Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Contribution to Current Debates in Impact Evaluation

A debate on approaches to impact evaluation has raged in development circles in recent years. This paper makes a contribution to this debate through discussion of four issues. First, I point out that there are two definitions of impact evaluation. Neither is right or wrong, but they refer to completely different things. There is no point in methodological debates unless they agree a common starting point. Second, I argue that there is confusion between counterfactuals, which are implied by the definition of impact evaluation adopted in this paper, and control groups, which are not always necessary to construct a counterfactual. Third, I address contribution rather than attribution — a distinction that is also definitional, mistaking claims of attribution to mean sole attribution. I then consider accusations of being ‘positivist’ and ‘linear’, which are, respectively, correct and unclear. Finally, I suggest that these arguments do not mean that there is a hierarchy of methods, rather quantitative approaches, including RCTs, are often the most appropriate methods for evaluating the impact of a large range of interventions, having the added advantage of allowing analysis of cost effectiveness or cost-benefit analysis.
Self-Managing Teamwork and Psychological Well-Being

In this article, we present a qualitative discussion of 28 empirical studies on self-managing team-work and psychological well-being. We address three questions: (a) Which variables did they include and which results did they obtain? ; (b) How did authors deal with issues of level of theory, measurement, and analysis? ; and (c) Do such level issues affect the results of the studies? This review demonstrates that only job satisfaction is consistently related to self-managing teamwork. In addition, authors often fail to specify the level of their theory, thereby impeding judgment on the appropriateness of analysis procedures. Finally, we present preliminary evidence that level issues may affect the results. We plead for the incorporation of multilevel theory andanalysistechniquesintothefieldofself-managingteamworkandpsychologicalwell-being.
The Influence of Milling on the Dissolution Performance of Simvastatin

Particle size reduction is a simple means to enhance the dissolution rate of poorly water soluble BCS-class II and IV drugs. However, the major drawback of this process is the possible introduction of process induced disorder. Drugs with different molecular arrangements may exhibit altered properties such as solubility and dissolution rate and, therefore, process induced solid state modifications need to be monitored. The aim of this study was two-fold: firstly, to investigate the dissolution rates of milled and unmilled simvastatin; and secondly, to screen for the main milling factors, as well as factor interactions in a dry ball milling process using simvastatin as model drug, and to optimize the milling procedure with regard to the opposing responses particle size and process induced disorder by application of a central composite face centered design. Particle size was assessed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and image analysis. Process induced disorder was determined by partial least squares (PLS) regression modeling of respective X-ray powder diffractograms (XRPD) and Raman spectra. Valid and significant quadratic models were built. The investigated milling factors were milling frequency, milling time and ball quantity at a set drug load, out of which milling frequency was found to be the most important factor for particle size as well as process induced disorder. Milling frequency and milling time exhibited an interaction effect on the responses. The optimum milling settings using the maximum number of milling balls (60 balls with 4 mm diameter) was determined to be at a milling frequency of 21 Hz and a milling time of 36 min with a resulting primary particle size of 1.4 μm and a process induced disorder of 6.1% (assessed by Raman spectroscopy) and 8.4% (assessed by XRPD), at a set optimization limit of < 2 μm for particle size and < 10% for process induced disorder. This optimum was tested experimentally and the process induced disorder was determined to be 6.9% (± 2.2) by Raman spectroscopy and 7.8% (± 2.3) by XRPD. Subsequent intrinsic dissolution testing revealed that the process induced disorder was negligible with regard to the dissolution rate. The predicted primary particle size of 1.4 μm could be confirmed experimentally, but due to agglomeration of the primary particles a dissolution rate advantage was not shown, highlighting the importance of dissolution testing at an early stage of drug development.
Title Early estimation of the reproduction number in the presence ofimported cases : Pandemic influenza H 1 N 1-2009 in New Zealand

We analyse data from the early epidemic of H1N1-2009 in New Zealand, and estimate the reproduction number R. We employ a renewal process which accounts for imported cases, illustrate some technical pitfalls, and propose a novel estimation method to address these pitfalls. Explicitly accounting for the infection-age distribution of imported cases and for the delay in transmission dynamics due to international travel, R was estimated to be 1:25 (95% confidence interval: 1:07,1:47). Hence we show that a previous study, which did not account for these factors, overestimated R. Our approach also permitted us to examine the infection-age at which secondary transmission occurs as a function of calendar time, demonstrating the downward bias during the beginning of the epidemic. These technical issues may compromise the usefulness of a well-known estimator of R the inverse of the moment-generating function of the generation time given the intrinsic growth rate. Explicit modelling of the infection-age distribution among imported cases and the examination of the time dependency of the generation time play key roles in avoiding a biased estimate ofR, especially when one only has data covering a short time interval during the early growth phase of the epidemic. Citation: Roberts MG, Nishiura H (2011) Early Estimation of the Reproduction Number in the Presence of Imported Cases: Pandemic Influenza H1N1-2009 in New Zealand. PLoS ONE 6(5): e17835. doi:10.1371/journal.pone. 0017835 Editor: Maciej F. Boni, University of Oxford, Viet Nam Received October 15, 2010; Accepted February 16, 2011; Published May 26, 2011 Copyright: 2011 Roberts, Nishiura. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: MGR wishes to acknowledge funding from the Health Research Council under contract number 10/754 (www.hrc.govt.nz/index.html). HN receives support from the Japan Science and Technology Agency, Saitama, Japan, through the PRESTO programme (www.jst.go.jp/kisoken/presto/index_e.html). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. * E-mail: m.g. roberts@massey.ac. nz
Fertile imaginations: young men’s reproductive attitudes and preferences

Background: Declining fertility rates are often attributed to lack of interest in having children by new generations of men and women. However, the extent to which fertility decline is the result of entirely unconstrained personal choice is open to question. While there is a growing body of research demonstrating that young women continue to value having children, young men’s perspectives remain relatively unexamined. Objective: This article aimed to contribute to understanding of contemporary fertility trends by investigating the reproductive attitudes and preferences of young adult men. Methods: 399 single, childless, Australian men aged 18–25 years completed a survey which measured their desired number of children, personal importance of fatherhood and identified reasons for and against having a child. An open‐ended question also assessed participants’ perceptions of the fatherhood role in the context of their future lives. Results: The overwhelming majority of men (96%) wanted to have children, and these men rated the reasons for fatherhood as significantly more influential than the reasons against parenthood. Among men that wanted to remain childfree (4%), the reasons for and against parenthood were rated as equally important. Difficulties in fulfilling the ‘ideal’ fatherhood role (for example, effectively combining involved fatherhood with obligations to provide for the family) were anticipated by many men and were a source of considerable concern. Conclusions: Overall, the men surveyed tended to place a high, positive value on having children, providing further evidence of misalignment between declining fertility rates and the preferences of young women and men.
In search of a motor element in memory for enacted events

Four experiments tried with different methods to locate a theoretically expected motor factor in memory of enacted movement patterns. The first experiment examined forward versus backward reporting; the second and third looked at possible interactions between encoding and retrieval modalities, whereas the fourth experiment examined whether motor aspects would come more clearly to the fore with practice on the task. Since none of the experiments could detect motor effects, motor factors were suggested to be more important for execution than for memory of actions.
Zap++: a 20-channel electrical muscle stimulation system for fine-grained wearable force feedback

Electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) has been used successfully in HCI to generate force feedback and simple movements both in stationary and mobile settings. However, many natural limb movements require the coordinated actuation of multiple muscles. Off-the-shelf EMS devices are typically limited in their ability to generate fine-grained movements, because they only have a low number of channels and do not provide full control over the EMS parameters. More capable medical devices are not designed for mobile use or still have a lower number of channels and less control than is desirable for HCI research. In this paper we present the concept and a prototype of a 20-channel mobile EMS system that offers full control over the EMS parameters. We discuss the requirements of wearable multi-electrode EMS systems and present the design and technical evaluation of our prototype. We further outline several application scenarios and discuss safety and certification issues.
Emotion and economic development — Data and speculations concerning the relationship between economic factors and emotional experience

While proponents of biological theories of emotion claim the existence of universal emotion and expression patterns, recent theories stress cognitive appraisal mechanisms as elicitors of emotion, thus suggesting the influence of cultural and social factors on emotional experience and emotional expression. Data from a large-scale questionnaire study with about 2400 respondents in 30 countries allowed us to test that notion in part. In this study, respondents had to describe in detail situations in which they had experienced the emotions of joy, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, shame, and guilt. The results indicate that emotional expression patterns do seem to be universal, while characteristics of the subjectively experienced emotion, in particular its duration and intensity, show a high variance across country samples. An attempt is made to link these differences to economic data for the different countries, specifically to the gross national product. The rather striking differences found between ‘rich’ and boor' countries are discussed in terms of the frequency of confrontation with emotion eliciting situations and the importance of such situations.
Ju l 1 99 7 A noise-controlled dynamic bifurcation

We consider a slow passage through a point of loss of stability. If the passage is sufficiently slow, the dynamics are controlled by additive random disturbances, even if they are extremely small. We derive expressions for the 'exit value' distribution when the parameter is explicitly a function of time and the dynamics are controlled by additive Gaussian noise. We derive a new expression for the small correction introduced if the noise is coloured (exponentially correlated). There is good agreement with results obtained from simulation of sample paths of the appropriate stochastic differential equations. Multiplicative noise does not produce noise-controlled dynamics in this fashion.
Metagenomics to Paleogenomics: Large-Scale Sequencing of Mammoth DNA

We sequenced 28 million base pairs of DNA in a metagenomics approach, using a woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) sample from Siberia. As a result of exceptional sample preservation and the use of a recently developed emulsion polymerase chain reaction and pyrosequencing technique, 13 million base pairs (45.4%) of the sequencing reads were identified as mammoth DNA. Sequence identity between our data and African elephant (Loxodonta africana) was 98.55%, consistent with a paleontologically based divergence date of 5 to 6 million years. The sample includes a surprisingly small diversity of environmental DNAs. The high percentage of endogenous DNA recoverable from this single mammoth would allow for completion of its genome, unleashing the field of paleogenomics.
Evaluation of the Cavidi ExaVir Load Assay (Version 3) for Plasma Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Load Monitoring

ABSTRACT We evaluated the new low-cost ExaVir Load (version 3) reverse transcriptase viral load assay against the Roche Cobas Amplicor assay. Results for samples tested using the reverse transcriptase assay correlated well with those obtained with the Roche assay (r = 0.85; n = 202). The version 3 reverse transcriptase assay shows improved sensitivity compared to the previous version.
Managing Voter Impressions: The Use of Images on Presidential Candidate Web Sites During the 2000 Campaign

Presidents Kennedy, Reagan, and Clinton mastered of art of using television to manage impressions in the television age. With the advent of the Internet, recent presidential campaigns have begun to recognize the potential of this medium in shaping images and managing impressions among voters. This study focuses on the 2000 presidential election and the images of the presidential candidates appearing on their official campaign Web sites. It also evaluates the visual strategies the candidates used and the overall themes of the images. Each candidate appeared to present campaign photographs in ways that may have been orchestrated to enhance their appeal and reverse negative media portrayals.
Culture Gap in Greek Management

Since the publication of In Search of Excellence academicians have rushed to empirically verify the existence or absence of corporate cultures in organizations. This paper reports on a survey of Greek organizational cultures. The study utilizes Handy's conceptual framework published in his Gods of Management. Data for the study were gathered via a questionnaire which was a translation of Handy's instrument into Greek. The data from 585 questionnaires administered to Greek managers, confirmed the main hypothesis that while most of their organizations are seen to be Zeus/Apollo (power/role) centred, most managers themselves tend to be Athena/Dionysus (task/people) oriented.
Cortical hemispheric asymmetries are present at young ages and further develop into adolescence

Specialization of the auditory cortices for pure tone listening may develop with age. In adults, the right hemisphere dominates when listening to pure tones and music; we thus hypothesized that (a) asymmetric function between auditory cortices increases with age and (b) this development is specific to tonal rather than broadband/non‐tonal stimuli. Cortical responses to tone‐bursts and broadband click‐trains were recorded by multichannel electroencephalography in young children (5.1 ± 0.8 years old) and adolescents (15.2 ± 1.7 years old) with normal hearing. Peak dipole moments indicating activity strength in right and left auditory cortices were calculated using the Time Restricted, Artefact and Coherence source Suppression (TRACS) beamformer. Monaural click‐trains and tone‐bursts in young children evoked a dominant response in the contralateral right cortex by left ear stimulation and, similarly, a contralateral left cortex response to click‐trains in the right ear. Responses to tone‐bursts in the right ear were more bilateral. In adolescents, peak activity dominated in the right cortex in most conditions (tone‐bursts from either ear and to clicks from the left ear). Bilateral activity was evoked by right ear click stimulation. Thus, right hemispheric specialization for monaural tonal stimuli begins in children as young as 5 years of age and becomes more prominent by adolescence. These changes were marked by consistent dipole moments in the right auditory cortex with age in contrast to decreases in dipole activity in all other stimulus conditions. Together, the findings reveal increasingly asymmetric function for the two auditory cortices, potentially to support greater cortical specialization with development into adolescence.
The expression of caused motion by adult Chinese learners of English*

abstract Although spatial understanding by human beings tends to be universal, the linguistic system to represent one’s spatial experience varies significantly across languages. This study explores implications of this contrast in the field of second language acquisition by examining how adult Chinese learners of English express caused motion in an experimental situation in which they are asked to describe animation clips showing caused motion with varied types of Manner and Path to an imaginary remote addressee. Our findings showed that across proficiencies, L2 learners acclimated to the target system very rapidly and produced responses that were target-like with respect to the selection of motion components and the syntactic means to organize selected information components over an utterance. These results suggest that the acquisition process of caused motion can be facilitated when L1 and L2 share some typological properties and the target system to be acquired is the simple and unambiguous one of the two typological patterns concerned.
Genetic variability in Brazilian triatomines and the risk of domiciliation.

Among the 126 Brazilian members of the subfamily Triatominae, those of greatest epidemiological importance include Triatoma infestans, passively introduced into this country from Bolivia through human migrations; Panstrongylus megistus, with a wide distribution in humid forest areas; T. brasiliensis, indigenous to areas of caatinga scrub and with a great capacity to invade houses; T. pseudomaculata, also associated with caatinga areas but with predominantly peridomiciliar behaviour; and T. sordida, originally from areas of cerrado, and also mainly peridomiciliar (Forattini 1980, Alencar 1987). Following the recent elimination of domestic populations of T. infestans by the Chagas Disease Control Programme (Dias & Schofield 1999), the accelerated rate of environmental modification by man has meant that several other species once considered to be of secondary or even tertiary importance in the transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi to humans are beginning to be found relatively frequently and at surprisingly high densities in manmade habitats, with a corresponding risk of new foci of transmission becoming established (FNS 1998). It is hoped that the study of genetic characteristics of triatomines will facilitate identification of those species or populations with the greatest capacity for adaptation to different habitats, providing a valuable tool for epidemiological vigilance that allows us to determine which areas have the highest risk of domiciliation by the insects. In addition, the genetic characterization of triatomine populations will also allow us to determine what role the sylvatic insects play in the recolonization of areas treated with insecticide. In Bolivia, Dujardin and Cassini (1995) used morphometric comparisons of sylvatic T. infestans populations with domestic populations before and after residual spraying with insecticide to demonstrate that insects captured after treatment were survivors of the original population and not invaders from the surrounding wild habitat. This knowledge can be used to determine flaws in existing control measures and permit their improvement. The recent constitution of a network of studies
The Impact of Electronic Patient Portals on Patient Care: A Systematic Review of Controlled Trials

Background Modern information technology is changing and provides new challenges to health care. The emergence of the Internet and the electronic health record (EHR) has brought new opportunities for patients to play a more active role in his/her care. Although in many countries patients have the right to access their clinical information, access to clinical records electronically is not common. Patient portals consist of provider-tethered applications that allow patients to electronically access health information that are documented and managed by a health care institution. Although patient portals are already being implemented, it is still unclear in which ways these technologies can influence patient care. Objective To systematically review the available evidence on the impact of electronic patient portals on patient care. Methods A systematic search was conducted using PubMed and other sources to identify controlled experimental or quasi-experimental studies on the impact of patient portals that were published between 1990 and 2011. A total of 1,306 references from all the publication hits were screened, and 13 papers were retrieved for full text analysis. Results We identified 5 papers presenting 4 distinct studies. There were no statistically significant changes between intervention and control group in the 2 randomized controlled trials investigating the effect of patient portals on health outcomes. Significant changes in the patient portal group, compared to a control group, could be observed for the following parameters: quicker decrease in office visit rates and slower increase in telephone contacts; increase in number of messages sent; changes of the medication regimen; and better adherence to treatment. Conclusions The number of available controlled studies with regard to patient portals is low. Even when patient portals are often discussed as a way to empower patients and improve quality of care, there is insufficient evidence to support this assumption.
How faithfully do court interpreters render the style of non-English speaking witnesses' testimonies? A data-based study of Spanish—English bilingual proceedings

The results of numerous research studies have revealed that the style in which people deliver their speech impacts on the way they are perceived by others. This is particularly so in the adversarial courtroom, where witnesses' credibility is crucial for winning a case. When witnesses do not speak the language of the courtroom, interpreters are employed to interpret the proceedings accurately. The meaning of `accuracy', however, may not be fully understood by all involved. This article presents the results of a data-based study of Spanish—English court proceedings where it was found that interpreters tend to accurately interpret only the content of witnesses' answers, but constantly alter the style of testimony, either favourably or detrimentally, thus potentially changing the outcome of the case.