with bilateral implants to identify emotion (i.e. happiness or sadness) in speech and music. Methods Participants in Experiment 1 were 14 prelingually deaf children from 5–7 years of age who had bilateral implants and 18 normally hearing children from 4–6 years of age. They judged whether linguistically neutral utterances produced by a man and woman sounded happy or sad. Participants in Experiment 2 were 14 bilateral implant users from 4–6 years of age and the same normally hearing children as in Experiment 1. They judged whether synthesized piano excerpts sounded happy or sad. Results Child implant users' accuracy of identifying happiness and sadness in speech was well above chance levels but significantly below the accuracy achieved by children with normal hearing. Similarly, their accuracy of identifying happiness and sadness in music was well above chance levels but significantly below that of children with normal hearing, who performed at ceiling. For the 12 implant users who participated in both experiments, performance on the speech task correlated significantly with performance on the music task and implant experience was correlated with performance on both tasks. Discussion Child implant users' accurate identification of emotion in speech exceeded performance in previous studies, which may be attributable to fewer response alternatives and the use of child-directed speech. Moreover, child implant users' successful identification of emotion in music indicates that the relevant cues are accessible at a relatively young age.
Adaptive receding horizon control for a class of nonlinear differential difference systems

An adaptive receding horizon control (RHC) algorithm for a class of nonlinear differential difference systems with multiple time delays is proposed. This work extends previous research dealing with RHC of nonlinear delayed systems in several ways: first, a rigorous proof is given for that the RHC guarantees global, uniformly asymptotic stability of the nonlinear delayed systems. Second, the nonlinear system with multiple time delays is considered. Third, the procedure of an adaptive RHC controller is presented by combining the on-line delay value estimation. Through a simulation example, it is demonstrated that the proposed adaptive RHC has the guaranteed closed-loop stability for a special type of nonlinear differential difference systems.
Misconceptions about Psychology among College Students

A questionnaire consisting of 60 false statements related to psychology was administered to 531 students at 2 universities. Students marked each statement as true, false, or don't know/no opinion. Analysis of true responses indicated a decreasing level of misconceptions as students accumulated college credit hours in general and psychology credit hours specifically. Implications for teachers of psychology are discussed.
Conversion of ciclosporin A to tacrolimus in kidney transplant recipients with chronic allograft nephropathy.

BACKGROUND Tacrolimus and ciclosporin might have different effects on intra-renal fibrosis and allograft function in chronic allograft nephropathy (CAN). It is difficult to predict the response to calcineurin inhibitor minimization in patients with CAN. METHODS This prospective randomized study compared ciclosporin A (CsA)-to-tacrolimus conversion (group A, target tacrolimus trough level 6-8 ng/ml) vs CsA minimization (group B, target CsA trough level 80-100 ng/ml) with regard to efficacy and safety in patients with CAN and deteriorating allograft function. The primary efficacy endpoint was improvement in the slope of inverse serum creatinine (1/SCr) vs time plot. RESULTS There were 34 evaluable patients (n=16 in group A; n=18 in group B), with similar baseline characteristics. Both groups reached target drug levels after a 3-month run-in period. Over the ensuing 12 months, nine (56.3%) subjects in group A and 10 (55.6%) in group B reached the primary end point (P=0.968). Both groups showed considerable improvement in the slope of 1/SCr vs time plot. There was no significant difference in the slope between groups before and after intervention. Graft survival was 87% in group A and 100% in group B (P=0.121). Acute rejection was encountered in two group A subjects. There was no significant change or difference in blood glucose, lipids, and blood pressure between groups. CONCLUSION Our results suggest that in patients with CAN and deteriorating allograft function, CsA-to-tacrolimus conversion or CsA minimization achieved comparable efficacies in retarding the decline of graft function. Such contention may be biased by the low patient number. Further studies with a larger cohort are needed for validation.