Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Death of the Big Men: Depreciation of Elites in New Guinea

Recently, Tolai people of Papua New Guinea have adopted the term ‘Big Shot’ to describe an emerging post-colonial political elite. The emergence of the term is a negative moral evaluation of new social possibilities that have arisen as a consequence of the Big Shots’ privileged position within a global political economy. Grassroots Tolai pass judgment on the Big Shots’ through rhetorical contrast with idealised Big Men of the past, in a particular local version of a global trend for the emergence of new words to illustrate changing perceptions of local elites. As such the ‘Big Shot’ acts as an example of a global process in which key lexical categories that contest, trace and shape how global historical change is experienced are constituted through linguistic categories.
The smarter they are the harder they fail

A common issue in leadership development is the high flyers who reach a position where their lack of “soft” skills hampers their performance and proves a barrier to their continued progression to higher levels of responsibility. This paper sets out some observation and learning of my own and my colleagues, gained from our work in coaching and mentoring leaders, and incorporates the insights gained from an interactive workshop at the EMC in November 2001.
Single-Stranded DNA Binding by F TraI Relaxase and Helicase Domains Is Coordinately Regulated

ABSTRACT Transfer of conjugative plasmids requires relaxases, proteins that cleave one plasmid strand sequence specifically. The F plasmid relaxase TraI (1,756 amino acids) is also a highly processive DNA helicase. The TraI relaxase activity is located within the N-terminal ∼300 amino acids, while helicase motifs are located in the region comprising positions 990 to 1450. For efficient F transfer, the two activities must be physically linked. The two TraI activities are likely used in different stages of transfer; how the protein regulates the transition between activities is unknown. We examined TraI helicase single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) recognition to complement previous explorations of relaxase ssDNA binding. Here, we show that TraI helicase-associated ssDNA binding is independent of and located N-terminal to all helicase motifs. The helicase-associated site binds ssDNA oligonucleotides with nM-range equilibrium dissociation constants and some sequence specificity. Significantly, we observe an apparent strong negative cooperativity in ssDNA binding between relaxase and helicase-associated sites. We examined three TraI variants having 31-amino-acid insertions in or near the helicase-associated ssDNA binding site. B. A. Traxler and colleagues (J. Bacteriol. 188:6346-6353) showed that under certain conditions, these variants are released from a form of negative regulation, allowing them to facilitate transfer more efficiently than wild-type TraI. We find that these variants display both moderately reduced affinity for ssDNA by their helicase-associated binding sites and a significant reduction in the apparent negative cooperativity of binding, relative to wild-type TraI. These results suggest that the apparent negative cooperativity of binding to the two ssDNA binding sites of TraI serves a major regulatory function in F transfer.
From Alice and Evelyn to Isabella

This article explores the role of discourse and narrative in shaping the recent wave of reforms to surrogacy law and policy around Australia. I examine two sites of dialogue – parliamentary debate and media representations – where discourses concerning surrogacy have been reframed dramatically to justify a new era of regulation. The themes that have emerged through these reform dialogues both reflect and recraft contemporary understandings of surrogacy specifically, and non-traditional family formation more broadly. As such, this is both an analysis of the role of evolving discourses of surrogacy, infertility and assisted reproductive technology in Australia, and a case study of a multiple-jurisdiction law reform process dominated by narrative and anecdote.
Discharge disposition from acute care after traumatic brain injury: the effect of insurance type.

OBJECTIVE To determine if persons with traumatic brain injury (TBI) who are insured by Medicaid or health maintenance organizations (HMOs) are more likely to receive postacute care in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) than in rehabilitation facilities, compared with persons insured by commercial fee-for-service (FFS) plans. DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. SETTING County hospital admitting 30% of all Washington State TBI patients. PATIENTS Patients with moderate to severe TBI discharged to rehabilitation facilities or SNFs between 1992 and 1997 (n = 1271); 56.3% were insured by Medicaid, 26.1% by FFS plans, and 17.6% by HMOs. INTERVENTIONS Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Disposition on discharge from acute care (rehabilitation facilities vs SNF); adjusted relative risk (RR) and confidence interval (CI) for different insurance types. RESULTS After accounting for confounding factors, Medicaid patients were 68% more likely (RR = 1.68, 95% CI = 1.34-2.11) and HMO patients were 23% more likely (RR = 1.23, 95% CI =.90-1.68) to go to a SNF than FFS patients. However, the latter difference was not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS An association exists between insurance type and postacute care site. Efforts should be made to determine the effect this relationship has on the cost and outcomes for TBI patients.
The Minimum Temporal Thresholds for Motion Detection of Grating Patterns

The minimum temporal thresholds for absolute motion detection were measured for sinusoidal grating patterns in foveal vision. Test patterns of relatively low temporal frequencies and low velocities were examined. The thresholds clearly decreased with test velocities rather than with test temporal frequencies. Modified velocity–time reciprocity was observed (ie the relationship between test velocity and temporal thresholds was described by a simple equation including two constants which indicate temporal and spatial limits). The temporal constant was about 35 ms and the spatial constant was about 1 min of arc. These constants are thought to provide the basic constraints on motion detection.
Joint attention social cues influence infant learning

We examined the effects of differing social cues on object processing in 9- and 12-month-old infants. An adult experimenter spoke to the infants about a novel object in two conditions. In the Joint Attention condition, the experimenter spoke to the infant about the toy while alternating her gaze between the toy and the infant. The Object Only condition was identical, except that she gazed at the toy and at a spot on the ceiling, but never at the infant. In test trials, infants viewed the toy used in the social interaction along with a toy that they had not seen before. We compared the amount of time that infants looked at the novel toy as a function of condition. We found that 12-month-old infants looked at the novel toy equally following both conditions. In contrast, 9-month-olds looked at the novel toy significantly longer following the Joint Attention condition relative to the Object Only condition. These results suggest that joint attention interactions significantly impacted object processing in the 9-month-old infants, but not 12-month-old infants. The discussion focuses on the potential role of joint attention in early learning.
Habitual Initiation of Media Use and a Response-Frequency Measure for Its Examination

When measuring media habits, most scholars rely on retrospective self-reports about behavioral frequency, context stability, or automaticity of the performance. This article develops a new implicit measurement for media research to complement existing approaches, which focuses on measuring the initiation of general, goal-related habits. In the response-frequency measure of media habit (RFMMH), participants are presented with several media use goals and are asked to choose quickly and without deliberation which media device (television set, radio set, newspaper, computer, mobile device) they would use. The more often a media device is chosen, the stronger the mental script to choose this device should be and the stronger the habit is assumed to be. The results of a validation study confirm that the RFMMH correlates positively with other habit measures. This suggests that the RFMMH may add a valuable instrument to habit research.
Selective deficits in prefrontal cortex function in medication-naive patients with schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND Previously we proposed that dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) supports a specific working memory (WM) subcomponent: the ability to represent and maintain context information necessary to guide appropriate task behavior. By context, we mean prior task-relevant information represented in such a form that it supports selection of the appropriate behavioral response. Furthermore, we hypothesized that WM deficits in schizophrenia reflect impaired context processing due to a disturbance in dorsolateral PFC. We use functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine PFC activation in medication-naive, first-episode patients with schizophrenia during a WM, task-isolating context processing. METHODS Fourteen first-episode, medication-naive patients with schizophrenia and 12 controls similar in age, sex, and parental education underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during performance of an A-X version of the Continuous Performance Test. RESULTS Patients with schizophrenia demonstrated deficits in dorsolateral PFC activation in task conditions requiring context processing but showed intact activation of posterior and inferior PFC. In addition, patients demonstrated intact activation of the primary motor and somatosensory cortex in response to stimulus processing demands. CONCLUSIONS These results demonstrate selectivity in dorsolateral PFC dysfunction among medication-naive first-episode patients with schizophrenia, suggesting that a specific deficit in PFC function is present at illness onset, prior to the administration of medication or the most confounding effects of illness duration. Furthermore, these results are consistent with the hypothesis that WM deficits in patients with schizophrenia reflect an impairment in context processing due to a disturbance in dorsolateral PFC function.
Convergence criteria for the particle swarm optimization in a full iterative process

Although the theoretical aspects of the particle swarm optimization (PSO) seem to be forsaken, the few previous modeling studies —even with some assumptions— enlarged our knowledge of the PSO process. Here, we suggest a new model of PSO where all the N particles of the swarm and their components are considered. The iterative process is formulated by a 3N×3N block triangular matrix and its spectral radius is evaluated and displayed. Besides, the convergence related parametrization criteria are derived. Compared to previous results, a more restrictive acceleration coefficients criterion is found. Simulations are then carried out on CEC 2017 benchmark functions using eight PSO variants and show better results when considering the more restrictive criterion.
Analysing Farmers’ Use of Price Hedging Instruments: An Experimental Approach

Abstract This paper analyses the influencing factors of farmers’ use of price hedging instruments (PHIs) based upon a discrete choice experiment with German grain farmers. A mixed logit model is used to determine whether farmers’ choices of PHIs against cash sales are influenced by their price expectation, their risk attitude and their available storage capacities. The results show that farmers with a price expectation below the actual price level have a higher preference for using PHIs against cash sales in general and that the individual degree of risk aversion can have a significant impact on farmers’ choices of a specific PHI. A generally lower preference of farmers with available storage capacities for using PHIs as assumed in many theoretical contributions in the literature, however, cannot be confirmed.
Sociocultural Constraints on Urban Renewal Policies in Emerging Nations: The Ibadan Case

There is nothing novel about the assertion that large-scale housing deficiencies and poor social and residential environments (in short, slums) characterize most urban centers in the emerging nations of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Many documents, both empirical and intuitive, substantiate these phenomena. Moreover, it is widely recognized, at least in theory, that there are major sociocultural differences, economic disparities, and technological gaps between the emerging nations and the highly industrialized countries, and among the emerging nations themselves. Yet very rarely do housing and town planning experts - especially the Westerners operating as "experts" in, or as consultants to, the emerging nations - take into consideration such sociocultural, economic, political and geotechnical differences when framing housing and urban renewal policies for the cities of the emerging nations.
Estimating the bias field of MR images

The authors propose a modification of Wells et al. (ibid., vol. 15, no. 4, p. 429-42, 1996) technique for bias field estimation and segmentation of magnetic resonance (MR) images. They show that replacing the class other, which includes all tissue not modeled explicitly by Gaussians with small variance, by a uniform probability density, and amending the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm appropriately, gives significantly better results. The authors next consider the estimation and filtering of high-frequency information in MR images, comprising noise, intertissue boundaries, and within tissue microstructures. The authors conclude that post-filtering is preferable to the prefiltering that has been proposed previously. The authors observe that the performance of any segmentation algorithm, in particular that of Wells et al. (and the authors' refinements of it) is affected substantially by the number and selection of the tissue classes that are modeled explicitly, the corresponding defining parameters and, critically, the spatial distribution of tissues in the image. The authors present an initial exploration to choose automatically the number of classes and the associated parameters that give the best output. This requires the authors to define what is meant by "best output" and for this they propose the application of minimum entropy. The methods developed have been implemented and are illustrated throughout on simulated and real data (brain and breast MR).
International organizations, changing governance and China's policy making in higher education: an analysis of the World Bank and the World Trade Organization

In a context of intensified globalization, the importance of international governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations as influencers and shapers of the global environment is becoming prominent. Participation in international organizations leads to active incorporation of nation-states with worldwide connotations. In higher education, nation-centric policies are no longer sufficient and cannot adequately engage with the new global realities of transnational economic, political and cultural interconnectivities. A global convergence of educational policy has been placed highly on the agendas of national governments and international organizations. Increasing international activities in the arena of education raise the question as to what extent international organizations are complementing or even partly taking over the design and provision of education policies. Using examples of higher education practices from China, this article explores the role played by international organizations in the transformation of mode of governance in Chinese higher education. It examines how international organizations “lend” their ideas for circulation, and how the local and the global play out. It analyses what circulates internationally as “reforms” and its impact on the actors that move and translate such practices into local contexts, exploring the relation of the global in local situations and the complex impact of policy borrowing.
Parents' Perspectives on Parental Notification of College Students' Alcohol Use

Although many colleges and universities use “parental notification” to inform parents of students’ alcohol use, the impact of this intervention on student and parent behavior is unclear. Surveys were obtained from 326 parents of university undergraduates, 56 of whom had received a notification. Parent responses to the notification were largely positive, and the association of notification to parent and student drinking and to the quality of parent–student communication on alcohol and other topics was also investigated. This impact of parental notification on parents and students and the importance of parental involvement with college students are discussed.
Frame based signal compression using method of optimal directions (MOD)

The method of optimal directions (MOD) is an iterative method for designing frames for sparse representation purposes using a training set. In this paper we use frames designed by MOD in a multiframe compression (MFC) scheme. Both the MOD and the MFC need a vector selection algorithm, and orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) is used in this paper. In the MFC scheme several different frames are used, each optimized for a fixed number of selected frame vectors in each approximation. We apply the MOD and the MFC scheme to ECG signals, and do experiments with both fixed size and variable size on the different frames used in the MFC scheme. Compared to traditional transform based compression, the experiments demonstrate improved rate-distortion performance by 1-4 dB, and that variable sized frames perform better than fixed sized frames.
Vision-Related Quality of Life and Appearance Concerns Are Associated with Anxiety and Depression after Eye Enucleation: A Cross-Sectional Study

Aims To investigate the association of demographic, clinical and psychosocial variables with levels of anxiety and depression in participants wearing an ocular prosthesis after eye enucleation. Methods This cross-sectional study included 195 participants with an enucleated eye who were attending an ophthalmic clinic for prosthetic rehabilitation between July and November 2014. Demographic and clinical data, and self-reported feelings of shame, sadness and anger were collected. Participants also completed the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire, the Facial Appearance subscale of the Negative Physical Self Scale, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Regression models were used to identify the factors associated with anxiety and depression. Results The proportion of participants with clinical anxiety was 11.8% and clinical depression 13.8%. More anxiety and depression were associated with poorer vision-related quality of life and greater levels of appearance concerns. Younger age was related to greater levels of anxiety. Less educated participants and those feeling more angry about losing an eye are more prone to experience depression. Clinical variables were unrelated to anxiety or depression. Conclusions Anxiety and depression are more prevalent in eye-enucleated patients than the general population, which brings up the issues of psychiatric support in these patients. Psychosocial rather than clinical characteristics were associated with anxiety and depression. Longitudinal studies need to be conducted to further elucidate the direction of causality before interventions to improve mood states are developed.
Inhibitor development: patient‐determined risk factors

Summary. The reasons that inhibitory factor VIII antibodies develop in only a fraction of patients with haemophilia A remain unclear, but studies of genetically related subjects have indicated that the immunological outcome of replacement therapy is to a large extent determined by patient‐related risk factors. Non‐genetic factors will also influence the inhibitor risk, since events challenging the immune system will elicit and stimulate immune regulatory processes with the potential of modifying the immune response. Further insight into the immunological pathways and risk factors involved will be important in order to better predict and prevent this complication. This review will briefly summarize the data obtained to date in unrelated and related subjects in the Malmö International Brother Study (MIBS) regarding genetic factors and discuss how these factors might interact with non‐genetically determined factors and events.
Theory and practice of successful school leadership in Australia

As part of the International Successful School Leadership Project, an updated model of successful school leadership based on Australian case studies is described. This model attempts to capture the relationship between the characteristics of the school leader (who they are), the interventions they initiate (what they do), and the way they respond to the context in which they operate. The model is interrogated by exploring three areas of our continuing research: the role of instructional leadership, sustainability of success, and the preparation of future school leaders.
The journey from self-care to GP care: a qualitative interview study of women presenting with symptoms of urinary tract infection.

BACKGROUND Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the commonest acute infections presenting to primary care. Little is known of women's experiences of UTI; self-care strategies and key triggers for their consulting behaviour are also little known. AIM To explore women's experiences of self-care and their journey to GP care, when faced with symptoms of a UTI. DESIGN OF STUDY Qualitative semi-structured interview study with women recruited to a larger UK trial of different management strategies for UTI. SETTING General practices across four counties in southern England. METHOD Twenty-one women were interviewed about the experiences they had prior to their GP visit, self-care strategies, and triggers for help seeking. Interviews were analysed thematically, using principles of analytic induction. RESULTS Women reported a process of evaluation, monitoring, re-evaluation, and, finally, consulting in order to meet their needs. Four key triggers for consulting were identified: failure to alleviate symptoms through self-care; symptom duration and escalation; impeding normal functioning and the fulfilment of social roles; and concern that it may be or become a serious illness. CONCLUSION Although UTI is often self-limiting, when taking patient histories and formulating their management strategies clinicians need to take into account women's often painful experience, their efforts to resolve symptoms prior to consulting, and their fears that the symptoms may indicate something more serious than a UTI.