Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Presidential Polls as a Time Series: The Case of 1996

The study of voters and elections has shed considerable light on people's vote choices and election outcomes. Yet little is known about the evolution of electoral sentiment over the campaign cycle. This article takes a small step toward addressing this issue by examining polls for a single election in a single year - the U.S. presidential race in 1996. The volume of poll data for 1996 allows us to observe the dynamics of voter preferences in far greater depth than is possible in previous years. Our analysis indicates that most of the variation in the polls during the 1996 presidential campaign represents survey error. What remains is mostly concentrated in the run-up to the fall campaign, not the fall campaign itself. During the fall, when political activity and media attention were at their peaks, aggregate presidential preferences remained largely unchanged. To the extent that campaign events influenced the underlying division of preferences, the effects were small and short-lived. Thus, our findings are consistent with the interpretation that the electoral verdict is already in place before the general election campaign begins
Clinical outcome after laparoscopic pure management of borderline ovarian tumors: results of a series of 34 patients.

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to assess clinical outcome after laparoscopic treatment of borderline ovarian tumor (BOT). PATIENTS AND METHODS Thirty-four patients treated initially and/or for recurrent disease using a laparoscopic approach for BOT from 1984 to January 2002. RESULTS Thirty-four patients underwent laparoscopic pure treatment (without conversion by laparotomy and/or reassessment surgery by laparotomy) for BOT. Conservative treatment was performed in 31 (91%) patients. Median follow-up time was 45 months (range 6-228). Six (17%) patients recurred (in the remaining ovary following conservative surgery in five patients and in the peritoneum in one patient). Two port-site metastases were observed. None of the patients had recurrent disease in the form of ovarian carcinoma. Nine spontaneous pregnancies were observed in six patients from a group of 15 patients desiring pregnancy. All patients are alive today and disease-free. CONCLUSION These results seem to demonstrate that laparoscopic treatment can be safely performed in young patients with early stage BOT. Such a procedure is then feasible, but should be evaluated in patients with BOT and peritoneal implants.
Occurrence and Molecular Characteristics of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus pseudintermedius in an Academic Veterinary Hospital

ABSTRACT Recently, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus pseudintermedius (MRSP) have been increasingly isolated from veterinarians and companion animals. With a view to preventing the spread of MRSA and MRSP, we evaluated the occurrence and molecular characteristics of each in a veterinary college. MRSA and MRSP were isolated from nasal samples from veterinarians, staff members, and veterinary students affiliated with a veterinary hospital. Using stepwise logistic regression, we identified two factors associated with MRSA carriage: (i) contact with an identified animal MRSA case (odds ratio [OR], 6.9; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 2.2 to 21.6) and (ii) being an employee (OR, 6.2; 95% CI, 2.0 to 19.4). The majority of MRSA isolates obtained from individuals affiliated with the veterinary hospital and dog patients harbored spa type t002 and a type II staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec), similar to the hospital-acquired MRSA isolates in Japan. MRSA isolates harboring spa type t008 and a type IV SCCmec were obtained from one veterinarian on three different sampling occasions and also from dog patients. MRSA carriers can also be a source of MRSA infection in animals. The majority of MRSP isolates (85.2%) carried hybrid SCCmec type II-III, and almost all the remaining MRSP isolates (11.1%) carried SCCmec type V. MRSA and MRSP were also isolated from environmental samples collected from the veterinary hospital (5.1% and 6.4%, respectively). The application of certain disinfection procedures is important for the prevention of nosocomial infection, and MRSA and MRSP infection control strategies should be adopted in veterinary medical practice.
Reduced bone density at completion of chemotherapy for a malignancy

OBJECTIVES Osteoporosis and pathological fractures occur occasionally in children with malignancies. This study was performed to determine the degree of osteopenia in children with a malignancy at completion of chemotherapy. METHODS Lumbar spine (L2–L4) bone mineral density (BMD; g/cm2) and femoral neck BMD were measured by dual energyx ray absorptiometry in 22 children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), and in 26 children with other malignancies. Apparent volumetric density was calculated to minimise the effect of bone size on BMD. Results were compared with those of 113 healthy controls and expressed as age and sex standardised mean Z scores. RESULTS Patients with ALL had significantly reduced lumbar volumetric (−0.77) and femoral areal and volumetric BMDs (−1.02 and −0.98, respectively). In patients with other malignancies, femoral areal and apparent volumetric BMDs were significantly decreased (−0.70 and −0.78, respectively). CONCLUSIONS The results demonstrate that children with a malignancy are at risk of developing osteopenia. A follow up of BMD after the completion of chemotherapy should facilitate the identification of patients who might be left with impaired development of peak bone mass, and who require specific interventions to prevent any further decrease in their skeletal mass and to preserve their BMD.
CQPweb — combining power, flexibility and usability in a corpus analysis tool

CQPweb is a new web-based corpus analysis system, intended to address the conflicting requirements for usability and power in corpus analysis software. To do this, its user interface emulates the BNCweb system. Like BNCweb, CQPweb is built on two separate query technologies: the IMS Open Corpus Workbench and the MySQL relational database. CQPweb’s main innovative feature is its flexibility; its more generalised data model makes it compatible with any corpus. The analysis options available in CQPweb include: concordancing; collocations; distribution tables and charts; frequency lists; and keywords or key tags. An evaluation of CQPweb against criteria earlier laid down for a future web-based corpus analysis tool suggests that it fulfils many, but not all, of the requirements foreseen for such a piece of software. Despite some limitations, in making a sophisticated query system accessible to untrained users, CQPweb combines ease of use, power and flexibility to a very high degree.
Social Information-Processing Bases of Aggressive Behavior in Children

The ways that basic theories and findings in cognitive and social psychology (including attribution, decision-making, and information-processing theories) have been applied to the study of aggressive behavior problems in children are described. Following an overview of each of these theories, a social information-processing model of children's aggressive behavior is outlined. According to this model, a child's behavioral response to a problematic social stimulus is a function of five: steps of processing: encoding of social cues, interpretation of social cues, response search, response evaluation, and enactment. Skillful processing at each step is hypothesized to lead to competent performance within a situation, whereas biased or deficient processing is hypothesized to lead to deviant social behavior Empirical studies are described in which children's patterns of processing have been found to predict individual differences in their aggressive behavior The implications of this body of work for empirically based interventions aimed at reducing children's aggressive behavior are discussed.
Currents in STSE education: Mapping a complex field, 40 years on

It has been 40 years since science, technology, society, and environment (STSE) education first appeared in science education research and practice. Although supported among many educators worldwide, there is much confusion surrounding the STSE slogan. Widely differing discourses on STSE education and diverse ways of practicing, have led to an array of distinct pedagogical approaches, programs, and methods. We are left wondering how we might orient ourselves amid such a diversity of propositions. What does STSE look like in practice? What ideological orientations underpin its practice? In this paper, we review the research literature and educational practices in STSE education to (1) map out a typology of STSE education in the form of currents and (2) provide a heuristic that educators can use for critical analysis of discourses and practices in the field. We identify, explore, and critique six currents in STSE education: application/design, historical, logical reasoning, value-centered, sociocultural, and socio-ecojustice currents. We suggest that these currents may serve as a didactic tool for others, a framework that will assist educators in informing their own theoretical understandings, choices, and practices in the context of STSE education. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed95:601–626, 2011
Urinary biochemistry in experimental septic acute renal failure.

BACKGROUND Several biochemical urine tests and derived indices are reported as useful in the diagnosis of acute renal failure (ARF) and its classification in prerenal (hypoperfusion) or intrarenal (acute tubular) necrosis. However, they have not been adequately studied in sepsis, the most frequent cause of ARF in ICU. METHODS In 10 female Merino ewes, we implanted flow probes around the pulmonary and renal arteries to measure cardiac output and renal blood flow (RBF) continuously. Cardiovascular variables were monitored and urine samples collected during a 48 h control period and one week later during a 48 h period of hyperdynamic sepsis induced by an infusion of live Escherichia coli. RESULTS Infusion of live E. coli induced systemic hyperdynamic sepsis with renal vasodilatation and increased RBF. Serum creatinine increased from 73.3 +/- 15.1 to 276.9 +/- 156.3 micromol/l (P < 0.05) and creatinine clearance decreased from 84.6 +/- 21.4 to 27.5 +/- 21.4 ml/min (P < 0.05). Urine sodium concentration (UNa) decreased significantly from 164.5 +/- 50.4 to 14.6 +/- 14.3 mmol/l, fractional excretion of sodium (FeNa) from 1.5 +/- 0.17 to 0.12 +/- 0.11%, fractional excretion of urea nitrogen (FeUn) from 62.7 +/- 9.5 to 11.5 +/- 15.4%, and urine osmolality from 724.8 +/- 277.1 mosmol/l to 329.0 +/- 52.1 mosmol/l. The u/p creatinine ratio did not change. CONCLUSION Sustained Gram-negative sepsis induced a hyperdynamic state and hyperaemic ARF. Despite increased renal perfusion, UNa, FeNa and FeUn decreased significantly. Our findings suggest that, in sepsis, these urinary biochemical changes are not reliable markers of renal hypoperfusion.
Effects of perceived mutual gaze and gender on face processing and recognition memory

Perceived gaze contact in seen faces may convey important social signals. We examined whether gaze perception affects face processing during two tasks: Online gender judgement, and later incidental recognition memory. Individual faces were presented with eyes directed either straight towards the viewer or away, while these faces were seen in either frontal or three-quarters view. Participants were slower to make gender judgements for faces with direct versus averted eye gaze, but this effect was particularly pronounced for faces with opposite gender to the observer, and seen in three-quarters view. During subsequent surprise recognition-memory testing, recognition was better for faces previously seen with direct than averted gaze, again especially for the opposite gender to the observer. The effect of direct gaze was stronger in both tasks when the head was seen in three-quarters rather than in frontal view, consistent with the greater salience of perceived eye contact for deviated faces. However, in the memory test, face recognition was also relatively enhanced for faces of opposite gender in front views when their gaze was averted rather than direct. Together, these results indicate that perceived eye contact can interact with facial processing during gender judgements and recognition memory, even when gaze direction is task-irrelevant, and particularly for faces of opposite gender to the observer (an influence which controls for stimulus factors when considering observers of both genders). These findings appear consistent with recent neuroimaging evidence that social facial cues can modulate visual processing in cortical regions involved in face processing and memory, presumably via interconnections with brain systems specialized for gaze perception and social monitoring.
Object‐Space Visibility Ordering for Point‐Based and Volume Rendering

This paper presents a method to accelerate algorithms that need a correct and complete visibility ordering of their data for rendering. The technique works by pre‐sorting primitives in object‐space using three lists (one for each axis: X, Y and Z), and then combining the lists using graphics hardware by rendering each list to a texture and merging the textures in the end. We validate our algorithm by applying it to the splatting technique using several types of rendering, including point‐based rendering and volume rendering. We also detail our hardware implementation for volume rendering using point sprites.
Temperature-Dependent Development of Aleyrodes proletella (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae) on Two Cultivars of Broccoli Under Constant Temperatures

ABSTRACT Laboratory experiments were conducted to estimate developmental rates and nymphal survival of Aleyrodes proletella Linnaeus (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae) on two broccoli Brassica oleracea L. variety italica Plenck cultivars (Marathon and Agripa) at eight constant temperatures (16, 18, 20, 22,24,26,28, and 30°C). The times required to complete development of egg and first instar decreased with increasing temperature, but the developmental times of second, third, fourth instars, all instars, and egg-adult period were greater at 30°C than at 28°C. The relationships between developmental rate of A. proletella and temperature were slightly influenced by broccoli cultivar. The optimal temperatures and thermal constant as well as the lower and upper thresholds of development for all immature stages were estimated by fitting the observed developmental rates versus temperature with a nonlinear model and two linear models. For all stages, graphs obtained by plotting the developmental rates against temperature could be described by the modification two of the Logan's model. Overall, developmental times for immature stages and egg-adult periods were similar on both Agripa and Marathon cultivars. The most favorable temperature range for nymphal development seemed to be 28-29 (second and third instars) and 31-33°C (fourth instar). Mean generation times (egg-adult) ranged from 19 d (‘Marathon’ and ‘Agripa’) at 28°C to 47 (‘Marathon’) and 46 d (‘Agripa’) at 16°C.
The effectiveness of electronic monitoring with violent male parolees

Research on electronic monitoring (EM) has ignored its effectiveness with high-risk, violent offenders. This article examines the effectiveness of using EM as a supervision tool for violent male parolees by comparing those who were mandated to such supervision who were released in fiscal year 1996 (N = 128) to a random sample who did not receive such supervision who were released in fiscal year 1995 (N = 158). Effectiveness was assessed by examining return to prison and time to failure within four years of release. The results indicated that, after controlling for relevant demographic and criminal history variables, EM had no direct effect on the likelihood of recommitment to prison or time until failure. Parolees who reported drug problems and those with lower parole-success likelihood scores were more likely to fail and to fail more quickly. Sex offenders on EM were less likely to return to prison than those not on EM, and those on EM who eventually returned to prison remained in the community longer than did those not on EM. Implications for the usefulness of EM as a tool in parole supervision are discussed.
The Optimal Context for Gifted Students: A Preliminary Exploration of Motivational and Affective Considerations

This study was designed to verify the efficacy of a conceptual model intended to be used to examine the relative effectiveness of a variety of educational interventions in terms of the self-reported satisfaction of gifted students' effective and motivational needs. The participants in this stage of the study were 540 Year 7 students comprising 402 gifted students grouped in selective high schools, 76 gifted students grouped in accelerated cohorts, and a mixed ability group of 62 students. The preliminary analysis of self-reports from the total population of students who participated in the first stage of this study, including principal components analysis and multiple regression analyses, supports the social-constructivist conceptual framework proposed. The hypothesized positive correlation between the Quality of School Life variables and Intrinsic Motivation was confirmed. The positive correlations between the Anxiety and Tedium variables and the corresponding negative correlation with Quality of School Life variables lent support for the theoretical rationale under-pinning the inclusion of measures of boredom.
A natural antipredation experiment: predator control and reduced sea ice increases colony size in a long-lived duck

Anthropogenic impact on the environment and wildlife are multifaceted and far-reaching. On a smaller scale, controlling for predators has been increasing the yield from local natural prey resources. Globally, human-induced global warming is expected to impose severe negative effects on ecosystems, an effect that is expected to be even more pronounced in the scarcely populated northern latitudes. The clearest indication of a changing Arctic climate is an increase in both air and ocean temperatures leading to reduced sea ice distribution. Population viability is for long-lived species dependent on adult survival and recruitment. Predation is the main mortality cause in many bird populations, and egg predation is considered the main cause of reproductive failure in many birds. To assess the effect of predation and climate, we compared population time series from a natural experiment where a trapper/down collector has been licensed to actively protect breeding common eiders Somateria mollissima (a large seaduck) by shooting/chasing egg predators, with time series from another eider colony located within a nature reserve with no manipulation of egg predators. We found that actively limiting predator activity led to an increase in the population growth rate and carrying capacity with a factor of 3–4 compared to that found in the control population. We also found that population numbers were higher in years with reduced concentration of spring sea ice. We conclude that there was a large positive impact of human limitation of egg predators, and that this lead to higher population growth rate and a large increase in size of the breeding colony. We also report a positive effect of warming climate in the high arctic as reduced sea-ice concentrations was associated with higher numbers of breeding birds.
A Review of Action Learning Literature 1994-2000: Part 1--Bibliography and Comments.

Many organizations now utilize action learning, and it is applied increasingly throughout the world. Action learning appears in numerous variants, but generically it is a form of learning through experience, “by doing”, where the task environment is the classroom, and the task the vehicle. Two previous reviews of the action learning literature by Alan Mumford respectively covered the field prior to 1985 and the period 1985‐94. Both reviews included books as well as journal articles. This current review covers the period 1994‐2000 and is limited to publicly available journal articles.
Initial Interactions of Subgenus D Adenoviruses with A549 Cellular Receptors: Sialic Acid versus αvIntegrins

ABSTRACT Selected members of the adenovirus family have been shown to interact with the coxsackie adenovirus receptor, αvintegrins, and sialic acid on target cells. Initial interactions of subgenus D adenoviruses with target cells have until now been poorly characterized. Here, we demonstrate that adenovirus type 8 (Ad8), Ad19a, and Ad37 use sialic acid as a functional cellular receptor, whereas the Ad9 and Ad19 prototypes do not.
Help Seeking Patterns in Urban and Rural Youth in Two South African Provinces

The help seeking patterns of 139 secondary school youth between the ages of 14 and 22 in two peri-urban and one rural secondary school in the Eastern Cape, and one urban and one rural secondary school in KwaZulu-Natal were studied. Youth were interviewed in focus groups about their problems and whether or not they seek help for these problems. Possibilities of, and problems with, help resources were also discussed. Data were analysed using qualitative data analysis software and interpreted in terms of the contextual dynamics which facilitate or hinder access to help seeking resources. This study illustrates the intricacy of help seeking behaviour. Contextual factors were found to be significant mediators of help seeking behaviour.
Plunder and Stowaways: Incorporation of Cellular Proteins by Enveloped Viruses

To be successful and have the opportunity to replicate properly, a virus has to thwart or, just the reverse, boost many systems of the host cell. Given that host cells have evolved to eliminate these hostile parasites, a fierce battle ensues. There is now compelling evidence that enveloped virions released from infected cells will carry the vestiges of this battle both internally and externally. The focus of the present minireview will be the incorporation of the host cellular proteins into or onto the newly formed viruses. The roles of a few of these host cellular proteins have been studied, albeit very recently, because of their implication in the biology of some viruses. But for the vast majority, only the observation of their incorporation has been reported in the scientific literature. The various studies in this research area have been conducted with eukaryotic cells infected primarily with RNA enveloped viruses. Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) has been the most extensively studied in this respect, but other viruses have also contributed to a better understanding of this intriguing phenomenon. A list of the molecules that have been reported to be embedded in some enveloped viruses is shown in Table ​Table1.1. The processes through which cellular proteins are acquired by viruses are still ill defined. Here we will describe and discuss the roles, or potential roles, that the major cellular proteins found associated with enveloped viruses may play in their life cycles. First, the internally associated host cell molecules will be described, and in a second section, the cell surface constituents found included within the envelopes of different viruses will be introduced. TABLE 1. Host cellular molecules acquired by some enveloped viruses