Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neurological and neuropshychological manifestations of HIV‐1 infection: Association with AIDS‐related complex but not asymptomatic HIV‐1 infection

To determine whether neurological and neuropsychological abnormalities are associated with clinical manifestations of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV‐1) infection in men who do not have acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), we performed a historical prospective and cross‐sectional study. One hundred HIV‐1 seropositive homosexual or bisexual men, of whom 26 had AIDS‐related complex, 31 had generalized lymphadenopathy, and 43 had no signs or symptoms of HIV‐1 infection, and 157 HIV‐1 seronegative men were enrolled from a cohort of 6,701 men who were originally recruited between 1978 and 1980 for studies of hepatitis B virus infection. Evaluation included medical history, physical examination, and neuropsychological tests. Of 26 HIV‐1 seropositive subjects with AIDS‐related complex, 11 (42%) reported neurological, cognitive, or affective symptoms compared with 30 (19%) of 157 HIV‐1 seronegative subjects (relative risk ≈ 2.2, p = 0.02). On neuropsychological testing, subjects with AIDS‐related complex performed at a significantly lower level than the HIV‐1 seronegative group (p = 0.001). A significantly higher percentage of subjects with AIDS‐related complex (8[31%] of 26) than HIV‐1 seronegative subjects (19 [12%] of 157) had abnormal results on two or more neuropsychological tests (rate ratio = 2.5, p = 0.03). symptoms and impairment on neuropsychological tests were correlated only within the group who had AIDS‐related complex. Subjects with generalized lymphadenopathy and subjects who had no signs or symptoms of HIV‐1 infection were not different from HIV‐1 seronegative subjects with respect to symptoms or performance on neuropsychological tests. Absolute T‐helper lymphocyte count and estimated duration of HIV‐1 infection were not associated with neuropsychological test results. These findings suggest that neurological and neuropsychological abnormalities are associated with AIDS‐related complex but not with asymptomatic HIV‐1 infection.
Subtype selective kainic acid receptor agonists: Discovery and approaches to rational design

(S)‐Glutamic acid (Glu) is the major excitatory neurotransmitter in the mammalian central nervous system, activating the plethora of glutamate receptors (GluRs). In broad lines, the GluRs are divided into two major classes: the ionotropic Glu receptors (iGluRs) and the metabotropic Glu receptors (mGluRs). Within the iGluRs, five subtypes (KA1, KA2, iGluR5‐7) show high affinity and express full agonist activity upon binding of the naturally occurring amino acid kainic acid (KA). Thus these receptors have been named the KA receptors. This review describes all—to our knowledge—published KA receptor agonists. In total, over 100 compounds are described by means of chemical structure and available pharmacological data. With this perspective review, it is our intention to ignite and stimulate inspiration for future design and synthesis of novel subtype selective KA receptor agonists. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Med Res Rev, 29, No. 1, 3–28, 2009
Integration of students with emotional and behavioural difficulties

Abstract This paper discusses the considerations that need to be taken into account in efforts to integrate pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties (EPDs) in mainstream schools. It highlights the great variation in policies and practices, both within and between different countries, and the trend towards the provision of a wide continuum of services and facilities, with the emphasis on support for mainstream teachers. The literature review shows that many pupils with EBDs do not benefit even from the available services, and that in some countries segregated provision for such children has actually expanded. The many factors involved in the effective integration of children with EBDs in mainstream classes are examined, followed by a consideration of part‐time and full‐time education for these pupils in special classes, units and schools.
Developing autonomous learning in first year university students using perspectives from positive psychology

Autonomous learning is a commonly occurring learning outcome from university study, and it is argued that students require confidence in their own abilities to achieve this. Using approaches from positive psychology, this study aimed to develop confidence in first-year university students to facilitate autonomous learning. Psychological character strengths were assessed in 214 students on day one at university. Two weeks later their top three strengths were given to them in study skills modules as part of a psycho-educational intervention designed to increase their self-efficacy and self-esteem. The impact of the intervention was assessed against a control group of 40 students who had not received the intervention. The results suggested that students were more confident after the intervention, and that levels of autonomous learning increased significantly compared to the controls. Character strengths were found to be associated with self-efficacy, self-esteem and autonomous learning in ways that were theoretically meaningful.
A Generalizable Scale of Propensity to Plan: The Long and the Short of Planning for Time and for Money

Planning has pronounced effects on consumer behavior and intertemporal choice. We develop a six-item scale measuring individual differences in propensity to plan that can be adapted to different domains and used to compare planning across domains and time horizons. Adaptations tailored to planning time and money in the short run and long run each show strong evidence of reliability and validity. We find that propensity to plan is moderately domain-specific. Scale measures and actual planning measures show that for time, people plan much more for the short run than the long run; for money, short- and long-run planning differ less. Time and money adaptations of our scale exhibit sharp differences in nomological correlates; short-run and long-run adaptations differ less. Domain-specific adaptations predict frequency of actual planning in their respective domains. A “very long-run” money adaptation predicts FICO credit scores; low planners thus face materially higher cost of credit.
Anthropometric measures of adiposity as correlates of atherogenic index of plasma in non-obese sedentary Nigerian males

Background The increase in cardiovascular events has necessitated the identification of possible predictors that can help in predicting atherogenicity. Objective The study sought to identify the anthropometric measures of adiposity that are associated with atherogenic risk in sedentary, non-obese, young male adults. Methods A cross-sectional design was used to recruit a purposive sample of 414 sedentary males in a university campus. Anthropometric measures of adiposity, lipid parameters, and atherogenic index of plasma (AIP) were assessed. Pearson correlation and stepwise multiple regression were used to analyze the data collected. Alpha level was set at p<0.05. Results There was a high risk of cardiovascular events (AIP=0.36±0.04 SD) among the participants. A significant correlation (p=0.000) was obtained between each of the anthropometric measures (except conicity index) and AIP. Body mass index, body adiposity index, and percent body fat were significant predictors accounting for 38.9, 3.1, and 2.2% of the variance due to AIP. Conclusions Sedentary status among young males is associated with high atherogenic risk in the presence of normal lipid and anthropometric parameters. Both central and general measures of adiposity predict less than half of the atherogenic risk in sedentary young males.
Rendering synthetic objects into real scenes: bridging traditional and image-based graphics with global illumination and high dynamic range photography

We present a method that uses measured scene radiance and global illumination in order to add new objects to light-based models with correct lighting. The method uses a high dynamic range image-based model of the scene, rather than synthetic light sources, to illuminate the new objects. To compute the illumination, the scene is considered as three components: the distant scene, the local scene, and the synthetic objects. The distant scene is assumed to be photometrically unaffected by the objects, obviating the need for reflectance model information. The local scene is endowed with estimated reflectance model information so that it can catch shadows and receive reflected light from the new objects. Renderings are created with a standard global illumination method by simulating the interaction of light amongst the three components. A differential rendering technique allows for good results to be obtained when only an estimate of the local scene reflectance properties is known. We apply the general method to the problem of rendering synthetic objects into real scenes. The light-based model is constructed from an approximate geometric model of the scene and by using a light probe to measure the incident illumination at the location of the synthetic objects. The global illumination solution is then composited into a photograph of the scene using the differential rendering technique. We conclude by discussing the relevance of the technique to recovering surface reflectance properties in uncontrolled lighting situations. Applications of the method include visual effects, interior design, and architectural visualization.
The Effects of Group Racial Composition on Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, and Career Commitment

We examine the effect of the school racial composition of teachers and the school racial composition of students on the job satisfaction, school commitment, and career commitment of teachers in 405 schools in a large urban school system. We rely on arguments from relational demography theory, racial prejudice literature, and status characteristics theory, which identify variables that mediate this observed relationship between racial composition and satisfaction and commitment. Consistent with the nonsymmetry argument, racial composition effects are found for White but not Black teachers. The most support is found for the relational demography and racial prejudice claims that White teachers “mismatched” to contexts where their race is not dominant experience greater role conflict, less autonomy, inadequate resources, and reduced coworker support. These work conditions then reduce their job satisfaction and school commitment. Commitment to one's teaching career is not affected by school racial composition, however.
Ethnic and gender differences in advanced glycation end products measured by skin auto-fluorescence

Background Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) have been shown to be a predictor of cardiovascular risk in Caucasian subjects. In this study we examine whether the existing reference values are useable for non-Caucasian ethnicities. Furthermore, we assessed whether gender and smoking affect AGEs. Methods AGEs were determined by a non-invasive method of skin auto-fluorescence (AF). AF was measured in 200 Arabs, 99 South Asians, 35 Filipinos and 14 subjects of other/mixed ethnicity in the Qatar Metabolomics Study on Diabetes (QMDiab). Using multivariate linear regression analysis and adjusting for age and type 2 diabetes, we assessed whether ethnicity, gender and smoking were associated with AF. Results The mean AF was 2.27 arbitrary units (AU) (SD: 0.63). Arabs and Filipinos had a significant higher AF than the South Asian population (0.25 arbitrary units (AU) (95% CI: 0.11‒0.39), p = 0.001 and 0.34 (95% CI: 0.13‒0.55), p = 0.001 respectively). Also, AF was significantly higher in females (0.41 AU (95% CI: 0.29‒0.53), p < 0.001). AF associated with smoking (0.21 AU (95% CI: 0.01‒0.41), p = 0.04) and increased with the number of pack-years smoked (p = 0.02). Conclusions This study suggests that the existing reference values should take ethnicity, gender and smoking into account. Larger studies in specific ethnicities are necessary to create ethnic- and gender-specific reference values.
Social Class, Market Situation, and Consumers’ Metaphors of (Dis)Empowerment

This article explores the role of (dis)empowerment as a central phenomenon of social class. Experience of power is found to shape self-concept, which affects everyday consumption practices. Self-perceptions were found to range from potent actor through to impotent reactor, and expectations for the future ranged from one of opportunity through to threat. These self-perceptions have been imbued as personal values that guide preferred ways of doing and being. They flow into the financial domain, with professionals setting themselves up for opportunity and growth, taking a very broad perspective on investing, and engaging in more elaborate budget planning. (c) 2005 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc.
Prevalence of Language Problems Among Adolescent Delinquents

This article describes the prevalence of language problems among delinquents and potential reasons they did not receive language services prior to their commitment to a correctional facility. Sixty-seven girls between the ages of 13 and 17 were tested on the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-3 (CELF-3) and the Adolescent WORD Test (WORD Test). Three additional language measures, including a self-assessment measure, were administered to participants performing more than 1.3 below the mean on the CELF-3 and WORD Test. Findings provide clues to partially explain why some incarcerated adolescents are overlooked for language services. Implications for planning programs are provided.
Literacy Growth in the Academic Year Versus Summer From Preschool Through Second Grade: Differential Effects of Schooling Across Four Skills

Differences in literacy growth over the summer versus the school year were examined to isolate how schooling affects children's literacy development from preschool through second grade across four literacy skills. Children (n = 383) were tested individually twice each year for up to 4 years on measures of phonological awareness, decoding, reading comprehension, and vocabulary. Growth curve analyses indicated that schooling effects were greatest for decoding skills and reading comprehension, were medium in size for phonological awareness, and were less evident for vocabulary. Except for vocabulary, relatively small amounts of growth were observed for preschoolers, followed by a period of rapid growth for kindergarteners and first graders, which slowed again for second graders. Findings demonstrate the differential effect of schooling on four separate literacy skills during the crucial school transition period.
Electrical Characteristics of Biomodified Electrodes using Nonfaradaic Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy

We demonstrate a nonfaradaic electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurement of biochemically modified gold plated electrodes using a two-electrode system. The absence of any redox indicator in the impedance measurements provide more precise and accurate characterization of the measured bioanalyte at molecular resolution. An equivalent electrical circuit of the electrode- electrolyte interface was deduced from the observed impedance data of saline solution at low and high concentrations. The detection of biomolecular interactions was fundamentally correlated to electrical double-layer variation at modified interface. The investigations were done using 20mer deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) strands without any label. Surface modification was performed by creating mixed monolayer of the thiol-modified single-stranded DNA and a spacer thiol (mercaptohexanol) by a two-step self-assembly method. The results clearly distinguish between the noncomplementary and complementary hybridization of DNA, at low frequency region below several hundreds Hertz.
Discrimination of English and Thai words ending with voiceless stops by native Thai listeners differing in English experience

This study examines the discrimination of words ending with voiceless stops /p t k/ in first language (L1) and second language (L2) by three groups of native Thai participants. These participants differed in their countries of residence and experience with L2 English in the formal education system. The first group (T1) was a group of 18 Thai listeners who were living in Australia. The second and third groups consisted of 12 university students (T2) and 12 high-school students (T3) living in Thailand. Eighteen Australian English (AusE) listeners were included as controls. English and Thai words minimally contrasting in the final stop (e.g. ‘cap’ vs. ‘cat’) were presented to the listeners to investigate whether L2 phonetic learning occurs even for the contrasts that are expected to be discriminated with high accuracy from the onset of L2 learning and if so, how it is influenced by L2 experience. All three Thai groups showed reasonably accurate discrimination for both English and Thai words, but only T1 showed discrimination accuracy comparable to AusE in English. Further, only T3 was clearly more accurate in discriminating unreleased Thai than English stop contrasts, most of which were accompanied with release bursts. These two findings are taken to be evidence for phonetic learning of specific aspects of L2 contrasts rather than positive L1 transfer.
Capitalizing on Segregation, Pretending Neutrality: College Admissions and the Texas Top 10% Law

In response to the judicial ban on the use of race-sensitive admissions, the seventy-fifth Texas legislature passed H.B. 588, which guarantees admission to any Texas public college or university for all seniors graduating in the top decile of their class. We show that high levels of residential and school segregation facilitate minority enrollment at selective public institutions under the uniform admission law because black and Hispanic students who rank at the top of their class disproportionately hail from minority-dominant schools. However, qualifying minority students' lower likelihood of college enrollment at the flagships reflects concentrated disadvantage rather than segregation per se. Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.
The pains of freedom: Assessing the ambiguity of Scandinavian penal exceptionalism on Norway’s Prison Island

Where is the pain in exceptional prisons? A new generation of prisons produces unusual ‘pains of imprisonment’ which scholars of punishment are only beginning to catalog. This article brings the reader inside the social milieu of Norway’s ‘Prison Island’, a large, minimum security (‘open’) prison. Here inmates live in self-organized cottages and enjoy relatively unrestricted freedom of movement. But even under exceptional conditions of Scandinavian incarceration, new vectors and modes of punishment arise that produce ‘pains of freedom’, a notion drawing on Crewe’s historicizing examination of Sykes’ concept. Serving as an addition to conventional sociological conceptualizations of prison pains, the ‘pains of freedom’ can be classified into five sub-categories: (1) confusion; (2) anxiety and boundlessness; (3) ambiguity; (4) relative deprivation; and (5) individual responsibility. Based on three months of ethnographic fieldwork and semi-structured interviews with 15 inmates, it is shown that freedom is occasionally experienced as ambiguous, bittersweet or tainted. These new pains may be indicative of what is in stock for clients of future penal regimes in other societies.
Discontinuous PWM Modulation Strategy With Circuit-Level Decoupling Concept of Three-Level Neutral-Point-Clamped (NPC) Inverter

A new pulse width modulation (PWM) strategy which is an alternative approach of the discontinuous PWM (DPWM) for a three-level neutral-point-clamped (NPC) inverter is developed and presented in this paper. The proposed PWM scheme not only takes advantage of the special properties available in NPC inverters, but also reduces the switching loss of the inverter along with an inherent neutral point (NP) voltage control. Based on a circuit-level decoupling concept, the NPC inverter can be decoupled into two three-level Buck converters in every defined operating section, and thereby the controller design can be simplified. The salient features of the proposed scheme, as compared with the existing carrier-based DPWM strategies, are: 1) its reduced computational processing time, 2) its capability to balance the dc-link voltage without any additional control, and 3) its reduced complexity, e.g., only one carrier wave needed for pulse width modulating. Same as a space-vector modulation, the maximum modulation index, 1.1547, can be attainable by the proposed scheme. Moreover, compared to conventional continuous sinusoidal PWM, using this technique proposed here, the switching losses of the devices can be reduced by one third. In order to explain the operation of this topology properly, the decoupling principle including the driving signal synthesis and the NP potential variation are analyzed in detail in this paper. Finally, the viability and performance of the proposed modulation scheme are shown through simulation and experimental results in a laboratory prototype.
Hypnotizability, Hypnosis and Prepulse Inhibition of the Startle Reflex in Healthy Women: An ERP Analysis

A working model of the neurophysiology of hypnosis suggests that highly hypnotizable individuals (HHs) have more effective frontal attentional systems implementing control, monitoring performance, and inhibiting unwanted stimuli from conscious awareness, than low hypnotizable individuals (LHs). Recent studies, using prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the auditory startle reflex (ASR), suggest that HHs, in the waking condition, may show reduced sensory gating although they may selectively attend and disattend different stimuli. Using a within subject design and a strict subject selection procedure, in waking and hypnosis conditions we tested whether HHs compared to LHs showed a significantly lower inhibition of the ASR and startle-related brain activity in both time and intracerebral source localization domains. HHs, as compared to LH participants, exhibited (a) longer latency of the eyeblink startle reflex, (b) reduced N100 responses to startle stimuli, and (c) higher PPI of eyeblink startle and of the P200 and P300 waves. Hypnosis yielded smaller N100 waves to startle stimuli and greater PPI of this component than in the waking condition. sLORETA analysis revealed that, for the N100 (107 msec) elicited during startle trials, HHs had a smaller activation in the left parietal lobe (BA2/40) than LHs. Auditory pulses of pulse-with prepulse trials in HHs yielded less activity of the P300 (280 msec) wave than LHs, in the cingulate and posterior cingulate gyrus (BA23/31). The present results, on the whole, are in the opposite direction to PPI findings on hypnotizability previously reported in the literature. These results provide support to the neuropsychophysiological model that HHs have more effective sensory integration and gating (or filtering) of irrelevant stimuli than LHs.
Overcoming Resistance to Change and Enhancing Creative Performance

Drawing on the sense-making perspective, the authors develop and test a cross-level model of individual creativity, integrating resistance to change and three human resource contextual factors to moderate the individual relationship. This cross-level study of working adults from a wide array of Chinese companies addresses one of the major challenges managers face in enhancing individual-level creativity: overcoming employees’ resistance to change. The authors study the efficacy of three contextual factors that are important elements of the creative process—modernity climate, leadership style, and coworker characteristics—for helping managers overcome this challenge. The authors find that the three contextual variables moderate the negative relationship between resistance to change and creativity, and the pattern of results indicates that managing human resources practices may mitigate the detrimental effects of resistance to change on creativity.