Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effect of Methodological and Personal Factors on Attitude-Behavior Consistency

THE EFFECT OF METHODOLOGICAL AND PERSONAL FACTORS ON ATTITUDE-BEHAVIOR CONSISTENCY by Neil H. Firtle Adviser: Professor Conrad Berenson The theoretical conceptualization of attitude presented in this dissertation assumed that attitude serves as a pre­ cursor of behavior. In order to validate the attitudinal construct, empirical research must provide evidence that a consistent relationship exists between attitude measured at a given point in time, and behavior measured at a later point in time than the professed attitude. Previous research has generally failed to support the consistency of the attitude-behavior relationship. The inconsistency in this relationship has been attributed to the contamination of several types of factors (i.e., methodological, personal and situational). In this dissertation it was argued that the relation­ ship between brand attitudes and purchase behavior was affected by two methodological factors and one personal factor. More specifically, this researcher postulated that attitude measurement (i.e., via magnitude estimation or category scaling), the conceptualization of attitude (i.e., by form of multi-attribute model used) and a personal
Preparation of Mulberry Branch Biomass Char and Its Usage in Wastewater Treatment

ABSTRACT Biomass char was prepared from mulberry branches by physical activation. An examination by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) indicated that the functional groups of Si‐O were mostly burnt out, significantly decreasing the ash content. Analysis of data from a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and a Brunauer‐Emmett‐Teller (BET) test also revealed increased surface roughness and pore structure, which improved the adsorption capacity of biomass char after preparation. The optimum conditions for preparation were found to be pyrolysis at 700 °C for 30 minutes, and then activation at 750 °C for one hour, with 3.4% steam content for the activating agent. The prepared biomass char was then employed to adsorb ammonium, copper(II) actetate [Cu(II)] and hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] in a solution. The results indicated that the prepared biomass char had a better adsorptive performance than the raw material. Moreover, the removal of determinands increased along with the dosage, and the highest adsorption efficiency of ammonium, copper(II) acetate [Cu(II)] and hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] were found to be 20%, 100% and 50%, respectively. The adsorptions of ammonium and hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] can be simulated by a pseudo‐second order model, while the adsorption of copper(II) acetate [Cu(II)] is better simulated by a pseudo‐first order model. The adsorption isotherms of copper(II) acetate [Cu(II)] by biomass char were also investigated, and the Langmuir isotherm was found to best describe the adsorption process.
Genome and fatty acid analysis of Pseudomonas stutzeri.

A genome and fatty acid analysis of 16 Pseudomonas stutzeri reference strains having DNA compositions ranging from 62.2 to 65.5 mol% G+C was performed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis of XbaI and SpeI macrorestriction fragments and gas chromatography of total cellular fatty acids. Macrorestriction fragment patterns were evaluated by using previously described algorithms (D. Grothues and B. Tümmler, Mol. Microbiol. 5:2763-2776, 1991), and the results allowed us to subdivide the species into two groups which correlated with G+C content. Two examples of recent strain divergence were observed among clinical isolates, but in general a marked degree of heterogeneity was observed in the macrorestriction fragment patterns, and even phenotypically similar strains produced divergent patterns. While the differences were not sufficiently great to exclude any strain from P. stutzeri, they suggest that recombination and niche-specific selection may be significant factors responsible for generating and maintaining the heterogeneity inherent in the species. Genome sizes were estimated from the sums of SpeI restriction fragment sizes and ranged from 3.4 to 4.3 Mbp; the genome sizes of the low-G+C-content strains (G+C contents, approximately 62 mol%) were confined to a narrow range between 3.9 and 4.1 Mbp. An examination of the distributions of macrorestriction fragments resulting from digestion with XbaI and SpeI showed that both distributions differed significantly from the expected (random) distribution, suggesting that there is a supragenic level of chromosomal organization. An analysis of fatty acid methyl ester data by using Microbial Identification System software revealed a similar correlation between phenotype and G+C content, indicating that division of the species is possible by the method used in this study. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Pathogenic and Antigenic Properties of Phylogenetically Distinct Reassortant H3N2 Swine Influenza Viruses Cocirculating in the United States

ABSTRACT Swine influenza is an acute respiratory disease caused by type A influenza viruses. Before 1998, swine influenza virus isolates in the United States were mainly of the classical H1N1 lineage. Since then, phylogenetically distinct reassortant H3N2 viruses have been identified as respiratory pathogens in pigs on U.S. farms. The H3N2 viruses presently circulating in the U.S. swine population are triple reassortants containing avian-like (PA and PB2), swine-like (M, NP, and NS), and human-like (HA, NA, and PB1) gene segments. Recent sequence data show that the triple reassortants have acquired at least three distinct H3 molecules from human influenza viruses and thus form three distinct phylogenetic clusters (I to III). In this study we analyzed the antigenic and pathogenic properties of viruses belonging to each of these clusters. Hemagglutination inhibition and neutralization assays that used hyperimmune sera obtained from caesarian-derived, colostrum-deprived pigs revealed that H3N2 cluster I and cluster III viruses share common epitopes, whereas a cluster II virus showed only limited cross-reactivity. H3N2 viruses from each of the three clusters were able to induce clinical signs of disease and associated lesions upon intratracheal inoculation into seronegative pigs. There were, however, differences in the severity of lesions between individual strains even within one antigenic cluster. A correlation between the severity of disease and pig age was observed. These data highlight the increased diversity of swine influenza viruses in the United States and would indicate that surveillance should be intensified to determine the most suitable vaccine components.
Development and evaluation of a stand-alone index for the assessment of small children’s diet quality

Abstract Objective To construct and evaluate an independent Children’s Index of Diet Quality (CIDQ). Design A food consumption questionnaire, which contained twenty-five multiple-item questions on eating and food intake, was formulated and evaluated against 7 d food records. Key questions that best reflected a healthy diet, defined in criteria set by the nutrient recommendations, were searched and validated by correlation and analyses of receiver-operating characteristic curves. Settings A cohort of a young population of South-West Finland. Subjects Participants (n 400) were 2–6-year-old children. Results Fifteen questions were identified to best depict the children’s diet quality in reference to the recommendations. These questions were scored, summarized and further constructed into a three-class index (good, moderate and poor dietary quality) where higher scores depicted better diet quality. The CIDQ cut-off score of 14 points for good dietary quality had a sensitivity of 0·59 and a specificity of 0·82 and the cut-off score of 10 points, for at least moderate dietary quality, had a sensitivity of 0·77 and a specificity of 0·69. Higher index scores were related to higher dietary intakes of several vitamins, lower dietary intakes of SFA and cholesterol, and further with lower serum cholesterol and higher serum vitamin C concentrations. Conclusions The three-class food index was found to represent diet quality as defined in recommendations and evaluated against nutrient intakes from food diaries and biochemical markers. This self-standing index could provide an effective and low-burden method to obtain information about diet quality and guide future recommendations.
Tattoo‐induced psoriasis: an umpteenth example of immunocompromised district

highest sensitivity, followed by the BP180 ELISA assay in the initial diagnosis of BP. We further evaluated the value of using both tests together and did not find that adding BP180 assay to IIF provided a significant increase in diagnostic sensitivity. Given the high sensitivity and relatively low cost of IIF, physicians may consider performing IIF first in the diagnosis of BP and only perform the ELISA tests when the former turned out to be negative. On the other hand, the same IIF finding of roof-pattern immunoreactant binding can be observed in other immunobullous diseases, such as mucous membrane pemphigoid, and anti-BP180 remain important in ambiguous cases. Anti-BP180 may also be helpful in monitoring disease severity, outcome, and relapse in some BP cases. In pemphigoid gestationis, a variant of BP, anti-BP180 remains a specific diagnostic test and an early predictor of disease later in pregnancy. The study limitations include a small sample size, which might not have enough power to detect any significant difference in the sensitivities. There is also a lack of control group for specificities to be calculated. Our patients with BP were also from an inpatient cohort. In conclusion, IIF, followed by the BP180 test, demonstrated a high rate of diagnostic sensitivity in our cohort of patients with BP. Performing BP180 in addition to IIF did not confer a significant increase in sensitivity. These non-invasive serological tests can serve as useful adjuncts in the diagnosis of suspected cases of BP.
TAJ: effective taint analysis of web applications

Taint analysis, a form of information-flow analysis, establishes whether values from untrusted methods and parameters may flow into security-sensitive operations. Taint analysis can detect many common vulnerabilities in Web applications, and so has attracted much attention from both the research community and industry. However, most static taint-analysis tools do not address critical requirements for an industrial-strength tool. Specifically, an industrial-strength tool must scale to large industrial Web applications, model essential Web-application code artifacts, and generate consumable reports for a wide range of attack vectors. We have designed and implemented a static Taint Analysis for Java (TAJ) that meets the requirements of industry-level applications. TAJ can analyze applications of virtually any size, as it employs a set of techniques designed to produce useful answers given limited time and space. TAJ addresses a wide variety of attack vectors, with techniques to handle reflective calls, flow through containers, nested taint, and issues in generating useful reports. This paper provides a description of the algorithms comprising TAJ, evaluates TAJ against production-level benchmarks, and compares it with alternative solutions.
Contribución de la historia y de la filosofía de las ciencias al desarrollo de un modelo de enseñanza/aprendizaje como investigación

After the fiasco of the alearning by discovery» orientation and the serious limitations of the areception learningn paradigm, a new consensus is emerging on the nature of mathematics and science learning as a construction of knowledge. These constructivist approaches have taken explicitly into account contemporary views in philosophy of science as an epistemological base for a conception of learning as a conceptual change. Teaching strategies oriented to produce conceptual changes have been developed with promising results, but serious difficulties have also appeared. Our contribution will try to show that those difficulties are due to a still insufficient consideration of the nature of science in the teaching strategies. Consequently, we shall propose some modifications of these strategies, taking more carefully into account the relationship between the nature of science and the nature of learning.
Response to diet in 130 children affected with atopic dermatitis

There is still discussion on the etiological factors playing a role in atopic dermatitis (AD). However, it is generally agreed that food intolerance and/or allergy are important (1-2), even if the incidence varies in different studies (3). It follows that diet must always be considered in AD from a diagnostic and a therapeutic point of view. Yet, diet is often insufficient to make a proper diagnosis and to establish a correct treatment inasmuch as the origin of AD can be multifactorial (infectious, climatic and environmental factors) (3-4) and, moreover, one must often cope with a food polysensitization. Given all this, the various experiences on the different diet facets can help to achieve a deeper insight into the correct dietary treatment.
Species Richness-Environment Relationships of European Arthropods at Two Spatial Grains: Habitats and Countries

We study how species richness of arthropods relates to theories concerning net primary productivity, ambient energy, water-energy dynamics and spatial environmental heterogeneity. We use two datasets of arthropod richness with similar spatial extents (Scandinavia to Mediterranean), but contrasting spatial grain (local habitat and country). Samples of ground-dwelling spiders, beetles, bugs and ants were collected from 32 paired habitats at 16 locations across Europe. Species richness of these taxonomic groups was also determined for 25 European countries based on the Fauna Europaea database. We tested effects of net primary productivity (NPP), annual mean temperature (T), annual rainfall (R) and potential evapotranspiration of the coldest month (PETmin) on species richness and turnover. Spatial environmental heterogeneity within countries was considered by including the ranges of NPP, T, R and PETmin. At the local habitat grain, relationships between species richness and environmental variables differed strongly between taxa and trophic groups. However, species turnover across locations was strongly correlated with differences in T. At the country grain, species richness was significantly correlated with environmental variables from all four theories. In particular, species richness within countries increased strongly with spatial heterogeneity in T. The importance of spatial heterogeneity in T for both species turnover across locations and for species richness within countries suggests that the temperature niche is an important determinant of arthropod diversity. We suggest that, unless climatic heterogeneity is constant across sampling units, coarse-grained studies should always account for environmental heterogeneity as a predictor of arthropod species richness, just as studies with variable area of sampling units routinely consider area.
Influence of Affective Stimuli on Leg Power Output and Associated Neuromuscular Parameters during Repeated High Intensity Cycling Exercises

The aim of this study was to examine the impact of emotional eliciting pictures on neuromuscular performance during repetitive supramaximal cycling exercises (RSE). In a randomized order, twelve male participants were asked to perform five 6-s cycle sprints (interspaced by 24 s of recovery) on a cycle ergometer in front of neutral, pleasant or unpleasant pictures. During each RSE, mean power output (MPO) and electromyographic activity [root mean square (RMS) and median frequency (MF)] of the vastus lateralis and vastus medialis muscles were analyzed. Neuromuscular efficiency (NME) was calculated as the ratio of MPO to RMS. Higher RMS (232.17 ± 1.17 vs. 201.90 ± 0.47 μV) and MF (68.56 ± 1.78 vs. 64.18 ± 2.17 Hz) were obtained in pleasant compared to unpleasant conditions (p < 0.05). This emotional effect persisted from the first to the last sprint. Higher MPO was obtained in pleasant than in unpleasant conditions (690.65 ± 38.23 vs. 656.73 ± 35.95 W, p < 0.05). However, this emotional effect on MPO was observed only for the two first sprints. NME decreased from the third sprint (p < 0.05), which indicated the occurrence of peripheral fatigue after the two first sprints. These results suggested that, compared with unpleasant pictures, pleasant ones increased the neuromuscular performance during RSE. Moreover, the disappearance of the beneficial effect of pleasant emotion on mechanical output from the third sprint appears to be due to peripheral fatigue.
Racial Bias in Neural Empathic Responses to Pain

Recent studies have shown that perceiving the pain of others activates brain regions in the observer associated with both somatosensory and affective-motivational aspects of pain, principally involving regions of the anterior cingulate and anterior insula cortex. The degree of these empathic neural responses is modulated by racial bias, such that stronger neural activation is elicited by observing pain in people of the same racial group compared with people of another racial group. The aim of the present study was to examine whether a more general social group category, other than race, could similarly modulate neural empathic responses and perhaps account for the apparent racial bias reported in previous studies. Using a minimal group paradigm, we assigned participants to one of two mixed-race teams. We use the term race to refer to the Chinese or Caucasian appearance of faces and whether the ethnic group represented was the same or different from the appearance of the participant' own face. Using fMRI, we measured neural empathic responses as participants observed members of their own group or other group, and members of their own race or other race, receiving either painful or non-painful touch. Participants showed clear group biases, with no significant effect of race, on behavioral measures of implicit (affective priming) and explicit group identification. Neural responses to observed pain in the anterior cingulate cortex, insula cortex, and somatosensory areas showed significantly greater activation when observing pain in own-race compared with other-race individuals, with no significant effect of minimal groups. These results suggest that racial bias in neural empathic responses is not influenced by minimal forms of group categorization, despite the clear association participants showed with in-group more than out-group members. We suggest that race may be an automatic and unconscious mechanism that drives the initial neural responses to observed pain in others.
Chapter Two. At Ease With Our Own Kind: Worship Practices And Class Segregation In American Religion

The relationship between social class and religious behavior is one of the oldest and most well-established areas of inquiry in the field of sociology. This chapter briefly summarize the four major empirical findings concerning class and American religion, narrow the focus of the chapter to just one of these, and review the most prominent theory that has been offered to explain it. After critiquing this explanation the chapter develops an alternative theoretical approach drawn from Pierre Bourdieus work on class and cultural consumption, focusing on his concept of habitus. Dividing the worship service into three dimensions aesthetic, linguistic and physicalthe chapter reviews a selection of ethnographic studies of American religion to see how they support and illuminate this alternative approach. Keywords: American religion; Pierre Bourdieu
The Concept of Prodromal Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is currently clinically defined by a set of cardinal motor features centred on the presence of bradykinesia and at least one additional motor symptom out of tremor, rigidity or postural instability. However, converging evidence from clinical, neuropathological, and imaging research suggests initiation of PD-specific pathology prior to appearance of these classical motor signs. This latent phase of neurodegeneration in PD is of particular relevance in relation to the development of disease-modifying or neuroprotective therapies which would require intervention at the earliest stages of disease. A key challenge in PD research, therefore, is to identify and validate markers for the preclinical and prodromal stages of the illness. Currently, several nonmotor symptoms have been associated with an increased risk to develop PD in otherwise healthy individuals and ongoing research is aimed at validating a variety of candidate PD biomarkers based on imaging, genetic, proteomic, or metabolomic signatures, supplemented by work on tissue markers accessible to minimally invasive biopsies. In fact, the recently defined MDS research criteria for prodromal PD have included combinations of risk and prodromal markers allowing to define target populations of future disease modification trials.
Hypoxic preconditioning enhances neural stem cell transplantation therapy after intracerebral hemorrhage in mice

Previous studies have shown that intraparenchymal transplantation of neural stem cells ameliorates neurological deficits in animals with intracerebral hemorrhage. However, hemoglobin in the host brain environment causes massive grafted cell death and reduces the effectiveness of this approach. Several studies have shown that preconditioning induced by sublethal hypoxia can markedly improve the tolerance of treated subjects to more severe insults. Therefore, we investigated whether hypoxic preconditioning enhances neural stem cell resilience to the hemorrhagic stroke environment and improves therapeutic effects in mice. To assess whether hypoxic preconditioning enhances neural stem cell survival when exposed to hemoglobin, neural stem cells were exposed to 5% hypoxia for 24 hours before exposure to hemoglobin. To study the effectiveness of hypoxic preconditioning on grafted-neural stem cell recovery, neural stem cells subjected to hypoxic preconditioning were grafted into the parenchyma 3 days after intracerebral hemorrhage. Hypoxic preconditioning significantly enhanced viability of the neural stem cells exposed to hemoglobin and increased grafted-cell survival in the intracerebral hemorrhage brain. Hypoxic preconditioning also increased neural stem cell secretion of vascular endothelial growth factor. Finally, transplanted neural stem cells with hypoxic preconditioning exhibited enhanced tissue-protective capability that accelerated behavioral recovery. Our results suggest that hypoxic preconditioning in neural stem cells improves efficacy of stem cell therapy for intracerebral hemorrhage.