Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Aggressive and Antisocial Behaviours Among Secondary School Students in Botswana: The Influence of Family and School Based Factors

This study examined the relationship between family factors and secondary school students’ aggressive and antisocial behaviours. Participants were 1,478 junior and senior secondary school students from four major urban centres in Botswana, aged 12-20. Results showed significant prevalence of self-reported aggressive tendencies and antisocial behaviours among secondary school students in Botswana. Boys rated themselves higher on aggression, use of alcohol and drugs and carrying and using dangerous weapons compared to girls. High scores on antisocial and aggressive behaviours were significantly related to poor parent-child relations and low parental monitoring. The results are consistent with findings from previous studies. The findings have important implications to violence prevention programs for children and adolescents. Suggestions for future research and the development of intervention programs are made.
Overcoming Obstacles to Peace: The Contribution of Mediation to Short-Lived Conflict Settlements

We argue that a factor widely seen as facilitating cooperation in an international dispute, mediation, is also a sign that a resulting agreement is likely to be short-lived. Mediators get the tough cases, disputes that are most likely to result in short-lived settlements—a selection effect. At the same time, mediation helps to resolve a conflict's underlying issues, making mediated settlements more likely to last—a process effect. We develop a theory that captures these opposing forces—focusing on the conditional effect of mediation on nonstate actors—and taking into account critical aspects of the disputants, conflict, conflict management processes and settlement. Using hazard analysis, Heckman two-stage probit and logistic regression, we statistically analyze over 1,400 settlements drawn from the just released International Conflict Management 2000 data set and also conduct a quantitative case study of mediation tools used in the former Yugoslavia. All analyses find strong support for the opposing effects of mediation; mediated agreements are more likely to be short-lived, unless they involve nonstate actors. This study advances our understanding of selection effects and the factors that lead to short-lived settlements, and provides policy makers and potential mediators a way to establish realistic expectations about the durability of dispute settlements.
Trans-Ancestral Studies Fine Map the SLE-Susceptibility Locus TNFSF4

We previously established an 80 kb haplotype upstream of TNFSF4 as a susceptibility locus in the autoimmune disease SLE. SLE-associated alleles at this locus are associated with inflammatory disorders, including atherosclerosis and ischaemic stroke. In Europeans, the TNFSF4 causal variants have remained elusive due to strong linkage disequilibrium exhibited by alleles spanning the region. Using a trans-ancestral approach to fine-map the locus, utilising 17,900 SLE and control subjects including Amerindian/Hispanics (1348 cases, 717 controls), African-Americans (AA) (1529, 2048) and better powered cohorts of Europeans and East Asians, we find strong association of risk alleles in all ethnicities; the AA association replicates in African-American Gullah (152,122). The best evidence of association comes from two adjacent markers: rs2205960-T (P = 1.71×10−34, OR = 1.43[1.26–1.60]) and rs1234317-T (P = 1.16×10−28, OR = 1.38[1.24–1.54]). Inference of fine-scale recombination rates for all populations tested finds the 80 kb risk and non-risk haplotypes in all except African-Americans. In this population the decay of recombination equates to an 11 kb risk haplotype, anchored in the 5′ region proximal to TNFSF4 and tagged by rs2205960-T after 1000 Genomes phase 1 (v3) imputation. Conditional regression analyses delineate the 5′ risk signal to rs2205960-T and the independent non-risk signal to rs1234314-C. Our case-only and SLE-control cohorts demonstrate robust association of rs2205960-T with autoantibody production. The rs2205960-T is predicted to form part of a decameric motif which binds NF-κBp65 with increased affinity compared to rs2205960-G. ChIP-seq data also indicate NF-κB interaction with the DNA sequence at this position in LCL cells. Our research suggests association of rs2205960-T with SLE across multiple groups and an independent non-risk signal at rs1234314-C. rs2205960-T is associated with autoantibody production and lymphopenia. Our data confirm a global signal at TNFSF4 and a role for the expressed product at multiple stages of lymphocyte dysregulation during SLE pathogenesis. We confirm the validity of trans-ancestral mapping in a complex trait.
Prognostics in the control of logistics systems

The use of technological tools in logistics has the intention of increasing visibility, capacity and control in the supply chain. Decrease of uncertainties due to asymmetric data has been the constant challenge of management. Misdiagnosis of situations and equipment, inaccurate production planning, shrinkage and counterfeiting are some of the common problems as a consequence of erroneous information. The idea of prognostic logistics is to use real time information and an intelligent system to diagnose and predict early failures and hazardous situations. The automatic capture of information in prognostic logistics has the intent to reduce human errors. Automatic identification technologies enable the creation of a prognostic logistic network where real time information is used to make accurate forecasting, pushing a proactive supply chain instead of a reactive one
An equivalent reduction of a 2-D symmetric polynomial matrix

A new family of companion forms for polynomials and polynomial matrices has recently been developed in [4] and [1] respectively. The application of these new companion forms to polynomial matrices with symmetries has been examined in [2]. In this work we extend the results presented in [2] to the case of 2-D polynomial matrices and thus provide a new linearization of a 2-D polynomial matrix that preserves both the symmetric structure and the structural invariants, of the original 2-D polynomial matrix.
Diagnostic value of a “wide‐range” quantitative nested real‐time PCR assay for varicella zoster virus myelitis

Myelitis is one of the rarest neurological complications of varicella zoster virus (VZV) infection. In this study, the authors remodeled the “wide‐range” quantitative nested real‐time (QNRT) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay to quantitatively detect a small amount of VZV‐DNA in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). For use as a specific internal control “calibrator,” an original mutation‐VZV (MZ) plasmid was developed. The initial copy number of VZV‐DNA in CSF specimens was measured by the amplification rate of the MZ‐plasmid. For 17 consecutive CSF specimens collected from three elderly patients with VZV myelitis, the diagnostic value of the wide‐range QNRT‐PCR assay was evaluated and compared with other conventional PCR assays and enzyme immunoassay (EIA). The MZ‐plasmid demonstrated statistically uniform amplifications (F = 1.016) against a wide range (1–100,000) of copy numbers of mimic VZV‐DNA. The wide‐range QNRT‐PCR assay quantitatively and rapidly (within 48 hr) detected 5,863, 3,052, 958, and 6,721 copies/ml of VZV‐DNA in the CSF specimens collected from all patients in the acute phase. Additionally, there was a significant difference (*P = 0.023) in the copy number of VZV‐DNA between before and after acyclovir treatment. Other conventional single PCR assays all revealed negative results, but were nevertheless time‐consuming (7 days). The IgG EIA‐value for VZV was continually elevated throughout the clinical course of all patients. The MZ‐plasmid was thus regarded as an appropriate “calibrator” in the wide‐range QNRT‐PCR assay. This assay is a novel, rapid, accurate, quantitative, and highly sensitive technique, and will contribute as a reliable and useful clinical examination for the rapid diagnosis of VZV infection to central nervous system. J Med. Virol. 85:2042–2055, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
An RNN-based Binary Classifier for the Story Cloze Test

The Story Cloze Test consists of choosing a sentence that best completes a story given two choices. In this paper we present a system that performs this task using a supervised binary classifier on top of a recurrent neural network to predict the probability that a given story ending is correct. The classifier is trained to distinguish correct story endings given in the training data from incorrect ones that we artificially generate. Our experiments evaluate different methods for generating these negative examples, as well as different embedding-based representations of the stories. Our best result obtains 67.2% accuracy on the test set, outperforming the existing top baseline of 58.5%.
From the streets and squares to social movement studies: What have we learned?

In the editors’ introduction they noted how the various mobilizations starting in 2011 raised important questions for social movement scholars. The various articles in this issue have explored the emergence, dynamics, and significance of the social mobilizations, contestations, and confrontations that started with the Arab Spring mobilizations and continue to this day. This concluding article is focused on three main aspects that emerge from the editors’ dialogue with the different contributions. The first is the context, beginning with a political-economic account of neoliberalism, the various crises of legitimacy that it has fostered over the last three decades, and the role of new media (ICTs) in engendering these mobilizations, their coordination, and globalization. The second aspect focuses on some of the characteristics of this cycle of contention, mostly the actors and their networks, identities and the new practices of occupying public space. The third and last part represents an attempt to evaluate the general trajectory of these mobilizations over the last two years.
CT-guided biopsy for the diagnosis of renal tumors before treatment with percutaneous ablation.

OBJECTIVE Percutaneous thermal ablation is an emerging technique in the management of renal cell carcinoma (RCC), with greatest efficacy in tumors < or = 3 cm. The purpose of this retrospective study was to evaluate the role and utility of pretreatment CT-guided biopsy in patients referred for percutaneous thermal ablation of renal tumors. CONCLUSION Less than 5% of samples in our study were benign, and 11.8% were nondiagnostic. Biopsy in smaller lesions was less accurate; therefore biopsy is less useful for these renal lesions. Because fine-needle aspiration (FNA) has higher sensitivity than core biopsy, an appropriate algorithm may be to begin with FNA and reserve core biopsy for cases in which an onsite cytotechnologist is unavailable or deems the sample of inadequate cellularity.
Learning From Electronic Texts: Effects of Interactive Overviews for Information Access

This research investigated the effects of structured and unstructured overviews on learning from electronic text. It compared review strategies and text representations developed for traditional continuous text and for electronic text with a structured overview (a hierarchically organized map of the text content) and an unstructured overview (a menu-like content listing). Both overviews produced better memory for text topics and better breadth of recall compared with traditional text. However, when readers lacked specific study goals, the unstructured overview produced a more fragmented knowledge structure. This suggests that minimally structured overviews may be better for specific learning tasks than for gaining familiarity with new topics. The structured overview was easier for readers to recall and use. It also increased the amount of review when readers lacked specific study goals, suggesting that the overview design influences the extent to which readers take advantage of the flexibility provided by.
School leadership preparation and development in Kenya evaluating performance impact and return on leadership development investment

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the quality of the current provision for school leadership in Kenya, the extent to which they have an impact on student outcomes and the return on school leadership preparation and development investment. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws from educational leadership, management and administration courses delivered by universities and other institutions to aspiring and practising educational leaders in Kenya. It employs a method for evaluating return on leadership development investment first articulated by Eacott (2013). Findings – While there is growth in provision, consistent with international trends, this provision is more recognised for its standardisation than points of distinction; there is minimal attention to identified dimensions of leadership leading to higher student outcomes which raises questions regarding the universality of school leadership preparation and development curriculum; and the high course costs of current provision .
[Histone H3 acetylation of tumor necrosis factor-alpha and cyclooxygenase-2 in patients with type 2 diabetes].

OBJECTIVE To investigate the expression of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) mRNA and evaluate the status of histone H3 acetylation at TNF-α and COX-2 promoter in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from type 2 diabetics. METHODS The PBMCs from 12 type 2 diabetics and 12 healthy controls were isolated by Ficoll-Hypaque density gradient centrifugation. The differential expression of TNF-α and COX-2 mRNA was measured by real-time PCR (polymerase chain reaction). Chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis was used to detect the status of H3 acetylation at TNF-α and COX-2 promoter region. RESULTS TNF-α and COX-2 mRNA were overexpressed in PBMCs from Type 2 diabetics as compared with normal controls (2.28 ± 0.09 fold and 2.78 ± 0.26 fold). (P < 0.05). Compared with normal controls, H3 acetylation at the TNF-α (1.54 ± 0.43 vs 0.97 ± 0.39, P = 0.0094) and COX-2 (1.20 ± 0.58 vs 0.64 ± 0.21, P = 0.0161) gene promoter region was elevated in PBMCs from Type 2 diabetic patients. CONCLUSION Increased H3 acetylation at TNF-α and COX-2 promoter in PBMCs from type 2 diabetics may contribute to the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes through the elevated expressions of TNF-α and COX-2.
Symbolic Time Series Analysis and Its Application in Social Sciences

The present chapter intents to present the symbolic time series analysis (STSA) reviewing the recent developments in sciences. Even if there are very few works applied to social sciences, STSA has a potential to be developed. In particular, due to the limitations about historical data, fields such as Economics and Finance need to develop statistical tests to prove their hypotheses. An independence test and a causality test based on STSA are reviewed. They seem to be more powerful, detecting different kinds of nonlinearities compared with the classical tests, usually applied in social sciences. However, there is much work to do with STSA, and social sciences are a fertile field for the development of new powerful tools.
Does Team Building Work?

This research reports the results of a comprehensive investigation into the effectiveness of team building. The article serves to update and extend Salas, Rozell, Mullen, and Driskell's (1999) team-building meta-analysis by assessing a larger database and examining a broader set of outcomes. Our study considers the impact of four specific team-building components (goal setting, interpersonal relations, problem solving, and role clarification) on cognitive, affective, process, and performance outcomes. Results (based on 60 correlations) suggest that team building has a positive moderate effect across all team outcomes. In terms of specific outcomes, team building was most strongly related to affective and process outcomes. Results are also presented on the differential effectiveness of team building based upon the team size.
African American Women’s Perceptions of Depression and Suicide Risk and Protection

This article reports the findings of a qualitative study that examined the perceptions of depression and suicide risk and protection among 40 African American women. Seven focus groups were conducted. The thematic findings of the focus group discussions included perceptions of depression as a sense of “spiritual forsakenness” and a healthy alternative to suicide. Living in spirit as well as in community with others was viewed as protection against suicide. Having a strong sense of African American heritage, history, and identity was perceived as protection against suicide and depression. Womanist implications for social work research, practice, and education are discussed.
New DGK gene mutations in the hepatocerebral form of mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome.

OBJECTIVE To document novel homozygous mutations in the gene for deoxyguanosine kinase (DGK) in 3 children with mitochondrial DNA depletion. DESIGN Clinical features included liver failure, hypotonia, and nystagmus in 2 siblings, and liver cirrhosis, optic dysplasia, nystagmus, and microcephaly in the third patient. We sequenced the whole coding region of the DGK gene. RESULTS We identified 2 novel homozygous mutations, G352A and C269T, that lead to truncated proteins. CONCLUSION These data confirm that DGK mutations typically affect the liver and brain.
DIVERGENT TIMING AND PATTERNS OF SPECIES ACCUMULATION IN LOWLAND AND HIGHLAND NEOTROPICAL BIRDS

Abstract Late Pliocene and Pleistocene climatic instability has been invoked to explain the buildup of Neotropical biodiversity, although other theories date Neotropical diversification to earlier periods. If these climatic fluctuations drove Neotropical diversification, then a large proportion of species should date to this period and faunas should exhibit accelerated rates of speciation. However, the unique role of recent climatic fluctuations in promoting diversification could be rejected if late Pliocene and Pleistocene rates declined. To test these temporal predictions, dateable molecular phylogenies for 27 avian taxa were used to contrast the timing and rates of diversification in lowland and highland Neotropical faunas. Trends in diversification rates were analyzed in two ways. First, rates within taxa were analyzed for increasing or decreasing speciation rates through time. There was a significant trend within lowland taxa towards decreasing speciation rates, but no significant trend was observed within most highland taxa. Second, fauna wide diversification rates through time were estimated during one-million-year intervals by combining rates across taxa. In the lowlands, rates were highest during the late Miocene and then decreased towards the present. The decline in rates observed both within taxa and for the fauna as a whole probably resulted from density dependent cladogenesis. In the highlands, faunawide rates did not vary greatly before the Pleistocene but did increase significantly during the last one million years of the Pleistocene following the onset of severe glacial cycles in the Andes. These contrasting patterns of species accumulation suggest that lowland and highland regions were affected differently by recent climatic fluctuations. Evidently, habitat alterations associated with global climate change were not enough to promote an increase in the rate of diversification in lowland faunas. In contrast, direct fragmentation of habitats by glaciers and severe altitudinal migration of montane vegetation zones during climatic cycles may have resulted in the late Pleistocene increase in highland diversification rates. This increase resulted in a fauna with one third of its species dating to the last one million years.
Peer-to-Peer Support for Large Scale Interactive Applications

User-interactive applications are evolving in both popularity and scale on the Internet, ranging from simple file-sharing to more demanding applications such as collaborate workspace, massive multi-player online games (MMOGs). These applications are traditionally implemented by Client/Server architectures, which suffer from significant technical and commercial drawbacks, primarily high-maintenance cost and limited scalability. To overcome these drawbacks, this dissertation presents a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) approach to support large-scale interactive applications. This dissertation addresses two key design issues for P2P systems to achieve scalability and high performance. The first issue is to provide incentives for users so that P2P systems can aggregate free resources from unreliable users. The second issue is to design consistency maintenance schemes so that P2P systems can provide reliable services to meet the application requirements by using free resources from unreliable users. For the first issue, this dissertation starts with providing a budget based incentive search service, called BuSIS [105], for efficiently locating service providers in P2P systems. Then, an incentive trading model, called FairTrade [102], is presented for P2P users to exchange service with each other. Personal currency model is employed in FairTrade to simulate users to contribute to the P2P community in exchange of desired services. To cope with highly dynamic nature of P2P systems, an enhanced incentive trading model, called CoBank [101], is presented to reduce maintenance overhead at each user and improve robustness against malicious attacks. Cooperative banking strategy is used in CoBank to further distribute the maintenance workload. For the second issue, this dissertation begins with providing a consistency maintenance framework, called BCoM [104, 100], balancing between consistency strictness, availability and performance for various P2P interactive applications with heterogenous resource constraints. Then, this dissertation presents a real-time consistency maintenance P2P system, called PPAct [103], for interactive applications such as MMOGs. View discovery and update dissemination are decoupled in PPAct to mitigate the hot spot problem and ensure consistency maintenance under stringent latency constraints.
Putting job design in context: Introduction to the special issue

This special issue introduces new cross-disciplinary, cross-level, and cross-cultural perspectives on job design. The authors examine job design from the viewpoints of organizational behavior, sociology, economics, corporate strategy, entrepreneurship, and evolutionary psychology. They consider job design in the context of interpersonal interactions, teams, leadership, networks, occupations, organizational structures, national cultures, and institutional fields. They explore how employees take initiative to craft their jobs, negotiate idiosyncratic deals, and navigate entrepreneurial roles, corporate director roles, executive roles, and careers. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Social correlates of a linguistic variable:A study in a Spanish village

Abstract In this study, linguistic and anthropological research methods are employed in investigating the use of one salient feature in the speech of a small community in northern Spain. Though set in rural Spain, the study is of interest both to readers with special interest in Spain and to those concerned mostly with broader possibilities of inference from linguistic data. In the first case, findings provide insight into social change experienced by generations of villagers marked by the Spanish Civil War and the Franco regime. In the second, data provide evidence that, in this small and relatively homogeneous community, sex and political orientation are factors that influence the use of an established sociolinguistic variable. Speech data used in the study were obtained in a series of recorded interviews conducted by the author. Material of an ethnographic nature was collected during field research over a period of approximately two years. (Linguistic variation, social motivation, Spanish dialectology, Spanish regionalism, Cantabria, montañés)