Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
International Competition and the Treatment of Minorities: Seventeenth‐Century Cases and General Propositions1

This article notes the influence of international competition on the treatment of minorities and formulates general propositions on this relationship. The theoretical significance of the subject is indicated by locating it in the larger literature on race and ethnic relations, emphasizing its place in literature that gives more attention to situa‐tional conditions than to attitudinal conditions. The role of international competition is illustrated by describing the experiences of four 17th‐century minorities: the Vaudois in the southwestern Alps, Protestants in Alsace, Catholics in the Scottish Highlands and Western Islands, and Catholics in Ireland. Five sets of general propositions are induced from these cases and supported by historical and present‐day examples.
Creativity versus conscientiousness : Which is a better predictor of student performance?

SUMMARY This paper examines the extent to which the incremental validity of creative thinking (over and above personality) in the prediction of academic performance may be a function of assessment methods. British university students (N ¼ 307) completed the Alternate Uses Test and Big Five personality inventory at the beginning of the first academic year. Students’ academic performance was assessed throughout a 4-year period via written exams, continuous assessment (tutored seminars) and a supervised dissertation in the final year. Creative thinking was more related to final dissertation marks than to exam and continuous assessment performance (which were associated with Conscientiousness, rather than creative thinking). A follow-up questionnaire on preferences for different assessment methods revealed that creative thinking was positively related to preference for viva voce (oral) exams, group projects and final dissertation, but negatively associated with preferences for multiple-choice and essay-type exams, as well as continuous assessment. Implications are discussed with regard to educational settings, in particular assessment methods. Copyright # 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Towards a Design Theory for Customer Satisfaction-Oriented IT Vendor Management

IT vendor management (ITVM) plays an increasingly relevant role for IT organizations; many companies already spend more than half their IT budgets on services from external providers. These providers are often in direct contact with internal IT and business staff, thus significantly impacting their satisfaction. Although recent studies reveal that companies are often dissatisfied with external IT suppliers, the ITVM literature does not propose practices that directly address customer satisfaction. We extend the ITVM literature by developing a design theory for customer satisfaction-oriented ITVM. To answer our research question, we have been conducting an action research study at a professional service company. Our work makes a twofold contribution. First, we present generalized design principles (DP) for implementing customer satisfaction-oriented ITVM. Second, we explain why these DPs should be considered by organizations seeking to enhance customer satisfaction and how these DPs should be implemented.
Identification and Characterization of a Novel Calcium-Activated Apyrase from Cryptosporidium Parasites and Its Potential Role in Pathogenesis

Herein, we report the biochemical and functional characterization of a novel Ca2+-activated nucleoside diphosphatase (apyrase), CApy, of the intracellular gut pathogen Cryptosporidium. The purified recombinant CApy protein displayed activity, substrate specificity and calcium dependency strikingly similar to the previously described human apyrase, SCAN-1 (soluble calcium-activated nucleotidase 1). CApy was found to be expressed in both Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts and sporozoites, and displayed a polar localization in the latter, suggesting a possible co-localization with the apical complex of the parasite. In vitro binding experiments revealed that CApy interacts with the host cell in a dose-dependent fashion, implying the presence of an interacting partner on the surface of the host cell. Antibodies directed against CApy block Cryptosporidium parvum sporozoite invasion of HCT-8 cells, suggesting that CApy may play an active role during the early stages of parasite invasion. Sequence analyses revealed that the capy gene shares a high degree of homology with apyrases identified in other organisms, including parasites, insects and humans. Phylogenetic analysis argues that the capy gene is most likely an ancestral feature that has been lost from most apicomplexan genomes except Cryptosporidium, Neospora and Toxoplasma.
Supporting Students Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing in General Education Classrooms

The majority of students who are deaf or hard of hearing currently receive educational services in general education settings. Trends that have led to this shift in placement as well as potential benefits and barriers are presented. A unique partnership between the Washington State Center for Childhood Deafness and Hearing Loss (formerly the Washington School for the Deaf) and Listen and Talk created to help local, school-based teams effectively provide services to students with a hearing loss who want to develop listening and spoken language skills is described. Specifics of the collaborative process, data collection procedures, and accommodations for students are included.
ON THE EVOLUTION OF RANDOM GRAPHS

Let E,, . V denote the set of all graphs having n given labelled vertices VI, L’s;,. , Vn and N edges. The graphs considered are supposed to be not oriented, without parallel edges and without slings (such graphs are sometimes called linear graphs). Thus a graph belonging to the set En, N is obtained by choosing N out of the possible (5) edges between the points VI, VZ, . , Vn, and therefore the number of n elements of En, ? V is equal to 2 (’ ‘> . AT A random graph r,, N can be defined as an
False Discovery Rates for Spatial Signals

The problem of multiple testing for the presence of signal in spatial data can involve numerous locations. Traditionally, each location is tested separately for signal presence, but then the findings are reported in terms of clusters of nearby locations. This is an indication that the units of interest for testing are clusters rather than individual locations. The investigator may know a priori these more natural units or an approximation to them. We suggest testing these cluster units rather than individual locations, thus increasing the signal-to-noise ratio within the unit tested as well as reducing the number of hypothesis tests conducted. Because the signal may be absent from part of each cluster, we define a cluster as containing a signal if the signal is present somewhere within the cluster. We suggest controlling the false discovery rate (FDR) on clusters (i.e., the expected proportion of clusters rejected erroneously out of all clusters rejected) or its extension to general weights (WFDR). We introduce a powerful two-stage testing procedure and show that it controls the WFDR. Once the cluster discoveries have been made, we suggest "cleaning" locations in which the signal is absent. For this purpose, we develop a hierarchical testing procedure that first tests clusters, then tests locations within rejected clusters. We show formally that this procedure controls the desired location error rate asymptotically, and conjecture that this is also so for realistic settings by extensive simulations. We discuss an application to functional neuroimaging that motivated this research and demonstrate the advantages of the proposed methodology on an example.
Implementation of 5E inquiry incorporated with analogy learning approach to enhance conceptual understanding of chemical reaction rate for grade 11 students

The main purpose of this study was to enhance student understanding of the scientific concepts of chemical reaction rate. Forty-four grade 11 students were the target group. The treatment tools were seven learning plans of 5E inquiry incorporated with an analogy learning approach during 15 hours of class time. In each learning plan, the students (1) addressed a scientific question regarding chemical reaction rate, (2) explored evidence to answer the question by carrying out a corresponding experiment, (3) drew explanations from collected evidence to answer the question, (4) elaborated their understanding by studying the given analogy and the target, and (5) evaluated their conceptual understandings by creating their own analogy and identifying similarities and differences of their analogies and the targets. The data collecting tool was a conceptual test of chemical reaction rate, consisting of 30 two-tier three-choice questions. The normalized learning gain for the whole conceptual test was at the medium gain level (0.64). The dependent samples t-test analysis indicated that the post-conceptual test score (mean 45.32, SD 6.46) was statistically higher than the pre-test score (mean 19.70, SD 3.10), but was statistically lower than the retention test score (mean 48.03, SD 9.04) at the significance level of 0.05. In the pre-conceptual test, the percentages of students in the good-, alternative-, and misconception categories were 13.69, 38.45, and 47.86, respectively. In the post-conceptual test, the percentages of students in these categories were 64.72, 24.6, and 10.63, respectively. This finding indicates that this implementation was an effective means to enhance and retain students' conceptual understanding of chemical reaction rate.
Sex steroid receptors expression and hormone‐induced cell proliferation in human osteosarcoma

Sex steroid receptors including estrogen receptors (ER), progesterone receptors (PR), and androgen receptors (AR) have been sporadically reported in human osteosarcoma or its cell lines. Therefore, sex steroids have been considered to play some roles in human osteosarcoma, but no systematic and detailed studies regarding the correlation between the status of these receptors in sarcoma cells and clinicopathological parameters have been reported. We examined the existence of ER, PR and AR in 28 cases of osteosarcoma using immunohistochemistry. We then characterized the potential influence of sex steroids on cell proliferation of osteosarcoma cells using MG‐63 human osteosarcoma cell line, which expressed all of these receptors. ER‐β and PR were detected in the great majority of the cases (23 and 24 cases, respectively) but ER‐α and aromatase were not detected in all the cases, and AR was detected only in eight cases. There was a significant positive correlation between ER‐β and Ki‐67 (MIB1) labeling indexes. The absence of aromatase in tumors also suggests the relative importance of concentrations of circulating sex steroids. Proliferation of MG‐63 cells was significantly stimulated by estradiol, progesterone, and 5α‐dihydrotestosterone (DHT), and was significantly suppressed by the addition of fulvestrant (ICI), mifepristone (RU), and hydroxiflutamide, blockers for ER, PR and AR, respectively. Sex steroids, particularly estrogen and progesterone, are considered to play important roles in the regulation of cell proliferation in human osteosarcoma. In addition, these data suggest the potential for a novel endocrine therapy in osteosarcoma using clinically available inhibitors of progesterone and estrogen actions. (Cancer Sci 2008; 99: 518–523)
Personality traits and occupational attainment

Historically, sociologists have paid little attention to the role of non-cognitive characteristics in occupational attainment. This is in sharp contrast to the relatively large amount of research highlighting the importance of cognitive traits, such as IQ and educational qualifications, or characteristics related to social background, such as social class origin, sex or ethnicity. In this paper, I analyse data drawn from the British National Child Development Study (NCDS), and show that personality traits measured at childhood are a significant determinant of an individual's class destination (measured at age 42). I move on to provide a possible micro-level explanation for why personality traits should have an impact in processes of occupational and class attainment.
The Effects of Ethics Institutionalization on Marketing Managers: The Mediating Role of Implicit Institutionalization and the Moderating Role of Socialization

Because of increasing ethical problems in business during the last two decades, many organizations have implicitly and/or explicitly institutionalized ethics. Implicit ethics institutionalization refers to a work climate where ethical behavior is either implied or understood to be crucial to the functioning of the firm (e.g., informal expectations that all employees demonstrate a high level of professionalism, honesty, and integrity). In contrast, explicit ethics institutionalization refers to the formal codification of ethical behavior in terms of policy manuals, orientation programs, and ethics committees. It has been argued that the upsurge of ethics institutionalization was a result of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines first approved by Congress in the early 1990s, which essentially provides for reduced penalties for organizations that demonstrate an adequate degree of ethics compliance. Specifically, the main objective of this research is to empirically demonstrate the direct and indirect effects of different forms of ethics institutionalization (implicit and explicit) on marketing managers’ behavioral responses, such as perceived importance of ethics, quality of work life (QWL), job satisfaction, esprit de corps, and organizational commitment. Demonstrating the significant effects of ethics institutionalization is important from a macromarketing perspective, because findings highlight the moral premise that institutionalizing ethics in the organization (thus benefiting society at large) is likely to influence employee behavioral responses that are traditionally related to the financial health of the organization.
Births, Deaths and Taxes: The Demographic and Political Transitions. By Organski A. F. K. et al. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984. Pp. xii + 161. $18.00.)

(symbolic) concerns of those interest groups involved in the foreign policy formation process and the relative weight to be assigned to external (situational) foreign policy concerns and internal interest group assets and liabilities. Ogene then explores briefly the Englishlanguage literature on the subject of interest groups and foreign policy before moving on to the task of providing operational definitions for the concepts used in his inquiry. Both in the introductory and concluding chapter he comes to grips with the methodological problems concerning the study of influence and the utilization of case studies. Although he provides no arrestingly innovative solutions to these nagging methodological concerns, Ogene is well aware of the limitations of his study and recognizes that his is not the definitive work on Africa and the American foreign policy process.
Militarism, masculinism and managerialism in the British public sector

Managerialism is beginning to replace militarism as a paradigm for socially constructed ideals of masculinity (masculinism). The rise of managerialism in the British public sector clearly demonstrates the links between patriarchal power and the logic of capitalism. Thus the significance of managerialisation within the public sector is that it plays a key role in the reassertion of patriarchal power and masculinist values at both ideological and structural levels.
On the value of social relationships to nonhuman primates: A heuristic scheme

One of biology’s basic questions on society is: why does an individual put up with the time-consuming, frustrating and often harmful ado of group life rather than to make a living in unhindered, but perhaps dangerous and uninformed solitude? Why does he study the behavior of his dominant males rather than that of predators or food distribution, why groom and quarrel with group members rather than rest? The biologist’s answer is that there must be gains that outweigh the costs, and that natural selection therefore produced individuals with social inclinations. But whereas the costs
Preconditioning KKT Systems

Standard preconditioners, such as ILU factorizations, often break down in construction for KKT matrices. We compare several approaches for preconditioning KKT systems. The first applies a constraint preconditioner by incorporating robust factored approximations of (BB )−1 and BB , where B is the (2,1) block of the KKT matrix. In the second approach, we apply permutations and scalings that maximize the product of the magnitude of the diagonal entries of the matrix. This preprocessing improves the reliability of standard preconditioning techniques, and we experiment with a threshold-based ILU preconditioner. Our numerical experiments compare these approaches with exact constraint preconditioning and with a direct solver. Copyright c © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Letter by Bosche and Macdonald regarding article, "relevance of blood-brain barrier disruption after endovascular treatment of ischemic stroke: dual-energy computed tomographic study".

We read with great interest the recent article by Renu et al,1 and we would like to respectfully comment on their groundbreaking work. In their study, the authors prospectively scrutinized 132 endovascular-treated patients with stroke using dual-energy computed tomography. This technique predominately focuses on primary blood–brain barrier (BBB) disruption rather than just on neuronal injury. About the impairment of the BBB, patients were post hoc classified into 3 groups: first, experienced no high attenuation; second, experienced contrast staining areas; and third, had initial brain hemorrhage. Follow-up head imaging was recorded to estimate the rate of new hemorrhagic transformations, and they assessed the clinical outcome at day 90. Their major finding was that despite (or possibly because of) rapid and complete recanalization, the rate of poor outcome was significantly higher in the contrast staining group than in the group without initial high attenuation. Patients with contrast staining disclosed a higher incidence of delayed hemorrhagic transformation at follow-up than with no–high attenuation patients. Both findings underline the high clinical relevance of BBB disruption in acute stroke after …
Social Media Communication in Organizations: The Challenges of Balancing Openness, Strategy, and Management

Organizations from government departments and corporations to small businesses are increasingly adopting social media for strategic corporate and organizational communication and public relations. This is seen by many as a positive development because the openness of the Web 2.0 environment potentially democratizes voice and affords participation, dialogue, and community-building. However, optimistic views of the benefits of organizational social media communication fail to adequately take account of potential conflict between the philosophy of openness that characterizes Web 2.0 and organizational strategy and management processes. Based on two international surveys from Australasia and Europe, this paper shows how social media are being deployed by organizations in a number of countries. These findings were further explored through depth interviews with a selection of social media specialists to examine how the tensions between the open, uncontrolled practices of social media and organizational strategy and management might be resolved or balanced, particularly in relation to objectives, control, and governance. The findings identify future directions in strategic communication that mediate the interests of organizations and online communities.
Synergistic Effect of Mesangial Cell-Induced CXCL1 and TGF-β1 in Promoting Podocyte Loss in IgA Nephropathy

Podocyte loss has been reported to relate to disease severity and progression in IgA nephropathy (IgAN). However, the underlying mechanism for its role in IgAN remain unclear. Recent evidence has shown that IgA1 complexes from patients with IgAN could activate mesangial cells to induce soluble mediator excretion, and further injure podocytes through mesangial-podocytic cross-talk. In the present study, we explored the underlying mechanism of mesangial cell-induced podocyte loss in IgAN. We found that IgA1 complexes from IgAN patients significantly up-regulated the expression of CXCL1 and TGF-β1 in mesangial cells compared with healthy controls. Significantly higher urinary levels of CXCL1 and TGF-β1 were also observed in patients with IgAN compared to healthy controls. Moreover, IgAN patients with higher urinary CXCL1 and TGF-β1 presented with severe clinical and pathological manifestations, including higher 24-hour urine protein excretion, lower eGFR and higher cresentic glomeruli proportion. Further in vitro experiments showed that increased podocyte death and reduced podocyte adhesion were induced by mesangial cell conditional medium from IgAN (IgAN-HMCM), as well as rhCXCL1 together with rhTGF-β1. In addition, the over-expression of CXCR2, the receptor for CXCL1, by podocytes was induced by IgAN-HMCM and rhTGF-β1, but not by rhCXCL1. Furthermore, the effect of increased podocyte death and reduced podocyte adhesion induced by IgAN-HMCM and rhCXCL1 and rhTGF-β1 was rescued partially by a blocking antibody against CXCR2. Moreover, we observed the expression of CXCR2 in urine exfoliated podocytes in IgAN patients. Our present study implied that IgA1 complexes from IgAN patients could up-regulate the secretion of CXCL1 and TGF-β1 in mesangial cells. Additionally, the synergistic effect of CXCL1 and TGF-β1 further induced podocyte death and adhesion dysfunction in podocytes via CXCR2. This might be a potential mechanism for podocyte loss observed in IgAN.
Implementing a Reentry Framework at a Correctional Facility: Challenges to the Culture

Implementation research is emerging in the field of corrections, but few studies have examined the complexities associated with implementing change among frontline workers embedded in specific organizational cultures. Using a mixed methods approach, the authors examine the challenges faced by correctional workers in a work release correctional facility during their transformation into a reentry center. Findings reveal that staff report a low readiness for change while observational and interview data confirm that staff attitudes and accompanying behaviors undermine efforts to provide a humane environment for reentry. This study illustrates the value of using quantitative and qualitative methods to understand and measure key organizational issues that affect the ability to alter the milieu for delivering services. The authors examine how inertia regarding reforms is not due to the nature of the reform but rather to the culture of the organization and how important it is to address organizational culture. They also highlight the importance of integrating interactional and routine practices among frontline workers as part of a strategy to reform correctional facilities.