Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Process of Coping with Changes: A Study of Learning Experiences for the Aboriginal Nursing Freshmen.

Background: Given the increasing presence of aborigines in Taiwan higher education, especially in nursing institutes, the retention and adaptation of aboriginal students is a critical issue for research. Understanding the adjustment and transformation process of aboriginal nursing freshmen is very important for improving their learning, but very little information can be found about their experiences. Aims: In order to provide the references to improve the qualities of multi-ethnic learning in the future, this study is to explore and gain a deeper understanding of the adjustment process of aboriginal nursing freshmen and the meaning they drew from their learning. Participants: The study recruited 20 female aboriginal freshmen from the five year nursing program. These students came from different areas or tribes in Taiwan. The age for these students was from 15 to 17. Methods: A qualitative method was adopted to conduct this research. The primary method for data collection was a series of in-depth interviews conducted by six well-trained interviewers with backgrounds in counseling during the first year of participants’ school life. The data analysis was carried out by open coding, axial coding and determining the core theme. Conclusions: ‘Coping with changes’ was the core theme for describing and guiding the process of first year college life. During the process, the four most common challenges were: (1) Excitement and fear collide initially; (2) Confronting reality; (3) Seeking connection; (4) Getting along with all. Based on the above results, we contend that the aboriginal students need to seek connections. The aboriginal freshmen appreciate teachers who are sensitive to their culture, and they need more support for aboriginal student clubs. Curriculums and pedagogies designed for aboriginal students may benefit them in reaching their highest potential in both academic and social psychological development. This study, therefore, suggests that the institute should offer different programs for the aboriginal nursing freshmen in different adjustment stages.
Disease models of chronic inflammatory airway disease: applications and requirements for clinical trials

Purpose of review This review will discuss methodologies and applicability of key inflammatory models of respiratory disease in proof of concept or proof of efficacy clinical studies. In close relationship with these models, induced sputum and inflammatory cell counts will be addressed for phenotype-directed drug development. Additionally, important regulatory aspects regarding noninvestigational medicinal products used in bronchial challenges or clinical inflammatory models of respiratory disease will be highlighted. Recent findings The recognition of an ever increasing number of phenotypes and endotypes within conditions such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease urges phenotyping of study populations already in early clinical phases of drug development. Apart from the choice of a relevant disease model, recent studies show that especially targeted therapies need to be tested in well defined disease subsets for adequate efficacy assessment. Noninvasive biomarkers, especially sputum inflammatory cell counts, aid phenotyping and are useful outcome measures for novel, targeted therapies. Summary Disease phenotyping becomes increasingly important for efficient and cost-effective drug development and subsequent disease management. Inflammatory models of respiratory disease combined with sputum biomarkers are important tools in this approach.
Prognostic value of the New York Heart Association classification in end-stage renal disease.

BACKGROUND The New York Heart Association (NYHA) classification is a strong predictor of mortality and an established instrument for risk stratification in patients with heart disease but data on the validity of this classification in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) are sparse. METHODS In this study, we tested the predictive value of the NYHA in patients with ESRD and compared it with that of two established indexes of disease severity, i.e. the Khan index and the renal disease severity score (RDSS). The study cohort was composed of 1322 incident patients in a dialysis registry (772 male and 550 female, age 61+/-16 years). RESULTS During the follow-up period (41+/-27 months) 551 patients died. A multivariate COX model including the NYHA classification explained 39% of the variation in mortality, a figure almost identical to that of a model based on the RDSS (37%) and superior (P<0.001) to that provided by the Khan index-based model (32%). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of NYHA classification, as related to all-cause mortality, was 0.74 (95% CI: 0.71-0.77, P<0.001). Again, RDSS had a predictive value for mortality (0.74, 95% CI: 0.72-0.77) identical to that of NYHA and higher than that of the Khan index (0.70, 95% CI: 0.67-0.72). CONCLUSION The NYHA is a powerful predictor of mortality in ESRD and provides prognostic information equal or superior to that given by other established indexes of disease severity. Given the pervasive nature of cardiovascular disease in ESRD, this classification may be recommended for risk stratification in this population.
Protein fractionation in a multicompartment device using Off‐Gel™ isoelectric focusing

A new protein fractionation technique based on off‐gel isoelectric focusing (IEF) is presented, where the proteins are separated according to their isoelectric point (pI) in a multiwell device with the advantage to be directly recovered in solution for further analysis. The protein fractions obtained with this technique have then been characterized with polymer nanoelectrospray for mass spectrometry (MS) analyses or with Bioanalyzer for mass identification. This methodology shows the possibility of developing alternatives to the classical two‐dimensional (2‐D) gel electrophoresis. One species numerical simulation of the electric field distribution during off‐gel separation is also presented in order to demonstrate the principle of the purification. Experiments with pI protein markers have been carried out in order to highlight the kinetics and the efficiency of the technique. Moreover, the resolution of the fractionation was shown to be 0.1 pH unit for the separation of β‐lactoglobulin A and B. In addition, the isoelectric fractionation of an Escherichia coli extract was performed in standard solubilization buffer to demonstrate the performances of the technique, notably for proteomics applications.
Psychological Distress Among Sisters of Young Females With Eating Disorders

There is limited research on sibling relationships in families with an eating disorder (ED) child. The aim of the study was to examine the association between sibling relationships, sense of coherence, psychological distress and depression among healthy sisters of females with or without EDs. Participants were 60 females (13-31 years old): 30 who had a sister with an ED (study group) and 30 without (controls). Participants completed self-report questionnaires: depression, psychological distress, sibling relationships, and sense of coherence. Results showed that the study group had significantly higher levels of depression and negative sibling relationships than the control. A significant negative correlation was found between sense of coherence and depression. The study model shows that belonging to one of the groups, sense of coherence, and sibling relationships were significant predictors of the healthy sisters’ depression level. It is suggested that when sister has an ED, negative sibling relationships can influence the psychological condition of her healthy sister.
Environmental offsets, resilience and cost-effective conservation

Conservation management agencies are faced with acute trade-offs when dealing with disturbance from human activities. We show how agencies can respond to permanent ecosystem disruption by managing for Pimm resilience within a conservation budget using a model calibrated to a metapopulation of a coral reef fish species at Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia. The application is of general interest because it provides a method to manage species susceptible to negative environmental disturbances by optimizing between the number and quality of migration connections in a spatially distributed metapopulation. Given ecological equivalency between the number and quality of migration connections in terms of time to recover from disturbance, our approach allows conservation managers to promote ecological function, under budgetary constraints, by offsetting permanent damage to one ecological function with investment in another.
Examining Rater Behavior on a Revised Version of the Short Child Occupational Profile (SCOPE)

A previous study of the Short Child Occupational Profile (SCOPE), an assessment of occupational participation, supported the psychometric soundness of the instrument overall, but pointed to some potential problems in practitioners' use of the SCOPE in practice. Specific revisions were made to the SCOPE to address the rating behaviors of leniency/severity, halo effect, and restriction of range. A many-faceted Rasch model analysis was conducted after 39 practitioners working in eight practice sites learned to administer the SCOPE using a variety of methods and rated 168 clients using the SCOPE (version 2.1). Practitioners exhibited three significantly different levels of leniency/severity, 35 practitioners did not exhibit any halo effects, and the top three rating categories were used 91% of the time. Findings suggest that a variety of methods can be used to learn to administer and rate the SCOPE in an appropriate manner to assess the personal and environmental factors affecting the occupational participation of children.
Predictors of multitasking performance in a synthetic work paradigm

This study investigated determinants of success in a ‘synthetic work’ task designed to reflect the requirement for multitasking that is common to many occupations. Participants were administered tests of working memory capacity (WMC) and processing speed (PS), and they reported experience with videogames, a type of activity presumed to involve multitasking. Results revealed that WMC was a strong predictor of multitasking in a ‘non-emergency’ condition when the pace of the tasks was relatively slow, whereas PS was a weaker predictor. Additionally, there was evidence for the incremental validity of videogame experience (VGE), consistent with the possibility that multitasking is supported by a general, trainable skill. Finally, individual differences in strategy use accounted for a large proportion of the variance in multitasking, above and beyond other predictor variables, and WMC predicted use of an effective strategy. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
From Grandparent to Caregiver: The Stress and Satisfaction of Raising Grandchildren

The circumstances faced by grandparents who become caregivers for their grandchildren are complicated and stressful. Indepth interviews were conducted with 54 grandparent caregivers (37 grandmothers and 17 grandfathers). Analysis of qualitative data involved the use of QSR NUD*IST software for organizing and coding interview transcripts. Subsets of financial, family, and legal problems specific to grandparent caregiving were identified. Grandparent caregivers acquire problem-specific coping strategies, which include taking action, talking about feelings, religious faith, focus on the grandchild, outreach to others, and some “less desirable” means. Caregiver satisfaction was related to the joys of children, the tasks of child rearing, participating in grandchildren's activities, a new focus for life, and watching a child's accomplishments. This study identified the need for additional research about interventions for the stress and coping responses of grandparent caregivers.
District Central Offices as Learning Organizations: How Sociocultural and Organizational Learning Theories Elaborate District Central Office Administrators' Participation in Teaching and Learning Improvement Efforts

School district central office administrators face unprecedented demands to become key supporters of efforts to improve teaching and learning districtwide. Some suggest that these demands mean that central offices, especially in midsized and large districts, should become learning organizations but provide few guides for how central offices might operate as learning organizations. This article presents a conceptual framework that draws on organizational and sociocultural learning theories to elaborate what might be involved if central offices operated as learning organizations. Specific work practices that this conceptual framework highlights include central office administrators’ participation in new school assistance relationships and their ongoing use of evidence from assistance relationships and other sources to inform central office policies and practices. Sense making and managing paradoxes are fundamental to these processes. I highlight these activities with empirical illustrations from research and experience, discuss conditions that help/hinder these activities, and suggest directions for district research and practice.
Implementation and Evaluation of Cooperative Communication Schemes in Software-Defined Radio Testbed

Cooperative communication is a promising technique for future wireless networks, which significantly improves link capacity and reliability by leveraging broadcast nature of wireless medium and exploiting cooperative diversity. However, most of existing works investigate its performance theoretically or by simulation. It has been widely accepted that simulations often fail to faithfully capture many real-world radio signal propagation effects, which can be overcome through developing physical wireless network testbeds. In this work, we build a cooperative testbed based on GNU Radio and Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) platform, which is a promising open-source software-defined radio system. Both single-relay cooperation and multi-relay cooperation can be supported in our testbed. Some key techniques are provided to solve the main challenges during the testbed development: e.g., maximum ratio combine in single-relay transmission and synchronized transmission among multiple relays. Extensive experiments are carried out in the testbed to evaluate performance of various cooperative communication schemes. The results show that cooperative transmission achieves significant performance enhancement in terms of link reliability and end-to-end throughput.
Psychometric properties of a parental childrearing behavior scale for French-speaking parents, children, and adolescents

The present study validates a culturally appropriate questionnaire, the evaluation des Pratiques Educatives Parentales (EPEP), to assess parents' child-rearing behaviour in French-speaking samples. Three versions of the instrument were validated on 493 parents' self-reports, and on 159 children's and 834 adolescents' rating of their parents' childrearing behaviour. the EPEP questionnaire is based on recent conceptually and psychomentrically sound instruments for English and Dutch populations (Patterson, Reid, & Dishion, 1992; Van Leeuwen & Vermulst, 2004). It replicates the nine-factor solution of the Dutch scale and provides similar psychometric properties: moderate to high internal consistency, interrater reliability between children and their parents, test-retest reliability, no relationship with social desirability, discriminative properties based on differences between mother and father, child's age and gender, and on correlations with children's personalities traits. Results are discussed in the context of the relevance of the instrument from research and clinical perspectives.
Modulation of the RNA Interference Activity Using Central Mismatched siRNAs and Acyclic Threoninol Nucleic Acids (aTNA) Units

The understanding of the mechanisms behind nucleotide recognition by Argonaute 2, core protein of the RNA-induced silencing complex, is a key aspect in the optimization of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) activity. To date, great efforts have been focused on the modification of certain regions of siRNA, such as the 3'/5'-termini and the seed region. Only a few reports have described the roles of central positions flanking the cleavage site during the silence process. In this study, we investigate the potential correlations between the thermodynamic and silencing properties of siRNA molecules carrying, at internal positions, an acyclic L-threoninol nucleic acid (aTNA) modification. Depending on position, the silencing is weakened or impaired. Furthermore, we evaluate the contribution of mismatches facing either a natural nucleotide or an aTNA modification to the siRNA potency. The position 11 of the antisense strand is more permissive to mismatches and aTNA modification, in respect to the position 10. Additionally, comparing the ON-/OFF-target silencing of central mismatched siRNAs with 5'-terminal modified siRNA, we concluded: (i) central perturbation of duplex pairing features weights more on potency rather than silencing asymmetry; (ii) complete bias for the ON-target silencing can be achieved with single L-threoninol modification near the 5'-end of the sense strand.
A powerful quality assurance technique for dispenser cathodes and electron guns

Normalized cathode current vs temperature plots, also known as Miram curves, are generally used for the determination of cathode emission characteristics as a function of time. These plots have since become a powerful tool for the design and quality assurance of electron guns used in microwave tubes. This paper describes practical methods of interpreting these plots to verify gun fabrication quality as well as cathode electron emission capability. Almost all gun characteristics can be verified and often corrected during initial testing before the gun is attached to the tube. After attachment to the tube the gun performance can be verified. Since these curves depend on cathode temperature, a detailed method of assuring heater quality is included. This allows heater current to be used as a measure of temperature when pyrometric measurements cannot be made.
The Social Characterizations of Price: The Fool, the Faithful, the Frivolous, and the Frugal*

This article extends both Viviana Zelizer's discussion of the social meaning of money and Charles Smith's proposal that pricing is a definitional practice to the under-theorized realm of the social meanings generated in the pricing system. Individuals are attributed with calculating or not calculating whether an object or service is “worth” its price, but these attributions differ according to the individual's social location as being near to or far from a societal reference point rather than by the inherent qualities of the object or service purchased. Prices offer seemingly objective (quantitative) proof of the individual's “logic of appropriateness”—in other words, people like that pay prices such as those. This article sketches a preliminary but nonexhaustive typology of the social characterizations of individuals within the pricing system; these ideal types—the fool, the faithful, the frugal, and the frivolous—and their components offer a systematic approach to understanding prices as embedded in and constituents of social meaning systems.
What New Teachers Need to Learn

These induction programs generally aim to increase retention by providing emotional support to new teachers. Although this goal is important, it stops short of realizing what powerful induction programs can accomplish. Keeping new teachers in teaching is not the same as helping them become good teachers. To accomplish the latter, we must treat the first years of teaching as a phase in learning to teach and surround new teachers with a professional culture that supports teacher learning.
Fast and Stable Algorithms for Computing and Sampling From the Noncentral Hypergeometric Distribution

Although the noncentral hypergeometric distribution underlies conditional inference for 2 × 2 tables, major statistical packages lack support for this distribution. This article introduces fast and stable algorithms for computing the noncentral hypergeometric distribution and for sampling from it. The algorithms avoid the expensive and explosive combinatorial numbers by using a recursive relation. The algorithms also take advantage of the sharp concentration of the distribution around its mode to save computing time. A modified inverse method substantially reduces the number of searches in generating a random deviate. The algorithms are implemented in a Java class, Hypergeometric, available on the World Wide Web.
Walking a Tightrope: Creating Value Through Interorganizational Relationships

This paper provides an overview of the literature on interorganizational relationships. Although the literature on interorganizational relationships is extensive, a pervasive theme that is either explicit or implicit in the majority of the articles is the simple notion of whether interorganizational relationships make sense and whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. This article reviews six widely used theoretical paradigms that explain interorganizational relationship formation, including transaction costs economics, resource dependency, strategic choice, stakeholder theory, organizational learning, and institutional theory. Although each paradigm alone is insufficient to capture the complexities of interorganizational relationship formation, the fact that interorganizational relationships can be justified from such diverse theoretical backgrounds is impressive. The paper also reviews the six forms of interorganizational relationships most commonly pursued in practice and discussed in the literature, including joint ventures, networks, consortia, alliances, trade associations, and interlocking directorates. Through these discussions, we elaborate on the potential advantages and disadvantages of participation in interorganizational relationships.
A Tale of Two Analyses [1] : The Use of Archived Qualitative Data

This article provides a unique contribution to the debates about archived qualitative data by drawing on two uses of the same data - British Migrants in Spain: the Extent and Nature of Social Integration, 2003-2005 - by Jones (2009) and Oliver and O'reilly (2010), both of which utilise Bourdieu's concepts analytically and produce broadly similar findings. We argue that whilst the insights and experiences of those researchers directly involved in data collection are important resources for developing contextual knowledge used in data analysis, other kinds of critical distance can also facilitate credible data use. We therefore challenge the assumption that the idiosyncratic relationship between context, reflexivity and interpretation limits the future use of data. Moreover, regardless of the complex genealogy of the data itself, given the number of contingencies shaping the qualitative research process and thus the potential for partial or inaccurate interpretation, contextual familiarity need not be privileged over other aspects of qualitative praxis such as sustained theoretical insight, sociological imagination and methodological rigour.