Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Disease progression by infecting HIV-1 subtype in a seroconverter cohort in sub-Saharan Africa

Objective:To describe immunologic, virologic, and clinical HIV disease progression by HIV-1 subtype among Africans with well documented estimated dates of HIV infection (EDIs). Design:Prospective cohort. Methods:Adults and youth with documented HIV-1 infection in the past 12 months were recruited from seroincidence cohorts in East and Southern Africa and followed at 3–6 month intervals. Blood for lymphocyte subset and viral load determination was collected at each visit. Pol was sequenced from the first positive specimen to ascertain subtype. Preantiretroviral therapy disease progression was measured by three time-to-event endpoints: CD4+ cell count 350 cells/&mgr;l or less, viral load measurement at least 1 × 105 copies/ml, and clinical AIDS. Results:From 2006 to 2011, 615 participants were enrolled at nine research centers in Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, and Zambia; 579 (94.1%) had viral subtyping completed. Predominant subtypes were C (256, 44.2%), A (209, 36.1%), and D (84, 14.5%). After adjustment for age, sex, and human leukocyte antigen alleles in Cox regression analyses, subtype C-infected participants progressed faster than subtype A to all three endpoints [CD4+ hazard ratio 1.60, 95% (confidence interval) CI 1.16, 2.20; viral load hazard ratio 1.59, 95% CI 1.12, 2.25; and AIDS hazard ratio 1.60, 95% CI 1.11, 2.31). Subtype D-infected participants reached high viral load more rapidly (hazard ratio 1.61, 95% CI 1.01, 2.57) and progressed nearly twice as fast to AIDS compared to subtype A (hazard ratio 1.93, 95% CI 1.21, 3.09). Conclusion:Subtype-specific differences in HIV disease progression suggest that the local subtype distribution be considered when planning HIV programs and designing and defining clinical endpoints for HIV prevention trials.
Psychological consequences of rheumatic diseases in children and adolescents: A first exploratory study

The objective of our study was to make a first exploratory study about the psychological status of children and adolescents with rheumatic diseases exploring, also, the significant differences between girls and boys. A total of 123 children (81 girls and 42 boys) with rheumatic diseases, between the ages of 1 and 19 years old were assessed using different measures for evaluating behavioral and emotional problems. The results showed a picture of a mild or moderate degree of psychological problems in the different measures of anxiety, depression, general distress and behavioral problems. Girls, compared to boys, scored higher in most of the measures used, showing more internalizing than externalizing kinds of symptoms. The results suggest the importance of making a more detailed study of these children, comparing them with matched controls and making prospective, longitudinal studies in order to detect psychological problems, and to explore the influence of predictive variables.
McDonaldizing Men's Bodies? Slimming, Associated (Ir)Rationalities and Resistances

Using Ritzer’s McDonaldization of Society thesis as a reference point, this article contributes sociologically to burgeoning critical obesity studies. It does this using qualitative data from a study of men and weightrelated issues undertaken in northern England. Taking a counter-intuitive approach, it explores whether slimming proceeds in accord with the rationalizing principles of the fast-food restaurant: calculability, efficiency, predictability and technological control. Rather than reproducing a simplified and ultimately stigmatizing account, where fatness is a pathological bodily state caused by fast food, this article explores the degree to which fatness is actively made into a correctable problem using McDonaldized principles. Irrationalities and meaningful resistances associated with the public and private fight against fat are also considered.
A link programme for business support and management development

Outlines a management development programme which contributes to the development of small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) by way of a detailed linking process, whereby the experience and skills of an unemployed manager are carefully matched with the business needs of a company. Describes how the programme has been running since 1983, evolving from that time, to take cognizance of: major changes in the profiles of unemployed managers; changes in the industrial structure of Northern Ireland; and paradigmatic shifts within the field of management development. Concludes, from evaluation, that both groups have benefited significantly from the programme, noting that it has aided many SMEs to overcome some of the major obstacles to growth, efficiency and competitiveness, while concurrently raising the confidence level of the unemployed manager, developing his/her competences and increasing future employment prospects. Considers that the programme model will prove beneficial to other training providers and support agencies that are considering link programmes as part of their management development provision.
Planned e-learning adoption and occupational socialisation in Brazilian higher education

This study applies the decomposed theory of planned behaviour to explore university faculty members’ e-learning adoption in Brazil. Attitude (perceived usefulness, ease of use, compatibility, and relative advantage), subjective norms (external influence and student–instructor interaction), and behavioural control (level of interactivity and resource facilitating conditions) collectively influence intention to use e-learning, which in turn determines actual behaviour. The effect of occupational socialisation was posited as a moderator to examine the differences between full-time (professors) and part-time (tutors) faculty members. A quantitative survey was conducted and 446 usable responses were received in total. The research model fitted the data well and supported most of the hypotheses. In addition, the occupational categories (professors versus tutors) had an impact on some of the paths, while latent means were greater among professors, compared with tutors. In conclusion, significant implications are discussed while important limitations are recognised and future research directions are suggested.
Mechanisms of baroreceptor-induced changes in heart rate.

THAMES, MARC D. , AND HERMES *4. KONTOS. Mechanisms of horeceptor-induced changes in heart rate. Am. J. Physiol. 2 18( I> : 25 l256. 1970. -The changes in heart rate in response to nitroglycerin-induced hypotension or phenylephrine-induced hypertension were studied in 8 dogs unanesthetized, anesthetized with chloralose and urethan, or with chloralose and morphine before and after beta-adrenergic receptor blockade with propranolol or parasympathetic efferent blockade with atropine. Propranolol reduced significantly but did not abolish the tachycardia in response to hypotension, and reduced significantly but did not abolish the bradycardia in response to hypertension. Atropine reduced the tachycardia in response to nitroglycerin and abolished the bradycardia in response to hypertension. In a second group of 8 dogs propranolol reduced significantly but did not abolish the increase in heart rate in response to bilateral carotid arterial occlusion. In a third group of 6 dogs atropine reduced but did not abolish the bradycardia in response to electrical stimulation of the carotid sinus nerves. These results show that baroreceptorinduced changes in heart rate are mediated by reciprocal alterations in both sympathetic and parasympathetic cardiac efferent activity.
Older and Wiser? Birth Order and IQ of Young Men

While recent research finds strong evidence that birth order affects children's outcomes such as education and earnings, the evidence on the effects of birth order on IQ is decidedly mixed. This paper uses a large dataset on the population of Norway that allows us to precisely measure birth order effects on IQ using both cross-sectional and within-family methods. Importantly, irrespective of method, we find a strong and significant effect of birth order on IQ, and our results suggest that earlier born children have higher IQs. Our preferred estimates suggest differences between first-borns and second-borns of about one fifth of a standard deviation or approximately 3 IQ points. Despite these large average effects, birth order only explains about 3% of the within-family variance of IQ. When we control for birth endowments, the estimated birth order effects increase. Thus, our analysis suggests that birth order effects are not biologically determined. Also, there is no evidence that birth order effects occur because later-born children are more affected by family breakdown.
Neural implementation of response selection in humans as revealed by localized effects of stimulus–response compatibility on brain activation

Response selection, which involves choosing representations for appropriate motor behaviors given one's current situation, is a fundamental mental process central to a wide variety of human performance, yet the neural mechanisms underlying this mental process remain unclear. Research using nonhuman primates implicates ventral prefrontal and lateral premotor cortices in this process. In contrast, human neuroimaging research also highlights the role of dorsal prefrontal, anterior cingulate, and superior parietal cortices in response selection. This inconsistency may stem from the difficulty of isolating response selection within the constraints of cognitive subtraction methodology utilized in neuroimaging. We overcome this limitation by using an experimental procedure designed to selectively influence discrete mental processing stages and analyses that are less reliant on the assumptions of cognitive subtraction. We varied stimulus contrast to affect stimulus encoding and stimulus–response compatibility to affect response selection. Brain activation data suggest processing specific to response selection in superior parietal and dorsal prefrontal cortices, and not ventral prefrontal cortex. Anterior cingulate and lateral premotor cortices may also be involved in response selection, or these regions may mediate other response processes. Hum. Brain Mapping 17:193–201, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
An Electrophysiological Probe of Incidental Semantic Association

Long-latency components of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) recorded from subjects reading meaningful text are sensitive to semantic relationships among the major lexical items of sentences. In particular, the N400 components are enlarged to words that are semantically unrelated to or incongruous with the context provided by preceding items in a sentence. The present experiment was aimed at finding out whether this inverse relationship between N400 amplitude and semantic association would extend to situations where words were presented in isolated pairs, using a design that dissociated changes in N400 from confounding ERP waves elicited by active decision making. KRP's were recorded to 320 word pairs presented to eleven subjects. Each pair of words was followed by a letter, and subjects made a differential response according to whether or not the letter had been present in either of the words. After the ERP recording session, subjects rated the degree of semantic association between the words in each pair. ERP averages were formed on the basis of the subjects' ratings and on the basis of normative, a priori categories. For both types of averages the N400 amplitude was found to be a sensitive index of semantic association, even though the association was incidental to the subject's assigned task. These findings suggest the utility of the N400 measure in studies of semantic priming and as a probe of the automaticity of contextual influences in language processing.
TellMyRelevance!: predicting the relevance of web search results from cursor interactions

It is crucial for the success of a search-driven web application to answer users' queries in the best possible way. A common approach is to use click models for guessing the relevance of search results. However, these models are imprecise and waive valuable information one can gain from non-click user interactions. We introduce TellMyRelevance! ---a novel automatic end-to-end pipeline for tracking cursor interactions at the client, analyzing these and learning according relevance models. Yet, the models depend on the layout of the search results page involved, which makes them difficult to evaluate and compare. Thus, we use a Random Mouse Cursor as an extension to our pipeline for generating layout-dependent baselines. Based on these, we can perform evaluations of real-world relevance models. A large-scale interaction log analysis showed that we can learn relevance models whose predictions compare favorably to predictions of an existing state-of-the-art click model.
Efficacy of High Doses of Daptomycin versus Alternative Therapies against Experimental Foreign-Body Infection by Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

ABSTRACT Since the currently approved dose of daptomycin (6 mg/kg of body weight/day) has been associated with clinical failures and resistance development, higher doses for some difficult-to-treat infections are being proposed. We studied the efficacy of daptomycin at high doses (equivalent to 10 mg/kg/day in humans) and compared it to that of reference and alternative treatments in a model of foreign-body infection with methicillin (meticillin)-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. In vitro studies were conducted with bacteria in the log and stationary phases. For the in vivo model, therapy with daptomycin at 100 mg/kg/day, vancomycin at 50 mg/kg/12 h, rifampin (rifampicin) at 25 mg/kg/12 h, or linezolid at 35 mg/kg/12 h was administered for 7 days. Antibiotic efficacy was evaluated using either bacteria from tissue cage fluids or those attached to coverslips. We screened for the emergence of linezolid- and rifampin-resistant strains and analyzed the surviving population from the daptomycin-treated group. Only daptomycin was bactericidal in both the log- and stationary-phase studies. Daptomycin (decrease in the log number of CFU per milliliter of tissue cage fluid, 2.57) and rifampin (decrease, 2.6 log CFU/ml) were better (P < 0.05) than vancomycin (decrease, 1.1 log CFU/ml) and linezolid (decrease, 0.9 log CFU/ml) in the animal model. Rifampin-resistant strains appeared in 60% of cases, whereas no linezolid resistance emerged. No daptomycin-resistant subpopulations were detected at frequencies of 10−7 or higher. In conclusion, daptomycin at high doses proved to be as effective as rifampin, and the two were the most active therapies for this experimental foreign-body infection. These high doses ensured a profile of safety from the development of resistance.
Making the Most of Your Samples

We study the problem of setting a price for a potential buyer with a valuation drawn from an unknown distribution D. The seller has "data" about D in the form of m ≥ 1 i.i. d. samples, and the algorithmic challenge is to use these samples to obtain expected revenue as close as possible to what could be achieved with advance knowledge of D. Our first set of results quantifies the number of samples m that are necessary and sufficient to obtain a (1-ε)-approximation. For example, for an unknown distribution that satisfies the monotone hazard rate (MHR) condition, we prove that Θ(ε-3/2) samples are necessary and sufficient. Remarkably, this is fewer samples than is necessary to accurately estimate the expected revenue obtained for such a distribution by even a single reserve price. We also prove essentially tight sample complexity bounds for regular distributions, bounded-support distributions, and a wide class of irregular distributions. Our lower bound approach, which applies to all randomized pricing strategies, borrows tools from differential privacy and information theory, and we believe it could find further applications in auction theory. Our second set of results considers the single-sample case. While no deterministic pricing strategy is better than 1/2-approximate for regular distributions, for MHR distributions we show how to do better: there is a simple deterministic pricing strategy that guarantees expected revenue at least 0.589 times the maximum possible. We also prove that no deterministic pricing strategy achieves an approximation guarantee better than e/4 ~. 68.
Gastric emptying, intestinal absorption of electrolytes and exercise performance in electrolyte‐supplemented horses

• What is the central question of this study? The study addresses whether electrolyte supplementation of horses one hour prior to exercise improves hydration and exercise performance. • What is the main findings and its importance? We used radiotracer methodologies to identify that 3L was the minimum amount of electrolyte supplement required to maintain hydration and replace plasma electrolytes lost by sweating. By maintaining hydration and plasma electrolyte concentrations sub‐maximal exercise duration was extended.
The Development of Motor Creativity in Elementary School Children and Its Retention

ABSTRACT This article presents a follow-up study regarding whether motor creativity, developed in 3rd-grade children nine 9 years ago with the implementation of a special physical education program, has been retained. It was found that the experimental group continued to show statistically significant superiority in motor creativity. These follow-up findings can be considered far more important than the original ones, because they reveal that if motor creativity is developed in a child, it remains active for a long time, potentially the rest of his or her life, with all the subsequent advantages.
The Development of Empathic Skill: A Study.

Abstract Two conditions for the development of empathy skill, compatible with social work curricula and staff development programs, were tested in a pretest-post test design. Empathy skill was operationalized using a videotape of client-worker interviews coupled with a fixed response questionnaire. The first condition, an experiential-didactic course, produced no significant change in empathy. The second condition, a structured meditation experience, produced significant change but not beyond controls. Positive change in empathy scores significantly correlated with blind-ranked levels of meditation attainment. Scores of subjects exposed to the two conditions combined are compared with results of other studies. Limitations and implications are discussed.
Lysophosphatidic acid‐induced c‐fos up‐regulation involves cyclic AMP response element‐binding protein activated by mitogen‐ and stress‐activated protein kinase‐1

Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is a lipid growth factor that exerts diverse biological effects through its cognate receptor‐mediated signaling cascades. Recently, we reported that LPA stimulates cAMP response element‐binding protein (CREB) through mitogen‐ and stress‐activated protein kinase‐1 (MSK1). Previously, LPA has been shown to stimulate c‐fos mRNA expression in Rat‐2 fibroblast cells via a serum response element binding protein (SRF). However, involvement of CREB in LPA‐stimulated c‐fos gene expression is not elucidated yet. To investigate the CREB‐mediated c‐fos activation by LPA, various c‐fos promoter‐reporter constructs containing wild‐type and mutated SRE and CRE were tested for their inducibility by LPA in transient transfection assays. LPA‐stimulated c‐fos promoter activation was markedly decreased when SRE and CRE were mutated. A dominant negative CREB significantly down‐regulated the LPA‐stimulated c‐fos promoter activation. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assay revealed that LPA induced an increased binding of phosphorylated CREB and CREB‐binding protein (CBP) to the CRE region of the endogenous c‐fos promoter. Immunoblot analyses with various pharmacological inhibitors further showed that LPA induces up‐regulation of c‐fos mRNA level by activation of ERK, p38 MAPK, and MSK1. Taken together, our results suggest that CREB plays an important role in up‐regulation of c‐fos mRNA level in LPA‐stimulated Rat‐2 fibroblast cells. J. Cell. Biochem. 104: 785–794, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Comparison of effortful and noneffortful swallows in healthy middle-aged and older adults.

OBJECTIVE To assess the effects of effortful swallowing, a common compensatory strategy for dysphagia, on the bolus and swallowing mechanism of middle-aged and older men and women. DESIGN Case-controlled design in which subjects completed both the intervention technique and the control behavior. SETTING A university hospital. PARTICIPANTS Sixty-four healthy men and women between 45 and 93 years of age from the community. INTERVENTIONS Participants swallowed 3-mL thin liquid boluses both normally and using the effortful swallow strategy. MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURES The biomechanics and bolus flow patterns of swallows were analyzed from videofluoroscopic and simultaneous oral pressure data. RESULTS Subjects at all ages generated significantly increased oral pressures at each sensor location using the effortful swallow (p = .0001), with the pressure increase greater for the middle-aged subjects compared with older subjects. Several durational measures were significantly longer with the effortful swallow including: hyoid maximum anterior excursion (p < .04), laryngeal vestibule closure (p < .0001), and duration of the upper esophageal sphincter opening (p =.0001). The hyoid bone moved further in the superior direction with the effortful swallow (p = .002). There was a trend of decreased oral residue with the effortful swallow (p = .06). CONCLUSION Biomechanical and bolus flow aspects of swallowing changed when healthy individuals performed effortful swallows with 3-mL boluses.
Getting into teams in physical education and exclusion processes among students

Although splitting up a class into teams is a consistent didactical element in physical education (PE), it is under-investigated in terms of how students handle the social dynamics in these situations. Therefore, the present study examines the strategies of exclusion as markers for non-recognition when students are split up into teams/pairs. The data set includes video data from 6 different classes (a total of 59 video sequences) and 40 video-stimulated recall interviews with children who were excluded when the class was split up into teams/pairs or with children that excluded others. Sociograms as well as PE teacher ratings about their students’ sport competence were also analysed. Four different exclusion and inclusion strategies were identified: accepting or ignoring “assurance strategies” before the class is split up into teams/pairs, negotiating the affiliation of an individual when students get into pairs, publicly denying the affiliation to a team, and publicly negotiating the individual’s value for a team. The findings show that students use the team-selection proceedings and situations when the class was split up into teams as opportunities to transmit non-recognition. The social order was publicly demonstrated and legitimated.
Disabled students in the performing arts – are we setting them up to succeed?

Professional training opportunities for students with physical and learning disabilities in the performing arts are conceived and developed in the context of government policy initiatives for inclusion and models of disability that aim to ensure that educational provision is of a kind which does not stigmatise individuals or devalue their performance. In this paper, we consider three partnership programmes linking two theatre companies and one dance company with schools that provide high-level mainstream training. The programmes were planned to offer paths to progression for disabled students, and we examine what the programmes have taught us about the characteristics of inclusive practice in drama and dance training that can set disabled students up to succeed.