Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neural effects of muscle stretching on the spinal reflexes in multiple lower-limb muscles

While previous studies have shown that muscle stretching suppresses monosynaptic spinal reflex excitability in stretched muscles, its effects on non-stretched muscles is still largely unknown. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of muscle stretching on monosynaptic spinal reflex in non-stretched muscles. Ten healthy male subjects participated in this study. Muscle stretching of the right triceps surae muscle was performed using a motor torque device for 1 minute. Three different dorsiflexion torques (at approximately 5, 10, and 15 Nm) were applied during muscle stretching. Spinal reflexes evoked by transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation were recorded in both the lower-limb muscles before, during, and at 0 and 5 min following muscle stretching. The amplitudes of the spinal reflexes in both the stretched and non-stretched muscles in the right (ipsilateral) leg were smaller during stretching compared to before, and at 0 and 5 min after stretching. Furthermore, the degree of reduction in the amplitude of the spinal reflexes in the right (ipsilateral) leg muscles increased significantly as the dorsiflexion torque (i.e., stretching of the right triceps surae muscles) increased. In contrast, reduction in the amplitude of the spinal reflexes with increasing dorsiflexion torque was not seen in the left (contralateral) leg muscles. Our results clearly indicate that muscle stretching has inhibitory effects on monosynaptic spinal reflexes, not only in stretched muscles, but also in non-stretched muscles of the ipsilateral leg.
Methotrexate in severe ankylosing spondylitis: an open study.

OBJECTIVE To study the efficacy and toxicity of methotrexate (MTX) for patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) in a 36 week, open, single observer study. METHODS Patients were selected for study if they had evidence of active disease and had failed to respond to treatment with nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAID) and sulfasalazine. Eleven patients entered the study, and 9 were evaluated at the end. Oral MTX (7.5-15 mg weekly) was given for at least 24 weeks; NSAID were kept at a stable dose. Efficacy was evaluated by calculating the relative difference of assessed variable between Week 0 and 24 and by patient evaluation. RESULTS Assessed variables showed good relative improvement. Four patients decided to continue MTX; 3 used a lower dose of NSAID; one stopped NSAID: Five patient patients discontinued MTX: 3 of these had disease flares and restarted MTX. Side effects were mild and reversible. CONCLUSION Results of our study showed that the majority of our patients with AS taking MTX had beneficial effects.
Homeopathy : A Critique of Current Clinical Research

Homeopathy has remained one of the most controversial medical treatments in the world. It is based on the “like cures like” principle and the idea that serial dilution of a substance renders it not less but more potent. Both of these axioms of homeopathy lack biological plausibility (Sehon and Stanley 2010). Nevertheless, homeopathy was recently cited as one of “the most popular and widely used forms of medicine in the world” (Chatfield 2011). Advocates of homeopathy argue that homeopathy’s “clinical effectiveness cannot be disputed” (Chatfield 2011). To prove their point, they produce evidence that seems to confirm this assumption (Fisher 2011). Critics tend to counter that these data are seriously flawed—so much so that they cannot be relied upon (Bewley et al. 2011).
Gender-dependent feature extraction for speaker recognition

Gender information is believed helpful for speaker recognition. In GMM-UBM based speaker recognition, the use of gender information is mostly on a basis of constructing gender-dependent (GD) UBMs instead of extracting GD features. However, theoretical analysis and experimental observations show that females and males differ quite a lot in the feature domain of speech signal, including F0, formant, spectrum and cepstrum. In this paper, further analysis and experiments have been done to explore the differences between females and males. Afterwards, a GD MFCC feature extraction is proposed. In this method, the frame length of MFCC extraction is gender dependent, in other words the resolution for both the DFT analysis and hence the MFCC feature extraction is gender dependent. Experimental results demonstrate that compared with the gender-independent (GI) feature extraction, the GD feature extraction can achieve relative EER reductions of 21.7% and 12.2% for female and male speakers evaluations, respectively.
Internet addiction of adolescents in China: Prevalence, predictors, and association with well-being

Internet addiction is a mental health problem that affects a significant number of people worldwide. Our study attempted to investigate the prevalence of Internet addiction among Chinese adolescents and to explore the predictors of Internet addiction and its association with well-being. A total of 10,988 adolescents from nine different cities in China were surveyed using the Diagnostic Questionnaire (DQ) for Internet addiction, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale, and the Adolescent's Satisfaction with Life Scale. The mean age of the whole sample was 17.2 years (ranging from 13 to 23 years). The prevalence rate of Internet addiction among the surveyed adolescents was 7.5%, which was influenced by gender and grade (χ2 = 74.027, p < 0.001; χ2 = 7.162, p < 0.05). The breadth of extracurricular activities, the age when people used Internet for the first time, and whether people used Internet for the first time in Internet bar were significant predictors of Internet addiction (β = −0.065, p < 0.001; β = −0.101, p < 0.001; β = 0.545, p < 0.001). Finally, our study found evidence demonstrating the link between Internet addiction and well-being. Increased symptoms of problematic use were associated with decreased self-esteem (F = 258.344, p < 0.001), satisfaction with life (F = 232.428, p < 0.001), and increased depression (F = 607.062, p < 0.001).
Awakened leaders: born or made?

Purpose – This paper aims to review the leader of the twenty‐first century, the Awakened Leader. Based on information, collected from 11 leadership thinkers and practitioners, literature review, and the author's workplace observations, the article seeks to analyze some of the important experiences and skills that make awakened leaders so outstanding.Design/methodology/approach – This study was conducted as a qualitative study of the phenomenological kind, enriched with literature review. Interviews were executed from a pre‐validated interview protocol. The approach to the topic is: definition of awakened leadership; review of the essence of awakened leadership; reasoning of the determination regarding this leader being born or made; and perspectives toward awakened leadership.Findings – An interesting combination of qualities emerged for awakened leaders varying from morals and values, ethics, integrity, honesty and trust, to kindness, forgiveness, courage, love, and deep listening. As an interesting endn.
Pledges of Commitment and Cooperation in Partnerships

We use experimental methods to investigate whether pledges of commitment can improve cooperation in endogenously formed partnerships facing a social dilemma. Treatments vary in terms of the individual’s (a) opportunity to commit to their partner, (b) the cost of dissolving committed partnerships, and (c) the distribution of these dissolution costs between partners. Our findings show that pledges of commitment alone can increase cooperation and welfare in committed partnerships . The introduction of relatively large and equally split costs yields similar gains. In contrast, when costs to dissolve committed partnerships fall solely on the individual choosing to break up, pledges of commitment fail to improve cooperation and welfare.
Class-Inclusion Reasoning: Patterns of Performance from Three to Eight Years

MCCABE, ANN E. ; SIEGEL, LINDA S. ; SPENCE, IAN; and WILKINSON, ALEX. Class-Inclusion Reasoning: Patterns of Performance from Three to Eight Years. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1982, 53, 780-785. The performance of children aged 3 through 8 years on a series of class-inclusion problems was examined in two studies. Three patterns of performance were observed. 3and 4-year-olds responded in an approximately haphazard pattern, while 5and 6-year-olds tended to be consistently wrong. Performance of older children (7and 8-year-olds) showed a shift toward consistently correct responding. The observed patterns were confirmed by fitting a formal model to the data. Children's ability to recall the class-inclusion question mirrored their task performance.
Gender schema theory: A cognitive account of sex typing.

Gender schema theory proposes that the phenomenon of sex typing derives, in part, from gender-based schematic processing, from a generalized readiness to process information on the basis of the sex-linked associations that constitute the gender schema. In particular, the theory proposes that sex typing results from the fact that the self-concept itself gets assimilated to the gender schema. Several studies are described which demonstrate that sex-typed individuals do, in fact, have a greater readiness to process information—including information about the self—in terms of the gender schema. It is speculated that such gender-based schematic processing derives, in part, from the society's ubiquitous insistence on the functional importance of the gender dichotomy. The political implications of gender schema theory are discussed, as is the relationship of the theory to the concept of androgyny.
Muscle Tension and Personality in Women: A Faactorial Study

Introduction Surrounding the concept of muscle tension one finds considerable ambiguity. Not only are there many different definitions of the term,2but the methods of measurement are quite varied.9Because of this state of affairs, conclusions from a single study, as well as generalizations from one study to the next, become questionable. While many recent investigators have agreed that the electromyograph is the most sensitive measure of muscle tension,9disagreement still exists regarding the muscle groups from which recordings are to be taken. Since there is some evidence of a lack of consistency in tension for a given muscle group under varying conditions,27,46this presents a problem. Related to such a problem is the question of whether most individuals respond to varying conditions with similar levels of tension in all of the body musculature. In other words, does a general factor of muscle
Oracle Inequalities for a Group Lasso Procedure Applied to Generalized Linear Models in High Dimension

We present a group lasso procedure for generalized linear models (GLMs) and we study the properties of this estimator applied to sparse high-dimensional GLMs. Under general conditions on the covariates and on the joint distribution of the pair covariates, we provide oracle inequalities promoting group sparsity of the covariables. We get convergence rates for the prediction and estimation error and we show the ability of this estimator to recover good sparse approximation of the true model. Then, we extend this procedure to the case of an elastic net penalty. At last, we apply these results to the so-called Poisson regression model (the output is modeled as a Poisson process whose intensity relies on a linear combination of the covariables). The group lasso method enables to select few groups of meaningful variables among the set of inputs.
Associations between bullying and engaging in aggressive and suicidal behaviors among sexual minority youth: the moderating role of connectedness.

BACKGROUND Research on the extent to which cyberbullying affects sexual minority youth is limited. This study examined associations between experiencing cyber and school bullying and engaging in aggressive and suicidal behaviors among sexual minority youth. We also explored whether feeling connected to an adult at school moderated these associations. METHODS Data came from 951 self-identified lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) youth, who completed the New York City Youth Risk Behavior Survey during fall 2009. We used multiple logistic regression to examine the hypothesized associations and test for effect modification. RESULTS Cyber and school bullying were associated with engaging in aggressive and suicidal behaviors among LGB youth. Youth experiencing both cyber and school bullying had the greatest odds of engaging in aggressive and suicidal behaviors. However, feeling connected to an adult at school moderated these associations such that bullied youth who felt connected were not more likely to report aggressive and suicidal behaviors. CONCLUSIONS The findings highlight the challenges faced by bullied LGB youth. Practitioners should work with school administrators to establish supportive environments for sexual minority youth. Helping victimized LGB youth develop meaningful connections with adults at school can minimize the negative impacts of cyber and school bullying.
Impact of Soil Moisture on Crop Yields over Brazilian Semiarid

The objective of this work was to investigate the relationship between soil water content and rainfall with rice, beans, cassava and corn yields of in the semiarid region of Northeast Brazil. Precipitation and modeled soil water content were compared to yields recorded at the county levels in this region. The results were also integrated over the area of the nine States that lie within the officially recognized region of semiarid climate in Brazil. The influence of water balance components was quantified by calculating their correlation coefficient with yields of the different crop species over the municipalities of the region. It was found that rainfall had higher correlation to crop yields over most of the region, while soil water content had lower values of correlation. This result is consistent with the fact that average root depth is 40 cm, lower than the layer of soil used in the model used to estimate soil water content (100 cm). Plants respond better to the precipitation in the top layers of soil, while the water storage in the deep layer of soil might be important only in other temporal and spatial scales of the hydrological cycle. It is concluded that the average crop yield is directly associated with practices that increase soil moisture at the depth of the root system in order to reduce the effects caused by drought.
Research toward the development of a lexical knowledge base for natural language processing

This paper documents research toward building a complete lexicon containing all the words found in general newspaper text. It is intended to provide the reader with an understanding of the inherent limitations of existing vocabulary collection methods and the need for greater attention to multi-word phrases as the building blocks of text. Additionally, while traditional reference books define many proper nouns, they appear to be very limited in their coverage of the new proper nouns appearing daily in newspapers. Proper nouns appear to require a grammar and lexicon of components much the way general parsing of text requires syntactic rules and a lexicon of common nouns.
Perceived Improvements in Service User Involvement in Two Clinical Psychology Training Courses

In line with current developments in mental health training, the doctoral courses in clinical psychology at two UK universities, Canterbury Christ Church and Surrey, have been working together to increase service user and carer involvement. A questionnaire was constructed and sent out at two time-points, one year apart, to examine staff and trainee ratings of service user and carer involvement, the friendliness of the course towards service user and carer experiences, and barriers and opportunities in relation to involvement. Initial validation work on the questionnaire is briefly presented, along with the final questionnaire subscales and items used. There were eight subscales, of which seven had reasonable internal consistency. Response rates from staff and trainee samples on each occasion ranged between 35% and 48%. The number of trainees responding to both surveys was 44, and staff 81. Ratings of service user and carer involvement improved significantly between the two time-points. However, there was no overall change in ratings of courses' friendliness towards service user and carer experiences, or of barriers and opportunities in relation to service user involvement. Trainees rated barriers to involvement lower than did staff at both times. The questionnaire may be useful for other courses in assessing staff and trainee perceptions of service user and carer involvement.
Lipid concentrations and semen quality: the LIFE study

The decline in sperm count rates over the last 50 years appears to parallel the rising prevalence of obesity. As lipid levels are strongly associated with obesity, high lipids levels or hyperlipidaemia may thus play an important role in the decline in fertility in addition to other environmental or lifestyle factors. The objective of this population based cohort study was to evaluate the association between men's serum lipid concentrations and semen quality parameters among 501 male partners of couples desiring pregnancy and discontinuing contraception. Each participant provided prospectively up to two semen samples (94% of men provided one or more semen samples, and 77% of men provided a second sample approximately 1 month later). Linear mixed effects models were used to estimate the associations between baseline lipid concentrations and semen quality parameters, adjusted for age, body mass index and race. We found that higher levels of serum total cholesterol, free cholesterol and phospholipids were associated with a significantly lower percentage of spermatozoa with intact acrosome and smaller sperm head area and perimeter. Our results suggest that lipid concentrations may affect semen parameters, specifically sperm head morphology, highlighting the importance of cholesterol and lipid homeostasis for male fecundity.
Arguments within geographies of movement: the theoretical potential of migrants' stories

In this article, I engage the ways in which migrants' experiences are socially constructed and situated in particular political-economic and cultural contexts in meaningful ways. Drawing on migrants' own stories, I examine the ways in which social relations of gender and ethnicity shape their experiences. The analysis examines the interplay of desires, identities and subjectives in multiple sites in order to understand processes of belonging, exclusion and affiliation that are produced through migration. Secondly, I examine the ways in which migrants' social positionings allow them to question dominant narratives of neoliberal development. Thirdly, I take seriously the idea that questions about mobility only take on meaning in particular political-economic contexts which have produced those migrations and discourses. I suggest that these complex questions about identity, subjectivity and context call for critical ethnographies of migration, and I explore the potential of this approach for a case study of urban-bound migrants in Ecuador.
Entanglements of Economic and Intimate Citizenship: Individualization and Gender (In)Equality in a Changing Europe

This paper contributes to the ongoing refinement of citizenship as a feminist concept through the development of understandings of the relationship between economic and intimate citizenship in contemporary Europe. It draws on two cross-national research projects that each focus on a group of people who might be thought to be affected by particular processes of individualization: the economic “activation” of large numbers of women in increasingly deregulated labour markets, and the progressive detraditionalization of intimate life. The paper examines patterns of intimate life and citizenship that accompany employment in the elder care sector, and patterns of economic life and citizenship that accompany the experience of living outside the conventional family. It argues that there are significant and hitherto unrecognized tensions between “flexible” jobs and the ability of individuals to exercise agency as intimate citizens. It suggests that it is difficult to flourish as an intimate citizen without enjoying a degree of economic autonomy, and that economic autonomy is elusive for women working in the most deregulated sectors of the labour market. It also points to the important role that social policies play in mediating the relationship between intimate and economic citizenship.
Aberrantly expressed microRNAs in the context of bladder tumorigenesis

MicroRNAs (miRNAs), small noncoding RNAs 19–22 nucleotides in length, play a major role in negative regulation of gene expression at the posttranscriptional level. Several miRNAs act as tumor suppressors or oncogenes that control cell differentiation, proliferation, apoptosis, or angiogenesis during tumorigenesis. To date, 19 research groups have published large-scale expression profiles that identified 261 miRNAs differentially expressed in bladder cancer, of which 76 were confirmed to have consistent expression patterns by two or more groups. These consistently expressed miRNAs participated in regulation of multiple biological processes and factors, including axon guidance, cancer-associated proteoglycans, and the ErbB and transforming growth factorbeta signaling pathways. Because miRNAs can be released from cancer cells into urine via secreted particles, we propose that miRNAs differentially expressed between tissue and urine could serve as predictors of bladder cancer, and could thus be exploited for noninvasive diagnosis.
Failure and defeat as determinants of group cohesiveness

Two experiments were carried out to test the hypothesis that failure or defeat increases group cohesion where members feel personally responsible for acting on the basis of group membership. Experiment 1 manipulated success or failure on a cooperative task where subjects (40 male and 40 female undergraduates) experienced high or low choice about doing the group task. Experiment 2 manipulated victory or defeat in intergroup competition under conditions of high or low commitment to the group (the subjects were 64 13- and 14-year-old schoolgirls). It was predicted and found that negative outcomes produced more cohesiveness than positive outcomes with high choice or high commitment, but less with low choice or low commitment. In addition, counter-intuitive interaction effects were obtained on measures of self-esteem and the causal attribution of group performance: in Expt 2 under high commitment, defeat increased cohesion and self-esteem at the same time that it was attributed to internal factors. It is argued that increased cohesion following failure or defeat is a product of identification with a group to justify and explain behaviour which incurs costs.
Can social intelligence be measured? Psychometric properties of the Tromsø Social Intelligence Scale – English Version

Despite its intuitive appeal as a construct relevant to a number of psychological outcomes, adequate operationalisation of social intelligence has been problematic for researchers. This research aimed to extend the understanding of the measurement of social intelligence by investigating the psychometric properties of the English version of Tromso Social Intelligence Scale by Silvera, Martinussen and Dahl. Factor analysis (N=328; Maximum Likelihood with Promax rotation) revealed three clear factors that paralleled the original Norwegian measure: social skills, social information processing and social awareness. Construct validity was also examined (N=116). As predicted, social intelligence was strongly and significantly related to political skill, emotional intelligence (EI) and empathy in both males and females. In addition, as predicted, there were weak relationships with social desirability; however, for males, there was no relationship between social intelligence and social desirability. Internal relia.