Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Constructing “Hmong American Youth”: A Critical Discourse Analysis of 25 Years of Academic Literature on Hmong American Youth

Hmong American youth have been in the United States for 40 years, and yet research still suggests a binary portrayal of their experiences—model minorities or struggling delinquents. In this study, we use critical discourse analysis to examine academic literature and the construction of “Hmong American youth. ” We examine academic literature discursive practices and power in controlling the discourse on Hmong American youth and shaping practices and policies. Using critical discourse analysis, we call attention to academic literature and its power, and challenge researchers to reconstruct a more complex discourse of Hmong American youth that captures their histories, possibilities, and desires.
The Effects of Affect Manipulation and Information Exposure on Divergent Thinking

This study examined how affective states and exposure to diverse information influence figural divergent thinking using a pretest-posttest design. A total of 148 participants were divided into 4 conditions: positive affect, negative affect, information, and control. In the positive and negative affect conditions, participants respectively listened to the elation and depression statements of the Velten procedure. In the information condition, participants listened to the neutral statements of the Velten procedure. In the control condition, participants listened to word-processing instructions. Divergent thinking was measured using the figural form of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), and affect was measured using a mood questionnaire and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Multivariate analyses of covariance were conducted using the TTCT, mood, and state-trait anxiety premeasures as covariates; the TTCT, mood, and state-trait anxiety postmeasures as the dependent variables; and treatment condition as the independent variable. Results showed a significant effect of condition on posttreatment TTCT scores, F(3, 140) = 3.37, p = . 0203; mood, F(3, 140) = 7.44, p = . 0001; and state anxiety, F(3, 140) = 6.27, p = . 0005. Comparison tests showed that the information exposure treatment resulted in significantly higher TTCT scores than the control condition, indicating that exposure to diverse information can enhance divergent thinking. Results further indicated that, although the positive affect manipulation was effective in enhancing mood and reducing state anxiety, it did not enhance divergent thinking scores. The negative affect manipulation did not appear to be effective. Possible explanations for these results are discussed.
Hashtag Sense Clustering Based on Temporal Similarity

Hashtags are creative labels used in micro-blogs to characterize the topic of a message/discussion. Regardless of the use for which they were originally intended, hashtags cannot be used as a means to cluster messages with similar content. First, because hashtags are created in a spontaneous and highly dynamic way by users in multiple languages, the same topic can be associated with different hashtags, and conversely, the same hashtag may refer to different topics in different time periods. Second, contrary to common words, hashtag disambiguation is complicated by the fact that no sense catalogs (e.g., Wikipedia or WordNet) are available; and, furthermore, hashtag labels are difficult to analyze, as they often consist of acronyms, concatenated words, and so forth. A common way to determine the meaning of hashtags has been to analyze their context, but, as we have just pointed out, hashtags can have multiple and variable meanings. In this article, we propose a temporal sense clustering algorithm based on the idea that semantically related hashtags have similar and synchronous usage patterns.
Analysis of singleton ORFans in fully sequenced microbial genomes

Singleton sequence ORFans are orphan ORFs (open reading frames) that have no detectable sequence similarity to any other sequence in the databases. ORFans are of particular interest not only as evolutionary puzzles but also because we can learn little about them using bioinformatics tools. Here, we present a first systematic analysis of singleton ORFans in the first 60 fully sequenced microbial genomes. We show that although ORFans have been underemphasized, the number of ORFans is steadily growing, currently accounting for 23,634 sequences. At the same time, the percentage of ORFans as a fraction of all sequences is slowly diminishing, and is currently about 14%. Short ORFans comprise about 61% of all ORFans. The abundance of short ORFans may be due to a yet unexplained artifact. The data also suggest that the number of longer ORFans may soon diminish as more genomes of closely related organisms become available. To better address the questions about the functions and origins of ORFans, we propose to focus further studies on the longer ORFans, with emphasis on three new types of ORFans: ORFan modules, paralogous ORFans, and orthologous ORFans. We conclude that the large number of ORFans reflects an intrinsic property of the genetic material not yet fully understood. Further computational and experimental studies aimed at understanding Nature's protein diversity should also include ORFans. Proteins 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Association between duration of daily VDT use and subjective symptoms.

BACKGROUND Although visual display terminal (VDT) work has become a common task among office workers, surveys which would help to determine the allowable duration of daily VDT use are limited. METHODS We investigated more than 25,000 workers three times over a 3-year period using a self-administered questionnaire. Three factors, namely mental, physical and sleep-related symptoms, were extracted by factor analysis. Adjusted means of each factor score were compared with the duration of daily VDT use by general linear model. RESULTS Physical symptoms score became higher with increasing duration of daily VDT use without a threshold effect. Mental and sleep-related symptom scores of the workers using VDT for more 5 hr/day were significantly higher than that of the groups using VDT for >1, 1-3, and 3-5 hr/day. CONCLUSIONS Duration of daily VDT use was linearly related to the physical symptom score, and was non-linearly related to mental and sleep-related symptom score with a threshold effect of 5 hr/day.
An Additive Schwarz Method Type Theory for Lions's Algorithm and a Symmetrized Optimized Restricted Additive Schwarz Method

Optimized Schwarz methods (OSMs) are very popular methods which were introduced by P. L. Lions in [On the Schwarz alternating method III: A variant for nonoverlapping subdomains, in 3rd International Symposium on Domain Decomposition Methods for Partial Differential Equations (Houston, TX, 1989), T. F. Chan, R. Glowinski, J. Periaux, and O. Widlund, eds., SIAM, Philadelphia, 1990, pp. 202--223] for elliptic problems and by B. Despres in [C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris Ser. I Math., 311 (1990), pp. 313--316] for propagative wave phenomena. We give here a theory for Lions's algorithm that is the genuine counterpart of the theory developed over the years for the Schwarz algorithm. The first step is to introduce a symmetric variant of the optimized restricted additive Schwarz (ORAS) algorithm [A. St-Cyr, M. J. Gander, and S. J. Thomas, SIAM J. Sci. Comput. , 29 (2007), pp. 2402--2425] that is suitable for the analysis of a two-level method. Then we build a coarse space for which the convergence rate of the two-level m.
Overfitting revisited: an information-theoretic approach to simplifying discrimination trees

Abstract This paper describes a method of simplifying inductively generated discrimination trees using a measure of tree quality based on the principle of information economy, which takes into account both the size of the tree and the size of the outcome data after (notional) encoding by that tree. Results of testing this method on a selection of data sets show that it has some practical advantages over previously used techniques for tree-pruning. Some of the theoretical implications of the present method are also discussed.
Socio-economic inequalities as a predictor of health in South Africa--the Yenza cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVES To describe the demographic, environmental and health characteristics of the rural Eastern Cape and to explore demographic and environmental predictors of health. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SETTING Engcobo and Umtata in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. SUBJECTS 12,049 people from 4608 households. OUTCOME MEASURES (i) Children: immunisation history and being breastfed; (ii) women aged 15-45 years: use of contraception; (iii) women aged 20-25 years: total numbers of dead children; and (iv) all adults: smoking status, body mass index and blood pressure. RESULTS 2741 houses (59.5%) were structurally adequate, 1795 (39.0%) had access to clean water, and 1174 (25.6%) had access to gas or electric energy. Of children up to 5 years of age 1436 (44.2%) were fully immunised and 2472 (76.1%) were breastfed in their first year of life. Among women aged 15-45 years, 903 (37.8%) used contraceptives, and among women aged 20-25 years, 56 (11.8%) had lost at least 1 child. Self-report of chronic illness and disability was low. Current smokers include 264 men (12.7%) and 325 women (6.0%), and 315 men (15.2%) and 1439 women (26.7%) had a body mass index > 30. Adequate housing (odds ratio (OR) 1.31, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.12-1.53) and access to refuse disposal (OR 1.65, 95% CI: 1.36-2.00) were predictive of complete immunisation in children. Children living in houses with access to clean water (OR 0.8, 95% CI: 0.64-0.99) and a fitted toilet (OR 0.56, 95% CI: 0.38-0.83) were less likely to be breastfed in the first year of their life. Women aged 15-45 years were likely to use contraception if they were well educated (OR 2.75, 95% CI: 1.76-4.28) and lived in houses with access to refuse disposal (OR 1.46, 95% CI: 1.20-1.78). Better education was associated with a reduced likelihood of loss of a child (OR 0.11, 95% CI: 0.02-0.51) and being a smoker (OR 0.52, 95% CI: 0.38-0.73). Obesity was associated with being female (OR 1.88, 95% CI: 1.62-2.18) and living in a house with electricity (OR 1.46, 95% CI: 1.26-1.68). High blood pressure was associated with living in a house with electricity (OR 1.36, 95% CI: 1.10-1.70) and with monthly household income exceeding R2 000 (OR 1.38, 95% CI: 1.07-1.78). CONCLUSIONS High socio-economic deprivation in the Eastern Cape is associated with health status comparable to that of poorer regions in sub-Saharan Africa. The educational level of the population, access to electricity, clean water and refuse disposal facilities are important predictors of child, maternal and adult health.
Mode Locking of Electron Spin Coherences in Singly Charged Quantum Dots

The fast dephasing of electron spins in an ensemble of quantum dots is detrimental for applications in quantum information processing. We show here that dephasing can be overcome by using a periodic train of light pulses to synchronize the phases of the precessing spins, and we demonstrate this effect in an ensemble of singly charged (In,Ga)As/GaAs quantum dots. This mode locking leads to constructive interference of contributions to Faraday rotation and presents potential applications based on robust quantum coherence within an ensemble of dots.
Effects of apolipoprotein E genotype on serum lipids in obstructive sleep apnoea

There is increasing evidence that intermittent hypoxia resulting from obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is independently associated with dyslipidaemia. Currently, no data exist on potential links between OSA-related dyslipidaemia and susceptibility genes for dyslipidaemia in such patients. Our aim was to study the effects of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype and sleep apnoea severity on atherogenic dyslipidaemia in patients with OSA. 519 clinically stable subjects prospectively recruited at a tertiary referral teaching hospital underwent full polysomnography. APOE gene polymorphisms were assessed using real-time PCR. In all APOE genotype groups, serum triglycerides increased while high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol was reduced with increasing severity of OSA in each APOE genotype group, whereas the deleterious effects of OSA on serum apolipoprotein (Apo)B levels were observed in ε2 carriers and the ε3/ε3 genotype only. Nevertheless, the ε4 allele carriers had ApoB levels within the risk range, irrespective of nocturnal hypoxia. In addition, among patients with the high-risk ε4 genotype, those with the most severe nocturnal hypoxia had significantly higher triglyceride and lower HDL cholesterol levels compared with nonhypoxic ε4 subjects. APOE genotype and the oxygen desaturation index were both independent predictors of serum triglyceride levels (p=0.009 and p<0.001, respectively; R2=0.148) and ApoB levels (p=0.001 and p=0.003, respectively; R2=0.104). Our findings suggest that OSA has adverse effects on several lipid parameters over and above the effects carried by APOE genotype. Further st1udies are needed to analyse the effects of high-risk genotypes on metabolic and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with OSA. OSA has adverse effects on several lipid parameters in addition to the effects carried by the APOE genotype http://ow.ly/sKOUW
Disruption of SMIM1 causes the Vel− blood type

Here, we report the biochemical and genetic basis of the Vel blood group antigen, which has been a vexing mystery for decades, especially as anti‐Vel regularly causes severe haemolytic transfusion reactions. The protein carrying the Vel blood group antigen was biochemically purified from red blood cell membranes. Mass spectrometry‐based de novo peptide sequencing identified this protein to be small integral membrane protein 1 (SMIM1), a previously uncharacterized single‐pass membrane protein. Expression of SMIM1 cDNA in Vel− cultured cells generated anti‐Vel cell surface reactivity, confirming that SMIM1 encoded the Vel blood group antigen. A cohort of 70 Vel− individuals was found to be uniformly homozygous for a 17 nucleotide deletion in the coding sequence of SMIM1. The genetic homogeneity of the Vel− blood type, likely having a common origin, facilitated the development of two highly specific DNA‐based tests for rapid Vel genotyping, which can be easily integrated into blood group genotyping platforms. These results answer a 60‐year‐old riddle and provide tools of immediate assistance to all clinicians involved in the care of Vel− patients.
The YopD Translocator of Yersinia pseudotuberculosis Is a Multifunctional Protein Comprised of Discrete Domains

ABSTRACT To establish an infection, Yersinia pseudotuberculosis utilizes a plasmid-encoded type III translocon to microinject several anti-host Yop effectors into the cytosol of target eukaryotic cells. YopD has been implicated in several key steps during Yop effector translocation, including maintenance of yop regulatory control and pore formation in the target cell membrane through which effectors traverse. These functions are mediated, in part, by an interaction with the cognate chaperone, LcrH. To gain insight into the complex molecular mechanisms of YopD function, we performed a systematic mutagenesis study to search for discrete functional domains. We highlighted amino acids beyond the first three N-terminal residues that are dispensable for YopD secretion and confirmed that an interaction between YopD and LcrH is essential for maintenance of yop regulatory control. In addition, discrete domains within YopD that are essential for both pore formation and translocation of Yop effectors were identified. Significantly, other domains were found to be important for effector microinjection but not for pore formation. Therefore, YopD is clearly essential for several discrete steps during efficient Yop effector translocation. Recognition of this modular YopD domain structure provides important insights into the function of YopD.
A Time to Chant: The Soka Gakkai Buddhists in Britain

Fifty years ago Soka Gakkai was an organization of a few hundred people, all of them in Japan. Today it is one of the world's most rapidly expanding religious movements with members in virtually every country in Europe, the Americas, and Australasia, in most of Asia, and in several parts of Africa. It is also increasingly well publicized, sponsoring and promoting a variety of cultural and educational causes and establishing a high profile for itself in world affairs. All of this has created a movement which is a significant social phenomenon; yet to date Soka Gakkai has received little attention from Western academics. Bryan Wilson and Karel Dobbelaere draw on their thorough survey of the UK membership to trace the source of the movement's attraction and analyze its potential. They also carried out some 30 interviews with members, whom they encouraged to tell their story in their own way. As the decline in belief in an anthropomorphic deity, the sense that traditional religious institutions have become hollow, and the emphasis on the private nature of belief and on personal autonomy become characteristic features of contemporary western values, Wilson and Dobbelaere suggest that Soka Gakkai has found a ready resonance with these changing currents of thought in contemporary society. They conclude that Soka Gakkai's appeal to young people in particular makes it a faith whose time may have come.
The meanings, rituals and consumption patterns of Holy Feast and New Year in Turkey

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate and compare the meanings, rituals, and the celebration context related to Holy Feasts and New Year, to determine consumption patterns of female consumers during these occasions and compare the results for urban and rural areas.Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative research technique was followed and in‐depth interviews were chosen as data‐collection method. A total of 60 in‐depth interviews were held with females in urban and rural areas of Turkey and the respondents were selected according to Family Life Cycle (FLC) categories. Data were analyzed through content analysis.Findings – The findings indicate that six meanings were associated with Holy Feasts and New Year. All meanings except for those which are neutral or negative are more intensely observed for Holy Feasts. Besides, rigidly ritualized Holy Feast celebrations were observed in rural areas whereas these consumers do not have deep inspirations to celebrate New Year. Urban consumers disp.
Polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography of melanin provides intrinsic contrast based on depolarization

Polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) is a functional extension of OCT. In addition to imaging based on tissue reflectivity, PS-OCT also enables depth-resolved mapping of sample polarization properties such as phase-retardation, birefringent axis orientation, Stokes vectors, and degree of polarization uniformity (DOPU). In this study, PS-OCT was used to investigate the polarization properties of melanin. In-vitro measurements in samples with varying melanin concentrations revealed polarization scrambling, i.e. depolarization of backscattered light. Polarization scrambling in the PS-OCT images was more pronounced for higher melanin concentrations and correlated with the concentration of the melanin granules in the phantoms. Moreover, in-vivo PS-OCT was performed in the retinas of normal subjects and individuals with albinism. Unlike in the normal eye, polarization scrambling in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) was less pronounced or even not observable in PS-OCT images of albinos. These results indicate that the depolarizing appearance of pigmented structures like, for instance, the RPE is likely to be caused by the melanin granules contained in these cells.
Feature Selection via Dependence Maximization

We introduce a framework for feature selection based on dependence maximization between the selected features and the labels of an estimation problem, using the Hilbert-Schmidt Independence Criterion. The key idea is that good features should be highly dependent on the labels. Our approach leads to a greedy procedure for feature selection. We show that a number of existing feature selectors are special cases of this framework. Experiments on both artificial and real-world data show that our feature selector works well in practice.
TRANSPARENCY AND THE NEW ETHICS OF JOURNALISM

Professional journalists rate investigating, fact checking, and standards of accuracy high among the qualities that set them apart from amateur journalists and bloggers. This paper addresses the spread and the implications of news “cannibalisation” (taking material from other news organisations, without attribution). It asks how the loss of exclusivity is impacting on practices of reporting and on standards of “accuracy” and “sincerity” and suggests that establishing new standards of transparency could help protect professional reporting in the new, networked era, as well as improving ethical standards in journalism.
City Research Online

Positive emotion can help augment human creativity. To utilize this potential in an interactive system, we propose that such a system should be designed to regulate the emotions that are caused by a creative task. We argue that this can be done by hacking the function of motor expressions in emotion regulation. To this end, we have conceived and made an interactive system that is designed to regulate positive emotion during an idea generation and an insight problem solving task. The system regulates emotion by letting users interact using arm gestures that are designed based on motor expressions, choreographed in a way that enables emotion regulation. Using this interactive system we experimentally test the hypotheses that positive approaching, rather than negative avoiding arm gestures, used to interact with a system, can heighten positive emotion, and augment creativity. The findings demonstrate that an interactive system can be designed to use the function of motor expressions in emotion regulation to help people perform better on certain creative tasks.
Gender, power and sexuality among youth on the streets of Durban: Socio-economic realities

This article is based on a qualitative study on sexuality, identity and relationships among female and male youth living on the streets. Data were obtained from approximately 50 focus groups and individual interviews with 37 youth, of which 17 were female. There were several themes with regard to masculinity and femininity and constructions of motherhood and fatherhood that emerged from the study. In this article we focus on the following broad theme: men as providers, violence, sex, and sexuality. Recommendations are made regarding consciousness raising, therapeutic intervention, transforming gendered relationships and working towards socio-economic equality.
Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging–Derived kep as a Potential Biomarker of Matrix Metalloproteinase 9 Expression in Patients With Glioblastoma Multiforme: A Pilot Study

Objective To look for the association of tissue matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) expression with dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging and to see whether these can prognosticate patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Methods Forty-seven patients with GBM underwent dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging to look for association of its indices with tissue MMP-9 expression using Pearson correlation. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was performed to study the survival pattern for low-, medium-, and high-tissue MMP-9 expression and kep values. Results Among perfusion indices, kep, ktrans, and ve significantly correlated with MMP-9 expression. Matrix metalloproteinase 9 expression was found to be best estimated by kep using a quadratic model. The 1-year survival in low-, medium-, and high-tissue MMP-9 and kep groups were 59%, 45%, and 7%, and 59%, 33%, and 15%, respectively. Conclusion The association of kep and MMP-9 expression with survival suggests that kep may be used as imaging biomarker of GBM progression and its prognostication.