Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
International Journal of Information Management Does a Contextualized Theory of Planned Behavior Explain Why Teenagers Stay in Virtual Worlds?

Article history: Keywords: Virtual worlds Continued use Decomposed theory of planned behavior Online service Teenager a b s t r a c t Academics and business practitioners are intrigued by the factors that foster continued user engagement in virtual worlds (VWs). It is unclear how, and to what extent, existing theories can explain their continued use. As young people constitute the majority of VW users, understanding the reasons for their continued use intentions is important. Taking the distinctive features of VW services into account, such as the visibility of users' actions to other users, we contextualize the Theory of Planned Behavior and investigate the role of teenagers' attitudes, social influences and perceived behavioral control as the determinants of their continued intention to use VW. We then apply a set of constructs from prior Information Systems (IS) literature to decompose these constructs. By analyzing primary data collected from 923 users of Habbo Hotel, a leading virtual world for teenagers, this study confirms the role of users' intrinsic motivation, interpersonal influence and self-efficacy as key constituents of sustained user engagement in VWs. In addition, we demonstrate that decomposing these three established constructs can capture many of the key contextual characteristics of VWs. The study contributes to the literature by showing that IS theories and constructs are appropriate for the VW setting and teenage users.
Applying Extending Structuration Theory: A Study of an IT-Enabled Budget Reform in the Context of Interdisciplinary Collaboration

This study considers contemporary budget reforms within the context of e-government due to their broader technological applications and informational content. In recent initiatives of budget reforms, governments have coupled together information systems with budgetary and managerial components. The result is a joint innovation to support the budget reform. This study extended structuration theory to study the adoption of these joint innovations in a contemporary case of budget reform in Mexico. The purpose is to learn about the critical factors that influence the adoption of these initiatives in a context of interdisciplinary collaboration (IC). IC involves interactions among actors with different professional backgrounds, knowledge and expertise in charge of implementing the related systems and tools for the budget reform. The study used an embedded case study design employing 28 semi-structured interviews and analysis of official documents. The results show a broad set of factors of related systems, policy and practices.
Landmark based recognition of stops: acoustic attributes versus smoothed spectra

Landmark based recognition of unvoiced word-initial stops is investigated. The relative effectiveness of acoustic-phonetic attributes versus more global spectral shape features is experimentally evaluated for four-way place classification of unvoiced, unaspirated stops. Various feature sets derived from the burst and vocalic transition regions of word initial consonants are compared via GMM based classification under speaker, gender, and vowel-context variability. While a set of acoustic attributes derived from the burst shows the best invariance to vowel context, it is found that global spectral shape features provide the most robust representation of the vocalic transition region by overcoming the problem of errors in explicit formant tracking. A combination of features from the burst and vocalic regions was superior to burst-only cues, but still far from the near perfect identification achieved in human perception.
Within-person variability in relationship satisfaction moderates partners' pain estimation in vulvodynia couples

Abstract Models of pain communication propose that the social environment contributes to partners' pain estimation. This study examined partners' pain estimation in vulvodynia, an idiopathic vulvovaginal pain condition that disrupts the sexuality and relationships of affected couples. Specifically, we investigated (1) the overall bias and tracking accuracy of male partners' perceptions of women's pain during intercourse and (2) the influence of men's within-person variability in relationship satisfaction on bias and accuracy. Sixty-nine women (mean age = 28.1, SD = 6.7) diagnosed with vulvodynia and their cohabiting male partners (mean age = 29.7, SD = 8.1) participated in an 8-week daily diary study. On sexual intercourse days (mean = 6.1, SD = 5.4), men reported their perception of women's pain during intercourse and women self-reported their pain. Men reported their daily relationship satisfaction on all diary days. Men's within-person variability in relationship satisfaction was represented by the SD of relationship satisfaction scores across all daily diaries. Results indicated that men's perceptions were both accurate in that they tracked changes in women's pain and biased in that they generally underestimated this pain. Men's variability in relationship satisfaction moderated tracking accuracy such that men with higher variability manifested lower tracking accuracy for women's pain. Men's higher variability in relationship satisfaction may interfere with their motivation to accurately infer their female partner's pain. Poorer pain estimation may impair men's ability to adjust their emotional and behavioral responses to women's pain, which may have negative consequences for the couples' coping with vulvodynia.
STUDIES ON HUMAN PERIPHERAL BLOOD LYMPHOCYTES IN VITRO

A study of the kinetics of RNA and DNA synthesis in PWM-stimulated lymphocytes revealed that RNA synthesis preceded the onset of DNA synthesis by approximately 24 hr and that DNA synthesis and transformation was maximal between 66 to 78 hr. Histochemical and radioautographic studies on PWM stimulated cultures indicated that at 72 hr 50 to 60% of the cell population had been transformed by PWM, and that a distinct cell type bearing cytologic resemblance to the early plasma cell had emerged. The RNA sedimentation profile for newly synthesized RNA in PWM-stimulated cells showed that a large peak of 45 to 50 S material was formed after 24 and 40 hr. PWM thus produces a distinctive transformation of human peripheral blood lymphocytes.
Finite-sample analysis of least-squares policy iteration

In this paper, we report a performance bound for the widely used least-squares policy iteration (LSPI) algorithm. We first consider the problem of policy evaluation in reinforcement learning, that is, learning the value function of a fixed policy, using the least-squares temporal-difference (LSTD) learning method, and report finite-sample analysis for this algorithm. To do so, we first derive a bound on the performance of the LSTD solution evaluated at the states generated by the Markov chain and used by the algorithm to learn an estimate of the value function. This result is general in the sense that no assumption is made on the existence of a stationary distribution for the Markov chain. We then derive generalization bounds in the case when the Markov chain possesses a stationary distribution and is b-mixing. Finally, we analyze how the error at each policy evaluation step is propagated through the iterations of a policy iteration method, and derive a performance bound for the LSPI algorithm.
Escholarship@umms Program in Gene Function and Expression Publications and Presentations Molecular, Cell and Cancer Biology Non-canonical Taf Complexes Regulate Active Promoters in Human Embryonic Stem Cells Repository Citation Non-canonical Taf Complexes Regulate Active Promoters in Human Embryonic

complexes regulate active promoters in human embryonic stem cells" (2012). Program in Gene Function and Expression Publications and Presentations. Paper 211. Abstract The general transcription factor TFIID comprises the TATA-box-binding protein (TBP) and approximately 14 TBP-associated factors (TAFs). Here we find, unexpectedly, that undifferentiated human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) contain only six TAFs (TAFs 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 11), whereas following differentiation all TAFs are expressed. Directed and global chromatin immunoprecipitation analyses reveal an unprecedented promoter occupancy pattern: most active genes are bound by only TAFs 3 and 5 along with TBP, whereas the remaining active genes are bound by TBP and all six hESC TAFs. Consistent with these results, hESCs contain a previously undescribed complex comprising TAFs 2, 6, 7, 11 and TBP. Altering the composition of hESC TAFs, either by depleting TAFs that are present or ectopically expressing TAFs that are absent, results in misregulated expression of pluripotency genes and induction of differentiation. Thus, the selective expression and use of TAFs underlies the ability of hESCs to self-renew.
Enuresis in twins.

Comparison of the incidence of enuresis in monozygotic and same-sex dizygotic twins revealed that bed-wetting after the fourth birthday was present in 146 out of 676 twin children, an incidence of 22%. Monozygotic twins are concordant for enuresis about twice as frequently as dizygotic twins, a statistically significant difference. This finding together with the family studies is consistent with the view that the basis for enuresis is principally genetic. The incidence of nail-biting in children with enuresis is about the same as in the non-enuretic. Finger-sucking after 3 years of age is more frequent in children with enuresis. No relation was found between the incidence of enuresis and the ABO blood types.
A Comparative Study of Probabilistic Ranking Models for Chinese Spoken Document Summarization

Extractive document summarization automatically selects a number of indicative sentences, passages, or paragraphs from an original document according to a target summarization ratio, and sequences them to form a concise summary. In this article, we present a comparative study of various probabilistic ranking models for spoken document summarization, including supervised classification-based summarizers and unsupervised probabilistic generative summarizers. We also investigate the use of unsupervised summarizers to improve the performance of supervised summarizers when manual labels are not available for training the latter. A novel training data selection approach that leverages the relevance information of spoken sentences to select reliable document-summary pairs derived by the probabilistic generative summarizers is explored for training the classification-based summarizers. Encouraging initial results on Mandarin Chinese broadcast news data are demonstrated.
Translocation of proteins across the endoplasmic reticulum III. Signal recognition protein (SRP) causes signal sequence-dependent and site- specific arrest of chain elongation that is released by microsomal membranes

The previously observed (Walter, et al. 1981 J. Cell Biol. 91:545-550) inhibitory effect of SRP selectively on the cell-free translation of mRNA for secretory protein (preprolactin) was shown here to be caused by a signal sequence-induced and site-specific arrest in polypeptide chain elongation. The Mr of the SRP-arrested nascent preprolactin chain was estimated to be 8,000 corresponding to approximately 70 amino acid residues. Because the signal sequence of preprolactin comprises 30 residues and because approximately 40 residues of the nascent chain are buried (protected from protease) in the large ribosomal subunit, we conclude that it is the interaction of SRP with the amino-terminal signal peptide of the nascent chain (emerged from the large ribosomal subunit) that modulates translation and thereby causes an arrest in chain elongation. This arrest is released upon SRP-mediated binding of the elongation-arrested ribosomes to the microsomal membrane, resulting in chain completion and translocation into the microsomal vesicle.
Redesigning antidepressant drug discovery

Antidepressant drug discovery and development have been put on hold by many pharmaceutical companies. The main reason for this is the negative efficacy studies with novel specific drugs. Here I argue that the main obstacles are the absence of gene tests and biomarkers as an integral part of a diagnostic process. Further, too much emphasis has been put on validating drug candidates in animal models of psychiatric disorders. A more rapid transfer of drug candidates into human research is necessary to overcome current obstacles that prevent the discovery of next-generation antidepressants.
Mental Health Consumer Experiences and Strategies When Seeking Physical Health Care

People with mental illness have higher rates of physical health problems and consequently live significantly shorter lives. This issue is not yet viewed as a national health priority and research about mental health consumer views on accessing physical health care is lacking. The aim of this study is to explore the experience of mental health consumers in utilizing health services for physical health needs. Qualitative exploratory design was utilized. Semistructured focus groups were held with 31 consumer participants. Thematic analysis revealed that three main themes emerged: scarcity of physical health care, with problems accessing diagnosis, advice or treatment for physical health problems; disempowerment due to scarcity of physical health care; and tenuous empowerment describing survival resistance strategies utilized. Mental health consumers were concerned about physical health and the nonresponsive health system. A specialist physical health nurse consultant within mental health services should potentially redress this gap in health care provision.
(1→3)-β-d-Glucan: A Biomarker for Microbial Translocation in Individuals with Acute or Early HIV Infection?

Background The extent of gut microbial translocation, which plays roles in HIV disease progression and non-AIDS comorbidities, appears to vary with the composition of the gut microbiome, particularly the presence of Lactobacillales, which reduce mucosal injury. While low proportions of Lactobacillales in the distal gut microbiome are a very promising indicator of microbial translocation, measurement is expensive and complicated and not feasible for clinical routine. (1→3)-β-d-Glucan (BDG) is a component of most fungal cell walls and might be a surrogate marker for Lactobacillales proportion in the gut and a useful indicator of HIV-associated gut injury. This study evaluated BDG as a biomarker of gut integrity in adults with acute or early HIV infection (AEH). Methods Study samples were collected longitudinally during study visits at weeks 0, 12, and 24 in a cohort of 11 HIV-infected men starting antiretroviral therapy during AEH. Blood plasma levels of BDG, soluble cluster of differentiation 14 (sCD14) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) were measured and then correlated with the proportion of Lactobacillales in the distal gut microbiome, as measured by 16s rDNA sequencing by using mixed-effects models with random intercepts. Results Mean BDG and sCD14 levels across subjects were associated with Lactobacillales after controlling for time effects and within-subjects correlations (p-values < 0.05), while LPS levels were not. Specifically, each point increase in mean BDG and sCD14 levels across participants was associated with 0.31 ± 0.14 and 0.03 ± 0.01 percent decrease in mean Lactobacillales proportions, respectively. Conclusion BDG and sCD14 may be indicators of low Lactobacillales in the gut in adults with acute or early HIV infection, and serve as biomarkers of gut integrity and microbial translocation in HIV infection. Larger studies are needed to confirm our findings.
Resistin is Associated with Breach of Tolerance and Anti‐nuclear Antibodies in Patients with Hepatobiliary Inflammation

Resistin is a cysteine‐rich protein, which is abundantly expressed at the site of inflammation, and acts as a regulator of the NF‐kB‐dependent cytokine cascade. The aim of this study was to evaluate resistin levels in relation to inflammatory mediators, disease phenotype and autoantibody status in a spectrum of pathological conditions of the gastrointestinal tract. Resistin levels were measured with an ELISA in sera originated from 227 patients and 40 healthy controls (HC). Fifty patients diagnosed with non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), 53 ulcerative colitis (UC), 51 Crohn’s disease (CD), 46 autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) and 27 primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) were included. The sera were analysed with respect to biochemical parameters of systemic inflammation and liver function and to the presence of antibodies to nuclear antigens (ANA), mitochondria (AMA) and smooth muscle (SMA). Compared with HC, resistin levels were raised in AIH (P = 0.017) and PSC (P = 0.03); compared with NAFLD, levels were elevated in CD (P = 0.041), AIH (P < 0.001) and PSC (P < 0.001). Patients with elevated levels of resistin were more often treated with corticosteroids, but no difference was found between active disease and clinical remission. Resistin levels were significantly higher in ANA‐positive individuals compared with ANA‐negative (P = 0.025). Resistin levels were directly correlated with IL‐6 (r = 0.30, P = 0.02) and IL‐8 (r = 0.51, P < 0.001). Elevated levels of resistin were prominent in patients with hepatobiliary inflammation and were associated with breach of self‐tolerance, i.e. ANA positivity. Thus, we propose that resistin may be an important marker of disease severity in autoantibody‐mediated gastrointestinal inflammatory diseases.
Observation of Joining Phenomena in First Phase of Friction Welding : Study of Joining Mechanism of Friction Welding (Report 1)

Many investigations have been reported for the mechanism of friction welding process of similar materials. However, the mechanism has not been clarified precisely up to now. A series of studies has been carrying out to clarify the joining mechanism of friction welding process. As for the first step, the present paper describes the joining phenomena in the first phase of friction welding process, i.e., friction stage. The materials joined were mild steels (same materials), and a brake type friction welding equipment was used throughout this experiment. Main conclusions are obtained as follows. (1) When the weld faying surfaces of both substrates contacted each other, the friction torque rapidly increased and maintained at the nearly constant. Following this, the friction torque reached to the initial peak torque. (2) The wear of both surfaces started at the periphery portion (outer surface) of joint, and moved to the center portion (center axis). Then, seizure and joining began at the center portion, and they extended toward the periphery portion. (3) The friction torque reached to the initial peak torque when the welded interface was joined completely and upsetting of both substrates started. (4) The joining models at the first phase in wear and the seizure stages were made from the observation results. As a conclusion, the first phase of friction stage was composed of the wear and the seizure stages.
Personality tests in Ménière's disorder

The personality of patients with Ménière's disorder has been evaluated using the Eysenck Personality Inventory and the Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire. The most notable finding was an elevated obsessionality score in the patients with Ménière's disorder as compared with other groups. There was no significant difference between the personality of subgroups of patients complying with rigid definitions of Ménière's disorder and those complying with a more liberal definition. The results of most scales decreased with increasing severity of the disorder, although the obsessionality scores do not follow this tendency.
On combining evidence for reliability estimation in face verification

Face verification is a difficult classification problem due to the fact that appearance of a face can be altered by many extraneous factors, including head pose, illumination conditions, etc. A face verification system is likely to produce erroneous, unreliable decisions if there is a mismatch between the image acquisition conditions during the system training and the testing phases. We propose to detect and discard unreliable decisions based on the evidence originating from the classifier scores- and signal domains. We present a method of combining the reliability evidence, nested in a probabilistic framework that allows high level of flexibility in adding new evidence. Finally, we demonstrate on a standard evaluation database (Banca) how the proposed methodology helps in discarding unreliable decisions in a face verification system.
Isolation and Characterization of a Black-PigmentedCorynebacterium sp. from a Woman with Spontaneous Abortion

ABSTRACT An unusual black-pigmented coryneform bacterium was isolated from the urogenital tract of a woman who experienced a spontaneous abortion during month 6 of pregnancy. Biochemical and chemotaxonomic analyses demonstrated that the unknown bacterium belonged to the genusCorynebacterium. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA sequences (GenBank accession no. AF220220 ) revealed that the organism was a member of a distinct subline which includes unculturedCorynebacterium MTcory 1P (GenBank accession no. AF115934 ), derived from prostatic fluid, and Corynebacterium CDC B8037 (GenBank accession no. AF033314 ), an uncharacterized black-pigmented coryneform bacterium. On the basis of chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic evidence, this organism probably represents a new species and is most closely related to the uncharacterized Centers for Disease Control and Prevention group 4 coryneforms. Our strain is designated CN-1 (ATCC 700975).
XEdge: clustering homogeneous and heterogeneous XML documents using edge summaries

In this paper we propose a unified clustering algorithm for both homogeneous and heterogeneous XML documents. Depending on the type of the XML documents, the proposed algorithm modifies its distance metric in order to properly adapt to the special structural characteristics of homogeneous and heterogeneous XML documents. We compare the quality of the formed clusters with those of one of the latest XML clustering algorithms and show that our algorithm outperforms it in the case of both homogeneous and heterogeneous XML documents.
DESIGN AND EVALUATION OF A MULTI-SENSOR UNIT FOR MEASURING PHYSIOLOGICAL STRESSORS OF MEDICAL TRANSPORT

Patients who undergo inter-hospital transfer experience increased relative mortality, ranging from 10 to 100% higher than non-transferred patients. The high-cost, increased risk of complications and poor outcomes of transferred patients warrant the critical examination of potential causes. One of the major causes may be the external stressors that patients are exposed to during medical transport. To realize simultaneous measurements of external stressors, we developed a multisensor unit for measuring vibration, noise, ambient temperature, and barometric pressure. For preliminary evaluation, the sensor unit was tested on 29 medical transports, 11 air transports by a helicopter and 18 ground missions by an ambulance. The average whole-body vibration for each air and ground transport was calculated at 0.3510m/s 2 and 0.5871m/s 2