Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Knowledge and innovation: a policy statement on research and research training

In June 1999, ‘New knowledge, new opportunities: a discussion paper on higher education research and research training’ outlined the Australian Government's vision for the future of higher education research in Australia. The paper proposed a policy and funding framework for research and research training. Since its release, the Government has announced further initiatives to enhance Australia's research capabilities. This policy statement, released in December 1999, announces major changes to the current arrangements for funding of higher education research in Australia with the aim of achieving the objectives outlined in ‘New knowledge, new opportunities’. These changes make the best use of available resources to ensure that the research and research training undertaken in Australian universities continues to be world class and that the new knowledge it generates is effectively linked to innovation in Australian industry. The new framework provides for: (1) a strengthened Australian Research Council and an invigorated national competitive grants system; (2) performance-based funding for research student places and research activity in universities, with allocative formulae and transitional arrangements designed to ensure that all universities are able to compete effectively under the new arrangements; (3) the establishment of a broad quality verification framework supported by Research and Research Training Management Plans; and (4) a collaborative research program to address the needs of rural and regional communities. An evaluation of these reforms was initiated in May 2003 as part of the higher education reform package, ‘Our universities: backing Australia’s future’. An issues paper that identifies key issues for consideration as part of the evaluation is indexed at TD/TNC 74.292.
FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF CHIP FORMATION IN GROOVED TOOL METAL CUTTING

Abstract This paper presents the simulation of chip formation in grooved tool cutting using DYNA3D, 3D FEM software for dynamic nonlinear analysis that was used to simulate the orthogonal cutting problem. First, a flat-face cutting tool was employed in the simulation to verify the validity of the FEM model. Next, the same simulation techniques were used to study the effects of different groove geometries on the chip formation process in grooved tool cutting. In the first set of grooved tool simulations, the depth of the groove was constant while the width was decreased. In the second set, the width was constant and the depth was increased. By analyzing the chip flow, chip curl, chip thickness, stress and strain in the chip, the effects of different groove widths and depths on the chip formation process were then discussed.
Virtual reality-augmented rehabilitation for patients following stroke.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Recent evidence indicates that intensive massed practice may be necessary to modify neural organization and effect recovery of motor skills in patients following stroke. Virtual reality (VR) technology has the capability of creating an interactive, motivating environment in which practice intensity and feedback can be manipulated to create individualized treatments to retrain movement. CASE DESCRIPTION Three patients (ML, LE, and DK), who were in the chronic phase following stroke, participated in a 2-week training program (3 1/2 hours a day) including dexterity tasks on real objects and VR exercises. The VR simulations were targeted for range of motion, movement speed, fractionation, and force production. OUTCOMES ML's function was the most impaired at the beginning of the intervention, but showed improvement in the thumb and fingers in range of motion and speed of movement. LE improved in fractionation and range of motion of his thumb and fingers. DK made the greatest gains, showing improvement in range of motion and strength of the thumb, velocity of the thumb and fingers, and fractionation. Two of the 3 patients improved on the Jebsen Test of Hand Function. DISCUSSION The outcomes suggest that VR may be useful to augment rehabilitation of the upper limb in patients in the chronic phase following stroke.
Poverty and Distribution: Twenty Years Ago and Now

This paper adopts the “Rip Van Winkle” stratagem, of asking what differences would be noticed, in the domain of poverty and distribution, by someone who fell asleep in 1987 (the year I published my paper on poverty in the IMF Staff Papers, and woke up only in 2007 (the year I visited the IMF to work on the present paper). I highlight, somewhat idiosyncratically, ten such differences under three broad headings: Facts and Empirics, Concepts and Theory, and Policies and Interventions.
The origin and physical mechanism of the ensemble Baldwin effect

We have conducted a systematic investigation of the origin and underlying physics of the line--line and line--continuum correlations of AGNs, particularly the Baldwin effect. Based on the homogeneous sample of Seyfert 1s and QSOs in the SDSS DR4, we find the origin of all the emission-line regularities is Eddington ratio (L/Ledd). The essential physics is that L/Ledd regulates the distributions of the properties (particularly column density) of the clouds bound in the line-emitting region.
A principal's sense of self-efficacy in an age of accountability

Since its inception in 2001, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has created a high stakes accountability climate by setting federal mandates for increasing levels of student achievement in the Kindergarten through twelfth grade (K - 12) public education arena. Consequently, schools and their Local Education Agencies (LEAs) failing to meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) guidelines are subject to progressive levels of corrective action. Given this high stakes accountability climate, the role of school leadership takes on an even greater importance. As a result, educational leadership scholars continue to conduct numerous studies on the impact of leadership practices on school success. While these studies have been critical in identifying effective, research-based leadership practices, they have largely ignored the importance of the principal's sense of self-efficacy, which research suggests is fundamental for successfully implementing these practices. Utilizing Bandura's (1977) triadic reciprocal causation model rooted in social cognitive theory, this study explored the relationship between principals' perceptions of their levels of self- efficacy and environmental influences, such as Program Improvement. Within this quantitative study, I hypothesized that federal sanctions under NCLB would have an inverse relationship with a principal's own leadership beliefs. This central hypothesis was tested on a statewide sample of California Title I K - 12 public school principals. Results of statistical analysis indicated there to be a significant difference between the means of efficacy for principals of schools in Program Improvement (M=7.0, SD=1.07, effect size=.025) and those not in Program Improvement (M=7.3, SD=.89, effect size=.025). Two other hypotheses related to Program Improvement and other personal and school-level demographic variables were also tested and yielded significant findings. Furthermore, implications are offered for future research, policy, and practice
Ocular levels of azithromycin.

OBJECTIVE To assess azithromycin levels in human serum, aqueous humor, tear fluid, and conjunctival tissue specimens after administration of a single 1-g oral dose of azithromycin. METHODS Sixty patients undergoing cataract surgery were included in this analysis. Serum, aqueous, and tear specimens were collected 3, 6, and 12 hours and 1, 2, 3, and 4 days after azithromycin administration. Conjunctival tissue biopsy specimens were collected 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14 days after azithromycin administration. All specimens were subjected to analysis by high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. RESULTS Azithromycin concentration ranges during the specified sampling times were as follows: serum, 21 to 974 ng/mL; tear, 82 to 2892 ng/mL; aqueous, 10 to 69 ng/mL; and conjunctival, 0.7 to 32 micrograms/g. Levels above the 90% minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC90) for Chlamydia trachomatis were detected after 4 days in all tear samples and after 14 days in all conjunctival tissue specimens following oral azithromycin administration. CONCLUSION We demonstrated prolonged high levels of azithromycin in drug-targeted ocular tissue. Prolonged high concentrations of azithromycin in conjunctival tissue make this drug suitable for treatment of conjunctivitis caused by chlamydiae and other susceptible organisms.
Thermal Performance Curves of Functional Traits Aid Understanding of Thermally Induced Changes in Diatom-Mediated Biogeochemical Fluxes

How the functional traits (FTs) of phytoplankton change with temperature is important for understanding the impacts of ocean warming on phytoplankton mediated biogeochemical fluxes. This study quantifies the thermal performance curves (TPCs) of FTs in the cosmopolitan model diatom, Thalassiosira pseudonana, to advance understanding of trade-offs between physiological (photoacclimation, carbon fixation, nitrate, phosphate and silicate uptake) and morphological traits (cell volume and frustule silicification). We show that each FT has substantial phenotypic plasticity and exhibits a unique TPC, varying in both shape and thermal optimum, and diverging from the growth response. The TPC for growth was symmetric with a thermal optimum (Topt) of 18 °C. In comparison, the TPC for primary productivity was warm-skewed with a Topt around 21 °C, whereas frustule silicification decreased linearly with increasing temperature. Together, this suggests that the optimal temperature for overall fitness is a balance of trade-offs in the underlying functional traits. Moreover, these results demonstrate that growth is not necessarily an accurate estimate of overall biogeochemical performance and that temperature change will likely influence elemental fluxes such as carbon and silicon. Finally, we show that temperature-driven changes in individual traits e.g. photoacclimation, can mimic responses experienced under other environmental stressors (high light) and so a multi-trait assessment is essential for accurate interpretation of the cellular impact of warming. This study also reveals that multi-trait analysis, in the context of TPCs, provides insight into the cellular physiology regulating the whole cell response and has the potential to provide better estimates of how diatom-mediated biogeochemical fluxes are likely to be impacted in the context of ocean warming. Analyzing the response of multiple traits more comprehensively over other environmental gradients may therefore provide a useful framework to advance understanding of how taxon-specific functional traits will respond to multifaceted ocean change.
Social Retmittances: Culture as a Development Tool

The suburb of expensive homes with neatly-trimmed lawns and SUVs seems like any other well-to-do American community. But the mailboxes reveal a twist: almost all are labeled “Patel” or “Bhagat. ” Over the past twenty years, these Indian immigrants have moved from the villages and small towns of Gujarat State on the west coast of India, initially to rental apartment complexes in northeastern Massachusetts and then to their own homes in subdivisions outside Boston. Watching these suburban dwellers work, attend school, and build religious congregations here, casual observers might conclude that yet another wave of immigrants has successfully joined in the pursuit of the American dream. A closer look, however, reveals they are pursuing Gujarati dreams as well. They send money back to India to open businesses or improve family homes and farms. They work closely with religious leaders to establish Hindu communities in the United States and also to strengthen religious life in their homeland. Indian politicians at the state and national level now court these emigrants’ contributions to Indian political and economic life.
Distribution of Cytomegalovirus Genotypes among Neonates Born to Infected Mothers in Islamabad, Pakistan

Background Congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) infection contributes to considerable long-term sequelae in neonates and children all over the world. The association between viral genotypes and severity of clinical cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is yet to be defined. The objective of this study was to find the impact of active CMV infection during pregnancy and the clinical significance of genotypes in neonates with congenital cytomegalovirus infections in Pakistan. Methods A total of 409 blood samples from pregnant women seeking health care services at the two antenatal hospitals of Islamabad during January to December 2012 were tested by ELISA and nested-PCR. Pregnant women with active infection (detected as IgM positive, PCR positive or positive on both assays) were followed until delivery, to detect the outcome of overt cCMV infection in neonates. Genetic characterization of CMV strains was performed by sequence analysis of envelope glycoproteins: gB, gN and gH to detect the contributing CMV genotypes. Results The seroprevalence of anti-CMV IgG and IgM was 97.5% (399 out of 409) and 12.7% (52 out of 409), respectively, while 20% (82/409) pregnant women were found positive for CMV DNA by PCR. Logistic regression analysis showed a significant association of active infection with parity [OR = 2.56, 95% CI = 1.82–2.62, p = 0.04], febrile illness [OR = 1.84, 95% CI = 1.76–3.65, p = 0.01] and jaundice [OR = 22.5, 95% CI = 4.53–85.02, p = 0.002]. We were able to isolate virus in 41 out of 70 neonates; 36.6% (15 out of 41) of them were symptomatic at birth while 63.4% (26 out of 41) were asymptomatic. The most prominent clinical feature observed in symptomatic neonates was hepatosplenomegaly (26.6%; 4 out of 15). All three genotypes gB, gN and gH were found with the highest frequency of gB1 genotype, found in 75% infants with hepatic damage. Phylogenetic analysis of Pakistani strains showed 96%-100% homology to their prototype strains. Conclusions Active CMV infection during pregnancy is a major cause of congenital CMV infection with comparable distribution of all three genotypes: gB, gN and gH in symptomatic and asymptomatic neonates. Our findings emphasize to conduct a comprehensive large scale survey and introduction of country wide routine screening at maternity clinics for early diagnosis of CMV to reduce its associated devastating outcomes.
Why English accents and pronunciation ‘still’ matter for teachers nowadays: a mixed-methods study on learners’ perceptions

ABSTRACT This mixed-methods study explored learners’ perceptions of ten L1 and L2 English accents. These participants (n = 97) were bilinguals who spoke English as a first/second language. From the experiments, the findings showed that the L1 accents, although overall viewed more positively than the L2 ones, were not perceived consistently in: suitability for English teachers (suitability), models for learning, and maintaining learners’ attention. Also, nativeness was found to be more strongly correlated with suitability than comprehensibility did. The qualitative interview data shed more light on the interrelationships between accents, communication effectiveness, learners’ attention and teacher quality. It was found that certain teachers’ non-native accents were associated with lower attention spans on the part of the students. Some interviewees also recounted how their exposure to some teachers’ inaccurate pronunciations resulted in later embarrassment and communication breakdown.
The cocktail party e ect in auditory interfaces: A study of simultaneous presentation

This invention relates to an improved light metal plate-connected flat joist truss and, more specifically, to a truss of the type aforementioned wherein novel webs are used characterized by rounded load-transfer surfaces on both ends that adjoin one another in a zigzag pattern while mating in strut-forming relation with the parallel chordal elements supported thereby so as to produce uniform essentially line contact between all abutting surfaces.
Factors associated with food choices among Greek primary school students: a cluster analysis in the ELPYDES study.

BACKGROUND Food choice in Greece follows a westernized model. We tried to identify the characteristics of clusters regarding food choice and behaviour in a large sample of Greek primary school students, in order to acknowledge some mediating parameters that need to be addressed when planning interventions to promote healthy nutrition. METHODS Cross-sectional study in 2439 fifth and sixth grade students from the Attica and Thessaloniki regions. Three self-administered questionnaires were distributed assessing food consumption, nutrition knowledge and factors associated with dietary change. Data were analysed using principal components analysis (PCA) and K-means cluster analysis. RESULTS A total of 28.4% (n = 592) of the students were identified as demonstrating 'unbalanced nutrition' whereas 44.8% (n = 1018) and 22.8% (n = 319) demonstrated 'balanced' and 'low food intake', respectively. With regards to nutrition knowledge, the clusters were as follows: medium (n = 319, 14.5%), good (n = 1788, 80.9%) and bad knowledge (n = 101, 4.57%) cluster. After analysing the results of PCA, three clusters were formed: A 'negative effect' (n = 561, 28.8%), a 'health oriented' (n = 777, 39.9%) and a 'reinforced' to eat fruits and vegetables (n = 506, 31.3%) group. CONCLUSIONS The present study managed to identify clusters that correspond to food intake, nutrition knowledge and other factors associated with dietary behaviour and to describe their characteristics.
Analysis of the Proteomic Profiling of Brain Tissue in Alzheimer's Disease

In proteome analysis, it is necessary to separate proteins as a first step prior to characterization. Thus, the overall performance of the analysis depends strongly on the separation tool, which is usually two-dimensional electrophoresis (2DE). We have utilized 2DE to begin characterization of the complex pathologic processes in Alzheimer's disease (AD). In the present study, we show how a reliable 2-DE database of brain proteins in Alzheimer's disease was created, improving reproducibility by using an immobilized pH gradient (IPG) for the first dimension gel electrophoresis. The recent progress in this field, and future prospects in this area are also discussed. Preparation of brain proteins into a suitable solubilized state enabled us to separate over 1000 well-defined protein spots in each 2-DE. A comparison of the density of the spots identified on the reference map between the AD and control group, showed that 5 protein spots were significantly increased, 28 spots were significantly decreased and 7 spots were specifically detected in AD. Two spots among those significantly increased and one spot among those significantly decreased were identified as GFAP related. It is hoped that comparative studies to identify, quantitate, and characterize the proteins differentially expressed in normal brain versus diseased brain will give insight into the mechanisms of pathogenesis and allow the development of a strategy to control both the etiology and course of the diseases.
Novel gentamicin resistance genes in Campylobacter isolated from humans and retail meats in the USA.

OBJECTIVES To understand the molecular epidemiology of gentamicin-resistant Campylobacter and investigate aminoglycoside resistance mechanisms. METHODS One-hundred-and-fifty-one gentamicin-resistant Campylobacter isolates from humans (n = 38 Campylobacter jejuni; n = 41, Campylobacter coli) and retail chickens (n = 72 C. coli), were screened for the presence of gentamicin resistance genes by PCR and subtyped using PFGE. A subset of the isolates (n = 41) was analysed using WGS. RESULTS Nine variants of gentamicin resistance genes were identified: aph(2″)-Ib, Ic, Ig, If, If1, If3, Ih, aac(6')-Ie/aph(2″)-Ia and aac(6')-Ie/aph(2″)-If2. The aph(2″)-Ib, Ic, If1, If3, Ih and aac(6')-Ie/aph(2″)-If2 variants were identified for the first time in Campylobacter. Human isolates showed more diverse aminoglycoside resistance genes than did retail chicken isolates, in which only aph(2″)-Ic and -Ig were identified. The aph(2″)-Ig gene was only gene shared by C. coli isolates from human (n = 27) and retail chicken (n = 69). These isolates displayed the same resistance profile and similar PFGE patterns, suggesting that contaminated retail chicken was probably the source of human C. coli infections. Human isolates were genetically diverse and generally more resistant than the retail chicken isolates. The most frequent co-resistance was to tetracycline (78/79, 98.7%), followed by ciprofloxacin/nalidixic acid (46/79, 58.2%), erythromycin and azithromycin (36/79, 45.6%), telithromycin (32/79, 40.5%) and clindamycin (18/79, 22.8%). All human and retail meat isolates were susceptible to florfenicol. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrated that several new aminoglycoside resistance genes underlie the recent emergence of gentamicin-resistant Campylobacter, and that, in addition to contaminated retail chicken, other sources have also contributed to gentamicin-resistant Campylobacter infections in humans.
Efficiency and stability of Nash equilibria in resource allocation games

We study resource allocation games, where users send data along paths and links in the network charge a price equal to marginal cost. When users are price taking, it is known that there exist distributed dynamics that converge towards a fully efficient Nash equilibrium. When users are price anticipating, however, a Nash equilibrium does not maximize total utility in general. In this paper, we explore the inefficiency of Nash equilibria for general networks and semi-convex marginal cost functions. While it is known that for m ≥ 2 users and convex marginal cost functions, no efficiency guarantee is possible, we prove that an additional differentiability assumption on marginal cost functions implies a bounded efficiency loss of 2/(2m + 1). For polynomial marginal cost functions with nonnegative coefficients, we precisely characterize the price of anarchy. We also prove that the efficiency of Nash equilibria significantly improves if all users have the same strategy space and the same utility function. We propose a class of distributed dynamics and prove that whenever a game admits a potential function, these dynamics globally converge to a Nash equilibrium. Finally, we show that in general the only class of marginal cost functions that guarantees the existence of a potential function are affine linear functions.
Perspectives on regeneration of alveolar bone defects

Bone atrophy of the alveolar process is an important parameter in patients undergoing dental implants. There are several possibilities for preserving the alveolar process, with the autologous bone graft being the gold standard. Other approaches include the use of allografts, xenografts and synthetic bone grafts. In recent years the use of stem cells has increased in importance. The most commonly type of stem cells exploit and use are mesenchymal stem cell from various sources, included bone marrow, adipose tissue and from dental pulp. Discovery of the induced pluripotent stem cell, as well as the continued research on embryonic stem cell, opens new possibilities in this field. However, further research is needed to optimize protocols for isolation, differentiation and transplantation of cells with or without appropriate scaffolds and to determine correct clinical and therapeutic implications.