Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Influence of Psycho-Social Factors on Non-Sensical Shoplifting

A consideration of economic situation and actual goods stolen was used to divide 101 shoplifters into three categories; shoplifting for profit or gain and two levels of "non-sensical" shoplifting, i.e. shoplifting not apparently motivated by need or desire. The groups were compared on demographic and relevant background information, psychosocial stressors preceding the offense, and general psychological profile. The non-sensical shoplifter is more likely to be older, married, foreignborn, adopted, to have experienced an unusual childhood stress, and to be depressed and socially isolated in comparison to other shoplifters. Shoplifters in general are more likely to be femrale than male. An explanation in terms of an accumulation of stessors over time in certain individuals was offered as one interpretation of the findings.
Knowledge, Legitimation and the Politics of Risk: The Functions of Research in Public Debates on Migration

There is a striking lack of research on the utilisation of expert knowledge in public policy debates and party political mobilisation. Existing contributions in related fields of scholarship generate rather contradictory expectations. On the one hand, political communications literature points to the dumbing down of political debate, implying a limited role for expert knowledge. On the other hand, a number of prominent sociologists have noted the centrality of science in political debate on the politics of risk. This article suggests that the two theses are not necessarily incompatible. For knowledge to be reported in the media, it clearly needs to conform to criteria of novelty, drama and scandal, but scientific findings can and often do meet these criteria, especially in areas of risk, where there is enormous potential to scandalise government actions or omissions. The article illustrates these tendencies through an analysis of the use of expert knowledge in UK debates on migration from 2002 to 2004. It explores how research was used in parliamentary debates, speeches and newspaper coverage of three prominent episodes in the politics of migration. The examples demonstrate well how the mass media utilises research to expose political scandal. The analysis also suggests the ambivalence of political actors and especially incumbents in drawing on research. While governments are keen to utilise research to legitimise policies, they are also aware of the limitations of science in underpinning risky decisions. The article concludes with a discussion of how politics has responded to this dilemma.
Discourse exercises in aphasia therapy: A case study

Abstract In recent years an increasing interest in discourse functions in aphasia can be observed. Research on discourse functions has revealed aphasics' abilities to comprehend and formulate the units of language which convey messages and to process information within a linguistic test (Wilcox et al 1978, Gleason et al. 1980, Ulatowska et al. 1981, Ulatowska et ul. 1983 a, b). These findings have been also confirmed in Polish aphasics (Osiejuk 1989).
Phase-Dependent Effect of Room Light Exposure in a 5-h Advance of the Sleep-Wake Cycle: Implications for Jet Lag

The acute disruption in sleep quality, vigilance levels, and cognitive and athletic performance observed after transmeridian flights is presumed to be the result of a transient misalignment between the endogenous circadian pacemaker and the shifted sleep schedule. Several laboratory and field experiments have demonstrated that exposure to bright artificial light can accelerate circadian entrainment to a shifted sleep-wake schedule. In the present study, the authors investigated whether the schedule of exposure to indoor room light, to which urban dwellers are typically exposed, can substantially affect circadian adaptation to a simulated eastward voyage. We enrolled 15 healthy young men in a laboratory simulation of a Montreal-to-London voyage. Subjects were exposed to 6 h of room light (mean ± SD: 379 ± 10) prior to bedtime (n = 7) or when on a progressively advancing schedule (n = 8) early in the day. The remaining 10 hours of wakefulness were spent in dim light (4 ± 1 lux). Circadian assessments, performed via the constant routine procedure, evaluated the phase of the endogenous circadian rhythms of core body temperature and plasma melatonin before and after 1 week on the shifted schedule. At the end of the study, only subjects exposed to room light on the advancing schedule expressed oscillations of the endogenous circadian pacemaker in phase with the new sleep-wake cycle. In this group, a mean advance shift of the nadir of core body temperature of +5:22 ± 0:15 h was observed, with parallel shifts in plasma melatonin concentration and subjective alertness. The circadian rhythms of subjects exposed to room light later in the day remained much more adjusted to the departure than to the destination time zone. These results demonstrate that the schedule of exposure to room light can substantially affect circadian adaptation to a shifted sleep-wake schedule.
Overproduction of Microbial Transglutaminase in Escherichia coli, In Vitro Refolding, and Characterization of the Refolded Form

The Streptoverticillium transglutaminase (MTG) gene, synthesized previously for yeast expression, was modified and resynthesized for overexpession in E. coli. A high-level expression plasmid, pUCTRPMTG-02(+), was constructed. Furthermore, to eliminate the N-terminal methionine, pUCTRPMTGD2 was constructed. Cultivation of E. coli transformed with pUCTRPMTG-02(+) or pUCTRPMTGD2 yielded a large amount of MTG (200~300 mg/liter) as insoluble inclusion bodies. The N-terminal amino acid residue of the expressed protein was methionine or serine (the second amino acid residue of the mature MTG sequence), respectively. Transformed E. coli cells were disrupted, and collected pellets of inclusion bodies were solubilized with 8 M urea. Rapid dilution treatment of solubilized MTG restored the enzymatic activity. Refolded MTG, purified by ion-exchange chromatography, which had an N-terminal methionine or serine residue, showed activity equivalent to that of native MTG. These results indicated that recombinant MTG could be produced efficiently in E. coli.
How do occupational stressor-strain effects vary with time? A review and meta-analysis of the relevance of time lags in longitudinal studies

Through a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies from 68 samples, this study examines the role of time in three types of occupational stressor-strain effects. First, this study reviews the extent to which correlations between stressors and strains when both are measured at the same time point (i.e. synchronous effects) change with the passage of time. Second, this review examines the extent to which stressors predict increases in strain (i.e. lagged effects) and whether these effects vary across different time lags. Third, this paper considers the extent to which strains predict increases in stressors (i.e. reverse causation effects), and whether these effects vary across different time lags. Results indicate that synchronous effects tend to increase over time, suggesting that the effects of chronic stressors build up through cumulative exposure. Lagged effects were generally small but their magnitude increased over time for about three years before declining, whereas the average size of reverse causation effects was also small but tended to increase across time. The lagged and reverse causation effects were highly variable, especially among studies with sample sizes under 500, suggesting that large sample sizes are needed to detect them reliably. Implications for longitudinal occupational stress theory and research are discussed.
To Remain a Non-Smoker

The aim of the study described in this article was to explore how non-smoking adolescent girls, living in a smokers’ environment, explained the reasons for their own non-smoking behaviour. Eleven girls aged 14–16 years were interviewed. All had parents and best friends who were smokers.The interviews were semi-structured. Data were analysed according to guidelines suggested by Kvale (1997). The findings revealed that non-smoking behaviour was often preceded by a deliberate decision, which was sometimes made early in life. Moreover, the decision was implemented and repeated during the course of time, in a dynamic process that involved the girls’ inner as well as external resources and experiences. The findings are discussed within the theoretical framework of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model. We also discuss how risk behaviour may be prevented within the girls’ ecological system.
Access To Essential Maternal Health Interventions and Human Rights Violations among Vulnerable Communities in Eastern Burma

BACKGROUND Health indicators are poor and human rights violations are widespread in eastern Burma. Reproductive and maternal health indicators have not been measured in this setting but are necessary as part of an evaluation of a multi-ethnic pilot project exploring strategies to increase access to essential maternal health interventions. The goal of this study is to estimate coverage of maternal health services prior to this project and associations between exposure to human rights violations and access to such services. METHODS AND FINDINGS Selected communities in the Shan, Mon, Karen, and Karenni regions of eastern Burma that were accessible to community-based organizations operating from Thailand were surveyed to estimate coverage of reproductive, maternal, and family planning services, and to assess exposure to household-level human rights violations within the pilot-project target population. Two-stage cluster sampling surveys among ever-married women of reproductive age (15-45 y) documented access to essential antenatal care interventions, skilled attendance at birth, postnatal care, and family planning services. Mid-upper arm circumference, hemoglobin by color scale, and Plasmodium falciparum parasitemia by rapid diagnostic dipstick were measured. Exposure to human rights violations in the prior 12 mo was recorded. Between September 2006 and January 2007, 2,914 surveys were conducted. Eighty-eight percent of women reported a home delivery for their last pregnancy (within previous 5 y). Skilled attendance at birth (5.1%), any (39.3%) or > or = 4 (16.7%) antenatal visits, use of an insecticide-treated bed net (21.6%), and receipt of iron supplements (11.8%) were low. At the time of the survey, more than 60% of women had hemoglobin level estimates < or = 11.0 g/dl and 7.2% were Pf positive. Unmet need for contraceptives exceeded 60%. Violations of rights were widely reported: 32.1% of Karenni households reported forced labor and 10% of Karen households had been forced to move. Among Karen households, odds of anemia were 1.51 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.95-2.40) times higher among women reporting forced displacement, and 7.47 (95% CI 2.21-25.3) higher among those exposed to food security violations. The odds of receiving no antenatal care services were 5.94 (95% CI 2.23-15.8) times higher among those forcibly displaced. CONCLUSIONS Coverage of basic maternal health interventions is woefully inadequate in these selected populations and substantially lower than even the national estimates for Burma, among the lowest in the region. Considerable political, financial, and human resources are necessary to improve access to maternal health care in these communities.
Ambidextrous leadership and team innovation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report the first empirical test of the recently proposed ambidexterity theory of leadership for innovation (Rosing et al., 2011). This theory proposes that the interaction between two complementary leadership behaviors – opening and closing – predicts team innovation, such that team innovation is highest when both opening and closing leadership behaviors are high. Design/methodology/approach – Multi-source survey data came from 33 team leaders of architectural and interior design firms and 90 of their employees. Findings – Results supported the interaction hypothesis, even after controlling for leaders’ transformational leadership behavior and general team success. Research limitations/implications – The relatively small sample size and the cross-sectional design are potential limitations of the study. The findings provide initial support for the central hypothesis of the ambidexterity theory of leadership for innovation. Practical implications – The results sugge.
Fathers and Traumatized Youth: Key Variables of Gender, Emotion, and Recovery Needs

Addressing the father’s role in assisting traumatized youth, this exploratory review of 76 nonduplicated research studies identified three major categories of variables in determining the relationship between fathers’ involvement in adolescent trauma recovery: (a) gender and emotion, (b) gender and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and (c) adolescents’ recovery needs. These variables addressed the significant impact of men’s emotional processing, the effects of PTSD on interpersonal relationships, and how trauma experiences influence the perception of needs as related to gender differences. Research focused on examining the impact of these variables on adolescent trauma recovery stressed the extent of fathers’ role in treatment.
Quantifying Resonant Structure in NGC 6946 from Two-dimensional Kinematics

We study the two-dimensional kinematics of the Hα-emitting gas in the nearby barred Scd galaxy NGC 6946, in order to determine the pattern speed of the primary m = 2 perturbation mode. The pattern speed is a crucial parameter for constraining the internal dynamics, estimating the impact velocities of the gravitational perturbation at the resonance radii, and setting up an evolutionary scenario for NGC 6946. Our data allow us to derive the best-fitting kinematic position angle and the geometry of the underlying gaseous disk, which we use to derive the pattern speed using the Tremaine-Weinberg method. We find a main pattern speed Ω = 22 km s-1 kpc-1, but our data clearly reveal the presence of an additional pattern speed Ω = 47 km s-1 kpc-1 in a zone within 1.25 kpc of the nucleus. Using the epicyclic approximation, we deduce the location of the resonance radii and confirm that inside the outer inner Lindblad resonance radius of the main oval, a primary bar has formed rotating at more than twice the outer pattern speed. We further confirm that a nuclear bar has formed inside the inner Lindblad resonance radius of the primary bar, coinciding with the inner inner Lindblad resonance radius of the large-scale m = 2 mode oval.
Concept Learning and Categorization from the Web

In previous work, we found that a great deal of information about noun attributes can be extracted from the Web using simple text patterns, and that enriching vector-based models of concepts with this information about attributes led to drastic improvements in noun categorization. We extend this previous work in two ways: (i) by comparing concept descriptions extracted using patterns with descriptions extracted with a parser, and (ii) by developing an improved dataset balanced with respect to ambiguity, frequency, and WordNet unique beginners.
Salivary antibodies following parenteral immunization of infants with a meningococcal serogroup A and C conjugated vaccine

Bacterial and viral salivary antibody testing is proving sensitive and specific, useful for epidemiological studies, and is simple and non-invasive. Salivary serogroup C polysaccharide-specific (SC PS-S) IgA and IgG were determined as a proportion of total salivary IgA and IgG in a group of UK infants who were recipients of a conjugated A/C meningococcal PS vaccine. Geometric mean concentrations (GMCs) of salivary SC PS-S IgG per mg of total IgG (μg/mg) were 0·1 pre-vaccination, rising to 8·2 post first, 16·1 post second and 29·3 post third dose of vaccine. For IgA, the corresponding GMCs in ng/mg were 0·1, 82·8, 69·6 and 91·2. Significant correlations (P<0·0001) were found between serum Ig and salivary IgG SC PS-S antibody for pre-vaccine and 1 month post each dose of vaccine suggesting that SC PS-S IgG in saliva was largely derived from serum. Of the five infants whose sera were analysed for isotype-specific responses, only traces of IgM and IgA were measurable suggesting that the SC PS-S IgA was locally produced. These findings suggests that the widespread use of meningococcal conjugate vaccines is likely to reduce nasopharyngeal carriage and may thereby induce herd immunity in the vaccinated population.
Converting Redox Signaling to Apoptotic Activities by Stress-Responsive Regulators HSF1 and NRF2 in Fenretinide Treated Cancer Cells

Background Pharmacological intervention of redox balance in cancer cells often results in oxidative stress-mediated apoptosis, attracting much attention for the development of a new generation of targeted therapy in cancer. However, little is known about mechanisms underlying the conversion from oxidative signaling to downstream activities leading cells to death. Methodology/Principal Findings We here report a systematic detection of transcriptome changes in response to oxidative signals generated in leukemia cells upon fenretinide treatment, implicating the occurrence of numerous stress-responsive events during the fenretinide induced apoptosis, such as redox response, endoplasmic reticulum stress/unfolded protein response, translational repression and proteasome activation. Moreover, the configuration of these relevant events is primarily orchestrated by stress responsive transcription factors, as typically highlighted by NF-E2-related factor-2 (NRF2) and heat shock factor 1 (HSF1). Several lines of evidence suggest that the coordinated regulation of these transcription factors and thus their downstream genes are involved in converting oxidative signaling into downstream stress-responsive events regulating pro-apoptotic and apoptotic activities at the temporal and spatial levels, typifying oxidative stress-mediated programmed death rather than survival in cancer cells. Conclusions/Significance This study provides a roadmap for understanding oxidative stress-mediated apoptosis in cancer cells, which may be further developed into more sophisticated therapeutic protocols, as implicated by synergistic induction of cell apoptosis using proteasome inhibitors with fenretinide.
Verbal-Coding Deficits in the Recall of Pictorial Information by Learning Disabled Readers: The Influence of a Lexical System

Based on a three-stage model of memory coding, comparisons were made between reading ability groups on their serial recall of pictorial information. In Experiment 1, learning disabled and skilled readers viewed pictures of low and high verbal codable shapes without names or with names either “matched” or “mismatched” with respect to the shape’s form. Regardless of the shape codability, both types of name-training conditions improved skilled readers’ recall, whereas disabled readers exhibited better recall for unnamed shapes. Experiment 2 compared the two ability groups on recall of shapes when name-training conditions involved labels low in meaningfulness. No ability group differences emerged. Taken together, the two experiments suggest that skilled readers’ interdependent coding operations are related to the activation of a semantic system from long-term memory. In contrast, disabled readers’ multiple coding operations represent difficulties in coordinating verbal information between two independent memory storages (i.e., short-term and long-term) as well as a bias for processing information through a visual route. In Experiment 3, learning disabled readers were divided into high (LD-HV) and low (LD-LV) vocabulary (lexical) subgroups. No significant difference in recall was found between skilled and LD-HV readers on the name-training condition. Both ability groups were superior in recall to the LD-L V readers. In contrast, the LD-L V readers were superior on the unnamed conditions when compared to the other ability groups. The results suggest that interdependent coding operations in disabled readers occur when their semantic memory system has access to highly developed lexical codes.
Social Dimensions of Neighborhoods and the Effectiveness of Information Programs

In this article, concepts from research on social networks, neighboring, and sense of community were combined in order to find empirical foundation for dimensions in neighborhood cohesion. Eight neighborhoods in the Netherlands were investigated by interviewing representative samples of residents. The results reveal two dimensions in the social characteristics of neighborhoods, the first reflecting neighboring, the second, sense of community. In combination, these dimensions define the cohesion of a neighborhood. Neighborhoods that consisted mainly of multi-story apartment blocks were found to be less cohesive than neighborhoods consisting of single-family dwellings, not because of lower levels of neighboring activities, but mainly due to a weaker sense of community. Finally, a typology of neighborhoods based on the two observed dimensions is proposed.
The Effect of Washing and Drying Practices on Skin Barrier Function

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to explore the potential contribution to skin damage caused by standard washing and drying techniques used in nursing. DESIGN An experimental cohort design was used, with healthy volunteers (n = 15) receiving 6 different washing and drying techniques to the volar aspect of the forearm. Subjects underwent 3 washing and drying techniques on each arm; each technique was repeated twice, separated by a 2-hour rest period. METHODS Skin integrity was assessed by measuring transepidermal water loss (TEWL), skin hydration, skin pH, and erythema. Comparisons were made between washing with soap or water alone, and drying using a towel (rubbing and patting) or evaporation. The significance of any difference was assessed by nonparametric analysis. The study was approved by the local research ethics committee, and all volunteers gave informed consent. RESULTS TEWL was seen to increase following each type of wash, and increased further following repeated washing. Drying of the skin by patting with a towel increased TEWL to give readings identical to those obtained from wet skin. There was an increase in skin pH with all washing and drying techniques, particularly when soap was used. Erythema also increased with repeated washing, particularly when soap was used. No significant changes were observed in skin hydration as measured by a corneometer, although there was a tendency for the values to decrease with washing. CONCLUSIONS These data suggest that washing with soap and water and towel drying has a significant disrupting effect on the skin's barrier function. There is tentative evidence to suggest that a cumulative effect may exist with damage increasing as washing frequency increases. Drying the skin by patting with a towel offers no advantage to conventional gentle rubbing as it leaves the skin significantly wetter and at greater risk of frictional damage.