Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Middle School Black and White Student Assignment to Disciplinary Consequences

Disciplinary consequences assigned to all Texas middle school Black and White students (n = 172,551 Grade 6 students; 173,671 Grade 7 students; 175,730 Grade 8 students) for the 2008-2009 school year were analyzed to determine the extent to which statistically significant differences were present between the proportion of Black students and the proportion of White students assigned discipline consequences. Black students received in-school suspension at more than twice the percentage of their representation in the overall student sample population. Similar results were present for out-of-school suspension, with proportionately more Black students being assigned to out-of-school suspension than White students. Although the number of students assigned to disciplinary alternative education program placement was small, Black students were still assigned to this disciplinary consequence at a much higher percentage than were White students. A lack of equity was clearly demonstrated in the overrepresentation of Black middle school students assigned to disciplinary consequences.
Two Cassava Basic Leucine Zipper (bZIP) Transcription Factors (MebZIP3 and MebZIP5) Confer Disease Resistance against Cassava Bacterial Blight

Basic domain-leucine zipper (bZIP) transcription factor, one type of conserved gene family, plays an important role in plant development and stress responses. Although 77 MebZIPs have been genome-wide identified in cassava, their in vivo roles remain unknown. In this study, we analyzed the expression pattern and the function of two MebZIPs (MebZIP3 and MebZIP5) in response to pathogen infection. Gene expression analysis indicated that MebZIP3 and MebZIP5 were commonly regulated by flg22, Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. manihotis (Xam), salicylic acid (SA), and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Subcellular localization analysis showed that MebZIP3 and MebZIP5 are specifically located in cell nucleus. Through overexpression in tobacco, we found that MebZIP3 and MebZIP5 conferred improved disease resistance against cassava bacterial blight, with more callose depositions. On the contrary, MebZIP3- and MebZIP5-silenced plants by virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) showed disease sensitive phenotype, lower transcript levels of defense-related genes and less callose depositions. Taken together, this study highlights the positive role of MebZIP3 and MebZIP5 in disease resistance against cassava bacterial blight for further utilization in genetic improvement of cassava disease resistance.
Primary English language education policy in Vietnam: insights from implementation

The introduction of English in primary education curricula is a phenomenon occurring in many non-English-speaking countries in Asia, including Vietnam. Recently, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) in Vietnam issued guidelines for the piloting of an English as a foreign language (EFL) primary curriculum in which English is taught as a compulsory subject from Grade 3; however, there is limited research on the practices required to successfully implement this policy. This paper reports on a study that looked at the implementation of the primary English language policy in terms of the policy goals in two primary schools, one private and the other public, in Hanoi to shed light on the practice of EFL teaching at the primary level in Vietnam. The research was conducted as an exploratory case study with data collected from multiple sources, including classroom observations and interviews with different stakeholders. The results revealed variation in the implementation of primary English education between the two schools, with the private school providing better outcomes. The language planning issues discussed in this study, including teacher supply, training and professional development, resourcing, teaching methods, and materials, have been raised in previous educational research in Vietnam. However, despite being a new start to primary English, the 2010 programme seems to have done little to improve policy implementation in these areas, hindering the effectiveness of teaching English in schools. This study suggests a number of ways the current situation might be improved.
Comparative analysis of the genomes of the bacteria Mycoplasma pneumoniae and Mycoplasma genitalium.

The sequenced genomes of the two closely related bacteria Mycoplasma genitalium and Mycoplasma pneumoniae were compared with emphasis on genome organization and coding capacity. All the 470 proposed open reading frames (ORFs) of the smaller M.genitalium genome (580 kb) were contained in the larger genome (816 kb) of M.pneumoniae. There were some discrepancies in annotation, but inspection of the DNA sequences showed that the corresponding DNA was always present in M. pneumoniae. The two genomes could be subdivided into six segments. The order of orthologous genes was well conserved within individual segments but the order of these segments in both bacteria was different. We explain the different organization of the segments by translocation via homologous recombination. The translocations did not disturb the continuous bidirectional course of transcription in both genomes, starting at the proposed origin of replication. The additional 236 kb in M.pneumoniae,compared with theM.genitalium genome, were coding for 209 proposed ORFs not identified in M.genitalium. Of these ORFs, 110 were specific to M.pneumoniae exhibiting no significant similarity to M.genitalium ORFs, while 76 ORFs were amplifications of ORFs existing mainly as single copies in M. genitalium. In addition, 23 ORFs containing a copy of either one of the three repetitive DNA sequences RepMP2/3, RepMP4 and RepMP5 were annotated in M.pneumoniae but not in M.genitalium,although similar DNA sequences were present. TheM.pneumoniae-specific genes included a restriction-modification system, two transport systems for carbohydrates, the complete set of three genes coding for the arginine dihydrolase pathway and 14 copies of the repetitive DNA sequence RepMP1 which were part of several different translated genes with unknown function.
Learning through Ancient Art and Experiencing Emotions with Contemporary Art: Comparing Visits in Two Different Museums

The aim of the present research was to explore possible differences between visitor experiences in two different kinds of art museums according to the art styles of the collections hosted: the Museum Borghese of Rome (ancient art) and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection of Venice (contemporary art). Two questionnaires were administered to 500 Italian participants before and after their visit to one of the museums. Questions (Likert scales and multiple choice) assessed how much visitors liked and were satisfied with the museum and their visit, and the motivations, expectations and preference that drive people to visit museums of ancient versus contemporary art. Results show that people who visit the Guggenheim Museum have higher socio-economic status (education and profession) and visit museums more frequently than those who attend the Borghese Museum. Additionally, educational level relates to the enjoyment of the visit and to the nature of the aesthetic experience; visit conduction by Borghese visitors was driven by the intent of understanding and knowing, while those who attended the Guggenheim took an emotional approach to their experience.
The Conservation of Metre in Beginning Violin Students

It is not uncommon today to hear large numbers of very young string students playing together in concert. These students are usually taught through various rote processes that incorporate the instruction of technical and musical fundamentals into a single learning experience. The string teacher must consider when a child is ready to comprehend a specific musical concept and when and how the child can integrate that concept into string-playing technique. The theories of conservation, developed by Piaget, offer an excellent model for research that can help the string teacher gain insight into the formulation of materials and methods for instruction that complement a child's stage of mental development.
Methods for Involving Older People in Health Research—A Review of the Literature

Demographic change has increased the need for research on healthcare for older people. Recently there has been a growing awareness that research might benefit from actively involving patients and the public in study design and conduct. Besides empowering patients and democratizing research, involvement enhances the quality of research and the development of equitable healthcare solutions. Little is known about how to involve older people. This review aims to support scientists intending to involve older people in health research by systematically identifying and describing studies involving older people and analyzing associated facilitators and challenges. Old people were operationalized as people living with old-age-related conditions. We conducted a systematic search in PubMed, CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature), and Cochrane library for the period 2007 to July 2017 and also manually searched reference lists of the nine retrieved articles and other relevant sources. While involvement of older people in research is feasible, specific challenges related to this group need be taken into account. Strategies to enhance effective involvement comprise a thoughtful choice of location, use of visualization and accessible communication, building good relationships and flexible approaches. Further research is needed on the involvement of people in care homes or with vision, hearing or mobility limitations.
siRNA silencing of estrogen receptor-α expression specifically in medial preoptic area neurons abolishes maternal care in female mice

The medial preoptic area has been shown to be intricately involved in many behaviors, including locomotion, sexual behavior, maternal care, and aggression. The gene encoding estrogen receptor-α (ERα) protein is expressed in preoptic area neurons, and a very dense immunoreactive field of ERα is found in the preoptic region. ERα knockout animals show deficits in maternal care and sexual behavior and fail to exhibit increases in these behaviors in response to systemic estradiol treatment. In the present study, we used viral-vector mediated RNA interference to silence ERα expression specifically in the preoptic area of female mice and measured a variety of behaviors, including social and sexual aggression, maternal care, and arousal activity. Suppression of ERα in the preoptic area almost completely abolished maternal care, significantly increasing the latency to pup retrieval and significantly reducing the time the moms spent nursing and licking the pups. Strikingly, maternal aggression toward a male intruder was not different between control and preoptic ERα-silenced mice, demonstrating the remarkably specific role of ERα in these neurons. Reduction of ERα expression in preoptic neurons significantly decreased sexual behavior in female mice and increased aggression toward both sexual partners and male intruders in a seminatural environment. Estrogen-dependent increases in arousal, measured by home cage activity, were not mediated by ERα expression in the preoptic neurons we targeted, as ERα-suppressed mice had increases similar to control mice. Thus, we have established that a specific gene in a specific group of neurons is required for a crucially important natural behavior.
p21/WAF1/CIP1 EXPRESSION IN NORMAL MUCOSA AND IN ADENOMAS AND ADENOCARCINOMAS OF THE COLON: ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH DIFFERENTIATION

The immunoreactivity of p21 was evaluated in normal mucosa and in adenomas and adenocarcinomas of the human large bowel. In normal mucosa, p21 immunoreactivity was seen in the superficial third of the crypts (maturation compartment) and in surface (terminally differentiated) epithelium, and was mutually exclusive with Ki67/MIB1 reactivity. These data show that p21 expression is inversely related to proliferation and directly related to terminal differentiation. In adenomas, p21‐reactive cells were frequently clustered in the superficial areas and were non‐reactive for MIB1. In adenocarcinomas, p21 staining was heterogeneous: high p21 expression (19 cases) was associated with lower stage and lack of p53 overexpression. p21‐reactive cells were devoid of MIB1 immunoreactivity, but no relationship could be found between p21 and MIB1 labelling indices. p21 heterogeneity may be related to alterations in the p53‐dependent induction pathway: high p21 expression was associated with low to absent p53 reactivity, with presumed normal p53 function; low p21 expression was associated with p53 overexpression, with presumed p53 alteration resulting in loss of function.
Social Relationships and Manifest Anxiety Among Freshmen in Tertiary Institutions in Lagos State

This study measures the extent of anxiety manifestation among freshmen, specially, as it relates to student-student and student-staff relationships. Responses were obtained from 700 freshmen (350 males and 350 females). The three types of anxiety measured were reality anxiety, moral anxiety and neurotic anxiety using items adapted from Janet Taylor's manifest Anxiety scale while the test instruments used for the independent variables were constructed and validated by the researcher. Two hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Variance statistical technique. The results of the data analysis showed that anxiety manifestation was significantly higher in respect of the freshmen who are low in adapting to student-student and student-staff relationships. These findings suggest that freshmen need help to overcome high level of anxiety manifestation. Keywords : Social Relationships; Manifest Anxiety; Moral Anxiety. International Journal of Educational Research Vol. 3 (2) 2007 pp. 183-190
Racial Contact and Change in South Africa

We investigate the effects of sociopolitical change on intergroup contact and social distance attitudes in South Africa, and the effect of these variables on intergroup attitudes and racial policy attitudes. The data come from secondary analysis of surveys conducted between 1991 and 2005, as well as a dedicated survey conducted in 2006. The results reveal widespread racial isolation among Black people; ambivalent attitudes to racial integration among Whites, who support integration in principle but are opposed to it personally; and contrasting outcomes of contact for Blacks and Whites. Increased intergroup contact was associated with reduced stereotyping and increased support for transformation policies among Whites but was associated with increased opposition to transformation policies among Blacks. Contrary to the predictions of contact theory, attitudes of Blacks and Whites toward Coloured and Indian compatriots were generally more negative in provinces with high levels of intergroup contact between these groups.
Sources of Stress in National Champion Figure Skaters

This investigation examined stress and sources of stress experienced by U.S. national champion figure skaters. Seventeen national champions, who held their titles between 1985 and 1990, were interviewed about the stress they experienced as national champions and were asked to identify specific sources of stress. Qualitative methodology was used to inductively analyze the interview transcripts and revealed that 71% of the skaters experienced more stress after winning their title than before doing so. Stress source dimensions were also identified and included: relationship issues, expectations and pressure to perform, psychological demands on skater resources, physical demands on skater resources, environmental demands on skater resources, life direction concerns, and a number of individual specific uncategorizable sources. In general, these findings parallel the previous elite figure skaters stress source research of Scanlan, Stein, and Ravizza (1991), although there were several points of divergence relat.
Effects of Neighborhood and School Environments on Transitions to First Sexual Intercourse

Using the 1993 wave of the Philadelphia Teen Survey, the authors estimated multilevel binary response models showing how much census tracts and schools, separately and jointly, affect youths' sexual initiation. They found that neighborhood effects on sexual behavior exist only to the extent that they determine the type of school an adolescent attends; school effects are primarily a function of racial composition and school type; and school types are associated, to a large extent, with school-level behavioral norms. The results suggest that previous studies may have overestimated the magnitude of neighborhood effects and that schools' normative environments may merit greater attention in research on youths' nonacademic outcomes
Plasma vitamin B12 status and cerebral white-matter lesions

Background and objective: Elevated homocysteine has been associated with a higher prevalence of cerebral white-matter lesions and infarcts, and worse cognitive performance. This raises the question whether factors involved in homocysteine metabolism, such as vitamin B12, are also related to these outcomes. This study examined the association of several markers of vitamin B12 status with cerebral white-matter lesions, infarcts and cognition. Methods: The study evaluated the association of plasma concentrations of vitamin B12, methylmalonic acid, holotranscobalamin and transcobalamin saturation with cerebral white-matter lesions and infarcts at baseline and cognition at baseline and during follow-up among 1019 non-demented elderly participants of the population-based Rotterdam Scan Study. Analyses were adjusted for several potential confounders, including homocysteine and folate concentration. Results: Poorer vitamin B12 status was significantly associated with greater severity of white-matter lesions, in particular periventricular white-matter lesions, in a concentration-related manner. Adjustment for common vascular risk factors (including blood pressure, smoking, diabetes and intima media thickness) did not alter the associations. Adjustment for homocysteine and folate modestly weakened the associations. No association was observed for any of the studied markers of vitamin B12 status with presence of brain infarcts and baseline cognition or cognitive decline during follow-up. Conclusions: These results indicate that vitamin B12 status in the normal range is associated with severity of white-matter lesions, especially periventricular lesions. Given the absence of an association with cerebral infarcts, it is hypothesised that this association is explained by effects on myelin integrity in the brain rather than through vascular mechanisms.
Have sex will travel: romantic ‘sex tourism’ and women negotiating modernity in the Sinai

Since the 1970s, studies on western women's ethnosexual tourist–local relationships have tended to focus on the beaches of the Caribbean and have come to one of two main conclusions – either they are no different from the overtly exploitative relationships of heterosexual male sex tourists or they are different because they involve a softer, caring element of romance. This article proposes that both positions have led to constrictive, circular research that highlights the racialised and economically disparate nature of these exchanges but mostly ignores the importance of imaginative and emotional geographies caught up in such relationships. Based on fieldwork interviews with men and women in the resorts of the South Sinai, Egypt, I argue that these encounters can be seen as examples of a modern subjectivity that are defined by and take place within imagined (fixed) constructions of landscapes, native third world masculinity (in this case Arab/Bedouin), femininity (white, heterosexual, western), freedom and love (spiritual and physical): all presented in some form of opposition to a particularist idea of modernity and viewed through a filter of selective (and spatially circumscribed) histories. By adding a geographical dimension, this article aims to open up the current debate on female sex tourism to a wider range of issues and reveal more of the conflicts, tensions and imaginations that make up these encounters.
Pressures on Professional Musicians

Since Hans Selye first postulated the relationship between environmental stressors and bodily reactions, a great deal of research work has been undertaken in the field of occupational stress. From this growing research literature, Cooper has been able to identify some of the many sources of occupational stress and to organise them into the following simplistic model.
The Effect of Core Change on Performance: Inertia and Regression toward the Mean

This paper examines the consequences of changes in the organization's market position on its market share, testing arguments of inertia and regression toward the mean and taking into account recent methodological critiques of studies on the consequences of organizational change. A study of format change in the U.S. radio industry, 1984—1992, shows that changes cause performance to decline, as inertia theory predicts, but this is moderated by organizational size and performance before the change, so change can be beneficial for low-performing organizations but may be harmful for large and successful organizations.
Pilot Studies of Estrogen-Related Physical Findings in Infants

Background Soy formula containing estrogenic isoflavones is widely used in the United States. Infants consuming soy formula exclusively have high isoflavone exposures. We wanted to study whether soy formula prolonged the physiologic estrogenization of newborns, but available quantitative descriptions of the natural history of breast and genital development are inadequate for study design. Objective We piloted techniques for assessing infants’ responses to the withdrawal from maternal estrogen and gathered data on breast and genital development in infants at different ages. Methods We studied 37 boys and 35 girls, from term pregnancies with normal birth weights, who were < 48 hr to 6 months of age, and residents of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during 2004–2005. One-third of the children of each sex and age interval were exclusively fed breast milk, soy formula, or cow-milk formula. Our cross-sectional study measured breast adipose tissue, breast buds, and testicular volume; observed breast and genital development; and collected vaginal wall cells and information on vaginal discharge. We assessed reliability of the measures. Results Breast tissue was maximal at birth and disappeared in older children, consistent with waning maternal estrogen. Genital development did not change by age. Breast-milk secretion and withdrawal bleeding were unusual. Vaginal wall cells showed maximal estrogen effect at birth and then reverted; girls on soy appeared to show reestrogenization at 6 months. Conclusions Examination of infants for plausible effects of estrogens is valid and repeatable. Measurement of breast tissue and characterization of vaginal wall cells could be used to evaluate exposures with estrogen-like effects.