Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison between the LCx Probe System and the COBAS AMPLICOR System for Detection of Chlamydia trachomatisand Neisseria gonorrhoeae Infections in Patients Attending a Clinic for Treatment of Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Amsterdam, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT Two assays for the detection of Chlamydia trachomatisand Neisseria gonorrhoeae were compared: the LCx Probe system (the LCx system; Abbott Diagnostic Laboratories, North Chicago, Ill.) and the COBAS AMPLICOR C. trachomatis/N. gonorrhoeae system (the COBAS AMPLICOR system; Roche Diagnostic Systems, Branchburg, N.J.). Endocervical swab specimens, male urethral swab specimens, and female and male urine specimens were collected from 503 female and 498 male visitors attending a sexually transmitted diseases clinic in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Prevalences for C. trachomatis were 12.5% (63 of 503) and 10.0% (50 of 498) in females and males, respectively. The prevalences for N. gonorrhoeae were 1.2% (6 of 503) and 4.2% (21 of 498) in females and males, respectively. Both assays showed high values for sensitivity and specificity with regard to the detection of C. trachomatis in endocervical swab specimens, male urethral swab specimens, and female and male urine specimens. The sensitivities for the LCx system were 92.1, 90.0, 88.9, and 94.0% for each type of specimen, respectively; and the sensitivies for the COBAS AMPLICOR system were 96.8, 98.0, 82.5, and 92.0% for each type of specimen, respectively. Specificities ranged between 98.4 and 100%. The sensitivity of the LCx system for the detection of N. gonorrhoeae was 100% for female cervical swab and urine specimens and male urethral swab specimens, while for male urine specimens the sensitivity was 95.2%; the specificity was 100% for all types of specimens. For the detection of N. gonorrhoeae by the COBAS AMPLICOR assay, the sensitivity for female cervical swab and male urethral swab specimens was 100%, that for female urine specimens was 66.7%, and that for male urine specimens was 95.2%. However, the predictive values of a positive test for female cervical swab specimens and urine specimens were 31.6 and 36.4%, respectively. Sequence analysis of the amplimers obtained by an in-house 16S rRNA PCR of the solely COBAS AMPLICOR system-positive swab specimens revealed neitherN. gonorrhoeae nor other Neisseria spp. The COBAS AMPLICOR assay was considered not suitable for screening for infections with N. gonorrhoeae. If this assay is used for detection of N. gonorrhoeae, confirmation of positive results by a reliable test is mandatory.
CRITICAL TYPES

Economic models employ assumptions about agents’ infinite hierarchies of belief. We might hope to achieve reasonable approximations by specifying only finitely many levels in the hierarchy. However, it is well known since Rubinstein (1989) that the behaviors of some fully specified hierarchies can be very different from the behavior of such finite approximations. Examples and earlier results in the literature suggest that these critical types are characterized by some strong assumptions on higher-order beliefs. We formalize this connection. We define a critical type to be any hierarchy at which the rationalizable correspondence exhibits a discontinuity. We show that critical types are precisely those types for which there is common belief in a certain class of event. All types from finite type spaces and almost all types in common prior type spaces are critical. On the other hand, we show that regular types, i.e. types which exhibit no discontinuities, are generic. In particular they form a residual set in the product topology. This second result strengthens a previous one due to Weinstein and Yildiz (2006) in two ways. First, while Weinstein and Yildiz (2006) considered a fixed game, our regular types have continuous behavior across all games. Second, our result applies to an arbitrary space of basic uncertainty and does not require the rich-fundamentals assumption employed by Weinstein and Yildiz (2006). Our proofs involve a novel characterization of the strategic topology first introduced by Dekel, Fudenberg, and Morris (2006a).
Enhancing wellbeing: An emerging model of the adaptive functions of music listening

Affect regulation is generally considered the most important function of music listening (FML). Yet, models of wellbeing also highlight engagement, relationships, meaning, achievement, and other adaptive functions that music may facilitate. However, there is currently no consensus as to how these adaptive FML co-function within an enhancement system that supports wellbeing. The current study used the collective intelligence methodology, Interactive Management (IM) to address this gap in the literature. Four IM sessions were conducted, two with younger adults (N = 24) and two with older adults (N = 19). Participants responded to the stimulus question “why do you listen to music? ” Each participant then voted for five FML they believed were most significant for enhancing wellbeing. The eight highest ranked functions were entered into Interpretive Structural Modelling software, and relations between pairs of FML were discussed. Four structural models were generated demonstrating potential interdependencies in FML in the context of wellbeing enhancement. Age differences emerged in the FML considered adaptive: younger adults emphasized affect regulation and social connection, whereas older adults emphasized more eudaimonic functions of music (e.g., Transcendence and personal growth). The influence of FML are discussed in reference to key wellbeing and developmental theories.
Assessment of the conclusion validity for empirical research studies published in the journal of speech, language, and hearing research

Assessment of the Conclusion Validity for Empirical Research Studies Published in the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. (May 2007) Glenda Elkins Byrns, B.S., Southwest Texas State University; M.Ed., Southwest Texas State University Co-Chairs of Advisory Committee: Dr. James F. McNamara Dr. Salvador Hector Ochoa Research-based decision making has been advanced as a way for professionals to make a determination about the effectiveness of a potential treatment. However, informed consumers of research need to be able to determine what constitutes evidence-based practices and what criteria can be used to determine if evidence-based practices have been met. This study was a synthesis of research that involved a critical review of the empirical research studies reported in Volume 47 of the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research (JSLHR) published in 2004. This methodological research synthesis evaluated (a) the research designs used in the JSLHR studies, (b) information and rationale used to inform population validity assessment decisions, and (c) the extent to which the sampling designs, population validity rating, data analysis procedures, and the specification of generalizations and conclusions provide sufficient evidence to determine an overall rating of conclusion validity.
Suppression of frontal eye field neuronal responses with maintained fixation

Significance In natural viewing, such as reading or scene perception, fixation can be extended temporally when subjects look at a word or object that is important or requires more processing. Numerous models have suggested that this could occur by a suppressive mechanism. Here, we show that responses in the frontal eye field (FEF) are suppressed when animals maintain fixation on a stimulus that may give them a reward. This suggests that FEF may be able to modulate the temporal flow of eye movements in natural viewing using enhanced activity to generate eye movements and suppression to maintain fixation. The decision of where to make an eye movement is thought to be driven primarily by responses to stimuli in neurons’ receptive fields (RFs) in oculomotor areas, including the frontal eye field (FEF) of prefrontal cortex. It is also thought that a saccade may be generated when the accumulation of this activity in favor of one location or another reaches a threshold. However, in the reading and scene perception fields, it is well known that the properties of the stimulus at the fovea often affect when the eyes leave that stimulus. We propose that if FEF plays a role in generating eye movements, then the identity of the stimulus at fixation should affect the FEF responses so as to reduce the probability of making a saccade when fixating an item of interest. Using a visual foraging task in which animals could make multiple eye movements within a single trial, we found that responses were strongly modulated by the identity of the stimulus at the fovea. Specifically, responses to the stimulus in the RF were suppressed when the animal maintained fixation for longer durations on a stimulus that could be associated with a reward. We suggest that this suppression, which was predicted by models of eye movement behavior, could be a mechanism by which FEF can modulate the temporal flow of saccades based on the importance of the stimulus at the fovea.
Motivated Closed-Mindedness and Creativity in Small Groups

An experiment was conducted to investigate whether the need for cognitive closure affects the degree of creativity in small groups. Participants in groups of four performed a task in which they had to create advertising slogans for a given product. Some of the groups were composed of individuals with high dispositional need for closure, whereas other groups were composed of individuals with low need for closure. Results showed that ideational fluency, degree of elaboration, and creativity, as rated by independent judges, was lower in high (vs. low) need-for-closure groups. These results suggest that the tendencies to restrict the number of hypotheses generated and to produce conventional ideas, consequences of the need for closure, lower the degree of creativity in interacting groups.
Frequency and patterns of contact with domestic poultry and potential risk of H5N1 transmission to humans living in rural Cambodia

Background Since 2004, H5N1 outbreaks have been recurrent in domestic poultry and humans in Cambodia. To date, seven human cases (100% CFR) and 22 outbreaks in poultry have been confirmed. Household ownership of backyard poultry (FAO Sector 4 poultry production) in rural Cambodia is high. An understanding of the extent and frequency of poultry handing behaviors in these settings is necessary to assess the risk associated with different practices and to formulate sensible recommendations to mitigate this risk. We collected new data from six geographic regions to examine patterns of human contact with poultry among rural farmers in Cambodia and identify populations with the highest potential exposure to H5N1.
The Case of the Czech Republic. Determinants of the Recent Favourable Turnover in Mortality

Since the collapse of the socialist system at the beginning of the 1990s, the health situation in the Czech Republic has improved more rapidly than in other CEE countries. Mortality from circulatory diseases decreased significantly at higher ages. The recent decline in mortality is likely to be attributable to technical progress in medical treatment and less affected by the change in lifestyle. While the use of cardiovascular drugs and the number of operations of invasive heart-surgery considerably improved, smoking and alcohol consumption have somewhat augmented at the same time. The recent favourable turnover has currently brought the Czech Republic a little closer to the European average. The paper was finished at the Faculty of Science, Charles University with the research grant CEZ: J13/98:113100007 1 Department of Demography and Geodemography, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Albertov 6, 128 43 Prague, Czech Republic. Phone : 42
The pharmacology and dynamics of the light-induced Calcium signal in Limulus ventral photoreceptors

Title of Document: THE PHARMACOLOGY AND DYNAMICS OF THE LIGHT-INDUCED CALCIUM SIGNAL IN LIMULUS VENTRAL PHOTORECEPTORS Youjun Wang, Doctor of Philosophy, 2007 Directed By: Professor Richard Payne, Neuroscience and Cognitive Neuroscience program The Limulus ventral photoreceptor is a model system for understanding inositol (1,4,5) trisphosphate (IP3) induced calcium (Ca ) release and the light response of invertebrate photoreceptors. Light-induced Ca release via the phosphoinositide cascade is thought to activate the photocurrent in Limulus. The pharmacology and dynamics of the light-induced Ca signal was investigated. Application of 1-100 μM 2 aminoethoxydiphenyl borate (2-APB), a non-specific IP3 receptor inhibitor, reversibly inhibited the photocurrent in a concentration-dependent manner, acting on at least two processes thought to mediate the visual cascade. 2-APB reversibly inhibited both light and IP3-induced calcium release, consistent with its role as an inhibitor of the IP3 receptor. 2-APB also reversibly inhibited the activation of depolarizing current flow through the plasma membrane by released calcium ions. In addition, 100 μM 2-APB reversibly inhibited voltage-activated potassium currents. This lack of specificity of 2-APB’s action in Limulus suggests that the effects of 2APB need to be interpreted with caution. Dynamics: The light-induced Ca release begins at the light sensitive plasma membrane of the R lobe. Consistent with its role in mediating light responses, this Ca signal rises to its peak with a similar time course to that of the electrical signals. Then the Ca signal spreads into the interior of the cell with two phases. The initial fast phase is a diffusion driven process that needs both the diffusion of IP3 and of Ca 2+ released by IP3, since both manipulations that alter the apparent diffusion coefficient (D) of Ca ions or those that change the life span of IP3 molecules can change the spread of the fast phase. A model of simple diffusion of IP3 molecules (or Ca 2+ ions) and a diffusion model for IP3 and Ca 2+ released by IP3 were constructed using estimated D values of Ca 2+ and IP3 inside cells obtained through the Graham’s Law. Simulation results indicate that diffusion of IP3 and released Ca is both necessary and sufficient to determine the initial fast phase. The expected spread of excitation following absorption of one photon can be predicted by this model. THE PHARMACOLOGY AND DYNAMICS OF THE LIGHT-INDUCED CALCIUM SIGNAL IN LIMULUS VENTRAL PHOTORECEPTORS
Attending to changing landscapes: Shaping the interwoven identities of teachers and teacher educators

Teachers, in Canada and elsewhere, live and work on school landscapes being shifted by globalization, immigration, demographics, economic disparities and environmental changes. Within those landscapes teachers find themselves struggling to compose lives that allow them to live with respect and dignity in relation with children, youth and families. In places in Canada, increasing numbers of teachers are leaving after only a few years of teaching. In this paper we take up questions about the stories teachers tell of their leaving and about what we can learn about our work as teacher educators from listening to, and inquiring into, their stories. Considering the inter-relatedness of our lives as teacher educators with teachers, we also inquire into our shifting landscapes as teacher educators. We discuss possible spaces we might collaboratively shape with teachers as they, and we, attempt to sustain our stories to live by on these shifting landscapes.
Zoonotic Parasites of Bobcats around Human Landscapes

ABSTRACT We analyzed Lynx rufus fecal parasites from California and Colorado, hypothesizing that bobcats shed zoonotic parasites around human landscapes. Giardia duodenalis, Cryptosporidium, Ancylostoma, Uncinaria, and Toxocara cati were shed. Toxoplasma gondii serology demonstrated exposure. Giardia and Cryptosporidium shedding increased near large human populations. Genotyped Giardia may indicate indirect transmission with humans.
WOMEN TELLING BIRTH STORIES

______________________________________________________________ This study focuses on the construction of subjectivity in and through the telling of birth stories. Drawing on 50 interviews with middle-class women, most of who ‘chose’ to birth either at home or via elective caesarean section, the thesis explores how women make birth ‘choices’ and ‘experience’ home-birth and caesarean-birth within a South African setting. Furthermore, by employing a range of theoretical resources, including the work of Julia Kristeva, Simone de Beauvoir, Iris Young and materialist feminists such as Nancy Hartsock and Maria Mies, this study explores the forms of embodied subjectivity that emerge in birth narratives. Engaging in both an ideological analysis and a narrative analysis, the thesis shows how women’s ‘choices’ and ‘experiences’ are always situated within or in relation to cultural story lines, dominant ideologies and material contexts. However, at the same time, through the use of a Kristevan theory of bodieslanguage-subjectivity, the thesis also demonstrates how ‘the body’ itself often becomes transfused into women’s talk about birth, resulting in paradoxical and contradictory forms of subjectivity. Un ive rsi ty of Ca pe To wn
An Intrinsic Information Content Metric for Semantic Similarity in WordNet

Information Content (IC) is an important dimension of word knowledge when assessing the similarity of two terms or word senses. The conventional way of measuring the IC of word senses is to combine knowledge of their hierarchical structure from an ontology like WordNet with statistics on their actual usage in text as derived from a large corpus. In this paper we present a wholly intrinsic measure of IC that relies on hierarchical structure alone. We report that this measure is consequently easier to calculate, yet when used as the basis of a similarity mechanism it yields judgments that correlate more closely with human assessments than other, extrinsic measures of IC that additionally employ corpus analysis.
Power and Categorization

Across three experiments, participants formed a larger number of categories when in a state of high, compared to low, psychological power. Moreover, in contrast to prior categorization research, which suggests forming more categories is tantamount to reduced breadth of categorization, high-power participants also formed a larger number of superordinate (i.e., more abstract) categories than low-power participants. The present findings enhance the understanding of power in relation to categorization and simultaneously highlight the distinction between number and abstraction as fundamental aspects of categorization.
Power Distance, Individualism/Collectivism, and Job-Related Attitudes in a Culturally Diverse Work Group

Hofstede's power distance (PD) and individualism (IDV) constructs were validated in the context of a single multicultural work setting. Two hundred sixty-three workers from 28 different countries employed in the information services branch of a large Australian bank completed a questionnaire the items of which measured some implications of the constructs, namely: superior-subordinate relationships, decision-making styles, the work ethic, task orientation, the psychological contract, and individual versus group achievement. On the basis of their Hofstede country index, the subjects were divided into high and low PD and IDV groups, respectively, and differences in their scores on theoretically relevant items provided support for both constructs. The questionnaire also included items stenming from the model about the nature and incidence of inteethnic work-related friction. As predicted, the out-group non-Anglo-Celt respondents reported a greater incidence of discrimination, regarded cultural diversity in the workplace more favorably, and engaged in more behaviors that the host culture would regard as countemormative.
Occlusal morphology of mandibular second molars in Iranian adolescents.

CONTEXT During human evolution, the morphology of mandibular molar occlusal surface has changed from pattern "y" to pattern "+". Six types of occlusal patterns were classified as: +4, 4-y,+5, 5-y,+6 and 6-y. AIMS To determine the prevalence of these six types of mandibular second molars in Iranian adolescents. SETTINGS AND DESIGN This descriptive investigation was undertaken in the high schools of Isfahan city, Iran. The students were selected by cluster sampling method, and then they were screened and only those with erupted mandibular second molars bilaterally were selected. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 794 cases were randomly selected and the number of cusps and groove pattern of mandibular second molar were examined intra-orally and by studying dental casts. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED Descriptive statistics and chi-square test were used for data analysis. RESULTS The most frequent occlusal configuration was the "+4" form (76.9%). A total of 683 cases (86%) were found to have four-cusp form, 104 cases (13.1%) were five-cusp form and 7 cases (0.9%) were six-cusp form. CONCLUSION The most frequent occlusal configuration was the "+4" form; thus, there is a high evolutionary trend in Iranian mandibular second molars.
POTENTIAL FOR CONTAMINATION OF ORTHOPAEDIC IMPLANTS USING INDIVIDUALLY WRAPPED SCREWS

Background: There has been an anecdotal shift away from screw banks in orthopaedic surgery in preference for individually wrapped screws. Our hypothesis is that opening individually wrapped items introduces a possible source of contamination of the surgical set‐up and repeated opening compounds this potential. Theoretically, this could pose a greater infection risk to the patient than the alternative of a screw bank.
Phenotypes of infiltrating cells in trehalose dimycolate-induced interstitial pneumonitis

Trehalose dimycolate is a glycolipid component of the cell walls of mycobacteria, nocardia, and corynebacteria. When trehalose dimycolate is injected into certain strains of mice, they develop interstitial pneumonitis that is characterized by mononuclear cell infiltration of the alveolar walls, intra-alveolar hemorrhages, and in some animals, granuloma formation. The disorder is seldom fatal, and in approximately 4 weeks, the lungs are normal. There is strong evidence that T lymphocytes are essential for production of interstitial pneumonitis by trehalose dimycolate, but little is known about the mechanisms of lung injury in this model. The experiments described in this report were conducted to identify the roles of the various cells that accumulate in the lungs of mice with this form of interstitial pneumonitis. We found that Mac3+ macrophages were the first cells to appear in the alveolar walls. Increases in the number of L3T4+ T lymphocytes, Lyt2+ T lymphocytes, and surface-immunoglobulin-positive lymphocytes followed, but significant increases in the number of lymphoid cells were not observed until day 7, when the pulmonary lesions were well developed. Treatment of the mice with cyclophosphamide or anti-T-cell sera significantly reduced the number of lymphoid cells in the alveolar walls but did not affect the number of Mac3+ cells and did not affect development of intra-alveolar hemorrhages. Treatment with poly(I.C) significantly decreased the number of Mac3+ cells in the lungs, and these mice did not develop pulmonary hemorrhages. We conclude that although development of pulmonary lesions in trehalose dimycolate-treated mice is a T-cell-dependent process, macrophages are also essential and are more directly involved in production of the lung injury. We postulate that the lung lesions are the direct effect of macrophage-produced cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor.