Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Twitter and the Irish language, #Gaeilge – agents and activities: exploring a data set with micro-implementers in social media

ABSTRACT This paper considers agentic-activities relating to the Irish language on Twitter and who is engaged with them? To answer this question, this study draws on Twitter data and filters it using the linguistic identifiers, ‘#Gaeilge’ and the word ‘Gaeilge’ (Irish language). Tweets with these identifiers are conceptually considered as formulations of agentic practice with respect to language (Sabatier, P. [2007]. Theories of the Policy Process. Boulder, CO: Westview Press). Individuals who use the #Gaeilge identifier in particular are viewed within this study as micro-implementers. Their communications provide partial insight into agentic activities within the Twittersphere specifically, related to and about the Irish language. To explore this data, peak, network, content and sentiment analyses were conducted. The study’s findings illustrate that there are a number of influential hubs in this network. They are in the main micro-level individuals as opposed to macro-level or governmental institutions promoting the Irish language. This paper demonstrates the potential for in-depth research into agentic practices of minority linguistic communities within Twitter, and outlines the limitations of a computational approach in conducting such research.
Testing the Untestable or Defending the Indefensible: An investigation into EAP assessment usefulness

With the Home Office permitting licenced Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to decide how students’ English language ability is assessed, many institutions use in-house English for Academic Purposes (EAP) assessments developed to reflect the particular context and focus of the HEI in which they are used. These are often created administered by and further developed by EAP practitioners. For this development to take place, it is necessary to establish the usefulness of such assessments to decide what development is required. In an attempt to address gaps in the literature relating to research on in-house developed assessments, with a focus on how to establish whether these are useful to assess language proficiency, as well as providing students with the opportunity to develop wider academic skills, the research question for this study is: how can EAP practitioners establish the usefulness of in-use in-house EAP assessments? Bachman and Palmer’s (1996) test usefulness framework is used as a basis for developing a practical framework for evaluating in-use assessments. The literature review considers EAP, language assessment and academic acculturation, ending with an evaluative framework for establishing authenticity of tasks, their predictive validity, and reliability of grading criteria and marking schemes. The focus group case-study approach demonstrates how the framework can be given an institute-specific focus, considering opinions of three key stakeholder groups: EAP lecturers, subject-specialist lecturers and former pre-sessional students. Findings suggest academic language is highly contextual, and this context is institute- and, perhaps, department-specific. The findings suggest that for EAP assessments to be useful they need to support students with academic acculturation, providing valid and reliable results, supporting wider academic skills development. Using the evaluative framework and establishing the institutional context in which students find themselves, this case-study of the EAP pre-sessional assessments used between 2010 and 2014 culminates in a transferable approach which can be used by practitioners before considering further assessment development.
Populist communication by digital means: presidential Twitter in Latin America

ABSTRACT In this paper, we analyze the uses of Twitter by populist presidents in contemporary Latin America in the context of the debates about whether populism truly represents a revolution in public communication – that is, overturning the traditional hierarchical model in favor of popular and participatory communication. In principle, Twitter makes it possible to promote the kind of interactive communication often praised in populist rhetoric. It offers a flattened communication structure in contrast to the top–down structure of the traditional legacy media. It is suitable for horizontal, unmediated exchanges between politicians and citizens. Our findings, however, suggest that Twitter does not signal profound changes in populist presidential communication. Rather, it represents the continuation of populism’s top–down approach to public communication. Twitter has not been used to promote dialogue among presidents and publics or to shift conventional practices of presidential communication. Instead, Twitter has been used to reach out the public and the media without filters or questions. It has been incorporated into the presidential media apparatus as another platform to shape news agenda and public conversation. Rather than engaging with citizens to exchange views and listen to their ideas, populists have used Twitter to harass critical journalists, social media users and citizens. Just like legacy media, Twitter has been a megaphone for presidential attacks on the press and citizens. It has provided with a ready-made, always available platforms to lash out at critics, conduct personal battles, and get media attention.
Changes in antibiotic prescribing for children after a community-wide campaign.

CONTEXT Overuse of antibiotics has contributed to microbial resistance, compromising the treatment of bacterial infections. Very high levels (>50%) of antibiotic resistance among invasive Streptococcus pneumoniae have been documented in Knox County, Tennessee. OBJECTIVE To determine the effectiveness of a community-wide intervention aimed at reducing inappropriate antibiotic use among children. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS The Knox County Health Department led a multifaceted year-long campaign (May 1997 through April 1998) aimed at decreasing unnecessary antibiotic use among children. Tennessee's 3 other major urban counties (Shelby, Hamilton, and Davidson) did not conduct similar campaigns and served as controls. Evaluation included white and black children (aged <15 years) enrolled in Tennessee's Medicaid Managed Care Program in the 4 study counties, representing 36% of the study counties' children (464 200 person-years observed). INTERVENTION Educational efforts were directed toward health care practitioners (primarily via peer leader presentations) and to the parents of young children and the public (primarily via printed materials). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE The intervention-attributable effect on antibiotic use, defined as the excess percentage change in oral antibiotic prescription rates in Knox County between the 12-month preintervention and postintervention periods, relative to that of control counties. RESULTS Antibiotic prescription rates declined 19% and 8% among Knox County and control county children, respectively, yielding an 11% intervention-attributable decline (95% confidence interval, 8%-14%; P<.001). The intervention-attributable decrease in prescription rates was greatest among children aged 1 to less than 5 years (among white children, 8% [P<.001]; among black children, 18% [P<.001]). CONCLUSIONS A community-wide educational intervention reduced antibiotic prescription levels among children in Knox County.
Involvement of Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress in Albuminuria Induced Inflammasome Activation in Renal Proximal Tubular Cells

Albuminuria contributes to the progression of tubulointerstitial fibrosis. Although it has been demonstrated that ongoing albuminuria leads to tubular injury manifested by the overexpression of numerous proinflammatory cytokines, the mechanism remains largely unknown. In this study, we found that the inflammasome activation which has been recognized as one of the cornerstones of intracellular surveillance system was associated with the severity of albuminuria in the renal biopsies specimens. In vitro, bovine serum albumin (BSA) could also induce the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome in the cultured kidney epithelial cells (NRK-52E). Since there was a significant overlap of NLRP3 with the ER marker calreticulin, the ER stress provoked by BSA seemed to play a crucial role in the activation of inflammasome. Here, we demonstrated that the chemical chaperone taurine-conjugated ursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA) which was proved to be an enhancer for the adaptive capacity of ER could attenuate the inflammasome activation induced by albuminuria not only in vitro but also in diabetic nephropathy. Taken together, these data suggested that ER stress seemed to play an important role in albuminuria-induced inflammasome activation, elimination of ER stress via TUDCA might hold promise as a novel avenue for preventing inflammasome activation ameliorating kidney epithelial cells injury induced by albuminuria.
An abstract framework for argumentation with structured arguments

An abstract framework for structured arguments is presented, which instantiates Dung's (‘On the Acceptability of Arguments and its Fundamental Role in Nonmonotonic Reasoning, Logic Programming, and n-Person Games’, Artificial Intelligence, 77, 321–357) abstract argumentation frameworks. Arguments are defined as inference trees formed by applying two kinds of inference rules: strict and defeasible rules. This naturally leads to three ways of attacking an argument: attacking a premise, attacking a conclusion and attacking an inference. To resolve such attacks, preferences may be used, which leads to three corresponding kinds of defeat: undermining, rebutting and undercutting defeats. The nature of the inference rules, the structure of the logical language on which they operate and the origin of the preferences are, apart from some basic assumptions, left unspecified. The resulting framework integrates work of Pollock, Vreeswijk and others on the structure of arguments and the nature of defeat and extends it.
Surveillance of the Tumor Mutanome by T Cells during Progression from Primary to Recurrent Ovarian Cancer

Purpose: Cancers accumulate mutations over time, each of which brings the potential for recognition by the immune system. We evaluated T-cell recognition of the tumor mutanome in patients with ovarian cancer undergoing standard treatment. Experimental Design: Tumor-associated T cells from 3 patients with ovarian cancer were assessed by ELISPOT for recognition of nonsynonymous mutations identified by whole exome sequencing of autologous tumor. The relative levels of mutations and responding T cells were monitored in serial tumor samples collected at primary surgery and first and second recurrence. Results: The vast majority of mutations (78/79) were not recognized by tumor-associated T cells; however, a highly specific CD8+ T-cell response to the mutation hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase–like protein 1 (HSDL1)L25V was detected in one patient. In the primary tumor, the HSDL1L25V mutation had low prevalence and expression, and a corresponding T-cell response was undetectable. At first recurrence, there was a striking increase in the abundance of the mutation and corresponding MHC class I epitope, and this was accompanied by the emergence of the HSDL1L25V-specific CD8+ T-cell response. At second recurrence, the HSDL1L25V mutation and epitope continued to be expressed; however, the corresponding T-cell response was no longer detectable. Conclusion: The immune system can respond to the evolving ovarian cancer genome. However, the T-cell response detected here was rare, was transient, and ultimately failed to prevent disease progression. These findings reveal the limitations of spontaneous tumor immunity in the setting of standard treatments and suggest a high degree of ignorance of tumor mutations that could potentially be reversed by immunotherapy. Clin Cancer Res; 20(5); 1125–34. ©2013 AACR.
Influence of Milk-Feeding Type and Genetic Risk of Developing Coeliac Disease on Intestinal Microbiota of Infants: The PROFICEL Study

Interactions between environmental factors and predisposing genes could be involved in the development of coeliac disease (CD). This study has assessed whether milk-feeding type and HLA-genotype influence the intestinal microbiota composition of infants with a family history of CD. The study included 164 healthy newborns, with at least one first-degree relative with CD, classified according to their HLA-DQ genotype by PCR-SSP DQB1 and DQA1 typing. Faecal microbiota was analysed by quantitative PCR at 7 days, and at 1 and 4 months of age. Significant interactions between milk-feeding type and HLA-DQ genotype on bacterial numbers were not detected by applying a linear mixed-model analysis for repeated measures. In the whole population, breast-feeding promoted colonization of C. leptum group, B. longum and B. breve, while formula-feeding promoted that of Bacteroides fragilis group, C. coccoides-E. rectale group, E. coli and B. lactis. Moreover, increased numbers of B. fragilis group and Staphylococcus spp. , and reduced numbers of Bifidobacterium spp. and B. longum were detected in infants with increased genetic risk of developing CD. Analyses within subgroups of either breast-fed or formula-fed infants indicated that in both cases increased risk of CD was associated with lower numbers of B. longum and/or Bifidobacterium spp. In addition, in breast-fed infants the increased genetic risk of developing CD was associated with increased C. leptum group numbers, while in formula-fed infants it was associated with increased Staphylococcus and B. fragilis group numbers. Overall, milk-feeding type in conjunction with HLA-DQ genotype play a role in establishing infants' gut microbiota; moreover, breast-feeding reduced the genotype-related differences in microbiota composition, which could partly explain the protective role attributed to breast milk in this disorder.
From convective to stellar dynamos

Abstract Convectively driven dynamos with rotation generating magnetic fields on scales large compared with the scale of the turbulent eddies are being reviewed. It is argued that such fields can be understood as the result of an α effect. Simulations in Cartesian domains show that such large-scale magnetic fields saturate on a time scale compatible with the resistive one, suggesting that the magnitude of the α effect is here still constrained by approximate magnetic helicity conservation. It is argued that, in the absence of shear and/or any other known large-scale dynamo effects, these simulations prove the existence of turbulent α2-type dynamos. Finally, recent results are discussed in the context of solar and stellar dynamos.
Remote sensing observations of the subsidence zone within the eye of Typhoon Nuri in Hong Kong in 2008

There is a wide range of remote sensing equipment operating in Hong Kong, including the wind profiler, minisodar and multiwavelength microwave radiometer. The wind profiler and minisodar measure the three components of wind, whilst the microwave radiometer continuously provides the temperature profile of the troposphere. During the period when Typhoon Nuri made landfall in Hong Kong in August 2008, this equip ment provided continuous data for close monitoring of the variation of the dynamic and thermodynamic profiles of the atmosphere. Nuri was the fourth tropical cyclone that necessitated the issuance of tropical cyclone warning signals in Hong Kong in 2008. It also required the hoisting of the Increasing Gale or Storm Signal No. 9 (the second-highest tropical cyclone signal in Hong Kong). This was the first No. 9 signal since the passage of Typhoon Dujuan in September 2003. On 22 August 2008, Nuri made landfall in Hong Kong and its track within the territory is given in Figure 1. Typhoon Nuri was first located near the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (H.K.U. of Sci & Tech: see Figure 1 for location) over the eastern part of Hong Kong at around 4:50pm (0850 UTC, local time = UTC + 8 hours) and wea kened into a severe tropical storm. Under the effect of terrain, the circulation of Nuri reorganized itself. The original centre moved northwestwards and dissipated rapidly. A new centre formed near Tseung Kwan O and turned westwards, passing over the eastern part of Victoria Harbour and the southern part of Kowloon Peninsula within one kilometre south of the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) headquarters. The centre of Nuri then passed to the south of Tsing Yi Island, and turned northwards to cross the northeastern part of Lantau Island, Tuen Mun and Yuen Long that evening. Nuri then crossed Deep Bay into the western part of Shenzhen that night. Radar imagery in Figure 2 shows that there was no intense precipitation at around Remote sensing observations of the subsidence zone within the eye of Typhoon Nuri in Hong Kong in 2008
Easy does it? the effects of perceived difficulty on overconfidence

Overconfidence is known to vary by task difficulty. We propose that, above and beyond task difficulty, perceived difficulty influences overconfidence. We theorize a model in which perceived difficulty depends on not only the difficulty of the task, but also on experience, feedback, and the framing of the task. Furthermore, perceived difficulty mediates the relationship between task difficulty and overconfidence and also mediates the relationship between experience and overconfidence. The model found support by two experiments. This research contributes to the understanding of the causal mechanisms of overconfidence.
Managerial incentives and executive stock option repricing : A study of US casino executives

The practice of executive stock option repricing is examined using a sample of firms in the gaming industry during 1994-98. The practice of repricing executive stock options is often criticized, however this paper recognizes that there may be conditions when such recontracting may be viewed as beneficial to shareholders. Specifically, given that options provide both incentives to increase risk as well as stock price, firms must be cognizant that executives may increasingly face incentives to invest in risky, negative NPV projects, as options go underwater. This paper shows repriced executives exhibit greater incentives to increase risk relative to their nonrepriced counterparts. This effect is apparent in both univariate and multivariate analyses. Additionally, repricing is negatively related to changes in the relative ratio of risk-taking vs. valueincreasing incentives. This result suggests that repricing assists firms in alleviating excessive risktaking incentives of senior management. JEL classification: G13, G34, J33, L83
Early Structure Formation and Reionization in a Cosmological Model with a Running Primordial Power Spectrum

We study high-redshift structure formation and reionization in a ΛCDM universe under the assumption that the spectral power index of primordial density fluctuations is a function of length scale. We adopt a particular formulation of the "running" spectral index (RSI) model as suggested by the combined analysis of the recent Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) data and two other large-scale structure observations. We carry out high-resolution cosmological simulations and use them to study the formation of primordial gas clouds where the first stars are likely to form. While early structure forms hierarchically in the RSI model, quite similar to the standard power-law ΛCDM model, the reduced power on small scales causes a considerable delay in the formation epoch of low-mass (~106 M☉) "minihalos" compared with the ΛCDM model. The abundance of primordial star-forming gas clouds in such halos also differs by more than an order of magnitude at z > 15 between the two models. The extremely small number of gas clouds in the RSI model indicates that reionization is initiated later than z < 15, generally resulting in a smaller total Thomson optical depth than in the ΛCDM model. By carrying out radiative transfer calculations, we also study reionization by stellar populations formed in galaxies. We show that, in order to reionize the universe by z ~ 7, the escape fraction of ultraviolet photons from galaxies in the RSI model must be as high as 0.6 throughout the redshift range 5 < z < 18 for a stellar population similar to that of the local universe. Even with a top-heavy initial mass function representing an early population of massive stars and/or an extraordinarily high photon emission rate from galaxies, the total optical depth can only be as large as τe ~ 0.1 for reasonable models of early star formation. The RSI model is thus in conflict with the large Thomson optical depth inferred by the WMAP satellite.
Damage Induced Production of Extrafloral Nectaries in Native and Invasive Seedlings of Chinese Tallow Tree (Sapium sebiferum)

Abstract We conducted a pot experiment examining the effects of simulated leaf herbivory and supplemental soil nutrients on extrafloral nectary (EFN) glands of Sapium sebiferum seedlings derived from native Chinese and invasive Texas seed stock. We predicted that simulated herbivory and increased soil nutrients would increase EFN activity. We also predicted that Chinese genotypes would have greater EFN activity than Texas genotypes. Simulated leaf herbivory significantly stimulated effluent production on EFN glands of seedlings from both genotypes, but there were no significant differences in EFN activity between genotypes or nutrient treatments.
An investigation of whistling atmospherics

The paper, which is in two parts, describes an investigation of the nature and origin of the ‘whistling atmospherics’ or ‘whistlers’ which are sometimes observed at frequencies below 15 kc/s. The first part describes an experimental study of their properties, in the course of which a considerable number of whistlers were recorded and analyzed, and the law of the variation of their frequency with time determined. Some whistlers are heard to follow impulsive atmospherics, and these are found to be produced in the normal way by lightning strokes taking place within a distance of about 2000 km. Other whistlers are unaccompanied by atmospherics; they differ from the former type in several further respects. The diurnal and annual variations of the properties of both types of whistler have also been studied. In the second part of the paper a theory of the origin of the whistling atmospherics, originally due to Barkhausen (1930) and Eckersley (1935), is developed in detail. The theory proposes that they are due to waves which originate in normal impulsive atmospherics and travel through the outer ionosphere, following the lines of force of the earth’s magnetic field and crossing over the equator at a great height. During their journey they become dispersed so as to arrive as ‘whistlers’. They may be reflected from the earth's surface back along the same path, one or more times, to produce whistlers with increased dispersions. The effects responsible for the guiding of the waves along the lines of the geomagnetic field provide sufficient focusing action to prevent the energy from being spread unduly. Measurements of the degree of dispersion of the whistlers have been interpreted to yield information about the density of electrons in the atmosphere at very great heights. The density required seems considerably larger than could reasonably have been expected. If the free electrons are produced by ionization of the terrestrial atmosphere its temperature m these regions must be at least 7200° K. The results might alternatively be explained on the assumption that the electrons are falling in from outside, and if this were so it might account for the relationship between the occurrence of whistlers and magnetic activity.