Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Tale of Two Gulfs: Life, Death, and Dispossession along Two Oil Frontiers

Two major oil-producing regions frame this article. The first is the onshore oil world in the global South (the Niger delta in Nigeria as part of the wider Gulf of Guinea), and the second is the offshore world of deepwater oil and gas exploration and production in the United States (specifically, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Deepwater Horizon blowout). Both arenas can be seen as oil frontiers—frontiers of accumulation and dispossession—rooted in the operations of specific oil assemblages. I trace the relations between the deep infrastructures of the oil world—pipelines, rigs, flowstations, tankers, financiers, engineering firms, security forces, and so on—and to the regimes of life and death in the postcolonial South and the advanced capitalist North. Political, economic, and social relations are, as Timothy Mitchell notes, engineered out of the flows of energy. Opening up these sorts of oil frontiers—whether in Angolan or Brazilian deepwater, Russian Siberia, or increasingly now the frozen frontiers of the Arctic—necessitates engagements with place-specific social and political forces, none of which necessarily or easily are compatible with some presumed set of desires of corporate oil capital—political stability, surplus management, price control—or indeed of imperialist oil-consuming states. In one case the terminal point is an insurgency and combustible politics threatening the very operations of the oil industry and the petrostate itself; in the other it is the violence of a blowout—the loss of human and environmental life and livelihoods—and of the deadly consequences of substituting technical and financial over political risks.
Individual Differences in the Ability to Fake on Personality Measures

This study provides a partial test of the model of faking proposed by McFarland and Ryan (2000) by examining the degree to which self-monitoring, knowledge of the constructs being measured, job familiarity, and openness to ideas account for variance in ability to fake on a personality measure. Undergraduates (N = 342) completed a modified version of the NEO Personality Inventory–Revised under both honest and faking instructions. In addition, some participants were asked to “fake good” and others were asked to fake toward the requirements of a specific job (i.e., accountant). Consistent with prior research, the fake good manipulation was found to increase scores on 8 of the 9 personality variables. In contrast, the fake accountant manipulation resulted in a personality profile consistent with a priori hypotheses in which some personality scores were significantly increased whereas others were significantly decreased. Results also revealed that the individual difference variables explained a significant portion of the variance in the ability to fake and that the two faking conditions produced different relations with these individual difference variables. As hypothesized, the participants' openness to ideas was a significant predictor of the ability to fake like an accountant (β = .22) but not the ability to fake good. In contrast, the participants' knowledge of the constructs being measured was a significant predictor of the ability to fake good (β = .18) but not the ability to fake like an accountant. We conclude by elaborating on the importance of using a hypothesis testing approach in the assessment of the relations between personality variables and job performance.
Deformation of Chondrocytes in Articular Cartilage under Compressive Load: A Morphological Study

The main function of articular cartilage is to transmit load. The objective of this study was to describe the deformation of chondrocytes under static loading and its relation to collagen matrix deformation. Whole intact rabbit knee joints were loaded statically with either high or low magnitude and long or short duration. Specimens were cryopreserved while under load and prepared for morphological evaluation by field emission scanning electron microscopy. With this method an immediate preservation of the chondrocyte in its loaded state was possible. Static compression of articular cartilage produced a zone-specific deformation of chondrocyte shape, depending on the magnitude and duration of load. Under high-force and long-duration loading, the chondrocytes showed considerable deformation concomitant with the highly deformed collagen fibres. Chondrocyte deformation occurred mostly in the transitional and upper radial zones and less in the lower layers. There was no significant change of the chondrocyte shape in the tangential zone under high- or low-force short-duration loading. These results show that the chondrocytes undergo significant changes in shape ex vivo and that they are sensitive to differences in the magnitude and duration of loads being applied. Chondrocyte deformation is strongly linked to the deformation of the surrounding cartilage collagen matrix.
The presence of threat affects saccade trajectories

In everyday life, fast identification and processing of threat-related stimuli is of critical importance for survival. Previous studies suggested that spatial attention is automatically allocated to threatening stimuli, such as angry faces. However, in the previous studies the threatening stimuli were not completely irrelevant for the task. In the present study we used saccadic curvature to investigate whether attention is automatically allocated to threatening emotional information. Participants had to make an endogenous saccade up or down while an irrelevant face paired with an object was present in the periphery. The eyes curved away more from the angry faces than from either neutral or happy faces. This effect was not observed when the faces were inverted, excluding the possible role of low-level differences. Since the angry faces were completely irrelevant to the task, the results suggest that attention is automatically allocated to the threatening stimuli, which generates activity in the oculomotor system, and biases behaviour.
Cognitive impairment: classification by 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy

1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) allows accurate and non‐invasive in vivo metabolic study, and is a useful tool for the diagnosis of different forms of dementias. Cognitive impairment pathologies have been almost exclusively studied with MRS by comparison with healthy without a global comparison amongst Alzheimer disease (AD), vascular dementia, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and major depression patients with cognitive impairment. Whereas decrease of N‐acetylaspartate (NAA) and increase myo‐Inositol (mI) at different brain locations by 1H MRS are common features of AD, Choline (Cho) alterations have been inconclusive. In our study, 64 patients with cognitive impairment were evaluated by 1H MRS using two echo times (31 and 136 ms). There were statistical differences between dementia (AD and vascular dementia) and non‐dementia (MCI and depression) spectra at posterior cingulate gyrus. Cho/Cr, mI/Cr and NAA/Cr have been valuables for the differentiation amongst the different cognitive impairment entities. NAA/mI provides the best area under the ROC curve with the highest sensitivity (82.5%) and specificity (72.7%) in diagnosing AD. NAA/mI and mI/Cr ratios differed amongst the four cognitive impairment degenerative pathologies. Metabolic MRS differences found amongst patients with cognitive impairment entities can be useful to differentiate between AD, vascular dementia, MCI and depression.
Human–Elephant Conflicts in Northeast India

Human population increases and development in Northeast India have reduced and fragmented wildlife habitat, which has resulted in human–wildlife conflicts. Although species such as tigers (Panthera tigris) and rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) cause conflict, elephants (Elephas maximus) have become the focal point for conflict and conservation issues. This article presents several case studies to illustrate the diverse nature of human–elephant conflicts. Between 1980 and 2003, more than 1,150 humans and 370 elephants have died as a result of these conflicts. Although the public and government have taken steps, human population growth must be addressed before any permanent solutions to this conflict can be reached.
The Role of S-Palmitoylation of the Human Glucocorticoid Receptor (hGR) in Mediating the Nongenomic Glucocorticoid Actions.

BACKGROUND Many rapid nongenomic glucocorticoid actions are mediated by membrane-bound glucocorticoid receptors (GRs). S-palmitoylation is a lipid post-translational modification that mediates the membrane localization of some steroid receptors. A highly homologous amino acid sequence (663YLCM KTLLL671) is present in the ligand-binding domain of hGRα, suggesting that hGRα might also undergo S-palmitoylation. AIM To investigate the role of the motif 663YLCMKTLLL671 in membrane localization of the hGRα and in mediating rapid nongenomic glucocorticoid signaling. METHODS AND RESULTS We showed that the mutant receptors hGRαY663A, hGRαC665A and hGRαLL670/671AA, and the addition of the palmitoylation inhibitor 2-bromopalmitate did not prevent membrane localization of hGRα and co-localization with caveolin-1, and did not influence the biphasic activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway in the early time points. Finally, the hGRα was not shown to undergo S-palmitoylation. CONCLUSIONS The motif 663YLCMKTLLL671 does not play a role in membrane localization of hGRα and does not mediate the nongenomic glucocorticoid actions.
Attenuation of Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium by Altering Biological Functions of Murein Lipoprotein and Lipopolysaccharide

ABSTRACT We constructed Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium double-knockout mutants in which either the lipoprotein A (lppA) or the lipoprotein B (lppB) gene was deleted from an msbB-negative background strain by marker exchange mutagenesis. These mutants were highly attenuated when tested with in vitro and in vivo models of Salmonella pathogenesis.
Stigma, discrimination, treatment effectiveness, and policy: public views about drug addiction and mental illness.

OBJECTIVE Public attitudes about drug addiction and mental illness were compared. METHODS A Web-based national survey (N=709) was conducted to compare attitudes about stigma, discrimination, treatment effectiveness, and policy support in regard to drug addiction and mental illness. RESULTS Respondents held significantly more negative views toward persons with drug addiction. More respondents were unwilling to have a person with drug addiction marry into their family or work closely with them. Respondents were more willing to accept discriminatory practices against persons with drug addiction, more skeptical about the effectiveness of treatments, and more likely to oppose policies aimed at helping them. CONCLUSIONS Drug addiction is often treated as a subcategory of mental illness, and insurance plans group them together under the rubric of "behavioral health. " Given starkly different public views about drug addiction and mental illness, advocates may need to adopt differing approaches to reducing stigma and advancing public policy.
Combined RASSF1A and RASSF2A Promoter Methylation Analysis as Diagnostic Biomarker for Bladder Cancer

Promoter hypermethylation, a widely studied epigenetic event known to influence gene expression levels, has been proposed as a potential biomarker in multiple types of cancer. Clinical diagnostic biomarkers are needed for reliable prediction of bladder cancer recurrence. In this paper, DNA promoter methylation of five C-terminal Ras-association family members (RASSF1A, RASSF2A, RASSF4, RASSF5, and RASSF6) was studied in 64 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) bladder cancer and normal adjacent tissues using methylation-specific high-resolution melting (MS-HRM) analysis. Results showed that 73% (30/41) of transitional cell carcinoma, 100% (3/3) of squamous cell carcinoma, and 100% (4/4) of small cell carcinoma demonstrated promoter methylation of the RASSF1A or RASSF2A gene, but only 6% (1/16) of normal tissues had promoter methylation of RASSF genes. Testing positive for hypermethylation of RASSF1A or RASSF2A promoter provided 77% sensitivity and 94% specificity for identification of cancer tissues with an area under the curve of 0.854, suggesting that promoter methylation analysis of RASSF1A and RASSF2A genes has potential for use as a recurrence biomarker for bladder cancer patients.
A New Feature Extraction Method Based on the Information Fusion of Entropy Matrix and Covariance Matrix and Its Application in Face Recognition

The classic principal components analysis (PCA), kernel PCA (KPCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) feature extraction methods evaluate the importance of components according to their covariance contribution, not considering the entropy contribution, which is important supplementary information for the covariance. To further improve the covariance-based methods such as PCA (or KPCA), this paper firstly proposed an entropy matrix to load the uncertainty information of random variables similar to the covariance matrix loading the variation information in PCA. Then an entropy-difference matrix was used as a weighting matrix for transforming the original training images. This entropy-difference weighting (EW) matrix not only made good use of the local information of the training samples, contrast to the global method of PCA, but also considered the category information similar to LDA idea. Then the EW method was integrated with PCA (or KPCA), to form new feature extracting method. The new method was used for face recognition with the nearest neighbor classifier. The experimental results based on the ORL and Yale databases showed that the proposed method with proper threshold parameters reached higher recognition rates than the usual PCA (or KPCA) methods.
Skilled Coping And Sport: Promises Of Phenomenology

Phenomenology holds much potential to make meaningful contributions to research on sport. In this paper, I argue that concepts such as equipment, habit and readiness-at-hand will help to uncover heretofore unexamined strands of athletic embodiment. Through an examination of the work of Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Hubert Dreyfus I take some initial steps towards outlining not only the promises of phenomenology for the study of sport, but also what such an undertaking might entail. In conclusion I highlight the consequences for sport research that flow from phenomenology and offer suggestions for how sport scholarship might benefit from its incisive manner of discerning skilled coping.
Size and Stability of Reconstituted Sesame Oil Bodies

Oil bodies of sesame seeds comprise a triacylglycerol matrix, which is surrounded by a monolayer of phospholipids embedded with unique proteins, mainly structural proteins termed oleosins. Artificial oil bodies were successfully reconstituted with various compositions of triacylglycerols, phospholipids, and oil‐body proteins. The sizes of reconstituted oil bodies displayed a normal distribution with an average size proportional to the ratio of triacylglycerols to oil‐body proteins. Both thermostability and structural stability of reconstituted oil bodies decreased as their sizes increased, and vice versa. Proteinase K digestion indicated that oleosins anchored both native and reconstituted oil bodies via their central hydrophobic domains. The stability of reconstituted oil bodies, as well as the purified ones from sesame seeds, could be substantially enhanced after their surface proteins were cross‐linked by glutaraldehyde or genipin.
What is the Concordance Between the Medical Record and Patient Self-Report as Data Sources for Ambulatory Care?

Background:The validity of quality of care assessments relies upon data quality, yet little is known about the relative completeness and validity of data sources for evaluating the quality of care. Objectives:We evaluated concordance between ambulatory medical record and patient survey data. Levels of concordance, variations by type of item, sources of disagreement between data sources, and implications for quality of care assessment efforts are discussed. Design and Subjects:This was an observational study that included 1270 patients sampled from 39 West Coast medical organizations with at least 1 of the following: diabetes, ischemic heart disease, asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or low back pain. Measures:Items from both data sources were grouped into 4 conceptual domains: diagnosis, clinical services delivered, counseling and referral, and medication use. We present total agreement, kappa, sensitivity, and specificity at the item and domain-levels and for all items combined. Results:We found good concordance between survey and medical records overall, but there was substantial variation within and across domains. The worst concordance was in the counseling and referrals domain, the best in the medication use domain. Patients were able to report with good sensitivity on memorable items. Conclusions:Quality ratings are likely to vary in differing directions, depending on the data source used. The most appropriate data source for analyses of components of and overall quality of care must be considered in light of study objectives and resources. We recommend data collection from multiple sources to most accurately portray the patient and provider experience of medical care.
Comparison of invasive and noninvasive measurement of plasma disappearance rate of indocyanine green in patients undergoing liver transplantation: A prospective investigator‐blinded study

Plasma disappearance rate of indocyanine green (PDRICG) has been proposed for assessment of liver function in liver transplants donors and recipients, in patients with chronic liver failure, and as a prognostic factor in critically ill patients. The assessment of PDRICG using a newly developed noninvasive digital pulse densitometry method was simultaneously compared to invasive aortic fiber‐optic method in patients undergoing orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Fourteen consecutive liver transplant candidates (11 male, 3 female) were prospectively enrolled into the study. A 4F aortic catheter with an integrated fiber‐optic device and a thermistor was inserted via a femoral artery sheath for invasive aortic (INV) PDRICG assessment in all patients. The fiber‐optic device was connected to a computer system (COLD‐Z021, PULSION Medical Systems, Munich, Germany). A finger‐piece sensor was used for non‐invasive (NINV) pulse‐densitometric PDRICG assessment. For the PDRICG assessment . 5 mg/kg of ICG in cooled saline (10‐15 mL) was injected through a central venous catheter. The assessments of PDRICG were performed after induction of anesthesia, after clamping of the hepatic artery, after clamping of the inferior vena cava, after reperfusion of the graft, and on the first postoperative day. During the PDRICG measurements, the investigators were blinded for the results of the noninvasive monitoring. Seventy‐one pairs of measurements were performed successfully. PDRICG ranged from 0%/min to 43.8 %/min (11.6%/min ± 9.6 %/min, mean ± SD) for invasive and from 2.6%/min to 36.1 %/min (10%/min ± 7.6 %/min, mean ± SD) for noninvasive assessment method. The linear regression analysis yielded the equation: PDRICGNINV = 1.493 ± 0.735 × PDRICGINV, with a correlation coefficient of r = 0.93 (P < .0001). The analysis according to Bland and Altman showed a good agreement between the PDRICGNINV and PDRICGINV with a mean bias 1.5 ± 3.8 for all measurements. In conclusion, according to these results, the noninvasive transcutaneous pulse‐densitometric method correlates well with the invasive aortic fiber‐optic method and thus can be used in patients undergoing liver transplantation. (Liver Transpl 2004;10:1060–1064.)
Salience of working-memory maintenance and manipulation deficits in schizophrenia

Background Encoding and maintenance of information in working memory, followed by internal manipulation of that information for planning adaptive behavior, are two key components of working-memory systems. Both processes have been reported to be impaired in schizophrenia, but few studies have directly compared the relative severity of these abnormalities, or the degree to which manipulation deficits might be secondary to alterations in maintenance processes. Method Clinically stable schizophrenia patients (n=25) and a demographically similar healthy comparison group (n=24) were administered a verbal span task with three levels of working-memory load. Maintenance was assessed using sequential position questions. Manipulation processes were assessed by requiring comparison of the relative sequential position of test items, which entailed simultaneous serial search strategies regarding item order. Results Both groups showed reduced accuracy and increased reaction time for manipulation compared with maintenance processing. There were significant patient impairments across working-memory loads. There was no differential deficit in manipulation processing, and effect sizes of relative deficit in the patient group were higher for maintenance than manipulation processing. Conclusions The strong correlation for maintenance and manipulation deficits suggest that impairments in the ability to internally manipulate information stored in working-memory systems are not greater than alterations in the encoding and maintaining of information in working memory and that disturbances in maintenance processing may contribute to deficits in higher-order working-memory operations.
A Meta-Analytic Review of the Productivity and Satisfaction of Democratic and Autocratic Leadership

There exists a wealth of research examining the effects of democratic and autocratic leadership on group productivity and member satisfaction; however, past reviews of this literature have not systematically integrated the results of available quantitative studies. This essay uses a meta-analysis to provide such an integration. Analysis reveals no correlation between democraticdautocratic leadership style and productivity, except when taking into consideration the influence of study setting and task complexity. Results also suggest that democratic leadership has a moderate positive correlation with member satisfaction, but this relationship may be moderated by task complexity. The conclusion discusses the limits of experimentally manipulating democratic leadership and the need for conceptual refinement.
Recurrent dislocation of the patella and of the shoulder. Their association with familial joint laxity.

An inquiry was made of ninety-seven patients with recurrent dislocation of the patella and forty patients with recurrent dislocation of the shoulder to see how often they had a relative similarly affected, and also how often such dislocation is associated with, and perhaps caused by, familial joint laxity. Ten of those with recurrent dislocation of the patella and two of those with recurrent dislocation of the shoulder were found to have a near relative with a similar dislocation. Familial joint laxity was found in two of the ten families with more than one member affected by recurrent patellar dislocation, and in both those with more than one member with recurrent dislocation of the shoulder. Familial joint laxity was also found in two out of twenty patients with recurrent dislocation of the patella who had no family history of similar dislocation; but in none out of twenty patients with recurrent dislocation of the shoulder and who had no family history of similar dislocation. Familial joint laxity may be the only cause of recurrent dislocation of the shoulder occurring in more than one member of the family. But there are other, as yet undefined, causes of familial recurrent dislocation of the patella.