Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An analysis of innovation programmes in Wales along a 'hard-soft' policy continuum : a case study approach

The thesis context is a Welsh innovation policy continuum. The research is primarily located in three innovation programmes representative of innovation policy in Wales. The representative programmes are: the Technium network; Innovation Network Partnership; and Communities First project. The Technium network is considered to be at the hard/tangible end of the policy continuum whilst Communities First is at the softer, more intangible pole of the continuum. The aim of this thesis is to ascertain the influence social capital may have upon levels of innovation across the innovation policy continuum. To achieve the aim, the existence and extent of forms of innovation, forms of social capital, and cooperation and collaboration are considered through a positivist and interpretivist analysis. The resultant data has been further exposed to a correlation analysis, undertaken to ascertain whether or not the presence and form of social capital has an association with forms of innovation. The three programmes each have a pan-Wales presence. The programmes all originate from Welsh Assembly Government innovation policy initiatives between 2001 and 2003. For each programme a case study has been produced. The case studies have been constructed using data from survey, interviews and participant observation. The survey was completed via an on-line questionnaire by representative individuals and groups from each innovation policy continuum programme. Further data was collected by interviews held with individuals representative of roles typically undertaken at each programme. Participant observation undertaken at each programme also informed the creation of the case studies. Literature in this field of study is typically limited to a comparatively narrow investigation of traditionally measured innovation. For social capital and cooperation and collaboration, research usually has a macro scale cynosure. This study has an innovation programme locale in Wales which may be considered unique in terms of innovation and social capital research. ii The findings reveal the existence of forms of innovation, social capital, and cooperation and collaboration at each case study. However, there are differences in terms of the extent of such phenomenon along the innovation policy continuum. For instance, there appears to be an increased likelihood of traditionally measured innovation at the Technium network. Social innovation is more likely to be present at the Communities First project. Similarly, forms of social capital are more likely to be found at Communities First partnerships than at other programmes along the continuum. The correlation analysis applied to the case study survey data discloses a number of, mainly positive statistically significant associations between explanatory social capital, and cooperation and collaboration variables and dependent innovation variables. Propositions resultant of the findings, are likely to be of use to policymakers. For instance, forms of social capital appear to be positively related to traditionally…
Smokers as a High-risk Group: Data From a Screening Population

Goal To determine the number of pack-years exposure associated with a 2-fold increase risk for significant colorectal neoplasia and to examine the risk of smoking in younger patients. Background Cigarette smoking has been shown to be a significant risk factor for colorectal neoplasia and may be used to stratify patients for screening or triaging of screening resources. However, more information is needed regarding the amount of exposure required to significantly increase by 2-fold an individual's risk for colorectal neoplasia. Methods Data collected for 2707 patients presenting for screening colonoscopy included tobacco use measured in pack-years and known risk factors for colorectal neoplasia. Our outcome was endoscopically detected significant colorectal neoplasia that included large (>1 cm) tubular adenomas, villous adenomas, multiple (3 or more) adenomas, high-grade dysplasia, and adenocarcinoma. Results Patients who smoked more than 30 pack-years were more than 2 times more likely to have significant colorectal neoplasia than patients who never smoked (odds ratio: 2.40; 95% confidence interval: 1.65-3.50). For patients aged 40 to 49 years, smokers were more likely than nonsmokers to have significant colorectal neoplasia (odds ratio: 2.71; 95% confidence interval: 1.05-6.97). Conclusions Patients who have smoked more than 30 pack-years had a more than 2-fold increase for significant colorectal neoplasia as compared with nonsmokers. The increased risk was also observed in younger patients. Our data have implications for screening guidelines.
Creatinine losses in the sweat during work in hot humid environments

Except for the work of Talbert and his collaborators (Talbert, Silvers & Johnson, 1926; Talbert & Haugen, 1928), few attempts have been made to correlate the concentration of substances in the sweat with the concentration of the same substances in the plasma. When, therefore, a number of renal creatinine clearances were being done on subjects working in a hot humid environment, it was considered desirable to estimate creatinine not only in the plasma and in the urine but also in the sweat. Talbert, Silvers & Johnson (1926) found a direct relationship between the total non-protein nitrogen of blood and sweat. Was there the same direct relationship for the creatinine contents?
Spread of multidrug-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae among hospitalized children in Slovakia.

A multidrug-resistant serotype 14 strain of Streptococcus pneumoniae was isolated from sterile-site specimens and nasopharyngeal secretions from > 200 children in Slovakia between 1985 and 1990. Nasopharyngeal culture surveys were done to determine the extent of spread and means of transmission of this strain. The resistant strain was isolated from cultures of 8 (33.0%) of 24 children at hospital A and from 1 (0.8%) of 130 children attending outpatient clinics or day care centers (P < .001). One-quarter of the initially uncolonized children at hospital A acquired the resistant strain during hospitalization. Among hospitalized children, frequent antimicrobial drug use (P < .01), prior hospitalization (P < .005), and length of hospital stay (P < .001) were associated with infection with the resistant strain. These findings support limiting broad-spectrum antimicrobial drug use and nonessential hospitalizations in settings were drug-resistant pneumococci are prevalent. Development of a pneumococcal vaccine that is immunogenic in young children is urgently needed.
Object Categorization: Learning Hierarchical Compositional Representations of Object Structure

Visual categorization of objects has captured the attention of the vision community for decades [10]. The increased popularity of the problem witnessed in the recent years and the advent of powerful computer hardware have led to a seeming success of categorization approaches on the standard datasets such as Caltech 101 [15]. However, the high discrepancy between the accuracy of object classification and detection/segmentation [14] suggests that the problem still poses a significant and open challenge. The recent preoccupation with tuning the approaches to specific datasets might have precluded the attention from the most crucial issue: the representation [41]. This paper will focus on what we believe are two central representational design principles, namely a hierarchical organization of categorical representations, more specifically, the principle of hierarchical compositionality, and statistical, bottom-up learning. Given images of complex scenes, objects must be inferred from the pixel information through some recognition process. This requires an efficient and robust matching of the internal object representation against the representation produced from the scene. Despite the seemingly effortless performance of human perception, the diversity and the shear number of visual object classes appearing in various scales, 3D positions and articulations, which additionally interact with each other (occlusion, clutter, etc.), have placed a great obstacle to the task. In fact, it has been shown by Tsotsos in 1990 [53] that the unbounded visual search is NP complete and thus approximate, hierarchical solutions might be the most promising/plausible way to tackle the problem. This line of architecture is also consistent with the findings on biological systems [44, 9]. A number of authors have further emphasized these computational considerations [13, 23, 2, 47, 26], suggesting that matching should be performed at multiple hierarchical stages, in order to gradually and coherently limit the otherwise computationally prohibitive search space [13, 53, 8, 3, 33, 2, 23, 17, 47, 19]. While hierarchies presented a natural way to represent objects in the early vision works [13, 24, 32, 11], surprisingly, they have not become an integral part of the modern vision approaches. Hierarchical representations can derive and organize the features at multiple levels that build on top of each other by exploiting the shareability of features among more complex compositions or objects themselves [13, 7, 21, 2,
A spiking silicon central pattern generator with floating gate synapses [robot control applications]

A programmable array of silicon neurons for the creation of central pattern generator (CPG) networks is described. The design consists of 20 integrate-and-fire neurons, each with multiple synaptic inputs and tunable spike frequency adaptation circuitry. The synapse area is reduced by 80% relative to our previously fabricated chip by using floating gate transconductance amplifiers in place of current DACs. In addition to describing the design of the silicon neurons and synapses, we present results illustrating performance characteristics of the circuits and show how elaborate and biologically-plausible CPG networks can be implemented by controlling synaptic weights. The patterns generated by these circuits are shown to be sufficient to control a biped robot with a variety of different locomotory gaits.
Experiences among women with shame and self-compassion in cardio-based exercise classes

Although significant research has explored self-conscious emotions, including shame, little has been done to examine shame in specific exercise settings, such as cardio-based exercise classes, that may actually promote the experience of shame. Therefore, using Shame Resilience Theory (SRT) as a guiding framework, the purpose of this study was to examine experiences among women with shame, and the shame-resistant attribute of self-compassion, in exercise, as well as identify possible strategies for creating a climate in cardio-based exercise classes that emphasises self-compassion over shame. An interpretative phenomenological analysis epistemology and methodology was used to analyse, understand, and interpret the meaning and lived experiences of shame and self-compassion among 15 women in cardio-based exercise classes. From the data collected during individual interviews, three superordinate themes emerged for both shame (‘I’m just not enough’, ‘There’s something wrong with me; I don’t belong here’, and ‘Shame moves in and takes over’) and self-compassion (‘The importance of relationships’, ‘Self-compassion makes me feel whole’, and ‘Self-compassion is so hard, but it’s worth it’), and four superordinate themes emerged representing the proposed strategies for creating a self-compassionate climate in cardio-based exercise classes (‘Talk about shame in the classroom’, ‘Create the right climate’, ‘Establish guidelines for instructors’, and ‘Learn to help yourself’). The findings of this study identify the elements in an exercise class setting that promote shame experiences, are consistent with SRT and Neff’s conceptualisation of self-compassion, and provide support for the role of self-compassion as a protective and shame-resilient mechanism.
Factor structure and psychometric properties of difficulties in emotional regulation scale

Introduction: This research aims to investigate the factor structure and Psychometric Properties of Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) in an Iranian sample. Method: The statistical population of this study comprised all the students of Shiraz University. Among them, a total of 363 people (181 male, 182 female) were selected using stratified random sampling. To achieve the study objective and assess convergent validity, the Persian version of DERS and Beck Depression Inventory were used, respectively. Results: The results obtained from explratory factor analyses showed that from among eight extracted factors of the scale, six were associated with DERS and two other factors were omitted as a result of loading of just one item. In addition, internal correlations and correlations of all subscales of DERS with BDI were significant. Finally, internal consistency of this scale using Cronbach’s alpha for all subscales ranged from r=0.86 to r=0/88. Furthermore, the one-week test-retest coefficient also ranged from r=0.79 to r=0.91. Conclusion: Based on the results obtained from the research, DERS can be applied to attain research and clinical objectives in Iranian society.
A Comparative Analysis Between the Nile Valley’s Liberal Arts Tradition and the Development of Western Education

This article is an analysis of the original purpose of studying the seven liberal arts in the context of contemporary higher education. Nile Valley theorists in ancient Africa tied the purpose of studying liberal arts to the conceptualization that all humans are born divinely natured. In order to cultivate a learner’s divinity properly, the student studied the seven liberal arts. Greek theorists embraced and promoted liberal arts along Mediterranean Europe. However, Rome’s ascendency and eventual collapse created an educational void in the West until the Moors reintroduced liberal arts curricula into Europe during the medieval period. Medieval schools featuring liberal arts eventually incorporated Western cultural trends of male superiority, upper class privilege, social inequality, and ethnic-group discrimination into the academic environment. American higher education institutions followed the European model but included racial discrimination, segregation, and financial accumulation, which contrasted the original purpose of investigating the seven liberal arts.
Confidence in the criminal justice system

Confidence in the criminal justice system has emerged as a critical issue at the interface of the administration of justice and political pressures in western democracies. For more than a decade, governments in the West have felt acute pressure to make the criminal justice system more relevant, more transparent and more accountable. The 'crisis of confidence', particularly in judges and sentencing, has led to a range of high profile policy announcements seeking to 'modernise' the criminal justice system. This trend was most pronounced in the United Kingdom in the period from around 1998 to 2004 under the Blair government and led to an outpouring of analyses, investigations and reforms aimed at improving confidence in the criminal justice system. This paper reviews some of these developments but also takes a closer look at the nature of public confidence in the criminal justice system in Australia. Using the results of the latest Australian Survey of Social Attitudes, aspects of public confidence are examined with a particular focus on the evaporation of confidence in the criminal justice system from police, through courts to corrections. This 'evaporation effect' has been observed in all countries where confidence in various aspects of the criminal justice system has been studied.
Assessment of the aerosport TEEM 100 portable metabolic measurement system.

The present study evaluated the utility of a portable metabolic measurement system, the Aerosport TEEM 100. A total of 505 data points [242 from incremental (INC) and 263 from constant load (CL) exercise] were collected on 12 subjects (age = 25 +/- 4 yr), by placing the Aerosport TEEM 100 medium flow pneumotach and mouthpiece in-line with a validated system, the Rayfield system. When VO2 values were separated into categories (< 1.5, 1.5-2.0, 2.0-2.5, 2.5-3.0, > 3.0 l.min-1), there was a small but statistically significant difference between the two metabolic measurement systems for VO2, VCO2, VE, RER, %ECO2, and %EO2 during both INC and CL exercise and measurement error for VO2 ranged between 2% and 11%. Correlations for VO2 values during INC and CL exercise between the two systems were r = 0.95 (SEest +/- 0.18 l.min-1) and r = 0.96 (SEest +/- 0.29 l.min-1), respectively. Correlations for RER were r = 0.82 (SEest +/- 0.08) and r = 0.47 (SEest +/- 0.11), for INC and CL, respectively. Results from the present investigation indicate that the Aerosport TEEM 100 has utility for the assessment of VO2, but the estimation of carbohydrate and fat utilization from RER should be used with caution.
‘Stepping back and moving in’: the role of the state in the contemporary food regime

In recent years, a number of middle-income countries and influential multilateral institutions have instigated actions that frame food system governance around social protection and rights. These state-centered mobilizations raise fundamental questions about how to portray the global politics of food. Since the late 1980s, analysts have largely concurred that US hegemony in the global politics of food has given way to diverse and volatile neo-liberalist and corporate-led food system governance. However, what should we make of a situation where state and supra-state actors are flexing their powers to reshape food systems in line with rights-based models? Should this be understood as reflexes which aim to preserve national order, at a time of intensified food and nutrition insecurities? Or, does it lay the foundations of a re-governed system which curbs and molds a corporate-led politics of food within frameworks of justice? This contribution responds to these questions by tracing the evolution of social protection and rights-based approaches to the politics of food at the multilateral level and in two influential jurisdictions (India and South Africa). We argue that these initiatives underline a robust and continuing role of state power in global food politics, albeit in a novel fashion compared to previous entanglements.
LexA cleavage and other self-processing reactions

Beginning with the spectacular discovery of self-splicing RNA over a decade ago (20), molecular biologists and biochemists have uncovered an increasingly wide variety of self-processing reactions involving RNA or protein molecules. For purposes of this minireview, self-processing reactions are defined as those in which a macromolecule carries out a specific covalent modification of itself. For reasons to become clear, this definition may be broadened slightly to include certain modifications of tightly bound ligands. Examples of self-processing reactions are splicing of group I and group II introns (8), cleavage of viral polyproteins (2), phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of proteins in two-component regulatory systems (5, 30, 43), cleavage of LexA and X repressors (25), and most likely a set of recently described protein splicing reactions (39). A closely related reaction is the GTPase activity of G proteins such as Ras, in which a tightly bound GTP is hydrolyzed, leading to changes in the activity of the protein (3, 47). In some cases, such as Ras GTPase and LexA cleavage, the rate of a self-processing reaction is regulated according to the needs of the cell or organism by interaction with another effector molecule, which acts indirectly to stimulate the self-processing reaction. Any self-processing reaction involves at least two types of sites: (i) the site to be modified, analogous to the substrate for an intermolecular enzyme reaction, and (ii) the active site, composed of a catalytic center that carries out the chemistry of the reaction and a binding pocket that positions the substrate optimally with respect to the catalytic center. Although many self-processing reactions occur only once in a given molecule and hence are not formally catalytic (since the molecule does not emerge from the reaction unchanged), there is no reason to believe that these highly specific reactions differ in any fundamental way from those catalyzed by enzymes; indeed, many self-processing molecules can be converted into enzymes. Discovering and documenting that a reaction is selfprocessing can be difficult experimental tasks, particularly in systems in which the reaction is stimulated by another effector, since the straightforward inference is that such an effector acts directly like most enzymes. It is highly likely that many such reactions have been observed but that their intramolecular natures have not yet been recognized. Accordingly, it is timely to consider known examples for clues as to how this property has been uncovered. In this minireview, I focus first on LexA cleavage and illustrate how various aspects of this system typify the behavior of selfprocessing reactions. I then describe briefly several other self-processing reactions, most of which have been reviewed recently, and discuss the possible similarities among these reactions. Mechanisms for regulating their rates are then explored, and the means of their discovery is discussed. Because of space limitations, I cite recent reviews in almost all cases; I apologize to many workers for the lack of individual citations.
Experimental management of Brown Kiwi Apteryx mantelli in central Northland, New Zealand

Summary The population growth of Brown Kiwi Apteryx mantelli was measured under four different management regimes: unmanaged, predator trapping, predator poisoning, and Bank of New Zealand Operation Nest Egg™ (BNZONE) — the removal of eggs for artificial incubation and return of resultant subadults to the wild. Life table analysis revealed that high adult mortality (7.3% per annum), caused mainly by domestic dog Canis familiaris and Ferret Mustela furo predation was the critical factor affecting Brown Kiwi populations in central Northland. The 13.8-year life expectancy of adults was only one-third of what can be expected in the absence of these two predators. Predation of Brown Kiwi chicks and juveniles (< 1 kg) by Stoats Mustela erminea and, to a lesser extent, domestic cats Felis catus, was also important. Unmanaged populations declined at 2.5% per annum. Trapping pests in a 200 ha area was largely ineffective, with the population declining by 1.7% per annum. Poisoning pests allowed Brown Kiwi populations to increase at 3.3% per annum. BNZONE proved to be by far the most effective tool, resulting in a 12.5% annual population increase, mainly due to 83% chick survival to six months old, compared with 10% survival in unmanaged sites. There were no observable behavioural problems associated with chicks being reared ex situ, but BNZONE was the most expensive tool and benefited only the Brown Kiwi. This study has helped to develop a range of tools that are now being used to facilitate recovery of populations of all four threatened species of kiwi in New Zealand, and the experimental approach used has wider application in management of other threatened species.