Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Foreign language competence and content and language integrated learning in multilingual schools in Catalonia: an ex post facto study analysing the results of state key competences testing

ABSTRACT The member states of the European Union have funded many initiatives supporting the teaching and learning of foreign languages. Content and language integrated learning is one of the experimental language programmes that have been introduced in Catalonia, in the north-east of Spain. The aims of this study are to analyse the results achieved by students on the state test of English language competence during the period 2009–2012 at (1) 1175 Catalan primary schools, (2) a purposive subset of 85 primary schools and (3) a school of reference (SoR), which applies a programme integrating physical education and language. The analysis indicates that the improvement of English competence occurs regardless of whether schools have participated in the experimental English language programmes. It is also showed that slightly better results can be observed in schools that apply the content and language integrated approach and a notable improvement in the SoR.
The Moral Basis of Moral Reform: Status Discontent vs. Culture and Socialization as Explanations of Anti-Pornography Social Movement Adherence

Using data from the General Social Surveys 1973 to 1980 on beliefs and opinions about pornography, we attempt to evaluate two explanations of the social base of moral reform movements. We find that various structural conditions, such as being geographically mobile from rural areas, being self-employed, or being status discrepant, have no effect on anti-pornography social movement adherence when variables representing different socialization experiences and cultural environments are taken into account (religion, education, residence, age and sex). Historical evidence challenging previous status discontent interpretations of the American temperance movement and German National Socialism is also reviewed. It is concluded that no special theories positing status frustration are required to account for moral-reform social movement adherence.
Cost–effectiveness of palivizumab in infancy

Respiratory syncytial virus is the most common cause of bronchiolitis, a lower respiratory tract infection occurring in infancy. It is responsible for several rehospitalizations, substantial morbidity and occasional deaths in the UK every year. Palivizumab is a recombinant monoclonal antibody that has been shown to reduce hospitalizations in infected infants. It is licensed for high-risk infants, primarily those born pre-term or with chronic pulmonary or cardiac conditions. Palivizumab is expensive, but several economic analyses have determined highly discrepant costs. This article reviews the limitations of the available efficacy and economic data, and highlights problems in interpretation and extrapolation. We also present the results of a cost–effectiveness analysis relevant to populations of high-risk infants in the UK.
Food and nutrition in Canadian "prime time" television commercials.

Television is, arguably, the most influential mass medium and "prime time" viewing attracts the largest audiences. To assess the type, number and nutritional content of foods advertised on TV, commercial breaks during "prime time" (7:00 to 11:00 p.m.) on five Canadian channels (CBC-English, CBC-French, CTV, CFPL, Much Music) were recorded and analyzed. A similar analysis of Saturday morning children's TV commercials was also performed. Commercials for foods and food products constituted between 24-35% of all commercials, the largest advertising output for any group of products. The combination of food presented in commercials reflected average current consumption patterns. Of special concern was the emphasis on low nutrition beverages, especially beer, as well as snacks and candy on Much Music. While further government intervention to restrict advertising practices may be an impractical option, there is scope for increasing the alternative promotion of healthy dietary choices.
Muscle activation, blood lactate, and perceived exertion responses to changing resistance training programming variables

Abstract Ratings of perceived exertion (RPE: 0–10) during resistance training with varying programming demands were examined. Blood lactate (BLa) and muscle activation (using surface electromyography: EMG) were measured as potential mediators of RPE responses. Participants performed three sets of single arm (preferred side) bicep curls at 70% of 1 repetition maximum over 4 trials: Trial (A) 3 sets × 8 repetitions × 120 s recovery between sets; (B) 3 sets × 8 repetitions × 240 s recovery; (C) 3 sets × maximum number of repetitions (MNR) × 120 s recovery; (D) 3 sets × MNR × 240 s recovery. Overall body (RPE-O) and active muscle (RPE-AM) perceptual responses were assessed following each set in each trial. Biceps brachii and brachioradialis muscle EMG was measured during each set for each trial. RPE-O and RPE-AM were not different between Trial A (3.5 ± 1 and 6 ± 1, respectively) and Trial B (3.5 ± 1 and 5.5 ± 1, respectively) (p < .05). However, RPE-AM was significantly greater in Trial C (7.5 ± 1.5) and Trial D (7.5 ± 1.5) than in Trial B (p < .05). There were no significant differences in muscle activation or BLa between trials; however, work rate (tonnage/min) was greater in Trials C and D compared to Trial B. In conclusion, BLa and muscle activation were not related to RPE, but resistance training variables, such as work rate, may impact on RPE when intensity (%1RM) and the number of sets completed remain constant.
Dietary Phytoestrogens and the Risk of Ovarian Cancer in the Women's Lifestyle and Health Cohort Study

Background: Dietary intake of phytoestrogens has been inversely associated to hormone-dependent cancers, such as prostate and breast cancers. Few studies have investigated the association between ovarian cancer and intake of phytoestrogens. We evaluated the associations between intake of phytoestrogens (isoflavonoids/lignans/coumestrol) and fiber (vegetable/cereal) and risk of ovarian cancer. Methods: In 1991–1992 a prospective population-based cohort study among Swedish women was conducted, including 47,140 women with complete dietary questionnaire data. During follow-up until December 2007, 163 women developed invasive (n = 117) and borderline (n = 46) ovarian cancers. The median follow-up time was 16 years and total person year was 747,178. Cox proportional hazards models were conducted to estimate multivariate risk ratios, 95% CI for associations with risk of ovarian cancer. Results: We found no association between intake of phytoestrogens or fiber and overall ovarian cancer risk. In addition, we found no statistically significant association between intake of specific food items rich in phytoestrogens (berries, nuts, beans/soy, and crisp or whole-grain bread) and ovarian cancer risk overall. Fiber and coumestrol was inversely associated with borderline ovarian cancer, but not with invasive ovarian cancer. Conclusions: We found no association between intake of phytoestrogens or fiber and overall ovarian cancer risk. Impact: Phytoestrogens do not play a major etiologic role in ovarian cancer, at least among women in this Swedish cohort with low bean/soy intake. However, our results of a difference in the effect of fiber or coumestrol between invasive and borderline ovarian cancer need to be evaluated in larger studies. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 20(2); 308–17. ©2011 AACR.
Detail Histologic Analysis of Nerve Plexus Invasion in Invasive Ductal Carcinoma of the Pancreas and Its Prognostic Impact

Nerve plexus invasion is regarded as one of the most important prognostic factors in invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) of the pancreas, though nerve plexus invasion has not been evaluated in terms of prognostic impact on the basis of detailed histologic investigation. The purpose of this study was to precisely examine morphologic characteristics of nerve plexus invasion and analyze its prognostic predictive power compared with the well-known prognostic parameters of pancreatic IDCs. The outcome and histologic features of 75 patients with pancreatic IDC in the pancreas head were investigated, and 422 lesions of nerve plexus invasion were evaluated. Tumor cells invading nerve plexus showed a duct-forming differentiated feature and predominantly existed in the perineurium and perineural space. Multivariate analyses revealed that the important prognostic factors, in addition to invasive tumor size and tumor necrosis, were at long distances from nerve plexus invasion to pancreatic capsule and perineural invasion in nerve plexus invasion.
The effect of gag reflex on cardiac sympatovagal tone.

OBJECTIVES Heart velocity may be influenced by gagging. The medulla oblongata receives the afferents of gag reflex. Neuronal pools of vomiting, salivation and cardiac parasympathetic fibers are very close in this area. So, their activities may be changed by spillover from each other. Using the heart rate variability (HRV) analysis, the effect of gagging on cardiac sympatovagal balance was studied. METHODS ECG was recorded from 12 healthy nonsmoker volunteer students for 10 minutes in the sitting position between 10 and 11 AM. Gagging was elicited by tactile stimulation of the posterior pharyngeal wall. At 1 kHz sampling rate, HRV was calculated. The mean of heart rate at low and high frequencies (LF: 0.04-0.15; HF: 0.15-0.4 Hz) were compared before and after the stimulus. RESULTS The mean of average heart rate, LF and HF in normalized units (nu) and the ratio of them (LF/HF) before and after the gagging were 89.9 ± 3 and 95.2 ± 3 bpm; 44.2 ± 5.8 and 21.2 ± 4; 31.1 ± 5.3 and 39.4 ± 3.8; and 1.7 ± 0.3 and 0.6 ± 0.2 respectively. CONCLUSION Gagging increased heart velocity and had differential effect on two branches of cardiac autonomic nerves. The paradoxical relation between average heart rate and HRV indexes of sympatovagal tone may be due to unequal rate of change in autonomic fiber activities which is masked by 5 minutes interval averaging.
Neurotoxin-Induced Pathway Perturbation in Human Neuroblastoma SH-EP Cells

The exact causes of cell death in Parkinson’s disease (PD) remain unknown despite extensive studies on PD.The identification of signaling and metabolic pathways involved in PD might provide insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying PD. The neurotoxin 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP+) induces cellular changes characteristic of PD, and MPP+-based models have been extensively used for PD studies. In this study, pathways that were significantly perturbed in MPP+-treated human neuroblastoma SH-EP cells were identified from genome-wide gene expression data for five time points (1.5, 3, 9, 12, and 24 h) after treatment. The mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) protein processing pathway showed significant perturbation at all time points. Perturbation of each of these pathways resulted in the common outcome of upregulation of DNA-damage-inducible transcript 3 (DDIT3). Genes involved in ER protein processing pathway included ubiquitin ligase complex genes and ER-associated degradation (ERAD)-related genes. Additionally, overexpression of DDIT3 might induce oxidative stress via glutathione depletion as a result of overexpression of CHAC1. This study suggests that upregulation of DDIT3 caused by perturbation of the MAPK signaling pathway and ER protein processing pathway might play a key role in MPP+-induced neuronal cell death. Moreover, the toxicity signal of MPP+ resulting from mitochondrial dysfunction through inhibition of complex I of the electron transport chain might feed back to the mitochondria via ER stress. This positive feedback could contribute to amplification of the death signal induced by MPP+.
GeoProfile 1 Running head: GEOPROFILE: A NEW GEOGRAPHIC PROFILING SYSTEM GEOPROFILE: DEVELOPING AND ESTABLISHING THE RELIABILITY OF A NEW GEOGRAPHIC PROFILING SOFTWARE SYSTEM

The current study documents the development of GeoProfile, a new geographic profiling software system, and tests its reliability against CrimeStat and Dragnet. A set of 55 serial offenders from Baltimore County, MD, were analyzed with GeoProfile, CrimeStat, and Dragnet using search cost and error distance as measures of accuracy. GeoProfile was found to be noninferior to CrimeStat and Dragnet when measured by search cost and non-inferior to Dragnet when measured by error distance. The hypothesis that GeoProfile is as accurate as CrimeStat and Dragnet was supported by the finding that GeoProfile was non-inferior to at least one program in each category of accuracy measures.
Association Between Serum Ceruloplasmin Specific Activity and Risk of Alzheimer's Disease.

Meta-analyses demonstrate copper involvement in Alzheimer's disease (AD), and the systemic ceruloplasmin status in relation to copper is an emerging issue. To deepen this matter, we evaluated levels of ceruloplasmin concentration, ceruloplasmin activity, ceruloplasmin specific activity (eCp/iCp), copper, non-ceruloplasmin copper iron, transferrin, the ceruloplasmin/transferrin ratio, and the APOE genotype in a sample of 84 AD patients and 58 healthy volunteers. From the univariate logistic analyses we found that ceruloplasmin concentration, eCp/iCp, copper, transferrin, the ceruloplasmin/transferrin ratio, and the APOE genotype were significantly associated with the probability of AD. In the multivariable logistic regression analysis, we selected the best subset of biological predictors by the forward stepwise procedure. The analysis showed a decrease of the risk of having AD for eCp/iCp (p = 0.001) and an increase of this risk for non-ceruloplasmin copper (p = 0.008), age (p = 0.001), and APOE-ɛ4 allele (p < 0.001). The estimated model showed a good power in discriminating AD patients from healthy controls (area under curve: 88% ; sensitivity: 66% ; specificity 93%). These data strength the breakdown of copper homeostasis and propose eCp/iCp as a reliable marker of ceruloplasmin status.
The Restricted Burnside Problem

Preface Contents Notation 1. Basic concepts 2. The associated Lie ring of a group 3. Kostrikin's Theorem 4. Razmyslov's theorem 5. Groups of exponent two, three, and six 6. Groups of exponent four 7. Groups of prime exponent 8. Groups of prime-power exponent 9. Zelmanov's Theorem Appendix A Appendix B Index
Slow ammonia release from urea: rumen and metabolism studies.

A new slow-release urea (SRU) made by coating prilled urea with a tung oil-linseed oil-talc-catalyst mixture was evaluated for ammonia-nitrogen release rate, animal acceptability, toxicity and effects on dry matter digestibility, diet intake and nitrogen retention. When added at a level equal to 1% urea in an 80% concentrate steer diet and fed twice daily, SRU gave a ruminal ammonia-nitrogen peak 1 hr postfeeding of 32 mg/dl compared to a peak from prilled urea of 53 mg/dl at 30 minutes. Bi-hourly feeding of prilled urea and SRU produced similar rumen ammonia-nitrogen levels and demonstrated that SRU was almost completely hydrolyzed in the rumen. Steers fasted for 26 hr and refed with supplements containing 10% urea from prilled urea had rumen ammonia levels of 120 ml/dl and showed muscle tremors 35 min after feeding. Rumen ammonia levels of steers fed equivalent urea from SRU remained below 35 ml/dl and exhibited no toxicity symptoms. Sheep fed ad libitum cottonseed hulls were offered a supplement containing 5% or 10% urea from urea or SRU once daily. Intake of SRU supplement was 7 and 17% greater, while cottonseed hull intakes were similar for sheep fed urea or SRU at the 5 and 10% levels. In a nitrogen balance trial, steers were fed ad libitum cottonseed hulls unsupplemented or supplemented with isonitrogenous amounts of SRU, prilled urea or soybean meal. Added nitrogen from all sources increased cottonseed hull intake. Steers fed SRU consumed more (P less than .05) cottonseed hulls than steers fed urea. Dry matter digestibility and nitrogen retention values tended to be highest for steers fed soybean meal supplement with little difference noted between prilled urea and SRU supplements.
And the winner is …: Bayesian Twitter-based prediction on 2016 U.S. presidential election

This paper describes a Naive Bayesian predictive model for 2016 U.S. Presidential Election based on Twitter data. We use 33,708 tweets gathered since December 16, 2015 until February 29, 2016. We propose a simple way for data preprocessing which can still achieve 95.8% accuracy on predicting sentiments. The predicted sentiments are used to forecast the U.S. Republican and Democratic parties candidacies. The forecast is compared to the poll collected from RealClearPolitics.com with 26.7% accuracy. However, the true forecasting capacity of the method still have to be observed after the election process come to conclusion.
Enhancing Work Climate to Improve Performance and Retain Valued Employees

Organizational climate is the perception of how it “feels” to work in a particular work environment. Climate is one of the most powerful, yet overlooked, factors when determining the performance of a particular organization or work team. Studies have consistently linked climate to individual and organizational performance. The author discusses the 6 key dimensions of climate, how to evaluate it in an organization, and methods to enhance it.
Immobilization of cells by electrostatic droplet generation: a model system for potential application in medicine

The process of electrostatic extrusion as a method for cell immobilization was investigated that could be used for potential applications in medicine. An attempt was made to assess the effects of cell addition and polymer concentration on the overall entrapment procedure, ie, on each stage of immobilization: polymer-cell suspension rheological characteristics, electrostatic extrusion process, and the process of gelation. The findings should contribute to a better understanding of polymer–cell interactions, which could be crucial in possible medical treatments. Alginate–yeast was used as a model system for carrier-cells. The electrostatic extrusion was considered as a complex two-phase flow system and the effects of cell and alginate concentrations on the resulting microbead size and uniformity were assessed. Under investigated conditions, microbeads 50–600 μm in diameter were produced and the increase in both alginate and cell concentrations resulted in larger microbeads with higher standard deviations in size. We attempted to rationalize the findings by rheological characterization of the cell–alginate suspensions. Rheological characterization revealed non-Newtonian, pseudoplastic behavior of cell-alginate suspensions with higher viscosities at higher alginate concentrations. However, the presence of cells even at high concentrations (5×108 and 1×109 cells/mL) did not significantly affect the rheological properties of Na-alginate solution. Lastly, we investigated the kinetics of alginate gelation with respect to the quantity of Ca2+ ions and cell presence. The gelation kinetics were examined under conditions of limited supply with Ca2+ ions, which can be essential for immobilization of highly sensitive mammalian cells that require minimal exposure to CaCl2 solution. The molar ratio of G units to Ca2+ ions of 3.8:1 provided complete crosslinking, while the increase in alginate concentration resulted in prolonged gelation times but higher strength of the resulting gel. The cell presence decreased the rate of network formation as well as the strength of the obtained Ca-alginate hydrogel.
Phonemic Awareness and Its Impact on Emerging Spanish Literacy in Bilingual Classrooms

Phonemic Awareness and Its Impact on Emerging Spanish Literacy in Bilingual Classrooms. (August 2010) Amber Bradshaw Penn, B.A., Texas A&M University; M. Ed., University of Texas at Tyler Co-Chairs of Advisory Committee: Dr. Rafael Lara-Alecio Dr. Fuhui Tong This quantitative study has been derived from a five-year federal experimental research project entitled English and Literacy Acquisition (ELLAR305P030032) which targeted Spanish-speaking English Language Learners (ELLs) receiving services in English immersion and bilingual program models. The purpose of this study was to investigate the predictive power of Spanish phonemic awareness in kindergarten on Spanish reading ability in first grade among Spanish-speaking ELLs. Fifty-five students from typical practice bilingual classrooms were included in this study. Phonemic awareness skills were measured using blending phonemes and segmenting words, two subtests from Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (C-TOPP). Reading ability was measured using letter-word identification and passage comprehension, two subtests from Woodcock Language Proficiency Battery-Revised (WLPB-R). Data of phonemic awareness skills were collected at the beginning and end of kindergarten and data of reading ability were collected at the beginning and end of
Le management public en mutation

Les changements observes depuis une quinzaine d'annees dans les domaines legislatifs et organisationnels concernant une sphere publique aux multiples visages, marquent un tournant dans l'apprehension du management public. Cette mutation est observable sur des themes tres divers. Ainsi, les principes philosophiques et les fondements memes du management public semblent evoluer au regard des changements observes dans la societe. Par ailleurs, l'information a acquis un role tres important au point de conditionner l'action publique. Le recours quasi systematique a la contractualisation modifie egalement l'apprehension des fonctionnements et des processus de decision dans les administrations centrales, decentralisees, deconcentrees ou dans les rapports entre la sphere publique et la sphere privee. D'autres elements comme le recours a la regulation ou l'influence grandissante du developpement durable sont a l'origine de modifications plus ou moins marquees dans la sphere publique. Ne d'un seminaire de recherche « Politiques Economie et Management Public », impulse par des enseignants chercheurs de l'Universite de Nice‐Sophia Antipolis cet ouvrage collectif, regroupant des contributions d'enseignants chercheurs de toute la France, a pour objectif de mettre en lumiere le management public en mutation.
Exploiting Entity Linking in Queries for Entity Retrieval

The premise of entity retrieval is to better answer search queries by returning specific entities instead of documents. Many queries mention particular entities; recognizing and linking them to the corresponding entry in a knowledge base is known as the task of entity linking in queries. In this paper we make a first attempt at bringing together these two, i.e., leveraging entity annotations of queries in the entity retrieval model. We introduce a new probabilistic component and show how it can be applied on top of any term-based entity retrieval model that can be emulated in the Markov Random Field framework, including language models, sequential dependence models, as well as their fielded variations. Using a standard entity retrieval test collection, we show that our extension brings consistent improvements over all baseline methods, including the current state-of-the-art. We further show that our extension is robust against parameter settings.